“NATION AND HERITAGE” PAN-ARMENIAN YOUTH CONFERENCE TO
BE HELD IN STEPANAKERT
Armenpress
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS: On the initiative of the Karabakh
Education, Culture and Sport Ministry’s youth affairs department
“Nation and Heritage” pan-Armenian youth conference dedicated to the
15th anniversary of declaration of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
will be held from September 25 to 30 in Stepanakert.
The goal of the initiative is to increase the social-civil activity of
the young people, ensure the awareness of the participants about the
Karabakh conflict, and introduce Artsakh’s culture to the young people.
The Karabakh Education, Culture and Sport Ministry official told
Armenpress that young people from 18-35 years old will participate
in the conference.

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT PROVIDES GRANT TO ARMENIAN NGO FOR
IMPLEMENTATION OF ANTI-LANDSLIDE PROGRAMS
Armenpress
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS: The Japanese government is going to
provide 80,254 USD grant to the Armenian “Mkhitar Gosh” NGO for the
implementation of anti-landslide programs in the Armenian provinces
of Tavush and Gegharkunik.
The document of providing the grant was signed today at the Foreign
Ministry by the second secretary of the Japanese embassy in Armenia
Yukiko Mizuno and head of the “Mkhitar Gosh” NGO Lena Arzumanian.
Mizuno said that the Japanese government highlights the implementation
of anti-landslide programs. Before providing the grant, preliminary
studies and experimental programs were carried out in Gosh and Martuni
communities which showed that there exists a necessity of fighting
against landslides.
The second secretary said that overall the Japanese government has
provided 1.6 million USD within the framework of which 18 programs
have been carried out in Armenia.
The head of the NGO said that the funds provided by the grant will
be directed towards the implementation of tree-planting and drainage
works.

UNHCR HIGH COMMISSIONER TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA
Armenpress
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS: UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio
Guterres will pay a working visit to Armenia on August 20.
Armenian Foreign Ministry press service said that during his two-day
visit the high commissioner will meet with the President of Armenia
Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, His Holiness
Catholicos Karekin II.
He is also expected to visit Armenian province of Lori and UN Armenian
Office.

AZG Armenian Daily #157, 19/08/2006
Armenian Genocide
GERMANS TO PAY HOMAGE TO VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Tomorrow, representatives of the Red Cross of
Germany’s Marburg Biedenkopf district headed by Hans
Kalonska will visit Tsitsernakaberd, memorial to the
victims of the Armenian Genocide, to pay homage to
innocent victims and will plant a spruce as well as
will visit the Armenian Genocide Institute-Museum.
The representatives of German Red Cross closely
cooperate with their colleagues in Armenia organizing
contests of quick response teams. In 1989, more than
100 people from the German Red Cross arrived in
earthquake-hit Spitak rendering medical aid and
building 500 living blocks, kindergartens and Schools
in Stepanavan. The organization also helped “Zatik”
orphanage.
The rescuers of Armenian Red Cross took the first
place in a European contest in Austria in 2004.

AZG Armenian Daily #157, 19/08/2006
Armenian Genocide
ZORYAN INSTITUTE LAUNCHES NEW INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON GENOCIDE
As part of its continuing effort to integrate the Armenian Genocide
into world genocide studies, the International Institute for Genocide
and Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) (IIGHRS),
chaired by Dr. Roger W. Smith, announces the co-founding and joint
publication of a new journal, Genocide Studies and Prevention, in
partnership with the International Association of Genocide Scholars
(IAGS), headed by Dr. Israel W. Charny. The journal’s first issue,
Summer 2006, published through a partnership with the University of
Toronto Press, is available now.
“Genocide Studies and Prevention, as a peer-reviewed journal, was
established to fulfill several goals at the same time,” remarked
Dr. Smith, a founder of the IAGS. “First, as the official journal of
the IAGS, its mission is to understand the phenomenon of genocide,
create an awareness of it as an ongoing scourge, and promote the
necessity of preventing it. Second, as an initiative of the IIGHRS,
it is intended to help stimulate, educate and develop new generations
of scholars to engage in research and provide an academic forum
on genocide. Third, it is hoped that it will educate government
policy-makers, as well as the general public, on why and how genocide
occurs so that they may be persuaded to use all of their influence
to prevent genocide, or at least intervene if it is already taking
place,” he concluded.
The first issue of this inter-disciplinary journal is devoted to
the genocide in Darfur. It features articles written by such noted
experts as award-winning author Rene Lemarchand; Samuel Totten, who
served as an investigator on the US government’s Darfur Atrocities
Documentation Team; legal experts Kelly Dawn Asking and Jerry Fowler;
Political Science Professor Scott Straus; and Major Brent Beardsley,
who served as General Romeo Dallaire’s personal staff officer in the
UN peace-keeping mission in Rwanda in 1994 and was an eye-witness to
the genocide there.
The second issue, which is already in press, will be devoted to the
Armenian Genocide and will have many distinguished contributors,
including Taner Akcam, Vahakn Dadrian and Roger W. Smith. Subsequent
issues will be devoted to such themes as the Genocide in Rwanda,
Genocide and International Law, and Genocide and Ethnocide of
Indigenous Peoples.
Israel W. Charny, President of IAGS stated that, “Today, one can look
with some satisfaction on the increasing emergence of scholarship and
the scientific study of genocide, and therefore one may also dare to
begin to think of the possibilities for preventing genocide. It is for
these reasons that we are especially pleased to see the synergies of
our relationship with the IIGHRS, with whom we share a deep commitment
to the study and genocide of all peoples, in the establishment of
this new journal.”
Genocide Studies and Prevention is published three times a
year. Subscriptions are $50.00 per year, but a discount is available
for the first year. For more information, contact the IIGHRS (Zoryan
Institute), [email protected], Tel: 416-250-9807.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #157, 19/08/2006
People
KAREKIN II CHEVALIER OF RUSSIA’S PRIDE MEDAL
On occasion of upcoming 54th anniversary of Karekin II, Catholicos
of All Armenians, on August 21, a charity fund of Russia “Pride of
Fatherland” has decided to decorate His Holiness with Russia’s Pride
gold medal. According to Yerkramas newspaper of Russian-Armenians,
the Catholicos will receive this medal for his contribution to
spiritual unity of world’s nations, for fostering good-neighborly
Russian-Armenian relations and for his tireless struggle against
interethnic hostilities in the world and the Caucasus.
By Susanna Margarian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #157, 19/08/2006
Region
GEORGIA AND AZERBAIJAN COME TO TERMS OVER KARS-AKHALKALAK RAILWAY
Commenting on the results of a sitting of the Georgian-Azerbaijani
intergovernmental committee that kicked off two days ago, Azerbaijani
prime minister Artur Rasizade stated that Baku and Tbilisi have agreed
on constructing Kars-Tbilisi-Akhalkalak-Baku railway. His Georgian
counterpart, Zurab Noghaideli, urged the Azerbaijani investors to
invest in Georgia saying that Georgia is “ready to create privileged
environment for Azerbaijani investors.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #157, 19/08/2006
Middle East
ISRAEL ASKS AZERBAIJAN TO PRESS ON HEZBOLLAH
Leaders of 9 political factions of the Israeli parliament applied
to Milli Mejlis of Azerbaijan and the intergovernmental group for
Azerbaijani-Israeli friendship asking to exert pressure on Hezbollah
to release the kidnapped Jewish soldiers. The request was made public
by the speaker of Azerbaijani parliament who explained it as a sign
of good and friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Israel.

Panorama.am
14:39 18/08/06
PARLIAMENTARIAN BELIEVES ELECTIONS NOT TO BE FREE
Aram Sargsyan, leader of Armenian Democratic Party and a member of
parliament, told a press conference today he believes the upcoming
elections will not be free and fair. To have legitimate elections, one
has to have legitimate authorites, he says. “Who does not understand
how the administrative mechanisms function?” Sargsyan poses a rhetoric
question.
He said a caolition may develop in Armenia under two conditions:
first, if Karabakh conflict tenses up; second, if those who may join
the caolition understand that the backbone of the authorities in
power must be broken before the elections.
Sargsyan said he may support Orintars Yerkir’s proposed “For Legitimate
Elections” initation in case the current authorities would have gone
before the elections. Sargsyan said his party actively negotiates
with those forces that may have identical programs. In case they do
not find such supporters, the party will go for elections on its own,
Sargsyan said. /Panorama.am/

Panorama.am
14:47 18/08/06
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF JAMANAK YEREVAN ADMITS HIS GUILT
The court hearing of Aram Babajanyan, editor-in-chief of Jamanak
Yerevan, kicked off at Kentron and Nork Marash First Instance
Court. Babajanyan is charged for evasion of military service via
faking and stealing documents.
Babajanyan admitted that he had faked documents to evade military
service but refused to admit that he had also stolen documents. During
the hearing, Babajanyan said, “I admit my fault and am sorry about it.”
Babajanyan told that he received a right to postpone military service
for one year while studying at Seven Spiritual School. Due to the death
of Garegin A, his diploma thesis was prolonged. By the time, Babajanyan
got disappointed from the spiritual life and left for USA in 1998. In
2001, he was accepted at the International Relations Department at the
California University. He came back to Armenia to settle his military
service issues. “A man came to me at the military commissariat and
promised me to help with military service.” Then he again left for
USA. “The interesting thing was that I was not in search,” Babajanyan
said. He then faked documents of his friend Vahe Hakobyan, and came
back to Armenia as a father of children./Panorama.am/