STUDENTS CLEAN YEREVAN
Panorama.am
15:52 18/09/06
Frunzeh Basentsyan, construction, improvement and utilities
department head at Yerevan municipality, said 10,000 students,
21,000 schoolchildren took party on a subbotnik, September 16, a
cleaning day in Yerevan. Some 380 cars of garbage was transported to
Nubarashen disposal tip. Basentsyan praised the participants, saying,
“The subbotnik passed at a desired level.”
The municipality employee called all residents of Yerevan to keep the
city clean. Ignoring the collected garbage on the streets of Yerevan,
Basentsyan said “certain progress is registered in keeping the city
clean determined by new garbage cars.” The official also informed the
reporters that a garbage collection project plans to establish one or
two organizations which will conduct cleaning in the city. However,
Basentsyan said it will not be soon.

JUSTICE MINISTER HANDS OVER A MEDAL TO CITIZEN OF FRANCE
Panorama.am
17:36 18/09/06
A medal was ceremonially awarded Monday to Levon Jolakyan, citizen
of France. The medal was awarded by the Armenian prime minister and
was handed over by Davit Harutunyan, minister of justice, justice
ministry spokeswoman Anahit Voskanyan said. The minister praised
Jolakyan’s contribution in Armenia’s membership to Latin Notary
International Union. He also gave credits to Jolakyan’s contribution
in the development of the law on notary and establishment of notary
institute in Armenia. Jolakyan thanked to the Armenian government
for appreciating his contribution in the notary service of Armenia
and expressed readiness to further cooperate.

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS ADDRESSED TO THE THIRD ARMENIA-DIASPORA CONFERENCE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Panorama.am
18:06 18/09/06
Your Excellency Mr. President,
Dear Brother in Christ,
and Beloved Participants of this Conference,
The convening of the third “Armenia-Diaspora” Conference under the
festive light of the 15th anniversary of re-established statehood
for Armenia and Artsakh, has filled our souls with joy. With
thanksgiving and praise to God, we have come to welcome you, the
honorable participants, and extend the blessings of the Mother See
of Holy Etchmiadzin to the deliberations of this conference.
Our motherland is once again united with her children in the same hopes
and aspirations, and also with the belief that together, we shall
traverse a new path of progress toward prosperity for our people;
toward strengthening of our spiritual and national life.
The difficulties and triumphs of the past fifteen years belong to
all our people. All of our people, those living in our homeland
and those dispersed throughout the world, experienced the elation
of independence, and in equal measure, confronted the dangers
threatening our freedom; we equally bore the difficulties on the path
of sovereignty and the creation of statehood; and together won the
victories and successes. Let us offer glory to God, that He blessed
the undivided efforts, love and devotion of our people to re-establish
the independent statehood of our homeland.
Every generation has its imperative. Today we are living in a
remarkably important epoch of our history.
The time has come, that our present capabilities, which are greater
through the free and independent life of our homeland and the
unobstructed ties with our diaspora, completely and perfectly serve
the prosperity, unity and solidarity of our people and the renaissance
of spiritual and national life everywhere.
It is this outlook which today inspires us and directs our paths. Our
gathering is called to pursue this supreme goal and to face the present
obligation. Yes, the possibilities to freely work are greater than
they were fifteen years ago, however the urgent issues which trouble
us are not few. The time has come, and we can no longer delay. In our
contemporary world, in the political realm, in the rapid development
of science, technology and communication, in the hour-by-hour narrowing
gap between economies and cultures, the Armenian people must be in the
forefront, and they shall turn their hopes for a peaceful and creative
life into reality through a strong state and a vibrant Diaspora. When,
at present, there are great changes in the communities of the Diaspora
– some getting smaller, new ones being formed – the creation of a new
structure for maintaining the Armenian identity is becoming imperative
to meet these developments. The construction of new churches and
schools, the complete and total reorganization of education, and the
triumph over the unnatural situation facing our Church life which
was inherited by this generation, have all become essential.
Before us all today is the imperative to reinforce Armenia and Artsakh,
to secure in every manner well-armed and competent armed forces, and
to insure progress in all realms. The just rights of Artsakh have
yet to be recognized, and the threat to renew hostilities against
our people continues. There are positive developments in our homeland
in the economic, social, educational and cultural spheres; however,
poverty, unemployment, under-employment and the export of our labor
force remain undefeated. The villages and rural settlements are in
a state of need and vulnerability. The plans for their improvement
and better future are the aims for this conference. We welcome the
initiative to improve the rural settlements, which today have a pivotal
significance in the development of the economic and social life of
our country and the well-being of our people. Together we shall find
the correct answers and decisions to all imperatives with a unified
spirit, through the united efforts of national and ecclesiastical
organizations, and possessing the power of our free statehood. During
the recent events in Lebanon, the importance of the support through
our state policy was evident. So that the role our state plays in
any situation be greater, we must see the vision of our developed
homeland and prosperous country as something near rather than far,
and which in itself is the aim of having independent statehood –
to create and build in a free environment, to form a secure and good
life, and to freely express our spiritual vitality. The strength and
progress of the homeland are the might and power of the Diaspora as
well. For continuous centuries, in good times and bad, in conditions
of ease and difficulty, the Diaspora has lived and has been maintained
with the dream of seeing the homeland free and returning to her. Today
the dream has become reality on this portion of our homeland, and
the faith in a free life for Armenia and Artsakh is also a reality,
which shall become for us the light which leads us forward.
We extend our Pontifical message and exhortation to all our people in
Armenia, Artsakh and dispersed throughout the world, to accomplish this
great and important homeland-building initiative of restoring villages
and rural settlements. The Armenian Church as well shall bring her
active participation to the realization of this project, which will
serve the welfare and prosperity of our nation. We believe that our
children, as always, will be standing in support of our homeland, and
our people will together build their native home, so that it may always
be the sanctuary of hope, the inspiration and axis of Armenian life,
and the consolidating strength of all Armenians. Our people, proud with
work, will forget about misery on their native soil. We shall present
to our children a country strong with a harmonious societal life,
bright with the light of faith, knowledge and culture – a Christian
nation – philanthropic, humanitarian and decent. May God’s spirit
of truth lead us all, and may our Lord’s grace and strength be our
helper, so that our plans and works bear good results and victories,
and from generation to generation, we shall tell the story of God’s
blessing in the lives of our people.
May the work and good initiatives of this conference be blessed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA READY TO ESTABLISH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH TURKEY WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITIONS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 14 2006
YEREVAN, September 14. /ARKA/. Armenia is ready to establish diplomatic
relations with Turkey without any preconditions, Armenian Deputy
Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan said Thursday at his meeting with
schoolchildren dedicated to 15th anniversary of Armenia’s independence.
However, he said, Turkey wants Karabakh-related concessions from
Armenia and demand Armenia to stop seeking the 1915 Genocide fact
admission.
KIrakosyan stressed that the Genocide fact admission is one of
top-priority issues in Armenia’s foreign policy.

OSKANYAN: PROSPECTS OF DISPATCHING ARMENIAN PEACEKEEPERS TO LEBANON UNDER DISCUSSION NOW
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 14 2006
YEREVAN, September 14. /ARKA – Novosti-Armenia/. Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan said Thursday that the prospects of
dispatching Armenian peacekeepers to Lebanon are under discussion now,
but the final decision depends on some factors.
In his words, Armenia has received official proposals from some
countries to take part in the peacekeeping mission. These offers are
under discussions now, he said, but there are some questions in need
to be clarified before making decision.
“Such mission shouldn’t be an end in itself. Our presence there
should pursue certain goal. When this goal is become clear, Armenia
will make a final decision”, Oskanyan said.
He said that, yet before the last Israeli strike against Lebanon,
the latter asked Armenia to send a mine-sniffing crew to the country.
The minister didn’t rule out that Armenia would take part in
mine-clearing work in Lebanon later, when the situation gets under
control.
Oskanyan also said that Armenian community in Lebanon urged Armenian
authorities to dispatch peacekeepers to the troubled country.
“We take into consideration the community’s view and maintain constant
contacts with it, but there are some other circumstances we should
take into account. I’m convinced the right decision will be eventually
made”, the minister said.

FRENCH PRESIDENT TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA ON SEPTEMBER 29 FOR 3-DAY VISIT
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 18 2006
YEREVAN, September 18. /ARKA – Novosti-Armenia/. French President
Jacques Chirac is to arrive in Armenia on September 29 for a tree-day
visit, Armenian Ambassador to France Edward Nalbandyan said Saturday
in an interview with state-run Public Television of Armenia.
Nalbandyan stressed the importance of the visit saying Chirac will
travel to the region for the first time and will visit only Armenia.
In his words, the French delegation will include ministers, lawmakers,
politicians and businessmen.
The ambassador said in his interview that French ministers would meet
their Armenian counterparts.
Nalbandyan also said the program will be saturated with interesting
events such as opening Square of France in Yerevan and Charles
Aznavur’s concert at the Square of Republic in Yerevan on September
30.

HEARINGS ON CASE OF TURKISH ASSOCIATIONS AGAINST TEACHING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SUBJECT IN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM TO BE HELD TODAY IN BOSTON DISTRICT COURT
ARMINFO News Agency
September 18, 2006 Monday
Hearings on the suit of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations
against the charter of the Education Department of Massachusetts
state, which allows teaching of the Armenian Genocide subject in the
educational program, will be held today in Boston District Court.
As ArmInfo was told in the Armenian Assembly of America, the court
action was initiated by the Assembly of Turkish- American Associations
last year. The Turkish associations insist on the Education Department
of Massachusetts to remove the Armenian Genocide subject from the
training materials. In its turn, the Armenian Assembly had responded
without delay and forwarded an answer suit, as well as created a
command of well-known advocates to deal with the protection of the
Armenian Genocide fact in the USA territory.

AT 82, CHARLES AZNAVOUR IS SINGING A FAREWELL THAT COULD LAST FOR YEARS
By Alan Riding
The New York Times
September 18, 2006 Monday
Late Edition – Final
At 82 Charles Aznavour is on his farewell tour, but don’t let anyone
confuse this with retirement.
No, for this last practitioner of a decades-old musical tradition known
as the chanson francaise (French song), the tour better resembles
a slow lap of honor, one taking him to scores of cities around the
world and, health permitting, that may last until 2010 or beyond.
“We’re in no hurry; we’re still young,” Mr. Aznavour said
good-naturedly several weeks ago before embarking on a 10-city swing
through North America, which includes dates in New York at Radio City
Music Hall on Monday and Tuesday. “There are some people who grow
old and others who just add years. I have added years, but I am not
yet old.”
As proof he claims with no little pride that his voice is in better
shape than 30 years ago. He has just signed a three-record contract
with EMI. He is still busily writing new songs about the travails of
love and life. And, let’s face it, he doesn’t look his age: dapperly
dressed, he seems as sure on his feet as he is quick in his repartee.
Nonetheless the plan is to say goodbye to fans in each city he visits
this month. He has already been to Montreal, Ottawa, Seattle, San
Francisco, Toronto and Washington. After his New York shows, Boston,
Los Angeles and Saratoga, Calif., will complete his schedule.
“Later I’ll return to the cities I haven’t done, Philadelphia,
Dallas, Miami and so on,” he explained. “This is all part of the
English-language tour: London — that’s in the Royal Albert Hall —
and Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. I’ve already done Germany:
10 cities. Japan next year, then all of Latin America.”
Still, by bunching together many of the English-speaking cities, where
half of his songs are usually performed in English, Mr. Aznavour is
finally acknowledging his age.
“In the past I could mix languages,” he said, sitting in the offices of
Editions Raoul Breton, one of several music publishers he owns, before
he began his current tour. “My memory was better. I passed easily
from language to language, Spanish, Italian, French, English. But I
can’t do that any longer.” He tapped his head and laughed. “Calma,
calma, I’m 82.”
When he began, though, he was almost the youngest of the crooners
who made the chanson francaise popular in the postwar years. And to
his good fortune, it was Edith Piaf, the legendary “little sparrow,”
who took him under her wings: in time they came to enjoy what he calls
“une amitie amoureuse” — an amorous friendship — which, he said,
“means more than friendship and less than love.”
It was a time when the smoke-filled clubs and theaters of the Paris
Left Bank were bursting with talent. Maurice Chevalier was already
an international star, but new voices were gaining a following,
among them Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel, Leo Ferre, Yves Montand,
Gilbert Becaud, Charles Trenet and Juliette Greco. (Of these only
Ms. Greco is still alive and, at 79, very occasionally performing.)
Mr. Aznavour had one strong card. This short, wiry son of Armenian
immigrants (his real surname is Aznavourian) had a talent for writing
lyrics that echoed the language and sentiments of ordinary people.
And long before his husky tenor became as recognizable as that of, say,
Brassens or Becaud, he won a place in their circle as a songwriter.
Even now, while best known around the world as a singer (he has
also appeared in more than 50 French movies), Mr. Aznavour considers
himself first and foremost a songwriter: he starts with the words,
and only later does he or another composer add the melody and rhythm.
For him the chanson francaise is quite simply the art of telling
stories to music.
For material he has always counted on love and its pitfalls, but
recent songs confirm that he is also ever-alert to what is topical.
“I don’t write stories like novels,” he said. “I don’t invent
anything. I bring language to existing facts and events. I read all
the newspapers. I watch all the news programs on television. I was
the first to write about social issues like homosexuality and the
deaf. In my new record I write about unrest in the suburbs, about
ecology. I find real subjects and translate them into song.”
One recent record, “Le Voyage,” includes two songs about journalists:
in “La Critique,” he snipes at critics and concludes that, “in the
end, only the public is right”; and in “Un Mort Vivant,” or “A Living
Death,” which he dedicated to Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal
correspondent assassinated by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in 2002,
Mr. Aznavour pays tribute to reporters who risk their lives while
seeking the truth.
“What really matters is that you hear the text clearly,” he noted.
Now, reflecting on his long final bow, he feels confident that he
will be best remembered by his songs. “When a singer dies, only his
records survive,” he said. “But when I die, there are at least two
songs which will continue to be played regularly in the United States:
‘Yesterday When I Was Young’ and ‘She.’ There will be no break because
the songs exist. I will remain in the business.”
And he will do so all the more if a project under discussion in the
United States and France comes to fruition: to create a stage show
built entirely around his songs and modeled after “Jacques Brel Is
Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”
So, still very much alive and well and living in Geneva, Mr. Aznavour
could easily rest on his laurels. In France he is regularly voted one
of the country’s 10 most popular personalities. In Armenia, the land
of his forebears, where an Aznavour Museum is planned, he is warmly
remembered for organizing help after a devastating earthquake that
killed 45,000 people there in 1988.
But his farewell tour is also an excuse to get back on stage and show
that he has not lost his touch as a performer extraordinaire. Then,
after North America, he is to fly to Havana to make his next record
with the Cuban musician Chucho Valdes. And he has already agreed to
appear in a movie adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel “The Little
Man from Archangel.”
Tomorrow evidently still beckons.
“Once I have done something,” he said conclusively, “I think of
something else. I never look back.”
Except, that is, when he claims a place in the Guinness Book of
Records.
“I have been married to the same woman for 43 years,” he said with a
smile, referring to his Swedish-born wife, Ulla, “and, in my business,
that’s a record.”

ROBERT KOCHARYAN: ARMENIA TAKES INTO ACCOUNT DIASPORA’S INTERESTS IN ITS FOREIGN POLITICAL COURSE
ARMINFO News Agency
September 18, 2006 Monday
Armenia takes into account the interests of Diaspora in its foreign
policy, said President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan at the plenary
session of the 3rd All Armenian Forum Armenia-Diaspora, Monday.
The president said it is very important to take into consideration
the factor of Diaspora in the sphere of political lobbying in the
international arena. Acknowledged Armenian organizations engaged in
the political sphere greatly support the native diplomacy, making
the international community hear Armenia’s voice, the president said.
Regarding the foreign political course, Armenia continues its
complementary policy. Serious and large-scale economic projects are
implemented with Russia, the Armenian-Russian military cooperation
is deepened. Infrastructure projects are implemented with Iran which
the country has rather stable and effective relations with. At the
same time, Armenia implements active steps to deepen the relations
with the European Union. Individual Partnership Action Plan with
NATO is being implemented. The Armenian army participates in the
peacemaking operations in Kosovo and Iraq. “We deepen our international
integration, at the same time strengthening the relations with
traditional partners,” the president said.

NUMBER OF DISEASED WITH INFECTIONS, TRANSFERRED IN SEXUAL WAY, INCREASED IN ARMENIA BY 48% FOR LAST 6 YEARS
ARMINFO News Agency
September 18, 2006 Monday
The number of diseased with infections, transferred in a sexual
way, has increased in Armenia by 48% since 2000, the Director of the
Scientific-Medical Center of Dermatology and STI (sexually transferred
infections), professor Karen Babayan told ArmInfo correspondent.
Talking of a small number of those diseased with syphilis (the
intensive indicator of the morbidity has reduced from 8.5% to 2.6%
per 100,000 of population), the professor noted the venereal diseases
have got the tendency to go in a hidden form, as a result of which
the potential carriers of syphilis or gonorrhoea do not suspect of
their disease. K. Babayan informed a growth of morbidity among the
under-age is observed in Armenia the recent years, which arouse an
anxiety concerning the fact that the infections, transferred in a
sexual way, negatively reflect the reproductive function of the young
organism.