ARMENIA: ROUNDTABLE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN
YEREVAN, 27 July – UNICEF, Council of Europe and representatives of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labour and Social Issues
and State Police called today for immediate action to put an end to
violence against children in Armenia.
“In Armenia we need to give the issue of violence against children in
homes, schools and other places in their community the visibility and
public attention this deserves,” Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative in
Armenia said, addressing a round table organized on the heels of the
Regional Consultation on Violence Against Children held in Ljubljana on
5-7 July 2005. “It is essential that polices and procedures are in place
to help prevent violence against children, support child victims and
strengthen reporting, referral and response mechanisms.”
Studies in many countries have repeatedly shown that victims of physical
abuse during childhood have an increased risk of becoming violent
offenders themselves.
“Violence against children can occur everywhere, in every family and in
every society. In Armenia, as in almost all countries, it is often a
hidden problem that is vastly under-reported,” Yett said
A 2003 UNICEF Armenia survey found that poor living conditions,
unemployment and the psychological stress of poverty had resulted in an
increase in the number of cases of abuse and neglect not only in the
family but also in schools and children’s institutions.
The study revealed that in many families slapping and beating are
perceived as a “means of upbringing”. In many children’s institutions as
well as in schools corporal punishment is still a common practice.
The Ljubljana conference was hosted by the Government of Slovenia and
organized in close consultation with UNICEF, WHO the Council of Europe,
the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the NGO
Advisory Panel on the UN Study on Violence Against Children. The
consultation is one of nine worldwide that will feed into a major study
mandated by the UN General Assembly on Violence Against Children.
Representatives of 40 countries as well as 24 child delegates
participating in the Regional Consultations in Ljubljana adopted a final
document called “Ljubljana Commitment”. By adopting this document, the
Government of Armenia and other countries in the region pledged to take
immediate steps to tackle the problem of violence against children in
their respective countries and to adopt measures to prevent such cases
from happening in future.
For more information:
Emil Sahakyan, Communication Officer, UNICEF Armenia: (+374 10) 523 546,
[email protected]
—
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Advanced Engineering Associates International
2 Proshyan Street, Yerevan 375019, Armenia
Tel.: (37410) 221969, 261770
Fax: (37410) 275491
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:
Digital Audit Equipment Introduced to Armenian Energy Service Companies
August 12, 2005. Audit skills are indispensable to energy service companies
(ESCO) for ensuring high quality services to their clients and improving
energy efficiency on project sites. The USAID funded Advanced Engineering
Associates International (AEAI) provides extensive assistance for the
development of ESCOs in Armenia. In the framework of this activity a set of
modern digital energy audit devices has been recently introduced to local
companies. Manufactured in USA in state-of-art technologies, the set
represents a total of 21 types of instruments and contains various sensors,
measurement tools, analyzers, an infrared camera and a weather-station.
These are the measurement devices which will be used by local ESCOs to
perform energy audit as well as to adjust the installed equipment and
control the operation process more efficiently. The instruments measure
temperature, relative humidity, lighting level, heat, current strength,
power, voltage, quality analysis of electric current as well as collect all
kind of meteorological data.
Last week six-day training course was organized by AEAI Armenia for around
20 participants from Armenian ESCOs, Energy Institute, ECOTEAM NGO, Alliance
to Save Energy funded by USAID and Thermosupply Projects PIU of World Bank
and RA Ministry of Finance and Economy. The objective was to demonstrate the
equipment in action, to promote audit skills among ESCOs, to educate them in
energy audit techniques as well as to develop a number of specific energy
efficiency measures to be applied on sites. Mr. William Dries and Mr. Tom
Sahagian, consultants from USA, have conducted the training program. The
course featured classroom training combined with everyday visits to Nork
Marash Hospital, AEAI pilot project site where participants have been
introduced to the setup of devices, principles and ways of their
functioning. The classroom training has covered not only lectures and
presentations on energy economics, audit scenario, techniques and
approaches, but also involved a lot of analysis and discussions. On
completion of the course the trainees received appropriate certificates of
participation.
An essential idea of this training, as noted Mr. Sahagian, is also that an
ESCO needs not only to think as an engineer but more importantly, as a
salesperson and thus master not only the technical side of the work but also
understand the human nature – the skill which will definitely bring the
business to success.
Since 2001, Advanced Engineering Associates International has been working
in Armenia to identify and realize substantial benefits for the country’s
economy and citizens from increasing energy efficiency and developing
renewable energy resources.

CENN – August 12, Daily Digest
Table of Contents:
1.. Oil crosses into the Georgian section of the BTC pipeline
2.. Environmentalism Slam Award for Dead Wolves
3.. Quest for Georgian oil continues
4.. World’s Largest Environmental Awareness Program
5.. Analysis – Global Warming May Take Economic Toll
6.. Call For Papers – Towards the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

1. Oil crosses into the Georgian section of the BTC pipeline

Source: The Messenger, August 10, 2005

BP, as operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline, is pleased to announce that the first barrels of oil through the line have crossed the border from Azerbaijan into Georgia. The oil has been received at Pump Station 1 (PSG1) near Gardabani, following the commissioning i and inauguration of the pipeline in Baku in May.

With construction of the BTC pipeline now complete in Georgia, Mr. Wref Digings, BP Georgia Head of Country said: “This is a very significant day for Georgia, for the investors in the BTC pipeline – and for BP, as constructor and operator of the pipelines. It is j a day when we see the first tangible results in Georgia of the completion of one of the I most challenging pipeline projects ever undertaken; and it shows how good co-operation between the Government of Georgia and private investors can achieve extraordinary results.”

Staged filling of the pipeline along its entire 1,770-km route-from the Sangachal terminal near Baku through Georgia to the newly built Ceyhan marine terminal on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey-is a gradual process over a period of several months and involving more than 10 million barrels of crude oil. Oil production comes from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea and loading of the first tanker at Ceyhan is expected in 40 2005.

Official First Oil Celebrations, hosted by the Government of Georgia and BTC Co, in the presence of invited national and international guests, will take place in Tbilisi on October 12th 2005.

The BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1 %); AzBTC (25.00%); Unocal (8.90%); Statoil (8.71 %); TPAO (6.53%); Eni (5.00%); Total (5.00%), Itochu (3.40%); INPEX (2.5C%), ConocoPhillips (2.50%) and Amerada Hess (2.36%).

For further information, please contact: Tamila Chant/adze
Tel: + 995 32 593 400

2. Environmentalism Slam Award for Dead Wolves

Source: The Messenger, August 10, 2005

Environmental groups have criticized an order issued by the presidential representative in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region Vasil Maghlaperidze to issue an award of GEL 100 for any residents who kill a wolf in the region.

The order came in the wake of a wolf attack in the Dusheti district of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region at the beginning of August. A wolf mauled three children from a Dusheti village.

Two of them, 10 and 13 years old, were placed a Tbilisi hospital with bite injuries. Doctors say one boy was significantly injured in his face.

The Georgian environmental group Green Alternative slammed the order of Maghlaperidze as a call to eradicate wolves as a species.

“According to Article 36 of the Georgian law on the animal world, the existence of an award system for preying on separate animal species is prohibited. Consequently we think that Maghlaperidze violated the law,” says the group’s statement.

The NGO also says reports I describing a fine of GEL 400 for killing a wolf are incorrect and ignore a part of the law that allows for controlled hunting.

“It’s not true, because according to the same article 36 of the law, it is allowed to control the amount of wild animals if a certain animal creates a danger for the health and life of the population,” explains the group.

Green Alternative says this measure in the law allows for the destruction or isolation of an individual animal creating danger but not announcing a call to kill any and all members of an animal species.

“It’s the same as if the American government instead of setting an award for the liquidation of Osama Bin Laden would give an award for the liquidation of all dark-haired men with long beards,” Green Alternative says about Maghlaperidze’s order.

The group says the order by the Mtskheta-Mtianeti administration violate national environmental laws as well as international environmental principles that Georgia is obliged to follow under signed conventions.

Article 36 of the law also says “the control [of animal populations] should be held by humane means” and that the list of species to be controlled must be developed together with input from scientific organizations and state structures.

“We will apply to international organizations over this fact,” warns Green Alternative. Another environmental group, the Center for Conservation of Species, also criticized Maghlaperidze’s order.

However, according to the deputy governor of Mtskheta-Mtianeti Shadiman Shamanidze the award system is an urgent necessity and temporary. “If this wolf bites other wolves they would be infected with rabies as well and it would create more danger for the population,” he said according to Rezonansi.

Doctors say the wolf almost certainly was infected rabies to attack the three people. The National Center for Disease Control says there has been just one case of rabies registered in Georgia in the first four months of 2005.

The newspapers reported that a man in Tskhinvali region died this year after a rabies-infected wolf bit him.

The National Center for Disease Control warns the danger of being bitten by animals, especially by dogs, rises in summertime. The Center advises pet owners to vaccinate their animals against rabies and for the country in general to control the animal population. If a person is bitten or scratched, they should immediately turn to a doctor for vaccinations.

3. Quest for Georgian oil continues

Source: The Messenger, August 11, 2005

The search for petroleum in Georgia continues. Many specialists say that the investments placed in such efforts will pay off in the near future and the country, which until today has been primarily a transit country for oil, will become a petroleum exporter itself.

In early August at well No. 60 in the Kakheti town of Teleti, a fountain of crude oil gushed forth from the earth. The well is currently producing 13 tons of petroleum every 24 hours. According to analysts’ calculations, if oil drilling becomes a systematic practice, the state budget will receive an additional GEL 3.5 million per year.

The Teleti well was drilled in November of 1990, though at that time no crude oil was found and the well was labeled “dry” and closed. However, in June of this year, drillers returned to the well and drilled deeper, down to 950 meters, where the oil made its appearance.

According to the paper Rezonansi, the general director of the national oil company Saknavtobi, Vano Nakaidze, has stated that from the Soviet period to today, a total of 1,300 various types of oil wells have been drilled in Georgia. Of these the number yielding oil today is at most 200. Oil drilling began in Georgia in 1929 and one of the first deposits was that of Mirzaani in Kakheti.

By far the most generous, however, was the Samgori deposit, which was drilled in 1974. In 1980, the oil yield reached 3 million tons. This continued for three or four years and then began to fall sharply. According to the newspaper Rezonansi, since 1929 a total of 27 million tons of oil have been found in Georgia, of this 24 million were from the Samgori deposit.

The search for oil has been especially intense since Georgia reclaimed its independence. From 1992 to 2004, a total of USD 250 million was invested in the petroleum and natural gas sectors. This money, however, was not directed towards finding new deposits, but rather improving old ones. The result, from the standpoint of the oil found, has not been very successful.

In 1992, 202,000 tons of oil was found, in 2004, however, a mere 98,000. The new management of Saknavtobi considers this to be a result of incorrect policy. “There is oil in Georgia, it just needs to be found. We must make investors focus not exhausting the resources of old deposits, but rather on opening new ones; we should approach them about holding new surveys and investigations. If we fail to open new deposits, finding the resources that remain in Georgia will take a maximum of five years,” said Nakaidze according to Rezonansi.

An especially bright prospect for prospectors is considered the Black Sea coast. The American company Anadarko has been working in this area since 2000. In March 2005, after the company conducted surveys of the area, a consortium was created including British Petroleum (BP), the Turkish National Oil Company and the company Unocal. Drilling wells on the Black Sea shelf will cost approximately 110-120 million dollars. If this search proves successful, Georgia may indeed become an oil exporting country.

5. WORLD’S LARGEST ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PROGRAM

Source: Planet Ark, August 11, 2005

Inventor & CEO of Hooked On Recycling & The Original Bottle Cap Lure Company is on fire. He is starting the world’s largest bottle cap recycling program. He’ll be recycling metal beer and soda caps that have been thrown away for 116 yrs. Why do our world’s governments allow this? Why do we allow it?

Norm Price has been in contact with major beverage companies to educate them about how easy it would be to collect the bottle caps as they are collecting their bottles. They all told him to get stuffed and that people have been throwing them away for years. He said that’s the point. Your customers have been throwing them into our lakes, rivers and parks & cities. Special events, bars, sporting events discard them by the billions here in North America alone. This is reusable metal.

That is not even the best of it yet. He told them that he makes fishing lures out of them and they would make a great promotional gift. They told him that they are their caps and that he cannot use them for fishing lures. Mr. Price told them to get stuffed. Round, round we go. Even the government has been shy about getting involved. He has volunteers collecting for him at schools, bars, pubs, events, campsites, marinas, tackle shops, and many other places. He will be having a national fishing contest, free for the public. It will be called… the Battle of The Brands.

Beer vs. Beer …Soda vs. Soda. Which one will win?

Told you it gets better.
College and university students manufacture the lures that are made out of these bottle caps. This product has many pluses and no downfalls. Mr. Price’s friend, Andy Vander Ploeg, is the three-time Canadian sport fishing champion. Vander Ploeg, with the help of this functional lure, has won the title three years in a row. The Bottle Cap Lure was featured on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Business page, in July’s issue of Field & Stream and the UK’s Tackle Trade World magazine & the September issue of FHM US swimsuit magazine, with more yet to come.

This is a fun project for Mr. Price and he is even custom printing company’s & group’s logos on bottle caps and the packaging. Hooked On You Promotions… Hooked On Education….. Hooked On Recycling… Hooked On Beer…. Hooked On Employment….. Hooked On World Peace.

Norm is hoping to pick up sponsors along the way. Meanwhile sales are helping him right now. For those who have tossed caps away, you too can make a difference now. Vote in the online poll on his website.

Find out more online at: and

He has no support from the beverage industry and no support from governments. Both have declined. All his profits are going into collecting more bottle caps.

CONTACT:
Norm Price
THE ORIGINAL BOTTLE CAP LURE COMPANY
416-628-9750

6. ANALYSIS – Global Warming May Take Economic Toll

Source: Planet Ark, August 12, 2005

Washington – The White House’s refusal to consider government caps on greenhouse gas emissions may save the US economy short-term pain, but experts warn unchecked global heat could exact a heavy long-run toll.

“While there are costs associated with reducing emissions, there are certainly costs associated with not doing anything,” said Kevin Forbes, head of Catholic University’s economics department. “It would be, in my opinion, folly not to try to do something.”

According to Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, earth surface temperatures could be up to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit above 1990 levels by 2100, potentially worsening storms, raising sea levels and eating away ice caps.

After shunning the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases, which President George W. Bush said would have “wrecked” the economy, the United States last month joined Japan, Australia, China, India and South Korea in a pact focused on technology-sharing, without set targets.
The world’s richest economy is also its biggest carbon dioxide emitter, pushing out 5.8 billion metric tons in 2003. China, in second place, emitted 3.5 billion, with all of Western Europe at 3.9 billion.
US emissions are projected to keep rising, despite plans to lower carbon intensity, or use per unit of economic growth.
The White House wants cuts to be voluntary and resists measures that would impose restrictions on output of such gases as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, seen as culprits behind global warming, saying this would hurt economic growth.

“We oppose policies like mandatory caps on emissions, that would achieve reductions by raising energy costs, slowing the economy, and putting Americans out of work,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
While experts agree new technologies are vital, many see the economic argument as spurious. Higher costs may also be a necessary evil since they spur innovation and companies will act more aggressively if inaction hits where it counts.

John Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change has examined the economic effects of several proposals.

“When we looked at implementing Kyoto … we estimated that would be 6/10ths or 1 percent of the economy. We thought that was costly but that’s not wrecking the economy,” he said.
Still, even those who back government restrictions agree Kyoto isn’t the answer for the United States.

They call its targets too tough, its deadline too near and say the absence of developing countries such as India and China could distort the global economic playing field.
What is needed, they say, is a world-spanning deal with fair goals. “You will never be able to solve this problem without all of the major emitters being involved,” said Katie Mandes of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
Experts say economic risks could be eased with a Kyoto-like allowance trading system so the regions best able to make affordable cuts can sell their achievement to those less able.
While the United States can’t fix the problem alone, Reilly said it should lead the way with meaningful steps.
“I think it’s one of the great tragedies of our era that the administration hasn’t risen to the occasion on this. It’s committing future generations to extraordinary costs and problems,” said James Gustave Speth, dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “In the same breath, I have to say I wish the prior administration had done more itself.”

The great unknown is the price of inaction.

“There are real economic costs associated with not taking action, including changes to water supply infrastructure, industrial capital, like pipelines, and with human health,” said Janet Peace, senior research fellow, economics at Pew.

“With droughts, there’s a cost. With increased flooding, there’s a cost (and) with increased hurricanes and tornadoes.”

Cap critics say real change would take many Kyotos.

“Scientists who support Kyoto have estimated that emissions cuts equivalent to 30 Kyotos will be needed,” said Myron Ebell, director of global warming at the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, which supports “free enterprise and limited government.”

He said costs would rise with each new target since companies make the cheapest cuts first. “I can’t imagine that any informed person could claim that the total costs will be anything less than astronomical.”

Reilly admitted the ultimate price will be high although solutions can and should include economic safety valves.

“Starting on a path isn’t committing to the entire path,” he said. “If the cost becomes too great for the economy, we have to reconsider where we go. If the climate effects become more severe, or less severe, then we reconsider as we go.”

And a fix may cost less than feared.

“When you turn the genius of the private sector loose on solving the problem, they do things,” said Speth.

Chemical giant DuPont has cut emissions by 72 percent, beating both its 65 percent target and its self-imposed 2010 deadline at a cost of $55 million.

Tom Jacobs, DuPont’s senior adviser on global affairs, said the company sees caps as inevitable and exploited “unique opportunities” for big, low-cost reductions, though he admits cheap options are not limitless.

7. CALL FOR PAPERS – Towards the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

V Annual International Conference of REC Caucasus
Education for Sustainable Development

November 1-2, 2005
Tbilisi, Georgia

Background

V Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” (Kiev, 2003) has endorsed a number of documents in the field of Sustainable Development, including the Statement on Education for Sustainable Development.

Environment ministers from UNECE countries recognized that education is a fundamental tool for environmental protection and sustainable development. They stressed that cooperation on education for sustainable development can build and strengthen mutual understanding, trust, tolerance and friendly relations between nations, respect for cultural values, and contribute to peace, security and welfare.

At the High-level Meeting of Education and Environment Ministries of UNECE Countries (Vilnius, 2005) was officially declared the beginning of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) 2005-2014. The meeting adopted the UNECE Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development and decided on the framework for its implementation, according to which member States take the responsibility for its implementation in cooperation with UN, UNESCO, OSCE and the Regional Environmental Centres.

Taking into account the special role of RECs in this process it was decided to dedicate the REC Caucasus Annual Conference to Education for Sustainable Development in the South Caucasus.

The overall goal of the REC Caucasus Annual Conference “Education for Sustainable Development” is to discuss problems and prospects of Education for Sustainable Development in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and to identify ways of its development.

In parallel the “Students and Education for Sustainable Development”- event shall take place.

Objectives of the Conference and issues to be covered
Conference aims to:

Provide a forum for all the stakeholders: Ministries of Education, Environment, Economy, Health, Parliaments, NGOs and individual experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia;

Get acquainted with the trends in education for sustainable development followed by governments, parliaments, NGOs and scientists, as well as by international organisations working in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia;

Work out proposals on further development of environmental education in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia taking into account the experience and recommendations of international organisations and region specific conditions;

Promote information exchange and transfer of experience within and beyond the region;

Raise awareness among target groups;

Identify the ongoing activities undertaken by the countries corresponding to the UNECE Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development and define priorities of further actions required for implementation of the Strategy by the countries;

Revise current policies, existing legal and operational frameworks.

Main issues to be discussed at the Conference

General Issues

Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development;

Management of transboundary decision making process through education;

Objectives and framework of Education for Sustainable Development;

Education for Sustainable Development in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia;

Education for a Sustainable Future;

Legal basis of Education for Sustainable Development in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Formal education

Preschool and secondary education

General review of environmental educational systems in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia;

Sustainable Development and integrated education approach in formal education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia;

Sustainable Development at all stages of school educational programmes;

Sustainable schools;

Trainings and Education for Sustainable Development.

Higher education

Education for Sustainable Development in curricula of higher educational institutions of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia;

Training for trainers and tutors

Informal education

How to introduce Sustainable Development principles into informal educational systems;

Role of NGOs in formal and informal education systems;

National Parks and Education for Sustainable Development;

Media and Education for Sustainable Development;

Promoting educational processes for ensuring public participation in decision making processes;

Networking activity of NGOs and private persons directed towards the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

The papers shall be originally prepared for the Conference, and shall not be earlier presented at any other conference, or printed in any edition. The papers shall be sent in electronic format to the below address. They shall be prepared in English or Russian, in MS Word format, with 12 font size. The papers shall have the following structure:

1. Name of the paper;
2. Name of the author and his/her regalia;
3. Resume (200-250 words, in Russian or English)
4. Paper (4-5 A4 format pages, with upper and lower margins of 2.5 cm, and left and right margins of 2.2 cm)
5. Bibliography

The papers shall be sent to: [email protected]

Deadline for submission of papers – September 20, 2005

Only resumes of the selected papers will be published in conference report. The papers not complying with the above requirements will be disqualified.

Authors of the best papers will receive compensation for accommodation and transportation fees (train or minibus tickets). Organizers will be able to pay such compensation only to one of the authors; co-authors (if any) shall undergo official registration procedure for participation in the Conference.

Registration forms can be found at:

For further details, please visit:
or contact: [email protected]

Regional Environmental Centre for Caucasus
Office 901, 74 Chavchavadze Ave.
Tbilisi 380062, Georgia
Tel./Fax: +995 32 253649/ 253648
E-mail: [email protected]

CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 75 19 03/04
Fax: ++995 32 75 19 05
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

Lraper Church Bulletin
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
<; (Open, click "ARM" for Armenian, "ENG" for English-language page) MAJOR FEAST OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD <;NewsCode=N000000858&Lang=ENG> &NewsCode=N000000858&Lang=ENG

Sunday, 14 August 2005, is the Tabernacle Feast of the Holy
Mother-of-God and the Name Day of the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal
Church of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul (Constantinople).

His Beatitude Mesrob II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul & All Turkey,
will be celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchal Church. The
procession of priests, deacons and acolytes, leading His Beatitude, will
move from the entrance of the Patriarchate towards the Patriarchal
Church at 10:30 a.m. The hymns of the Divine Liturgy will be sung by the
Koghtan Choir of the Patriarchal Church. Following the Divine Liturgy,
the traditional service of “The Blessing of the Grapes” (Khaghogh
Orhnek) will be held.

The annual pilgrimage to the Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God,
in the Vakifli village, on the slopes of Mt. Musadag, in the province of
Antakya (Antioch), will be led by the Revd. Fr. Drtad Uzunyan. The
Blessing of the Madagh will be held on Saturday, 13 August, at 20:00
hours, in the churchyard. The Festival will begin immediately
afterwards. The Divine Liturgy will be celebrated on Sunday, 14 August,
at 10:00 hours. Following the Divine Liturgy, the traditional service of
“The Blessing of the Grapes” (or Khaghogh Orhnek) will be held.

For more information on this feast and the traditions surrounding it,
you can visit the following sites:

“Facing Up To Mary” by Archpriest Peter E. Gillquist

Who was Saint Mary?
ndex.html

For teenagers
ry/teens.html

Some Feasts of the Holy Mother of God
.html

Christopher Zakian’s article on the Assumption
ary/assumption.html

A Homily on the Dormition of the Theotokos
n.html

The Orthodox Veneration of the Theotokos
neration.html

Slain writer played key role for park and for Pagan
The Villager (New York)
Volume 75, Number 12
August 10 – 16, 2005
By Lincoln Anderson
Steven Vincent of E. 11th St., who was murdered on Aug. 2 in Basra,
will go down in history as the first American journalist killed in
Iraq. But before his tragic end he also carved a place for himself in
East Village history as a core member of the group that brought City
Councilmember Antonio Pagan to power and helped bring about the
cleanup of Tompkins Square Park.
Vincent, 49, an art journalist turned war correspondent, had returned
to Iraq three months ago for his third visit there since the start of
the war. He was planning to come back to the East Village in
mid-August to write a book on the history of the city of Basra. The
Sunday before his murder he had written a column that ran in The New
York Times charging that insurgents had infiltrated the Iraqi police
in Basra and were acting as a death squad.
Speaking last Sunday, Lisa Ramaci, Vincent’s widow, said she felt the
Times column probably is what caused his death.
`I’m going to say that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,’ she
said. `He was going around asking a lot of probing questions,
including to a lot of [radical cleric] Motaq al-Sadr’s men. He was
going around with a female translator – that was offensive to
them. Steve was saying Basra had fallen under the control of radical
Shiites – and they want women to walk around in a bag. I think he was
basically killed to shut him up. Steve pulled no punches, he called
them as he saw them, and that’s why he’s dead,’ Ramaci said.
Vincent and his translator were abducted by masked gunmen after he had
left a money-changing business. Vincent was shot once in the head and
four times in the torso, according to Ramaci. His interpreter was shot
three times in the chest, but survived. Ramaci said official sources
told her that the two were taken to a warehouse where their captors
were overheard shouting and cursing at them for five or six hours –
calling Vincent an infidel and his translator a whore – before they
were killed.
Ramaci said the translator is being held at a military hospital and
believes she can identify two of the perpetrators.
Vincent had visited Iraq twice before, in the fall of 2003 and in
early 2004. These trips produced a book, `In the Red Zone.’ He also
wrote for the National Review and Christian Science Monitor while in
Iraq.
On 9/11, Vincent had watched from his rooftop as the second hijacked
jet hit the twin towers and then and there decided to write about
political issues.
`He didn’t sleep for weeks. He was so freaked out at what he saw,’
Ramaci said. `He didn’t want to go back to art journalism.
Ramaci said Vincent, who was of Armenian descent, had become
fascinated with Islam and had read the Koran and tons of books about
the religion.
Before leaving for Iraq this last time, Ramaci said Vincent told her
that if he got killed it should be considered `a casualty of war – and
you can chalk me up as one more victim of the World Trade Center.’
Vincent was from California and hitchhiked his way to New York. He and
Ramaci met while they were smoking in the lobby of a Times Square
movie theater showing `The Road Warrior.’
Ramaci had homesteaded a building on E. 11th St. that the city took
from a derelict landlord, and two years after meeting, Vincent moved
in with her. Concerned at the direction of the neighborhood and
wanting to do something about it, they were among the 13 founding
members, along with Pagan, of the Democratic Action Club. DAC felt
that, after 19 years representing the neighborhood, Councilmember
Miriam Friedlander had to go. Pagan was their candidate.
They were tired of all-night `metal jams’ in the park without a curfew
at which people would pound away on fenders or garbage can lids or
anything metal they could get their hands on. After the 1988 riot over
the proposed curfew, the administration left Tompkins Square alone for
four or five years and it became a homeless tent city. Parents had to
clean up hypodermic needles from playgrounds before their children
could play in them. Their were complaints about `aggressive
panhandling.’ DAC said enough was enough. Vincent, in particular,
personally took on the squatters who at one point were in as many as
25 buildings, gaining their everlasting enmity.
Vincent, who was first a writer and then editor of the East Villager,
a local newspaper, became the club’s main writer. With Howard Hemsley,
Pagan’s campaign manager for both of Pagan’s elections, Vincent wrote
DAC’s `manifesto,’ which was printed on the back of the East Villager,
and also their `10 points’ flier that was posted around the
neighborhood. The flier asked if people wanted the park back or if
they were tired of Friedlander’s policies, with `Join us,’ written
after each point. Vincent was more active in Pagan’s first campaign.
Pagan, who represented the Second District from 1991-97, now works for
Lower East Side Coalition Housing. He said he rarely speaks to the
press, but that `This is important.’
`He was a man of conviction,’ Pagan said of Vincent. `Not only a
dreamer, but a man who transformed things by his actions. You can see
what we call `the liberation of the streets and park.’
`At every step of the way, there was Steven,’ Pagan said. `There was a
major team effort, but if you were to separate the few that actually
impacted things, he was there. He was a true renaissance man. He died
fighting for what he felt was the truth. It was a big loss, personally
and collectively.’
Hemsley kiddingly referred to Vincent as DAC’s `minister of
propaganda.’ He said Vincent did have a particular ax to grind with
squatters, noting that Vincent was adamant about including language
criticizing them in their `manifesto’ and other literature.
`I remember working with him on the mission statement of purpose for
our club,’ Hemsley said. Part of the statement that Vincent insisted
be included was that DAC would `refuse to glorify poverty.’ `Steve was
very big on this,’ Hemsley said, `upper-class kids coming down to the
Lower East Side to pretend to be poor for the glamour of poverty. What
the squatters did was jump in before people who were poor, old or
unable to squat.’
One specific point on this theme in the mission statement was: `We
reject the myth that poverty is cool, somehow politically correct or a
way to hide from adult responsibility.’
There were poster wars, in which the squatters would doctor DAC’s
posters, Hemsley said.
Vincent served for two years on Community Board 3, appointed by
Pagan. Ramaci served on the board for six years, headed its State
Liquor Authority Committee, and was also elected a Democratic district
leader for two years. But the DAC members eventually went back to
their private lives after they felt their job had been done, Hemsley
said; they weren’t professional politicians to begin with, just
concerned citizens. After the park was renovated, they tried to bring
positive uses to it, like the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, he said.
Kate Walter was also appointed by Pagan to C.B. 3 at the same time as
Vincent.
`He was active in getting the park restored to the community so it was
usable,’ Walter said. `We were considered conservative on the
community board because we didn’t want a tent city in Tompkins Square
Park. The anarchists all thought it should remain that way. I think
a lot of people felt like Steve and me,’ Walter said, `but they were
afraid to say it, because nobody wanted to be called a yuppie or a
gentrifier. And nobody wanted to have another riot, either.’
Vincent had a running battle with the East Village’s anarchist
newspaper, The Shadow. However, The Shadow’s Chris Flash said
hostilities between them had diminished in recent years.
`I will admit, in recent years, we had an amicable,
respect-each-other’s-differences sort of relationship,’ Flash
said. `There was no animosity.’ Recalling their past newspaper wars,
he said, `He had a vehicle to attack and we had a vehicle to attack
back. We didn’t draw first blood – they did.’
A memorial will be held in September, Ramaci said, adding that she is
thinking of starting a foundation in his name as a Committee to
Protect Journalists.
`Steven didn’t have the money to hire a security guard or a driver,’
Ramaci said. `He had himself, his wits and his translator.’
Ramaci said Vincent’s body was still in Basra, where it was being
autopsied, and that it would be autopsied again when it was returned
to America. He will be buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Legislature again delves into racism lessons in schools
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
August 11, 2005, 4:54 PM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. — A politically appointed state panel will examine
whether slavery and the “physical and psychological terrorism” against
Africans in the slave trade is adequately taught in schools and
textbooks.
The panel called the Amistad Commission was approved by the
Legislature and signed into law last week by Gov. George Pataki. It is
charged with recommending to the Legislature and governor changes in
curriculum and textbooks, which because of New York’s buying power
could influence texts used in other states, according to the National
Council for the Social Studies. The panel could also recommend
state-sponsored educational programs on slavery and racism, and
training for teachers.
The commission is named for the slave ship Amistad that was
commandeered by the slaves it carried. They eventually won their
freedom in U.S. Supreme Court.
Such lessons are critical for all students to understand American
history and the role of slaves and black Americans in it, supporters
say.
Other states have sought public input in recent years to include
international studies and “financial literacy” in schools, said Peggy
Altoff, president-elect of the national council and a social studies
facilitator in Colorado Springs.
She said the goal of the commission is laudable, but said educators on
the panel should be part of any panel recommending changes to make
sure they’ll work.
“There’s only so much time to teach the history of this country
… what’s going to go?” she said.
Letting officials who need no academic expertise make curriculum
recommendations may be a new wrinkle on government’s management of
classroom instruction.
“I haven’t heard of that,” said Susan Adler, a professor of teacher
education in social studies at the University of Missouri at Kansas
City who helped write standards for social studies education for the
national council.
“I kind of like having public input, but ultimately I think educators
need to be the decision makers about curriculum,” Adler said. “Public
input is good. Public decision making makes me nervous.”
New York’s law is the latest legislation aimed at requiring lessons
about ethnic groups.
Under state law, children must learn about the Irish famine, the
Holocaust, slavery and the Underground Railroad.
“There’s no question that it’s dabbling,” said Carl Hayden, the former
state schools chancellor who led the Board of Regents in developing
higher academic standards. “The single most difficult standard that
the Regents dealt with was the history standard, because it is so
potentially controversial.” He said there were extensive discussions
on how to teach slavery before the standard was set.
“It’s not to say (the commission) is a bad idea, but education should
be approached comprehensively,” said Hayden, an Elmira lawyer.
He noted schools are already “overwhelmed” with mandated lessons.
Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., a Brooklyn Democrat and co-sponsor of
the law, said he’s unsure why the qualifications for joining the
commission don’t include academic credentials, but said he has faith
that educators and those “well versed in this type of issue” will be
appointed.
“We feel there is, indeed, a void in our education curriculum in New
York state when it comes to the issue of slavery and the
de-humanization of Africans at that time” and of the racism against
black Americans since, he said. He said the state’s education policy
making board, the Board of Regents, hasn’t acted and needs to be
prodded by the Legislature.
He said the legislation should prompt more laws to revamp or create
lessons on other oppressed racial and ethnic groups. “Commonalities of
struggle,” he said, “create a common bond.”
Norman and the proposal’s prime sponsor, Democratic Assemblyman Keith
Wright of Manhattan, are black leaders in the Legislature.
“A great deal” on slavery is already required in schools and more
would be better, said department spokesman Jonathan Burman. He said he
expects the commission to rely on experts, but was disappointed the
law includes no funding.
“Scholarly interpretation of history should be left to professional
historians,” said Candace de Russy, a State University of New York
trustee and national lecturer and writer on academic issues. “This
bill opens the door to endless group advocacy-oriented
legislation. Inherent in it, Jews will decide how to teach the
Holocaust, the Irish the Great Famine, Armenians the Turkish genocide,
Indians the French and Indian War, and so on. Gays will decide gay
history, women women’s history and so on.”
State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long, meanwhile, said “To
talk in terms of terrorism is certainly out of line.”
The commission will include 19 unpaid members: Eight appointed by the
governor, the rest by the state secretary of state, who is appointed
by the governor; the state education commissioner and majority leaders
of the Legislature.
Panelists need not be academics. They will be “chosen with due regard
to broad geographic representation and ethnic diversity, who have an
interest in the history of the African slave trade and slavery in
America and contributions of African-Americans in our society,”
according to the law’s text.
The commission will be authorized to call for data from any state,
municipal department or school and those offices must cooperate, the
law stated.
The panel will focus on African and African American experiences under
“the concerted effort of physical and psychological terrorism that
deprived groups of people of African descent the opportunity to
preserve many of their social, religious, political and other customs.
“And in spite of these events, there are endless examples of the
triumphs of African-Americans and their significant contributions to
the development of this country,” the law states.

Allen: Why I had to say yes
Joan Allen tells Matt Wolf why she jumped at the chance to spout iambic
pentameters in Sally Potter’s latest take on love
12 August 2005
The Independent/UK
In a milieu, namely Hollywood, in which beauty is skin deep, Joan
Allen possesses the kind of natural radiance you can’t buy off the
shelf. Sure, Allen doesn’t make the cover of Heat and People: few
performers the wrong side of 40 do. (The actress will turn 49 later
this month.) But amid an environment that is harsher than ever to
women of a certain age, Allen is working almost constantly – five
films in the past two years – and with unwavering integrity and
adventurousness, too: after all, not every actress would say yes to a
film like Yes.
“I just feel very fortunate that I’ve got to do interesting things
with talented people,” she says during a stopover in London, a city
she has come to know pretty well in recent years. For the Mike Binder
film The Upside of Anger, co-starring Kevin Costner, for which she has
won rave reviews across the Atlantic, Allen lived in Notting Hill and
was driven every day to Hampstead, which was substituting on screen
for, of all places, suburban Detroit. Sally Potter’s film Yes, which
opened in the UK last week, found the actress taking up residence in
the East End. And yet, she laughs, “I still can’t get my bearings
here.”
The more immediate question is whether filmgoers will find their
bearings as regards Yes, a movie told not just in verse but in rhymed
iambic pentameter. As one might expect from the director of Orlando
and The Man Who Cried, Potter’s movie is a love story but of a
particularly rarefied, high-flown kind, and it also registers as a
none-too-veiled political commentary.
Whatever one’s reaction, it’s hard not to respond to the burnished
intensity of co-star Simon Abkarian, an Armenian-Lebanese actor who
was in fact cast in The Man Who Cried but cut from the finished
feature. And, especially, to the unforced luminosity of Allen, here
playing an American scientist based in London who finds refuge from a
chilly marriage to an English diplomat (Sam Neill at his most severe)
in an affair with the Lebanese refugee played by Abkarian.
The two principals go only by the names She and He. It can’t be easy
acting archetypes – characters who, Allen acknowledges, “represent, I
suppose, the Eastern and Western worlds, though I don’t want to sound
pretentious or anything”. What’s important, she says, is Potter’s
interest in bridging different cultures and merging the political and
the personal at a time when too few movies choose that route. “I was
really drawn to Sally’s material because of that question of how we
really talk to each other; how do we try to understand.” Potter began
writing the script of Yes on 12 September 2001, a date that resonates
throughout the finished film. Says Allen: “Somebody said to Sally that
it was the first therapeutic response to 9/11 because we are all
sharing a dialogue. It’s not just one person talking while the other
listens.”
Allen’s capacity for listening – for a restraint that tends to gather
force throughout a film – can often make her the quiet centre of a
noisy movie. She got the first of her three Oscar nominations a decade
ago for playing Pat Nixon, wife of the disgraced American president,
in the Oliver Stone biopic Nixon, and was nominated again the
following year for her role in Nicholas Hytner’s film version of The
Crucible. “On film, I like work that is more introverted,” she tells
me, citing Robert Duvall’s low-key contribution to The Godfather as
the sort of acting she admires. To that extent, her contribution to
Yes is as remarkable for what goes unspoken as for the language that
Allen gets to speak, not least a scene in which colour visibly drains
from her face.
Nixon wasn’t Allen’s first big-screen splash. In 1986, she played
Brian Cox’s blind victim in Manhunter, the first of the Hannibal
Lecter movies, while she was Jeff Bridges’ wife in the little-seen but
much-admired Francis Ford Coppola film Tucker: The Man and His Dream
(1988). A later biopic, When the Sky Falls (2000), cast Allen as a
semi-fictionalised version of the murdered Irish journalist Veronica
Guerin. “It was very hard to understand her character,” says Allen,
reflecting on a film about a crusading woman and mother who dared to
invade the Irish underworld. “People would go, ‘Why did she do this?’,
and I was like, ‘Because she did’. You wouldn’t be asking that if she
had been a man.”
Still, her range of acting opportunities over the years seems even now
to come as something of a surprise to Allen, who, by her own
admission, grew up “a gal from a little-horse Illinois town surrounded
by cornfields”. The youngest of four children, Allen had never before
been to New York when she first worked at the Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts in the early 1980s in CP Taylor’s play And A
Nightingale Sang. That production was part of the widening reach of
the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago, where Allen acted
alongside then-unknowns John Malkovich and Gary Sinise while working
as a secretary to pay the rent.
Allen soon began appearing on Broadway, winning a 1988 Tony Award for
her role in Lanford Wilson’s Burn This, and a nomination the next year
for Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles. But she hasn’t done a
Broadway play since 1989, the dual result of raising a daughter,
Sadie, who is now 11, and her shifting attitude toward that
medium. “I’m just not as interested in doing the same thing every
night; I used to love it, but it just doesn’t interest me the way it
used to,” she says.
Besides, it’s not as if Allen has much time to miss the theatre, as
she ricochets between high-profile films such as Face/Off and The
Contender (which brought her a third Oscar nod, her first for Best
Actress) and art-house fare like Yes. Still to come is a film, Pushers
Needed, written and directed by the Irish actor Jimmy Smallhorne,
about four working-class Dublin women who take a visit to Lourdes with
their local church. (Brenda Blethyn is among the others.) “It’s
called Pushers Needed because we push the wheelchairs of the
crippled,” says Allen, laughing at the misconception that the film
might have anything to do with drugs. Another adventure for an actress
who by now is used to them? Allen smiles and nods. “I haven’t done
much world travelling, I have to say,” she is quick to comment, “but I
have been to Lourdes.” Filmgoers keeping a keen eye on this fine
actress will give thanks for that.
‘Yes’ is on limited release; Matt Wolf is London theatre critic for
‘Variety’
In a milieu, namely Hollywood, in which beauty is skin deep, Joan
Allen possesses the kind of natural radiance you can’t buy off the
shelf. Sure, Allen doesn’t make the cover of Heat and People: few
performers the wrong side of 40 do. (The actress will turn 49 later
this month.) But amid an environment that is harsher than ever to
women of a certain age, Allen is working almost constantly – five
films in the past two years – and with unwavering integrity and
adventurousness, too: after all, not every actress would say yes to a
film like Yes.
“I just feel very fortunate that I’ve got to do interesting things
with talented people,” she says during a stopover in London, a city
she has come to know pretty well in recent years. For the Mike Binder
film The Upside of Anger, co-starring Kevin Costner, for which she has
won rave reviews across the Atlantic, Allen lived in Notting Hill and
was driven every day to Hampstead, which was substituting on screen
for, of all places, suburban Detroit. Sally Potter’s film Yes, which
opened in the UK last week, found the actress taking up residence in
the East End. And yet, she laughs, “I still can’t get my bearings
here.”
The more immediate question is whether filmgoers will find their
bearings as regards Yes, a movie told not just in verse but in rhymed
iambic pentameter. As one might expect from the director of Orlando
and The Man Who Cried, Potter’s movie is a love story but of a
particularly rarefied, high-flown kind, and it also registers as a
none-too-veiled political commentary.
Whatever one’s reaction, it’s hard not to respond to the burnished
intensity of co-star Simon Abkarian, an Armenian-Lebanese actor who
was in fact cast in The Man Who Cried but cut from the finished
feature. And, especially, to the unforced luminosity of Allen, here
playing an American scientist based in London who finds refuge from a
chilly marriage to an English diplomat (Sam Neill at his most severe)
in an affair with the Lebanese refugee played by Abkarian.
The two principals go only by the names She and He. It can’t be easy
acting archetypes – characters who, Allen acknowledges, “represent, I
suppose, the Eastern and Western worlds, though I don’t want to sound
pretentious or anything”. What’s important, she says, is Potter’s
interest in bridging different cultures and merging the political and
the personal at a time when too few movies choose that route. “I was
really drawn to Sally’s material because of that question of how we
really talk to each other; how do we try to understand.” Potter began
writing the script of Yes on 12 September 2001, a date that resonates
throughout the finished film. Says Allen: “Somebody said to Sally that
it was the first therapeutic response to 9/11 because we are all
sharing a dialogue. It’s not just one person talking while the other
listens.”
Allen’s capacity for listening – for a restraint that tends to gather
force throughout a film – can often make her the quiet centre of a
noisy movie. She got the first of her three Oscar nominations a decade
ago for playing Pat Nixon, wife of the disgraced American president,
in the Oliver Stone biopic Nixon, and was nominated again the
following year for her role in Nicholas Hytner’s film version of The
Crucible. “On film, I like work that is more introverted,” she tells
me, citing Robert Duvall’s low-key contribution to The Godfather as
the sort of acting she admires. To that extent, her contribution to
Yes is as remarkable for what goes unspoken as for the language that
Allen gets to speak, not least a scene in which colour visibly drains
from her face.
Nixon wasn’t Allen’s first big-screen splash. In 1986, she played
Brian Cox’s blind victim in Manhunter, the first of the Hannibal
Lecter movies, while she was Jeff Bridges’ wife in the little-seen but
much-admired Francis Ford Coppola film Tucker: The Man and His Dream
(1988). A later biopic, When the Sky Falls (2000), cast Allen as a
semi-fictionalised version of the murdered Irish journalist Veronica
Guerin. “It was very hard to understand her character,” says Allen,
reflecting on a film about a crusading woman and mother who dared to
invade the Irish underworld. “People would go, ‘Why did she do this?’,
and I was like, ‘Because she did’. You wouldn’t be asking that if she
had been a man.”
Still, her range of acting opportunities over the years seems even now
to come as something of a surprise to Allen, who, by her own
admission, grew up “a gal from a little-horse Illinois town surrounded
by cornfields”. The youngest of four children, Allen had never before
been to New York when she first worked at the Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts in the early 1980s in CP Taylor’s play And A
Nightingale Sang. That production was part of the widening reach of
the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago, where Allen acted
alongside then-unknowns John Malkovich and Gary Sinise while working
as a secretary to pay the rent.
Allen soon began appearing on Broadway, winning a 1988 Tony Award for
her role in Lanford Wilson’s Burn This, and a nomination the next year
for Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles. But she hasn’t done a
Broadway play since 1989, the dual result of raising a daughter,
Sadie, who is now 11, and her shifting attitude toward that
medium. “I’m just not as interested in doing the same thing every
night; I used to love it, but it just doesn’t interest me the way it
used to,” she says.
Besides, it’s not as if Allen has much time to miss the theatre, as
she ricochets between high-profile films such as Face/Off and The
Contender (which brought her a third Oscar nod, her first for Best
Actress) and art-house fare like Yes. Still to come is a film, Pushers
Needed, written and directed by the Irish actor Jimmy Smallhorne,
about four working-class Dublin women who take a visit to Lourdes with
their local church. (Brenda Blethyn is among the others.) “It’s
called Pushers Needed because we push the wheelchairs of the
crippled,” says Allen, laughing at the misconception that the film
might have anything to do with drugs. Another adventure for an actress
who by now is used to them? Allen smiles and nods. “I haven’t done
much world travelling, I have to say,” she is quick to comment, “but I
have been to Lourdes.” Filmgoers keeping a keen eye on this fine
actress will give thanks for that.
‘Yes’ is on limited release; Matt Wolf is London theatre critic for
‘Variety’

Lraper Church Bulletin 11/08/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
<; (Open, click "ARM" for Armenian, "ENG" for English-language page) THE PATRIARCH: "JESUS CHRIST PREACHED RECONCILIATION AND PEACE!" Photos: <;NewsCode=N000000857&Lang=ENG> &NewsCode=N000000857&Lang=ENG

His Beatitude Mesrob II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey,
visited the Armenian Parish of Srpots Vartanants, the largest in
Istanbul, on the morning of Sunday 7 August 2005, the Carnival of the
Fast of the Holy Mother of God.

At the entrance of the church, as the bells joyfully announced the
patriarchal visit, His Beatitude was greeted by members of the Parish
Council, headed by the Chairman Rober Kucukaltunyan. Following a
consultation in the reception room of the Parish concerning a few
community and church concerns, the Patriarch presided over the Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by the Very Revd. Father Zakeos
Ohanyan. Deacon Setrag Davuthan, Stole-bearer Armenak Kazanciyan and a
group of young acolytes served at the altar. The hymns of the Divine
Liturgy were sung by the Srpots Vartanants Choir conducted by Adrusan
Hallacyan. The Ferikoy Church was completely filled with the faithful
of the 20,000-strong parish, with the members of the Parish Council
attending. Also present were a group of young Italians from the St.
Egidio Community of Rome.

The Prince of Peace
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude the Patriarch preached
on the Lord Jesus Christ as the true head and chief shepherd of the
Church, in reference to Ephesians 5:23. He is the Prince of Peace (Is
9:6), of whom the heavenly angelic hosts sang to the shepherds at his
birth in Bethlehem: “Praise to God in the highest, and peace on earth to
those whom he favours” (Lk 2:13-15). It was he who sent out his
disciples to spread the good news to all nations, saying, “All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me!” (Mt 28:18).

Jesus Christ preached peace
The Patriarch said, “The greeting, ‘Peace be with you’ (Lk 24:36; Jn
20:21), which we hear frequently in the Liturgy, is not just empty
words.” It is the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who came into
the world for the salvation of humankind: “Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not
let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27).
Jesus Christ advised his disciples not to lose their inner peace even in
times of difficulty, trouble, persecution and pain. “I have said this to
you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face
persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” (Jn 16:33).

Loving even one’s enemies
Jesus Christ left such a legacy of peace that people of violence, or
victims of violence, have sometimes put the blame of defeat on the
peaceful and reconciliatory messages of Jesus Christ: “Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). “But I
say to you that if you are angry with a brother or a sister, you will be
liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be
liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to
the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if
you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,
leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to
your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:22-24).
“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.
For God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your
Father is merciful” (Lk 6:35,36). These verses from the Bible show that
Christianity is a religion of reconciliation, tolerance, peace and
understanding. There is no verse on any page of the Gospel that
supports violence or terrorism. Defense of one’s self or one’s
community is something different. Of course, in history there have been
individuals or groups who have called themselves Christians and have
chosen the way of armed violence and tyranny . But they were motivated
not by the Gospel of love and peace but by their own personal, social,
national or state interests. Today no one can say that someone engaged
in terrorist attacks or murders has done so “in the name of
Christianity.” Thus the leaders of the Church must condemn every sort
of violence and terror, wherever it comes from and for whatever reason,
since it is directed against innocent people, whether bystanders or
those charged with the duty of providing security, and it leaves
children orphans, women widows, and parents childless.

The importance of love of God and mankind
Once a Pharisee asked the Lord Jesus which commandment in the Law was
the greatest. The Lord Jesus answered as follows: “‘Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it:
‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself'” (Mt 22:38-39). The Lord
Jesus finished by saying that the entire Law and the Prophets rest on
these two commandments, that is the love of God and of mankind. In the
Upper Room the Lord Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and once
Judas Iscariot had left in the darkness of the night he said to those
who remained, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this
everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
other” (Jn 13:34-35). The Lord Jesus loved his disciples and all
humanity so much that he took it on himself to be crucified for
everyone, and in the place of everyone, as the Divine, Holy, and Eternal
Sacrifice. When speaking about this event in the Upper Room, the Lord
continued: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for
one’s friends. You are my friends If you do what I command” (Jn
15:12-14).

Following the arrest, torture, crucifixion, and death of the Lord Jesus,
and after the three days in the tomb, the resurrection in glory and
ascension to heaven, we see in the New Testament that his mother Mary,
the extended family of Christ, the disciples, the myrrh-bearing women,
altogether some 120 people, “all with one mind were constantly devoting
themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:12-15). Following Pentecost, as the
believers devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer, their peacefulness
and their unity of heart was a strong witness to the Founder of the
Community of Love; and the number of Christians grew from day to day
(Acts 2:42-47).

The Lord Jesus praised the love of friends
On one occasion at Capernaum, on the shore of the Lake of Galilee, the
Lord Jesus performed a miracle before a crowd of onlookers in order to
commend the love of God and of friends. The place was so crowded that
there was no space for anyone to move in the house where the Lord Jesus
was speaking. At that moment four people brought a paralyzed person on a
mat. They tried to carry their sick friend inside, but it was
impossible. So they climbed on to the roof, opened it, and, using
ropes tied on four sides, lowered their friend on the mat in front of
the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was deeply moved. These four people
showed great faith and loving attachment to their friend. St. John, who
probably also was there, was later to write, “Those who say, ‘I love
God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do
not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom
they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who
love God must love their brothers and sisters also'” (1 John 4:20-21).
The Lord Jesus first forgave the sins of the paralyzed person, healing
the spirit, and then in front of everyone ordered, “I say to you, stand
up, take your mat and go home!” And everyone saw that the paralytic
indeed stood up, immediately took the mat and left. They were amazed
and began to glorify God (Mk 2:1-12). This miracle of the Lord Jesus
demonstrated that he was able to cure all physical and spiritual
illnesses. The Lord Jesus can heal us all; it is sufficient that we
accept him as Our Lord and Saviour. Let us gather in His Church, and
around the Holy Table let us each become friends, brothers, sisters,
members of the great Family of Faith.

Ayk Murzyan receives the grace of the Reader’s Stole
After his homily, His Beatitude presided over the service for the repose
of the souls of departed Ferikoy brothers and sisters.

Then the Patriarch gave permission for Ayk Murzyan to wear the “urar”
stole. Ayk Murzyan was named as a candidate for the stole-bearer’s
service in a petition to the Patriarchal Spiritual Council co-signed
months before by Father Zakeos Ohanyan, the pastor of the Ferikoy
Church, and the Srpots Vartanants Choral Association. From now on, Ayk
Murzyan, with the rank of “Uraragir Tbir,” can read the Gospel during
the Liturgy in the absence of deacons and sub-deacons.

Fellowship meal
The members of the Parish Council hosted His Beatitude the Patriarch in
the Nazar Sirinoglu Hall for a fellowship meal prepared by members of
the women’s guild. Participants at the meal were the Pastor of the
Ferikoy community, the Parish Council, the Choir members, the Women’s
Guild, the Social Aid committee, members of other auxiliary groups, and
the Italian youth group belonging to the St. Egidio Community. During
the meal Father Zakeos thanked the Patriarch in the name of the parish
for his blessed visit. He also welcomed the members of the St. Egidio
Community and thanked them for the hospitality and friendship they
showed him when he was studying in Italy. Following the fellowship
meal, His Beatitude paid tribute to the Pastor, the Parish Council, the
Choir, the Women’s Guild, and other auxiliary groups for their dedicated
work. He thanked them for their hospitality and love and concluded the
meal with a prayer of thanksgiving.

Schweiz-Türkei: Briner stellt klar
swissinfo 11. August 2005 21:33
Die Ständeräte Peter Briner (rechts) und Thomas Pfisterer in der kleinen
Kammer in Bern. (Keystone)
Der Präsident der APK des Ständerates, Peter Briner, relativiert seine
Aussage der Völkermord an den Armeniern werde kein Thema im Rat sein.
Briner sagte kürzlich, dass es nicht Sache anderer Länder sei, 90 Jahre nach
den Geschehnissen über die Türkei zu richten.
Nachdem die Türkei kürzlich den Schweizer Wirtschaftsminister Joseph Deiss –
offiziell wegen Terminproblemen – ausgeladen hat, will sich die
Aussenpolitischen Kommission des Ständerates (APK) mit der Absage des
Besuchs befassen. Dabei wird vermutlich auch der Völkermord an den Armeniern
zur Sprache kommen – und ob dieser vors Plenum soll.
Bislang habe es keinen Grund gegeben, in der APK auf das Thema
zurückzukommen, sagte APK-Präsident Peter Briner am Donnerstag. Er sei zwar
nach wie vor der Meinung, es sei problematisch, als Richter über andere
Länder und ihre Vergangenheit aufzutreten.
Die Deiss-Ausladung gebe nun aber Anlass zur Diskussion, sagte Briner und
differenzierte sich von seiner in der vergangenen Woche gemachten Aussage,
der Armenier-Genozid werde im Ständerat kein Thema sein.
Im Gegensatz zu Ständerat und der Regierung hat die grosse Parlamentskammer,
der Nationalrat, den Mord an bis 1,8 Mio. Armeniern als Völkermord
bezeichnet. Die Beziehungen zwischen der Schweiz und der Türkei sind
deswegen seit einiger Zeit belastet.
swissinfo: Herr Briner, Sie sagen, dass der Ständerat nie über das Gemetzel
der Türkei an der armenischen Bevölkerung, welches der Nationalrat als
Völkermord anerkannte, sprechen werde. Wie stellt sich der Ständerat zu
diesen Vorgängen?
Peter Briner: Was ich gesagt habe, wurde entweder falsch zitiert oder beruht
auf einem Missverständnis, das ist zu bedauern. Gesagt habe ich, dass zum
Zeitpunkt, als der Nationalrat den Völkermord anerkannte, das Thema im
Ständerat nicht zur Debatte stand.
Die Politik unserer Regierung und der Aussenpolitischen Kommission des
Ständerates ist, dass die beiden an den schrecklichen Ereignissen von 1915
beteiligten und betroffenen Parteien diese durch eine unabhängige
Historiker-Kommission untersuchen lassen sollten.
swissinfo: Es ist nun zwei Jahre her, seit der Nationalrat den Völkermord
anerkannt hat. Warum kam das Thema in dieser Zeit im Ständerat nie zur
Sprache?
P.B.:Im Nationalrat wurde aufgrund einer parlamentarischen Eingabe darüber
diskutiert. Wir haben den Entscheid des Rates zu Kenntnis genommen und
fanden, die Politik der Regierung sei der klügere Kurs.
swissinfo: Ist demnach die Armenien-Frage im Ständerat noch ein Thema?
P.B.: Ich kann nicht in aller Sicherheit wissen, was auf der Tagesordnung
des Ständerates sein wird. Die Absage des Besuchs von Wirtschaftsminister
Joseph Deiss durch die türkische Regierung wird aber in der Sitzung der APK
am 23. August sicher zur Sprache kommen.
swissinfo: Sollte der Ständerat nicht schon allein aus moralischen Gründen,
den Mord an der armenischen Bevölkerung als Völkermord anerkennen, wie das
andere Länder ja auch tun?
P.B.: Ich denke, dass die Position der Schweizer Regierung die bessere ist.
Mir ist es einfach nicht wohl, Richter in einer Sache zu sein, die vor so
langer Zeit geschah.
Da sind zweifellos schreckliche Dinge geschehen und sie sollten untersucht
werden. Aber in erster Linie von den damals betroffenen Partein.
swissinfo: Wie würden Sie die schweizerisch-türkischen Beziehungen im Moment
charakterisieren?
Normalerweise sind sie gut. Wir spürten das, als eine Delegation der
Aussenpolitischen Kommission im vergangenen September dem türkischen
Parlament einen Besuch abstattete. Anschliessend weilte eine türkische
Delegation diesen Sommer bei uns. Wir haben diese Fragen angesprochen und
zwar in freundschaftlichem Ton.
Die Beziehungen sind natürlich durch die Ereignisse der letzten Zeit
angespannter geworden. Doch denke ich, dass längerfristig gesehen, die
Beziehungen zwischen den beiden Ländern gut bleiben und weiter gedeihen
werden, wie das in der Vergangenheit der Fall war.
swissinfo-Interview: Thomas Stephens
URL dieses Artikels
;sid=6003323
Links
Aussenpolitische Kommission Ständerat:
Nation alrat: Anerkennung des Völkermordes an den Armeniern:
4701_95679_95803.htm
EDA: Treffen des türkischen Botschafters mit dem Chef der Politischen
Abteilung I:
Eidg. Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (EDA):
Ges ellschaft Schweiz-Armenien:
Türkische Gemeinschaft in der Schweiz:
;contentid=211

Briner sets record straight over Turkey debate

swissinfo
August 11, 2005 9:33 PM

Peter Briner (right) explains his views on the controversial issue
(Keystone)Peter Briner, president of the Senate foreign-affairs
committee, has denied stating Turkey’s massacre of Armenians will
never be debated in the Senate.

The Senate member was reported at the beginning of August as saying
countries had no business pointing the finger at Turkey 90 years after
the disputed events.

Briner, a member of the centre-right Radical Party, maintains the
Senate’s position is that a committee of historians from the two
countries involved should investigate the events of 1915.
The Swiss House of Representatives recognised the death of up to 1.8
million Armenians as genocide in 2003. But unlike many western
governments, the Swiss government does not officially speak of
“genocide” but of “mass deportation” and “massacre”.
The Turkish government rejects that it was genocide, claiming that the
Armenian deaths as a result of mass evacuation and starvation were not
a result of a state-sponsored plan of extermination.

swissinfo: You say reports are false which claim you said the Senate
will never recognise the Turkish massacre of Armenians 90 years ago as
genocide. What is the Senate’s position regarding those events?

Peter Briner: Those reports are based on either a misquote or a
misunderstanding – and this is of course most regrettable. What I did
say was that when the Swiss House of Representatives had [voted to]
recognise the genocide, this was not an issue in the Senate.
The policy of our government – and the Senate foreign-affairs
committee – is that the two countries involved, Turkey and Armenia,
should investigate the terrible events of 1915 with a committee of
historians from both sides.

swissinfo: Two years ago the House of Representatives recognised the
massacre as genocide. Why did the debate not pass to the Senate?

P.B.: The House of Representatives vote was only [in response to] a
motion and not on the parliament’s agenda. We discussed this and we
felt that the policy of our government was the wiser course.

swissinfo: So the Armenian question is still a topic of discussion for
the Senate?

P.B.: I can never be sure what will be on the Senate’s agenda, of
course, but right now the postponement of Economics Minister Joseph
Deiss’ invitation to Turkey will certainly be discussed during our
next committee meeting on August 23.

swissinfo: Morally, shouldn’t the Senate recognise the Armenian deaths
as genocide like other western countries?

P.B.: I think that the position of our government is the better one. I
don’t feel comfortable being the judge of the whole world and of
something that happened a long time ago.
These are evidently terrible events and I think that they should be
investigated, but they should be primarily investigated by the parties
involved.

swissinfo: How would you describe Swiss-Turkish relations at the
moment?

P.B.: They are normally good – we felt this when a delegation of the
Senate foreign-affairs committee visited the Turkish parliament last
September. Then a Turkish delegation visited us this summer and we
talked about these things in a friendly way.
Relations have of course been strained by recent events but I think in
the long run good relations will prevail. I think relations between
the two countries will remain good and prosper as they have done in
the past.
swissinfo-interview: Thomas Stephens
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