Congressional Record: June 26, 2006 (Extensions)
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
MEETINGS SCHEDULED
JUNE 28
2:30 p.m.
Foreign Relations
To hold hearings to examine the nomination of Richard E.
Hoagland, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador
to the Republic of Armenia.

PRESS RELEASE
Hamazkayin Boston
Contact: Ara Nazarian
Phone: 617.924.8849
Email: [email protected]
Announcement of the Winners of Hamazkayin-Boston’s Impact of Genocide
Student Art Exhibit
WATERTOWN, MA – June 27, 2006 – It is Hamazkayin-Boston’s distinct
pleasure to announce the winners of The Impact of Genocide Student Art
Exhibit. This exhibit was held at the Copley Square branch of the Boston
Public Library during March of 2006. The winners are Ms. Areni
Kashkashian from Newton North High School (First place), Mr. Aidan
Fensterman (Second place) and Ms. Jenna Clark (Third place), both from
Brimmer and May School. These students along with all other participants
submitted excellent works of art reflecting upon the ills of humanity in
their own special and enlightening ways. The clarity and the power that
messages were conveyed in these works of art were truly moving; as such
expressions highlight the universal nature of pain, suffering, rebirth
and compassion.
Most importantly, Hamazkayin-Boston would like to thank the students who
submitted their works of art to this exhibit and gave us their
thoughtful impressions of the most unthoughtful acts committed by
mankind. We congratulate all participants for their wonderful works of
art and their parents and teachers for their help and support.
Hamazkayin-Boston will scan all the pictures in the near future and
place them in an online gallery on its website (hamazkayin-boston.org).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

National Review Online
June 13, 2006
Another `No Amnesty’ Amnesty
It was a nice try, at least.
By Mark Krikorian
It’s funny how every new `middle ground’ on immigration is in the same place
as the old ones.
The latest `middle ground’ proposal comes from Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.).
Pence, who has solid conservative credentials as head of the House
Republican Study Committee, offered what he billed as `The Real Rational
Middle Ground on Immigration Reform’ at a Heritage Foundation speech last
month. Since there’s no actual bill to look at, we have to judge from Rep.
Pence’s speech and other materials what the program would be like.
It starts out well enough. In seeking an alternative to amnesty, on the one
hand, and mass deportations, on the other, he laid out a four-step plan. The
first step is securing the border, and he included the entire enforcement
bill passed by the House in December (with two minor modifications) in his
measure.
Step two is to reject amnesty. That also sounds good, until you remember
that Senators Kennedy and McCain also deny their amnesty plan is an amnesty.
As do Senators Hagel and Martinez. And President Bush. They all deny that
they support amnesty because, as the president says, the only thing that
constitutes amnesty is `automatic citizenship,’ whatever that is.
Pence has a broader definition of amnesty:
Amnesty is allowing people whose first act in America was an illegal act to
get right with the law without leaving the country. Allowing twelve million
illegal aliens to stay in our country instead of leaving and coming back
legally is amnesty, no matter if fines or back taxes are paid, or how it is
otherwise dressed-up or spun by its proponents. The only way to deal with
these twelve million people is to insist that they leave the country and
come back legally if they have a job awaiting them.
This is exactly the same as the `touchback’ gimmick in the Senate amnesty
bill, which would require illegal aliens who have been here between two and
five years to cross the border to be enrolled in the permanent `temporary’
worker program and then immediately return to their homes and jobs.
That brings us to the third step: the guestworker amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Or,
if you prefer, legalization. Or normalization. Or regularization. Or earned
adjustment. Or whatever is the euphemism du jour. The fact remains that the
guestworker program in the Pence plan is explicitly designed to allow all
illegal aliens to keep their jobs and domiciles in the United States without
interruption.
The congressman is quite explicit on this point. In explaining the need for
speedy processing of the guestworkers, he says:
No employer in America wants to lose employees for an extended amount of
time. No worker who is earning money to feed and clothe a family can afford
to be off the job for long. … And, an illegal alien currently employed in
America will be willing to take a quick trip across the border to come back
outside of the shadows and in a job where he does not fear a raid by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In fact, I envision employers working
with placement agencies to make sure that their long-time illegal employees
get their paperwork processed, background checks performed, and visas issued
so that they will be back on the job quickly.
In the 1950s, this process was called – in official U.S. government
publications – `drying out the wetbacks.’ Whether it’s called an amnesty
instead, or is given some other label, the point is to let all illegal
aliens stay legally.
But maybe the amnesty is time-limited? And in fact, part of Pence’s `no
amnesty’ claim is that the guestworker visa would be limited to a total of
six years. This would be an encouraging requirement, except that, in the
congressman’s words, `At that point, the guest should decide whether to
return home or enter the separate process of seeking citizenship.’ If legal
immigration quotas are to remain in force, then these formerly illegal, now
`temporary,’ workers will have to leave, en masse, six years from now, which
is precisely the mass deportation the congressman said (correctly) is
unworkable. On the other hand, if these workers will be able to receive
permanent residency outside the current limits, as they would be under the
Senate amnesty bill, then this plan is the very `path to citizenship’ that
Rep. Pence made a big show of condemning. It’s unclear which of these is
true, but it’s undeniable that the plan is either dishonest or amateurish.
Step four really takes the cake: a promise – really, truly,
cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die – to enforce the ban on hiring illegals in
the future. Pence himself says that since every illegal alien will be
legalized, employers wouldn’t need to hire illegals, but that enforcement
will be phased in nonetheless. This is exactly the bait-and-switch Congress
perpetrated in 1986 – legalization first, enforcement later (i.e., never).
It is for this reason that the House, animated by a `fool me twice, shame on
me’ skepticism, has insisted on `Enforcement First.’
There are plenty of other reasons to dismiss the Pence plan as unserious: by
not calling for an end to automatic citizenship at birth, it makes the
`temporary’ claim meaningless; his gimmick of having the private sector
screen the workers misses the point that they will still need to use (and
receive security clearances for access to) the very same databases that the
FBI and Department of Homeland Security use now; and to get `temporary’
workers, employers will merely have to attest that they tried to hire
Americans, rather than using objective measures to determine need, like
rising wages or low unemployment in the specific occupation in question.
In fact, I didn’t write about this plan when it was announced because I
didn’t think it possible that anyone could take it seriously. I was wrong.
Though the Pence amnesty plan hasn’t been widely covered, it has received
support, or at a least respectful hearing, from insiders who will affect the
final outcome of any bill. It’s no surprise, for instance, that amnesty
supporters like Dick Armey, John Fund, and Michael Barone have had nice
things to say about it (not to mention several newspaper editorial pages),
but even supporters of Enforcement First, like Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and
Newt Gingrich, have been more receptive of the plan than a close reading of
it would warrant. It’s also ironic that Pence’s speech was delivered at the
Heritage Foundation, given that his plan appears to violate Heritage’s
`permanent principles’ on immigration; it will be interesting to see what
Heritage has to say about the plan.
In the end, the Pence Amnesty wouldn’t go down with the public any better
than the string of other amnesty plans that have been proposed over the past
couple of years. As Peggy Noonan wrote last week about the public’s
suspicions regarding immigration plans: `they think – they assume, at this
point, reflexively – that slithery, slippery professional politicians are
using and inventing complications to obfuscate and confuse. … Americans
don’t trust `comprehensive plans,’ because they don’t trust the
comprehensive planners.’
There’s only one way Congress and the president can earn back the public’s
trust on immigration: Enforce the law – comprehensively, confidently,
unapologetically. Then, after several years have passed and enforcement
mechanisms are in place and working, and the illegal population has shrunk
through attrition, Washington will have proven that, this time, it’s not
lying about immigration.
Until then, no deal.
Mark Krikorian is executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies
and an NRO contributor.
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National Review Online –
MmViMmRhMTEwNTA1OWY0OTEzMjg5ZWU

ALL ARE EQUAL
Karine Asatryan
A1+
[04:31 pm] 27 June, 2006
The PACE deputies are preparing for a campaign. The youth campaign
“All are different, all are equal” will initiate in Strasbourg on
June 29. Terry Devis, CoE Secretary General invited the deputies
to participate in it. The youth campaign which will last till the
2007 autumn has the following slogan, “Diversity, human rights and
participation.”
By diversity the campaign initiators mean that Europe presents various
cultures and traditions. The protection of human rights is the CoE
priority and finally by participation they assume that each person may
have his share in the establishment of the future Europe where each
person will have a right to be different but at the same time equal.
By the way, the CoE has initiated campaigns with the title “All are
equal, all are different” a few times.
The 1995 campaign was devoted to racism, xenophobia and intolerance
combat. But this time the campaign will involve more spheres. “We
just want to say that we are all different and equal regardless of
our skin colour, culture, belief, mental and physical abilities and
sexual orientation,” says the statement of the campaign committee.

THE VISIT OF THE OFFICIAL DELEGATION OF THE NKR TO THE USA
A1+
[04:35 pm] 27 June, 2006
On June 22, within the framework of the working visit of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s delegation to the United States of America,
NKR National Assembly Chairman Ashot Ghoulian and the Republic’s
Foreign Minister Georgy Petrossian arrived in Boston.
On June 23, the NKR Parliament Speaker and Foreign Minister visited the
House of Representatives of the state of Massachusetts where they met
with Deputy of the Parliament Rachel Kapriyelian and advisor to Speaker
on Healthcare Issues Chris Hager. In the course of the meetings issues
concerning mutual cooperation in the sphere of education, culture,
and healthcare, as well as parliamentary activity were discussed.
Then the NKR delegation met with the members of the Council of editors
of the “Boston Glob” newspaper.
During the conversation the current state of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement peace process and social-economic situation
in Artsakh were touched upon. The NKR representatives replied to
different questions of journalists.
In Boston the official representatives of Nagorno Karabakh also
had meetings with representatives of the leadership of the Armenian
Assembly of America (AAA) Caroline Mîughar and Anthony Parsamian. The
issues connected with the relations’ expansion between AAA and the
NKR authorities were discussed.
In the evening NKR National Assembly Chairman Ashot Ghoulian and
NKR Minister for Foreign Affairs Georgy Petrossian visited Armenian
Cultural and Educational Centre where they met with the leadership
of the Armenian organizations of the state of Massachusetts.
After the meeting a public event took place. During the meeting an
important contribution of the USA Armenian community to the development
of Artsakh was noted. They also spoke about the necessity of the
participation of the Diaspora Armenians in the confrontation to the
challenges facing Nagorno Karabakh. The official representatives of
Artsakh answered the questions of the participants of the meeting,
which mainly related to economic, social and cultural spheres.
On June 24, a meeting was held at Sam and Aida Bedjakians place where
a number of American philanthropists of Armenian origin were present.
During the meeting the NKR representatives on behalf of the people
of Nagorno Karabakh expressed their gratitude to their compatriots
from the USA for the consistent assistance which was being rendered to
Artsakh. In their turn, the Armenian businessmen of America confirmed
once more their readiness to support the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
The working visit of the NKR delegation to the USA is in progress.
–Boundary_(ID_lxRPKNRQIUXg3XsO+iS8rQ)- –

ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN CONSULTATIONS
A1+
[04:48 pm] 27 June, 2006
Gegham Gharibjanyan, deputy minister of the RA Foreign Affairs will
leave for Moscow on June 27 – 29 to participate in the consultations
of the Armenian and Russian Foreign Ministries on June 29 and in
the International conference titled “on the ways of drug transfer
from Afghanistan.”
He will meet with G. Karasin, RF Foreign deputy minister and the
State secretary the last day of his visit.

PERSISTENT DROUGHT DESTROYS CROPS IN SYUNIK
Armenpress
Jun 27 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS: Authorities in the southern province
of Syunik say around 27,000 hectares of land under various crops
are endangered by the persistent drought.. Most affected are 8,400
hectares of land under wheat in Sisian region.
Vahram Avanesian, head of a department in the provincial governor’s
office, said they are going to ask the government to set up a
commission to assess the volume of damages and offer a way out. Exerts
fear that if the drought continues for another fortnight local farmers
may lose all their crops.

THE YOUTH CONDEMN TURKEY
A1+
[03:10 pm] 27 June, 2006
A number of youth organizations condemn the inhospitable attitude
towards the All Armenian Catholicos Garegin II in Istanbul. Today the
representatives of the youth organization of the Republican Party and
“Nikol Aghbalyan” Students’ Union of the Dashnaktsutyun Party informed
about it.
In this connection about 30 political, social, youth and students’
organizations released a joint statement on June 26 and they are
going to hand it to all European Embassies.
According to Karen Avagyan, head of the youth organization of the
Republican Party the youth couldn’t keep silence. “We shall try to
prevent such cases in future. We want the Council of Europe to take
into consideration the fact that Turkey is not going to have any ties
with Armenia.”
They noted that this is not the first assault in the Turkish history on
the Armenian and Christian clergymen. “Many months ago a Moslem from
Turkey, which is a candidate to the EU, killed a catholic clergyman
during the liturgy. It is due to mention that the encroachment upon
Johannes Poghos II was also initiated by the Turks,” they claim.
In their statement the Armenian youth representatives demand the
international community, mainly the EU member-countries to refer to
this event and to condemn the assault on the Armenian Church Supreme
Patriarch.
In their opinion this assault is humiliating and it also violates
the rights and fundamental freedoms of the Christian residents(mainly
Armenian citizens) living in Turkey.
By the way, the participants of the press release are going to meet
with the All Armenian Catholicos after his return to Armenia, make
the details clear and later make certain steps among the youth.

EUROPEANS DON’T ACCEPT THE USA MEASURES OF TERRORISM COMBAT
Karine Asatryan
A1+
[03:44 pm] 27 June, 2006
The USA interests differ from those of Europe. A brilliant testify
to this are the PACE current discussions of the report on “Illegal
intergovernmental transfers of suspected secret prisoners and prisons
in the CoE member-countries.”
“The terrorism combat mustn’t mingle with human rights breach,” noted
Peter Shyoder, reporter of the Committee on political issues and added
that the Europeans must differ from the Americans by that feature.
“Terrorism combat is priority, but all our partners must respect the
supremacy of the international right,” claimed Rene van der Liden
for several times during the PACE June session.
Today it was noted for several times that the USA has started to breach
human rights after the September 11 terrorist attack. According to
the French representative they must combat against terrorism but not
with the weapons of terrorists.
Today nearly all participants thanked Swiss deputy Diki Martini who
was the author of the report.
“Excellent investigation,” repeated all speakers.
The journalists got documental films of DVD format in the morning
titled “War and Terrorism.”
The film is about the severe destiny of two men who appeared in the
USA secret prison. Suvash Patel, the producer of the film announced
that they finished the film only a few days ago and haven’t managed
to translate it yet even into French which is the second official
language of the PACE after English.
By the way, Diki Martini’s report is not the end of the investigation,
just on the contrary, it is the beginning and they the session
participants on the CoE member-counties and their partners to continue
observing the matter further on and prevent the phenomenon in future.

PRESS RELEASE
From: Mira Yardemian
Public Relations Director
Haigazian University
Rue Mexique – Kantari
P.O. Box 11-1748
Riad El-Solh 1107 2090
Beirut – LebanonBeirut, 25/06/2006
Haigazian University Baccalaureate Service 2006.
`Egotitis is indeed a universal human condition, but Lebanese society
seems to be especially fertile soil for it. Everybody talks about
corruption and complains about it – at the root of corruption is egotitis
‘, said Dr. George Sabra, Academic Dean at the Near East School of
Theology, Beirut, to the graduating class of 2006.
Dr. George Sabra was the guest speaker at the Baccalaureate Service of
Haigazian University, which took place on Sunday, the 25th of June 2006, in
the First Armenian Evangelical Church in Beirut.
A large number of graduates and their families participated in this
ceremony, a service of dedication for the graduating class of 2006.
The graduating class walked through the church sanctuary during the
processional hymn. The service began with a call to worship by Rev. Nishan
Bakalian, the campus minister, followed by a hymn of praise, `Be Thou My
Vision’, and the prayer of invocation.
In his word of welcome, the President of Haigazian University, Rev.
Dr. Paul Haidostian, greeted the audience, among whom the President of the
Supreme Council of Evangelical Churches in Syria and Lebanon, Rev. Salim
Sahyouni, Prsesident Emeritus of Boston University, Dr. Aram Chobanian and
his wife, in addition to dignitaries of the community.
Haidostian summarized his feelings and thoughts, stating that `a
service of Thanksgiving is mostly future-oriented,’ adding, that `without
God’s guidance no destination will be safe, and without an awakened spirit
no career will be fulfilling.’
Several graduates took part in the service: Roubina Karaminassian
and Talar Agopian read biblical selections, Joyce Saddi offered a song
accompanied by Shahan Kilaghbian on the piano, while Sarine Hagopian
shared her personal testimony with the audience, explaining how Haigazian
University affected her social, academic and spiritual life positively, and
helped her change to become a better person.
`Treating Egotitis’, was the theme of the message of the day,
delivered by Dr. George Sabra, who tackled the theme of curing oneself from
the disease of egoism, called by him `egotitis’. He explained to the
graduates that graduation from a university is one of those transitions
which exposes young adults to a larger world, to society as a whole, hence,
becoming more exposed to social and spiritual viruses and infections.
`You should be well-equipped to deal with it and protect yourself
against it, if you have made the best of your stay at this university. Not
every college or university can prepare you to deal with egotitis and other
ills of society; it is only universities or colleges that have a mission, a
spiritual mission, and not just academic or technical goals. Haigazian is
such a university with a mission’, Sabra concluded.
A prayer of dedication by the Vice-Chairman of Haigazian University’s
Board of Trustees, Rev. Robert Sarkissian followed, after which Mher
Foudoulian and Lama Bendak read the pledges of the graduates to carry the
light of truth, freedom & service to the world: `We, the class of 2006 of
Haigazian University, in receiving this light, pledge to hold high the
light of truth, to defend the light of freedom, and to spread the light of
service to our communities, our country and our world’.
While the graduates shared the flame among fellow-classmates, the
President of the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near
East, Rev, Megrdich Karagoezian pronounced the benediction, whereupon the
class of 2006 marched out the sanctuary with the recessional, each carrying
the light out into the world.