EUROPEAN UNION URGES TURKEY TO OPEN ITS BORDER WITH ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.11.2006 17:17 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Its upcoming progress report on Turkey, the European
Union urges Turkey to open its border with Armenia, stressing that
this would be an important step forward in the establishment of good
neighborly relations between the two countries and would boost trade
relations.
According to the draft progress report obtained by The New Anatolian
before the text is released by the EU next Wednesday, while urging
Turkey to open its border with Armenia, the EU cites the lack of
significant developments in relations between Turkey and Armenia since
the official exchange of letters between Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharian in April 2005.
However the EU notes a closer alignment of Turkey’s official position
with EU positions in relation with the Southern Caucasus and Central
Asia. “Turkey has reiterated its support for the European Neighborhood
Policy. Turkey participates in the regional initiative GUAM (Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) with observer status. Turkey followed
closely the elections in Azerbaijan. It aligned itself with the EU
Presidency statement on the elections in Azerbaijan on 10 November
2005,” said the report, reported ABHABER.

MASS BURIAL OF POSSIBLE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS DISCOVERED IN TURKEY
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.11.2006 16:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Gendarmerie has instructed local villagers of
a southeastern region to keep silence about a mass grave, discovered
on October 17, that might contain remains of Armenian Genocide
victims. According to a Kurdish newspaper published in Turkish
Ulkede Ozgur Gundem, villagers from Xirabebaba (Kuru) were digging
a grave for one of their relatives when they came across to a cave
full of skulls and bones of reportedly 40 people. The Xirabebaba
residents assumed they had uncovered a mass grave of 300 Armenian
villagers massacred during the Genocide of 1915. They informed Akarsu
Gendarmerie headquarters, the local military unit, about the discovered
remains. Turkish army officers, according to the Kurdish newspaper,
instructed the villagers to block the cave entrance and make no mention
of the remains buried in it. The officers said an investigation would
take place. The newspaper reported on the developments and the Turkish
military’s attempt to hide the news. Journalists, who had arrived to
obtain more information, were denied access to the cave.
As the mass burial made news, local Gendarmerie made another visit
to the villagers. The latter were pressed to report the name of
the person who leaked the mass burial discovery to the press. The
villagers were warned not to show anyone directions to the cave.
The victims of the mass grave, according to Sodertorn University
History Professor David Gaunt, are most likely the 150 Armenian and
120 Assyrian males from the nearby town of Dara (now Oguz) killed on
June 14, 1915, reports Asbarez.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH POLICY TRIED TO ARREST ARMENIAN MP FOR STATEMENTS ON GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.11.2006 15:24 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The meeting of Newsxchange international forum
opened in Istanbul November 2.
Responsible for Haylur information program of the Public TV Company
of Armenia Harut Harutyunyan and Information Department Head
of Yerkir-Media TV channel, MP, ARF Dashnaktsutyun member Gegham
Manukyan took part in it. Turkish PM Erdogan addressing the meeting
reaffirmed Turkish official stand that there was no Genocide. In
response to Erdogan’s statement that owing to the war Armenians of
border regions of the Ottoman Empire were merely deported, Gegham
Manukyan asked a question how it could happen that Ottoman MP Grigor
Zohrap was arrested and killed. He also stated that Istanbul is a
city, symbolizing the beginning of the Armenian Genocide by arrests
of Armenian intelligentsia on April 24, 1915. Gegham Manukyan urged
the Turkish society and especially journalists to study these dark
pages of their history and recognize the fact of the Armenian Genocide.
During his speech he raised a poster, on which it was written in
English, “Turkey should find courage to recognize the Armenian
Genocide.” Then Gegham Manukyan was surrounded by policemen, who
wanted to take him out of the hall. However, journalists prevented
this by asking Manukyan for a news conference. Manukyan repeated his
urge in English and Turkish. The organizers of the session stated
that if Manukyan is arrested, they will join him, reports the Yerkir.

RF CB CHAIRMAN: CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA ACHIEVES GREAT SUCCESS IN INFLATION CONTROL
Noyan Tapan
Nov 04 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to inflation control
in Armenia and Russia, the appreciation of the Armenian dram and the
Russian ruble, response of the real sector, particularly exporters to
this appreciation, etc. were discussed during the meeting of Chairman
of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Tigran Sargsian and Chairman
of the RF Central Bank Sergei Ignatyev in Yerevan on November 3. The
chairmen of the central banks of the two countries stated this at a
joint press conference on the same day. In S. Ignatyev’s opinion,
the CBA “has achieved great success” in controlling inflation,
as Armenia’s “microeconomic indices are very high, while the
inflation is quite low – much lower than in Russia.” In his words,
under conditions when the nominal and real values of the national
currency strengthen, non-tradable sectors (e.g. construction) grow
at a higher rate and difficulties arise with the development of
the processing industry. “This problem is inevitable: the indicated
processes should be watched closely, with some corrections being made
in the macroeconomic policy. Nevertheless, the real sectors of the
economies of Armenia and Russia adapt to this process quite rapidly and
effectivel,” S. Ignatyev said. In his words, in a few years Russia will
be ready to transfer to inflation targeting and a floating exchange
rate of the ruble, which Armenia did in 2006. S. Ignatyev noted that
Russia cannot now use the inflation targeting policy because of the
considerable impact of oil prices on the inflation.

RUSSIAN VIMPELCOM BECAME OWNER OF ARMENTEL COMPANY
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.11.2006 13:47 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ VimpelCom Public Corporation announced November 3
the signing of an agreement with the Greek Hellenic Telecommunications
Organization SA (OTE) on purchase of 90% of ArmenTel CJSC shares,
which is communication services operator of Armenia.
The 90% of ArmenTel shares make EUR 341.9 million plus some EUR
40 million as the company pure debt and obligations. The deal is
planned to be formalized before the end of 2006, VimpelCom Press
Office reported.
ArmenTel is the major telecommunication company of Armenia of which
the Government has 10%. OTE Greek company, which holds 90% of its
shares, announced a tender on selling these this year. 16 companies
took part in it. Russian VimpelCom and MTC, as well as ETISALAT
(Emirates Telecommunications Corporation/Istithmar ETV -Emergent
Telecom Ventures) è VTEL Holdings/Knightsbridge Associates passed to
the second round of the tender, the results of which are not announced
yet. The OTE had bought ArmenTel at USD 142.47 million. Before
November 4, 2004 ArmenTel was the monopolist at the cellular market
of Armenia. In November 2004, in exchange for deprival of monopoly
rights for GSM services, ArmenTel got a prerogative for IP-telephone
services. Thus, K-Telecom came to Armenia with a trademark of VivaCell
– a branch structure of Nagorno Karabakh communication operator.
Armenian PM Manukyan had stated that the purchaser of ArmenTel should
refuse monopoly to a number of activities and the pretenders to the
buying of the shares agreed to that condition, reports IA Regnum.
–Boundary_(ID_H8cJQt21lXbL8qXgMWkItg)–

FREEDOM HOUSE URGES MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE NOT TO PROVIDE AID TO ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.11.2006 14:20 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A leading U.S. human rights organization urged
the U.S. Administration on Friday to withhold promised economic
assistance to Armenia and six other developing countries which it
believes fail to meet “reasonable standards” for democracy and civil
liberties. “November 8 the Board of Directors of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation has to choose governments of those countries,
which can appeal for assistance in 2007,” the Freedom House remarks
and urges to leave out countries, which have low marks in political
rights and civil liberties. These include Armenia, Bhutan, Egypt,
Jordan, Maldives, Tunisia and Vietnam, says a Freedom House statement
released November 3.
This September the Millennium Challenge Account was officially
launched in Armenia. According to it the US will provide $236 million
to Armenia within 5 years – basically for agriculture. “The Freedom
House urges the Corporation to follow countries like Armenia, with
which agreements are signed but which do not ensure promised indicators
in democratic government. Armenia is the major one, as it was among
the first countries to sign the agreement this year. However, Armenia
registered regress in implementation of the reforms,” concludes the
Freedom House, reports RFE/RL.

AZERI SNIPER WOUNDED ARMENIAN VILLAGER
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.11.2006 14:43 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ November 3 an Azeri sniper wounded resident of
Aygepar Armenian village Maxim Poghosyan, born in 1978, Spokesperson
of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan told
PanARMENIAN.Net. Poghosyan is delivered to the medical detachment of
Berd town. His state is assessed as average heavy.

LEFT OUT IN THE COLD – ‘LIBERATION MOVEMENTS: A NOVEL’ BY OLEN STEINHAUER
By Paula L. Woods
The Los Angeles Times
Calendar Live
Nov 4 2006
Beginning with 2003’s “The Bridge of Sighs,” Olen Steinhauer has
followed detectives from the People’s Militia as they’ve investigated
three decades’ worth of murders in a fictional Eastern Bloc country.
In the process, readers have been privy to the frustrations, betrayals
and backstabbing they’ve endured (and sometimes instigated). These
men include “Bridge’s” idealistic rookie Emil Brod’s investigation
of a songwriter’s murder, a doomed detective-novelist caught up in
1950s Soviet repression (“The Confession”) and devious Brano Sev,
who does double duty as a spy for the country’s KGB-like Ministry of
State Security (“36 Yalta Boulevard”). Brano has always cast a pall
over the series, and his actions have driven the stories into morally
ambiguous territory, earning Steinhauer favorable comparisons with
Graham Greene, John le Carre and Alan Furst. Yet his novels retain
enough elements of classic detective mysteries so that he can, more
or less, keep a foot in both camps.
Now comes “Liberation Movements,” which expands Steinhauer’s literary
landscape in a number of important ways. He juxtaposes two very
different locales and stories – that of Peter, a hapless student caught
trying to escape Czechoslovakia during the failed 1968 reform movement,
and the story of the explosion of a hijacked commercial airliner bound
for Istanbul, Turkey, in 1975. As if the dual story lines and locations
weren’t difficult enough to juggle, readers familiar with the series
will find that one of the militia squad’s members, Libarid Terzian,
is on that flight en route to an Interpol conference. The Armenian’s
presence on the plane raises intriguing questions: Is he a secret
sympathizer with the Army of the Liberation of Armenia, who hijack
the plane? Is it a coincidence that he encounters Zrinka Martrich,
who may or may not be a militiawoman but certainly seems to know more
about him than she should?
Seeking answers, Emil Brod, now head of the People’s Militia, sends
Brano Sev and his new partner, 29-year-old Gavra Noukas, to Istanbul
to investigate. Even though the case is not in their jurisdiction,
the two men decide that, since the hijackers boarded in their capital,
the best way to honor their comrade Terzian’s memory and fulfill their
duty is to reconstruct the hijackers’ last days in their homeland
and turn the information over to Turkish officials.
The combination of old spymaster and younger detective energizes a
series whose characters, on the job for almost 30 years, one feared
could be getting a little long in the tooth. Part of the charge comes
from the pair’s very different personalities – Brano is a cold,
calculating mentor while Gavra is a passionate man who is “always
falling victim to that word Brano enjoyed harping on – sentimentality.
” ‘It is,’ Brano had told him numerous times, ‘the demise of all good
operatives, resulting in the most fatalities. But you’re young. You
just don’t understand yet.’ ” Another young addition to the militia
and integral part of the team is Katja Drdova, 24 and the only woman
in the unit. Driven by a tragedy in her early life, Katja is obsessed
with being successful and painfully aware of “the condescension from
[her] workmates.” She too is mentored and manipulated by Brano in ways
too intricate to reveal here but diabolical and effective nonetheless.
“Liberation Movements” also goes beyond the tighter point of view
of the previous novels to give readers five different perspectives,
three of them from the militia plus the young woman Zrinka, who plays
a pivotal, if incredible, role in the action. But Steinhauer saves
some of the most unsettling chapters for Ludvik Mas, a ruthless yet
memorable character whose tradecraft and surprising connections to
the events of 1968 as well as to Brano, Katja and even Zrinka are
doled out in deliciously suspenseful doses.
Beyond the expanded relationships of these principal characters,
Steinhauer does a good job of evoking Istanbul’s bars and bazaars,
hotels and churches, which form the backdrop for the team’s search for
the men who set the hijacking in motion. He also provides just enough
background information on the genocide of a multitude of Armenians by
the Turkish militia in 1915 to understand why the crimes still feel
so personal to these young terrorists more than 60 years later –
and why they could spur the real-life assassination of two Turkish
consuls by an Armenian American in Santa Barbara in 1975.
And the echoes Steinhauer creates between the motives of terrorist
groups like the fictional Army of the Liberation of Armenia, the
real-life Red Army Faction and others of that day (and, by extension,
those of our own) are unexpectedly chilling. Perhaps it is, as one
character says, that “[t]he political, in fact, is really only the
personal dressed up in more flamboyant clothes.”
With its plots and counterplots, secret identities and tradecraft taken
straight from the Soviet playbook of the day, “Liberation Movements”
is an entertaining, if sometimes implausible, read that should put
Steinhauer squarely in the front of the pack of today’s espionage
writers. And with complex, engaging characters like Gavra and Katja
carrying on the work of Emil, Libarid, Brano and the older hands,
it is an exhilarating and enjoyable ride.
Paula L. Woods is the author of the Charlotte Justice mystery series,
including “Strange Bedfellows.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 27.00.03, 27.16.00 (temporary)
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46 (temporary)
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:
October 30, 2006
HERITAGE: OPEN LETTER TO THE ARMENIAN PUBLIC
Yerevan–The forcible March closure of the Heritage Party’s headquarters,
the subsequent surreptitious and illegal break-in at the already-sealed
office, the criminal theft of information from its main computer, and the
campaign of political pressure and persecution unleashed against members,
supporters, and local chapters of a duly-registered political organization
compelled Raffi Hovannisian and the leadership of Heritage to seek justice
amid the tribunes of the legal system.
In spite of incontrovertible evidence attesting to the commission of
criminal acts, the multiple levels of the judicial branch have repeatedly
rendered capricious rejections of the legal claim to reopen the offices.
This series of unfounded judgments supports the conviction that we have
come
up against different links in a single chain of criminal conduct that is
guided by the highest echelon of executive authority.
As for the scandalous reproduction of the “Watergate” precedent–the
unlawful break-in to party headquarters and the presidential theft of
information therefrom–the Armenian police department and then Yerevan’s
prosecutor have refused our legitimate demand to file criminal charges,
evidently in an ill-disguised attempt to cover up the crimes in question.
Accordingly, as a measure of final recourse, we have petitioned–and expect
a just determination from–the Republic’s prosecutor general to institute
criminal proceedings and commence a full investigation by November 10, the
deadline set by law.
All this is taking place against the backdrop of the administration’s
recently repeated “oaths” to guarantee the absolute fairness of the
parliamentary elections scheduled for Spring 2007.
Without further interpreting Heritage’s recent “experiences,” we submit that
the party enters the pre-election season–which de facto has already been
launched and is overflowing upon the country’s television screens–(a)
locked out of its central offices, (b) with its database broken into and
compromised, (c) being systematically and unlawfully deprived by relevant
state bodies of the right to rent meeting space and thus to exercise the
freedoms of speech and association, and (d) on a presidentially-conceived
“black list” wholly forbidding access for Heritage, its founder and
officials to the electronic media, which all are under strict supervision
and vertical control.
We appeal to the Armenian public with these key queries for the national
agenda:
– Can this constant course of illegalities and blatant violations of
civil rights assume, under any circumstance, the mantle of
fundamental legitimacy for the upcoming elections?
– Is it possible that the failure to launch court proceedings–or
their dismissal once instituted–against individuals, both officials
and others, who have committed or commissioned crimes will serve
to rein in the perpetrators of thousands of instances of electoral
fraud?
– Does Armenia’s leadership have, in the first place, the moral right
and legal standing to speak in the name of democracy and justice?
– In the sum total of the foregoing, isn’t the prospect of the
parliamentary elections already prejudiced, and its fairness breached
in advance?
We demand answers, expect justice, and will continue our nation’s quest for
liberty and the rule of law, the triumph of equal rights for all, and the
achievement of an Armenia for and of the people.

ARMENIAN REPORTER
PO Box 129
Paramus, New Jersey 07652
Tel: 1-201-226-1995
Fax: 1-201-226-1660
Web:
Email: [email protected]
November 4, 2006
1. Armenia will invite long-term election observers, President
Kocharian confirms
2. Former Pentagon official: Azerbaijan’s oil revenue will not make a
military difference
3. President Kocharian confirms details of Russia-Armenia pipeline deal
4. Vincent Lima is the new editor of the “Armenian Reporter”
5. Editorial: Vote
******************************************** *******************************
1. Armenia will invite long-term election observers, President
Kocharian confirms
YEREVAN–President Robert Kocharian confirmed on October 27 that
Armenia would invite Western monitors to observe the 2007 National
Assembly elections, which are expected to be held in May. The
invitation would include “both long-term and short-term international
monitoring missions,” the president told a meeting of the ambassadors
of European Union countries in Yerevan.
Long-term monitors generally arrive up to 100 days before an election
to meet with local and national officials and observe electoral
campaigns. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), which observes elections through its Warsaw-based Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, sends observers six to eight
weeks before election day.
According to National Assembly chairperson Tigran Torosian,
observation missions have not yet been invited because no date has
been set for the elections.
An elections expert at one of the international organizations in
Yerevan told the Armenian Reporter that Armenia does not need to issue
formal invitations before January. Timing is more critical in the
reform of the electoral code, which is now underway. Amendments to the
law on elections are likely to be signed into law in January, which
will put training and implementation on a very tight schedule, the
expert noted.
****************************************** *****************************
2. Former Pentagon official: Azerbaijan’s oil revenue will not make
military difference
by Emil Sanamyan; special to the “Armenian Reporter”
WASHINGTON, D.C.–“Outlines of a settlement in Nagorno Karabakh are
very clear…. The Armenians get Karabakh and Lachin corridor and the
Azeris get the surrounding territories.”
E. Wayne Merry, a former State and Defense Department official who
dealt with the conflict, said this in a lecture on Wednesday, October
25, 2006, titled “Diplomacy and War in Karabakh: An Unofficial
American Perspective,” hosted by the Johns Hopkins University’s
Central Asia Caucasus Institute.
Speaking in an unofficial capacity, Mr. Merry said that in the case of
Karabakh it makes no sense for the U.S. to cling to Soviet-era
administrative borders drawn up by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
In the end, Mr. Merry stressed, “The solution is to recognize reality
and redraw the borders.”
In 1991, Nagorno-Karabakh used existing laws and international norms
to secede from Soviet Azerbaijan following years of brutal
anti-Armenian pogroms and Soviet government-enforced crackdowns and
violence against the population of Karabakh. Azerbaijan subsequently
launched a full-scale war, trying to expel Karabakh’s Armenian
population. The war eventually resulted in Azerbaijan’s defeat and a
cease-fire agreement in May 1994. While Armenian-Azerbaijani talks
have continued since then, Azerbaijan’s government has grown
increasingly bellicose, demanding control over Armenian-populated
Karabakh and threatening renewed use of force.
But the Pentagon’s former Caucasus expert argued that Azerbaijan’s
growing oil revenue would not give it sufficient advantage to resolve
the issue militarily. Mr. Merry said there were five main reasons for
this: geography, firepower, reserves, military art, and strategic
depth.
According to Mr. Merry, Armenians have a clear geographic advantage,
with their forces dug in on higher ground along most of the Line of
Contact. This in turn creates an opportunity for a more effective use
of firepower–even if both sides have similar military hardware.
Armenians can also count on ample reserves of both combat veterans and
ammunition.
“To put it bluntly, Azerbaijan would run out of young men before
Armenians run out of ammunition,” Mr. Merry explained.
Further, the Armenian side has a proven ability to conduct military
operations. “Azerbaijan has armed forces, Armenia has a military” Mr.
Merry noted. In terms of strategic depth, only Turkey is likely to
support Azerbaijan. The four other major players, including Russia,
Iran, United States, and the Europeans, have no interest in imposing
an Azerbaijani solution on Armenians.
According to Mr. Merry, Azerbaijan would need to overcome all of these
obstacles to claim victory. “I doubt they could overcome any…. If
Azerbaijan resumes armed conflict, it will be defeated,” Mr. Merry
warned. “People [in Azerbaijan] who say ‘let’s go to war because we
won’t be any worse off’ are very dangerous people, because wars always
make things worse–often unpredictably and catastrophically worse.”
Mr. Merry argued that there are three major forces in international
affairs: demography in the long term, economics in the middle term,
and war in the short term. “Diplomacy is not a force, it is a
mechanism,” he said. “This is a mechanism for ratifying, not reversing
the battlefield.” But, Mr. Merry said, most of the diplomatic effort
around the Karabakh conflict focused on management of the conflict
rather than resolving it. The major reason for this is that a
continued status quo is politically an easier option for each side,
while a solution would require difficult compromises.
Mr. Merry’s remarks were welcomed by two former U.S. ambassadors to
Armenia in the audience. Retired ambassador Harry Gilmore (1993-95)
noted that a “great opportunity” was missed in April 2001, when
Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents met under the mediation of the
U.S. secretary of state at the time, Colin Powell, in Key West, Fla.
According to credible reports, a deal discussed at the time also
entailed Karabakh’s formal unification with Armenia.
Ambassador John Evans (2004-06), speaking in a private capacity, noted
that a breakthrough in the Karabakh peace process remains unlikely.
Ambassador Evans noted in a February 2005 lecture that placing
Karabakh within Azerbaijan, as the latter demands, would be “a
disastrous step.”
During his 26-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service, Mr. Merry
dealt with the Karabakh conflict while serving as a political officer
at the U.S. Embassy in Russia (1991-94), during a tour with the
Department of Defense as its regional director for Russia, Ukraine,
and Eurasia (1995-97) and as senior adviser to the U.S. Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (1997-98). Merry is currently a
senior associate at the American Foreign Policy Council, a D.C. think
tank.
************************************* **************************************
3. President Kocharian confirms details of Russia-Armenia pipeline deal
YEREVAN (Combined sources)–President Robert Kocharian confirmed on
Monday, October 30, 2006, that Russia’s state-run Gazprom monopoly
would gain a controlling stake in Armenia’s national gas distribution
company that will likely own the incoming gas pipeline from Iran.
Mr. Kocharian gave the information as he met with Russian president
Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. “I would like to immediately inform you
that all of our serious agreements on energy projects with Gazprom are
entering the implementation phase,” he said in remarks posted on the
Kremlin’s website. “Just a few days ago, they were finally approved by
the Gazprom board.”
On the previous Friday, Gazprom’s board had approved and announced the
issuance of additional shares in the ArmRosGazprom (ARG) operator,
saying that it will buy all of them and thereby raise its ARG stake
from 45 percent to 58 percent. Karen Karapetian, director general of
the ARG network, said Tuesday that Gazprom will pay $118.8 million to
increase its shares.
The Armenian government has until now owned another 45 percent of ARG,
with the remaining 10 percent belonging to ITERA, a private Russian
gas exporter.
The pipeline deal was among the economic issues on the agenda of Mr.
Kocharian’s talks this week with Mr. Putin. The latter described as
“shameful” the fact that Russia is only the third largest foreign
investor in Armenia. “I say ‘shameful’ because it is odd that Russia
does not occupy the first place in terms of investments in the economy
of its strategic partner,” Mr. Putin said.
******************************************* ********************************
4. Vincent Lima is the new editor of the “Armenian Reporter”; Aris
Sevag steps down
Minneapolis, Minn.–Vincent Lima has been appointed the editor of the
“Armenian Reporter,” CS Media Enterprises, LLC, the newspaper’s
publisher, announced. Aris Sevag stepped down last week, after 15
years as the paper’s managing editor.
Mr. Lima joined the senior management of CS Media in March. He has
worked closely in that capacity with Mr. Sevag and Sylva Boghossian,
publisher of the “Armenian Reporter.”
“Vincent brings a wide range of skills and experience, as well as
energy and excellent judgment to the ‘Reporter,'” said John Waters,
vice president of CS Media. “He is charged now with making the
‘Reporter’ a resource that can inform, entertain, and inspire ever
more readers.”
Mr. Lima has long had a high profile in the Armenian-American
community as an editor and public intellectual. He edited the
scholarly journal “Armenian Review” from 1989 to 1996. He then started
“Armenian Forum: A Journal of Contemporary Affairs” with his colleague
Ara Sarafian. He served also as director of the Gomidas Institute,
which has published dozens of books in the last few years.
“As editor, I hope to build on the strengths of the ‘Armenian
Reporter,'” said Mr. Lima. “One of these strengths is our coverage of
Armenian-American community affairs and advocacy. Next week, we will
start introducing new talent that is joining us to bring greater depth
to this coverage.”
Asking readers to be vocal about their opinions, Mr. Lima said, “We
have ambitious plans for the newspaper, both in print and online. We
will roll out many innovations over the weeks, months, and years to
come. As we do so, we will be listening closely to what our readers
have to say.”
“The ‘new’ ‘Armenian Reporter’ is going to be true to its roots and
loyal to our faithful readers,” said Sylva Boghossian, publisher of
the “Armenian Reporter.” “But we are also reaching out to a new
generation of readers. I am looking forward to working closely with
Vincent as we make this happen together. I also want to take this
opportunity to wish Aris the best at his new job. I will miss the
close collaboration we have had over the years, and credit him with
helping make the ‘Armenian Reporter’ such a vital part of our
community.”
Before joining CS Media, Mr. Lima worked in the testing industry,
where he developed content for high-stakes tests. For the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he worked on innovative
products (such as auditing simulations) for the Uniform CPA
Examination; prior to that he wrote and reviewed questions for the
Analytical sections of the GRE and the Critical Reasoning sections of
the GMAT.
Mr. Lima is a graduate of the New School for Social Research in New
York City. He did graduate work there under Eric J. Hobsbawm; he
continued his graduate studies in history at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, under Ronald Grigor Suny and Juan Cole. He has
taught at the University of Michigan and Tufts University. He recently
moved to Yerevan with his partner Martha Boudakian and their two
daughters.
********************************** *****************************************
5. Editorial: Vote
Day in and day out, American citizens of Armenian descent reach out to
their elected representatives by letter, by e-mail, by phone, and
through their lobbying and advocacy organizations. We give generously
to the campaigns of our friends.
That is every day. But November 7, Election Day, is the moment of truth.
Will we show up at the polls and elect the candidates who best
represent our values and our interests? Will we display the collective
might that our lobbying efforts claim on our behalf? We believe so.
We urge our readers to vote on Election Day.
* * *
Voters in Armenia, meanwhile, will get to exercise their right to vote
in just over six months.
We welcome President Kocharian’s announcement this week confirming
that Armenia will invite international monitors to observe the
elections. An important element of the announcement was that the
invitations would encompass long-term observers. These observers will
follow the campaign season closely. Their presence will help
discourage violations and ensure that voters are aware of all their
options on Election Day.
Indeed, while our focus today is on Election Day, we must not lose
sight of the ongoing nature of democratic participation. There is no
question that Armenia’s elections must be free and fair. But the
hallmark of a true democracy is a culture of vigorous and thoughtful
debate on the issues that matter to the country and its people.
Still, it is on Election Day that the people make their choices. And
it is then that they gain–or lose–faith that their voice counts.
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