Iranian Majlis Speaker attends Pope’s memorial service in Tehran

IRNA web site
8 Apr 05

Tehran, 8 April: Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel attended a
memorial service held for late Pope John Paul II here on Friday
[8 April] at Tehran’s St Joseph Church.

In the ceremony, held by Tehran’s Assyrian Catholics, religious
authorities of the Iranian Armenian, Assyrians, Jews, Armenian deputies
in Majlis, military attache of Italy’s embassy in Tehran and Tehrani
Catholic citizens paid tribute to the late pontiff.

In a brief interview with the reporters, Haddad-Adel said that
the world today needs peace and justice more than anything else,
notifying that the real basis for peace and justice is believing in
God and the Resurrection Day.

He also said that that basis is common among followers of all
monotheist religions and that consolidations among followers of
various true religions would lead to prevalence of peace, justice
and freedom throughout the world.

Concerning the character of the late Pope John Paul II, the world
Catholics’ leader, Haddad-Adel reminded “We respect his grave efforts
aimed at promotion of peace and justice in the world.”

The parliament Speaker stressed that all religious minorities in
the country are fully respected and stressed that the minorities
have been living peacefully with their Muslim fellow citizens for
centuries in Iran.

Unprecedented representation of world religions at pope’s funeral
By LOUIS MEIXLER

AP Worldstream
Apr 08, 2005

He was the first pope to visit a mosque and pray at Judaism’s holiest
site, and he returned the relics of revered Orthodox Christian saints.

In death, John Paul II continues to set precedents: His funeral is
attracting religious and political leaders whose faiths were never
represented at such a high level at previous papal burials.

John Paul II ushered in “the globalization of religion,” said
John Esposito, founding director of the Georgetown Center for
Muslim-Christian Understanding. “He increased exponentially the
dialogue with … people of all faiths.”

Friday will mark the first time the leaders of Orthodox Christianity
and the Armenian Apostolic Church have ever attended a pope’s
funeral. Iran and Syria are sending their presidents, and Israel is
dispatching its foreign minister and an important rabbi _ top levels
of representation never before seen at papal obsequies.

The funeral is making its mark even in places where the pope has
virtually no following. In Turkey, a country where only a handful of
the population is Roman Catholic, the national police have canceled
celebrations of the force’s 160th anniversary. Turkey’s flag, which
features the crescent, a symbol of Islam, will fly at half mast Friday
to honor the pope.

“Not only was he the leader of the Catholic world, he was also the
leader for peace and dialogue between religions,” Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday before flying to Rome to
attend the funeral. “Even toward the end, at the height of his ill
health, he relentlessly worked toward that goal.”

Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey’s top Islamic cleric, said he shared “the
grief of Catholics worldwide.”

The pope’s ability to bridge the divide between religions was aided
by his common touch and keen understanding of the power of symbolism,
which inspired even those who sharply disagreed with him on issues
of faith. Many people seemed to warm to the pope and regard him as
genuinely holy even if they did not share his religious beliefs.

The note he slipped into a crack in the Western Wall apologizing to
God for the suffering of Jews over the centuries has been preserved
in Israel’s national Holocaust museum.

The gesture marked a crucial change from Pope Paul VI’s visit to Israel
in 1964, when the Jewish state and the Vatican were so distant that
the pope traveled only to Christian holy sites and never mentioned
Israel by name.

The pontiff’s contribution to religious tolerance “will be with us
for many years,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the
start of a Cabinet meeting last week.

For many Muslims, a key symbolic moment was when the pope stood in the
ancient Omayyad Mosque in Damascus in 2001 and appealed to Christians
and Muslims to seek common ground rather than confrontation.

For the world’s 300 million Orthodox, the pope’s landmark apology
for Roman Catholic wrongs against Orthodox Christians and his return
of the relics of two Orthodox saints were key moments that no doubt
made it possible for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I _ leader of
the world’s Orthodox Christians _ to attend the funeral.

“Pope John Paul II envisioned the restoration of the unity of the
Christians and he worked for its realization,” said Bartholomew. “His
death is a loss not only to his Church, but to all of Christianity
as well, and to the international community in general, who desires
peace and justice.”

John Paul’s global reach is due in part to the fact that he was
history’s most traveled pope _ logging 723,723 miles (1,164,665
kilometers), or three times the distance to the moon. Critically, his
message was reinforced by a modern media able to beam his smiling image
to millions of homes _ a context which no previous papacy enjoyed.

“Pope John Paul in many ways became a leader and symbol to a degree
that no pope in the past could achieve,” Esposito said. “It is a
product of the man … but also the fact that with globalization of
travel and communications he could play that role.”

Key religious leaders at the funeral will include Bartholomew,
the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church Catholicos Karekin II,
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Lebanon’s Maronite Christian
Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni of
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and Shear-Yishuv
Cohen, the chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Haifa. Teoctist, the
90-year-old patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church was planning
to attend but will not because he has the flu.

There are some who will not be joining in the mourning.

“How can the death of a non-Muslim be a loss to the Muslim
world?” asked Gamal Sultan, an Egyptian Islamic activist and editor
of Al-Manar, a journal that serves as a mouthpiece of Islamic
fundamentalists.

Although Israel is sending its foreign minister, the country’s two
chief rabbis are not attending. And Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s
holiest shrines, has not announced it will send anyone.

Left open by the death of the pope is whether his legacy of promoting
interfaith dialogue will continue.

“A lot depends on the next pope,” Esposito said, but added: “There
is a momentum there and part of that momentum cannot be reversed.”

Azeri deputy speaker rejects EU recommendations on cooperation with Armenia

Bilik Dunyasi news agency
7 Apr 05

Baku, 7 April: The EU expects that the Azerbaijani leadership hold
free, democratic and fair parliamentary elections [in November] which
will serve the strengthening of EU-Azerbaijani relations, the British
ambassador to Azerbaijan, Laurie Bristow, has told the seminar on
“Azerbaijan’s integration into the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy”
organized in Baku by the EU office in Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus
parliamentary initiative.

“Voters must see in parliament the deputies they voted for,” he said.

According to the diplomat, democratic elections in Azerbaijan are
important to the development of the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation. The
EU is ready to help Azerbaijan in this, the ambassador said.

The EU appreciates Azerbaijan’s joining the European Neighbourhood
Policy because it testifies to the country’s aspiration to integration
into Europe, Bristow said. He called on Azerbaijan to maintain closer
cooperation with other countries of the South Caucasus.

Members of the Milli Maclis [Azerbaijani parliament] who also took
part in the seminar expressed their disagreement with a number
of EU recommendations, namely on the issue of cooperation with
Armenia. Deputy Speaker Ziyafat Asgarov said it was wrong to urge
Azerbaijan to cooperate with an aggressor which has occupied 20 per
cent of Azerbaijani territories.

International organizations should not turn a blind eye to the fact
that these territories are used for drug trafficking and that Armenia
uses the drug money to buy weapons and hamper the restoration of
stability in the region, Asgarov said.

The seminar participants urged international organizations to step
up their efforts towards securing the speediest solution to the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict which impedes the restoration of peace
and stability in the region and the EU enlargement.

Unprecedented funeral brings four million visitors to Rome
By Paddy Agnew in Rome

Irish Times
Apr 08, 2005

Believer and non-believer, rich and poor, world leaders and pilgrims
alike will come together in the Basilica of St Peter in Rome this
morning for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

Some four million visitors are expected for an unprecedented funeral
that in itself represents a remarkable testimony to the legacy of
a Pope whose charismatic appeal went far beyond the bounds of the
worldwide Roman Catholic family.

Sitting on the right-hand side of the altar on the steps of St Peter’s
will be a galaxy of world leaders, representing at least 100 countries,
including US president Bush, King Abdullah II of Jordan, the secretary
of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad,
Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, Palestinian prime minister Abu
Ala, UN secretary general Kofi Annan, European Commission president
Jose Manuel Barroso, Britain’s Prince Charles and prime minister Tony
Blair, Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, in breach of a European Union
travel ban, and many others besides.

Leaders of other religions will include the head of the worldwide
Anglican communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams;
the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I; several
leading figures from Orthodox churches in eastern Europe, the Armenian
church, Lutheran and other Protestant churches and the Chief Rabbinate
director general, Oded Viner.

Representing Ireland will be President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern. Tanaiste Mary Harney and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny
are also attending.

It was disclosed yesterday that in his 15-page testament, Pope John
Paul left no personal possessions. He asked that any personal notes
be burned. The testimony, which reads in parts like a diary of his
thoughts, shows he considered resigning in 2000 after leading the
church into the third millennium after Christ. He also asked that
church leaders in Poland be consulted on his funeral and burial
arrangements but later changed his mind and said his cardinals should
take these decisions themselves.

And so the deacon of the College of Cardinals, the German Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, one of John Paul II’s closest collaborators, will
preside over this morning’s three-hour ceremony.

Due to start at 10am local time (9am Irish time), the televised
ceremony will for the most part follow the lines of a conventional
funeral mass, even if it will feature some uniquely Vatican
rituals. For example, according to tradition, the Swiss guards will
kneel for the consecration of the host, dipping their halberds
with their right hands and saluting with their left. The service
itself, Ordo Exesequiarum Romani Pontificis, much of it in Latin and
accompanied by Gregorian chant, will end with the Pope’s coffin being
carried into the basilica from the steps by black-clad pallbearers.

Only a few senior Vatican figures, including Cardinal Ratzinger,
will be able to follow the coffin as it moves through the basilica
and then passes through the “door of death”, to the left side of the
main altar, and on down to the crypt.

The Pope will be buried in the traditional three-tiered coffin of
cypress, zinc and walnut, weighing an estimated 406kg (64 stone). In
a short, private ceremony in the basilica prior to the funeral Mass,
a white silk veil will be placed over the Pope’s face while a small
bag of medallions, his papal mitre as well as a “rogito” or funeral
oration, will all be placed in the cypress coffin alongside him. After
the funeral Mass, Pope John Paul II will be buried in the “bare earth”
of the crypt of St Peter’s, close to where John XXIII now lies.

St Peter’s remained open until midnight last night to accommodate those
pilgrims, many of them Poles, who were still arriving in the Holy City.

Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
By Caryle Murphy and Naseer Nouri

washingtonpost.com
Apr 08, 2005

BAGHDAD, April 7 — In a city where churches have been bombed by
Muslim insurgents and Christians are an imperiled minority, several
hundred Catholics gathered at St. Joseph’s Chaldean Church on Thursday
to attend a special Mass for Pope John Paul II.

Under a golden, late afternoon sun, the worshipers passed through a
protective cordon of red-bereted soldiers from the newly trained,
mostly Muslim Iraqi army. Inside, amid air smoky with incense,
a tearful congregation recalled the Polish-born man who had given
help and hope to Iraq’s dwindling Christian communities.

“The pope won the hearts of everybody because he worked for the
good of all,” said Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly, the head of Iraq’s
Chaldean Catholic Church. John Paul’s death “was a loss not only for
Iraqi Catholics and Christians but indeed it was a loss for the whole
world,” the patriarch said.

Delly concelebrated the Arabic-language Mass with the heads of three
other Catholic communities here — Latin, Armenian and Syrian —
and a representative of the papal nuncio’s office.

“John Paul II has been very close to Iraqis,” Archbishop Jean Sleiman
of Baghdad’s Roman Catholic, or Latin, community said in an interview
this week. “Christians need a protector, or father, someone who
protects them, and I think the pope is one who protected them.”

John Paul opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and criticized the
U.S.-inspired U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Sleiman and Delly both recalled the pope’s disappointment at not
being able to visit Iraq in 1999. “Officially, the regime said it
couldn’t protect him,” Sleiman said, adding that he thought Saddam
Hussein had been “afraid the pope would have more crowds than him.”

Many in the congregation said it was a service they could not miss,
despite the violence that makes travel risky in the Iraqi capital.

“I did not care if it is dangerous to come here today,” said a
government employee who gave only her first name, Haifa. “If I die,
I will die here in the church with Jesus. When you have a soul of
faith, it kills every fear inside your body.”

Iraqi soldiers in pickup trucks were stationed several blocks from
the church in all directions, searching cars, asking for ID cards
and politely asking anyone not going to the service to take an
alternative route.

Most Christians appeared happy with the extensive security. “I feel
so safe,” said Abu Adwar as he walked to the church with his wife
and two children. “And did you notice that there was no American army
around? It is a full Iraqi operation.”

Iraq now has an estimated 800,000 Christians, but another 300,000 have
emigrated since 1991, said Yonadam Kanna, one of six Christians elected
to Iraq’s new National Assembly. Sleiman said his Roman Catholic
community had 60,000 members before the 1991 Persian Gulf War; now
it has around 5,000.

In a display of solidarity, five Shiites, including a black-turbaned
cleric from Iran, attended the Mass for the pope at St. Joseph’s.

“It is a big honor to come here and join our friends and brothers at
this service,” said the Iranian, Ali Akbar Hakim.

“We lost a man who was a symbol for peace, justice and faith in the
world, and we wish that God will replace him with a man like him,”
Hakim said of the pope. “We wish that God will take him to heaven
and give his family and friends the patience to withstand this loss.”

Washington Post Staff Writers

Armenian president dismisses envoy to Jordan

Mediamax news agency
7 Apr 05

Yerevan, 7 April: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has signed a
decree dismissing Levon Sarkisyan from the post of Armenian ambassador
to Jordan, the presidential press service told Mediamax news agency
today.

Armenia to fulfil commitments to Council of Europe by end of 2005 – minister

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
8 Apr 05

[Presenter] Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today held a meeting
with members of the commission coordinating the process of fulfilment
of Armenia’s commitments to the Council of Europe [CE].

The meeting discussed the process of fulfilment of Armenia’s
commitments to the CE and changes to the laws on elections, political
parties, local governments, human rights, media and others.

[Correspondent] Members of the commission informed the president that
the drafts of amended laws have been sent to the Venice Commission of
the Council of Europe. A positive answer is expected and the process
will be completed then.

[Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan] The meeting assessed the
results of the fulfilment of Armenia’s commitments to the CE. I want
to say that the processes under way today were positively rated by the
participants. We can divide these processes into two categories. The
first are the processes related to constitutional reforms and the
second are other issues, for example, the electoral code, the law on
political parties and so on.

[Correspondent] The Armenian president said that constitutional reforms
should not be slowed down and noted that a final option should be
agreed upon.

[Oskanyan] If everything is okay, Armenia will fulfil its commitments
to the CE by late 2005. I think this will be a positive achievement
for Armenia both in the CE and in the region.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia fails to free Azeri POWs – agency

Trend news agency
8 Apr 05

Baku, 8 April, Trend correspondent E. Huseynov: The planned handover
by the Armenian side of three Azerbaijani servicemen did not take
place, Gulnaz Quliyeva, press secretary of the Baku office of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, has told Trend news agency.

The handover of the three servicemen held by the Armenian side
since 15 February should have taken place on 7 April. To that end,
representatives of the Baku office of the International Committee of
the Red Cross [ICRC], the Azerbaijani state commission for prisoners
of war and missing persons, as well as representatives of the Xankandi
[Stepanakert] office of the ICRC arrived in Barda.

The Baku office of the ICRC has not revealed the reason for the
failure of the handover.

We regret that the handover of Xayal Abdullayev, Hikmat Quliyev and
Ruslan Bakirov did not take place, but we hope that this will happen
soon, Quliyeva pointed out and added that this depends only on the
side that holds the prisoners.

The Baku office of the ICRC declined to comment on the Armenian
media reports that an Armenian serviceman has been in Azerbaijani
captivity since 1 April. The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry and the
state commission for prisoners of war and missing persons have not
confirmed the report about the Armenian prisoner either.

Azeri Defence Ministry reports more Karabakh truce violations

Turan news agency
8 Apr 05

Baku, 8 April: Armenian troops fired at Azerbaijani positions near
the village of Sixlar in Agdam District from 0005 to 0045 on 8 April
[1905-1945 gmt on 7 April].

The fire was opened from positions located at a distance of 1.5 km
from the village.

Azerbaijani positions near the village of Mahrizli in Agdam District
came under fire from 0110 to 0120 [2010-2020 gmt]. The fire was opened
by Armenians from the village of Saricali in the same district.

The enemy used assault rifles and machine guns in both cases. The
Azerbaijani side opened retaliatory fire, no casualties are reported,
the Defence Ministry press service reported.

Azeri official urges Armenia to gradually vacate territories outside Karabakh

Turan news agency
7 Apr 05

Baku, 7 April: There are key aspects in the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict, the solution to which is an integral part of the negotiating
process, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has told
journalists.

These “key aspects” are always on the agenda, Azimov said. They
(“key aspects”) have to do with eliminating the consequences of the
conflict. In other words, they involve the liberation of occupied
territories, restoration of the infrastructure, return of refugees
to their homes, re-establishment of normal relations and solution to
political problems.

He said that work on these aspects was part of the “Prague process
[talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers]”. Azimov
rejected the “speculations on a stage-by-stage or package solution
alternatives”.

“As long as agreement on all issues has not been reached, there can
be no talk of a settlement,” Azimov said.

At the same time, Azimov said that Azerbaijan’s position on the
liberation of seven occupied districts outside Nagornyy Karabakh
remains unchanged. However, he added that considering the difficulties
arising from the simultaneous liberation of the said districts,
a stage-by-stage approach to this issue was not ruled out.

If Armenia is genuinely interested in maintaining durable links with
Karabakh’s Armenian community, which would envisage the presence of
a transport infrastructure, it has to give an appropriate response
to Baku’s suggestions which cover the “issues of using roads and
ensuring security”, Azimov said.