SAINT JOHN’S PRESENTS PAX CHRISTI AWARD TO HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

CSB/SJU, MN
College of Saint Benedict | Saint John’s University
hristi06.htm
Nov 27 2006

Saint John’s Abbey and University presents its highest honor, the Pax
Christi Award, to His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House
of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, on Wednesday, Dec. 6.

The event begins with Evening Prayer at 5 p.m. at the Abbey Church,
which is open to the public. That is followed by an invitation-only
reception and dinner. The award ceremony and public address,
"Challenges Facing Christianity in the Middle East," begins at 8 p.m.
at the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater and is also open to all.

His Holiness’ relationship with Saint John’s came about because of "his
leadership in opening the manuscript collection of the Catholicosate
to the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library," said the Rev.

Columba Stewart, executive director of the HM&ML. "He was our first
Armenian partner in the Middle East."

His Holiness is also being recognized for his leadership in ecumenism
as the founding member of the Middle East Council of Churches and
moderator of the World Council of Churches since 1991.

His Holiness was ordained a celibate priest in 1968 and obtained the
title of Vartabed (Doctor of the Armenian Church) in 1970. In 1979,
after serving one year as Locum Tenens, he was elected Primate of
the Armenian Orthodox community in Lebanon. His tenure coincided with
the Lebanese Civil War.

His Holiness has been active in inter-church dialogue, relations and
collaboration since 1972, when he was appointed as the Catholicosate’s
representative for ecumenical relations. He served in this position
until 1995, and represented the Armenian Church at major theological
and ecumenical conferences, assemblies and consultations in different
parts of the world.

In June 1995, His Holiness was elected Catholicos (the head of the
church) by the Electoral Assembly of the Armenian Catholicosate of
Cilicia (35 clergy and 115 lay representatives). He was consecrated
and installed on July 1, 1995.

HM&ML was founded 40 years ago in response to the devastating loss
of manuscripts and books during two World Wars. It is the only
institution in the world exclusively dedicated to the photographic
preservation and study of manuscripts, particularly in locations where
war, theft or physical conditions pose a threat. Since its inception,
HM&ML has built the world’s largest collection of manuscript images,
having photographed almost 100,000 manuscripts totaling more than 30
million pages.

As the highest honor awarded by Saint John’s, the Pax Christi Award
recognizes those who have devoted themselves to God by working in ways
akin to the tradition of Benedictine monasticism to serve others and
to build a heritage of faith in the world.

The award has been presented to 53 individuals, including Cardinal
Leo Jozef Suenens of Belgium; Archbishop Jean Jadot, the former
representative of the Holy See in the United States; Eugene McCarthy,
the former senator, presidential candidate and SJU graduate; Cardinal
Joseph Bernardin of the Chicago Archdiocese; and His Beatitude Ignatius
IV Hazim, Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.

Michael Hemmesch Director of Media Relations College of Saint
Benedict/Saint John’s University Phone 320-363-2595 Fax 320-363-2016
[email protected]

OSCE’S YEAR-END DRAFT DECLARATION YIELDS TO RUSSIA ON ISTANBUL COMMITMENTS
By Vladimir Socor

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Nov 27 2006

With barely ten days remaining until the OSCE’s year-end conference
in Brussels, the draft ministerial declaration (the centerpiece of
the conference documents) would weaken the West’s hand and strengthen
Moscow’s on the most salient hard-security issue in Europe: Russia’s
1999 commitments to withdraw its forces from Georgia and Moldova.

Moscow has repeatedly tried to decouple this issue from the
1999-adapted Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE), so as to
bring this treaty into force on the territories of the three Baltic
states and to place the Baltic states under treaty limitations.

Those commitments, as well as that treaty, were approved as a package
at the OSCE’s Istanbul summit in 1999. Consequently, the NATO and
European Union member countries have taken the position all along that
the Russia-desired ratification of the adapted CFE treaty is "linked
with" (that is, conditional on) Russia’s complete fulfillment of its
Istanbul Commitments. In 2005-2006 Russia made significant progress
toward withdrawing its forces from the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases in
Georgia on a timetable running until 2008 — a fact welcomed in the
2006 draft ministerial declaration. Apart from that promising step,
however, Moscow has continued to breach its 1999 Commitments and CFE
treaty principles on multiple counts during 2006.

The relevant text in the OSCE’s 2006 year-end draft declaration would
— if adopted — loosen the linkage policy, relegate major elements
in Russia’s Istanbul Commitments to oblivion, and bring the adapted
CFE treaty’s ratification much closer. The treaty’s entry into force
would in turn trigger a procedure to extend its applicability to
the three Baltic states’ territories and negotiate with Russia about
setting limits to any possible allied deployments there.

Drafted largely by this year’s Belgian chairmanship and reflecting
some of Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel de Gucht’s publicly
stated views, the OSCE declaration’s relevant text reads:

"We urge State Parties to the CFE Treaty to fulfill the outstanding
commitments undertaken at the 1999 Istanbul Summit. We welcome the
[Russia-Georgia] agreements that have led to substantial progress
on the ground. We call for completion of this process. As regards
Moldova, no progress could be registered in 2006. We call on the
Russian Federation and parties concerned to allow the process of
withdrawal of ammunition and related military personnel to resume
expeditiously. We reaffirm our shared determination to promote the
entry into force of the Adapted CFE Treaty" (OSCE Ministerial Council,
Belgian Chairmanship, MC.DD/2306, November 23).

The paragraph on Moldova is phrased in a way that could all but
liquidate the remaining Istanbul Commitments there. It only mentions
withdrawal of ammunition, omitting the troops, although the Istanbul
Commitments require the complete withdrawal of Russian forces, a
term that focuses on the troops. From 2002 to date, the United States
and European allies as well as Moldova have consistently focused on
the Russian troops when calling for fulfillment of Russia’s Istanbul
Commitments. Earlier this year, however, De Gucht repeatedly called
for withdrawal of Russian ammunition only, omitting the troops. And
earlier this month, Belgium’s ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna,
Bernard de Combrugghe, heading a fact-finding delegation to Chisinau
and Tiraspol, similarly declared in both places that the OSCE sought
the withdrawal of ammunition, failing to mention the troops (Basapress,
Infotag, Regnum, November 12-14).

The reference to "ammunition-related personnel" is an innovation. In
the course of that visit to Transnistria, the OSCE group was told
by the Russian command that only about 100 Russian "personnel"
(sotrudniki), not army troops but a "militarized protection service"
(voyennizirovanaya okhrana), are guarding the vast Russian ammunition
stockpile there (Regnum, Infotag, November 13). Thus, it appears that
the ministerial declaration’s drafters would be content to see just
those 100 Russian personnel withdraw along with the ammunition. While
de Combrugghe did mention in Tiraspol the known fact that "one of
the sides" (Chisinau) does not accept the Russian "peacekeeping"
operation, that point remains academic if the OSCE releases Russia
from the Istanbul Commitments on troop withdrawal.

The document’s "call on Russia and parties concerned to allow"
ammunition withdrawal to proceed is a further innovation to
accommodate Moscow. Responsibility for the unlawful stationing of
Russian forces in Moldova has all along been Russia’s liability
and no one else’s. The Istanbul Commitments also hold Russia alone
liable for the unconditional withdrawal of its forces. However,
Moscow has attempted to offload those responsibilities onto
other "parties," thereby dividing its own political liability and
setting third-party preconditions to fulfilling what are Moscow’s
unconditional obligations. In the last few years, Moscow has falsely
claimed that Tiraspol’s authorities "do not allow" Moscow to withdraw
the ammunition, let alone the troops. Occasionally, Moscow has also
alleged difficulties with Moldovan railroads and rolling stock or
Ukrainian safety concerns about the transport of old and dangerous
ammunition, although the Tiraspol authorities (its appointees)
provide Moscow’s main alibi for blocking the withdrawal.

The OSCE’s draft declaration plays along with Moscow’s tactics by
asking unnamed other parties to unblock Russia’s withdrawal.

In its finely nuanced, trademark OSCE phrasing, the document calls
for the ammunition withdrawal merely to "resume, as an open-ended
"process," rather than asking for it to be completed within a certain
timeline. With Russia having breached several actual deadlines in
succession, the OSCE at its year-end 2003 Maastricht conference gave up
setting any deadlines or timelines, realizing that Russia’s persistent
noncompliance was exposing the organization’s ineffectiveness.

The document’s pledge to promote the adapted CFE treaty’s ratification
is not accompanied by a conditional clause that would have referenced a
linkage with Russia’s Istanbul Commitments. Nor is any reference made
to Moscow’s breaches of both the original 1990 and the 1999-adapted
treaties. The unfulfilled commitments and ongoing treaty breaches
include: Russia’s retention of the Gudauta base in Georgia, which was
due for closure in 2001; deployment of treaty-banned combat hardware
with secessionist forces in Abkhazia, Karabakh, and Transnistria;
and stationing of "peacekeeping" and other Russian troops in conflict
areas without host-country-consent, although such consent is a central
principle of both existing and unratified CFE treaties.

Adopting this section of the OSCE’s ministerial declaration for 2006
in this form could at one stroke erase most of Russia’s outstanding
Istanbul Commitments by the custodial organization itself. Such
a development, should it come to pass, would mark a high point of
Russian clout within the OSCE.

PLAYS OF ARMENIAN SEPARATISTS IN "ELECTIONS" ARE AN EFFORT TO LEGALLY UNMASKING THEIR EXISTENCE – AZERI CEC SECRETARY
Author: S.Ilhamgizi

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 27 2006

The world knows that a self-voted separatist regime exists in
Nagorno-Karabakh and that their activities are illegal. Therefore,
recognizing any elections or their results in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot
be a topic for discussion, the Secretary of the Central Election
Commission of Azerbaijan (CEC), Natig Mammadov, informed Trend.

On the 10 December, the Armenian separatists plan to hold a "voting"
for adopting its "Constitution".

The CEC Secretary stressed that all activities and actions in the
territory of Azerbaijan, which are contrary to the Constitution of
Azerbaijan, are illegal. According to Mammadov, the ploy of the
Armenian separatists in the "elections" is an effort to legally
unmask their existence, create an election and falsely influence
the international community. "Firstly, it needs to ensure the
participation of the whole population of the territory affected by the
referendum. There are only Armenians are living in Nagorno-Karabakh,
as the Azerbaijanis who formed most of population of Nagorno-Karabakh
have been expelled. The very fact that the only Armenians living there
are the old inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh imposes great doubts. It
is confirmed that Armenians have been brought to Nagorno-Karabakh
from other areas. In any case, it is ridiculous to discuss any legal
activities and elections of illegal self-voted separatist regime,"
Mammadov said.

In addition, Mammadov argued the point of who would observe the
elections. The results of the monitoring would not be recognized
because the activities of the separatist regime reflecting violence
and annexation are contrary to international norms.

U.S. TELLS GEORGIA TO AVOID LONG-TERM GAS DEALS WITH IRAN

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Nov 27 2006

The U.S. will not approve Georgia’s long-term energy-related
cooperation with Iran, but it seems it may turn a blind eye on
short-term Georgian-Iranian deals envisaging emergency gas supplies
during the winter period.

U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft said in an interview published
by the Georgian weekly Kviris Palitra on November 27 that a strategic
partnership between Georgia and Iran in energy issues is unacceptable
for the United States.

He said that the U.S. position is guided by the UN Security Council
resolution on Iran and the latter’s nuclear enrichment program.

The U.S. diplomat explained that Washington met Georgia’s short-term
deal with Iran in January 2006 with understanding after Georgia had
to import emergency gas supplies when Russian imports were cut off
by explosions on two pipelines in Russia’s North Ossetian Republic.

"I do not know what the U.S. Ambassador said. In respect of our
energy-related relations with Iran, naturally we will have energy
cooperation with this country. This year we will apparently buy gas
from Iran and we will probably exchange electricity with this country,"
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli told reporters on November 27.

"Moreover, we held talks with the U.S. officials, particularly with
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, who made it
clear that the United States, regardless of its relations with Iran,
can not tell Georgia to freeze in winter and not to buy gas from Iran,"
he added.

PM Nogaideli was referring to Bryza’s remarks made at a news conference
in Tbilisi on November 17, when he said: "while we are pursuing our
policy toward Iran, we certainly don’t want Georgia or Armenia or any
other country to be in a situation where it does not have energy for
the winter."

This statement was perceived by many in Georgia as Washington’s
approval of Georgia’s energy cooperation with Iran. But in the
interview with Kviris Palitra, U.S. Ambassador John Tefft said that
Bryza’s statement was misinterpreted.

Although PM Nogaideli said on November 27 that Georgia will "apparently
buy" Iranian gas, he did not specify details, including amount of
gas Georgia wants to import from Iran.

He said that Tbilisi is still in talks with Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan
and Turkey over gas supplies. "We will choose the best option for
our companies and consumers," PM Nogaideli added.

PM Nogaideli is expected to visit Iran by the end of December.

Meanwhile, the Georgian PM, accompanied by Energy Minister Nika
Gilauri, is expected to visit Baku later this week to negotiate with
the Azeri officials a possibility of buying by Georgia additional
amount of gas from the Shah-Deniz field.

Some officials in Tbilisi have already indicated that certain details
of negotiations and prospects of gas supplies may emerge only after
these talks in Baku.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have demanded from the authorities
to speak publicly about prospects of gas supplies.

"President says that we will not by gas for USD 230 from Russia;
our friend – the U.S. – tells us not to buy Iranian gas; it is clear
that there is no enough gas within Shah-Deniz project to fully satisfy
Georgia’s demands. So we want to know what the government is planning
to do. It seems that negotiation which our government is holding is
just a myth," said MP Zviad Dzidziguri, leader of the Democratic Front
parliamentary faction, uniting MPs from the opposition Conservative
and Republican parties.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ATTACKS ON MEDIA HURT CONFLICT RESOLUTION

International Crisis Group, Belgium
id=4529&l=1&m=1
Nov 27 2006

Brussels, 27 November 2006: The Azerbaijani government’s aggressive
moves to silence independent media and the leading opposition party
last week not only raise obvious human rights problems but will have a
detrimental effect on efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

On 24 November, the authorities took the country’s first, biggest and
most professional independent TV and radio broadcaster, ANS, off the
air. The same day, police forcibly evicted the key opposition party,
the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, two opposition dailies Azadlig
and Bizim Yol and the Turan information agency from their Baku offices.

The hasty government actions were taken after proceedings that lacked
transparency and political neutrality. The parties were unable to
appeal before the decisions were implemented. Following a pattern
of harassment of Azerbaijan’s independent journalists since 2003,
Friday’s events once again put into question Azerbaijan’s commitment
to protecting freedom of speech and upholding the rule of law.

To facilitate the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the
International Crisis Group has called for the opening of a genuine
popular debate on the conflict. ANS has tended to take a hard line
on Nagorno-Karabakh, but it was open to a range of opinions and kept
popular opinion informed of developments related to the issue. The
closure of ANS will stifle the public discussion and information
sharing that is so essential to acceptance by Azerbaijani society of
any resolution to the conflict.

Azerbaijan’s international partners – the EU and its member states,
the U.S., the OSCE, the Council of Europe and others – should in
unequivocal terms call on the Government of President Ilham Aliev to
restore media freedoms protected in the Azerbaijani Constitution and
in commitments made as a member of the OSCE and the Council of Europe,
and as a recent signatory of an EU Neighborhood Action Plan.

HUNGARY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE PROTESTS AGAINST COURT’S DECISION

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 27 2006

Hungary Prosecutor’s office protested against Hungary court decision
November 17 about Ramil Safarov, Azerbaijani army officer, who was
sentenced to life in prison for murdering Armenian lieutenant Gurgen
Markarian in Hungary, Safarov’s lawyer Ikram Shirinov told the APA.

Shirinov said that he had telephone talk with Ramil yesterday. During
their talk Ramil noted that Hungary Prosecutor’s office protested the
court’s decision. The prosecutor’s office asks to aggravate Ramil’s
sentence. Shirinov said that both protest and appeal will be considered
in the same date. The trial date has not fixed yet. The lawyers said
that the date will be fixed by the court. Shirinov said that he will
visit Hungary in ten days, but there are still some technical problems.

It should be noted that, while being held in Hungarian prison in
2004, jailers wanted telephone card from Ramil. But Ramil could
not understand Hungarian which led an incident between them. Eight
police officers tied his hands and used force. Though lawyers for
the Azerbaijani lieutenant appealed to court related to this matter,
the court dismissed the appeal saying there was no evidence. Then the
opposite side claimed that Ramil resisted officials. On November 17
Ramil got 8-month suspended sentence.

TURKISH CHRISTIAN POPULATION REMAINS STEADY
by Martin Barillas

Spero News
Nov 27 2006

Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, Vatican prefect of the Congregation for
Eastern Churches, spoke on Vatican Radio November 23rd and said that
the number of Christians living in Turkey is holding steady at 30,000.

Cardinal Daoud said that Catholic and other Christian communities
are diverse on the Anatolian peninsula. For example, there are two
Latin-rite bishops in Turkey, two Armenian Catholic prelates, as well
as patriarchal vicars for Syrian Catholics and Chaldean Catholics.

Catholics of the Maronite and Byzantine rites are also notable.

Turkey, Cardinal said, is the cradle of Christianity, having witnessed
early councils such as Nicea (in 325 AD and 787 AD), Ephesus (431 AD),
Chalcedon (451), and Constantinople (381 AD, 553 AD, 680 AD and 870
AD). It is "a privileged place for the implantation of Christianity",
said the cardinal, that saw "the flowering of theologies and of rites"
that gives its rich mosaic of Christianity today. At Ephesus is found
a small house where, according to tradition, lived the Virgin Mary
after the death and resurrection of Jesus that remains a place of
pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims.

Cardinal Daoud will join Pope Benedict XVI on the latter’s visit to
the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and to Turkey, along with
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, President of
the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper,
President of the Pontifical Council for Culture Cardinal Paul Poupard,
and retired Vatican diplomat Cardinal Roger Etchegary.

The cardinal said that he hopes that Turkey will remain a place of
"fraternal dialogue between religions and cultures." In addition,
the cardinal said "Turkey calls to mind in a special way the memory
of Our Lady and the Apostles."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERI SCIENTIST ELECTED AS AN ACADEMICIAN OF GEORGIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Author: N.Kirskhalia

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 27 2006

According to the Decision of the Executive Committee of the
Georgian National Academy of Sciences, the Director of the Human
Rights Institute of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences,
Professor, Rovshan Mustafayev was elected as an academician of this
organization. On November 27, a ceremony of presenting this rank took
place in Tbilisi, and the ceremony was attended by the Azerbaijani
Ambassador to Georgia, Namik Aliyev, Trend Special Correspondent in
Tbilisi reports.

The Azerbaijani scientist was conferred the high scientific rank as
a result of the scientific researches on separatist and terrorist
acts in South Caucasus region. The Director of the Academy, Lado
Ramishvili presented the diploma and certificate to Rovshan Mustafayev.

According to Academician Ramishvili, Caucasus is living in hard
times and the scientific figures should make their contributions to
the regulation of the situation. He awarded the guest with Georgian
dagger. "We live in a peaceful region, but sometimes we need to use
weapons. Let this dagger defend your home and country from enemies,"
he said.

In his turn, Rovshan Mustafayev presented participants with his book
"Virtual Passions", which was recently published in Russian language.

"It is high time to begin dialogue. We established ties with Japan,
Australia, and can not find a common language with our neighbors and
can not understand each other," Azerbaijani scientist said, adding
that it would be better to apply a new flow in the science under the
title "Caucasus Consciousness".

According to him, many interests come into collision in Caucasus
and this may lead to the destabilization in the region. According
to him, Caucasus needs to combat separatism, especially Armenians
who are dangerous not only for Azerbaijan and Georgia, but also for
Armenians themselves.

The Azerbaijani Ambassador to Georgia Namik Aliyev also informed
on danger of the development of the separatism. According to him,
it worries Azerbaijan and Georgia. "We need to achieve long-term peace.

If the interests of any country are infringed, then the long-term
peace will not exist," the Ambassador said.

VARDAN OSKANIAN: NAGORNO KARABAGH CONFLICT POSES OBSTACLE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 27 2006

Nagorno Karabakh poses a serious obstacle for the normalization of
Turkey-Russia relations," Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
told France-Press agency in his interview, APA reports.

"It is not right to make the same Nagorno Karabagh conflict with North
Cyprus conflict. The first conflict happened in the period of USSR,
but the second happened in the territory of UN states. Armenia and
Northern Cyprus know that there are many obstacles for Turkey to
enter to EU," he said.

DIVISIONS OF ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES BROKE THE CEASEFIRE REGULATION
Author: Sh.Jaliloglu

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 27 2006

The divisions of the Armenian Armed Forces broke the ceasefire
regulation on the frontline, Trend Regional Correspondent reports. On
November 26 at 22:00, the divisions of the Armenian Armed Forces,
located in the occupied Talish village of Tartar district of
Azerbaijan, shot at the opposite position of the Azerbaijani Armed
Forces for 15-20 minutes, with submachine guns and machine-guns. The
enemy was made silent with response fire. There is no lost.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress