Author: Vardapetian Ophelia

ARMENIAN POLICE DETERMINED TO PREVENT UNAUTHORIZED OPPOSITION RALLY

Interfax News Agency
June 19 2008
Russia

Police in Armenia said they would not allow the opposition to stage
an unauthorized rally in the center of Yerevan on June 20.

"The Armenian police will not tolerate any rally near the Matenadaran
museum and research center of ancient manuscripts, because this rally
has not be authorized by the Yerevan government," Armenian Police First
Deputy Head Armen Yeritsian said at a news conference on Thursday.

But the city authorities had allowed the opposition to hold a rally
at the Razdan stadium on the city limits, he said.

"Police have received intelligence suggesting that mass disturbances
are being planned at tomorrow’s rally. Our response will be rigorous. I
am urging all to be vigilant. And I state that police are ready to
prevent mass disturbances, as instructed," Yeritsian said.

Police units have been provided with special gear, he added.

Earlier reports said that the city authorities had allowed the
opposition to stage a rally at the Razdan stadium and banned a planned
rally on the central Freedom Square and near the museum of ancient
manuscripts. But opposition representatives claimed the rally on June
20 would be held near Matenadaran any way.

The event is being organized by the Armenian Pan-National Movement,
led by ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian.

CROP YIELD IS UP

KarabakhOpen
19-06-2008 11:34:03

As of June 16, 4700.7 hectares was sown, which is up by 39.5 percent
compared with last year.

The harvest of winter wheat has started. As of June 16, 329 hectares
of fields was harvested, 673,500 kg of wheat was gathered, the average
yield per hectare is 2050 kg. Last year the average yield per hectare
was 1120 kg.

TURKEY AT PEACE WITH ITS HISTORY, SAYS GUL

Today’s Zaman
June 18 2008
Turkey

Turkey has opened all of its archives to researchers looking into
killings that took place in 1915 because it is a country at peace with
its history, President Abdullah Gul said yesterday at an international
gathering held in Ankara.

Armenia claims Ottoman Turks killed up to 1.5 million Armenians
during World War I, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, and labels
the killings "genocide." Turkey says the killings occurred at a time
of civil conflict in which both Armenians and Turks were killed and
that the casualty figures are inflated.

Gul’s remarks on the contentious issue came as he was delivering an
opening speech at the 11th International Congress on the Social and
Economic History of Turkey, organized by Bilkent University.

The best option concerning incidents experienced in history is to
leave them to the assessment of historians, Gul said.

"That is our state’s stance on Armenian allegations which have
constantly been kept on the agenda. Turkey has always done its best
to help historians research the allegations. It has opened its entire
archives to researchers. Turkey is at peace with its history and is
also proud of its history. History should not be written by politicians
or parliaments, but by historians and scientists," Gul added.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during a war between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, an ally of Ankara. The move hurt the economy
of the small and landlocked Armenia.

In 2005 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to
then-Armenian President Robert Kocharian, inviting him to establish a
joint commission of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia
to study the events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and
any other country believed to have played a part in the issue around
the world. No positive response has yet been made to this offer.

"In the past we objected to engaging in politics through exploiting
grievances, and we are against it today as well," Gul also said.

Armenian Youth Federation – Western Region
104 N. Belmont, Suite 206
Glendale, CA 91206
Tel. (818) 507-1933
Email: [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

June 18, 2008

Contact: Levon Abrahamian

California AYF Members Urge Sen. Boxer to Confront Genocide Denial
During U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Confirmation Hearing

Los Angeles, CA – Initiated in the days leading up to the Senate
confirmation hearing for ambassador-designate Marie Yovanovitch, the
Armenian Youth Federation Western Region (AYF) has launched an
innovative campaign using YouTube video messages to encourage U.S.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to ask President Bush’s nominee frank
questions about the Armenian Genocide.

Sen. Boxer and her colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee will consider Yovanovitch’s nomination to be the next U.S.
Ambassador to Armenia on June 19th, at hearings scheduled for 2:15pm
EDT. The previous ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, was fired by
President Bush for speaking honestly about the Armenian Genocide.

"It is vital that the voice of Armenian American youth in California
be heard by Senator Boxer on this human rights issue," stated AYF
Central Executive Chairman Caspar Jivalagian. "We must be certain
that the next U.S. Ambassador to Armenia acknowledges the acts of 1915
as Genocide and we believe our video messages will accurately and
effectively convey our expectations," he added.

Advocacy efforts by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
to "End the Gag Rule" on the Armenian Genocide have included web
faxes, a national postcard campaign to Members of Congress, and an
extensive ad campaign on key Congressional websites, including The
Hill, CQPolitics, and Politico. The ads are currently running on
RollCall.com. The video messages prepared by the AYF add a new
dimension to the grassroots efforts of the Armenian American
community.

On March 28, 2008, President Bush nominated Amb. Marie L. Yovanovitch
to serve as America’s next Ambassador to Armenia. President Bush’s
previous nominee as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, Richard Hoagland, was
subject to two legislative holds by U.S. Senator Robert Menendez
(D-NJ) and was ultimately withdrawn by the Administration, following
the nominee’s statements denying the Armenian Genocide.

As the Yovanovitch confirmation hearing approached, presumptive
Democratic presidential nominee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee
member Barack Obama restated his commitment to U.S. recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. In a letter to ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, Senator
Obama wrote, "I share your view that the United States must recognize
the events of 1915 to 1923, carried out by the Ottoman Empire, as
genocide. . . We must recognize this tragic reality. The Bush
Administration’s refusal to do so is inexcusable, and I will continue
to speak out in an effort to move the Administration to change its
position."

A sampling of links to video messages sent by AYF members to Senator
Boxer is provided below:

http://you tube.com/watch?v=kiElQMQu12Q

atch?v=kwv_Cnht_CY

77v73E3A

Founded in 1933, the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) has grown to
become the largest and most influential Armenian American youth
organization; with chapters throughout the United States and
affiliated organizations around the world. Inspired by our past and
motivated by the needs of the future, the AYF actively strives to
advance the social, political, educational and cultural awareness of
all Armenian youth.

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN CONGRATULATED BRITISH EMBASSY STAFF ON THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.06.2008 16:11 GMT+04:00

Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan paid a visit to the British Embassy
in Yerevan to congratulate the diplomatic corps on occasion of the
UK national holiday – the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,
the RA leader’s press office reported.

The Armenian President and British diplomats discussed development
of bilateral relations and ways to encourage investments to the
Armenian economy.

CNW Telbec (Communiqués de presse), Canada
June 13 2008

Muslim Canadian Congress disappointed at TDSB decision

Armenian module should have been dropped entirely

TORONTO, June 12 /CNW/ – The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) expresses
deep disappointment at the TDSB decision to include the Armenian
Genocide in the grade 11 curriculum without any provision to teach
students about the ethnic cleanising of Muslims from the Balkans and
southern Europe leading up to World War One.

The mandate of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) includes advocacy
for human rights and the integration of Muslims into Canadian
society. We never shy from criticizing our own community when we we
feel they have acted against Canadian values. Likewise, we are equally
forthright about any public policy issues that we feel will contribute
to the further marginalization of Muslims and inhibit their smooth
integration into Canadian society.

In this context we feel that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB)
should have excluded the Armenian module from the Grade 11 history
course (CHG38M). We say this not because we deny the pain and
suffering of the Armenian community. In fact we recognise that
hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred and died in the war,
but to call this a Genocide committed by Muslims against Christians is
a dangerous precedent and covers up the horrendous ethnic cleansing of
Muslims in Christian majority states leading up to the war.

The subject of Genocide is an important one and should be discussed.
However unlike the Holocaust and Rwanda case which represent clear
instances of genocide, there is a lack of consensus on describing the
Armenian deaths as a genocide. We feel that in the absence of an
independent and neutral legal tribunal that would weigh the records of
all sides involved in the conflict, the label of "genocide" is
improper and is a serious stigma that will stay with young Muslim
students in the TDSB school system.

The Western narrative on late Ottoman history has almost exclusively
focused on Christian suffering. Western education ignores the
contemporaneous Ottoman Muslim experience of ethnic cleansing from
their homes. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians, at a minimum,
were also massacred or died of starvation and disease. This selective
focus is in part a reflection of long established bias in our Western
education system, which mischaracterizes the events circa 1915
exclusively as a classic case of Muslim oppressors and Christian
victims. Unfortunately, this course perpetuates that stereotype.

The TDSB could have included books by respected historians such as
Justin McCarthy, who wrote "Death and Exile: The Ethnic cleansing of
Ottoman Muslims, 1821 to 1922," and others like him. But the TDSB
appears oblivious of the tragedies that befell Muslims of the time and
region.

CHG38M has many worthy goals, among them to explore in depth, think
critically and debate, leading to understanding and empathy for all
victims, regardless of faith or tribe. But this learning process is
only possible if students receive a full historical context, not
selective history. In its present biased form, the Armenian module
will ensure that the existing stereotype of Muslims, as an inherently
violent people, will be further strengthened by a very one-sided view
of events during the early 20th century decline of the Ottoman
Empire. If the TDSB cannot include in the curriculum Muslim suffering
at the hands of Christians during the early 20th century, then the MCC
believes the Armenian module should have been dropped entirely.

For further information: Farzana Hassan, (905) 274-5650

ne2008/12/c3628.html

Canada NewsWire (press release), Canada
June 12 2008

Toronto District School Board insensitive to Stalinist genocide

Ukrainian community to picket Board meeting

TORONTO, June 12 /CNW/ – A special meeting of the Toronto District
School Board (TDSB), scheduled for Thursday, June 12 at 6:30 p.m.,
will be picketed by the Ukrainian community. The community is shocked
by the exclusion from the grade 11 curriculum of the Holodomor –
Famine Genocide of 1932-33 in Ukraine that claimed up to 10 million
lives.

"I was appalled by the lack of interest and respect shown to our
community by participating trustees," said Valentina Kuryliw, a
teacher with over 35 years’ experience, referring to a meeting of the
Program and Services Committee held on June 2. "My parents and other
famine survivors came to Canada to escape the ‘show trials’ of the
Soviet Union and this charade was much worse, because it happened in
Canada."

Community representatives are demanding that the TDSB include this
Soviet-perpetrated genocide of the 20th century in the core curriculum
of the new course for 2008-09 titled Genocide: Historical and
Contemporary Implications.

"A tragedy that claimed up to 10 million lives and which affects 1.2
million Canadians of Ukrainian descent is surely worthy of inclusion
in the curriculum of one of the largest school boards in Canada," said
Markian Shwec, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Toronto
Branch.

The trustees will meet at the TDSB office, 5050 Yonge Street, Toronto.

For further information: Valentina Kuryliw, (416) 242-5361, (416)
605-5361; Marika Szkambara, (416) 243-2004, (416) 875-2004; Andrew Melnyk,
(905) 895-9414

‘VIVACELL’ COMPANY AND UN REPRESENTATION IN ARMENIA OFFICIALLY OPENED THE NEW CLASSES OF ARTS AND CRAFTS CENTER FOR THE DISABLED AT ‘PYUNIK’ GYUMRI BRANCH

Arminfo
2008-06-12 11:25:00

Today Ms. Consuelo Vidal, UN Resident Coordinator / UNDP Resident
Representative and Mr. Ralph Yirikian, the General Manager of VivaCell
officially opened the new classes of Arts and Crafts Center for
the disabled at "Pyunik" Gyumri branch". The Center will give an
opportunity to children, who would otherwise have no other way of
stimulating their development, to try their skills in arts and crafts.

"The opening of new classes in this Center once again witnesses
that the project Global Compact Armenia, within the framework of
Public Private Partnership, has a future," said Ms. Consuelo Vidal,
UN Resident Coordinator / UNDP Resident Representative. She thanked
VivaCell for their financial support to refurbish the Arts and Crafts
Center and their commitment to continue providing much needed support
to such projects in the future.

"We are extremely proud of our participation in a project that in
the long-term will help and empower people with special needs to act
as active members of the society," stated Ralph Yirikian, VivaCell
General Manager. "Because this will help the target youth not only
acquire new skills and secure livelihood, and increase self-esteem,
but also to become dynamic members of society. However, above all, it
is our strong belief and sense of responsibility toward the Armenian
society that guides VivaCell", he added.

The Arts and Crafts Center is one in a series of projects developed by
the Global Compact Armenia that will enable the disabled children in
the region to develop their skills in traditional crafts as painting,
embroidery and wood carving.

"This is a wonderful example of corporate social responsibility to
other private sector companies in Armenia of what can be accomplished
when they pull together their efforts to support social investment that
benefits vulnerable groups of society," concluded Ms. Consuelo Vidal.

VivaCell (K-Telecom CJSC) is the leading Armenian mobile
operator,providing a wide range of Voice and Data services. Since
its launch on 1st July 2005, in a short period of time VivaCell has
managed to build a nationwide network and a considerable customer
base. VivaCell drives the development and offering of innovative mobile
communications products, services and features in the Armenian mobile
communications market.

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC ("MTS") is the largest mobile phone operator
in Russia and the CIS. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company
services over 85.68 million subscribers. The regions of Russia, as
well as Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, in
which MTS and its associates and subsidiaries are licensed to provide
GSM services, have a total population of more than 230 million. Since
June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock
Exchange (ticker symbol MBT).

PanARMENIAN.Net

Egbert Jahn: Armenian Genocide debate may fade after Turkey joins EU
07.06.2008 13:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Central and Eastern Europe suffered from both Nazi
and Communists, a German professor said.

Political programs of mass annihilation may be named not genocide but
policide, professor Egbert Jahn said in his speech during -Fall of the
Berlin Wall: from Budapest to Vilnius- international conference in
Warsaw.

The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Young Turks in 1915 may be
interpreted in a similar way. But the Genocide debate may subside
after Turkey joins the European Union,- he said, DELFI Baltic states’
portal reports.

Matthew Bryza: Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan decided to continue
negotiations on basis of principles offered in Madrid

2008-06-06 21:43:00

ArmInfo. Commenting upon the June 6 meeting of Armenian and Azeri
Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev in St. Petersburg, US
Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza said that the main
result of the meeting is that the parties agreed to continue the talks
on the basis of principles offered to them in Madrid in 2007, Radio
Liberty reports.

Bryza stressed that the expectations from the meeting were justified.
He added that the presidents had just told the co-chairs that they
agreed to continue the Karabakh peace process within the frames of the
OSCE Minsk Group on the basis of the suggestions made by the co-chairs
in Madrid.

According to Bryza, both parties presented their positions on the
co-chairs’ suggestions. The co-chairs listened to both parties’
opinions. He added that the Madrid suggestions were just suggestions,
and this doesn’t mean that the parties fully agreed with them, he
noted.

He also added that these suggestions should be completed and the
intermediaries as well as the presidents are ready to continue. Asked
about arrangement on further meetings of the presidents or the
co-chairs visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, Bryza replied that the
intermediaries are going to visit the Karabakh conflict zone by the end
of the current month, as for the next meeting of the presidents, its
date has not been specified yet since it depends on the meeting of
foreign ministers of the two states.

As Armenian Public TV reports, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov said for his part that at present they are discussing the
terms of the next visit of the co-chairs to the region taking into
consideration schedule of the presidents and foreign ministers.
Presumably the visit will take place at the end of June.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said when commenting on the
results of the two presidents’ meeting that the presidents charged the
foreign ministers to continue the talks within the frames of the OSCE
Minsk Group.