Pan Armenian News

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER MET NORWEGIAN COUNTERPART

22.06.2005 07:58

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Parliament Speaker Artur Baghdassaryan met with
his Norwegian counterpart Jorgen Kosmo, RA NA press center reported. During
the meeting Artur Baghdassaryan noted that the visit of the Norwegian
delegation can become a good start of the Armenian-Norwegian cooperation.
The interlocutors highly appreciated the formation of the Armenian-Norwegian
friendship group and discussed the cooperation within different
international organizations as well as in economic and agricultural fields.
Artur Baghdassaryan thanked the Norwegian government for activities of the
Norwegian Council of Refugees in Armenia and noted the importance of this
mission. In his turn Jorgen Kosmo said he will contribute to the cooperation
between the parliaments of the two states. Pointing out to Armenia’s role in
establishing peace and stability in the region he stressed the necessity of
political settlement of the problems available and establishment of regional
ties.

A1plus

| 15:43:45 | 22-06-2005 | Social |

DEPUTY MINISTERS EDUCATING THE JOURNALISTS

During today’s seminar organized by the «Liberalization Processes Monitoring
National Center» several deputy ministers referred to the theme
«Transparency of the State Bodies Activity and Information Availability».

According to the RA Finance and Economy deputy Minister David Avetisyan, the
role of the journalists is to create peace. Referring to the link of the
state officials and the journalists he said, «The role of the state
officials is to educate the Mass Media».

According to the RA Commerce and Economic Development deputy Minister Gagik
Vardanyan, the role of the journalists among other thing is to make people
realize that «It is impossible to live well all by itself». But, according
to him, first and foremost the public awareness must be raised. «Public
awareness is knowledge which contributes to the development of economy», he
said. «But do the journalists understand that economic growth can mean
developments, and it cannot? », he added.

RA Agricultural first deputy Minister Samvel Avetisyan was stricter.
According to him, while writing about agriculture the region about which you
write must be taken into account. «We live in a complicated
geographical-political region», he stated. He has also realized that «in the
newspapers the results of the natural calamities are exaggerated». «At the
end of the year they ask us how we manage to state 12% economical growth
when natural calamities have done so much harm to the economy. But the harm
is always local, isn’t it? », said the RA Agricultural first deputy
Minister.

RA CB Council member Vache Gabrielyan was not pleased with the journalists
writing on economical themes. He did not like it when the journalists ask
the Central Bank to foresee if the USD exchange rate will rise or fall.

Those who made speech claimed that the role of the Mass Media is extremely
important in the combat against corruption. As RA Finance and Economy deputy
Minister David Avetisyan mentioned, «The Mass Media had an active
participation in the lotto licensing process».

One of the journalists writing on economical themes reminded the deputy
Minister that the Ministry did not organize a transparent discussion about
the lotto licensing and «the journalists were ousted from the hall». The
deputy Minister did not deny it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan increases defence spending by some 60m dollars in 2005

Turan news agency, Baku
21 Jun 05

Baku, 21 June: Milli Maclis (parliament) today adopted draft
amendments to Azerbaijan’s 2005 state budget.

Sattar Safarov, head of the parliament’s economic policy commission,
submitted the draft and said the amendments had to do with an increase
in the country’s revenues.

Under the adopted amendments, the budget revenue will increase by
800bn manats [169m dollars] (from 9,422bn manats [2bn dollars] to
10,222bn manats [2.2bn dollars]). The budget expenditure will increase
by 1,015bn manats [214m dollars] (from 10,001bn manats [2.1bn dollars]
to 11,016bn manats [2.3bn dollars]).

[Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku, in Azeri, 1530 gmt 21 June 05 showed
Finance Minister Avaz Alakbarov saying that 59m dollars, or 27.4 per
cent of the budget’s additional revenue, will be spent on defence.]

Russian MP hails polls in Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR]

Arminfo, Yerevan
21 Jun 05

STEPANAKERT

The [19 June parliamentary] elections in Nagornyy Karabakh were held
in line with democratic standards and without any incidents, the
director of the [Moscow-based] Institute of CIS [and Diaspora Studies]
and a member of the Russian State Duma, Konstantin Zatulin, has told
journalists. Zatulin monitored the parliamentary elections in the
Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] as an observer.

Zatulin pointed out that he had been at six polling stations, Arminfo
correspondent reported from Stepanakert. “Of course, conditions at
some of them leave much to be desired in terms of equipment, but then
electoral lists were hanged on the walls everywhere, which is not the
case in Russia and which we could also practise,” he said.

Zatulin said that people voted for individual candidates and parties,
but in the end they voted for democracy. He believes that the mixed
system of elections, which has spurred the process of creating new
parties, is a step forward.

“The people of Karabakh have not only demonstrated that they are
faithful to democratic processes and democracy, but they have also
proven that they live in a real country. These elections will also
undoubtedly impact on the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict,” Zatulin said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE carries out regular monitoring of Karabakh front-line

Arminfo
22 Jun 05

YEREVAN

An OSCE mission today held regular monitoring on the contact line
between the Nagornyy Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces northwest
of the village of Kuropatkino in Martuni District of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic [NKR].

The field assistants to the personal representative of the OSCE
chairman-in-office, Miroslav Vymetal (Czech Republic), Peter Kay
(Britain) and Torsten Ahren (Sweden), carried out monitoring from the
positions of the NKR Defence Army, the press service of the NKR
Foreign Ministry reported. Andrzej Kasprzyk, the personal
representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, led the monitoring
group on the Azerbaijani side.

The Azerbaijani side, unlike the Karabakh side, did not take members
of the monitoring mission to its front-line positions. A single shot
was registered from the Azerbaijani side 1 km away from the monitored
area.

Representatives of the NKR Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry also
accompanied the mission.

SINGLE SHOT FROM AZERI PARTY RECORDED DURING MONITORING OF NKR AND
AZERI ARMED FORCES CONTACT LINE

STEPANAKERT, June 22. /ARKA/. OSCE Mission has held a scheduled
monitoring of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan Armed Forces contact
line to the north-west of Kuropatkino populated area of the NKR
Martuni region.

As the Press Service of NKR Foreign Ministry told ARKA News Agency
today, on NKR Defense Army positions, the monitoring was carried out
by the field assistants of the Personal Representative of OSCE CIO
Miroslav Vymetal (Czech Republic), Peter Kii (Great Britain) and
Torsten Aren (Sweden).

The group was headed by Ambassador Andrzei Kasprzyk, the Personal
Representative of the OSCE CIO.

Azerbaijan did not lead the members of the monitoring mission to their
front line, unlike NKR party. A single shot from Azeri party was
recorded during the monitoring at a distance of a kilometer from the
monitoring spot.

On the part of NKR, the monitoring mission was accompanied by the
representative of NKR Defense and Foreign Ministries. L.V.-0–
From: Baghdasarian

Pope Reveals Reservations for Turkey’s EU Membership

22.06.2005 11:54

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Pope Benedict XVI, the spiritual leader of the
Roman Catholic Church, showed a suspicious attitude towards Turkey’s
European Union (EU) membership in the first book he has written since
becoming the new Pope in the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI indicates in his new book titled “The Example of
Benedict in the Crisis of Cultures” (L’Europa di Benedetto nella crisi
delle culture) that Turkey does not have Christian roots contrary to
European countries. According to the news published by Apcom, a
private Italian news agency, the Pope invites readers to think about
Turkey’s EU bid.

The news reads that the pontiff referred to Saint Benedict whom the
Catholic Church perceives as the “protector of Europe” in his new book
and defined Turkey as a country that has no roots in Christianity and
is influenced by Islamic culture; in other words, Turkey has the
atmosphere of an Islamic culture in fact.

Determining in his book that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as the founder of
the Turkish republic had tried to transform Turkey into a secular
state by adopting secularism formed in the Christian world, Pope
Benedict XVI advocated that the European identity might only be
determined by the context and norms of the same enlightened
culture. Any country fulfilling these criteria might be European.

Speaking to an Italian newspaper about his book, Benedict XVI also
said that the non-mentioning of the Christian roots in the EU
constitution was wrong.

AZG Armenian Daily #115, 23/06/2005

Culture

NEW PERFORMANCE OF MOZART’S CORONATION MASS

The France based Haraj newspaper informed that France’s “Musical Spring”
festival was warmly welcomed by the art lovers. This testifies to the fact
that the festival becomes more and more popular with the art lovers. The
orchestras and the soloists performed pieces with high professionalism.
Mozart’s Coronation mass was chosen for the final concert of the festival.
Hermine Yeritsian, soloist, played this piece that is very complicated from
the viewpoint of performing. The auditoria highly estimated the performance
of Hermine Yeritsian, stating that one should play Mozart in the very
particular way she did. Hermine Yeritsian performed in the “Leon Karzan”
orchestra, created by Olivie Pehlevanian, talented violinist, and led by
Jean Jacques Werner. Haraj stated in the end that the trio of Armenian
musicians, including Hermine Yeritsian, Olivie Pehlevanian and Stepan
Kyureghian, greatly impressed and pleased the auditorium, playing Coronation
mass by Mozart.

By Gohar Gevorgian

AZG Armenian Daily #115, 23/06/2005

Diaspora

NEW EVIDENCE FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

The France-based Haraj newspaper published the article entitled “The
Christians Left to the Beasts” that tells about the book by Jacques
Rotteroy. His book has the same title.

Jacques Rotteroy has thoroughly touched upon the period of 20th century when
the Armenian was committed in his book “The Christians Left to the Beasts.”
The author describes the events, representing the human and material loses
all the Christian communities of the Ottoman Empire suffered. In the
beginning, he represents the general situation, the eve of the exile,
grounding his story with statistics. The author of the article stated that
this evidence given by Jacques Rotteroy draws attention of the readers to
the tortures and the sufferings the Christian people underwent, making the
symbolic image of the events. The publishers of the book treated the
manuscript with great care, preserving the corrections and the remarks left
by the author on the margins.

The author of the article stated that the thorough description of the
unprecedented crime in the book by Jacques Rotteroy are sure to be the
positive side of it.

By Gohar Gevorgian

AZG Armenian Daily #115, 23/06/2005

Diaspora

PRESENTATION OF NEW PUBLICATION

The France-based Haraj newspaper informed in one of its issues that Cilicia
Catholicosate and the Armenian branch of Gulbekian Foundation republished
“Kyotahia’s Porcelain and Ceramics in St. Hakob Church of Jerusalem.” The
book is published in English. Aram A. Catholicos wrote its preface. The
first publication of the book was issued in two large volumes by Oxford
University in 1972. These rarities belonging to the Armenian Church of
Jerusalem were gifts of the pilgrims made mainly in 17th century during the
times of Hovhannes Kolot and Grigor Shghtayakir Patriarchs.

By Gohar Gevorgian