GEORGIAN OFFICIALS HAIL RUSSIA PLAN FOR EARLY BASE PULLOUT
RIA Novosti
21:49 | 19/ 09/ 2006
TBILISI, September 19 (RIA Novosti) – Georgia’s Defense Ministry
voiced its approval Tuesday for Russia’s decision to complete an
ahead-of-schedule withdrawal of its two Soviet-era military bases in
the Caucasus country, as a train carrying the last batch of hardware
from one of the bases left Georgia.
Under an agreement signed by Russia and Georgia on March 31, Russian
troops and military hardware are to leave the bases in the southern
city of Akhalkalaki and the western city of Batumi by 2008.
General Andrei Popov, Russia’s chief military commander in the South
Caucasus, said a total of 727 units of hardware and 2626.6 metric
tons of arms, ammunition, and general equipment had left Georgia for
bases in Russia and Armenia since the beginning of this year.
“The 2006 plan for the withdrawal of Russian bases from Georgia can
be considered 100% implemented,” Popov said.

CLONING AROUND
Entertainment Weekly
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
On “Weeds,” the mother plant survives the non-raid, but Sanjay has
destroyed much of the crop; meanwhile, Yael surprises Andy
by Hannah Tucker
WHO’S THE MAN? Andy’s relationship took an unexpected turn
The mother plant is present and accounted for, but her life hangs in
the balance. Things are tense. Conrad, who really didn’t need to be
reminded that he’s surrounded by idiots, has to save Mama from Andy’s
panicked and unconventional hydration methods and then tend to a new
batch of clones to make up for the ones Sanjay tried to flush. For
their part, poor Andy and Sanjay (both of whom must’ve lost many
games of hide-and-seek as children) are understandably shaken by the
DEA raid. Andy comments that his pretty face would get him unwanted
attention in prison, and oh, how ironic that observation will seem by
the end of the episode. Who needs inmates when you’ve got Yael and
her bedroom accessories? Not only is that moment more than Andy was
bargaining for, but it also makes the massage-parlor incident look
as risque as an episode of Blue’s Clues. I say: Mazel tov, Andy! Who
knew rabbinical school would open your eyes to so many new things?
Apart from these highlights (sorry, but half the fun of this TV Watch
is getting away with these puns), this was not a particularly strong
episode. As Celia’s swipe at Doug (“You won’t be able to get a seat
in a chair factory”) suggests, the writing was a bit lackluster. Not
that the half hour was devoid of fine moments that kept things
rolling – like Nancy’s horrified expression when Shane says he’s
joining the debate team, and Vaneeta finally getting the nerve to
tell off Heylia. But buying Shane a car to help him get past losing
Megan and inviting Peter and Conrad out for a nice dinner to smooth
things over? Nancy is usually more creative than that (although the
black dress was very Lacy LaPlante of her).
Still, I’m sure there’s no reason to panic, just as there’s no need for
a panic room. (Actually, just the idea of being stoned in a windowless
room with reinforced walls makes me paranoid.) Surely the bloom’s
not off the rose, nor the mother plant. I’m looking forward to the
possibility that these pedestrian plot points will lead to surprises
next week. Maybe shin-kicking Shane will actually get the girl. Maybe
Silas won’t wreck his new wheels in the first five minutes. Maybe
Nancy will really buy herself a gold tooth!
What do you think? Will Peter and Conrad declare war or call for
a truce? Is this really the last we’ve seen of the Armenians? Will
Heylia choose her risky business or her scary suitor? Will Dean be
able to balance doing virtually nothing to help the grow business
and doing virtually nothing to manage his daughter’s career?

RUSSIAN MFA: TRANSNISTRIA RESIDENTS USED DIRECT DEMOCRACY INSTITUTION
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.09.2006 17:31 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For over 16 years the population of Transnistria
lives under the conditions of an unsettled conflict and out of the
constitutional field of the Republic of Moldova. Various models
of political settlement, proposed by international mediators, and
first of all by Russia, were not implemented, says a comment of
the Department of Information and Print of the Russian MFA on the
referendum in Transnistria.
The Russian MFA Believes that Transnistria residents used direct
democracy institution, i.e. referendum, to express their ideas on
the preferred form of securing stability and predictability in the
region. High level of participation is registered (according to the
Transnistria Central Electoral Commission 78.6% of those having vote
right took part in the referendum) and there were no significant
shortcomings,” says the MFA statement.
The Russian party hopes that in this situation OSCE and Ukraine
mediators, as well as US and EU observers invited in the past will
activate their efforts to form necessary preconditions for restoring
the negotiation process with participation of Kishinev and Tiraspol,
reports the Russian MFA Press Office.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Edina N. Bobelian
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
September 18, 2006
____________________
FAR GIVES HOPE TO CHILDREN OF ARMENIA THROUGH SUMMER CAMP
Lucineh Minasyan was only 2 and her sister Armineh was only 1 when both
their parents died. They were adopted by their aunt and uncle, who do their
best to take care of the sisters along with their own two children. The
girls help their uncle grow vegetables, but without enough money to pay for
irrigation, the yield is disappointing.
“So our meals are rather modest and we cannot even dream of fruit or ice
cream,” Lucineh said. “We do not feel we are kids, because we share all the
hardships of our elders.”
This summer, thanks to the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) and a small, but
dedicated, Armenian community in Texas, the sisters have reclaimed their
childhood by attending summer camp. They attended the FAR-run Kaps Summer
Camp, located in a small forest just outside Gyumri.
“At camp, we feel that we are still kids,” Lucineh said. “We feel like
Cinderellas, even though after the camp we have to return to our regular
routine. Nevertheless, I thank God that He gave me and my sister these
wonderful days at camp.”
CREATING CHILDHOODS
During Soviet control of Armenia, authorities provided summer camp
opportunities. But since the independence of the Republic of Armenia, the
fledgling government has not been able to provide these respites.
The children of Armenia live with lingering emotional damage caused by the
war, the 1988 earthquake, and economic problems. With these troubles, their
childhoods easily slip away.
“I have never been to a youth camp before,” said 12-year-old Hasmik
Antonian. “I am happy to be free from household responsibilities. At camp,
I feel a careless childhood.”
When the nation became independent and the communist economy cracked,
unemployed parents and newly widowed, single parents could not afford
leisure activities for their children. When the children were not working
or studying, many could easily find trouble in the streets.
The father of Armen and Arman Gasparyan, 14-year-old twins, died in a car
accident. Now their mother works extra hard just to make a living. But
this year, at the Kaps Camp, they learned that getting into trouble did not
help.
“We realize how hard it is for her, but very often we do not behave and make
her life harder,” said the youngsters. “In camp, being in the oldest group,
we realize that being older is also a responsibility. After camp, we will
be more serious and lessen our mom’s burden.”
To provide high-quality, child-centered leisure activities for disadvantaged
youngsters, the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) began organizing summer camps
throughout the country. In 1998, FAR re-opened the camp in the village of
Kaps, an agricultural community situated 7 miles northeast of Gyumri.
Originally founded in 1828 by immigrants from Bayazet, a town at the foot of
Mount Ararat, the camp was shuttered during Armenia’s difficult transition
to independence. Since its re-establishment, the camp annually welcomes
about 140 children, between the ages of 10 and 14.
FAR re-established the Kaps Camp because, unlike neighboring villages, Kaps
remained below the radar of assistance programs. Along with renovating and
operating the Kaps Camp, FAR made a commitment to village residents by
installing a water pipe and sewage system.
Kaps is currently the only camp 100% run by FAR. Both in the past and
presently, the organization has provided funding and operational assistance
to help other camps begin and expand. Most of these camps now operate with
the help of other organizations or on their own.
TRIP CREATES OPPORTUNITIES
This summer, the Kaps Camp was not going to open because of insufficient
funds. At about the time FAR realized the camp would not open, a group of
young Armenian-Americans was touring Armenia with the FAR Young
Professionals Trip.
During their stay in Gyumri, one Young Professionals member, Ken Maranian of
Austin, Texas, was heartbroken to hear the news. He asked Marina Bazayeva,
FAR’s Gyumri Office Director, how much was needed to open the camp for the
final month of summer. She replied $8,000. Maranian asked others on the
Young Professionals trip to sponsor the Kaps Camp. Just over lunch that
day, they raised more than $3,000.
Going back home to Texas, he and Glyssie Berberian drew together the small
community there to find funding to fill the gap. They were inspired by what
they saw in Armenia on their FAR trips and wanted to make a difference in
the lives of these young children. “We can’t let the camp be cancelled,”
Maranian said. “It’s important to let the children enjoy the summer, let
them have fun and play.”
The small amount of $8,000 made a profound difference in the lives of the
children who were able to go to camp this year.
“The camp gave me an opportunity to relax and feel myself carefree and have
a chance to think of my future,” said 14-year-old Arthur Barsegyan. “I had
enough time to reflect on my life and decided to study math and become a
university instructor and do research to fill my life with sense and not
vegetate as I do now.”
“This is possible thanks to two interested Armenian-Americans who energized
their friends, family, and community,” said FAR Programs Director Arto
Vorperian. “Small amounts of support go a long way to provide hope,
opportunity, and empowerment to our brothers and sisters in Armenia. We
were able to give these children a couple of weeks at camp thanks to the
help of Ken and Glyssie. If you want to make a difference in the lives of
Armenians, you can do that without a big check.”
MORE THAN TIME OFF
FAR’s Kaps Camp is more than time away from chores. It includes activities
designed to develop the children, such as painting, sewing, and needle-work.
Children also take part in guided tours of museums, parks, and nearby
religious heritage sites. Campers receive nutritious meals and have access
to a full-time doctor.
Thanks to the donors from Texas, inspired by a participant of the Young
Professionals Trip, 140 kids were able to take advantage of the
life-changing opportunities of camp.
“In camp I realized that I have a whole life in front of me, whereas at home
I was under an impression that my life is limited to washing clothes and
cleaning floors,” said 13-year-old Hasmik Kirakosyan, whose parents are
unemployed. “Now, I am thinking of studying to become an engineer to design
home appliances that will alleviate housewives’ housekeeping burden.”
ABOUT FAR
Since its founding in response to the 1988 earthquake, FAR has served
millions of people through more than 220 relief and development programs in
Armenia and Karabagh. It has channeled more than $265 million in
humanitarian assistance by implementing a wide range of projects including
emergency relief, construction, education, medical aid, and economic
development.
FAR, one of the preeminent relief and development organization operating
there, is dedicated to realizing the dream of a free, democratic,
prosperous, and culturally rich Armenia. It works towards a brighter future
by partnering with donors to make life a little better for our people. By
offering hope and more promising prospects in Armenia, Karabagh, and
Javakhk, FAR binds the Diaspora and the Armenian family together around the
globe.
For more information on FAR or to send donations, contact us at 630 Second
Avenue, New York, NY 10016; telephone (212) 889-5150; fax (212) 889-4849;
web ; e-mail [email protected].
— 9/18/06
E-mail photos available on request.
PHOTO CAPTION (1): Campers at the Kaps Summer Camp, run by the Fund for
Armenian Relief (FAR), thank the Armenian community in Texas for providing
the funds that allowed the camp to remain open this summer.
PHOTO CAPTION (2): Campers at the FAR-run Kaps Summer Camp perform a dance,
just one of the activities designed to give a normal childhood to the needy
youngsters in the Gyumri area.
# # #
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian General Benevolent Union Inc.
Dr. Rita Kuyumjian
Chairperson
805, Manoogian street
Ville St-Laurent, QC H4N 1Z5
Tel: 514-748-2428
Fax: 514-748-6307
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Montreal, September 12, 2006 – AGBU Montreal is proud to announce that
Reader’s Digest of Canada, the English publication with the widest
circulation of over 6 million copies, has published an article in its
October issue on the Armenian Genocide, authored by Ms. Line Abrahamian.
Ms. Abrahamian is associate editor of the Reader’s Digest. She is an
active participant in the recently-announced AGBU Nor Jrabert repopulation
committee.
The article is featured on pages 62-69 of the publication. It is preceded
on pages 56-61 by another article which consists of an interview with the
famous actor Orlando Bloom in which he describes his participation in Andrew
Goldberg’s documentary “The Armenian Genocide”, which was showcased this
past spring at AGBU Montreal and was also received by Canada’s Prime
Minister, courtesy of the AGBU.
In addition, the Reader’s Digest website features another sidebar article on
the topic available only on the site, written also by Ms. Abrahamian
containing rare interviews with Turkish intellectuals providing a unique
perspective on the Armenian Genocide and its impact on Turkish society and
its institutions of today. The article can be found at
e.php. The topic of the
Armenian Genocide is thus getting premium coverage.
AGBU Montreal congratulates Ms. Abrahamian on this unique achievement of
getting such widespread coverage of the topic in various media. AGBU
Montreal also urges its members and the Armenian public to support this
initiative, by purchasing and distributing the publication, by writing
letters to the editor and, for residents outside of Canada, by ordering and
distributing copies through the foreign order feature of the same website.
For further information, please contact the AGBU at 514-748-2428 or at
[email protected]

ON THE TUBE
By Pat St. Germain
Winnipeg Sun, Canada
Wed, September 20, 2006
Famous for his Campbell’s soup can art, silkscreens of the rich
and famous and “factory” films — and, oh, yeah, getting shot by
a nutbar — oddball artist Andy Warhol earns a four-hour bio on
two-part American Masters special Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film,
on PPTV Ch. 3 at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow. Part 1 depicts the shy
son of Polish immigrants who makes it big.
A crime-conscious female FBI profiler leaves her window open while
she’s out of town? Her boss sends her home alone knowing she’s under
threat? We’re not buying it for a second — but we are dying to know
how the cliffhanger of Criminal Minds plays out on CBS Ch. 4 at 8 p.m.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. A small town in Kansas may
be the last safe haven after a presumed nuclear attack in serial
drama Jericho, premiering on CBS Ch. 4 at 7 p.m. Luckily, the mayor’s
prodigal son Skeet Ulrich and a mysterious stranger arrived in town
shortly before a mushroom cloud was spotted on the horizon.
A wealthy couple (Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany) hire a private
retrieval expert (Jeremy Sisto) after their son — whose talent
for holding his breath is likely to come in handy — is abducted,
sparking a season-long hunt on Kidnapped, premiering on NBC Ch. 6
and Global Ch. 12 at 9 p.m.
After six seasons, we know they aren’t really gonna be “top” models,
but the catty competition is still fun on the seventh season premiere
of America’s Next Top Model on The CW (WPIX Ch. 62 and WGN Ch. 61),
and City Ch. 8 at 7 p.m.
Modern cop Sam steps in to release a suspect when he discovers
old-school partner Gene planted evidence on the man. Unfortunately,
tragedy ensues on Life on Mars, on BBC Canada at 9 p.m.
Nancy pretends her husband is a Canadian hockey player injured by
a goon from Moose Jaw when she needs an electricity hookup, and the
crew are threatened by Armenian rivals on Weeds, on Showcase Ch. 28
at midnight.
Mac has sex with Dee and Dennis’s mom on It’s Always Sunny in
Philadelphia, on Showcase Ch. 28 at 12:40 a.m.
A serial killer on death row may be engineering a fresh string of
murders on Bones, on Fox Ch. 49 at 7 p.m.
A young socialite is accused of killing her ex-beau in a rehab centre
on Justice, on Fox Ch. 49 at 8 p.m.
Mac’s girlfriend (Claire Forlani) signs on as the new medical examiner
when a man who projects a giant marriage proposal on a highrise gets
a definite no — right in the heart — on the season premiere of CSI:
NY, on CBS Ch. 4 at 9 p.m.

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:
HIS HOLINESS ADDRESSES THE THIRD ARMENIA-DIASPORA CONFERENCE
“WE SHOULD WORK FOR A STRONG NATION AND MOTHERLAND”
declares HIS HOLINESS ARAM I
His Holiness Aram I called on working for a strong Armenian nation and a
strong Armenia in an address to a large number of Armenians from every
corner of the world during the opening session of the third Armenia-Diaspora
Conference in Yerevan on September 18.
At the beginning of an impressive and strongly worded speech, His Holiness
Aram I highlighted the important role of the conference in the life of the
Armenian nation, church and motherland. He considered this conference, the
third of its kind, to be a more conscious approach towards collective
belonging and one dictated by the Armenian nation’s collective history.
Having said this, the Pontiff divided his speech into four parts.
First, His Holiness showed the true path to the future through
self-criticism. “The first condition of success and progress is
self-criticism and then self-correction,” he said, adding that attempts to
veil difficulties and downplay the seriousness of certain situations lead to
undesired consequences.
Secondly, His Holiness Aram I spoke in detail about the approach that would
yield positive results if adopted towards major national issues and
concerns. Talking about the way these issues should be discussed, brought to
the table and solved, he stressed the importance of taking into
consideration the Pan-Armenian factor.
“The Pan-Armenian factor should become the spirit and basis of our thoughts
and plans; it should become our viewpoint and perspective. This factor,
however, should not be confused with a monopole way of thinking and a
centralized functioning. In its correct understanding, the Pan-Armenian
factor does not deny the presence of difference; on the contrary, it makes
them useful and enriching. This is what is demanded from all of us today
both in Armenia and the Diaspora. Any attempt to transform our differences
into a confrontation and pollute relation between our nation’s two poles is
unacceptable,’ assured the Catholicos.
Moving on to his third point, His Holiness Aram I reiterated the importance
of state and national priorities. “Armenia, as a state has its priorities
that are always subject to review based on the region’s geopolitical and
economic circumstances and Armenia’s chief interests.”
Aram I then talked about a number of important national issues that should
be discussed on a Pan-Armenian level with a clear separation in the roles of
the Armenian government and the Diaspora. In this context he particularly
mentioned the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, the situation in Javakhk, and the issues of dictation and dual
nationality. He added that collective discussion on these issues
“strengthens and channels Pan-Armenian thought in our life.”
Aram I then proposed the establishment of a small body from the various
state, spiritual and political entities that would meet with the president
of Armenia at least once a year to discuss Pan-Armenian issues.
In his fourth point, the Catholicos placed the relationship between Armenia
and the Diaspora on a cooperation level, away from emotional dimensions and
the concept of financial aid. He stressed the importance of preserving
national values in the current wave of globalization.
“The cooperation between Armenia and the Diaspora should not be conditioned
by financial standards only and should not be limited to narrow economic
boundaries. In other words, the Diaspora should not be satisfied with
financing projects in Armenia; it has much more to give to Armenia with its
manpower and experience. Armenia in its turn, should not only organize
Pan-Armenian conferences; it also has a lot to offer to the Diaspora
particularly in the fields of culture and Armenology. Our church and
intellectuals have an important role to play in this respect,” he added.
Concluding his speech, His Holiness Aram I reaffirmed the dedication and
commitment of the Catholicosate of Cilicia to the construction of the
homeland. One tangible expression of this is its construction of the “New
Cilicia” village in Karabakh. In this and other future projects, the
catholicos saw the imperative of halting migration, a task in which all
Armenians bear responsibility.
“Let’s walk together with a powerful Armenia towards a strong future with a
firm belief, a united course and committed participation. Here is our
strength; this is our path. Blessings to eternal Armenia; Blessings to the
homeland building Armenian nation that is itself rebuilt and eternalized
with its homeland,” called His Holiness to his audience.
##
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.

MEDIA ALERT
DATE: September 19, 2006
TO: Media Colleagues
RE: Diplomatic Traffic interview with NKR Representative
Today, the DiplomaticTraffic.com, an online periodical of the East
West Communications, published an interview with NKR Representative
to the U.S. Vardan Barseghian. Representative Barseghian’s interview
is included below.
You can also view it at:
=163
***
Nagorno-Karabakh: ‘There is no going back for us’
By Thomas Cromwell
With the collapse of the Soviet Union the world became aware of the
complexity of peoples and nations that made up the diversity of the
USSR but that had long been submerged beneath the monolithic façade
of communist rule. Especially under Stalin, many ethnic groups had
been forced to leave their traditional lands or were incorporated
into Soviet states where they didn’t belong. One of these was
Nagorno Karabakh, which in 1921 Moscow had made part of the
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, even though the majority of
the population was Armenian.
On September 2, 1991, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic declared
independence, in step with other former Soviet states. (A Soviet law
passed in 1990 allowed for Soviet autonomous entities, such as
Karabakh, to decide their own future if their ‘parent’ republic
leaves the Soviet Union.) This in effect meant declaring
independence from Azerbaijan, and soon a war was underway between
Armenia-backed forces in Karabakh and Azerbaijan, whose territory
completely surrounded the Soviet-era Karabakh enclave.
With the Karabakh population 73 percent ethnic Armenian at
independence, resistance to Azerbaijan was successful, despite the
heavy odds against them. By the time a ceasefire was agreed in 1994,
Armenian forces controlled Karabakh proper (which as an autonomous
oblast under the Soviets was just 1,699 square miles) and most of
the territory between Armenia and Karabakh.
The modern era conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which began as a
peaceful request in 1988, forced some 350,000 Armenians to flee
Azerbaijan (including 30,000 from Karabakh), mostly to Armenia, and
some 700,000 Azeris to flee Armenia and Karabakh (40,000 from the
latter), as well as Karabakh-controlled areas of Azerbaijan. Other
refugees or internally displaced persons were relatively small
groups of Russians and Kurds. A decade on, the future for most of
the displaced persons is still uncertain.
However, in a recent interview with DiplomaticTraffic.com,
Nagorno-Karabakh’s representative to the United States, Vardan
Barseghian, said that although not recognized formally by any
government, Karabakh’s continued march to secure lasting
independence is irreversible. “There is no going back for us,” he
said. “Just because Stalin gave Karabakh to Azerbaijan does not mean
that the international community has to reinforce what Stalin did.”
He continued: “What [Stalin] did at the beginning of the last
century was against the will of our people. And now we are at the
beginning of the 21st Century.”
So far, negotiations among the key players since the 1994 ceasefire,
notably through the OSCE’s Minsk Group, have produced a lot of
statements and occasional glimmers of hope, but no concrete progress
on a lasting political solution.
But, clearly, Karabakh is not waiting for others to decide its
future. It has been working to shore up its defenses while steadily
improving its economy and the lot of its 145,000 people. Barseghian
noted that GDP doubled from 2001 to 2005 (increasing to $114 million
from $53 million), and economic growth last year was 14 percent.
Investments have been in telecoms, gold mining, diamond polishing,
jewelry and agriculture. During Soviet times, Karabakh was the
biggest per-capita producer of grapes in the USSR. Karabakh is also
known for its Mulberry brandy, called Tti Oghi locally. “It is a
beautiful country,” Barseghian said, offering prospects for tourism
development. Some 4,000 foreigners visited in 2005.
Although Karabakh is still a very poor country in a seemingly
precarious political situation, its people are evidently working
hard to improve their economy and prospects for the future.
Nevertheless, there are some major obstacles to overcome for
economic development. The capital Stepanakert’s airport cannot
receive large passenger planes, due to a lack of over-flight rights
for the Azeri territory they would have to cross for safe landings
and take-offs. Hence all international air travelers and freight
have to pass through Yerevan, the Armenian capital that is 5-6
hours’ drive away. There is a good road connecting Karabakh to
Yerevan, but there is still much need for infrastructure development
within Karabakh itself.
Asked about possible recognition of their republic, Barseghian said
“there are positive tendencies” in that direction. He said
“governments recognize the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
has been established and functioning as a country, and more and more
contacts look like regular government-to-government contacts.”
However, “the US government tries not to portray these as regular
contacts, for obvious reasons.”
Nevertheless, “what’s interesting is that Washington tracks what’s
going on in Nagorno-Karabakh, including economic progress and
democratization. We have indications through third parties that they
are happy with the progress, although they would not say that in
public.”
Regarding relations with Azerbaijan, he said: “I don’t think we have
illusions about being able to negotiate with Azerbaijan directly for
our independence.” So there are two tracks that guide Karabakh’s
diplomatic efforts. One is to seek an accommodation with Azerbaijan
to be able to live peacefully side-by-side, the other is to secure
recognition from the international community. “For instance, we have
representations in Russia, France, Australia and Lebanon, as well as
the US.” (These are not accredited diplomatic missions.)
Commenting on the work of the Minsk Group, he noted that, “The main
purpose of the Minsk Group is to facilitate negotiations, and not to
achieve a pre-determined outcome.”
Barseghian said that by fighting for independence, the people of
Karabakh had “reaffirmed our right to live on the land of our
ancestors in the way that we feel is good for us.” He said, “It was
a very heavy price,” with several thousand ethnic Armenians killed.
In the summer of 1992, Azerbaijan controlled about half of Karabakh,
but Karabakh Armenians then organized more formal resistance,
including a regular army, and began to be successful. Some 30,000
people, Armenians and Azeries, were ultimately killed in the
fighting.
He noted that de facto Azerbaijan has recognized Nagorno-Karabakh’s
existence by recognizing the line of contact that separates the two
sides under the ceasefire. “This is the de facto border between
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Since 1997, Azerbaijan has not had direct negotiations with
Karabakh. By Baku negotiating with Yerevan, it underlines its
position that Karabakh is an issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
But Barseghian said that he thinks a solution can only be found
through direct negotiations.
“I believe the world recognizes that we deserve to be free, and as a
minimum we should avoid another disaster. International recognition
of Karabakh’s independence will discourage another attack by
Azerbaijan. The ceasefire has held for 12 years, and we believe this
is due to the natural balance of forces.” He noted that Azerbaijan’s
oil revenue has been used in part to strengthen its armed forces,
and Karabakh (and Armenia) stress to the US Congress and
administration that a military balance should be maintained to
prevent a new attack by Azerbaijan.
* * *
This material is distributed by the Office of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic in the USA (NKR Office) on behalf of the Government of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The NKR Office is registered with the
U.S. Government under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Additional
information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington,
D.C.
The Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the United States is
based in Washington, DC and works with the U.S. government, academia
and the public representing the official policies and interests of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Artsakh.
–Boundary_(ID_SI8C1KWRiI5N2smATbjv2Q)–

MUTUAL RESPECT
By Mary Tutwiler
TheInd.com, LA
9/20/2006
For 37 years, Southern Mutual Help Association has defied the odds
in its fight against rural poverty.
Soft-spoken Sister Helen Vinton (left) and dynamic Executive Director
Lorna Bourg are the yin and yang of SMHA.
One of SMHA’s partners, the Mennonite Disaster Service in south
Abbeville, sent a volunteer crew to repair a day care center after
Hurricane Rita.
The phone never stops ringing inside the little green cottage on
the banks of Bayou Teche. The receiver pinched between her ear
and shoulder, receptionist Monica Broussard mouths a hello while
Executive Secretary Andrea Ordodi rockets between her computer and
the copy machine down the hall. Stacks of neatly numbered boxes line
the hallway, thanks to archivist Fannie Godwin, who is cataloging
Southern Mutual Help Association’s 37 years of activism.
At the end of the hall, SMHA loan officer Clem Mathews works a client
through the intricacies of borrowing money to buy a house. Dashing
out the door to meet with a fisherman whose boat was destroyed in
Hurricane Rita is Family and Community Development Director Judy
Herring. Rural Recovery Response Co-coordinator Jackie Ducote manages
relationships and accountability between SMHA and the organizations
helping with hurricane recovery. Upstairs, shoehorned into the
dormer under the roof, Housing Administrator Marva Mimms Porter
continues Southern Mutual’s long-term goal of helping first-time home
owners. Back downstairs, on a sunny porch converted into an office,
Mary Delahoussaye oversees the finances of SMHA. Down the hall in
a newly built addition to the bulging cottage are Gordon Reese and
Lynn O’Shea, who write grants and find major donors for the nonprofit
organization. Construction Director Lurcy Marceaux is nowhere to be
found; he’s out in the field, working with volunteer contractors who
are framing up a house in hard-hit Delcambre.
At the center of this hive of intense activity are the two women
who run Southern Mutual Help Association – and they could not
be more different. Nobody gets in the way of Executive Director
Lorna Bourg. She’s wearing a blazing red western shirt and a bolero
tie, the shirt tucked into pants cinched at the waist by a leather
belt. Her graying hair springs into a halo of fine curls that frame
her rosy-cheeked face. Sister Helen Vinton, assistant executive
director, seems slight next to her colleague. Her short-sleeve blue
shirt floats on her thin frame, slacks and flat soft-soled shoes
finish an unobtrusive outfit.
Vinton’s ascetic face is narrow, and she speaks in a quiet voice,
halting its flow as she fine-tunes her phrases, intent on exactitude
of meaning. Bourg can be heard from everywhere in the building,
her Gatling-gun delivery punctuating a barrage of ideas on how to
fund housing, small business loans, bonds for hurricane rebuilding,
sustainable agriculture and mixed-income developments.
As opposite as the pair seem, they are working together to change the
way poverty is addressed in this country at every level of bureaucracy
– both in the public and private sector. And in a world where
government policy changes at glacial pace, they move like an avalanche.
————————————– ——————————————
In 1965, 23-year-old USL student Bourg found herself in Dr. Ben
Kaplan’s sociology class with several French nuns from the Dominican
order. “They were the most interesting people in the class,” Bourg
says, “and through them I met Anne.” Sister Anne Catherine Bizalion,
then 40 years old, was sent by her order as a missionary to Louisiana
to help bridge the gap between race, class and gender. “I was living
in Lafayette,” Bourg says, “when our lives became intertwined.” Bourg
moved with the nuns into a house on Rabbit Hill in Abbeville. “It was
a very poor, forgotten section of town,” says Bourg. “We decided to
remake Rabbit Hill.”
President Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty during his State
of the Union address Jan. 8, 1964.
The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible
for administering most of the War on Poverty programs, including
VISTA, Job Corps, Head Start, Legal Services and the Community Action
Program. Bizalion, a professional social worker, started the first Head
Start program in Vermilion Parish, and Bourg was her assistant. Head
Start is designed to prepare young children in low income families
for school.
“Part of our mission was to integrate Head Start,” Bourg says. “When
we began it was 100 percent African-American. But there are many more
white people living in poverty in Vermilion Parish than black. When
you combined the two numbers, it was 52 percent of the parish.” Civil
rights battles were still plaguing the South, and Bourg knew it was
going to be difficult to find a white family willing to integrate
an all-black program. “I started driving the back roads,” she
remembers. “One day, after a heavy rain, I drove down a dirt road
and got stuck in the mud. The house at the end of the road belonged
to a family that was so poor they didn’t have any furniture. I think
the man was trying to pull his own plow to make furrows. The mother
didn’t have any teeth. She had three little blonde children.
“We talked for a while, and I asked her what she wanted for her
children. She said she wanted better lives for them. I told her about
Head Start, and I told her right up front that her children would be
the first white children in the program. She didn’t care, she wanted
them to go to school. After that it was easy, and we integrated all
the Vermilion Parish Head Starts.”
Funding flowed into the program from the federal government. Edwin
Edwards was the congressman for the district, and Bourg says Louisiana
politicians saw controlling the money as a way to create political
patronage. According to Bourg, Edwards created a super board over
the Head Start board to handle the money, relegating the Vermilion
Parish Community Action Agency to advisory status.
Meanwhile, Bizalion and Bourg were busy expanding their duties. “We
found that we couldn’t simply teach the children six hours a day and
expect a societal change – we had to reach out to whole families,”
Bourg says. “We helped the Abbeville Head Start group plant a
garden. They were selling vegetables to raise money to supplement their
own meager incomes and improve nutrition in their own families. The
super board sent a message that they had to turn in the money they
made to be put into the general pot, and then make an application
for how they were going to use the money they raised themselves.”
Bourg says she and Bizalion relayed the message, but also told
the parents they could decide whether they wanted to send in the
money. “After all, they had raised it themselves; it wasn’t government
money,” Bourg recounts.
The pair were fired for insubordination, although Bourg says the
real threat they constituted to the status quo was their work in
integration. “We were sitting in the little house on Rabbit Hill
the next day, and there was a knock on the door. The minister of
the congregation in the neighborhood where we lived was there with
a handkerchief with $26 tied up in it.
They had raised the money and told us it was for our legal fees,
to get our jobs back. That’s when the idea of an independent agency
free of government control, which would in 1969 become Southern Mutual
Help Association, was born.”
The fledgling organization’s mission was to help fight the poverty
and racism endemic in rural communities.
“We went looking for the poorest of the poor,” Bourg says. Bizalion
had done some work with health care in her job at the tuberculosis
annex at Our Lady of Lourdes in Lafayette in the early 1960s, but
neither of them had seen the living conditions of workers on the
sugar cane plantations.
In 1969, little had changed on Louisiana’s sugar plantations since
sugar cane was brought to the French colony in 1751. Many field
workers, the descendents of slaves, still lived in the tumbledown
shacks their parents and grandparents occupied. Award-winning
journalist Patsy Simms describes living conditions in the “quarters”
in a 1981 book, Cleveland Benjamin’s Dead!, based on a series of 1972
articles she wrote about SMHA for the New Orleans States-Item. “Gray
boards showed through the tattered imitation-brick tar paper,
and the tin roofs were patched, and the porches eaten away by time
and weather. Rusted screens bulged from windows and doors – some
shielded on the inside by faded fabric. Muddy tractor ruts separated
the houses from the road, with an occasional plank from a torn-down
shack stretching over the puddles, connecting the two.”
Until mechanization arrived in the ’60s, field hands cut cane
with machetes and loaded it into mule-drawn carts. As tractors
and harvesters came to the plantations, families already living on
starvation wages lost not only their livelihood, but their homes as
well. Over the next 15 years, more than 100,000 men, women and children
would be displaced. Southern Mutual began its work with sugar cane
families on several fronts. The first effort was the Self Help Housing
program, started in 1969 in the Rabbit Hill neighborhood. Thirty homes
were renovated, which drew attention to the group and helped garner
federal funds for a Community Development Block Grant that financed
49 new homes for sugar cane worker families. In 1971, SMHA founded
the state’s first dental and medical community health center for farm
workers, the Teche Action Clinic, in Franklin. Before the clinic’s
inception, farm workers had to go to Charity Hospital in New Orleans
or Lafayette for any major health problem. Most didn’t make the trip,
and poor health was a way of life for field hands on the plantations.
A lack of education and basic literacy also impeded cane workers, most
of whom dropped out of school to work in the fields by the time they
were in their early teens. In 1974, SMHA started the Plantation Adult
Education Program, a basic adult education and job training program
teaching functional literacy – how to read the gauges on machinery,
how to register to vote, how to obtain a driver’s licence, how to
understand the federal Sugar Act. For the first time, plantation
workers learned what their rights were under U.S. law.
The most dramatic step for SMHA and the plantation workers was a
class action lawsuit filed against Secretary of Agriculture Earl
Butz in 1972 by Huet Freeman and Gustav Rhodes, cane field workers
from plantations around Thibodaux. The workers sued over illegal wage
freezes, and the 1974 landmark decision won more than $1 million in
back wages for workers.
Part of the ruling was a freeze in subsidies to sugar farmers until
SMHA, as court-appointed inspectors, examined the grower’s books to
determine the amount of money owed to workers.
The cane growers had begrudgingly tolerated Southern Mutual’s efforts
with field hands, although some growers felt that education was causing
dissatisfaction within the traditional patronage system of sugar
plantations in south Louisiana. But freezing subsidies planters counted
on to help finance the next year’s crop while SMHA pried into their
private finances was a violation the proud farmers could not tolerate.
The threat of violence became real. “It got really, really hot,”
Bourg says. “Our cars were run off the road at night.” At a meeting
in Broussard one night, former Lafayette City-Parish President Walter
Comeaux, who had deep ties to the sugar industry, showed up uninvited
and railed against SMHA. “The farmers blockaded the roads around the
hall,” remembers Bourg.
“They filled the meeting room upstairs and started screaming at
us. One farmer walked up to Sister Anne and stuck his fist in her
face and told her he was going to beat her up if his subsidies weren’t
released. The police, outside, instead of protecting us, were taking
down the numbers on our licence plates. We didn’t feel safe.”
It took about 90 days for SMHA to review hundreds of books and pinpoint
the wage numbers before the subsidies could be released. “As a result
of the lawsuit against the Agriculture Department and other civil
rights stands we took,” Bourg says, “every single program we ran
that had federal funds in it was defunded. Week after week, we’d get
a letter. Finally, [the Department of] Health, Education and Welfare
illegally defunded the Teche Action Clinic. We had a five-year contract
that had only run for three years.
We filed suit against HEW.” These were tough times for the women,
who, like the farm workers they were trying to help, lived on almost
nothing. SMHA won again and used the settlement money in 1980 to buy
the property it now occupies on Bayou Teche outside of New Iberia.
At that point, they divested themselves of all remaining federal funds
they had previously used for operating costs. The funding came with
too many strings. “Government money was too expensive,” Bourg says.
In the early 1970s, Cesar Chavez was earning rights and fair wages for
migrant farm workers in California, but federal dollars were slated
specifically for migrants. “We had to have federal law rewritten to
bring the monies to Louisiana,” Bourg says. “We did this to ease the
job displacement from mechanization.
At the same time, people who expected to live their entire lives
on plantations were being thrown out of their houses. Plantation
conditions were still bad, but we made a lot of progress in health,
education, and job-training programs.”
The 1980s brought a major change to the SMHA dynamic.
Sister Helen Vinton, who was raised on a Nebraska ranch and had a
master’s degree in biology and experience writing public policy for
environmental stewardship, was hired as an agricultural specialist.
“Helen came in and challenged our thinking,” Bourg says. “She told
us there had to be a better way than constant confrontation. It was
hard to swallow. [The farmers] hated us. We were enemies in the courts
and in the news.”
Vinton insisted her colleagues listen to the farmers’ point of
view. “Our work needs to be comprehensive,” she says. “My coming
meant that we wanted to build bridges, solve problems.”
There was a growing sense through the 1980s and ’90s that government
tinkering with the Sugar Act removed protections for sugar
farmers. Bad agricultural practices – including heavy reliance on
chemical fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides – were also harming
the land. Mechanization brought huge increases in expenses, and small
farmers were getting squeezed out.
Commissioner Butz’s favorite saying, says Bourg, was “get big or get
out.” Smaller farmers were plowing money into leased land, which could
be turned into a subdivision the next year. “As their expenses rose,”
Vinton says, “we began to see that the farmer’s lives had similarities
to the workers. It is our belief that if they didn’t own the land,
farmers are in as much danger of losing their connection to the land
as farm workers. And that makes rural communities vulnerable.
We began looking at ways to farm more economically.”
In an effort to connect Louisiana’s isolated sugar farmers with
national farming movements, Vinton created the 13-state Southern
Sustainable Agriculture Working Group in 1990. Organic farming was a
stretch for traditional sugar planters, but chemical farming, coupled
with toxic herbicides like 2-4-5T and Silvex, was taking a heavy
toll on the soil and farmers’ health. Vinton formed an alliance with
fifth-generation sugar farmer Jackie Judice, a member of the American
Sugarcane League’s board. “In the early beginnings of Southern Mutual,”
Judice recalls, “the farming community looked at them as the enemy.
One day I decided to listen. That week, they were hosting the annual
SSAWG meeting in New Iberia. Helen and I sat down. We realized both
sides wanted the same thing. Instead of throwing hand grenades at
each other, we’d accomplish more if we’d sit at the same table.”
Through SSAWG, Judice met Mennonite farmers who used a very different
approach to soil science. “They made me realize we had to pay attention
to not just the chemical composition of the soil, but the soil life,”
he says. “We had to feed the life of the soil.”
Convinced that the organic approach would enrich his soil and cost
less than chemical additives, Judice gambled with his cane crop. The
first year, his fellow farmers scoffed at him. But the second season,
after he won the High Yield award for producing the most sugar per
acre, area farmers started to watch what Judice was doing.
“That was the beginning of change,” Bourg says. Vinton continued to
branch out, helping traditional fishing and shrimping communities
struggling against state and federal legislation that favors
recreational fishermen and inexpensive imports.
In 1989, Southern Mutual began working with displaced field workers
– mostly women – in Four Corners, Sorrel, Glenco and St. Joseph in
St. Mary Parish. The communities were destitute, in need of decent
housing, sewer and water, and SMHA aimed to turn them into self-help
organizations. That’s when Bizalion and Bourg walked into IberiaBank
President Larrey Mouton’s office. “They came into the bank out of
the blue,” Mouton says. “They were nice ladies. They had a nice
story. They’d been in existence a long time, and they’d worked for
years here in St. Mary and Iberia. I was impressed with their demeanor,
what they had to say and the good they were doing.
“They were trying to rebuild some houses that had originally been part
of a sugar cane plantation, some small two- and three-room shacks,”
continues Mouton.
“They were in pretty bad shape. I agreed to lend them some money.” The
bank pledged up to $50,000 in loans to the self-help organizations –
$25,000 of the loans guaranteed by SMHA. A grant from the Federal Home
Loan Bank of Dallas, brought the total up to $250,000. The federal
government had recently passed the Community Reinvestment Act, a new
law requiring banks to loan money to low-income borrowers to build
houses. “When they came in,” Mouton says, “they were looking for a
small loan, but I told them about the home loan bank program. They
got more than they were looking for.”
Every year after that, IberiaBank made another loan, matched with
grant money.
—————————————— ————————————–
In 1992, Bourg was recognized by the MacArthur Foundation with a
Genius Grant worth $305,000. She spent about $30,000 locating and
interring the remains of her brother, who was shot down over Armenia
during the Cold War. She used the rest of the money to support her
work. Sister Anne Catherine Bizalion died in 1997 of cancer, and
Bourg took over as executive director. The organization was learning
how to leverage money, working with the USDA Rural Housing Service,
private foundations and local banks like IberiaBank, Teche Federal
and MidSouth. It was selected as one of nine community development
organizations in the nation to pilot the Rural Home Loan Partnership,
a multi-million dollar initiative for revitalizing rural America. Bourg
began creating nonprofit corporations to fund the expansion of SMHA’s
mission. The organization was recognized by the Fannie Mae Foundation
in 1998 with a national Sustained Excellence Award, one of 10 in the
nation, for a decade of excellence in housing.
—————————————- —————————————-
Mouton retired from IberiaBank in 2000 and offered SMHA his expertise
to help them set up another nonprofit, Southern Mutual Financial
Services, Inc., as a community development financial institution. SMHA
received a $200,000 donation to its fledgling financial arm from
IberiaBank, part of a $3 million capital campaign. “We were charged
with making low-interest loans to low-income folks,” Mouton says.
“We made home loans and a couple of business loans, mostly to women
and minorities.”
“We got engaged during the capital campaign,” says Rusty Cloutier,
president of MidSouth Bank. MidSouth gave SMHA a below-market rate
loan of $500,000 as part of the housing drive, as well as a $100,000
grant to help with associated costs for first-time homebuyers.
“We think they do good work to develop the community we serve,”
Cloutier says.
The main thrust was to get low-income renters into their own
houses. “Most of their people had abnormally low income,” Mouton
says. “Eighty percent of them made $24,000 or less. People who are
making $15,000 to $20,000 a year are stable but probably can’t buy a
house. If you could get them in a house, most of the time it required
some down payment assistance. They could make the payments and build
some equity. We had to determine how much they could afford and then
find or build a house in that price range. I bet they have 300 or
400 by now.”
The bankers became impressed with how faithfully the poor paid their
loans, despite their financial struggles. “That began the whole piece
of work we’re doing now, where IberiaBank invested $10 million into
SMHA’s lending arm,” says Mouton.
By 2005, Southern Mutual had expanded into 24 parishes, investing
millions of dollars in housing, sustainable agriculture and public
policy education.
They were working at the national and international level, redefining
philanthropy, intellectual property and food security and new financial
products for community development. On Aug. 25, 2005, MidSouth Bank
hosted a dinner for Southern Mutual at the City Club in River Ranch,
an event designed to introduce the organization to the movers and
shakers in Lafayette and discuss how to end poverty. That night,
IberiaBank announced a $10 million investment in SMHA. Gov.
Blanco and Rep. Charles Boustany were in attendance.
Four days later, Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana.
“I was sitting there thinking, 24 hours after Katrina hit,” Bourg
remembers, “and I said to Helen, ‘This is so big; the rural areas have
to be devastated.’ Air Logistics provided us with a helicopter. We
landed in all the little rural communities in three parishes. We
started listening to what people said they needed.”
Then Hurricane Rita hit. Because of its expansion, Southern Mutual
was already on the ground in communities that were devastated
and uniquely poised to help in the rural areas of the state. “We
developed a framework for all the work we would do in the future,”
Bourg says. “That became the Rural Recovery Response.”
SMHA hired Jackie Ducote to oversee the hurricane recovery
effort. Ducote, former executive vice president of the Louisiana
Association of Business and Industry and former president of the
Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, reached out to her
myriad connections. Judy Herring, SMHA’s director of Family & Community
Development, took over as field coordinator for the Rural Recovery Task
Force. Herring coordinated nearly 1,000 volunteers from 35 states,
while Ducote identified new policies and innovative approaches to
facilitate rebuilding and redevelopment in the 17-parish area hit by
the two storms. To date, while many Louisiana homeowners continue to
wait for federal aid to rebuild their homes, SMHA, operating entirely
on private donations and volunteer efforts, has worked to rebuild 446
homes, helped 80 farm families with cattle feed and small cash grants,
and assisted 15 small businesses and two churches.
Acknowledging SMHA’s ability for swift and innovative response, the
Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund recently awarded a $1.25 million grant –
the largest awarded by the organization – to SMHA for its recovery
efforts in the eastern parishes of the state struck by Katrina.
In February of this year, Bourg and Vinton attended the Louisiana
Recovery Authority charrettes led by Andres Duany to create safer,
stronger communities in south Abbeville, Erath and Delcambre. Talking
to Duany and Lafayette architect Steve Oubre, who designed the new
Erath and Delcambre plans, Bourg came up with the idea to build a
smart-growth community in New Iberia.
A percentage of the homes would be designated for low-income buyers
through SMHA’s financial arm. Called Teche Ridge, the Oubre-designed
traditional neighborhood development will be built with private dollars
by Southern Mutual. “Look at all the housing stock we lost,” Bourg
says. “We need to think about how to redevelop Louisiana and do it
better. We can’t segregate our housing by income levels or anything
else. If we don’t use smart growth strategies we’re going to use up
all our agricultural land, and our beautiful rural communities will
end up looking like urban sprawl.
“The very foundation of our work is getting rid of the things that
divide us,” she says. “We cannot ghetto-ize poverty or ghetto-ize
wealth. We need to build diverse, vibrant communities. Southern
Mutual’s mission is building healthy, prosperous rural communities. It
was our mission from day one, and it still is.”
For more information about Southern Mutual Help Association, go to
their Web site,

Armenian National Committee of Canada
130 Albert St., Suite 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4
Tel. (613) 235-2622
Fax (613) 238-2622
E-mail:[email protected]
F or Immediate Release
September 19,2006
Contact: Roupen Kouyoumjian
Tel: (613) 235-2622
ANCC Participates in Global Day for Darfur Rally in Toronto
Ottawa, Sept. 19 – As a member of over 40 non-governmental
organization coalition, the Armenian National Committee of Canada
(ANCC) participated in a rally in Toronto on September 18, calling on
the Canadian Government and the UN to make Darfur a priority and to
commit resources to deploy UN forces o protect Darfur civilians.
The Toronto rally was part of a worldwide movement demanding that
governments end the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Solidarity
events were organized in 57 cities in 41 countries.
Aris Babikian, executive director, ANCC, and representatives of the
Armenian National Committee of Toronto were present during the
two-hour rally. Many media outlets interviewed the ANCC executive
director to get the Canadian-Armenian community’s response to what
is happening in Darfur and of the importance of ANCC participation in
such a rally.
Master of ceremonies, Justin Trudeau, the son of Pierre Elliott
Trudeau, the late Prime Minister of Canada, in his opening remarks
mentioned the Armenian Genocide as an example of nations which have
suffered the scourge of genocide. It was apparent that Mr. Trudeau is
well versed with the historical facts of the Armenian Genocide.
Former general and current Senator Romeo Dallaire, the keynote
speaker, said he was confident ” we [Canadian] have the capacity”
to lead a UN force. “What is lacking is the political will. It now
falls to Canada, as a leader of the world’s middle powers, to take
charge of the mission and rally other middle powers to stop the
slaughter” said senator Dallaire.
During his interviews with the media, Babikian emphasized that
“Armenians, as victims of genocide, can not sit idle and watch
another race fall victim to the most heinous crimes in history of
mankind.” Babikian concluded: “We have the duty and obligation to
stand up in solidarity with victims regardless of their race, colour,
or religion.”
A unity statement signed by 47 organizations, among them Amnesty
International, the Armenian National Committee of Canada, B’nai
Brith Canada, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Labour
Congress, Human Rights Watch, Journalists for Human Rights, KAIROS:
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, Montreal Institute for
Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Muslim Canadian Congress, United
Church of Canada, and the United Nations Association of Canada, was
distributed to the media, to political dignitaries and to Canadian
civil society representatives.
-30-
The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a
network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and
affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances
the concerns of the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of
issues.
Regional Chapters
Montreal – Laval – Ottawa – Toronto – Hamilton – Cambridge –
St. Catharines – Windsor – Vancouver