Armenian Genocide Memorial to be Erected in Las Vegas
By Anka, Nevada
Zaman Online, Turkey
Aug. 26, 2006
zaman.com
As the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. continues its political efforts
to make the so-called genocide allegations recognized, the Armenian
Genocide Memorial Committee has mobilized to build a genocide memorial
in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Following the meeting between Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and
Armenian representative Lois Tarkanian, Goodman announced the
municipality will allocate land in downtown Las Vegas for the erection
of the memorial.
The committee’s website said Goodman promised Armenian representatives
that the memorial would be erected.
A budget of $150,000 has been allocated for the memorial.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Glendale News Press, CA
Aug. 26, 2006
Man found guilty of killing girl
Judge in Armenia takes 30 minutes to render his decision, sentencing
Glendale man to 10 years.
By Tania Chatila
GLENDALE – A judge in Armenia found 25-year-old Artur Khanzadyan of
Glendale guilty on Friday of murdering his girlfriend nearly a year
ago, then hiding her body in the trunk of his car, police said.
Judge Mushegh Harutunyan sentenced Khanzadyan – whose trial in
Vanadzor, Armenia lasted two days – was to 10 years in an Armenian
prison for the murder of 24-year-old Odet Tsaturyan with the act of
jealousy, Glendale Police Officer John Balian said.
“I’m glad justice was done, he was sentenced and he will serve time,
but I just think it would have been better if it was here…. He
probably deserved much more than that. It was a heinous crime,”
said Amanda Ryan Romo, a former teacher of Tsaturyan’s.
Tsaturyan, also of Glendale, left her family’s home at about 5 p.m.
on Sept. 6 for a party she never arrived at.
That same night, Khanzadyan, left his home at 6:30 p.m. and did
not return.
Police believe Tsaturyan got into an argument with Khanzadyan before
leaving her house that day, then agreed to meet him in Southwest
Glendale, where her abandoned car was found on Sept. 13.
She was likely strangled to death that night, but her body was found
three days later in the trunk of Khanzadyan’s 2005 Audi, which was
parked on a residential street in Azusa, Glendale Police Det. Craig
Tweedy said.
Khanzadyan fled to Armenia where he was arrested by Armenian
authorities in late November.
Three Glendale detectives – including Tweedy – traveled to Armenia
to try to get Khanzadyan to voluntarily return to the United States,
where he was charged with second-degree murder. But Khanzadyan – a
citizen of Armenia – would not return on his own will and Armenian
officials were not willing to denaturalize him to have him brought
back, Tweedy said.
The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Armenia.
Glendale Police enlisted the help of Rep. Adam Schiff in trying to
get Khanzadyan returned, but to no avail.
“I would have strongly preferred to have him brought back here
for trial, where he would have faced life in prison or even death,”
Schiff said. “But I am glad he was found guilty and will serve time in
Armenia. And I hope he serves the full sentence…. This is something
we’ll be watching.”
Tweedy and Glendale Police Det. Tigran Topadzhikyan flew to Armenia
on Sunday night to help the prosecution in the trial.
The Glendale Police Officers Assn. and Glendale’s St. Peter Armenian
Church Youth Ministries’ Center raised $1,500 to also send Tsaturyan’s
father, Shagen Tsaturyan, to the trial.
“The father said that he was thankful for the detectives going out
there,” Balian said. “It was in his hometown.”
During the trial, Khanzadyan’s defense attorney, Karine Gasparyan,
argued that he accidentally killed Odet Tsaturyan by placing his hand
over her mouth, Tweedy said.
Gasparyan said Khanzadyan tried to resuscitate her, but was unable
to, Tweedy said. Gasparyan also argued that the injuries to Odet
Tsaturyan’s neck were from Khanzadyan’s efforts to administer CPR,
and not from him strangling her, Tweedy said.
She also argued that a head injury Khanzadyan suffered as a child
causes him to think irrationally, and that if Odet Tsaturyan was alive,
she would have never accused him of intentionally trying to harm her,
Tweedy said.
The judge took about 30 minutes before rendering a verdict and a
sentence on Friday, Tweedy said.
But before the verdict was read, Khanzadyan had a chance to speak
before the court, Tweedy said.
He apologized to those affected by incident, but denied intentionally
killing Odet Tsaturyan, Tweedy said.
“I hope in the future when we have people who commit murder in our
community flee to Armenia, we have more success in bringing the back
to face charges here,” Schiff said.
Still, the sentencing offers some kind of closure, Romo said.
“[Odet Tsaturyan] was bright, intelligent, dedicated to school work,
dedicated to making something better of herself …. She was really
driven,” Romo said.
“I saw somebody dedicated to her job, coming to school and making
something better of herself.”

US, UK Pushing Europe Into the Bog They Created
Robert Fisk, The independent
Arab News, Saudi Arabia
Aug. 26, 2006
First, it was to be a 15,000-strong foreign army to reinforce the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL. Now it is to be
about 7,500. And it will not disarm Hezbollah. And anyway, Hezbollah
refuses to be disarmed.
The French would send 200 men; then they sent 400. Then the
Italians would send 3,000. Then the French would send another 2,000,
making their total contribution 2,600, including the company that
has remained in UNIFIL since the French were hurled out of the
peacekeeping organization back in 1986 after fighting Shiite militias
in the Lebanese village of Marrake (of which no mention will be made,
any more than it is on the BBC). And now the Belgians might send 700.
And the Turks? Well, the Lebanese Armenians are objecting to their
contribution on the grounds – perfectly accurate, though the BBC will
not tell you this – that the Turkish Army perpetrated the genocide
of one and a half million Christian Armenians in 1915. Oh, what a
wondrous plot we weave when first we practice to deceive.
This, of course, applies to everyone in the Lebanese swamp.
Self-deception – or self-delusion – has become a cancer throughout
both the Middle East and the West; and amid the EU countries that
are now bidding to send their young men to sacrifice their lives
in Lebanon. They are going to preserve peace, we are told; they are
going to maintain a cease-fire; they are going to save lives.
So a big Ho-Ho-Ho from the world of reality. The enlarged NATO/UNIFIL
force is not going to preserve “peace.” It is going to maintain a
“buffer” zone to protect Israel after the latter’s dismal failure to
destroy, disarm and liquidate the Iranian-armed Hezbollah guerrilla
army over the past seven weeks. The UN may deny that it is a buffer
zone for the Israelis – but if it was a buffer zone to protect Lebanese
(the numerically higher victims of this latest war), it would be based,
surely, inside the Israeli frontier.
But no, it is there to protect Israel.
Note how the Arabs have accepted this. Note how we have accepted this –
how we have sublimely gone along with the idea that Israel’s security
and happiness are more important than the security and happiness of
the millions of Muslims also living in this region. Our soldiers are
to be deployed to protect Israel.
Do we really think that the Arabs don’t realize this? And do we think
that our Western governments don’t realize this when they huff and
puff over whether to send soldiers to the Middle East? Needless to say,
the Americans and the British want no part of this mess.
After Iraq and Afghanistan, they have no stomach to defend Israel,
let alone Lebanon. Their job is to push the European masses into the
bog they have created by their injustice and cowardice in the Middle
East. President Bush promises “intelligence” assistance to the UNIFIL
force – which means Israeli “intelligence,” and we all know how good
that is – while Lord Blair of Kut Al-Amara offers not a single hero
to give his life, which is as well after his outrageous sacrifice of
British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But while Europe’s other political masters dithered this week, BBC
World Service laid down a familiar narrative for its listeners. “It
seems,” said their man on The World Today, that the Europeans – how
I hate these cheap cliches – “are prepared to talk the talk but not
walk the walk.” In other words, those bloody Wops and Frogs and Boche,
not to mention the Dagos and the ungrateful Finns and Norwegians,
were gutless little chicken shit when it came to standing by their
European principles.
Those principles, it is now clear, are supposed to be the sacrifice of
their soldiers’ lives for the latest UN Security Council Resolution
cooked up by America and France (and, a bit, by Lord Blair) in New
York. But the BBC got it completely wrong. The Europeans are not
nervous about military losses or unclear mandates.
They had plenty of both in Bosnia.
What is happening in Europe is that a growing number of states that
had nothing to do with the Balfour Declaration or the Sykes-Picot
agreement or the 1948 Middle East war or the 1967 Middle East war or
the 1973 Middle East war or the 1982 Middle East war in Lebanon or the
1993 Israeli bombardment of Lebanon or the 1996 Israeli bombardment
of Lebanon or the latest 2006 bombardment and “petit” invasion of
Lebanon (after Hezbollah’s outrageous provocation by crossing the
international frontier) are simply sick and tired of clearing up the
dirt after these filthy Arab-Israeli wars.
Most of Europe had no part in the Balfour Declaration. Much of Europe
had an unforgivable role in the Jewish Holocaust. But the decades pass
by, and the generations now being asked to sail to the Middle East
do not even have parental guilt to absolve for the genocide of the
Jews of Europe, any more than modern Turks can be proclaimed guilty
for their grandparents’ rape and murder of one and a half million
Armenians. The Europeans, to put it mildly, are tired of being asked
to atone for the sins of their grandparents. Maybe it is time, they
are asking, for the Israelis and Arabs to pay for their own sick wars.
There is nothing immoral in this. President Bush claims that
the Israelis won their war against the Hezbollah and humbled the
organization’s supporters in Iran and Syria. Yet not even the Israelis
claim this.
Now the Europeans – and perhaps the Turks, and certainly the poor
old Lebanese Army – are supposed to achieve all Israel’s failed
objectives. And when they fail – as they assuredly will, because
NATO is not going to go to war with Islam – Israel will accuse them
of abandoning poor little Israel.
The French will be reminded – as they were under the first UNIFIL
mandate – that Vichy France handed its Jews to the Nazis, and
the Belgians will be reminded (no doubt) that half their country
was pro-Nazi and the Italians will be reminded that they elected
fascism into power, and the Spaniards will be reminded that Franco
was a fascist.
And the Arabs will sit silently by and watch the Europeans betray
them all over again. And the winners? Syria. Iran. And all those
enraged by the injustice and hypocrisy of our “democracies.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Egoyan to direct opera
by Julie Mollins, Reuters
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
August 26, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition
TORONTO – Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, renowned for award-winning
movies that explore the dark sides of human behaviour, is taking a
turn at helming a grand opera with similar brooding features.
Egoyan, 46, the Egyptian-born son of Armenian parents who migrated
to Canada, has examined incest, the horrors of war and the mysteries
of fate in such deeply psychological films as Exotica, The Sweet
Hereafter, Felicia’s Journey and Ararat. He will revisit some of
those themes for an upcoming Canadian Opera Company production of
Richard Wagner’s 19th-century opera Die Walkure.
The Wagner classic, the second of the four-part epic cycle Der Ring des
Nibelungen, is a complex tale in which incestuous love, the will of the
gods and fate combine to advance the overall themes of the Ring cycle.
During an interview at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing
Arts in Toronto, where a production of the entire Ring cycle will
open for a three-week run on Sept. 12, Egoyan described similarities
in his approach to making movies and opera.
“In my films I am very interested in subtext and what makes people
act the way they do,” he said. “I try and bring that detail to the
way I direct the opera but also the way I stage it — the way I create
visual ideas which can reinforce the psychology of the piece.”
This is not Egoyan’s first foray into directing opera. He began with
a 1996 Canadian Opera Company production of Salome. He directed an
earlier production of Die Walkure — the source of Wagner’s famous
Ride of the Valkyries — for the company in 2004.

Armenian analyst: War in Karabakh is possible in 2026
Regnum, Russia
Aug. 26, 2006
“Armenia rejected profitable economic projects in Southern Caucasus
for the sake of Nagorno Karabakh,” independent analyst Levon
Melik-Shakhnazaryan stated during press conference in Yerevan. He is
quoted by a REGNUM correspondent as stating that “a very interesting
time” is now in negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh settlement. “The
settlement process has got into a new stage, when the co-chairs stated
that they have exhausted their imagination. Now, the settlement process
has been laid on shoulders of three parties – Armenia, Karabakh, and
Azerbaijan. At that, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is responsible
for non-recommencement of war. He has to explain to his people, why
the war does not recommence, why Azerbaijan does not try to return
Karabakh,” he stressed.
According to the analyst, the war may not recommence in the near
future. “Azeri economy is to such extent integrated into economies
of Europe and the East that Azerbaijan has completely lost its
own policy. It may not decide anything independently. War is not
favorable for any big state, which has own aims in the region,”
he stressed. In that context, responding to question on possible
recommencement of hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh, the analyst
stressed that ‘Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is property of the
British Petroleum Company till 2026.” “No war with Azerbaijan is
to be expected in the period. It means; we should chose our allies,
cooperating with which we will be ready for the war. If we are well
prepared, the war does not begin,” Mr. Melik-Shakhsaryan stressed,
adding that “time would work for those, who would use it in right way.”
The analyst is sure it is the right time for Armenia to look for allies
in region. While doing so, the country should take into consideration
allies’ civilization because only coincidence of civilization values
may guarantee strategic union, he believes.
Because the Armenians are eastern people, they have not integration,
but ties, relations with Europe, the analyst stated, adding that Iran
may become Armenian’s ally despite difference of religions. However,
he does not exclude effectiveness of cooperation with Russia, Syria,
Belarus, and Iraq.
As for a possible meeting of Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers
in September, the analyst does not have any expectations. “They will
speak, welcome each other, may be, and drink tea together. Then, they
will come out and say; everything is before; there are foundations
for future meetings,” he believes.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Aug. 26, 2006
Meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers in Slovenia is
under question
Source: Trend
Author: À.Ismaylova
26.08.2006
Still there is no exact information regarding possibility of the
meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia within the
framework of the international conference “Caspian-2008” in Slovenia,
press-secretary of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Matin Mirza told
Trend on August 26.
It should be mentioned that on August 27-28, an international
conference “Caspian-2008” will be held in the Slovenian capital
Ljubljana. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will also attend
the conference. Besides, the conference is expected to bring together
the Prime Minister of Slovenia Yanez Yansh, active chairman of OSCE
Karl de Guht, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Georgi Baramidze,
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, Foreign Minister of
Slovakia and former special envoy of EU on the countries of Central
Asia Yan Kubisha, first Deputy Foreign Minister of Russian Federation
Andrey Denisov, personal representatives of active OSCE Andzey
Kasprzyk and other many officials.
Mirza remembered that the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group offered the
Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and Armenia Elmar Mammadyarov and
Vardan Oskanyan to meet in the near future. However, the exact date
and place of the meeting still remains undefined. Azerbaijani
minister has already expressed his readiness to meet with Oskanyan.
Armenian foreign minister also announced that the next meeting of the
two ministers on the peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
will take place in the near future.
During his interview with Trend, the ambassador of Azerbaijan to
Austria Fuad Ismaylov didn’t exclude that if during the Conference
the sides voice their desire, a meeting may be held between
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and active chairman of OSCE Karl
de Guht where it is possible to hold discussions on the fires in
Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
–Boundary_(ID_H7Hyqc7/NZ7sBMvnvff1k Q)–

Fights brew at the hard rock’s cafe
by GRANTLEE KIEZA
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
August 26, 2006 Saturday
State Edition
HIS trainer made history winning world titles at three different
weights but flyweight firebrand Vic Darchinyan says he can surpass
even the achievements of his mentor Jeff Fenech.
He reckons he can equal Oscar De La Hoya and win six.
Darchinyan, who may be the most feared man in world boxing, defends
his IBF flyweight title in Las Vegas on October 7 but admits the fight
against California-based Filipino Glenn Donaire is an anti-climax after
proposed battles to unify the flyweight championship all fell through.
His US promoter Gary Shaw flew to Argentina this month hoping to
sign WBO champ Omar Narvaez to face Darchinyan in a battle for the
two titles.
But just like everyone else in the world at 51kg, Narvaez had second
thoughts about waging war with the fearsome little bull ant who has
won his five world title fights by knockout and boasts a record of
26 wins in 26 starts, 21 inside the distance.
“Narvaez said yes and then pulled out of the fight,” Darchinyan
said yesterday at Vic’s Cafe, his new eatery at the Italian Forum
in Leichhardt.
“Lorenzo Parra, the WBA champ, and Pongsaklek Wongjongkam, the WBC
champ, have both been offered more money than they’ve ever made to
fight me but they won’t take me on.
“It is very frustrating because I wanted to be like Kostya Tszyu and
win all the belts in my weight division.
“If I cannot win any more titles at flyweight I will keep moving up
in weight. I believe I can win as many as six world titles if I put
my mind to it.
“Many times I have sparred with Gairy St Clair, the new IBF
junior-lightweight champion. He knows how strong I am.
“There is no reason I cannot win six world titles all the way from
51kg to 59kg.”
Darchinyan says he would love to face mighty Mexicans, IBF bantamweight
champ Rafael Marquez and super-bantamweight king Israel Vazquez even
though they’ve got a few kilos on him.
“I’ve sparred Vazquez with big gloves in Los Angeles and we are both
big punchers,” he said.
“I would love to fight him with small gloves to see who is the
toughest.”
Darchinyan, who can bench press double his body weight and thinks
nothing of doing 1000 push-ups a day, says time is running out for him.
“It seems like yesterday I was fighting for Armenia at the Sydney
Olympics but that is six years ago. I am 30 now and boxers only have
a short career.
“I’m hungry for as many world title belts as I can get and I don’t
want to waste time. Let all the world champs from flyweight to
junior-lightweight know that I am coming after them.”
Darchinyan leaves for Las Vegas next week where he will meet up with
trainer Fenech and Sydney featherweight Billy Dib, who will be his
main sparring partner for the Donaire fight, his fifth defence of
the IBF crown.

The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
August 26, 2006 Saturday
State Edition
History On This Day; Pg. 77
THIS DAY
1768: Captain James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour weigh anchor
at Plymouth, England, bound for Tahiti to observe the transit of
Venus and with secret orders to look for a great south land.
1883: The volcano on Krakatoa island, in what is now Indonesia,
erupts, creating a tidal wave that washes over neighbouring islands.
More than 36,000 people die.
1896: Armenian revolutionaries attack the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul,
sparking a massacre in which 6000 Armenians die in the city.
1900: At the Paris Olympics a Dutch rowing team uses a French boy
from the crowd as cox, then wins. The boy, about 7, disappears after
the medal ceremony, possibly the youngest Olympic champion.
1920: American women are allowed to vote, as the 19th Amendment of the
US Constitution is certified by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
1978: Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice is elected Pope and takes
the name of John Paul I. He serves only 33 days before dying of a
heart attack.
1999: Federal Parliament passes a motion by Prime Minister John Howard
expressing “deep and sincere regret” for past injustices to Aborigines.

Azerbaijan has purchased from Ukraine and Belarus mortars produced
during the Great Patriotic War
Regnum, Russia
Aug. 26, 2006
“The Azerbaijani army has got into very sad situation,” independent
analyst Levon Melik-Shakhnazaryan stated on August 25 during his
press conference in Yerevan.
According to him, Azerbaijan’s statements on its budget’s increase
should not frighten Armenia. “Azerbaijan purchased armaments for
$900mln, which is nothing else but scrap metal. They bought tanks for
$1,200,000, mortars, produced in 1941, cars, which are written of by
Russian army, etc.” the analyst maintains, adding that “according to
some date, 5,000 servicemen die annually in Azerbaijan.” According
to Mr. Melik-Shakhnasaryan, “none of Caucasian Turks is now at power
in Azerbaijan.” “Mainly Kurds, Lezgins govern Azerbaijan now, trying
to maintain the stable situation,” he stressed.
“Azerbaijan has lost hope to settle Karabakh conflict in military
way,” the analyst resumed. However, according to him, Armenia should
use time in its own interests. “Armenia should strengthen its army,
in order to be ready to settle conflict in military way, during the
period of lull,” he stressed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Press Release
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
&quot ;RESPECT FOR LIFE AND NOT VIOLENCE
SHOULD BE THE PRIORITY”
Said His Holiness Aram I
During an intervention on Tuesday, His Holiness Aram I stated that
the tragic consequences of the recent conflict in Lebanon – the
long funeral chains, the clearing of the rubble of their homes by
returning citizens and the oil spill in the Mediterranean – illustrate
graphically the ruthless violence human beings can impose on one
another. The world community watched helplessly as these violent
acts were committed, and the General Secretary of the United Nations
admitted his disappointment that the UN was unable to act firmly and
in time to stop the violence.
Continuing his comments, His Holiness said, “Such violence
must stop! Human lives should be spared and the environment
protected”. According to him, conflict resolution and conflict
prevention are the only means through which violence can be
transformed. He urged the international community to apply
international law and international conventions to this case and to
demand accountability. As former Moderator of the World Council of
Churches, he invited religious leaders and members of civil society
to assume their responsibilities and to engage in dialogue, set up
strategies to overcome violence, promote respect for human life and
the environment, and, most importantly, act together.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
history and mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer
to the web page of the Catholicosate, The
Cilician Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is
located in Antelias, Lebanon.