Pan Armenian News
YEAR OF ARMENIA IN FRANCE WILL BE A NEW AND IMPORTANT PHASE IN
ARMENIAN-FRENCH RELATIONS
01.10.2005 03:40
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ September 29 and 30 Armenian Ambassador to France Edvard
Nalbandyan held a number of meetings with Cannes Mayor, MP Bernard Brochand,
Nice Mayor, Senator Jacques Peyrat and Antibes Mayor, MP Jean Leonetti,
reported the Press Service of the Armenian MFA. In the course of the meeting
the possible participation of Cannes, Nice and Antibes in events marking the
Year of Armenia in France was discussed. The parties noted the importance of
the decision of Presidents of Armenia and France to organize the Year of
Armenia in France and expressed readiness to actively participate in the
events. A meeting with leaders of organizations of Cote d’Azur French region
was also held in Nice. During the session Armenian Ambassador to France
informed about the events to be organized within the framework of the Year
of Armenia in France. The 2nd session of the inter-state commission will be
held in Yerevan November 3, he also remarked. During it the draft program of
the events will be presented and discussed, as well as the symbol of the
Year of Armenia in France will be approved, Nalbandyan said.

Pan Armenian News
ARMENIAN NPP SUSPENDED FOR TOP-UP
01.10.2005 03:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Beginning on today the Armenian (Metsamor) Nuclear Power
Plant (NPP) is suspended for a top-up. As Minister of Energy of Armenia
Armen Movsisyan told journalists earlier, the process will take 45 days. It
should be reminded that at the same time A. Movsisyan informed that the
Russian party represented by the RAO UES of Russia has expressed readiness
to leave the management of the financial flows of the Armenian NPP, though
the contract allowing RAO UES of Russia manage the plant for 5 years has not
expired yet. «We have not passed a decision over the matter yet and we are
not going to hurry,» stated the Minister, noting the positive role of the
Russian holding in the financial and technical rehabilitation of the Plant.
Consisting of two energy blocks totaling 815 MW, The Armenian NPP was closed
in 1988. The station second block with the capacity of 407.5 MW was again
launched in work in 1995. Since 2003 the Armenian NPP is passed for
financial management of the Inter RAO UES CJSC, which is a branch
establishment of RAO UES of Russia.

Pan Armenian News
MARGARYAN CONGRATULATED ARMENIAN TEACHERS ON PROFESSIONAL HOLIDAY
30.09.2005 07:59
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian PM A. Margaryan congratulated Armenian teachers
on their professional holiday – the Teacher’s Day, reported the Press
Service of the Armenian Government. The PM’s congratulatory message
specifically says, «Dear teachers, I congratulate you on the Teacher’s Day.
The holiday has become a good tradition and is being marked at the state
level. It is another occasion for expressing respect you undoubtedly deserve
due to your daily laborious and devoted work. Education problems are always
in focus of the Government and steps – though small – are being taken to
reform the education system, repair school buildings. I again congratulate
you on your professional holiday and I wish you health, many years of
creative work and good luck.»

PRESS RELEASE
Meaningful World.com news
185 East 85th Street, Mezz #4
New York, NY 10028
Phone: 201 941-2266, Fax: 201 941-5110
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
October 1, 2005

Hurricane Katrina victims are at high risk for PTSD

New York, NY – On Monday, August 29th, the coastal areas of the Gulf
coast were hit by Hurricane Katrina. With wind speeds of up to 140 mph
(225 km/h), Hurricane Katrina destroyed everything in its path. The
hurricane first hit Louisiana and traveled 200 miles from west of New
Orleans to Pensacola in Florida. The states of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were hit. As of today, about 1000
people are reported dead as a result of this disaster.

The victims of Hurricane Katrina have lost their homes, main source of
employment, schools, and hospitals and desperately need basic
necessities. Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana has asked for
federal assistance as the crisis is “beyond the capabilities of the
state and affected local governments”.

In response to this crisis, the Association for Disaster and Mass
Trauma Studies spearheaded by Dr. Anie Kalayjian, is implementing its
Mental Health Outreach Project (MHOP) in the Gulf Coast. The MHOP is
mobilizing teams of mental health volunteers to treat
survivors. Unfortunately, at least 15% of survivors will present
symptoms of PTSD that will require treatment. The MHOP will provide
psychosocial aide to those survivors who have lost their family
members, home and jobs.

The Association for Disaster & Mass Trauma Studies has been working
for the past 16 years providing Mental Health Outreach to disaster
stricken areas such as: Armenia (Post quake, 1988), Florida (Hurricane
Andrew), California (Northridge quake, 1994), Kobe, Japan (Post quake,
1995), Turkey (Post quake, 1999), New York (post 9/11, 2001), and most
recently post SE Asia tsunami in Sri Lanka. Kindly look at our
website for details of these works.

Please help the Mental Health Outreach Project reach out to the
victims of Katrina. You can donate by sending a check to the
Association for Disaster and Mass Trauma Studies, 185 East 85th
Street, Mezz #4, New York, NY 10028. If you are interesting in
volunteering, please go to and fill out an
application or email Dr. Anie Kalayjian at [email protected] .
________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Anie Kalayjian is an international educator, American Board
Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress, logotherapeutic psychotherapist,
international researcher, and consultant. She is the recipient of the
Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from her Alma Mate, Long Island
University in NYC. She has over fifteen years of experience in
international disaster management and mass-trauma interventions &
conflict resolution; twenty years of university teaching experience
(both graduate and undergrad levels) and she has been in clinical
independent practice in both NY & NJ for 20 yrs.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005
VENICE COMMISSION SECRETARY: DRAFT CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS OF
ARMENIA MEET EUROPEAN STANDARDS
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30. ARMINFO. The draft Constitutional amendments
of Armenia meet European standards, CE Venice Commission Secretary
Gianni Buquicchio told journalists, Friday.
He noted that the provisions on the elections of Yerevan Mayor and on
the independence of the judicial system could be “more perfect.” He
refrained himself from answering the question if any sanctions
threaten Armenia in case if the referendum of the constitutional
reforms fails. G. Buquicchio just said that Armenia undertook
definite commitments when joining the Council of Europe.
In his turn, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Gagik
Haroutiunyan told journalists that he has no studied the details of
the draft amendments adopted by the parliament in the third reading.
He took a favorable view of the provision allowing the citizens to
protect their rights through the Constitutional Court.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005
FINLAND SUPPORTS OSCE ACTIVITY IN SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30. ARMINFO. Finland supports the OSCE activity in
settlement of Karabakh conflict, says Finnish President Tarja Halonen
at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
in Baku, Azertag reports.
Finland is for settlement of the conflict through peaceful
negotiations only. Tarja Halonen expressed desire that the
conflicting parties achieve a mutually advantageous way of
resolution. ‘As you know, we paid a special attention to the problem
and aspired for appointment of EU Special Representative. And this
work was fulfilled’ the Finnish president said. The work was uneasy
as there are other states in the region, she said. They also faced
conflicts and make similar steps to settle them, the president said.
‘ OSCE is on the one side and the EU on the other side. I think
strengthening the relations of Azerbaijan with the EU can make a
definite contribution to settlement of the given problem,’ Halonen
said. She added in the course of its chairmanship Finland will
further work actively to render necessary assistance to Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005
R. KOCHARYAN :CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS IN ARMENIA AIM TO MAKE THE
CONSTITUTION EFFECTIVE AND MAXIMUM ACCESSIBLE TO EVERY CITIZEN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30. ARMINFO. Constitutional reforms in Armenia aim
to make the Constitution effective and maximum accessible to every
citizen. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan made this statement
opening the 10th Jubilee International Conference dedicated to the 10
years of the adoption of the RA Constitution and formation of the
Constitutional Court ‘The legal principles and political reality in
exercise of constitutional control’ in Yerevan. The event is
organized by combined efforts of the Armenian Constitutional Court,
CE Venice Commission and the International Constitutional
Association.
In his speech, Robert Kocharyan says Armenia has embarked on the road
of Constitutional reforms. The international experience shows how
dangerous can be Constitutional crisis. At the same time,
Constitutional reforms must be in harmony with the public processes
and stimulate them, the president says. ‘The actual Constitution had
a great part in development of democracy in the country and it’s
admission to the Council of Europe. However, in the succession of
time, it has appeared to have many serious conceptual omissions
hindering further development of democracy in the country. At
present, constitutional guarantees are required for establishment of
a legal state,’ Robert Kocharyan says. The years-long efficient work
of the relevant structures of Armenia with the CE Venice Commission
on draft constitutional amendments is nearing completion. Very soon,
draft amendments meeting international standards will submitted to
the public consideration. The draft ensures a considerable progress
in human rights protection, division and balance of the power
branches. The independence of the country’s judicial system will
considerably rise and the local self-government bodies will become
much more independent, Robert Kocharyan thinks. ‘I hope for the
discussions at the forum will sort with our reality. I have no doubts
in the deep international resonance of the conference,’ Robert
Kocharyan says.

PRESS RELEASE
St Nersess Seminary
September 28, 2005
150 Stratton Rd.
New Rochelle, NY 10804
Phone: 914-636-2003
Armeno-Turkish: Betrayal or Blessing?
It looks like Armenian but it’s not.
For about 250 years, from the early 18th century until around 1950,
more than 2000 books were printed in the Turkish language using the
divinely-inspired letters of the Armenian alphabet. On the surface,
the phenomenon of “Armeno-Turkish” would seem like yet another sad
chapter in Armenian history as Armenians gradually lost their
language, culture and identity under Ottoman tyranny.
Bedross Der Matossian sees the phenomenon not as a sign of the
deterioration of Armenian ethnic identity, but of its extraordinary
endurance and resilience. In an intriguing lecture delivered at the
Seminary on Tuesday, September 27, the young doctoral candidate in
Middle Eastern Studies argued that the tradition of writing Turkish
with Armenian letters is an overlooked example of the versatility of
the Armenian alphabet and “a creative mechanism for maintaining
Armenian identity in a multi-ethnic environment.”
Der Matossian’s lecture, entitled, The Phenomenon of the
Armeno-Turkish Literature in the 19th century Ottoman Empire, was the
first in a series of five public lectures being offered this Fall as
part of St. Nersess Seminary’s commemoration of the 1600th
anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet.
Armenian? Turkish?
Armeno-Turkish books are not hard to find. If you know the 38
characters of the Armenian alphabet and you glance across the shelves
of an Armenian library or church office; or peek into the boxes in
medz-mayrig’s (grandma’s) attic, you will almost surely come across a
book printed in Armenian, which you will not be able to read–unless
you speak Turkish.
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire wrote books on history, fine arts,
religion, science, and philosophy in Turkish using not the
conventional Arabic script, but the ayp, pen, kim of our ancestors.
Armeno-Turkish business contracts, school books, dictionaries,
grammars, translations of European literature, Bibles, hymnals and
even prayer books were published in more than fifty cities including
Venice, Vienna, Trieste, Boston and New York.
This rich body of highly erudite writings can hardly be taken as the
last gasp of a dying culture. It marked a true cultural-intellectual
achievement. Der Matossian displayed a list of more than 30 distinct
newspapers published in Armeno-Turkish, which circulated during the
60’s and 70’s of the 19th century.
Der Matossian repeatedly referred to Armeno-Turkish as a “language.”
The Armenians who wrote Ottoman Turkish were not simply transcribing
the sounds of the Turkish language; they meticulously preserved the
Turkish words, syntax, punctuation and grammatical structures. This
triggered the publication of Armeno-Turkish dictionaries and grammar
books, many examples of which survive today. The famous Haigazian
Pararan, the preeminent lexicon of Classical Armenian published by
the Armenian Mekhitarist Fathers of Venice in the early 18th century,
gives an Armeno-Turkish equivalent for each word found between its
massive covers.
`As the language evolved, Armeno-Turkish gradually adopted Arabic and
Persian words and word forms,’ Der Matossian observed, “Expressions
which a Turk would probably not understand.”
An Armenian Oddity?
Not only Armenians read Armeno-Turkish, but the non-Armenian elite,
including the Ottoman Turkish intelligentsia, who were exposed to
European literature and emerging political ideas thanks, in part, to
the Armenians who translated these writing into Armeno-Turkish.
Turkish has no native alphabet. The Turks adopted the Arabic script
along with Islam.
“Arguably, the Armenian letters function better than Arabic as a
script for Ottoman Turkish,” said Der Matossian, a native of
Jerusalem, who is fluent in Armenian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and
English. “During the First Ottoman Constitutional Period (1876) there
was even the suggestion that Armenian be used as the official
alphabet of the Empire,” the young scholar said.
American Protestant missionaries also learned and used Armeno-Turkish
in their missionary efforts among the Armenians of 19th-century
Ottoman Turkey. `Grammatically Turkish is a simpler language than
Armenian but the Armenian alphabet is much easier to learn than the
Arabic script. This made Armeno-Turkish a highly effective tool for
the missionaries,’ said Der Matossian. `For many Armenians of the
time, the Bible was only accessible in Armeno-Turkish translations
produced by the missionaries. The Armenian Church used only Krapar
(Classical Armenian), which the general population did not
understand,’ he said. Protestant missionaries also produced an
Armeno-Kurdish translation of the Scriptures, as well as
Greco-Turkish (so-called Karamanli) and other versions.
For Those Who Do Not Know Armenian
Again and again Der Matossian insisted that the use of Armeno-Turkish
should be seen not as a betrayal of Armenian identity, but as a
creative effort to preserve it under the most unfavorable conditions.
Several elderly members of the audience were visibly moved when Der
Matossian read an Armeno-Turkish prayer that was dedicated `to those
who do not know Armenian.’ Giving thanks to God for the blessing of
holy communion, the prayer had only four Armenian words:
haghortootyoon(communion), Heesoos (Jesus), nushkhark (Eucharistic
bread), and pazhag (chalice). Der Matossian said that Armeno-Turkish
fully exploited the Turkish language but preserved certain `sacred’
words in Armenian as a way of maintaining Armenian ethnic boundaries.
`I am hearing a language that I don’t love express a thought that is
very precious to me,’ said Edward Yessayian, tears streaming down his
cheeks.
The Language of the State and Dominant Group
`As a result of Ottoman domination and compulsory conversion to
Islam, many Armenians of the Ottoman Empire gradually lost their
ancestral language but they adhered religiously to their alphabet,
teaching it to their children even though they could no longer speak
the words it was intended to record,’ Der Matossian said. `The
readiness of our people to apply the Armenian alphabet as a vehicle
for writing the language of the dominant group is astonishing and
highly significant.’ It is not that the Armenians could not learn the
Arabic script – the intelligentsia wrote and spoke Turkish fluently.
`Rather,” Der Matossian said, `It was their way of preserving,
consciously or unconsciously, their ethnic and religious identity and
maintaining boundaries around their distinctive identity. I would
even venture,’ Der Matossian said in response to a question, `that in
developing Armeno-Turkish, the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire sought
to `armenize’ or to consecrate for themselves a small sanctuary in
the hostile world they were living in. For Armenians, religion and
alphabet cannot be separated.’
“Bedross gave a 3-hour lecture in 40 minutes,” said Fr. Daniel
Findikyan. `Here is an entirely overlooked aspect of the creative
genius and theological depth of our Armenian-Christian heritage and
forebears.’
Der Matossian is a graduate of the Hebrew University and currently a
Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University in the Department of Middle
East and Asian Languages and Cultures. His concentration is on
inter-ethnic relationships during the Second Constitutional Period of
the Ottoman Empire.
“The great reward of being a teacher is to raise a good student,”
said Dr. Roberta Ervine in her introductory remarks. “We are in the
presence of something special when we meet a young man like Bedross
who has devoted his life to exploring, preserving and teaching a
precious culture.”
Ervine was Mr. Der Matossian’s teacher in the Holy Translators’ Soorp
Tarkmanchats School in Jerusalem. She called him “the best, most
perceptive student of Armenian history that I had had in 21 years as
a teacher in Jerusalem.”

The next scheduled lecture in this series will take place at the
Seminary on Monday, October 24 at 7:30 PM. Professor Michael Stone,
the noted armenologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, will
deliver a lecture entitled, `Why Have an Armenian Language?’

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005
ARMENIAN PRESIDENT APPOINTS NEW ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO MAROCCO
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30. ARMINFO. President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan
dismissed Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to
Marocco Sergey Manasayan. Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary to Egypt Ruiben Karapetyan (residence in Cairo) will
combine his job with the post of Armenian Ambassador to Marocco. The
Presidential press-service told ARMINFO.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005
ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER AND HEAD OF OSCE OFFICE IN YEREVAN SIGN
MEMORANDUM OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMINFO. Secretary of the Armenian
Presidential Natinoal Security Council Serge Sargsyan and Head of
OSCE Office in Yerevan Vladimir Pryakhin have signed a Memorandum of
Mutual Understanding concerning the 3rd stage of the program of
propellant (melange) elimination.
Press Secretary of the Armenian Defense Minister Colonel Seyran
Shakhsouvaryan has informed ARMINFO that the melange will be
processed into harmless fertilizers for non-acid soil. Thanking
Armenian Defense Minister, Vladimir Pryakhin said the program was
implemented with support of highly-qualified specialists of the
Armenian Defense Ministry.