Author: Zargarian Hambik

The Sudbury Star
Canadians happy, but Finns are happier; International survey finds that money doesn’t buy bliss, but it doesn’t hurt

Joel Desbois
Local News – Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 09:00

Canadians are a happy lot, says a Laurentian University professor. We
just don’t know it, or can’t admit it.

"Canadians are not going to say, brashfully, ‘yeah, I’m full of
happiness.’ They are going to whine a little bit," says Roger Nash,
Laurentian’s director of the masters of arts programs in
humanities. "But sometimes, whiners are amongst the happiest
people. They just need to have a little bit of a whine first."

According to the World Database of Happiness, Canada ranks among the
top 15 happiest countries in the world.

The database, created in 1999 by Ruut Veenhoven, has been accumulating
information for nearly a decade. It not only asks people if they feel
happy, but also uses objective questions based around education,
nutrition, freedom from fear and violence, gender equality and freedom
of choice to determine what exactly makes people happy.

Veenhoven’s database, which lists 95 countries, is headed by Denmark
with a rating of 8.2, followed by Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and
Finland, all countries with high per capita income. At the other end
of the scale are much poorer countries: Tanzania rated 3.2, behind
Zimbabwe, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia.

Canada, with a 7.6 rating, and the United States with 7.4, just make
it into the top 15. While choice is abundant in America, nutrition and
violence issues helped drag its rating down.

Wealth counts, but most studies of individuals show income disparities
count more.

Surprisingly, however, citizens are no happier in welfare states,
which strive to mitigate the distortions of capitalism than in purer
free-market economies.

"In the beginning, I didn’t believe my eyes," said Veenhoven of his
data. "Icelanders are just as happy as Swedes, yet their country
spends half what Sweden does (per capita) on social welfare," he said.

Adrian White, of the University of Leicester, included twice as many
countries as Veenhoven in his Global Projection of Subjective
Well-being, which also measures the correlation of and wealth. He,
too, led his list with Denmark, Switzerland and Austria.

Bhutan, where less than half the people can read or write and 90 per
cent are subsistence farmers, ranks No. 8 in his list of happy
nations. Its notion of happiness is based on equitable development,
environmental conservation, cultural heritage and good governance.

U.S. researchers have found other underlying factors: married people
are more content than singles, but having children does not raise
levels; education and IQ seem to have little impact; attractive people
are only slightly happier than the unattractive; the elderly – over 65
– are more satisfied with their lives than the young; friendships are
crucial.

Nash thinks Canada would probably rank higher, except for a unique
characteristic that stops us from appreciating just how happy they
are.

"We tend to underestimate ourselves and we tend to underestimate our
community or nationwide factors like our economy," he says.

"We kind of overlook that we are providing the raw material to a large
part of the rest of the world for their economies to develop." Lands
of joy

World’s happiest nations, according to a survey of 95 countries:

Denmark, with a rating of 8.2, is No. 1, followed by Switzerland,
Austria, Iceland and Finland.

At the other end of the scale:

Tanzania rated 3.2, behind Zimbabwe, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia.

JEWISH GROUPS PRESSURE THE ADL
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Boston Globe
07/08/21/jewish_groups_pressure_the_adl/
Aug 21 2007
MA

Urge recognition of genocide

Local Jewish groups rushed yesterday to sign a letter urging the
Anti-Defamation League to acknowledge the massacre of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks as genocide, increasing pressure on the ADL after it
fired its New England director for endorsing the emotionally charged
position.

Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Greater Boston, e-mailed a letter yesterday to some 40
prominent Jewish leaders in Massachusetts, asking them to support
the ousted director and to recognize the genocide against Armenians.

"We must never forget the Armenian genocide and maintain our guard
against those who deny its occurrence," the letter said.

Within hours of sending the letter, Kaufman said that 11 groups had
signed and that more were expected to do so shortly.

"I have never gotten such unanimous support for any position by the
JCRC as I have in the last few days on this one," Kaufman said. "It
doesn’t matter where people are on the political spectrum — left,
right, middle — people are really standing behind this because it
strikes at the core of what it means to be a Jew and never again
means never again."

Signers of the letter include the Combined Jewish Philanthropies,
the Russian Community Association of Massachusetts, the Hillel Council
of New England, the Bureau of Jewish Education, and the David Project
Center for Jewish Leadership.

Kaufman said her group, which represents 41 Jewish organizations,
unanimously approved a resolution in 2005 calling the massacre an act
of genocide. "We just felt we needed to be on record," Kaufman said.

"We needed to be in solidarity and in support of the Armenian
community locally."

The rift opened last week after the Town Council in Watertown,
home to 8,000 Armenian-Americans, voted unanimously to pull out of
an ADL program called No Place for Hate. The town was protesting the
ADL’s refusal to acknowledge as genocide the slaughter of 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks starting in 1915 in what is today Turkey.

After the vote, the ADL’s New England director, Andrew H. Tarsy,
who had initially defended the ADL’s position, said the massacre was
genocide. Then he was fired by the national ADL.

The ADL’s national director, Abraham H. Foxman, said the ADL has no
official position on the genocide issue. But it does not support US
legislation that would affirm the genocide label.

In an open letter, the ADL has called the bill pending in Congress
"counterproductive" and said the organization, founded in 1913 to fight
anti-Semitism, worried what effect it would have on Jews in Turkey.

The controversy has since drawn in Jewish leaders across the region,
not all of whom are in agreement with the local ADL. Grand Rabbi Y.A.

Korff, a chaplain of the City of Boston, said the local chapter made a
mistake in breaking ranks with its national leaders, who he said are
better suited to assess "very sensitive international and diplomatic
nuances and ramifications."

"As with any organization, you can’t have different chapters
going their own way, and basically that undermines the national
organization," Korff said in an interview from Jerusalem. "In my view,
the essential issue is how does a national organization make these
decisions, and who is in the best position to make these decisions."

Barry Shrage, president of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies,
said he supports Tarsy and the local ADL. "I think that Andy and the
board of the local ADL did the right thing and did what they thought
was right, and in this case, the local organization is a lot closer
to what needs to be done than the national is," Shrage said in an
interview from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Barbara Penzner of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah in West Roxbury,
said the local ADL was standing up in the tradition of its late former
leader, Leonard P. Zakim, for whom the bridge over the Charles River
is named. "I think the ADL national has made a huge mistake, and even
if they explain that there’s political and organizational issues, we
as a community ought to stand for the moral high ground," Penzner said.

PRESS OFFICE
Department of Communications
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Media Relations Specialist
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 160; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

August 17, 2007
___________________

CATHOLICOS TO CONSECRATE DIOCESE’S NEWEST CHURCH DURING OCTOBER’S PONTIFICAL
VISIT

It was a day celebrating progress towards completion, as well as a moment
marking a beginning of sorts.

More than 200 people gathered around the St. Hagop Church of St. Petersburg,
Florida, in June as a giant eight-foot Armenian-style cross was lifted by a
crane onto the dome of the under construction sanctuary.

"Just to see the cross raised on top of the Church, that made if feel
officially Armenian. It was a great feeling," said Arsen Bayandrian, parish
council chair of St. Hagop. "And now, there are a lot of people who were
not regular Church attendees or who would come occasionally, and now they’re
coming pretty regularly, even with the sanctuary under construction. They
finally see a church being built and they want to be part of it."

The Church community in St. Petersburg began to come together more than 30
years ago. Now, the parish is getting ready for October’s visit by His
Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. He
will consecrate the St. Hagop Church during his stop in St. Petersburg
October 13 and 14. It will be the first time His Holiness Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, has consecrated a church
in the Eastern Diocese.

"The Diocese is excited to see the progress and success being achieved by
the local leaders in St. Petersburg," said Archbishop Khajag Barsamian,
Primate of the Eastern Diocese. "Indeed, they have built this community
family by family, brick by brick. Soon, I know, their parish will be
energized with its own sanctuary, a priest, and visit from His Holiness. It
is truly an exciting time for the Armenians in the St. Petersburg area, and
also for all of us in the Eastern Diocese."

SIGN OF SUCCESS

The day the cross was raised above the church was a joy filled celebration.
Fr. Mardiros Chevian, one of the visiting clergy who has been serving the
community, blessed the cross before it was lifted up into the sky.

As hushed parishioners stood trance-like watching the cross ascend into the
heavens, Fr. Chevian told them that the cross was rising as a symbol of
their prayers.

"As this cross is rising, with it will rise your prayers and anticipation
and hopes and dreams for this community, for the future," he told them.
"This cross will rise up, but it will not go out of view. It will always be
on the top of the dome as a constant reminder of what it took to get to this
point, of the sacrifice. It will be a physical reminder of the work that has
been done and the work that needs to be done to continue the ministry of our
Church."

After the ceremony, the awed parishioners stood still as if captivated by
the golden cross, Fr. Chevian said.

"This has been a project in this community for more than 15 years and this
sort of crowning of the church was a moment, a turning point," he said.
"They saw the walls going up, they saw the dome put up, but putting that
huge Armenian- style cross on there they began to realize that yes, this was
really happening."

NEW PRIEST COMING

Along with the powerful symbol now atop their sanctuary, the parish
community is also gaining momentum from the appointment of the Diocese’s
newest priest, Fr. Hovnan Demerjian. He and his wife, Yn. Anna, will head
down to St. Petersburg this month.

Fr. Demerjian will celebrate the badarak August 19 and 26, before officially
beginning as pastor at St. Hagop on September 1.

"I’m energized. There are people down there that have a great desire to see
their community come together and make their church a house of God," Fr.
Demerjian said. "We truly are excited to get started there."

Following the traditional 40 days of seclusion, Fr. Demerjian celebrated his
first badarak at the St. Gregory the Enlightener Church of White Plains, New
York, on July 22. There in the pews was the chair of St. Hagop’s Parish
Council.

"We’re excited to be welcoming Fr. Hovnan. We believe he can provide
leadership and bring people, especially younger people, to the church,"
Bayandrian said. "Since he is young himself, young people can relate to him
very well. I am sure he will bring the community together because of his
ability, his youth, and his concern for us and our future."

As the parish has grown, it has been served by several priests. Over the
past few years, the Diocesan leadership worked with the leaders of St. Hagop
to create a strategic plan for the community’s growth. Several priests with
different specialties and abilities were asked by the Primate to be involved
in the growth of the parish. Along with Fr. Chevian and Diocesan Vicar Fr.
Haigazoun Najarian, the St. Hagop community has been served by Fr. Karekin
Kasparian, Fr. Garabed Kochakian, and Fr. Vasken Kouzouian.

"The parish has a lot of work ahead of it, but I’m so excited that the
Diocese has sent their best to pave the way for me to continue their
efforts," Fr. Demerjian said. "We’re looking forward to building a Sunday
school and daily parish life and getting to know people and visit people in
their homes and form relationships with them."

— 8/17/07

E-mail photos available on request. Photos also viewable in the News and
Events section of the Eastern Diocese’s website,

PHOTO CAPTION (1): The parishioners look at the cross soon to be hoisted on
top of the St. Hagop Church of St. Petersburg, Florida, on Sunday, June 24,
2007.

PHOTO CAPTION (2): Fr. Mardiros Chevian blesses the cross before it is
lifted to the dome of the St. Hagop Church of St. Petersburg, Florida, on
Saturday, June 24, 2007.

Baltimore Sun, United States
Aug 10 2007

A debate not needed
August 10, 2007

The 90-year-old genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks is being
turned into a spectacle – in Washington, naturally, where even the
past becomes a fruitful topic for lobbyists.

On one side are well-organized and locally influential
Armenian-American interest groups and their Democratic friends in
Congress, who want to push through a resolution declaring that the
deaths of 1.2 million Armenians during World War I were in fact a
result of genocide. On the other side is the Turkish government,
which has hired former congressmen Richard A. Gephardt and Robert L.
Livingston to push its case that Armenians died in the brutal chaos
of war but that it wasn’t genocide, and the Bush administration,
which believes that current relations with Turkey are more important
than parsing a crime that took place during Woodrow Wilson’s
presidency.

Last year the White House yanked the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John
Evans, out of his post in Yerevan for daring to utter the G-word.
Last week, the career foreign service officer who was nominated to
replace him, Richard Hoagland, withdrew his name from Senate
consideration after Sen. Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, put
a hold on his bid because he won’t say "genocide."

This is not edifying.

It is painful for Armenians to have the deaths of so many dismissed
as virtually an accident by the government in Ankara. Much of the
documented record was assembled by Americans – diplomats and others –
who were in Turkey when it happened.

(By the 1920s, though, the chief of the U.S. mission in Istanbul
tended to give some credence to the Turkish claim that the Armenians
were victims of ineptitude and individual acts of cruelty, both of
which were in ample supply in Turkey. He noted that Americans seemed
much more concerned about the travails of Christians in the old
Ottoman Empire, such as the Armenians, than those – also horrible –
of millions of Muslims.)

But have you noticed something? This is starting to delve into
history, which is another way of saying it’s not a question that
belongs before Congress in 2007. The verbose, pompous (and, yes,
pandering) resolution cheapens Armenian history, not the reverse.

But it’s also not a matter over which the White House should be
issuing a gag order. History is messy and ugly and is best served by
free and robust discussion. Americans as well as Turks and Armenians
should have the confidence to recognize that.

itorial/bal-ed.armenia10aug10,0,7258678.story

ARMENIAN YOUTH SHOULD BE MORE ACTIVE IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 9 2007

YEREVAN, August 9. /ARKA/. Armenian youth should be more active in the
country’s political and social life, during the press-conference said
Chairman of the Student Council of the State Engineering University
of Armenia (SEUA), Deputy-Chairman of National Student Council Hayk
Akarmazyan.

He said that on one hand a great number of youth events are organized
in the country, however, they all are of entertaining nature.

"Very little number of young people is involved in the activities
of various NGOs, and the overwhelming majority of youth have no
opportunity to raise disturbing issues," he said.

He pointed out that the objective of the "Summer camp – 2007"
organized by the SEUA is to unite young people, in particular,
students – to solve their problems.

"We want any student from distant regions of the country to be able
to express his opinion, and then follow the execution of his demands,"
Akarmazyan said.

Student forum "Summer camp – 2007" will be held in the SEUA sport and
health camp in Aghveran, on August 11-18. 200 students from different
universities of the republic and other countries will participate in
the forum.

The program of the camp envisages seminars and discussion on topics
that students and young people are interested in, as well as to form
corresponding resolutions and plan of proposals based on discussions.

During the discussions the following topics will be touched upon:
educational reforms, social programs and employment program, social
work and politics, science and youth participation in it, students’
local, regional and international contacts.

Delegations from the National Student Association of Armenia,
International European Student Association, European Youth Forum
and other European organizations are invited to participate in the
program.

ARMENIA’S GOVERNMENT READY TO COOPERATE WITH ALROSA

Regnum, Russia
Aug 7 2007

Plans of ALROSA Company to implement a number of investment programs
in Armenia was discussed Aug 6 at a meeting between company president
Sergey Vybornov and prime minister of Armenia Serzh Sarksyan.

Vybornov explained his proposal by his experience in cooperation
with Armenian diamond-cutting companies, availability of high-skilled
specialists, and favorable legal and investment environment in Armenia,
REGNUM was informed at a press office of Armenian government.

Armenian prime minister, in his turn, pointed out that the republic’s
government is interested in developing cooperation with ALROSA. He
emphasized that the government is ready to cooperate with such
companies, which has been manifested by an agreement between ALROSA
and the government of Armenia signed Aug 6.

EASING TURKEY-US TENSIONS FACES A CATCH
By Desmond Butler – Associated Press Writer

AP
Tuesday August 7, 2007 8:31 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) – Bush administration officials see Turkey’s recent
election as an opportunity to improve strained relations with an
important ally, but they face obstacles that may be beyond their
control.

One issue is in the hands of Congress, led by opposition Democrats:
a proposed resolution recognizing World War I-era killings of Armenians
as genocide – a view Turkey adamantly rejects.

The other issue is in the hands of the Iraqi government: a possible
referendum on incorporating the oil-rich city of Kirkuk into the
autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Turkey opposes the
referendum, fearing it could boost Kurdish separatists in Turkey,
and sees it as another example of U.S. policy gone awry in neighboring
Iraq.

"Turks would blame the U.S. for its failure to prevent the referendum
because they believe they hold sway as the occupying power,"
said Bulent Aliriza, the director of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies’ Turkey research program.

The United States wants to strengthen ties with Turkey, a strategically
important NATO ally located at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle
East and Central Asia. U.S. officials view Turkey, a secular democracy
with a majority Muslim population, as a model for other nations.

But relations have been strained, largely over the Iraq war. Turkey
refused to allow U.S. troops use its territory to invade Iraq in
2003, and Turks continue to oppose the war. A recent poll by the Pew
Research Center found the United States had only 9 percent favorable
rating in Turkey.

In particular, Turkey has criticized the United States for failing to
stop Kurdish guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK,
in northern Iraq from carrying out attacks in Turkey. Some analysts
had feared that Turkey might invade northern Iraq ahead of the July 22
elections, to boost Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist
credentials.

Turkey did not invade and Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party,
or AKP, won an overwhelming victory.

The United States says this provides an opportunity for boosting ties.

Despite the party’s Islamic roots, Erdogan and other leaders are
seen as open to closer integration with the West and improving
U.S. relations.

"This is an optimal outcome," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State Matt Bryza said in an interview. "The AKP is a known quantity."

Some critics of the administration say the White House needs to move
urgently to repair relations with Turkey.

"There has been massive policy neglect," said Richard Holbrooke, former
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the Clinton administration.

Holbrooke, who is now supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Democratic
presidential bid, said that Turkey should be treated as the most
important strategic ally in the region.

But some of the difficulties come from congressional Democrats,
who are pushing for the Armenian genocide resolution.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks, an event widely viewed by scholars as genocide. Turkey
denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been
inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Turkish officials warn that if the resolution is approved, they will
shut down routes to Iraq from Turkey that the U.S. uses to bring in
most of its military supplies.

The resolution has strong support in the House, but will hinge on
whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman
Tom Lantos, D-Calif., bring up the measure for votes. Both Lantos and
Pelosi have previously supported it, but are under intense pressure
from both sides.

They agreed to delay action on the referendum until after Turkey’s
election, congressional aides say. But the expectation in Congress
is that it will likely pass this year.

The other source of tensions is the Kirkuk referendum, which the
Iraqi constitution says must be held by the end of the year.

Turkey fears it would be a step toward an independent Kurdistan and
could endanger ethnic Turks who live in the region.

But Iraqi Kurds have been adamant. Last week, the leader of Iraq’s
Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, warned of a "real civil war" if the
central government does not hold the referendum.

The U.S. says the decision is for the Iraqi government.

Analysts say that the United States could achieve goodwill in Turkey
by ordering military action against PKK fighters holed up in remote
mountainous territory. But U.S. officials are reluctant to widen the
Iraq conflict, taking on new combatants and increasing violence in
what has been Iraq’s most stable region.

Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, who advocates close ties
with Turkey, said that U.S. military officials have told him the
United States is closer to moving against the PKK.

"American and Turkish forces are cooperating to counter the
PKK in a more concrete way than they were six months ago,"
he said. "Counterterrorism operations and strategies are being
employed." He declined to elaborate.

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont-Quebec H2V 3H2
Contact: Deacon Hagop Arslanian,
Tel: 514-276-9479
Fax: 514-276-9960
Email: [email protected]
Web:

Mon, Aug 6 2007

RA Prime Minister Visits CYMA 2007 and Praises the Mission
On July 28, 2007 the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the Right
Honorable Serge Sargsian, visited the Region of Armavir. This was a
working visit for the newly elected Prime Minister of Armenia to oversee
the planned road constructions in Armavir. His Excellency had a glimpse at
the recently planted orchards in the area of the village of Hushakert in
the Artamet community, and then took part in laying the foundation of a
school for the community=2E

At this time, the RA Prime Minister, Serge Sargsian traveled to the
region’s village of GAI, to pay a special visit to the CYMA 2007
participants of the Canadian Armenian Diocese who were in Armenia to
renovate the Sourp Nshan Church, in the village of Gai.

All the CYMA participants and the villagers, who had come to sing the
praises of the extensive work achieved by CYMA, warmly greeted the Prime
Minister. Mr. Sargsian wholeheartedly congratulated the youth, highly
commending them for their determination and hard work. His Excellency
thanked the CYMA youth for loving their homeland, and working to keep the
Armenian heritage alive, but most importantly, for their devotion to the
Armenian Holy Apostolic Mother Church. In response, Ms. Talar Chichmanian,
CYMA 2007 leader, elaborated on the details of the current CYMA project,
and referred to the upcoming 15th anniversary of CYMA to be celebrated,
next year. She expressed hope that future CYMA projects would be of equal
high interest for him, and offered gratitude for his continuing support on
behalf of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada. Ms. Chichmanian
thanked the Prime Minister, extending the sincerest wishes of the CYMA
participants for his well-being and for all his endeavors in the years
ahead=2E

CYMA has been a major initiative of the Diocese of the Armenian Church
throughout the past thirteen-year. Summer of 2007 marked the 14th mission
of CYMA to Armenia. Groups of Canadian youth have traveled to Armenia
every summer since 1993 to help reconstruct schools, summer camps, and
churches and contribute to community building working in summer camps with
the children of Armenia. They live in the towns and villages to which they
are assigned and acquire first hand experience in the Armenian way of life
and culture. During the fourteen years of the existence of CYMA, over 500
youth have participated in this programme with the implementation of
projects in the many regions, such as Ararat, Avshar, Haridj, Dilidjan,
Ashtarag, the monastery of Khor Virap etc=2E
06 Aug 2007 by Press Office

©2004 Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada. All rights reserved

Agence France Presse
Aug 5 2007

Lebanon vote widens gap among divided Christians
Published: Sunday August 5, 2007

The opposition claimed victory in by-elections on Sunday that have
left the country’s Christians deeply divided ahead of polls to elect
a new president who is traditionally a Christian in Lebanon.

Michel Aoun, a Christian leader from the Syrian-backed opposition,
said his faction had defeated the candidate of the Western-backed
ruling majority by a close margin in the by-election in the Metn
mountains northeast of Beirut.

But the suspense continued as the ruling coalition refused to concede
defeat claiming voter fraud and Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh said
official results were still not known more than seven hours after
voting ended.

Sabeh however declared in a press conference that the ruling majority
candidate, Mohamad Amin Itani, had won as expected a landslide
victory in the other by-election which was also held on Sunday in
Beirut.

The by-elections were held to replace two anti-Syrian lawmakers
killed in attacks blamed by the Western-backed majority on former
powerbroker Damascus, which supports the Hezbollah-led opposition.

The two murdered MPs were industry minister Pierre Gemayel, a
Christian who was gunned down in a Beirut suburb on November 21 last
year, and Sunni Muslim Walid Eido, who was killed in a car bombing in
the capital on June 13.

After the end of the by-elections, the two camps immediately called
for self-restraint, as hundreds of supporters from both sides
gathered in public squares amid a heavy deployement of army and
security forces backed by armored vehicles.

One person was slightly injured by youths throwing stones in Beirut’s
northern suburb of Jdeideh where supporters of the two camps had
gathered in the same public square, an AFP photographer witnessed.

In a televised speech Aoun said that his party’s candidate, Camille
Khoury, beat former president Amin Gemayel, a prominent leader of the
anti-Syrian ruling majority, in the Metn polls.

"We have been informed about the victory of the candidate Camille
Khoury," Aoun said, appealing for calm.

He added that there were attempts to nullify the results from one of
the polling stations because of reported irregularities and urged his
supporters to gather outside his headquarters in Jdeideh.

But Gemayel, leader of the Phalange Party who was running to replace
his slain son Pierre Gemayel, refused to admit defeat and demanded a
rerun of the vote in one mainly Armenian region where he claimed
voter fraud.

"We want elections to be repeated in the Burj Hammud district,"
Gemayel told his supporters gathered in his hometown of Bikfaya.

He said there were reports from that area of people not living there
or deceased casting votes as well as irregularities with voting
cards.

Gemayel said that he would nonetheless accept the official results
expected later during the night.

Aoun’s spokesman Antoine Nasrallah told AFP that Khoury had won by a
close margin of several hundred votes.

The outcome of the poll is expected to set the tone for presidential
elections due to be held in September. Traditionally, the president
is chosen from the Maronite Christian community in Lebanon.

"The legend of Michel Aoun as the sole Christian leader has
crumbled," Walid Jumblatt, a prominent leader of the ruling majority,
told Lebanese television.

"Amin Gemayel has won the political battle. Michel Aoun has fallen
politically despite all his alliances," he said.

Whatever the outcome of the by-elections, parliament’s challenge will
still be to elect a new president to succeed pro-Syrian president
Emile Lahoud by a November 25 deadline.

While the majority controls enough seats to elect a president, it
needs the opposition to take part for the two-thirds quorum required
for parliament to convene.

The by-elections come amid heightened political and security tensions
in the deeply divided country as a deadly showdown between the army
and Islamist extremists in a northern refugee camp continues to rage
after 11 weeks.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Turkey and EU should cooperate to promote security
04.08.2007 15:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The AK Party has achieved a
remarkable electoral victory,’ said Javier Solana, the
High Representative for the Common Foreign and
Security Policy of the European Union.

The results of this crucial election are a resounding
vote of confidence in the path of political and
economic reform and ever-closer relations with the
European Union that the government has followed,
according to him.

`There are many areas in which Turkey and the European
Union will have to work closely together over the
coming months and years. Making sustained progress in
Turkey’s accession negotiations is central to this
challenging agenda. I welcome the stated determination
of Prime Minister Erdogan to achieve Turkey’s European
Union goals, including the reforms needed to make that
happen. Turkey and the European Union should continue
their close cooperation to promote peace and security
around the world, from the wider Middle East, to the
Balkans, the southern Caucasus, Afghanistan and
elsewhere,’ Mr Solana said, Trend reports.