Author: Vanyan Gary

Press Release
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
HIS HOLINESS ARAM I WELCOMES THE LEGATE OF POPE IN ANTELIAS
In welcoming His Eminence Cardinal Etchegaray, the special legate of
Pope at the Catholicosate in Antelias, His Holiness Aram I expressed
his deep appreciation for the continuous support of the Vatican
to Lebanon: “Lebanon has been very close to the heart of the late
Pope Jean-Paul II, who has considered Lebanon a living message of
coexistence. Pope Benedictus XVI has the same feelings and affection
towards Lebanon. Your presence with us in these difficult times is an
eloquent testimony of the Vatican’s ongoing support to the Lebanese
cause”, said Aram I.
Cardinal Etchegaray reiterated the Vatican’s position in respect to
Lebanon. He said that “unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty
of Lebanon cannot be compromised”. The Cardinal assured His Holiness
that the people of Lebanon always remain in the prayers as well as
in the pontifical ministry of His Holiness Pope Benedictus XVI.
Catholicos Aram I briefly exposed to the Cardinal the actual situation
in Lebanon spelling out some significant aspects and emphasizing
particularly the decisive importance of internal unity. He affirmed
the pivotal importance of “Christian-Muslim coexistence as the basis
of Lebanon and the source of its strength. We are before new situation
full of challenge and uncertainties. The suffering, destruction and
the painful experience that we went through must compel us to reassess
and rebuilt our common life”, stated Aram I.
Present at the meeting were: Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon Mgr. Luigi
Gatti, Vicar General of the Maronite Church, Bishop Rolan Abou Jaoudeh,
Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Lebanon, Bishop Kegham Khatcherian,
the Director of the Catholicosate Library, Bishop Dirayr Panossian,
the Director of the Printing House, V. Rev. Fr. Norayr Ashekian,
and the Director of the Communication and Information Department,
V. Rev. Fr. Krikor Chiftjian.
##
View the photo here:
es93.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
Ecumenical activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer
to the web page of the Catholicosate, The
Cilician Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is
located in Antelias, Lebanon.

ARMENIAN POLITICAL PARTIES SHARE CONCERNS
Panorama.am
16:47 16/08/06
Several political parties, which consider themselves as close in ideas,
gathered today at a round table to share their concerns. All parties
unanimously are concerned with the possibility to conduct free and
fair elections. They are also troubled by the existence of criminal
elements in the political field.
“Our important concerns are the cirminalization of the political
life, and active work of secret agencies,” Paruyr Hairikyan, National
Self-Determination Union head, stated. Hairikyan referred to Russian
oligarch Deripaska as saying, “We have bought all Armenian political
parties. Those, which are not bought, are morally killed.”
The member of Democratic Party is sure that the authorities will
exert pressures on the opposition, including financial pressures. He
is sure that the existing power wants to re-produce itself.
Orinats Yerkir Party Vice Chairman Mher Shahgeldyan reminded that
the upcoming elections should be around ideas and programs and not
for the sake of small group and individual interests.

IN A POLITICAL MOVE, LEBANON OFFERS AN ARMY THAT ALL OF ITS SECTS CAN ACCEPT: ITS OWN
By John Kifner And Jad Mouawad
New York Times
Aug. 14, 2006
BEIRUT, Aug. 12 – Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s offer to send the
Lebanese Army into the Hezbollah-dominated south proved central to
breaking the diplomatic impasse over Israel’s invasion. But it is an
almost entirely political – or even symbolic – gesture.
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Lebanese Army soldiers in Tyre. The army lacks modern equipment,
but it has integrated the nation’s sects.
Hostilities in the Mideast
Go to Complete Coverage ”
Interactive Graphics
The Toll After a Month of War
The army, for many years the least bellicose group of armed men in
a country otherwise filled with them, is more suited to internal
security than to facing outside threats. It has no modern tanks,
no air force – only a handful of Vietnam-era helicopters – and its
modest budget goes mostly for salaries.
The resolution on a truce adopted by the United Nations Security
Council on Friday calls for 15,000 Lebanese soldiers to patrol southern
Lebanon, once Israeli troops withdraw, in concert with an international
peacekeeping force of the same size. The Lebanese Army has about 3,000
crack troops, Lebanese officers say, in units that specialize in tasks
like commando operations and hostage rescue, aimed primarily at dealing
with fractious local elements like Palestinian or Islamic militants.
The army was once divided into brigades by religion – the Sixth
Brigade, made up of Shiites trained by Americans, was saddled with
the motto “we serve and defect” when it went over to local militias
in the early 1980’s.
But in recent years, the army has been transformed into a national
force, with the various sects integrated in the units.
Its deployment, some hope, could help soothe Lebanon’s fragmented
politics and strengthen the government’s shaky legitimacy.
“This is a political mission for the army,” said Brig. Gen. Elias
Hanna, who is retired from the Lebanese Army.
“The Lebanese Army reflects the fabric of this society,” General Hanna
said. “Lebanon is a very small country. Everybody knows everybody.
“When you talk about the Shia in the army, you are talking about
relatives, neighbors and friends. All we need in Lebanon is political
consensus.”
Prime Minister Siniora, a newcomer to politics who ran the vast
business empire of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime
minister, is being widely praised here for his role in trying to end
the fighting and, particularly, for calling for the army deployment.
“It shows the determination of the Lebanese government to act as a
government, finally,” said Rami G. Khouri, a columnist at The Daily
Star and the director of a new Middle East research center at the
American University of Beirut.
“That’s significant,” Mr. Khouri said. “The recent history has been
one of terrible personal divisions. This sets the stage for future
reconciliation.”
Indeed, Mr. Siniora’s performance drew a positive assessment even
in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, where Zvi Barel wrote that he
“has managed to surprise everyone.
“His decision regarding stationing Lebanese Army reserve soldiers
to prove that his intentions are genuine, was a perfect move in
negotiations,” he said.
After 15 years of civil war, 15 more of Syrian domination, past
Israeli invasions and attacks, official corruption beyond measure and
countless political assassinations, Lebanon had seemed, before the
current conflict began, to be on the brink of establishing a legitimate
independent government. But under the surface, the sectarian divisions
remain and with them the fear of a renewed civil war.
In elections last spring, an anti-Syrian reform coalition – including
some members who were old civil war enemies – won a narrow majority
in Parliament.
But the voting still ran along religious lines, with Hezbollah
candidates piling up huge margins in the Shiite districts.
In the sectarian straitjacket that allots political office, the
speaker of Parliament must be a Shiite, so the post was retained by
Nabih Berri, a longtime ally of Syria – as is President Emile Lahoud,
a Maronite Catholic.
The result was a government stalemated on virtually every front.
But Mr. Siniora, a Sunni, has managed to get all of the major players
to sign on to what he called his Seven-Point Plan for a cease-fire.
Hezbollah’s insistence that it would not give up its weaponry has
remained a troubling unresolved issue, though, and it continues to
raise doubts about whether Mr. Siniora’s plan can work.
In addition to his own Sunni backers, the rival Christian factions
loyal to either the former warlord Samir Geagea or to Gen. Michel
Aoun and the Druse chieftain Walid Jumblatt, the plan now has its
most important backer: Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader.
In a televised speech on Wednesday night, he said, “Now for the sake
of national unity and despite our reservations we will not stand as
an obstacle.”
“The deployment of the army protects the sovereignty and the
independence of the country,” he added.
For more than a year, outside the formal government structure, the
real powers of Lebanon, largely an assortment of near feudal clan
chiefs known here as zaim and figures from the 17 different religions
– the tiny Armenian community sent a rotating representative – have
been meeting around a large round table in an effort to achieve a
national dialogue.
The most difficult issue was Hezbollah’s weaponry, which it defended
as necessary to resisting what it considers Israel’s occupation of
the Shebaa Farms area.
“The main sticking point was the weapons,” said Nizar Hamzeh, a
political science professor at the American University of Kuwait and
the author of “In the Path of Hezbollah.”
Mohammed Chatah, an important behind-the-scenes adviser to Mr. Siniora
in the current negotiations and a former Lebanese ambassador to the
United Nations, agreed, saying, “That’s at the heart of the discussion
that’s been going on.”
“They argued strongly that a separate resistance entity served the
country better,” Mr. Chatah said, adding, however, that the contention
“that it was a deterrence did not stop the Israelis.”
He emphasized the difference in perspective between the Western and
Arab views of Hezbollah.
“I do not regard Hezbollah as a renegade militia,” he said. “We are
in a war against Israel which is perceived by many in this country
as doing terrible things in Gaza and elsewhere.”
Speaking of support for Hezbollah during the current Israeli occupation
of southern Lebanon, he said, “There is a degree of solidarity that
transcends diverse politics.”

RAFAEL HAMBARSUMYAN: RUSSIA IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug. 9, 2006
Turkey and Russia are equally responsible for 1915-1923 Armenian
genocide,” said Armenian historian Rafael Hambarsumyan, APA reports.
He said Russia always used Armenians in its invasion policy, made
them victims of its interests.
“During the World War I, Russia helped Turkey to pursue a genocide
policy against Armenia mobilizing 200 Armenians to the front against
Germany. According to the 1921 agreement between Turkey and Russia,
eastern parts of Armenia was invaded and shared between Turkey,
Georgia and Azerbaijan. The agreement aimed to wipe out Armenia
completely. Finally, there is hardly any writer from east Armenia who
Russia has not ever exerted physical pressure on,” he concluded.

DJORKAEFF: J’AI FAILLI TOUT ARRTER
par Geslin Alain
Paris-Normandie
9 août 2006 mercredi
Après un mois d’absence, l’ex-international francais Youri Djorkaeff
a repris le chemin de l’entraînement, lundi, avec son club americain
des RedBulls New York et avoue avoir songe a mettre un terme a sa
carrière. Le champion du monde 1998 et champion d’Europe 2000 a
aussi profite de son retour pour mettre les choses au point après la
polemique soulevee par sa presence a Francfort au quart de finale du
Mondial entre la France et le Bresil alors qu’il avait une permission
de son club pour venir en France auprès de sa mère souffrante.
Juste avant la rencontre, le Francais d’origine armenienne
avait ete interpelle a Francfort pour un delit de fuite datant de
septembre2001. Mais quelques heures plus tard, il avait ete libere
sous caution.
Quelles etaient les raisons de votre depart de New York?
Youri Djorkaeff: De ce côte-la, rien n’a change. Ma mère est malade.
Elle est sous traitement. Elle va un peu mieux. Mais je ne veux pas
rentrer dans les details. Je n’avais donc plus la tte au foot. Quand
j’etais en France, j’ai hesite a revenir. J’ai failli tout arrter.
Mais je suis quelqu’un qui va au bout des choses. J’ai eu une
discussion franche avec Bruce (Bruce Arena, le nouvel entraîneur des
Redbulls). C’est pourquoi je suis revenu. Je peux desormais me dedier
a 100 pour cent au football.
Les pauvres resultats de l’equipe n’ont en rien influence votre
depart precipite?
Pas du tout. Je ne revendique pas un statut de star. Tout le monde
est loge a la mme enseigne. On gagne ensemble et on sombre ensemble.
C’est vrai que ce n’est jamais gai de perdre. Mais il faut faire
avec. J’ai toujours dit que je voulais honorer mon contrat jusqu’a
la fin de la saison. Après, on verra. Mme si j’ai une petite idee
derrière la tte.
Quid de votre presence au match Bresil-France?
Oui, c’est vrai, j’y etais. Mais cette histoire a pris des proportions
enormes. La FIFA m’avait deja invite une première fois pour le match
d’ouverture. Et j’avais decline l’offre car, ce jour-la, je disputais
un match de championnat avec les Redbulls. Mais la, comme j’etais en
Europe, j’ai accepte leur nouvelle invitation.
Et j’ai donc decide de faire un aller-retour pour encourager les
copains. C’est tout.
–Boundary_(ID_FHcSJCkLc0WlQkBot8uTQQ)–

KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV-PUTIN MEET IN KAZAKHSTAN
ArmeniaDiaspora, Armenia
Aug. 7, 2006
Yesterday in the capital city of Kazakhstan, Astana, a meeting between
the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, took place. The
meeting lasted for two hours. Prior to that President Kocharian
held a separate meeting with the president of Azerbaijan,Ilham
Aliyev. After the Kocharian-Aliyev-Putin meeting the presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan held a meeting with the cochairmen of the OSCE
Minsk group. The main topic of discussion was the settlement of the
conflict of Nagorno-Karabagh.

“Art without Borders”
ArmRadio.am
02.08.2006 11:06
Works by 25 Armenian, Iranian, Turkish and Georgian artists will be
presented at the exhibition entitled “Art without Borders” which will
kick off August 4 at the Center of Innovative Experimental Art.
The head of the project Eduard Palasanian told Armenpress that 6 of the
artists are from Armenia, five from Georgia, seven from Iran and seven
from Turkey. According to him, the exhibition is a unique phenomenon
of contemporary art and it proves that political controversies do
not influence the cultural life.
Palasanian also noted with regret that their three-year efforts
towards involving Azerbaijani artists in the exhibition failed. At
the exhibition paintings, photos and different equipment will be
presented.The exhibition will last until August 25.

AZERI NGO DENIES RECOGNIZING KARABAKH AS PARTY TO CONFLICT
Turan news agency, Baku
2 Aug 06
The Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly
has denied that its chairperson has recognized Karabakh as a side in
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Turan reported on 2 August.
Turan news agency quoted the committee’s press release as saying that
“some mass media circulated the “inaccurate” reports about this
visit. In particular, a number of mass media outlets reported that
[chairperson of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki
Citizens’ Assembly, Arzu] Abdullayeva allegedly stated that it is
necessary to recognize Nagornyy Karabakh as a side in the conflict”.
A delegation led by Abdullayeva visited Armenia and Karabakh on 25-31
July. Members of the delegation attended the international conference
on hostages and missing people in Xankandi [Stepanakert] and
monitored Susa prison where Azerbaijani prisoners are presumably
being held, Turan reported.

KHACHATURIAN: Gayne Ballet Suite – London Symphony Orchestra/ Anatole
Fistoulari – Everest 35mm mag film recording reissued as Classic Records
Audiophile Audition
Aug 3 2006
KHACHATURIAN: Gayne Ballet Suite – London Symphony Orchestra/ Anatole
Fistoulari – Everest 35mm mag film recording reissued as Classic
Records 3-channel HDAD2016 (CD/DVD-V audio/DVD-A audio), 46:53 ****:
For my previous specifics about this Classic Records series, see my
first review Here. The patriotic folk ballet Gayne comes from the
composer most associated with Armenian music over any other. Although
Khachaturian used elements from the folk music of his people, he
dressed them in very modern harmonies, giving them a 20th-century
life that resulted in immediate popularity. For example, take the
opening one of these 11 tracks which conductor Fistoulari picked out
of the two concert suites the composer had created from his complete
ballet score. It’s the classical hit The Sabre Dance. Fistoulari
was born in Kiev, conducted Russian operas in Paris with Chaliapin,
and later was conductor of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
The rest of the movements are: Lyrical Duet, Dance of the Rose
Maidens, Gopak, Lullaby, Lezghinka, Russian Dance, Gayne’s Adagio,
Dance of the Young Kurds, Dance of the Old Man, Fire. The Adagio may
be remembered from Kubrick’s effective use of it on the soundtrack
of 2001: A Space Odyssey. All the pieces are aglow with orchestral
color and vitality, making perfect audio demos. As with the others
already reviewed, I found the provided CD just about identical to
the now-out-of-print l995 Everest CD reissue, and the addition of the
center channel on both the Dolby 3-channel and the DVD-Audio 3-channel
of the separate DVD to greatly enhance the realism and impact of
the music. I find a similarity in enhancement going from 2-channel
to recorded-for-3-channel to that of going from an LP mastered from
analog tape to a direct disc recorded at the same time.
– John Sunier
D=1750

ARMENIA DEFLATION AT 0.7% IN JULY, INFLATION AT 3.6% IN 7 MTHS
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
August 2, 2006 Wednesday 6:47 PM MSK
Armenia posted deflation of 0.7% in July, while inflation was 3.6%
since the beginning of the year, the National Statistics Service
told Interfax.
Foodstuffs, including alcohol and tobacco products, grew 3.9% in prices
in the seven months. Non-foodstuff rose 2.2% and service tariffs were
up 4%.
According to the federal budget, Armenia expects inflation to be 3%
in 2006. Armenia had deflation of 0.2% in 2005.