Georgian Prime Minister Found Dead
Associated Press
February 4, 2005
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI, Associated Press Writer
TBILISI, Georgia – Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who helped lead
Georgia’s revolution that toppled the corruption-tainted regime of
Eduard Shevardnadze, died early Thursday in a friend’s apartment from
what officials claimed was an accidental gas leak from a heater.
Georgia’s interior minister said there was no reason to suspect foul
play, but a lawmaker reportedly pointed the finger at “outside
forces.” His remark appeared to be aimed at Russia, which has ties
with Georgia’s separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and
prompted a terse response from Moscow.
The lawmaker, Amiran Shalamberidze, noted that the death of Zhvania,
41, came days after a car bombing that killed three policemen in Gori,
the city nearest to South Ossetia. Zhvania, considered a moderate
influence in the government of this former Soviet republic, had been
trying to negotiate settlements with the separatist regions.
“There is the impression that that these tragic facts didn’t occur by
chance but were the results of interference from the side of certain
outside forces,” Shalamberidze was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass
news agency.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, asked about the lawmaker’s
allegation, said in Moscow that “the statements of those who rush to
make judgments … will remain on their consciences.”
Georgia has a history of political intrigue that sometimes turns
violent. An autopsy was under way and the prosecutor-general’s office
said an investigation had been opened.
In addition to the talks with the separatists, Zhvania was trying to
crack down on corruption and crime.
The prime minister was visiting the Tbilisi apartment of his friend,
Zurab Usupov, deputy governor of the Kvemo-Kartli region, who also
died, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said on Rustavi-2
television.
Security guards broke through a window when they heard no signs of
life from inside several hours after the prime minister arrived,
Merabishvili said. Zhvania had entered the apartment about midnight
Wednesday, and the guards came in between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.
“It is an accident,” Merabishvili said. “We can say that poisoning by
gas took place.”
A gas-fired heating stove was in the main room of the mezzanine-floor
apartment, where a table was set up with a backgammon set lying open
upon it. Zhvania was in a chair; Usupov’s body was found in the
kitchen. Police declined to give further details.
Zhvania was a key ally of President Mikhail Saakashvili in leading the
November 2003 protests against election fraud that came to be known as
the “Rose Revolution.” The demonstrations drove Shevardnadze to
resign.
Saakashvili created the post of prime minister shortly after his
election in January 2004, and he nominated Zhvania for the job.
Some critics said at the time that creating the post was essentially a
move to satisfy the ambitions of Zhvania, whose joining with
Saakashvili in the protests was seen as partly a marriage of
convenience.
In Georgia, the president wields most of the power. The prime
minister is approved by parliament and names a government, but the
president has the power to name the ministers of defense, security and
the interior.
On the day before his death, Zhvania had urged Georgians to hold back
from suspecting South Ossetian involvement in the car-bombing in Gori.
Zhvania’s government also was working to overcome Georgia’s endemic
corruption, which had enriched some Shevardnadze-era officials while
the country’s economy deteriorated.
Levan Chichua, a top official in Georgia’s National Bureau of Forensic
Medicine, said there were no signs of violence and that preliminary
examination showed both died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Deputy
Prosecutor-General Georgy Dzhanashia told journalists the heater was
installed “with serious technical violations … there was no
ventilation in the apartment.”
Central heating is scarce in Georgia. Many people rely on gas or wood
stoves in their homes and fatal malfunctions are often reported.
Saakashvili convened an emergency Cabinet meeting, which began with a
moment of silence.
“Georgia has lost a great patriot, who devoted his entire life to
serving the motherland. Zurab’s death is a great blow to Georgia and
to me personally,” Saakashvili said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (news – web sites ) sent a telegram
of condolence to Saakashvili, which said that Zhvania “was well known
in Russia as a supporter of the development of friendly,
good-neighborly relations between the Russian and Georgian peoples.”
A minister in South Ossetia’s separatist government, Boris Chochiyev,
expressed shock.
Zhvania was “among the Georgian politicians who favored a peaceful
settlement of the conflict. I can say that he represented the party of
peace,” Chochiyev told The Associated Press.
Zhvania is survived by his wife and three children.
;cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20050203/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_prime_minister

RFE/RL Georgia: President Urges Team To Remain United After Prime
Minister’s Death
Thursday, 03 February 2005
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Georgian authorities today announced that Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania
had been found dead in a friend’s apartment in Tbilisi. Officially,
the head of the Georgian government died of gas poisoning. Whatever
the exact circumstances of his death, his disappearance is likely to
seriously impact Georgia’s politics.
Prague, 3 February 2005 (RFE/RL) — Hours after the news of Zhvania’s
death was made public, cabinet ministers held an emergency meeting
under the chairmanship of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Looking unusually pale, his voice trembling with emotion, Saakashvili
said the loss of Zurab Zhvania was a major blow to Georgia.
“This is a major blow to our country, and to me personally, both as
president and as a man, just as it is probably to all of you. With
Zurab Zhvania, Georgia lost a great patriot, who had tirelessly
dedicated his entire life to serving his country. I lost my closest
friend, my most trusted adviser, and my greatest ally,” Saakashvili
said.
The 41-year old Zhvania was a key element of the youthful team of
Georgian leaders that took over from president Eduard Shevardnadze 15
months ago.
Following Shevardnadze’s resignation in November 2003, Zhvania became
the number two figure in the triumvirate that took over the reins of
power.
In February 2004, Saakashvili offered him the newly created post of
prime minister with broad powers over the economy and the upcoming
privatization program.
Pushing For Peace
Zhvania was not only involved in domestic issues. He was also a key
element in Georgia’s attempts at restoring control over its two
separatist republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Following last summer’s armed clashes in South Ossetia, Zhvania
initiated direct peace talks with separatist leader Eduard Kokoity.
The South Ossetian government today expressed its regret over
Zhvania’s death.
Boris Chochiyev, South Ossetia’s chief negotiator with Georgia, told
Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency that “Zhvania represented that part
of the Georgian leadership which we can describe as ‘the party of
peace.'”
Chochiyev, in particular, credited the late Georgian prime minister
for putting an end to last summer’s tensions, saying: “We were
convinced that, unlike others, he was in favor of a peaceful
resolution of the [Georgian-South Ossetian] conflict.”
Hard To Replace
In Russia, too, some politicians expressed concern over the possible
consequences of Zhvania’s death.
For Konstantin Zatulin, a pro-government member of Russia’s lower
house of parliament, the State Duma, Zhvania was a “predictable”
politician. He said Zhvania’s death may affect Tbilisi’s relations
with both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The South Ossetian leadership has blamed last summer’s armed clashes
on Saakashvili and then interior minister Irakli Okruashvili. It was
on Saakashvili’s orders and under Okruashvili’s supervision that
troops entered South Ossetia last June, officially to combat smuggling
gangs active in the region. The operation eventually triggered armed
clashes with South Ossetian forces, bringing both sides to the verge
of war.
Georgian media have in recent weeks speculated about growing
disagreements between Okruashvili — who was appointed defense
minister in December 2004 — and Zhvania’s allies in the cabinet.
As evidence to reports of infighting, the Tbilisi-based “Rezonansi”
daily last month cited Okruashvili’s recent accusations of corruption
launched against top army officials who had been appointed at the time
that Giorgi Baramidze, a close associate of Zhvania, was defense
minister.
As if he foresaw further problems among his team, Saakashvili today
urged government members to remain united and “support each other.”
“At this difficult time for both the country and for us — and for me
personally — I would like to urge you all to remain firm and
persevering. At this difficult time for the Georgian government, you
can render no greater service to the country than to remain loyal
servants to your country, to Georgia, to our people. That is what
Zurab Zhvania devoted his entire life to and that is your most sacred
duty. However difficult it may be, we must continue to serve our
country, Georgia, every minute of our life and up until the end,”
Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili’s press adviser Medea Akhalkatsi later said that,
according to the constitution, the president has seven days to
nominate a new prime minister and ask parliament to approve his
choice.
Meanwhile, Zhvania’s daily duties will be temporarily taken over by
Baramidze, who is now a deputy prime minister and a state minister in
charge of Georgia’s European integration.
QUOTE: “At this difficult time for the Georgian government, you can
render no greater service to the country than to remain loyal servants
to your country, to Georgia, to our people.” — Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili

Obituary: Zurab Zhvania
The Independent – United Kingdom
Feb 04, 2005
Felix Corley

FOR THE past turbulent decade in Georgian politics, Zurab Zhvania was
a permanent and reliable central fixture, nurtured and promoted by the
veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze.
By the time Zhvania had started to distance himself from the corrupt
Shevardnadze and his circle, his ambitions to succeed him as President
were trounced by the more charismatic and impulsive Mikheil
Saakashvili. But no government would be complete without Zhvania, who
ended up as Prime Minister. His early death – apparently from carbon
monoxide poisoning from a faulty gas heater – robs the Saakashvili
government of a stabilising influence.
Born of Georgian and Armenian ancestry into a family of physicists in
the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Zhvania grew up surrounded by
science. In 1980, after leaving school, he entered the biology faculty
of the prestigious Tbilisi State University. There he initiated a
student laboratory where all the research work was carried out by
students, something unknown in the hierarchical world of Soviet
scientific research. His lecturers regarded him as a student of great
promise and expected him to make science his lifelong career.
After graduation in 1985, he worked in the laboratory of the
university’s human and animal physiology faculty. But he was
increasingly interested in wider work in society. Supported by
well-known scientists, he joined with other gifted young people to
found the Ecological Association to work within Soviet restrictions
for greater environmental protection in Georgia.
But as ideological controls started to loosen and environmental
activists could – if they wished – show their true colours as
surrogate politicians, Zhvania left his scientific colleagues behind
and founded in 1988 a political party, the Georgian Greens. He was
unanimously elected party chairman.
His political breakthrough came in the elections of October 1992,
contested by more than 50 political parties and blocs. Zhvania
abandoned his scientific work on entering parliament in the election,
where his Green Party – seen as the party of young intellectuals – was
transformed into an influential parliamentary faction. Zhvania was
soon elected as co-secretary of the European Greens.
As Zhvania’s political career began to take off in Georgia’s volatile
immediate post-independence years, he backed the Soviet-era leader
Shevardnadze as he rebuilt a power-base in the wake of his return to
power. In 1993 Zhvania accepted Shevardnadze’s invitation to join him
as secretary-general of the newly founded party, the Citizens’ Union
of Georgia, a disparate alliance united around Shevardnadze’s only
policy: pragmatism. Zhvania hoped to push the party in a
pro-democratic direction.
In November 1995, after the party won a convincing victory in the
elections, Zhvania was elected speaker of parliament. He was now at
the heart of the regime. It was he who persuaded Saakashvili to return
from a promising legal career in the United States to commit himself
to Georgia’s future.
Despite Zhvania’s growing concern over the corruption and stagnation
of the Shevardnadze regime, which he voiced from 1998, he stuck with
the President until November 2001, when he resigned as speaker. In
2002 he founded and became chairman of the United Democrats. He was
soon joined by his successor as parliamentary speaker, Nino
Burjanadze.
Ahead of the November 1993 parliamentary elections, Zhvania
characterised the political choice facing Georgia as one between “a
European way of development” or “another form of Soviet
nostalgia”. When they teamed up with the more charismatic Saakashvili
in the wake of the rigged electoral outcome, the gang of three was
unstoppable in a country weary of lawlessness, poverty, stagnation and
corruption.
Following the ousting of Shevardnadze and his circle amid street
revolts in Tbilisi, Zhvania became State Minister, retaining the
renamed post of Prime Minister from February 2004 despite increasing
tensions with Saakashvili.
A relative moderate over Georgia’s decade-old struggles to regain
control over the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
unlike many in Georgia Zhvania was less inclined automatically to
blame Russia for the conflicts and other ills that befell the country.
He never lost his image as an urban intellectual, so different from
the ruthless, hard men who dominated Georgian politics. Amid all the
machinations of a volatile political system, he tried to hold fast to
his vision of an open, liberal and forward-looking Georgia, based on
principles of civic nationalism.
Although largely unsuccessful in ensuring that such a vision became
reality under Shevardnadze, Zhvania hoped for the transformation of
his country under Saakashvili.
Zurab Zhvania, politician: born Tbilisi, Soviet Union 9 December 1963;
State Minister of Georgia 2003-04, Prime Minister 2004-05; married
1993 Nino Kadagidze (one son, two daughters); died Tbilisi, Georgia 3
February 2005.

Turkish, French Speakers hold joint news conference in Ankara
Anatolia news agency
3 Feb 05
ANKARA
Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said: “I believe a positive
result will emerge in referendum which will be held in France
regarding Turkey’s EU membership.”
Arinc and President of the French National Assembly Jean Louis Debre
held a joint news conference on Thursday [3 February]. When asked, “do
you think that a negative result will emerge in the referendum which
will be held in France about Turkey’s EU membership and how do you
interpret such a result?” Arinc said: “Turkey is not after a privilege
about EU membership. However, we oppose to any discrimination to be
made against Turkey. EU should apply the same procedure it applied on
other candidates.” “Referendum for Turkey will be held in the future,
not today. Throughout this period, I believe there will be positive
developments in Turkey and France. I think a positive result will
emerge from the referendum,” Arinc added. Replying the same question,
Debre said: “It is a tradition to hold a referendum (in France) when a
situation is in question regarding borders and structure of the
EU. When time has come, French people will make its decision.”
Meanwhile, Arinc said that they have taken up Turkey-EU relations
during meetings between Turkish and French delegations. He noted: “We
informed French delegation about the details of the reforms Turkey
implemented.” On the other hand, Debre said: “It is impossible to stay
indifferent to the request of a coun try with a population of 71
million habitants to join the EU. We should listen each other. Of
course, some questions emerge in French public opinion. Because, we
want to build a Europe we have questions to ask. Is Turkish society
ready to adopt the reforms which will change the structure of their
society? There are also other questions like Cyprus, human rights and
Armenian issue, to be solved.” Regarding Cyprus and Armenian issues,
Debre said: “We have discussed these issues with Turkish Premier Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. I told him that Cyprus and Armenian issues are
considered as problems in France. Everything works more comfortably as
long as people are in peace with their own histories.”

RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
February 3, 2005 Thursday
“All the power is concentrated in the Kremlin”
by Andrey Terekhov
SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, No 20, p.1
Condoleezza Rice will soon meet with Sergey Lavrov
Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov will soon hold his first talks with the newly appointed U.S.
secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. The meeting will take place in
Ankara, Turkey, which Ms. Rice will visit in the course of her first
international tour in the new post.
Russia’s and America’s top diplomats are to prepare the meeting of
Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, due to take place on February 24
in the capital of Slovakia Bratislava. Washington has already said it
will put on the talks’ agenda certain issues that are likely to make
Moscow feel uncomfortable, like the excessive centralization of
power, democratic reforms in Russia, situation in South Ossetia and
Abkhazia, Transdniestria and Nagorny Karabakh.
On the eve of the meeting with Lavrov Ms. Rice, whom analysts thought
will assume a tougher stance in relations with Moscow, refrained from
making any harsh statements on the situation in Russia. In a recent
interview with Reuters she said the Washington’s policy towards
Russia won’t be revised. “Russia’s movement towards democracy has
been uneven, but the United States understand that today’s Russia is
not USSR and there won’t be a return to the Soviet past,” the State
Secretary said. “Our aim is to deepen relations with Russia. However,
Russia should understand that this is possible only in the presence
of common values.” In her opinion, bilateral relations will improve
only in case Russia becomes a more democratic country. Rice believes
the key problem is that currently all the power in this country is
concentrated in the Kremlin. Still, she stressed that her words
should be regarded as just a recommendation.
According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, such cautious tone indicates that
the U.S. doesn’t intend to spoil relations with Russia right now,
aiming to secure its support in realizing America’s international
plans. This mainly relates to fighting international terrorism and
nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
February 3, 2005, Thursday
THE UNITED STATES PERCEIVES TOO MUCH POWER IN THE KREMLIN
SOURCE: Vremya Novostei, February 3, 2005, p. 1
by Alexander Samokhotkin
Newly-appointed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice outlined the
major principles of Washington’s policy with regard to Russia in an
extensive interview with AFP and Reuters. Rice will be meeting with
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Ankara on February 5. This will be
their first meeting since Rice’s promotion on January 27.
According to Rice, there will be no radical revision of bilateral
relations, because present-day Russia “is not the Soviet Union, and a
return to the past is out of the question and that is great.” She
adds that “Russia’s progress in the direction of democracy has not
been smooth.” That is why development of cooperation, “to which we
all aspire, is only possible on the basis of common values.” As far
as Rice is concerned, these values include a wish for “a greater
degree of democracy” and existence of civil institutions serving as a
counterweight to government structures. Rice said that “the problem
is rooted in concentration of power in the Kremlin” at the expense of
these institutions, and “the United States has told the Russians as
much.”
Rice promised “assistance” in establishing civil society,
deregulating the economy, and developing small and medium business.
Assistance with World Trade Organization membership was also promised
– but only when Russia meets all requirements. “Deregulating the
Russian economy in line with the rules of the World Trade
Organization” was described by Rice as “good for all of the
international community.”
Rice hopes for “productive cooperation” between our countries in
“numerous spheres” including the war on international terrorism. She
hopes that the United States and Russia will work side by side on
resolution of regional conflicts like in the Caucasus and
Nagorno-Karabakh. All this bonhomie ended with what was essentially a
warning to the Kremlin. “We are keeping an eye on the strategy of
Russia’s development – Vremya Novostei and decide what to do on the
basis of these evaluations,” Rice said.
“Generally speaking, America’s position remains unchanged. Russia is
not cast out for the time being,” said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy
director of the USA and Canada Institute. “On the other hand, the
Americans are making their displeasure clear regarding the course of
events in Russia.” In the international arena, the matter concerns
Ukraine and Georgia. In domestic affairs, it concerns media freedom
and YUKOS. The United States are trying to convey a message that
Putin should not expect too much from the Bratislava summit on
February 24. A message that the period when Washington looked the
other way is over. The United States is prepared to maintain more or
less broad cooperation provided Moscow takes into account what the
Americans are saying.
Rice also announced that the United States does not plan to attack
North Korea and is determined to find a peaceful solution to the
problem with Iran’s nuclear program. Rice complimented London, Paris,
and Berlin on their efforts to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear
programs. Rice warned the EU that a decision to lift the embargo on
arms exports to China might send Beijing “the wrong signal” about the
human rights situation in China. The leading proponents of lifting
the embargo are Germany and France.
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Georgian Prime Minister Dies Of Apparent Gas Poisoning
RFE/RL
Thursday, 03 February 2005
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
3 February 2005 — Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found
dead early this morning in a friend’s apartment in Tbilisi.
Authorities said the head of government died of apparent gas
poisoning.
Georgian Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili announced the death of
Zhvania at a press conference held early today at the State
Chancellery.
Merabishvili said the bodies of Zhvania and his friend — identified
as Raul Yusupov, the deputy governor of Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli
province — were found by state security officers in the middle of the
night.
“According to our information, Mr. Zhvania arrived at his friend’s
apartment at about midnight. His security team waited outside for a
long time. Since the prime minister was not answering either their
telephone calls or the doorbell, at around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. they
broke a window and discovered the bodies of Mr. Zhvania and his friend
in the apartment,” Merabishvili said.
Merabishvili said an investigation was underway to determine the exact
circumstances of the deaths. But he appeared to rule out foul play,
saying authorities were treating the case as an accident.
“This is a tragic accident. I went to the scene personally. We can say
this was probably a gas poisoning accident. An Iranian-made gas heater
was installed in that room. The deaths must have occurred
instantly. Mr. Zhvania was sitting in an armchair and the body of his
friend was lying in the kitchen. A table was laid with food and drinks
and a backgammon board was open,” Merabishvili said.
The head of Tbilgazi, the company that supervises gas supplies to the
Georgian capital, told reporters that his specialists found no gas
leakage in Yusupov’s flat.
Davit Morchiladze also said the gas heater had been installed just two
days ago but suggested that there may have been a concentration of gas
nonetheless, as the apartment had apparently not been properly
ventilated.
‘A Great Patriot’
Early today, President Mikheil Saakashvili chaired an emergency
cabinet meeting. Ministers observed a minute of silence in Zhvania’s
memory.
Saakashvili said Zhvania’s death was a serious blow to Georgia.
“With Zurab Zhvania, Georgia has lost a great patriot who had
dedicated his entire life to serve his country. Zurab’s death is a
hard blow to Georgia and to me personally. I lost my closest friend,
who was also my most trusted adviser and ally,” Saakashvili said.
Zhvania was born on 9 December 1963. A biologist by training, he
founded the first-ever Green movement in Soviet Georgia in the late
1980s.
In 1993, he became the head of Georgia’s Union of Citizens, the party
that served as a power base for then-President Eduard Shevardnadze.
In 1995, he was elected speaker of the Georgian Parliament.
He left that post in late 2001 to protest Shevardnadze’s policy and
subsequently founded his own opposition party.
In the run-up to the 2003 legislative elections that paved the way for
Shevardnadze’s ouster, he joined forces with Nino Burjanadze, who had
succeeded him at the head of the parliament.
Following Shevardnadze’s resignation, he became the number-two man in
the new Georgian leadership and eventually took over the newly created
post of prime minister.

`Grant Her Your Spirit’
America (americamagazine.org)
Vol. 192, No. 4
February 7, 2005
By Phyllis Zagano
The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece voted in Athens on Oct.
8, 2004, to restore the female diaconate. All the members of the Holy
Synod – 125 metropolitans and bishops and Archbishop Christodoulos, the
head of the church of Greece – had considered the topic. The decision does
not directly affect the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which is
an eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Greek
ecclesiastical provinces of the Ecumenical Patriarchate received their
independence from Constantinople in 1850 and were proclaimed the
Autocephalous Church of Greece.
While women deacons had virtually disappeared by the ninth century, the
facts of their existence were well known, and discussion of the
restoration of the female diaconate in Orthodoxy began in the latter
half of the 20th century. Two books on the topic by Evangelos Theodorou,
Heroines of Love: Deaconesses Through the Ages (1949) and The
`Ordination’ or `Appointment’ of Deaconesses (1954), documented the
sacramental ordination of women in the early church. His work was
complemented in the Catholic Church by an article published by Cipriano
Vagaggini, a Camaldolese monk, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica in
1974. The most significant scholarship on the topic agrees that women
were sacramentally ordained to the diaconate, inside the iconostasis at
the altar, by bishops in the early church. Women deacons received the
diaconal stole and Communion at their ordinations, which shared the same
Pentecostal quality as the ordination of a bishop, priest or male deacon.
Despite the decline of the order of deaconesses in the early Middle
Ages, Orthodoxy never prohibited it. In 1907 a Russian Orthodox Church
commission reported the presence of deaconesses in every Georgian
parish; the popular 20th-century Orthodox saint Nektarios (1846-1920)
ordained two women deacons in 1911; and up to the 1950’s a few Greek
Orthodox nuns became monastic deaconesses. In 1986 Christodoulos, then
metropolitan of Demetrias and now archbishop of Athens and all of
Greece, ordained a woman deacon according to the `ritual of St.
Nektarios’ – the ancient Byzantine text St. Nektarios used.
Multiple inter-Orthodox conferences called for the restoration of the
order, including the Interorthodox Symposium at Rhodes, Greece, in 1988,
which plainly stated, `The apostolic order of deaconess should be
revived.’ The symposium noted that `the revival of this ancient order
should be envisaged on the basis of the ancient prototypes testified to
in many sources and with the prayers found in the Apostolic
Constitutions and the ancient Byzantine liturgical books.’
At the Holy Synod meeting in Athens in 2004, Metropolitan Chrysostom of
Chalkidos initiated discussion on the subject of the role of women in
the Church of Greece and the rejuvenation of the order of female
deacons. In the ensuing discussion, some older bishops apparently
disagreed with the complete restoration of the order. Anthimos, bishop
of Thessaloniki, later remarked to the Kathimerini English Daily, `As
far as I know, the induction of women into the police and the army was a
failure, and we want to return to this old matter?’
While the social-service aspect of the female diaconate is well known,
the Holy Synod decided that women could be promoted to the diaconate
only in remote monasteries and at the discretion of individual bishops.
The limiting decision to restore only the monastic female diaconate did
not please some synod members. The Athens News Agency reported that
Chrysostomos, bishop of Peristeri, said, `The role of female deacons
must be in society and not in the monasteries.’ Other members of the
Holy Synod agreed and stressed that the role of deaconesses should be
social – for example, the conferring of last rites on the sick.
The vote of the Holy Synod to restore the female diaconate under limited
circumstances may be the most progressive idea the Orthodox Church can
bring to the world. The document does not use the word ordination, but
specifically allows bishops to consecrate (kathosiosi) senior nuns in
monasteries of their eparchies. But bishops who choose to promote women
to the diaconate have only the ancient Byzantine liturgy that performs
the same cheirotonia, laying on of hands, for deaconesses as in each
major order: bishop, priest and deacon. Even so, some (mostly Western)
scholars have argued that the historical ordination of women deacons was
not a cheirotonia, or ordination to major orders, but a cheirothesia, a
blessing that signifies installation to a minor order. The confusion is
understandable, since the two terms were sometimes used interchangeably,
but other scholars are equally convinced that women were ordained to the
major order of the diaconate. The proof will be in the liturgy the
bishops actually use. At present there is only one liturgy and one
tradition by which to create a woman deacon in the Byzantine rite, and
it is demonstrably a ritual of ordination for the `servant who is to be
ordained to the office of a deaconess.’
Even the document on the diaconate issued by the Vatican’s International
Theological Commission in 2002 admits that `Canon 15 of the Council of
Chalcedon (451) seems to confirm the fact that deaconesses really were
`ordained’ by the imposition of hands (cheirotonia).’ Despite the
pejorative use of quotation marks here and elsewhere in the document
when historical ordinations of women deacons are mentioned, this Vatican
commission seems unwilling to deny the history to which the Church of
Greece has now newly returned. Further, the Vatican document points out
that the practice of ordaining women deacons according to the Byzantine
liturgy lasted at least into the eighth century. It does not review
Orthodox practice after 1054.
The rejuvenation of the order of deaconess in the Church of Greece is
expected to begin during the winter of 2004-5. The contemporary
ordination (cheirotonia) of women provides even more evidence and
support for the restoration of the female diaconate in the Catholic
Church, which has acknowledged the validity of Orthodox sacraments and
orders. Despite the distinction in Canon 1024 – `A baptized male alone
receives sacred ordination validly’ – one can presume the possibility of a
derogation from the law, as suggested by the Canon Law Society of
America in 1995, to allow for diaconal ordination of women. (The history
of Canon 1024 is clearly one of attempts to restrict women from
priesthood, not from the diaconate.)
In fact, the Catholic Church has already indirectly acknowledged valid
ordinations of women by the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the
churches of the East that ordains women deacons. There are two recent
declarations of unity – agreements of mutual recognition of the validity
of sacraments and of orders – between Rome and the Armenian Church, one
signed by Paul VI and Catholicos Vasken I in 1970, another between John
Paul II and Catholicos Karekin I in 1996.
These agreements are significant, for the Armenian Apostolic Church has
retained the female diaconate into modern times. The Armenian
Catholicossate of Cilicia has at least four ordained women. One, Sister
Hrip’sime, who lives in Istanbul, is listed in the official church
calendar published by the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey as follows:
`Mother Hrip’sime Proto-deacon Sasunian, born in Soghukoluk, Antioch, in
1928; became a nun in 1953; Proto-deacon in 1984; Mother Superior in
1998. Member of the Kalfayian Order.’ Mother Hrip’sime has worked to
restore the female diaconate as an active social ministry, and for many
years was the general director of Bird’s Nest, a combined orphanage,
school and social service center near Beiruit, Lebanon. Her diaconate,
and that of the three other women deacons, is far from monastic.
The future Catholic response to the documented past and the changing
present promises to be interesting. The tone of the International
Theological Commission document reveals an attempt to rule out women
deacons, but the question is left remarkably open: `It pertains to the
ministry of discernment which the Lord established in his church to
pronounce authoritatively on this question.’
It is becoming increasingly clear that despite the Catholic Church’s
unwillingness to say yes to the restoration of the female diaconate as
an ordained ministry of the Catholic Church, it cannot say no.
Prayer for the Ordination of a Woman Deacon
O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man
and of woman, who replenished with the Spirit Miriam, and Deborah, and
Anna, and Huldah; who did not disdain that your only-begotten Son should
be born of a woman; who also in the tabernacle of the testimony, and in
the temple, did ordain women to be keepers of your holy gates – look down
now upon this your servant who is to be ordained to the office of a
deaconess, and grant her your Holy Spirit, that she may worthily
discharge the work which is committed to her to your glory, and the
praise of your Christ, with whom glory and adoration be to you and the
Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.’
– Apostolic Constitutions, No. 8 (late fourth century)
Phyllis Zagano is adjunct associate professor of philosophy and
religious studies at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., and author of
Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate
in the Catholic Church (Crossroad, 2000).
For information about America, go to
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

`STUNNING’ STEP AGAINST DEMANDS OF RECOGNIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Azg/arm
4 Feb 05
Professor Yusuf Halajoglu, head of the Turkish Historical Union,
suggested to make a `fatal’ step against the demands to recognize the
Armenian genocide in the February 3 issue of Turkish Huryet. He also
suggested to apply to the UN concerning the demands of the Republic of
Armenia.
Reminding of the genocide’s recognition in many countries led by
France, Halajoglu said: ‘Turkey should take a stunning step in the
created situation. We made a suggestion to the foreign ministry. We
should invite to the table of negotiations the state that touches upon
the genocide and tell them: “prove and we will recognize that”. In
case of such a `fatal’ step, Turkey is sure to repulse the `unfair’
attack and not a single state will agree to unfold negotiations with
it. Moreover, this step will make a serious impression ofthe
international community.
By Hakob Chakrian

NEW MARAGHA WITH OLD WOUNDS
Azg/arm
4 Feb 05
OSCE monitoring Mission Visiting Aghdam
Garik Stepanian, 25, lost his father and home at the age of 12. Today
he lives in Nor Marakha with his wife and two children. Garik’s
fatherdied in a hospital in Armenia where he was taken after being
wounded in a battle in Martakert. He was buried in Aramus village as
the family did not have meansto transport the body to native Maragha.
`Azeris killed many children and old people’, Garik said. He said that
the villagers gather at a monument to the war victims every April 10
and remember the killed relatives.
Since 1992 now Maragha and 5 other villages have been under
Azerbaijanâ=80=99s control. The village had 4.000 people before
enemy’s occupation. Only few hundreds of resettled in Nor Maragha, the
others spread out all over vast Russia.
The OSCE monitoring mission spent few hours at the village on February
2. Head of the village administration, Roma Arustamian, told Emily
Haber, headof the mission, that all the villagers would go back to
their homes if the Azeris leave the village. `When will they leave our
villages? We are waiting to go to our homes and lead a normal life. No
international organization has visitedus for 10 years. Why do they
help the Azeri refugees but neglect us?’, Arustamian was complaining
to Mrs. Haber.
But the monitoring mission had other goals. Though Mrs. Haber told
Arustamian that they will do everything possible to help people, it
was obvious that the European and American `fact-finders’ were not
that interested in, say, 52-year-old Aida Yeremian who left her house,
50 sheep and orchard at the other side of communication line.
The story of every Maragha family is a sad story. Maragha is one of
the painful spots after Karabakh war; many killed and still more
counted missing.
Elmira Sahakian, 57, lost her 21-year-old son and husband. Mrs. Elmira
settled in Nor Maragha with her son and daughter. Her son is the only
one who works in the family.
Zoya Sargsian, 70, lost her three sons, two of them were killed and
the youngest is missing. Her two daughters-in-law left for Russia with
their children, and Mrs. Zoya lives alone waiting to hear her
grandchildren’s voicein the phone from time to time.
Members of the monitoring mission finished reviving the old wounds of
Nor Maragha villagers and continued their search of newly built houses
in their Jeeps.
Before moving on to new regions, the head of the mission called a
short press conference. Answering daily Azg’s question, Emily Haber
said that the Karabakh authorities keep supporting the mission’s
activities and that `we are enabled to carry out our tasks’. She added
that the mission will make a report and will leave it to Minsk group
to deal with.
Tens of former citizens of Chaylu village in Martakert region settled
in Nor Aygestan village. Chaylu has been under Azerbaijan’s occupation
since 1992 now.
The villagers think that the foreigners riding about on Jeeps came
apparently to distribute humanitarian aid. Despite the palpable
poverty the villagers were inviting Finn Vesa Jaako Vasara and
American Luis O’Neal and other members of the mission to their homes.
Chaylu was conquered in June of 1992. Tens died on the battlefield,
around 20 villagers were encircled in Lachin corridor and are counted
missing together with other 200 refugees.
The scene of human tragedy could not leave the OSCE European and
American mission members untouched but they do not have enough time to
go through every live story.
By Tatoul Hakobian in Aghdam-Nor Maragha