FOR SUBSTANTIAL SERVICE
By September 8 decrees of President Robert Kocharyan
A1+
[02:04 pm] 08 September, 2006
Gerald Gafeschyan and Eduardo Ernekyan have been awarded Medals of
St. Mesrop Mashtots in connection with the 15th anniversary of the
independence of Armenia, for substantial service to the country.
In connection with the 15th anniversary of the independence of
Armenia, Vasili Ghazaryan and Karine Ghazinyan, the RA Ambassadors
extraordinary and plenipotentiary to China and Germany respectively,
have been awarded the medal of Mkhitar Gosh, for substantial service
in the field of diplomacy.
By another decree of the President Jivan Movsisyan, the head of the
agency of links with the Diaspora of the RA Foreign Ministry, has
been awarded the diplomatic rank of RA special envoy and authorized
minister.

A1+
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAESTRO
[03:06 pm] 08 September, 2006
Today is the 84th anniversary of renowned conductor
Ohan Duryan. After being discharged from hospital in
June the Maestro is recovering.
“A1+” congratulates the Maestro wishing him good
health and return to the stage.
PRIME MINISTER CONGRATULTES
In connection with Maestro’s 84th anniversary RA Prime
Minister has congratulated the conductor wishing him
strong health and success is his creative work.
WE’LL MEET THE NEW DAWN TOGETHER
We warmly congratulate our dear friend, renowned
conductor Ohan Duryan on his birthday. Our dear
Maestro, we pray to God for your quick convalescence.
We are convinced that we will meet the new dawn of the
Armenian nation together, and you will greet it with
your art.
Alderman of the forum of intellectuals
Yervand Manaryan, Rafayel Ghazaryan, Dmitri Atbashyan,
Hrachya Matevosyan, Anna Boyajyan, Khoren Palyan,
David Sedrakyan, Lenser Aghalovyan, Robert Karayan.
OHAN DURYAN IS ONE OF THE MASISES
It is good that Mount Masis is the only one. It is
good that there are many Masises in the Armenian
culture. And it is good hat today we have the occasion
to join our voice to that of thousands of Armenians
and to tell with all our heart that we love our Mount
Masis Ohan Duryan. Happy Birthday, dear Maestro.
Political Council of the party “Homeland and Honor”

A1+
TRAFFICKING GROWS
[03:46 pm] 08 September, 2006
During the latest report of the UN State Department
Armenia was included in the second risk group in
connection with trafficking. The problem of
trafficking is growing deeper in Armenia. Private
non-governmental investigations testify to this. Today
two suchlike presentations took place.
The investigations were carried out by the Armenian
Aid Union and Armenian Sociology Association. In both
cases the US Embassy and the OSCE Yerevan office
supported the works. The first theme was “Illegal
trade and work exploitation of Armenian migrants”; the
second was “Children in Armenian children’s homes and
special schools”. In the first case 2500 citizens
participated in the survey. 48 of them were exploited
during migration. Part of the cases can be considered
trafficking.
“Taking into account the fact that about a million
Armenians have left abroad to find work during the
last 12-14 years, the proportion presupposes that
about 20 thousand people have had similar problems”,
the report says. The investigations prove that 2/3 of
the participants of the survey have been subject of
work exploitation, 15% were forced into prostitution,
and about 5% were forced into slavery.
By the way, the lists of countries where work
exploitation and sexual exploitation takes place,
differ a lot. From the point of view of work
exploitation Russia takes the first place followed by
Turkey, USA, Germany, Poland and Greece. From the
point of view of sexual exploitation the list is
topped by Turkey, Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran and
Syria. The second report revealed that from the point
of view of exploitation the children from children’s
homes and special schools are considered the risk
groups.
Factually, the investigations, as well as the
discussions after them do not offer any remedy for
this “disease”. They just mention that we ought to
raise public awareness about the concept of
trafficking, as well as the mechanisms of leaving for
abroad and finding job there.

OPPOSITION STRUGGLES FOR AMERICAN MONEY
Lragir.am
08 Sept 06
A real race has started in the opposition of Armenia for the 6.5
million dollars of the U.S. Department of State they are likely to
provide for holding a fair parliamentary election in Armenia in 2007.
After Arshak Sadoyan the leader of the National Democratic Party
Shavarsh Kocharyan announces about the project on control over
elections. However, if Sadoyan’s project cost 2.5 million U.S.
dollars, on September 8 Kocharyan announced at the Pastark Club that
his model of control costs 4 million U.S. dollars.
It seems, however, that the money is hard to get, since the Americans
are reluctant to fund a project, which does not have the approval of
the entire opposition. Like Sadoyan, Kocharyan also complains that
the other forces of the opposition cannot come together over his
project. Kocharyan believes that the project is not only good and
worth approving but also singular.
“For us it is not important who proposed it is important if it is
pro-active, well-thought. Let them propose something else, we will
consider it, but there is no other proposal. This is the problem.
There are words, calls, but there are no documents, mechanisms,
approaches,” says Shavarsh Kocharyan.

UNPRECEDENTED STATE OF OPPOSITION SINCE INDEPENDENCE
Lragir.am
08 Sept 06
The elections of 2007 and 2008 are going to be crucial, a
breakthrough. Such a statement was made again on September 8, and
this time the author is the leader of the National Democratic Party
Shavarsh Kocharyan. He announced at the Pastark Club that a peculiar
pre-election situation has occurred in Armenia, when on the one hand,
the government continues using non-democratic approaches in governance,
and on the other hand, the amendments to the Constitution provide
for the first time a chance to change the situation and establish
democracy in Armenia.
Shavarsh Kocharyan thinks, however, that the political situation in
the country does not correspond with the existing possibility and
challenges. The leader of the National Democratic Party says with his
political biography there are still some things he cannot understand.
“Look what is going on. The government typical of our type of
countries directs all its steps at reproduction. Hence, this is
not a new thing, and it is clear. So is in all the autoritarian
countries, and we have witnessed this for a number of times. What can
bar reproduction? First of all people, then the opposition and the
international organizations. These three factors may enable overcoming
the hindrance of fair election,” says Shavarsh Kocharyan.
He says when people is considered an underlying factor, it is natural
that they should see there is an alternative to the government.
“If there is an alternative, they come together, get inspired, they
can see prospects,” says the head of the National Democratic Party.
He says the developments in the opposition over the past year do not
create an alternative. “At least you know that it is already apparent
that since we became independent we have not had such a situation in
Armenia, such a frustrated society and an opposition with such a bad
reputation,” says Shavarsh Kocharyan.
He says his political party has offered a project costing 4 million
dollars, which was rejected by international donors, however,
saying that the other political forces were indifferent towards
this project. Shavarsh Kocharyan says the representatives of the
international organizations told him what the reaction of the other
oppositionist forces was.
“I’m simply amazed, I do not give names, the names of the famous
political figures in the opposition, whom I asked about their opinion
on such a project, and it became clear that it does not interest them,”
says Shavarsh Kocharyan. This is what he cannot understand. Kocharyan
says instead of uniting and implementing a project in the opposition
the opposition is competing “for making one call or another the first,
whose call will bring everyone together, who will declare the day of
the revolution, who will tell first in which cell the famous ruling
tandem will be serving their sentence.”
Shavarsh Kocharyan says the idea of the project, deep, targeted work
lost its reputation and the change of power was pushed forward. The
leader of the National Democratic Party says even the idea of rallies
has lost its meaning. “This idea lost its meaning in Armenia in a
way that rallies are viewed today in the following way: they must
rally today to go to the residence of the president tomorrow. And by
such wrong steps they took away the constitutional right of people,”
says Shavarsh Kocharyan.
According to him, it is established that the change of power
is primary, then everything will be all right, this approach is
condemned. It will be impossible to do anything on the election
day, everything should be done before that to reach a change of
the situation, because the election day is merely the reflection of
the current situation, says Shavarsh Kocharyan. However, he says,
if he were not hopeful that the situation could be changed in the
opposition, he would not give a negative evaluation. The leader of
the NDP believes that the society also feels the necessity to change
the methods, as well as the majority of the opposition, because they
realize that otherwise they are going to resemble the Russian Duma
where there is not an opposition, there is only a formal species.

Thursday, September 07, 2006
****************************************
IN PRAISE OF FREE SPEECH
*******************************
The first sentence of a commentary in our paper today that bears the headline, “Newspaper must provide a forum for free speech,” reads: “It is easier to love the theory of free speech than the practice of it.” And the final sentence: “And it is the responsibility of the citizen to accept that free speech includes not only the viewpoints that the citizen agrees with, but also those which cause gravest and most heartfelt offence.” John Roe, the author of this commentary is identified as “the Editorial Page editor.” I should like to see one of our own editors writing and publishing such a commentary. As for our pundits and academics who contribute regularly to our papers: I don’t remember any one of them raising his voice against censorship. John Roe is right: we may love the theory of free speech but we, all of us, (publishers, editors, pundits, and citizens) hate the practice of it. Either that or we define free speech as the freedom to spew anti-Turkish venom.
#
Friday, September 08, 2006
*********************************************
TOWARDS A MORE BALANCED
VIEW OF REALITY
*********************************************
Chamfort: “Everything I learned, I have forgotten: the little I remember, I guessed.”
*
To understand one thing is to understand many other things.”
*
An objective judgment is better than a prejudiced one.”
*
By distorting reality, bias obstructs our path to understanding, and ultimately to consensus.
*
These may not be as good or original assertions as Descartes’ celebrated “I think therefore I am,” but they are far more accurate than their opposites.
*
Sooner or later all Armenians realize that to trust an Armenian on the grounds that he is Armenian is unwise. Among my friends and acquaintances I count several who began by trusting their fellow Armenians and ended by avoiding them like the plague.
*
As a child I believed everything I was told by my schoolteachers and parish priest. As an adult I know that trusting mullahs and propagandists (regardless of race, color, and creed) is to consent to be brainwashed.
*
To trust no one is as bad as to trust everyone. As an Armenian I may reject the Turkish version of the story. It doesn’t necessarily follow I accept the Armenian version.
*
Our nationalist historians tell us the Turks planned to exterminate us long before the actions of our revolutionaries. What they don’t even try to explain is why would Turks do that to their “most loyal millet” at a time when enemies from within as well as without threatened their very existence?
*
You don’t have to be a historian or a psychologist to recognize a contradiction when you see one. All you need is common sense, which, according to Descartes, is evenly distributed because no one complains that he doesn’t have enough of it.
*
Common sense tells us, to trust the judgment of an objective outsider is wiser than to trust the judgment of participants in a quarrel or controversy. The justice system of the civilized world is based on that assumption.
*
In addition to being one of the greatest historians of the 20th Century, Arnold J. Toynbee was also the first scholar to document the Genocide and to publish several studies on Turkish abuses of power. As an anti-nationalist he rejected both Turkish and Armenian versions of the story. In his version, the Genocide is undeniable fact. It is equally undeniable that by making unjustified territorial demands, Armenian nationalists were partly responsible in provoking it.
*
If you reject Toynbee’s version on grounds that he is just another cold-blooded, dehumanized imperialist witness with an impaired sense of compassion and justice, I invite you to consider the testimony of an old Armenian lady who was also a survivor of the Genocide: “The Turks are nice people, provided you don’t step on their tails.”
*
Is it conceivable that this traumatized old woman on her way to senility and death has a more balanced view of reality than all our pundits combined?
*
A German philosopher once said, “The Germans are the best people in the world, but the trouble is there are so few of them.” Our problem may well be that our “betters” are our worst.
#
Saturday, September 09, 2006
*****************************************
Voltaire’s favorite prayer: “O Lord, please make all my enemies ridiculous.”
*
The intolerant have a sharp eye for someone else’s intolerance, never their own.
*
Once when I said that Germans had helped Turks in planning and executing the Armenian genocide, a German Armenologist reminded me that Germans had been the first scholars to establish the Sanskrit roots of the Armenian language. Academics!
*
Friedrich Schlegel: “Words often understand each other better than the people who use them.”
*
In his biography of Timothy Leary, of “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” fame, Greenfield writes: “Tim loved everyone as if they were his own children – except for his own actual children.” Another Saroyan!
*
It has been said, when women want to behave like men, they seldom behave like gentlemen. One could also say that when Armenians behave like Turks, they seldom behave like good Turks. I shiver to think what would happen if this type of Armenian were given a yataghan and unleashed against defenseless civilians who happen to disagree with him.
*
Only if you have lived in darkness may you see the light. This cannot happen to someone who assumes his darkness to be light.
*
“If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Our history in a nutshell. It has been the perennial function of our academics to cover up this obvious fact.
#

—
PRESS RELEASE
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia
Contact: Information Desk
Tel: (374-10) 52-35-31
Email: [email protected]
Web:
~LNew Answers to Old Questions: Armenians in the 21st century¹ is the
title of a forum which will take place on the second and third days
of the Third ArmeniaDiaspora Conference to be held, from September
18th -20th in Yerevan.
More than a dozen international experts and an equal number of
specialists from Armenia will participate in the first-of-its kind
forum.
Following the first day¹s session which will deal with general
Armenia-Diaspora and the new Rural Poverty Eradication Program,
the forum will focus on the old issues of identity, culture,
belonging, homeland-diaspora relations, but from the point of view
of a transnational people living in a globalized 21st century world.
The first panel of the forum, to be held on Tuesday, September 19,
is entitled Nation, State and Identity in the 21st Century, and will
explore new approaches to understanding the evolution of culture and
identity in relation to the diaspora, as well as Armenia. Khachig
Tololyan, editor of the Toronto, Canada-based Diaspora, A Journal
of Transnational Studies, and a professor of Comparative Literature
at Wesleyan University, will open the forum and moderate this first
session which will consider such questions as whether diasporan
political and institutional development can occur without a homeland,
whether the homeland can develop independently of the diaspora,
and whether the diaspora can develop outside of its traditional
structures and institutions. The role of language, literature, arts,
religion and history will also be discussed in relationship to how
they define citizenship and culture.
Participating in this panel are Chandrashekhar Bhat of the Center
for the Study of the Indian Diaspora in Hyderabad, India and Tsypylma
Darieva of Humboldt University in Berlin. Challenges of Identity will
be presented from two perspectives: Gagik Harutyunyan, President of
the Constitutional Court of Armenia, will present a view from Armenia,
and Khatchik Der Ghougassian, a political analyst from Argentina will
present a view from the Diaspora.
The second panel will address the mechanics of diaspora-homeland
relations.
Reciprocal perceptions of Armenians from Armenia and from the Diaspora,
as well as the need to make both socio-economic and political relations
a two-way street will be addressed by Harutyun Marutyan of Armenia¹s
National Academy of Science¹s Institute of Archeology and Ethnography
and Gloria Totoricaguena from the Center for Basque Studies at the
University of Nevada, Reno. In the same panel, Yevgeny Kuznetsov, an
economist with the World Bank in Washington, will speak on Diasporas
bringing know-how and networks to the homeland.
Razmik Panossian, Director of Policy, Programs and Planning of Rights
and Democracy, of Montreal, will be discussing whether mechanisms
and approaches be created in the future to direct cultural and social
developments toward ideal Homeland-Diaspora configuration.
Repatriation and territory of common identity will be the theme of
the third session of the forum covering topics such as emigration,
repatriation, the role of government in these areas, and whether
existing trends might be reversed.
Edward Melkonian, a Historian at the Slavonic University in Armenia,
will be moderating the session. Armenuhi Stepanyan, from the National
Institute of Sciences¹ Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, will
talk about Lessons of Post-War Repatriation in Armenia. This year,
2006, is the 60th anniversary of the year when the largest number
of Armenians repatriated to Soviet Armenia, in the Stalin years. A
look at current international migration will be presented by Sossi
Kasbarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
Gevorg Poghosian, Sociologist, will speak on the causes, consequences
and prospects for emigration from Armenia. Avetik Chalabian, a young
economist with the McKinsey Corporation, in Russia, will cover New
Migration, New Investments and New Diasporans.
In the same session, Judge Eduard Muratian of Armenia will speak
about the perspectives, prospects, promises and possibilities of
dual citizenship.
The final session of the forum will be held on Wednesday morning,
September 20, when four professionals from diverse backgrounds
will take a look at the Diaspora in 2020 and will explore possible
scenarios. This segment will look at what facts and analyses are
prerequisites to future programming and policies.
Moderator Noubar Afeyan of the US, one of the leaders of Armenia 2020,
will present four keynote speakers each of whom will present their view
of the Diaspora in 2020: Arman Jilavian, Editor-in-Chief of Nexion
Publications in Russia; Levon Abrahamian from the Armenian National
Academy of Sciences¹ Institute of Archeology and Ethnography; Bedros
Terzian of Petrostrategies in France, Lebanese-born, and a member
of the Board of Trustees of the Armenia Fund; and Tom Samuelian,
an American-Armenian who has been residing in Armenia for a decade
and heads the American University of Armenia Law Center.
Following each panel, a group of invited discussants representing
different communities, ages, and backgrounds, will comment on the
speakers¹ theses.
There will be simultaneous translation into four languages. Everyone
is welcome to participate. For more information and
last-minute registration, visit
< iaforeignministry.am> .
–Boundary_(ID_Rx29Jyqi1Ng8aEFcmtcJ0w)–
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:
HIS HOLINESS ARAM I MEETS WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GREEK
CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
His Holiness Aram I received the central committee of the Greek
Catholic community’s league in Bikfaya on September 5. They
consulted the Catholicos on the problems in Lebanon and the region in
general. They expressed their support for the Armenian opposition to
the participation of Turkey in the peacekeeping forces to be deployed
in South Lebanon.
“We completely support the position of the Armenian Community. Let’s
not forget that it was the same Turks who massacred Christian and
Muslim Lebanese,” said the chairman of the league.
His Holiness Aram I praised the brave stand of the Greek Catholic
community.
“The Armenians of Lebanon as a whole clearly and publicly expressed
their opinion and concerns regarding the participation of Turkey in
the peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon. As a spiritual leader, I
also expressed our viewpoints to the General Secretary of the United
Nations, the President of the Republic of Lebanon, its Prime Minister
and government. Our position was based on clear facts. In fact, how
can a country contribute to a peacekeeping mission when its past and
present are full of massacres, occupations, human rights violations
and trends that do not suit such mission,” said Aram I.
His Holiness and the delegation also discussed the possibilities
of strengthening the dialogue between the Christian and Muslim
communities.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
Ecumenical activities 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.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RA OMBUDSMAN CONDEMNS THE INFRINGEMENT AGAINST MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES
ArmRadio.am
07.09.2006 18:12
RA Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan severely condemns the recurrent
infringement against media representatives.
The statement spread by Press and PR Department of the Human Right
Defender’ s Office notes that the attacks against the journalists badly
harms the reputation of the country and jeopardizes the full guarantee
of the freedom of speech and accessibility of information. Yesterday’s
assault against editor of ” Iravunk” newspaper Hovhannes Galachian
was the recurrent action against freedom of press.
The Ombudsman calls on law-enforcement bodies to be most consistent
and anticipates that corresponding bodies will disclose any step aimed
at disturbing the journalists’ activity and the guilty will punished
with the whole strength of law.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SENATE PANEL APPROVES NOMINEE FOR AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
George Gedda
AP Worldstream
Sep 07, 2006
A Senate panel on Thursday approved the nomination of career diplomat
Richard Hoagland to be ambassador to Armenia, despite objections by
some senators to the Bush administration’s refusal to classify the
deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as “genocide.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote was 13-5. The nomination
will now be considered by the full Senate.
At his June 28 confirmation hearing, Hoagland declined to use the
word genocide to describe the 1915 killings, which occurred during
the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.
The tour of duty of the current ambassador, John Evans, reportedly
was curtailed because he referred to the killings as a genocide in
defiance of administration policy.
Turkey strongly objects to any such characterization. U.S. policymakers
are wary of antagonizing Turkey, an important NATO ally.
Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed in an organized genocidal campaign by Ottoman Turks, and have
pushed for recognition of the killings as genocide around the world.
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said Hoagland’s nomination should
be sent to the Senate for final approval.
The Senate, he said, “should not withhold confirmation based on
disagreements with administration policy.” It would be “troubling”
if such a precedent were to be set.
He pointed out that Armenia is an important country with borders on
Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Rejection of Hoagland would mean that
months would pass before an alternate ambassador could be found.
Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, said he could not “be in a position
to support a nominee who is not in a position to recognize a historical
reality.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, said she could not support the
nomination.
“I will today call it the Armenian genocide,” she said. “There is no
doubt about what happened. I believe is calling things by their names.”