PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Edina N. Bobelian
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

August 24, 2004
____________________

A MOTHER’S LOVE FOR CHILDREN HONORED IN ARMENIA
New York Family Builds a Tribute through the Fund for Armenian Relief

As Gregory Manuelian and Christine Brewster watched the bubbling
enthusiasm among the children running through the new playground,
singing songs on the swings, and bouncing on the seesaw in Yerevan, the
two siblings witnessed a living tribute to the Armenian spirit of their
late mother, Diane Manuelian.

In memory of Diane, Charles Manuelian and family sponsored the
construction of a colorful playground and a two-tiered water fountain
for the children at the Nork Orphanage by the Fund for Armenian Relief
(FAR), a New York-based nonprofit organization with a trusted reputation
and successful 15-year track record of implementing programs in Armenia
and Karabagh. “We chose something meaningful and personal for my
mother,” said Mrs. Brewster. “The playground is tangible; it is to be
used and enjoyed by the children. She would have loved it.”

On August 4, 2004, Gregory Manuelian and Christine Brewster officially
opened the newly constructed playground at the Nork Orphanage. In the
presence of Mrs. Brewster’s two children, Elizabeth and Mark, Archbishop
Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America (Eastern) and President of the FAR Board of Directors, Very Rev.
Fr. Arshak Khachatryan, Chancellor of the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin, Simon Balian, FAR Executive Director, Krikor Tatoulian, FAR
Country Director, and Liana Karapetian, the Nork Orphanage Director,
they cut the red ribbon delicately tied across the playground with
scissors proffered on a tray by a young boy and girl dressed in their
Sunday-best.

The opening ceremony, which presented her first opportunity to travel to
the Homeland, “was an emotional, special occasion,” revealed Mrs.
Brewster. “No matter how much one reads about Armenia and talks to
others about their experiences, nothing quite prepares you for the
essence of Armenia, its people and the beautiful countryside,” she said.

The Manuelian family has a long-standing relationship with FAR,
supporting its programs to help the people of Armenia. On this personal
occasion, they again turned to the organization to fulfill their
objective. “FAR has done a beautiful job,” said Gregory Manuelian,
“Armenia needs FAR.”

FAR is a nonprofit organization headquartered in New York, with offices
in Yerevan, Gyumri, and Stepanakert. For 15 years, FAR has implemented
various relief, development, social, educational, and cultural projects
valued at more than $250 million. It remains the preeminent Diasporan
organization operating in Armenia.

For more information or to send donations, interested persons should
contact the Fund for Armenian Relief at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY
10016; telephone (212) 889-5150, fax (212) 889-4849; ,
[email protected].

— 8/24/04

E-mail photos available upon request.

PHOTO CAPTION 1: By cutting the red ribbon on August 4, 2004, Gregory
Manuelian and Christine Brewster officially opened the Nork Orphanage
playground dedicated to their late mother, Diane Manuelian, as
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America (Eastern) and President of the Fund for Armenian
Relief Board of Directors, and Mrs. Brewster’s two children, Elizabeth
and Mark, looked on.

PHOTO CAPTION 2: Elizabeth and Mark Brewster traveled to Armenia to
attend the opening ceremony of the playground built by the Fund for
Armenian Relief in memory of their grandmother, Diane Manuelian, at the
Nork Orphanage.

PHOTO CAPTION 3: This girl and boy played an important role in the
August 4 ceremony at the Nork Orphanage – providing the scissors to cut
the ribbon and officially open the new playground dedicated to the
memory of Diane Manuelian.

PHOTO CAPTION 4: After the opening ceremony, this young girl was among
the first to use the new, colorful water fountains in the playground
built by the Fund for Armenian Relief.

PHOTO CAPTION 5: Children at the Nork Orphanage began using the
colorful swings and seesaws in their new playground immediately
following the opening ceremony.

“ARMENTEL” CONSIDERS ACCUSATION OF NON-REREGISTERED “FREE HAIK
MISSION” PARTY AS GROUNDLESS

YEREVAN, August 24 (Noyan Tapan). The trial on the claim of the
non-reregistered “Free Haik Mission” Party against the “ArmenTel”
company continued at the court of the first instance of the Kentron
and Nork Marash Communities of Yerevan on August 24.

According to the side of the claimant, it became impossible to inform
representatives of the territorial and regional structures about the
special general meeting dedicated to the issue of the re-registration
of the party by reason of the faultiness of the telephone line of the
party office during seven days. The side of the claimant demands that
“ArmenTel” “should in public apologize to the organization and all the
citizens of Armenia who suffered moral and material damage.”

Artavazd Petrosian, a representative of “ArmenTel”, considered the
claimant’s application as groundless, because the telephone number
mentioned in the application belongs not to the party, but to its
Chairman Ruben Mnatsakanian, and according to the side of the
respondent, the disconnection of the indicated telephone line doesn’t
connected in any way with the non-registration of the “Free Haik
Mission” Party.

Artavazd Petrosian also mentioned that according to the current
law, “Free Haik Mission” should have reported through mass media about
the upcoming congress a month ago. The court sitting was postponded
till September 10 because of the completion of the working day.

“ONE NATION, ONE CULTURE” FESTIVAL CONTRIBUTES TO ESTABLISHMENT OF
SAME NAME FOUNDATION

YEREVAN, August 24 (Noyan Tapan). “Armenia has little information
about the cultural groups existing in the Diaspora, and it is the best
occasion to recognize art critics and performers living in the
Diaspora.” Tamara Poghosian, Executive Director of the same name “One
Nation, One Culture” Foundation, said about it during the August 24
press conference dedicated to the “One Nation, One Culture” first
Pan-Armenian cultural festival that recently finished in Yerevan. At
the same time, she said that there was an opinion that the holding of
the festival may be considered as luxury for the country which is in a
heavy social situation. But according to her, it wouldn’t be justified
to wait while the state had the strong economy and to hold the
cultural festival at that time. According to Tamara Poghosian, every
state should present the cultural armoury of the country to the
generations, because every nation is first of all strong with its
national culture. T. Poghosian said that the holding of the festival
also contributed to the development of the same name “One Nation, One
Culture” Foundation, which was established several months ago. At the
same time, the Executive Director of the Foundation stressed that the
“Hayastan” (“Armenia”) Pan-Armenian Foundation mainly cared for the
financial expenditures of the festival. The organizers of the press
conference were also informed that from now on the festival is likely
to be held every three or four years.

FOUR ARMENIAN STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN 16TH INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIAD
ON INFORMATICS

YEREVAN, August 24 (Noyan Tapan). The 16th International Olympiad on
Informatics (IOI) will be held in Athens on September 11-18. Four
Armenian students will also participate in the Olympiad.

Representatives of 80 countries, including Russia, Italy, France,
Germany, Austria and the United States will participate in the
Olympiad this year, as in the previous years.

The Olympiad, which is held every year, is, in essence, the
competition of programming. It was first held in Bulgaria in
1989. This year the “Altec” world-famed company and the “Intel”
corporation are the sponsors of the Olympiad. It is expected that the
2005 international Olympiad will be held in Poland.

$7M TO BE ALLOCATED FROM WB CREDIT PROGRAM FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF
INSTITUTE OF FAMILY DOCTOR IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, August 24 (Noyan Tapan). $7m out of $19.5m that will be given
by the World Bank for implementation of the credit program of
modernization of health system of Armenia will be directed to
establishment of the institute of a family doctor in Armenia. Ruslana
Gevorgian, the Adviser of RA Minister of Health, informed Noyan Tapan
that within the framework of the program about 950 qualified family
doctors will be trained till 2008, as well as 20 dispensaries will be
repaired and re-equipped. According to R.Gevorgian, the process of
establishment of the institute of a family doctor in Armenia has begun
since 1996. In the previous years 81 dispensaries were repaired and
re-equipped in almost all village communities of the republic with the
credits given by the World Bank. And 2 chairs operate in the Medical
University after M.Heratsi and in the National Institute of Health for
the purpose of training family doctors. The Minister’s adviser
mentioned that at present there are about 300 family doctors in
Armenia. But, according to R.Gevorgian, their number should reach
1700. It was also mentioned that at present there are only 2
dispensaries of family doctors in Yerevan, in polyclinic N 17 and
Erebuni Medical Center.

11 SCHOOLS INCLUDING ARMENIAN TO BE REPAIRED BY DECISION OF TSALKA
REGIONAL SACREBULO

AKHALKALAKI, August 24 (Noyan Tapan). The regional budget of Tsalka
enriched itself with 100,000 lari in connection with granting some
constructions on lease to employees of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeihan oil
pipeline construction. This sum will be used for the repairs of the
most accident-prone schools of the regions. According to Razmik
Hanesian, Chairman of the regional sacrebulo, the sacrebulo decided to
repair 11 schools, including schools of the Armenian villages of
Ayama, Odzni, Dashbash, Nardevan. According to the “A-Info” Agency,
the construction work started on August 23, and everything will
complete till the beginning of the new academic year, September 20.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BENEVOLENT HEALTHCARE ACTION TO BE CARRIED OUT IN SEPTEMBER IN TAVUSH

IJEVAN, August 24 (Noyan Tapan). On September 6-28, the “Armenian
Ocular Project” benevolent fund will organize medical examination of
population in Tavush. Karine Dovlatbekian, the Head of the Health
Department of the Tavush regional administration, informed Noyan Tapan
that groups of oculists will carry out free of charge examination of
eyesight of all patients. Patients from vulnerable families will be
free of charge operated on in a movable clinic. Those having diabetes
will be also examined and will get the corresponding treatment within
the framework of the arrangement.

Armenian paper questions Russia’s claim to act as Karabakh settlement
mediator

Golos Armenii, Yerevan
24 Aug 04

Text of Aris Kazinyan’s article “Vladimir Putin’s statement: there are
more questions than answers” published by Armenian newspaper Golos
Armenii on 24 August

“Russia can be a guarantor and mediator in settling the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 20 August
during his Sochi meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.
Putting it mildly, the Russian leader’s statement is not very clear:
how is Moscow going to become a mediator, if it became one long ago?

Does Vladimir Putin’s statement mean that official Moscow is
displeased with the trilateral institute of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmen? Does it mean that in future Russia sees itself if not the
only then at least the main mediator in the negotiating process on
peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict? Or should the Russian
president’s words be taken as a claim to Russia’s exclusive authority
in settling conflicts in the South Caucasus? If so, who this claim is
addressed to? Is it addressed to Washington, Paris or maybe to Tbilisi
in connection with the Georgian-Ossetian conflict? The way he was
speaking about “South Ossetian autonomy abolished by the Georgian
authorities” one would think that the sovereignty of the Russian
Federation was at stake.

Finally, there is the time bomb of Javakh [Georgia’s Armenian-populated
Samtskhe-Javakheti Region], which may be put in operation if needed.
“We inherited many conflict situations. In some places these conflicts
are in a dampened state, while in others they have flared up with a
new force,” the Russian president said at a joint news conference
[with Kocharyan].

The Russian president’s statement about the possibility of Russia
becoming a “guarantor” in the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh
conflict is even less clear. What does it mean to be a guarantor in
this political conflict? By the way, once Moscow had almost the same
powers: in January 1989 a new form of government was introduced in the
Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomous Region [NKAO] and in effect the region
was taken out of direct subordination to Azerbaijan. Under a
resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers, all organizations and
enterprises of NKAO were re-subordinated to the relevant Soviet
departments. This legal status was the last for NKAO during the Soviet
period.

Can Moscow, which does not want to recall this aspect of the Karabakh
settlement, become a guarantor of a fair settlement of the conflict?
Talking about today’s stage, why does not Moscow remember that earlier
Armenians in Karabakh were fighting against [Chechen rebel warlord]
Shamil Basayev? Of course it is up to the Kremlin to ignore absolutely
obvious realities, but after all this it hardly has the right to claim
the role of so-called “guarantor”.

Still, what does it mean to be a “guarantor” in the Karabakh
settlement? Can this statement be interpreted as an intention to bring
in Russian peacekeeping force to the conflict zone or to deploy it at
the security line? In all probability, the Russian leader meant this
too, but again with Georgia in mind. Russian peacekeepers are
“guarantors of the peaceful settlement” of the Geo rgian-Ossetian
conflict, are they not?

Given the above, President Robert Kocharyan’s words said at the same
news conference, acquire quite a peculiar sense: “There is a great
difference between the Georgian-Ossetian and the Karabakh
conflicts. There is security line in the Karabakh conflict
zone. Everything is under control there.” Unlike in the
Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

The Sochi meeting of the Russian and Armenian leaders did not look
like a meeting of strategic allies. It was more like a talk of the two
countries’ prime ministers outlining common economic interests in the
region. The Russian president made it clear once again that Moscow
wants to make friends with Yerevan and Baku equally. As for our
problems with transport communications conditioned by the “known
geopolitical situation of Armenia”, alas, they are difficult to
overcome. Vladimir Putin mentioned the prospective “North-South”
railway corridor. A decision on its construction was adopted in May in
Moscow at a meeting of the railway ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and
Iran. This railway link via Derbent, Baku, Astara, Rasht and Qazvin
should provide Russia with direct access to the Indian Ocean. And this
is not “an hour-long flight to Sochi,” this is strategy!

Armenian parliamentary candidate complains about “gross breaches” of law

Arminfo, Yerevan
19 Aug 04

YEREVAN

The parliamentary by-election campaign in Armenia’s 44th constituency
is going on with gross breaches of the country’s electoral laws.
Candidate Babken Markaryan told today’s news conference at the
Pakagits Club that supporters of some candidates were collecting
voters’ passports, bribing them so that they cast their votes for this
or that candidate. “A vote in the 44th constituency costs from 10,000
to 20,000 drams [18-36 dollars],” Markaryan said. He also said that
supporters of some candidates were putting pressure on his
followers. Markaryan claims that unidentified men have lately attacked
his supporters and beaten them.

Markaryan also said that other candidates’ supporters always tear his
election posters down from walls. “This stopped only after I called
Aram Sarkisyan, parliamentary candidate Artak Sarkisyan’s brother, and
asked him to calm down his supporters,” he said. Markaryan said that
he had decided to stand in the election only at the request of voters
from the 44th constituency, who urged him not to surrender and to
struggle to the very end. The candidate expressed his confidence in
his victory if the election is free and fair.

The by-election in the 44th constituency is being held because deputy
from the Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed Country] Party, Aram Arutyunyan,
has been appointed to the post of the town planning minister. Five
candidates are standing in the election, with Araik Ayrapetyan, owner
of a chain of pharmacies and the Lavanda dry-cleaner, and Artak
Sarkisyan, co-chairman of the SAS Group of companies, being the main
contenders.

Araik Ayrapetyan is a member of the Nig-Aparan union [of countrymen]
and enjoys the support of the union’s honorary chairman, Armenian
Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepyan. His candidacy is also supported by
the People’s Deputy group, which consists of businessmen and which
Ayrapetyan is planning to join if elected to the National
Assembly. Artak Sarkisyan’s candidacy is supported by the Orinats
Yerkir Party, of which he is a member.

The by-election in the 44th constituency will be held on 29 August.

Azerbaijan may put Karabakh separatists on Interpol wanted list

Ekho, Baku
17 Aug 04

The National Central Bureau of Interpol (NCBI) in Azerbaijan is ready
to announce an international search for the president of the
self-styled Nagornyy Karabakh Republic (“NKR” – placed in inverted
commas hereafter), Arkadiy Gukasyan. An informed source at the
law-enforcement bodies told Ekho that the Azerbaijani Prosecutor
General’s Office should initiate criminal proceedings [against him]
for this purpose.

In the meantime, it is difficult to find a better time than it is now
if the National Central Bureau of Azerbaijan announces an
international manhunt for the leader of the Karabakh
separatists. Gukasyan has announced that he is going on holiday. And
“the president” will relax outside Karabakh. “The main information
department” under “the president” of the “NKR” does not report which
country Gukasyan headed for.

Gukasyan remains faithful to his tradition of going on holidays in
August or September. In the past, the leader of the Karabakh
separatists also spent his holidays outside Karabakh, but in Xankandi
they have always avoided reporting where he is going, probably, so
that nobody can spoil his holiday.

Gukasyan is known to travel abroad quite often. He more often visits
France and the USA where he takes part in a variety of telethons
organized by the All-Armenian Foundation Hayastan. The separatist
leader has repeatedly travelled to Moscow. Armenia’s opposition press
reports that Gukasyan is suffering from a certain serious disease
which requires treatment.

[Passage omitted]

It is interesting that representatives of the “NKR” and Yerevan are
hiding Gukasyan’s holiday destination. Thus, “the representation” of
“the NKR” in Moscow refused to tell Ekho anything concerning the
holiday of their “boss”. The same position was shown by the “NKR
representation” in France: “We do not know where our president is
relaxing.”

The separatists found it difficult to answer Ekho’s question about how
often Gukasyan relaxes in France, advising to address this question
to… [ellipsis as given] the Armenian authorities. Armenia’s
diplomatic representation in Moscow said they had no information as to
where the leader of the Karabakh separatists could be relaxing.

Even if the leader of the Karabakh separatists manages to relax
without problems this year, Azerbaijani parliamentarians intend to get
Gukasyan not to leave Karabakh or Armenia in the future. A member of
the parliamentary commission on national security and defence,
Alimammad Nuriyev, told Ekho that he was planning to raise the issue
of restricting the movement of the Karabakh separatists, including
Gukasyan, during the parliament’s autumn session.

Under the MP’s proposal, it is necessary to compile a list of
separatist leaders, which will be later sent to CIS countries and
other friendly nations. Official Baku will have to request that the
governments of these countries impose sanctions on the entry of the
people mentioned on the list. Nuriyev is confident that Baku’s
initiative will be supported, since some CIS countries have problems
with separatism.

The parliamentarian also intends to raise the issue of a similar
address to the European Union. “There is a precedent. The European
Union has banned [unrecognized] Dniester leaders [in Moldova] from
entering EU countries. We have to make use of it.”

In turn, another MP Zahid Oruc suggests introducing tougher sanctions
against the Karabakh separatists. The deputy is in favour of declaring
Gukasyan a war criminal and putting him on the international wanted
list. “I intend to raise this issue at the autumn session of the Milli
Maclis [Azerbaijani parliament]. We have to act on the example of
Russia which has announced Chechen militants war criminals and
demanded their extradition from neighbouring countries. We can in no
way allow Gukasyan to smoothly tour the world.”

Oruc acknowledged that Baku has to compile a list of the Karabakh
separatists headed by Gukasyan and request that CIS countries impose
sanctions against these people. “Time is ripe for moving from official
statements to fruitful actions.” The deputy is sure that constructive
cooperation between the [Azerbaijani] Foreign Ministry and the Milli
Maclis on this issue will yield positive results soon.