KARABAKH CONFLICT MAY BE SETTLED ONLY IF ALL PARTIES ARE REALISTIC

Pan Armenian News
13.09.2005 08:11

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On September 11, in the NKR Permanent Representation
in the RA, Arman Melikian, the NKR Foreign Minister, received the
delegation of the International Crisis Group (ICG) Non-Governmental
Organization headed by Alain Deletroz. Mr. Deletroz presented the
organization’s activity to the NKR FM noting their aim in general is
to contribute to the peaceful settlement of international conflicts
and war prevention. In this context, the ICG prepared a report on
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict titled Nagorno Karabakh: Viewing the
Conflict from the Ground. According to Mr. Deletroz, the report is
aimed to assist the Armenian and Azerbaijani parties, as well as the
mediators to find acceptable solutions at the bargaining table. Mr.
Melikian emphasized the importance of the international community’s
involvement in the process of establishing lasting peace in the
region. He noted that the conflict may be settled only if all the
parties involved are realistic and clearly understand that the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijani Republic are the main
parties to the conflict and any effort to present the conflict as a
territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan could be interpreted
as intentional distortion of the reality. Having handed the NKR
Foreign Minister the text of the report at the end of the meeting,
the ICG delegation head informed it will be published on September 14.
Thanking the ICG representatives, Mr. Melikian assured them that the
provisions of the report would be carefully examined in Stepanakert.

ICCO repairing Iran’s churches

IranMania News, Iran
Sept 13 2005

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 – ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, September 13 (IranMania) – Iran will spend five billion
rials to repair churches across the country. Islamic Culture and
Communications Organization (ICCO) said in a press release that an
annual budget has been allocated to repair churches belonging to
various Christian communities, including the Armenians, in Iran.

Iran?s cultural attache in Armenia Alireza Otoufi said that Iran
accords special importance to Iranian religious minorities and the
government has set aside five billion rials to repair the churches in
the current fiscal year (March 2005-March 2006), Iran Daily reported.

Otoufi explained that the government?s decision to that effect in a
meeting in Yerevan, Armenia with archbishops of Armenian churches in
Tehran, northern Iran and Isfahan.

He said that Iran is the only country that extends annual budget for
repairing churches.

Archbishop of Armenians in Tehran and northern Iran, Siveh Sarkisyan
said that Iran is a unique country and the government and churches
enjoyed excellent relations in the field of dialogue among religions.

Archbishop Sarkisyan appreciated the services of Iranian cultural
attache in Yerevan and said, ?Wherever, we are, we have the same
obligations for promoting religion.?

Bobken Charyan, a bishop of Isfahan archdiocese thanked the Iranian
government for its cooperation with the churches.

Copies from chapters of holy Qur?an were presented as gifts to
the guests.

–Boundary_(ID_SqbZclcw8nVrXzsMwvkeKQ)–

R. KOCHARIAN THANKED BOTH ARMENIAN AND RUSSIAN SERVICEMEN FOR VALIANT SERVICE TO FATHERLAND

Pan Armenian News
13.09.2005 06:52

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian thanked
participants of the final phase of the jubilee 10th Armenian-Russian
military and tactical exercises, held on the ground after marshal
Baghramyan in Armavir region of Armenia today. The Armenian leader
thanked both Armenian and Russian servicemen for valiant service
to Fatherland. “Fraternity between Armenia and Russia continues. It
comes out in an agreement, in compliance with which there is a Russian
military base in Armenia and joint exercises are held,” R. Kocharian
emphasized. Having thanked the personnel, Russian Ambassador Nikolay
Pavlov in his turn noted the high level of harmony in work of Armenian
and Russian military units. It should be reminded the exercises were
held in compliance with the bilateral cooperation plan.

Secretary of the National Security Council at the Armenian President,
Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan, CSTO Sec. Gen. Nikolay Bordyuzha
and commander of the Group of Russian Troops in Transcaucasia (GRTT)
major general Andrey Popov followed the maneuvers as well. 545th
infantry fortified regiment, a tank company, antiaircraft means, an
intelligence group, as well as four SU-25 planes, four MI-24 and two
MI-8 helicopters took part in the event from the Armenian side. The
Russian party was represented by a fortified infantry battalion, a tank
company, S-300 antiaircraft missile complex and four MIG-29 planes. The
personnel of both parties taking part in the exercises numbered 1307
servicemen, while the equipment totaled 294 units. The script of the
exercises provides for repulsing an attack of a conditional adversary
and subsequent elimination of his units. The exercises aim at working
out interaction between the Armenian and Russian formations. A new
detail was introduced in the script – a counter-terror operation,
during which a possible act of terrorism by the conditional adversary
was prevented, reported IA Regnum.
From: Baghdasarian

‘JEWS ARE NEWS’

Maclean’s, Canada
September 12, 2005

Why does the Nazi Holocaust preoccupy us more than any other genocide?

In this excerpt from Beethoven’s Mask, heavily condensed by
Maclean’s, Toronto-based author and journalist George Jonas refutes
the popular notions — articulated, among other places, in Daniel
Jonah Goldhagen’s book Hitler’s Willing Executioners — that the
Holocaust was a unique event, and that it arose from a peculiarly
German kind of anti-Semitism.

I SPENT the first 10 years of my life in Nazioccupied Europe. My
immediate family and I survived the war by hiding. Since I kept no
diary, had the Nazis found me as they had found Anne Frank, I would
have disappeared without a trace. This would undoubtedly have made
the Holocaust a singular and unique event for me. I am less sure
about the Holocaust having been a singular and unique event in world
history. To me it seems that it was one of many horrifying holocausts,
albeit of immense proportions. I also doubt that the Holocaust was the
inevitable result of anti-Semitism, and especially that the Holocaust
was inevitably caused by a singular and unique type of anti-Semitism
peculiar to Germany.

Goldhagen’s thesis is that the Holocaust could never have happened
without the participation of ordinary Germans, who participated
because they were virulently anti-Semitic. This is true enough as far
as it goes, but it does not go very far. Saying that Hitler could not
have killed six million Jews without the participation of many other
people, and that people who participate in the wholesale slaughter
of Jews are likely to be virulently anti-Semitic, is saying something
singularly self-evident.

Goldhagen contends that German people and culture were anti-Semitic in
a unique way that he calls “eliminationist.” For proof, he documents
the historic existence of German anti-Semitic ideas and policies
exhaustively and convincingly. But he offers no proof of its German
singularity, or that “eliminationist” anti-Semitism can be taken as
a precursor to, or at least a portent of, genocide.

Proof would be hard to come by, for history shows no inevitable link
between anti-Semitism — or any other type of racial, ethnic, class, or
religious prejudice or hatred — and genocide. What’s more, traditional
German prejudice against Jews, though widespread and intense, was
less acute than traditional Polish prejudice, and not significantly
more acute than French prejudice. Before Hitler’s time, Jews often
emigrated to Germany to escape worse discrimination elsewhere.

Was German anti-Semitism before the Hitler era materially different
from anti-Semitism in other times and places? I believe it was not.

Modern anti-Semitism developed side by side with nationalism, as
older organizing principles of the social order weakened. Ironically,
it came as a by-product of the Enlightenment. As the dynastic and
religious systems by which groups used to define themselves were losing
their grip, people were gradually beginning to think of themselves as
“Russians” rather than subjects of the Czars, or “Germans” rather than
subjects of the Hohenzollern emperors. The one-time vassals of the
Bourbons were turning into the Gallic sons and daughters of Marianne,
the emblematic figure of the French Revolution. The pilgrims and
warriors of Christendom or Islam were evolving into “Italians” or
“Turks.”

Such definitions inevitably put a premium on ethnic identity.

Suddenly Jews were no longer patches in the colourful tapestry of
empires, but alien and potentially baneful cells in the bloodstream
of nations. As national identities assumed greater importance, a new
type of anti-Semitism was born.

But these modern, populist-nationalist-racist elements existed in the
anti-Semitic laws and opinion of all contemporary cultures, not only
in Germany’s. The “Jewish question,” so-called, was raised by almost
every nation from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. Raising it
was regarded as legitimate.

Why, then, did the Holocaust occur in Germany and not in some
other country? There is a danger of replying to this by attributing
some peculiar evil to Germans as a group — i.e., as a “race.” To
his credit, Goldhagen takes great pains to avoid it. The problem is,
unless we postulate evil, there is little in German history or culture
to provide an alternative explanation. Germany’s traditions were
no less rational, no less civilized, no less chivalrous, than other
Western traditions during the same period. Her public laws and civic
morality, the personal habits of her citizens, their ethical precepts,
their customary religious beliefs, were not markedly different from
those of the citizens of other European nations.

German art, science, industry, and infrastructure were, if anything,
more advanced. Although the governmental institutions in Germany’s
recent past were more autocratic than those of France and England,
not to mention the United States, they were not nearly as autocratic
as many other countries’. In any event, by the time Hitler came to
power, the Weimar Republic was a democracy.

Jews in Germany were well integrated — not only far better than the
Jews of Poland or Russia, but on the whole better than the Jews in
many Western countries, including even the United States and Canada.

Most German Jews were German patriots. Though after their emancipation
in the mid-18th century, their contribution to music, arts, sciences,
commerce, literature, journalism and even politics far exceeded their
numbers (about one per cent) in Germany’s population, Germany’s
institutions were not overwhelmed by Jews (though this became a
frequent explanation offered by anti-Semites for their anti-Semitism),
not even to the extent that Austria’s or Hungary’s might have been. One
looks in vain for a rational — or even irrational — explanation
for a supposed “unique hatred” in the history of the relationship
between Jews and Germans. The search turns up nothing.

What, then, is the answer? Why did the Holocaust occur in Germany? We
can certainly view traditional German anti-Semitism as one contributing
cause. Hitler himself must be considered a significant factor. A
charismatic leader is like an ignition source, a spark: utterly
insignificant in the absence of an explosive mixture, but the direct
cause of a blow-up in a place filled with combustible fumes.

In another country — or in Germany in another historic period —
Hitler might have died unnoticed in a flophouse or in a mental
institution. But he was where he was, therefore he did what he did.

The Holocaust would not have happened without him.

There were many reasons for Germany being unlike other countries
in the 1920s. Other countries lacked the shock that follows losing
a war that the Germans believed they were winning almost until the
last minute. The national trauma of that unexpected blow is still
insufficiently understood outside Germany. It was inevitable for
conspiracy theories to start flourishing after such a traumatic
event. The soil for Nazism was prepared by German indignation. It
sparked an immediate search for scapegoats. It seemed natural to
include Jews in this conspiracy.

The super-inflation that started in 1922 and lasted until 1924 was
devastating. The stock market crash of 1929 was undoubtedly a factor,
but the Depression did not necessarily lead to the rise of totalitarian
systems elsewhere. More significant was the rare, maybe even unique,
vulnerability of the Weimar Republic. Conventional analysis often
blames the treaty of Versailles for the rise of Nazism, but the status
of Germany as an adolescent democracy was at least as important. This
almost teenage-like stage in the nation’s life probably had more to do
with the irrational eruptions in Germany’s soul than any other factor.

Mature democracies, such as the United States or Great Britain, with
solid traditions of both individual liberty and checks and balances
on the exercise of power, would have been far more resistant to the
totalitarian nature of Nazism than Germany. Additionally, a class
society such as Britain’s would have been far more resistant to letting
a party composed of tradesmen and petty officials grab the helm of
the ship of the state. Social snobbery alone would have prevented a
corporal like Hitler from becoming supreme leader of England.

But there is something even more important. The seemingly
insurmountable hurdle of “Why in Germany?” vanishes if we stop
insisting on the Holocaust as a unique and singular event. If it were
unique, we could scarcely explain it, in spite of all the points listed
above, except by attributing to Germans an inherent, subhuman barbarity
that comes perilously close, no matter how we try to get around it,
to the inherent, subhuman malice the Nazis attributed to Jews.

A race of barbarians with inherent streaks of virulent anti-Semitism
does not metamorphose into a race of liberal humanists overnight,
as Goldhagen incongruously insists in his book. The influence of
postwar education could not achieve such a miracle. If Germans are
not genocidally anti-Semitic today — as indeed they are not — it
is because Germans were never uniquely or inherently genocidal or
anti-Semitic. They were just situational murderers between 1933 and
1945, as many groups have been at one period or another.

If we view the monstrous tragedy of the Holocaust as only one of many
such monstrous tragedies in human history, then the accurate question
becomes “Why not in Germany?” Why could Germans not do evil in the
same way that so many other people have done?

“I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and
universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced
according to the play of circumstances.” The French Catholic
philosopher Simone Weil, a converted Jew, wrote these lines in 1940.

The years since have given us no better insight.

A different question: If there is nothing unique about the Nazi
Holocaust (aside perhaps from its dimension), why does it preoccupy
us more than other holocausts?

Match it, for instance, with our attitude to the Communist holocaust.

While Nazi criminals who played a direct role in the murder of six
million are still hunted down and tried, we rarely prosecute Communist
criminals of similar degrees of responsibility.

(Interestingly, almost all the exceptions occurred in Germany, which
did prosecute some former East German officials after unification.)
Elsewhere it has been more usual for ex-functionaries of KGB- or
Gulagtype organizations to receive government positions or pensions.

The Nazi Party was immediately outlawed in post-war Germany. The
Communist Party, in contrast, is still the official opposition in
the former Soviet Union. Ex-Nazi officials like Kurt Waldheim, once
discovered, became international untouchables. Ex-Communist officials
like Mikhail Gorbachev are still asked to join think-tanks or lecture
at Western universities. It would be unthinkable for known ex-Nazis
to be invited to the same diplomatic cocktail receptions in Western
countries at which ex-Communists, or even current Communists, are
honoured guests. And imagine a former Gestapo officer being accepted
as the president of post-Nazi Germany, the way ex-KGB officer Vladimir
Putin has been accepted as the president of post-Soviet Russia.

Why do we react to the Nazi Holocaust and the Communist holocaust
differently? It is possible to postulate the following answers:

To begin with, the Holocaust provided people with the initial images
of mass slaughter as the Nazi death camps were being liberated.

Cinemas around the world showed — for the first time in history —
heaps of skeletal corpses being pushed into mass graves by bulldozers,
along with mounds of footwear, gold teeth, artifacts alleged to have
been made of human skin, and charred remains inside the incinerators
of Auschwitz. No ordinary person had ever seen anything like it. Those
inaugural images literally shocked the world’s conscience.

The Communist holocausts provided no comparable photo opportunities.

The islands of the Gulag deep inside the Soviet Union or China remained
inaccessible to the cameras of the Western media. Their millions of
victims between the 1920s and the 1980s perished unseen.

By the time a few snippets appeared on television screens, such as
the aftermath of the holocaust in Cambodia, audiences had become
inured to death and destruction through repeated exposure. Pictures
of slaughter in people’s living rooms became commonplace during the
television coverage of the Vietnam War. By the end of the 1970s,
photographic images had lost their power to shock.

Another contributing reason, at least until recently, was the
contrasting attitude many opinion makers had to Nazism as opposed
to Communism. Identical as the two intoxicants may have been,
intellectuals could get drunk on the wine of one far more easily
than the other. Nazism never “travelled,” to borrow an expression
from viticulture. Communism did.

There were self-evident reasons for this. It would have been
nonsensical for ideas of German superiority to become an export item
for non-Germans, or ideas of Aryan superiority for non-Aryans.

Marxist notions of the class struggle faced no similar obstacles. In
addition, Nazism as a social theory could rely on nothing but the
coldest and most selfish of human impulses to justify its call for
conquest and slaughter, but Communism could also enlist warm and
humane impulses of altruism to rationalize its own genocides.

Next, given that Nazism suffered an abject military defeat within
a decade of its emergence, while Communism appeared to march from
triumph to triumph until the mid-1980s, it is not surprising that
generations of opinion makers in academia, journalism and government
have been reluctant to discuss acts of Communist genocide in the same
breath with Nazi acts of genocide. To this day, Communist holocausts
may be respectably denied in countries whose laws treat the denial
of the Nazi Holocaust as a crime.

World opinion has also been affected by the fact that the largest
single group of Hitler’s victims were Jews. Murdering six million
members of one group does not have exactly the same consequences as
murdering six million members of another. Recent massacres of Mayans,
Moluccans or Kurds have not resulted in the same echo as earlier
massacres of Armenians. The opprobrium that attaches to genocide will
vary not only with the slaughter’s magnitude, cruelty, irrationality,
documentability and scope, but also with the ability of its victims
and survivors to attract attention and sympathy.

All victims are equal in their desire for, and entitlement to,
the world’s notice, but they are not always equal in their capacity
to capture it. When Germans decided to exterminate the Jews, they
picked the wrong group. As individuals, Jews tended to be gifted and
articulate. As an aggregate, they were well placed to disseminate
information, especially in the Western hemisphere. Traditional
Jewish occupations, in addition to science, business and the law,
included such natural forums as the literary arts, the entertainment
industry and the media. What’s more, the Diaspora spread Jews all over
the globe. Many rose to prominence in various fields. Jews always
amounted to a constituency in many key nations, at least in weight
if not in numbers. “Jews are news,” as an eminent Western scholar on
Islam quipped in a speech in 2002, quoting an old witticism.

Anti-Semites have often pounced on these characteristics, distorted
them, or used them illegitimately, mixed with false ones of their
own invention, to raise the spectre of a mythical “Jewish conspiracy.”

That is poisonous rubbish, but it does not mean that some of these
characteristics do not exist. It is hardly surprising that Jews were
traumatized by Nazism and resented being murdered. As they had the
necessary attributes to attract public attention, they relied on them
— especially after the Holocaust — in self-defence.

Still, the foremost reason for which we view the Holocaust not only
as one of many such abysses in humanity’s past, but as a unique
occurrence and the epitome of evil, is probably different. Germany
was Europe’s most cultured nation. It was a nation of Kant, Beethoven
and Goethe. Even if only a minuscule minority of its Nazis read poetry
or played Mozart on the piano, the gulf between the cultural history
of Germany’s inhabitants and their barbaric behaviour during the Nazi
era was incomprehensibly wide. It stunned their victims as it stunned
the world.

The scope and barbarity of the Holocaust would have been stunning
even if carried out by headhunters from Borneo, but it was not. It was
carried out by Germans. It may be difficult for post-war generations
raised in the last half century — during which Germans became
equated with the Nazi salute, not only in popular entertainment but
also in political and academic discourse — to understand the sheer
bewilderment people felt in the decade between the mid-1930s and the
1940s as they were gradually discovering the full extent of the vulgar
brutality of Hitler’s regime. It did not seem “typically” German, as we
might think of it today, but fundamentally un-German. It did not fit.

At the risk of trivializing a cataclysmic event by a facile metaphor,
the Holocaust was like a society murder. Society murders become
notorious because of the contrast between the criminal and the crime.

Butchery in the slums hardly makes the back pages, but the same act
committed in a mansion becomes headline news. The crimes of a serial
killer would be noted in any event, but if Jack the Ripper turns out
to be the Archbishop of Canterbury, it occupies a unique place in
the annals of crime. It becomes singular. This, I suggest, is what
happened in 1945 when the Allies entered Bergen-Belsen and revealed
the Germans to the world as mass murderers.

It is the human race that is genocidal, not the Germans. Saying this
is not to excuse the Germans, but to note a fact. In one vital sense
we are all Jews and we are all Germans, potentially, depending on the
conditions in which we find ourselves. Remembering this may reduce
the likelihood that we will ever be Jews or Germans again as Jews or
Germans were during one night-marish period between 1933 and 1945.

Reprinted with permission of Key Porter Books from Beethoven’s Mask:
Notes on My Life and Times by George Jonas.

For original reprints (with graphics) available

ARMENIAN MILITARY MEN READY IF NEED BE TO CONTINUE THEIR PEACE KEEPING IN IRAQ

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13. ARMINFO. The Armenian military men in Iraq are
ready to replace their colleagues in Iraq if the parliament decides
on the continuation of Armenia’s peace keeping in that country,
says Armenia’s Deputy Defence Minister Lieut Gen Artur Agabekyan.

The next rotation in Iraq is in Dec 2005, in Kosovo in Oct 2005. The
Armenian peace keeping in Kosovo started in Feb 2004. The Armenian
peace keepers are part of a Greek battalion. THe rotation is held each
half a year. The Iraq-based peace keepers have been sent for one year.

Foreign Minister to Attend UN Session in New York

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 13 2005

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has left for New York to attend
the 60th session of the United Nations that will start on Tuesday. He
is expected to deliver a speech at the event.

Azerbaijan plans to bring up the issue of illegal settlements of
Armenians in the occupied Azeri territories, which was last raised
at the previous session of the UN General Assembly.

ARMENIA TO TAKE PART IN IT FORUM IN 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13. ARMINFO. Leading Armenian companies will take
part in the IT forum to be held in Silicon Valley, US, in 2006,
reports Armenian Development Agency.

This may attract foreign investments and boost IT exports in Armenia.

The local Armenian community will help ADA in its organizational
activities.

In 2004 IT output in Armenia totalled $50 mln ($32 mln exports).

Armenian IT products are exported to over 20 countries.-

DR ANTRANIK ASHDJIAN ANNOUNCES HIS CANDIDACY

GIBRAHAYER e-magazine
Sept 12, 2005

[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])

The largest circulation Armenian
online e-magazine on the WWW

Dr.Atamyan’s candidacy expected to follow Gibrahayer September 12,
2005. A prominent community activist – a dentist by profession –
with an impeccable track record in community affairs is bidding
to become the next Armenian representative in the Cyprus House of
Representatives, in the by-elections that will take place on Sunday
October 9, 2005.

Besides his current position as Chairman of the Armenian National
Committee of Cyprus – a post which he has continuously held for the
past eight years – Dr.Antranik Ashdjian has been on the Editorial
Board of the Artsagang Armenian language monthly since its founding
ten years ago.

He has on many occasions participated in conferences, seminars and
discussions in Cyprus, Armenia, Brussels and elsewhere, addressing
issues concerning the Armenian nation, the Armenian Cause, the Armenian
Church, and the Armenian Community in Cyprus as well as minority
rights. Together with the late representative Bedros Kalaydjian, he
played a key role in formulating the Armenian community’s positions
and visions regarding its status in a post-solution Cyprus.

He has written numerous articles on these issues which have been
published in Cypriot (Greek and Armenian language) and Diaspora
publications.

Dr.Antranik Ashdjian – a graduate of the Semmelweis Medical University
of Budapest – speaks and writes Armenian, Greek, English and Hungarian
fluently.

With his perfect knowledge of the Greek language he has – on numerous
occasions over the years – appeared and advocated on Armenian related
issues on national TV and all local printed and electronic media.

In 1998 he was ordained a Deacon in the Armenian Apostolic Church of
Cyprus which he has been serving since childhood.

Dr. Ashdjian has been a member of the Diocesan Committee for the
1700th Jubilee of the Proclamation of Christianity as State Religion
in Armenia and numerous delegations of the Catholicosate of Cilicia
in Ecumenical meetings and conferences.

He has also been active in the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and
served for several terms in the AYMA/HMEM committee.

In AYF’s first International jamboree held in Armenia in 1997, he met
his wife Aline – a Kuwaiti Armenian whom he married in 1999. Aline
works as an IT professional in PricewaterhouseCoopers, and is an active
member of The Armenian Relief Society (HOM) of Cyprus, Hamazkayin
Oshagan Cyprus Chapter and The Nareg School Parents and Teachers
Association. Their daughter Alik aged five, currently attends first
grade in Nareg Armenian School.

Dr. Ashdjian has been instrumental in the publication of the coloured
tri-lingual album titled “The Armenian Apostolic Church in Cyprus”,
as well as the Armenian-Greek-English booklet containing the Armenian
Liturgy aimed at bringing non-Armenian speaking families closer to the
Church and the community. He is also responsible for the publication
of “Keghart” – the periodical of the Armenian Prelacy of Cyprus and
assists in the publication of “Ardziv”, a literary weekly published
in Lebanon.

Although no other official candidacy has been announced to
the press to date, it is speculated by community circles that
Dr. Ashdjian’s candidacy will not be the last. Nareg School’s Committee
Chairman Dr. Vahakn Atamyan’s name is certain to join the name of
candidates. Dr.Atamyan is the President of the Ararat AGBU Futsal
team and has served for several years on the School Board of the
Melkonian Educational Institute.

A TENNIS PLAYER FROM ARMENIA LANDS IN CYPRUS

A top ranked 15 year-old tennis player, Zaruhi Harutyunyan from
Armenia has landed in Cyprus.

She has decided to stay in Cyprus and travel the tennis circuit. To
that end, community officials offering assistance to the talented
girl have already arranged for her to train with the Cypriot National
Tennis team at the Federation’s National Tennis center and work is
under way to arrange issues related to her accommodation and support
team who are going to help her make her mark on the tennis circuit.

Harutyunyan decided to stay in Cyprus after the Aphrodite Cup – a
world ranking Junior tournament – in which she lost to -three years
her senior – world number 228 Zuzanna Likhova of the Czech Republic.

With limited possibilities and opportunities in Armenia, she is hoping
that her risks away from home will soon be rewarded.

As a nine year old, Harutyunyan won the Palm Springs – California Under
12 tournament and subsequently won tournaments in Bulgaria, Germany,
Holland, France, England in the under 14 and the under 16 categories.

Like every community undertaking, this too needs generous community
support.

With the 6,000 subscribers reading Gibrahayer e-magazine every week,
I am certain that Armenians from across the globe will offer their
assistance too.

Let us all give it to her.

With her practice schedule and physical training already planned and
taken care of by interested parties in Cyprus, the community can show
its assistance in several other ways.

She will soon go on the world tour. She needs support for travel
and accommodation, sponsors for clothing, a budget for her initial
take-off, where she will be attempting to break the tennis scene.

You would be amazed with the seemingly little things that are important
right now.

She is 15 and does not have a driving license and needs rides to and
fro the practice grounds every day… twice.

She needs to “replace” her family vacuum, of a widowed mother from
a car accident, and a four your old sister.

Take a moment to think about the needs of this brave young girl who
has given up everything we often take for granted

With her kind of potential I am certain she will give back to her
homeland what our homeland is unable to give to her right now.

Simon Aynedjian – Gibrahayer e-magazine All contributions will be
publicised in the coming issues of Gibrahayer e-magazine. Email or
call me on +357 99437073.

THE FIGHT TO SAVE MELKONIAN CONTINUES ..follow
the latest news regarding the Pan-Armenian mobilization against .

the decision of the AGBU to shut down Melkonian school …

OUR OPINION To realise and reinforce the fight to save Melkonian, it
is important that all parties involved as well as all individuals
connected to the administration and running of the school and
decision-making processes of the last decades, come out of their
shelters and account for the reasons they perceive as to why Melkonian
was shut down.

Until today, this has not been done.

Only blaming the AGBU central board for a decision which was the
final piece to a puzzle, is both wrong and unethical.

It also shifts blame to the wrong-doings of the people who in the
past ran the school as a political bastion, and benefited from the
funds and leverages the school provided.

AGBU central board no doubt have their part of the blame. They too
should account for their wrong doings.

Who are the brave to stand on the ashes of Melkonian and account for
the biggest blow on our community after the Turkish invasion?

Gibrahayer e-magazine – September 6, 2005 â~@¢25 Turkish journalists
will shortly pay a “working visit” to Yerevan on the initiative of
the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The Star newspaper (Turkey) reports that
the visit will take place in the framework of the events preceding the
Sept 23-25 Istanbul Armenian Conference, an event that is to consider
alternative opinions on the Armenian Genocide and to establish contacts
for developing ties between Armenia and Turkey.

â~@¢A public conference scheduled for September 22 will address
Turkey’s violations of basic rights as it prepares to begin accession
talks with the European Union (EU) on October 3. Organized by the
European Armenian Federation, the conference, “December 2004–October
2005: Has Turkey Changed?” is supported by the largest political group
in the European Parliament, the EPP-ED–the Group of the European
People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats in the
European Parliament.

â~@¢Cyprus escalated a row over Turkey’s refusal to recognize it,
suggesting on Thursday an emergency European Union ministerial meeting
just one week before Ankara is due to open membership talks. EU
president Britain said it hoped to avoid such a foreign ministers’
meeting, which would leave little time to agree on a negotiating
mandate before the planned October 3 start of talks.

â~@¢ The Armenian government approved on Thursday $200,000 in
assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Deputy foreign minister
Arman Kirakossian said the money will be released from government’s
reserve fund and will be transferred on a special US government bank
account early next week.

â~@¢Armenia’s defense ministry denied Azeri news reports that an
Azeri soldier had been killed in a skirmish with Armenian forces in
Mountainous Karabagh on September 7. The Azerbaijan ANS channel had
reported that Azeri army positions near a village in the northern
section of the frontline around had Karabagh came under ‘intensive’
automatic gunfire from Armenian troops.

â~@¢Raging with its hypnotically dark, dense and arty style,
“Mezmerize” is System Of A Down’s recently released third album and
perhaps its hardest-hitting effort to date. With their newest album
already topping the music charts in the United States, Systm f Down
are looking to unleash Mezmerize in Armenia.

â~@¢As part of its ongoing objective to develop activities and programs
that promote the growth of young Armenian American professionals and
strong leaders, the Armenian National Committee-Professional Network
(ANC-PN) hosted its inaugural Summer Trip to Armenia. Over 40 young
Armenian American professionals from across the nation embarked on the
13-day trip, which traversed the Republics of Armenia and Mountainous
Karabagh Republic.

I hear hurricanes a blowin’ And I know the end is coming soon I fear
rivers overflowing I hear the voice for rage and ruin.

So don’t go out tonight It’s bound to take your life There’s a bad
moon on the rise.

Bad Moon Risin by Creedance Clearwater Revival

RECENTLY REPATRIATED ARMENIAN CYPRIOT FAMILY OPEN UP AUTO SERVICE
CENTER IN NICOSIA

Gibrahayer. Nicosia September 12, 2005. An Armenian Cypriot family
recently back from Australia have opened up an Auto service center
in Nicosia. The Parikians who moved from Australia after fleeing the
Turkish invasion of 1974 are back to their homeland and are throwing
roots in the country they left 30 years ago.

The Showroom / Autoservice center – Style V – is situated on
Dimosthenis Severis Avenue (next to Yianopoullos Jewellery). The
center will be fully operational as of this week, and in October it
will also engage in auto styling and car sales.

The Parikians are hoping to bring to their new business the expertise
they have gained over the years in Australia and are confident that
the Armenian community of Cyprus will support their repatriation.

You can reach them for a free consultation at 22 661999, fax 22661955
and on the following mobile number. 99753232.

You can also reach them by email at [email protected]_
(mailto:[email protected])

DENIED CITIZENSHIP

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a
judge did not err in granting U.S. citizenship to two Armenian men
convicted more than 20 years ago of planning to bomb the Turkish
Consulate in Philadelphia.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends a long
struggle by Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian, who plotted to bomb
the consulate in retaliation for the massacre of Armenians by Turks
in 1915. The Turkish government denies a massacre occurred.

The men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now have
doctorates, have renounced violence and volunteer many hours a week
in the Los Angeles Armenian-American community, said Mathew Millen,
an attorney who helped handle the immigration portion of their case.

Federal law currently forbids convicted terrorists from becoming
citizens.

But anyone convicted of an aggravated felony before November 1990 can
be granted citizenship if they have been “of good moral character”
for five years prior to their application, Millen said.

The men were in their early 20s when they and two others were
arrested in 1982 after authorities tape-recorded them planning the
bombing. Authorities at the time said they were linked to the Justice
Commandos of the Armenian Genocide.

Hovsepian was sentenced to six years in prison in 1984, while Yacoubian
was sentenced to three years in prison and 1,000 hours of community
service.

Yacoubian is now principal of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian
School in Los Angeles’ Little Armenia and has obtained a doctorate
in counselling psychology from the University of Southern California,
according to court documents.

RECOMMENDED SITES

TATIANA’S CORNER returns soon … after Tatiana
returns from The People’s Republic of China This corner is reserved for
local artist Tatiana Ferahian’s comic strips which are amalgamations
of Armenian-Cypriot social commentaries, painted with her usual wry
and ironic humour, to stimulate and encourage awareness and interest
toward our community’s everyday happenings.

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TURKEY’S WAR WITH HISTORY

September 8, 2005 LA TIMES EDITORIAL – Orhan Pamuk, arguably Turkey’s
most famous novelist, knew it was risky to ask what had happened
to hundreds of thousands of Armenians killed during the era of the
Ottoman Empire. But the threats didn’t silence him.

Pamuk wondered out loud about the fate of Turkey’s Armenian community,
and the more recent killings of 30,000 Kurds in a war against armed
separatists that began in 1984, during a February interview with a
Swiss newspaper.

Seven months later, and one day before European Union ministers were
scheduled to discuss Turkey’s bid to join the union, a Turkish public
prosecutor charged Pamuk with insulting his country.

In Turkey, it is a crime to “denigrate” Turkish identity, punishable
by up to three years in prison. It is up to government authorities
to define the meaning of “denigration.” Pamuk is scheduled to go to
trial on Dec. 16.

The timing of Pamuk’s prosecution suggests a deliberate attempt by
conservatives within the Turkish government to derail the country’s
EU negotiations.

It clearly violates the conditions set for Turkey’s EU membership,
such as guaranteeing free-speech rights.

In spite of a plethora of evidence gathered by Henry Morgenthau,
the U.S.

ambassador in Constantinople from 1913 to 1916, that detailed how
the Turkish government engaged in the systematic annihilation of
Armenians, the Turks still refuse to admit culpability. Instead,
they argue that Armenians who collaborated with the invading Russian
forces were deported to Syria and that many of them died of exposure,
famine and disease on their journey.

Pamuk, whose book, “My Name Is Red,” has been translated into more
than 20 languages, and other Turkish intellectuals have called for
a public debate on their country’s past.

Last May, Turkish academics organized a conference in Istanbul on
the fate of Ottoman Armenians. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek postponed
the conference the day before it was supposed to open.

These skirmishes are part of a bigger battle between traditionalists
and those who favor European-style modernization.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should order a halt to Pamuk’s
prosecution, and his government needs to foster more freedom of
expression and thought in Turkey. Striking arbitrary laws that give
the government the right to imprison “critics” of Turkey would be a
start. So would an open debate on the fate of the country’s Armenian
population in the early 20th century.

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WHERE ARE WE IN THE INFINITE UNIVERSE?

A theory about coincidences or simultaneous occurrences and infinity

Professor Hovhanness I. Pilikian is an internationally acclaimed film
producer, theater director, a classical music composer, a classical
scholar and social scientist, fluent in many modern languages,
including French, German, Arabic, Armenian and Chinese.

Coincidences or Simultaneous occurrences are puzzling phenomena. Most
people have experienced them, and some on many occasions – when you
would be thinking of a person, and suddenly he/she appears (“speak
of the Devil” they say), or the telephone rings and there he/she is
at the other end of the line.

Folk wisdom ascribes it to the powers of the Devil, while scientists
scratch their heads for an acceptable theory.

On one occasion, I picked up the telephone to ring the London
Iranian-Armenian poetess, Mrs. Shoghik Minassian, only to find her at
the other end of the line without the telephone having yet rang… she
had picked up the telephone to make a phone call herself. In even more
of a complex and extremely unlikely version of this – I have dialled
the London based Painter from Armenia, Artour Oshakantsi’s number,
to discover him at the other end of the line having picked up the
telephone with the intention of telephoning me!

Coincidences are the chance occurrence of two unlikely events,
seemingly connected, sometimes the same, happening simultaneously,
often at the same time, overlapping, and even if not, still unlikely
to occur, let alone out of the blue, for no logical reason at all –
it is how Matter behaves at the subatomic Quantum level that scientists
are still unable but struggling to explain…

click here for more: BOOKS BY TURKISH WRITERS AT THE MOUFFLON
BOOKSTORES THE FRESH VOICE OF TURKEY’S VERY BEST, ORHAN PAMUK AND
ELIF SHAFAK ARE IN CYPRUS Tel:22665155 [email protected] ,
ARMENIAN MUSIC By Arek Dakessian in Beirut This
section is dedicated to bringing Armenian music closer to us, shedding
light on the Armenian music scene and its history.

DEREK SHERINIAN His latest album, released on the 9th of November
2004, features a number of high-profile guests such as Zakk Wylde,
Steve Stevens, Simon Philips, Marco Mendoza, Brian Tichy…

Currently he is on tour with Billy Idol Alice Cooper on Derek
Sherinian: “There are a few people on this world who are born rock
stars, he is one” Derek was born Laguna Beach Calif. – an hour south
of LA. He started playing the piano at the age of 5, During his school
years, Derek got offered a scholarship to the prestigious Berkley
School of Music in Boston, where – from his junior year on in 1982-
he jammed with the likes of Will Calhoun who went on to play the bass
guitar with Megadeth and others…

After three semesters at Berkley Derek felt he had what it took to
get up on the big stage, and he got a phone call from his Berkley
buddy Pitrelli, who had just been named musical director of the Alice
Cooper band, they were looking for a keyboard player… He auditioned
and got it.

Then Sherinian played with Kiss and Dream Theater alongside other
bands, he even formed a band of his own: Planet X, which was supposed
to be the name of his first solo album. Planet X released four
albums. Derek himself has released four solo albums… the number
which is the astonishing one is the number of albums he has been in,
and as a band member, essential, is 19!!!

Another one of us who’s made it in the big time!

visit his personal website: SPORTS NEWS
AND CALENDAR â~@¢ At the US Open Tennis Championships Armenian
Argentinean David Nalbandian lost to world number one Roger Federer
3-0, while Andre Agassi managed to win a set in the finals of the
same event. Federer won US$ 2.2 million dollars for 15 days of work
on the courts.

â~@¢In the European Futsal (five-a-side football) competition,
Tal Grig Yerevan needed an Emil Mesropyan goal, three seconds from
time to keep them on track for qualification from the four-team UEFA
Futsal Cup preliminary round mini-tournament. The Armenian champions’
successful spot-kick ensured a last-gasp 5-4 victory against Dinamo
Tirana of Albania .

â~@¢Ararat AGBU of Nicosia are representing Cyprus in the Futsal
Cup Champions League from 8-13 October, in a round robin tournament
that will take place in Bucharest. Bidding for qualification are the
Albanian, Armenian and English teams, while Aramis of Hungary and
Benefica of Portugal will be teams the Armenian Cypriot team will be
facing in their Group. Good luck to the Cyprus Champions!

â~@¢15 tear old Zaruhi Harutyunyan of Armenia – participating in the
world ranking ITF Junior Championships (under 18) in Nicosia – made
it to the semi finals of the doubles event and challenged the second
seed – three years her senior – world number 228 Zuzanna Likhova of
the Czech Republic eventually losing 7-6, 6-4. In the same tournament
Harutyunyan defeated Cyprus number one Irene Ketseva.

â~@¢( )- Larnaca Open Tennis Championships. Dikran
Bedrossian of London and Simon Aynedjian of Nicosia have teamed up
to contest the seniors men’s doubles tournament.

g i b r a h a y c a l e n d a r â~@¢AYF weekly meetings continue
every Monday at AYMA. Next meeting on Monday 19 September at 9:30
pm â~@¢Badanegan meetings – for children from 7- 12 years old – have
begun. They take place every Saturday at 4:00 pm at AYMA â~@¢AYMA /
HMEM Chicco football practices take place every Friday at 7:30 pm at
AYMA â~@¢Armenian Radio Hour on The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation via
real audio on . Broadcast 17:00-18:00 local Cyprus time
(14:00-15:00 GMT). Armenian news every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and
Tuesday â~@¢New Year’s Eve Dinner and Dance in London on December 31,
2005. Harout Pampoukdjian and his Band will be performing in London
at the Royal Lancaster at Hyde Park – London on Saturday 31 December
2005. Reception at 8:00 pm and Dinner at 9:00 pm. Tickets at 85.00 and
Stage Tables at 95.00. For bookings contact Janet Mardirossian at 4420
84221662, Yvette Mankassarian at 4420 79375703, Ovsig Saroukhanoff
at 88683538 and Alenoush Ohanian at 4420 8998 8048 or the following
email address [email protected] . Special 99.00 per room rate has
been arranged by the hotel for overnight stayers. Organised by HOM
(Armenian Relief Society), Hamazkayin and HMEM.

Dear Subscriber thank you for your interest in Gibrahayer, which
is an independent electronic environment, now in its fifth year,
disseminating news & posting upcoming events about the Armenian
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–Boundary_(ID_EfvjT0t8KNDF8PHTLNhzvA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REHN SUGGESTS DATE OF PAMUK COURT CASE A PROVOCATION

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Sept 13 2005

Rehn said that recognition of the Greek Cypriot administration is
not a pre-condition to start negotiation talks.

Guncelleme: 18:19 TSI 13 Eylul 2005 SalýBRUSSELS – Having the first
hearing of a court case against a well known Turkish author on the
same day as European Union leaders were to meet for their six monthly
summit may not be a coincidence, a senior EU official said Tuesday.

Prominent Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk is scheduled to go on trial
on December 16 to face charges he insulted the Turkish state after
saying in an interview with a Swiss magazine that up to one million
of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian citizens were killed during the time
of the First World War.

Ollie Rehn, the EU’s the Commissioner responsible for the bloc’s
expansion process, said that: “December 16 could not be a just a
coincidence. This could be a provocation.”

Speaking in Brussels, Rehn said that Pamuk’s court case raised
serious question marks over the implementation of the new Turkish
Penal Code. He claimed that the case was in breach of the European
Human Rights Convention.

However, he went on to say that despite objections over Ankara’s
refusal to recognise the Greek Cypriot state that accession
negotiations with Turkey would start on October 3 as scheduled.

However, Turkey would only be able to complete the EU accession process
10 to 15 years, Rehn said, adding that the speed of the negotiation
process would rely on Ankara’s recognition of the Greek Cypriot side.

Rehn said that Ankara’s issuing a declaration saying its signing of
an extension of its customs unions with the EU to cover the ten new
members did not signify recognition of the Greek Cypriot state was
sad and that the EU would issue a counter declaration.

–Boundary_(ID_6xAi0ugBLOajpuXpFmMDqg)–

USAID HEAD APPRECIATED COOPERATION WITH ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT

Pan Armenian News
13.09.2005 08:19

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Ambassador to the US Tatul Margaryan met
with head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID)
Andrew Natsios, reported the Press Service of the Armenian MFA. In
the course of the meeting T. Margaryan presented economic reforms
being implemented in Armenia, owing to which the republic has high
indicators in economy liberty and economic growth. The ambassador
thanked for the continuous assistance of the Agency, appreciating
the programs in poverty reduction, economy development, opening
workplaces. He specially highlighted the USAID program for the
victims of the destructive earthquake in 1988. In his turn Natsios
appreciated the experience of USAID-Armenian Government cooperation and
spoke in favor of continuation and expansion of the scope of Agency
programs. The Armenian Ambassador to the US has invited the USAID
head to visit Armenia and get acquainted with impressive outcomes of
implementation of USAID programs.