PRESS RELEASE/NEWS REVIEW

MELKONIAN ALUMNI CYPRUS

Contact: Masis der Parthogh

P.O. Box 16077, CY 2085
Nicosia, Cyprus.
Tel. +357 22 678666
Fax. +357 22 678664
Email: [email protected]

____________________________

Melkonian relative returns to help save school

Financial Mirror – November 10, 2004

Jack R. Melkonian, a grand nephew of the founders of the Armenian
high school in Nicosia, was in Cyprus to judge for himself the fate of
the historical school and lend a hand to the campaign to keep it open.

He addressed a fund-raising banquet on Sunday organised by the school’s
local alumni where more than 300 graduates and friends attended.

“A financial institution sitting 5,000 kilometres away cannot be the
owners of this school — you are the owners of the school,” he said
to a wild applause from the crowd.

Jack Melkonian hailed the importance of maintaining such an important
school for the rapidly changing Armenian diaspora and added that
opportunities were missed to transform the Melkonian Educational
Institute into a school of excellence.

On March 16, the New York-based AGBU charity organisation announced
that it would close the 78-year old Melkonian Education Institute
next June, claiming that the school no longer fulfilled its purpose.

The argument has been strongly contested by the alumni, parents and
friends in Europe, the Middle East, Australia and North America,
who have embarked on fund raising events to finance the struggle to
overturn the decision.

Members of the House of Representatives and Ministry of Education
officials have debated the closure extensively, with Education
Committee Chairman Prodromos Prodromou declaring on March 24 that
“in a multicultural society we should be opening new schools, not
closing them. This decision will be considered a hostile act against
the people and government of Cyprus.”

The House plenary session also voted through a unanimous resolution
on March 26 calling on the New York-based group to reconsider its
decision and start a dialogue with all parties concerned, including
the Armenian community of Cyprus and the worldwide alumni associations.

In April, a large part of the school’s estate including the historic
buildings and the wooded strip along Limassol Road were declared
a national heritage site. The protection order is widely seen as
depriving the U.S.-based organisation from selling the land, valued
at tens of millions of pounds.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Birthright Armenia
P.O. Box 8221
Radnor, PA 19087
Contact: Linda Yepoyan
Tel/Fax: (610)642-6633
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

November 12, 2004
———————————-

BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA SPONSORS LOCAL NGO INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS IN ARMENIA

Programs available to young diasporans around the world interested in
experiencing Armenia are now broader and deeper in scope than ever
before. In addition to the many youth-oriented opportunities offered by
diasporan organizations, young Armenian adults will soon have even more
volunteer options from which to choose how they gain valuable work
experience while offering worthwhile assistance to the homeland. There
is now a whole host of Yerevan-based NGOs that are developing their own
internship programs, geared specifically to attract young diasporans
interested in making a difference in Armenia-leaving the doors wide open
for increased bridge-building and collaboration amongst 18-32 year olds.

With Birthright Armenia as the impetus, twelve local NGOs, covering the
range of arts through social welfare, are getting ready to pilot test
internship programs of their own. How these locally initiated programs
work is simple. The local NGOs are responsible for recruitment,
processing applications, placing volunteers in a valuable community
service position within their organization, and assigning each young
diasporan to a project that is quality in purpose and measurably doable
within an 8-week period of time. Birthright Armenia will provide the
infrastructural back-up support necessary for any quality internship
program to be all that it can be, namely, offering services of home stay
living arrangements, Eastern Armenian language instruction, weekly
forums, weekly excursions, and regular “havak” tie-in meetings with
other diasporan volunteers from the whole spectrum of organizations.
Once the volunteer completes their required minimum eight-week long
community service assignment or internship in Armenia, Birthright
Armenia provides each one with a full reimbursement of their roundtrip
airfare in the form of a travel fellowship.

“Having these new options for volunteer work in Armenia is a true
testament to the amount of progress achieved in the non-profit sector in
Armenia since the republic’s independence, combined with the pure and
keen interests on the part of local NGO representatives to be working
side-by-side with diasporans from around the world” said Linda Yepoyan,
Executive Director of Birthright Armenia. “NGO leaders and their
employees are quick to provide a long list of projects in which young,
educated and energetic diasporans can greatly assist their groups. Some
samples of volunteer work they can offer includes translations, editing
of grant proposals, creation of brochures and newsletters, giving
English lessons, Web site development, research, outreach with outside
organizations, conference preparation, and much more”, Yepoyan added.
“Our youth have a fulfilling experience in Armenia, helping them define
their own Armenian identity, and local NGOs gain not only much needed
assistance, but also a gateway to the Diaspora and exposure to Western
thinking”, she concluded.

The list of local NGOs offering internship opportunities to diasporans
18-32 years old and their area of interest or specialty includes:

– ARTS/CULTURE Internships:
Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (NPAK)

– EDUCATION Internships:
Armenian School Fund

– ENVIRONMENTAL Internships:
Armenian Tree Project
Makur Yerevan

– HEALTH/MEDICINE Internships:
Armenian Medical Association
Mental Health Foundation

– HUMAN RIGHTS Internships:
Armenian Young Lawyers Union

– PUBLIC POLICY/RESEARCH Internships:
International Center for Human Development

– SOCIAL WELFARE Internships:
Mission Armenia
Pyunic Armenian Sport Association for Disabled

– YOUTH ISSUES Internships:
Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)
Youth for Achievements

Please visit the Birthright Armenia Web site at
and click on “Opportunities” to learn more
about these organizations and their missions.

Birthright Armenia’s mission is to strengthen ties between the homeland
and diasporan youth by affording them an opportunity to be a part of
Armenia’s daily life and to contribute to Armenia’s development through
work, study and volunteer experiences, while developing a renewed sense
of Armenian identity. This is accomplished by supporting and
complementing the initiatives of existing diasporan organizations that
offer youth programs in Armenia, and encouraging them to expand their
offerings in depth and breath. Birthright Armenia assists with travel
fellowships, language instruction, in-country seminars, orientation and
excursions in exchange for community service in Armenia.

# # #

Armenian Assembly of America
122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
 
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2004
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
E-mail: [email protected]

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY LEADERS CONVENE IN CALIFORNIA
Board Members Review Year, Lay Groundwork for 2005

San Francisco, CA – Led by Chairman Anthony Barsamian, the Armenian
Assembly Board of Directors convened on November 6 at the Sir Francis
Drake Hotel for a full day of business meetings that included an in
depth look at Assembly operations in the Washington, Los Angeles and
Yerevan offices.

“The San Francisco session was extremely productive and has reaffirmed
the Board’s commitment to the Assembly’s goals,” said Barsamian.
“During the meeting, Members raised key questions regarding the
Assembly’s current and long-term initiatives which we will continue
to look at in the month’s ahead.”

Looking at the year ahead, the Board approved the 2005 operating
budget and set a preliminary agenda for the coming year. To that end,
they also discussed the Assembly’s efforts to co-sponsor the 90th
anniversary and subsequent commemorations of the Armenian Genocide
in our nation’s capital under the auspices of the Armenian Caucus
and Armenian Embassy.

Meeting participants included Board of Trustees President Carolyn Mugar
and Board of Directors Members Murat Acemoglu, Bryan Ardouny, Berge
Ayvazian, Lisa Esayian, Edele Hovnanian, Lisa Kalustian, Van Krikorian,
Richard Mushegain, Gail O’Reilly, Annie Totah and Peter Vosbikian.

Executive Director Ross Vartian, along with Deputy Executive Director
Peter Abajian and Finance Director Colleen Clancy, were also on hand
to provide the group additional information on the following program
areas: Development and Membership, Finance, Government Affairs,
Grassroots, Internship and Public Affairs.

Prior to the weekend meeting, Board of Directors Treasurer Berge
Ayvazian on November 5 moderated a panel discussion on Armenia’s
Economic Development which was held at the hotel. Panelists
included Adam Kablanian of Virage Logic, Tony Moryoyan of Viasphere
International, Board Member Gail O’Reilly of Made in Armenia Direct
and Anahid Yeremian of CRD Support Committee. The event attracted a
high community turnout and was organized by the Assembly’s Northern
California Regional Council.

The Council also helped plan a Saturday night dinner for supporters,
which was hosted at the home of Development Co-Chair Suzanne Abnous
and her husband, Fellow Trustee Razmik Abnous. More than 50 people
attended the event in Danville, CA which welcomed more than two dozen
new members.

Barsamian and Mugar thanked the Abnous’ for opening their home to the
Assembly and presented the couple with a gift created by a child in
Armenia. “We’re extremely grateful to Suzanne and Razmik for hosting
such a lovely evening,” said Mugar. “We also thank members of the
Northern California Regional Council for their contributions to the
evening’s success.”

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.

NR#2004-098

–Boundary_(ID_esSk5GBJaufLSkMrWjVdBA)–

MORE FOREIGNERS OBTAIN E-VISAS WHEN TRAVELING TO ARMENIA

ArmenPress
Nov 12 2004

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS: A foreign ministry official told
Armenpress that a draft law on the legal status of foreigners in
Armenia that is being elaborated now is supposed to make Armenia’s
visa issuing policy more flexible. Hrach Hovhanesian, who heads the
visa department of the ministry, said Armenia is the second world
country that has developed and installed E-Visa system for issuance
of electronic visas (also Australia issues on-line visas).

He said some 2,000 foreigners applied last year for e-visas and the
majority of these applications were satisfied. He said the number
of foreigners wanting to obtain e-visas for traveling to Armenia
increases monthly.

Applications for e-Visas are submitted online, verified on line,
and in most cases, they are approved and issued on-line within two
business days. This e-visa is good for travelers arriving by air at
Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport only.

ARMENIAN MUSICIANS GIVEN WARM RECEPTION IN GERMANY

ArmenPress
Nov 12 2004

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS: Makda Mkrtchian, a soloist of Yerevan
Opera and Ballet Theater and Levon Javadian, a professor of Yerevan
Conservatory are back home from a ten-day tour in Germany where they
performed for audience in Berlin, Potsdam and Halle.

Makda Mkrtchian is an award-winner of several international
contests. The four concerts in Germany’s most prestigious concert
halls were organized by a German Armenian Tadevos Jorkntsian, who
owns a concert agency.

“Before traveling to Germany we knew Tadevos Jorkntsian as a generous
benefactor who donated hefty sums of money to help students of
Yerevan Conservatory. He learned about Makda and me from our Internet
website. He also knew about Luciano Pavarotti’s and Placido Domingo’s
invitations sent to Makda,” professor Javadian told Armenpress.

Armenian musicians performed the works of Verdi, Luciano Berrio,
Komitas, Pagannini, List, Ravelle and Schumann. The works by Komitas
were welcomed by stormy applause.

The Armenian musicians are planning to organize in collaboration
with Tadevos Jorkntsian’s agency a festival in Germany and Armenia
dedicated to the 80-th anniversary of a prominent Armenian opera
singer Katy Berberian.

ARMENIAN CLERIC WARNS AGAINST RELIGIOUS SECTS

ArmenPress
Nov 12 2004

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS: A senior Armenian cleric chided
the authorities for neglecting the penetration of alien ideologies
and especially of various religious sects into Armenian schools.
Bishop Sepuh Chuljian, who heads the Gugark Dioceses of the Armenian
Church, told Armenpress that religious sects are especially active
in schools in the regions, masked as charity organizations.

The bishop said the government must pay more attention to schools
since the children are more prone to the sects’ covert proselytizing.
He explained the drive of many Armenians towards the sects by their
social problems. Another part, according to him, joins the sects since
“they are protesters at the bottom of their heart.”

“The Armenian Church must fight for every Armenian to bring him or her
back to their true faith,” he said, adding also that the Evangelical
Armenian Church does not promote the spiritual unity of Armenians,
deluding, as a matter of fact, Armenians, claiming that its teachings
do not differ from those of the traditional Church.

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY: IDEAS OF GENOCIDE STILL ON YEREVAN FOREIGN
POLICY AGENDA

Pan Armenian News
Nov 12 2004

ANKARA, 12.11.04. Turkey has not received any documents testifying
that the ideas of the Genocide were excluded from the agenda of
the Armenian foreign policy, consequently one cannot speak of any
changes in Yerevan`s policy on the Genocide issue, Turkish Foreign
Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan stated during a press conference. As
Milliyet Turkish newspaper writes, he pointed out to the fact that
despite the information that appeared in the press, official Yerevan
has not changed its stand. To remind, when replying to the question
why the budget project for year 2005 does not include allocation of
funds for carrying out the policy of the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide Hamlet Gasparian, the Press sercretary of the Armenian Foreign
Ministry stated that Yerevan policy on the issue of the internnational
recognition of the Armenian Genocide has unregone no changes. Besides,
according to him, the issue of the international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide is still on the agenda of official Yerevan and
cannot be put in the budget or any fiscal document.

The Economist
November 13, 2004
U.S. Edition

Haunted by the past; Human rights in Turkey

Trouble over Turkish history

A human-rights commission embarrasses the government

“HAPPY is he who calls himself a Turk!” That breezy slogan, emblazoned
on mountainsides and offices from the Aegean to the Euphrates, was
devised by Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, as he set
about forging a fresh identity for his people. The idea was that former
subjects of the Ottoman empire—whose native language might be Arabic,
Albanian or Kurdish—would find a new togetherness as citizens of a
unitary republic. And in case people hesitated to embrace the joys
of Turkishness, there were harsh penalties for those who asserted
any other sort of identity.

For most of the past 80 years, these principles have been sacrosanct.
But if Turkey is to have any hope of joining the European Union,
some taboo topics of history, identity and language must be discussed
openly, without fear of prosecution. In a burst of zeal three years
ago, the government—led by former Islamists—set up a panel to take a
broad look at questions of human rights and identity, and to suggest
how things could be improved. But Turkey’s masters got more than they
expected. The board’s report, released this month, said things that
were almost unsayable, triggering a sharp backlash.

For example, the report implies that if the Lausanne treaty of
1923—the basis of the Turkish state and its foreign relations—had
been fully implemented, bloodshed between Turks and Kurds might have
been avoided. To justify this argument, which is explosive in Turkey,
however mild it might seem elsewhere, the report cites article 39
of the treaty, which allows Turkish nationals to use “any language
they wish in commerce, in public and private meetings and all types
of press and publication.”

It also says that articles which supposedly protect non-Muslim
minorities have been read too narrowly: as well as covering Jews,
Armenians and Greeks, these articles should have been applied, for
example, to Syrian Orthodox Christians. More controversially still,
it suggests replacing the term “Turk” with a more inclusive word to
cover all ethnicities and faiths, such as “Turkiyeli”—”of Turkey”.

It was more than some Turks could bear. Even as Ibrahim Kaboglu,
the jurist who heads the board, was reading the report at a press
conference, a fellow member snatched it and tore it into shreds. Both
Mr Kaboglu and Baskin Oran, a political scientist who wrote the
report, have been bombarded with threatening phone calls and mail.
“Fraternal blood will be spilled,” warned one. Another called for a
military coup. Prosecutors in Ankara are investigating claims that both
academics may have committed treason. Ilker Basbug, a top general,
has joined the fray, saying Turkey’s unity should not be tampered
with. The government, frightened by the reaction, has washed its
hands of the report and denied commissioning it.

It is possible, though unlikely, says Husnu Ondul, a human-rights
lawyer, that the two authors may be prosecuted under an article of
the new penal code approved in September, which provides for up to ten
years’ jail for those who engage in unspecified “activities” against
the “national interest”. What might such activities be? In a footnote,
the law deems “anti-national” anyone who advocates withdrawing Turkish
troops from Cyprus, or terming “genocide” the killing of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians in 1915. If the aim was to stifle discussion
of this second issue, it failed: at a conference in Venice last month,
historians from all countries involved took a broader, more cool-headed
look at the 1915 tragedy than would be possible in Turkey—now or,
it seems, any time soon. And what about the 100,000 Turkish-Cypriots
who voted (vainly) in April for a UN plan that would have removed
most Turkish troops from Cyprus: was that a crime?

–Boundary_(ID_VZwkJpQa7vSvPZqSzdaJYA)–

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 12, 2004, Friday

TAJIKISTAN AND ARMENIA DON’T PAY THEIR FULL SHARES FOR MAINTAINING
RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS

The press service of the State Auditing Chamber circulated a
communique of the Chamber’s meeting last Friday, dedicated to
revision of results of using the federal property and federal budget
appropriations to upkeep the border groups in Tajikistan and Armenia.
(…)

The audit done by the Auditing Chamber has displayed that “issues
related to financing of border units by the states in which they are
deployed still persist.” Over January-June 2004, Tajikistan has
failed to transfer 263,730,000 rubles and Armenia – 3,186,000 rubles
to maintain the Russian border guards.

At the session it was decided to submit a statement into the Russian
Finance Ministry and the Russian Border Service of the FSB, as well
as an information letter into the government.

Source: Kommersant, November 10, 2004, p. 14

Dutch police close Kurdish PKK training centre, make 38 arrests

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
November 12, 2004, Friday

The Hague

Dutch police shut down a suspected training centre for the banned
Kurdish separatist organization the PKK near the southern city of
Eindhoven Friday, making 29 arrests.

The authorities said a further nine arrests had been made in other
parts of the country. All those arrested gave their nationality as
“Kurdish” but are being regarded as probably Turkish.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union.

In the raid on the centre, a campsite on a farm in the village of
Liempde, police found night-sight devices, training material and
passports.

Those detained were said to have undergone training for armed struggle
with the PKK.

“There are indications that the participants in the training would
have been sent to Armenia after their training to take part in fighting
for the PKK,” justice authorities said.

Two weeks ago, three men and a woman on their way to the Middle East
were arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. At least one of this
group had been trained at Liempde, a police spokesman said. dpa dt
rpm pmc