Moscow Times, Russia
July 19 2004
Magazine Editor Murdered
By Carl Schreck
Staff Writer The Armenian editor of a Russian-language magazine
focusing on Armenian issues was beaten and stabbed to death Saturday,
and his body dumped on the outskirts of Moscow, police said.
Pail Peloyan, editor of Armyansky Pereulok, was found dead with knife
wounds to the chest and severe trauma to the head at 7 a.m. Saturday
just outside the Moscow Ring Road on the southwestern edge of the
city, a city police spokesman told Interfax. He died between 2 a.m.
and 3 a.m.
Deputy city prosecutor Alexander Krokhmal said investigators were at
the crime scene Saturday, Interfax reported.
No one answered the telephone Sunday at the City Prosecutor’s Office.
The newspaper Gazeta reported on its web site that investigators were
not excluding the possibility that the murder was connected to
Peloyan’s journalistic work.
Peloyan was the second magazine editor to be killed in Moscow in a
little over a week. On July 9, Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov
was shot by unknown assailants.
Their publications, however, could not be more different.
Armyansky Pereulok had a circulation of 1,000 and covered harmless
topics ranging from Armenian history to Russian-Armenian friendship,
said Levon Osepyan, a well-known Armenian author and the magazine’s
founder.
“It was a friendly magazine,” Osepyan said by telephone Sunday.
Osepyan said he has had no connection with the magazine for over a
year and a half and that he did not know Peloyan.
Armyansky Pereulok has not released an issue since 2002 due to
financial difficulties, Gazeta.ru reported. The web site cited a
source close to the magazine’s publishing house as saying Peloyan
“was only nominally the editor.” It was unclear whether the source
was referring to the two-year lull in the magazine’s output or
something else.
The source said Peloyan’s death was likely “connected to his business
activities, which he preferred to keep quiet.”
Armen Gevondyan, spokesman for the Armenian Embassy in Moscow, told
Interfax on Saturday that the embassy is in contact with the Russian
authorities regarding the murder.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 18, 2004 Sunday Home Edition
BOOKS: 1915 genocide haunts, taunts young survivor
by ELLEN EMRY HELTZEL
FICTION
The Daydreaming Boy. By Micheline Aharonian Marcom. Riverhead Books.
$23.95. 212 pages.
The verdict: An elegant, unsettling story of survival.
“In Paradise there is no past,” observes the young Catholic Rachel in
Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s acclaimed first novel, “Three Apples
Fell From Heaven.” She is speaking from the grave after drowning
herself to avoid being raped by Turkish soldiers. For her, hell is
the pain of memory.
In her new novel, “The Daydreaming Boy,” Marcom reprises this theme,
her subject once again the Ottoman Empire’s 1915 genocide against the
Armenians. This time, the story remains in the land of the living,
told by a fictional narrator who’s looking back a half-century after
the killings.
Vahe Tcheubjian lives in Beirut, Lebanon. He is both an unexceptional
figure and a tragic one, describing himself as “a smallish man, a man
whose middle has begun to soften and protrude, his long toes hidden
in scuffed dress shoes.” Beneath this bland exterior, however, lies a
person “undone by history.”
Vahe has lived a life of suppressing the events that scarred him and
destroyed his family. When he was 7, his father was bludgeoned to
death and his mother delivered to an unknown fate, while he was sent
by boxcar to Lebanon and the Bird’s Nest Orphanage. There, he grew up
among what he calls the “Adams in the wasteland” — child refugees
who were pulled from their homes and herded together in a
survival-of-the-fittest environment.
Vahe remembers how he ached with loneliness. He wrote letters to the
mother who never replied. He cherished the weekly assembly-line
baths, a brisk scrub-down by a dour-looking matron, because it gave
him the chance to recall a maternal touch.
After leaving the orphanage, he worked as a carpenter, got married.
And then, as a middle-aged man, Vahe can’t stop thinking about
Vostanig, the outcast who was sexually and physically abused by the
other boys, including himself, at the Bird’s Nest. “The stranger: he
was all of us, the damned exiled race in its puny and starved and
pathetic scabbed body,” he recalls. “How we longed to kill him.”
For years, Vahe made a habit of visiting the Beirut zoo on Sundays,
where he shared a smoke with the tobacco-loving chimp Jumba. But
before handing over the cigarette, he would poke its burning end into
the chimp’s flesh, exacting his price. If there’s any doubt that Vahe
is a deeply damaged man, this gratuitous cruelty dispels it.
Jumba and his fellow primates are a motif in the book, their
captivity and behavior reflecting how Vahe perceives a hostile world.
A newspaper article datelined South Africa announces the discovery
that man and gorilla share the same brain size and capacity,
underscoring the primal connection. The metaphor threatens to
overpower the story, but Vahe is too compelling to ignore.
Vahe has learned to translate his grief and emptiness into lust,
braiding sex and violence together, as he was taught. Having been
victimized himself, he becomes victimizer, as indicated by this
simple exchange with the servant girl Beatrice:
“Would you like a chocolate?”
“No, merci.”
“No, merci? Here, take it. I’ve bought these chocolates and I would
like for you to take it.” She is still looking at the floor and I’ve
grabbed her hand and pushed the gold truffles into her small hand.
Dialogue is the exception in a story built mostly on interior speech,
using poetic, even mnemonic, devices that reflect how memory works.
For Vahe, the past returns in intermittent blasts, like power surges
traveling down the neural pathways. Through his eyes we see the lies
and obfuscations gradually fall away.
What remains is a man who sees himself for what he is, “the ragged
round left by absence of affection and knowing.”
Ellen Emry Heltzel is a book critic and writer who lives in Portland,
Ore. With Margo Hammond she writes the weekly column “Book Babes,”
which can be found at

The Independent
Second editor killed in 10 days as fear grips Moscow
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
19 July 2004
Russia’s jittery foreign press corps was plunged into mourning yesterday
for the second time in as many weeks after another foreign journalist was
murdered in Moscow.
The killing of Paila Peloyan, the Armenian editor of the Russian-language
monthly, Armenian Lane, comes barely a week after Paul Klebnikov, the US
editor of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, was gunned down in cold
blood. Nobody has been arrested for his murder.
Mr Peloyan’s body was found dumped by the side of the city’s outer ring
road or MKAD far from the city centre on Saturday morning.
He had multiple stab wounds in the chest and had been savagely beaten; his
skull was cracked and his face covered in blood and bruises.
Information about his last movements is sketchy, though he is known to
have died between two and three o’clock on Saturday morning and his body
lay undiscovered for at least four hours.
Investigators say they have crawled over the crime scene in order to try
to find out what happened and prosecutors have opened a criminal case into
the killing.
They are not ruling out the possibility that Mr Peloyan was murdered
because of his professional activity.
In contrast to the late Mr Klebnikov, however, Mr Peloyan’s work appears
relatively uncontroversial. While the dead American journalist made waves
by publicising the names of Russia’s wealthiest people and delving into
their often insalubrious financial affairs, Mr Peloyan’s magazine was an
arts publication.
Moscow’s Armenian diaspora, Armenian Lanecarried features about
literature, the arts and history and included prose and poetry from
Armenian writers. Nobody was answering the phones at the magazine’s Moscow
office yesterday.
That Mr Peloyan’s murder comes so soon after that of Mr Klebnikov is
likely to unsettle foreign and Russian journalists alike. Mr Klebnikov was
killed in a drive-by shooting by at least two gunmen and died in a hail of
bullets just yards from his office. His murder had all the hallmarks of a
contract killing.
An online news site, the Russia Journal, spoke yesterday of “an undeclared
war against media representatives” and claimed that Russian and foreign
journalists had become an endangered species in Moscow.
It said: “These two senseless killings have once again put the issue of
journalists’ safety in Russia back on the agenda and raised well-founded
concerns among representatives of the fourth estate.
“This is not because killing journalists is a rarity in Moscow or in
Russia at large but two murders of journalists in less than 10 days in a
city that is not at war is something unusual, even by Russian standards.”
The Russian media itself made far less of Mr Peloyan’s murder, possibly
because as an Armenian hailing from a part of the former Soviet Union once
ruled by the Russians, he would not be considered a bona fide foreigner
like Mr Klebnikov.
It is estimated that two million Armenians live in Russia and the two
countries have a close relationship going back hundreds of years.
Officials at the Armenian embassy in Moscow said that they were profoundly
shocked by Mr Peloyan’s murder. “Naturally we learnt of this information
with great regret,” Armen Gevondyan, the embassy press secretary, told
Interfax news agency.
“We are taking all the measures we can together with Russia’s law
enforcement authorities to ascertain the circumstances of Mr Peloyan’s
death.” Mr Peloyan is the 16th journalist to be murdered in Russia since
2000 when Vladimir Putin assumed the presidency. The US-based Committee to
Protect Journalists says the country is one of the deadliest places to be
a reporter. It addressed an open letter to Mr Putin after Mr Klebnikov’s
killing, complaining about “the climate of lawlessness and impunity”.
“Cases [of journalists being killed] have not been properly investigated
or prosecuted, a testament to the ongoing lawlessness in Russia and your
failure to reform the country’s weak and politicised criminal justice
system,” it said.
JOURNALISTS MURDERED IN RUSSIA
Paul Klebnikov, editor of ‘Forbes’ magazine (Russian edition)
Age: 41
Died: 9 July 2004
Gunned down from passing car while leaving office in Moscow. Had exposed
workings of the country’s shadowy billionaires
Aleksei Sidorov, editor-in-chief of ‘Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye’
Age: 31
Died: 9 October 2003
Stabbed several times in the chest by unidentified assailant outside home.
Newspaper known for investigative reporting on organised crime, government
corruption and shady corporate deals
Valery Ivanov, editor-in-chief of ‘Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye’
Age: 32
Died: 29 April 2002
Shot eight times in head at point-blank range by assassin using a pistol
with a silencer. Murdered in Togliatti after paper exposed controversial
business deals linked to organised crime and government corruption
Natalya Skryl, business reporter, ‘Nashe Vremya’
Age: 29
Died: 9 March 2002
The reporter was repeatedly struck on the head while returning home in
Rostov-on-Don late at night. She was investigating a struggle for the
control of Tagmet, a local metallurgical plant. Just before her death, Ms
Skryl told colleagues that she had obtained sensitive information about
the story and was planning to publish it
Eduard Markevich, editor and publisher of ‘Novy Reft’
Age: 29
Died: 18 September 2001
Shot in the back. The paper, in the Sverdlovsk region, often criticised
local officials. Mr Markevich received threatening calls before the fatal
attack
Igor Domnikov, reporter and special projects editor of ‘Novaya Gazeta’
Age: 42
Died: 16 July 2000
Died in Moscow two months after being attacked by an unidentified
assailant and left lying in pool of blood in the entryway of his apartment
building. His colleagues and police were initially certain the attack was
related to his professional activity or that of the newspaper. It was also
believed for a while that the assailant mistook Mr Domnikov for a Novaya
Gazeta investigative reporter, Oleg Sultanov, who lived in the same
building. Mr Sultanov claimed to have received threats from the Federal
Security Service for reporting on corruption in the Russian oil industry
Natalya Skryl, business reporter, ‘Nashe Vremya’
Age: 29
Died: 9 March 2002
The reporter was repeatedly struck on the head while returning home in
Rostov-on-Don late at night. She was investigating a struggle for the
control of Tagmet, a local metallurgical plant. Just before her death, Ms
Skryl told colleagues that she had obtained sensitive information about
the story and was planning to publish it
Eduard Markevich, editor and publisher of ‘Novy Reft’
Age: 29
Died: 18 September 2001
Shot in the back. The paper, in the Sverdlovsk region, often criticised
local officials. Mr Markevich received threatening calls before the fatal
attack
Igor Domnikov, reporter and special projects editor of ‘Novaya Gazeta’
Age: 42
Died: 16 July 2000
Died in Moscow two months after being attacked by an unidentified
assailant and left lying in pool of blood in the entryway of his apartment
building. His colleagues and police were initially certain the attack was
related to his professional activity or that of the newspaper. It was also
believed for a while that the assailant mistook Mr Domnikov for a Novaya
Gazeta investigative reporter, Oleg Sultanov, who lived in the same
building. Mr Sultanov claimed to have received threats from the Federal
Security Service for reporting on corruption in the Russian oil industry

Agence France Presse
July 17, 2004 Saturday
Erdogan en France pour promouvoir la candidature turque a l’UE avant
decembre(AVANT-PAPIER)
Par Burak AKINCI
ANKARA
BODY: Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan effectue de lundi
a mercredi une visite officielle en France pour promouvoir aupres des
dirigeants francais la candidature de son pays a l’Union europeenne,
epineux sujet qui divise la scene politique francaise.
M. Erdogan doit s’entretenir avec son homologue Jean-Pierre Raffarin
au premier jour de sa visite et etre recu le lendemain a l’Elysee par
le president Jacques Chirac lors d’un dejeuner de travail.
“C’est une visite importante dans un Etat important de l’UE”, a
precise un diplomate turc sous couvert d’anonymat. Outre la
candidature turque, les relations bilaterales et commerciales seront
egalement au menu des entretiens, a-t-on precise de meme source.
La Commission europeenne doit remettre en octobre sa recommandation
sur l’ouverture de negociations d’adhesion avec la Turquie, que
decideront ou non les dirigeants europeens en decembre.
La Turquie a obtenu le statut de candidat a l’UE en 1999.
Estimant avoir rempli les conditions politiques –les criteres de
Copenhague– pour ouvrir ces negociations, le gouvernement de M.
Erdogan, qui dirige un parti issu de la mouvance islamiste, l’AKP, a
fait passer au parlement plusieurs reformes democratiques. Il espere
que ces discussions debuteront des debut 2005.
La question de l’entree dans l’UE de la Turquie, pays musulman mais
laieque de plus de 70 millions d’habitants, divise profondement les
opinions europeennes et les partis politiques francais.
Le 29 juin, lors du sommet de l’OTAN a Istanbul, M. Chirac avait
vivement critique la prise de position du president americain George
W. Bush en faveur d’une adhesion de la Turquie a l’UE, y voyant une
ingerence dans les affaires europeennes.
Le president francais avait toutefois juge “irreversible” la marche
d’Ankara vers l’UE, estimant que “la Turquie a une vocation
europeenne, historique, tres ancienne”, meme si son parti, l’Union
pour la majorite presidentielle (UMP), s’est prononce contre une
adhesion.
L’entree de la Turquie dans l’UE signerait “a terme la fin de
l’Europe”, avait declare le president de l’UMP, Alain Juppe,
proposant plutot pour Ankara la solution d'”un voisinage rapproche”.
M. Erdogan doit avoir un tete-a-tete avec M. Juppe ainsi qu’avec le
president du parti centriste UDF Francois Bayrou et avec le premier
secretaire du parti socialiste (PS), Francois Hollande.
A la difference des partis de droite, le PS, premier parti
d’opposition en France, est favorable au principe de l’entree de la
Turquie dans l’UE mais conditionne pour sa part l’ouverture de
negociations d’adhesion a la reconnaissance par ce pays du genocide
armenien de 1915, pendant l’empire ottoman.
La Turquie, qui rejette categoriquement la these d’un “genocide”,
avait ete particulierement irritee par l’adoption par le parlement
francais en 2001 d’une loi reconnaissant le genocide armenien.
Lors de sa visite M. Erdogan doit egalement evoquer les relations
economiques. Les echanges entre les deux pays se sont chiffres en
2003 a quelque 6 milliards d’euros.
La France est le deuxieme partenaire commercial de la Turquie et son
quatrieme fournisseur.
La compagnie nationale Turkish Airlines se prepare a acheter pres de
cinquante avions de ligne, notamment moyen et long courrier, pour
renouveler sa flotte vieillissante. Le consortium aeronautique
europeen Airbus et l’americain Boeing sont en lice.
M. Erdogan souhaiterait se servir de ce contrat de deux milliards de
dollars (1,6 milliard euros), qui devrait en principe etre partage
entre les deux constructeurs, pour “inciter” les Francais a donner
leur aval a l’ouverture des negociations d’adhesion avec Ankara,
a-t-on indique de source proche du dossier.

El Mundo
July 18, 2004
Rusia, en busca del Arca perdida.
Una expedicion arqueologica emprende rumbo a Turquia para intentar
encontrar la embarcacion con la que Noe escapo al Diluvio Universal.
DANIEL UTRILLA. Corresponsal
Arqueologia. Rusia. Una expedicion emprende rumbo a Turquia para
intentar encontrar la embarcacion con la que Noe escapo al Diluvio
Universal
MOSCU.- Desde la tierra que durante 74 anos presumio de ser el
paraiso del ateismo, arranco ayer una entusiasta expedicion
arqueologica rumbo a Turquia, donde pretenden encontrar los restos
del zoologico flotante con que Noe capeo el Diluvio Universal.
Bendecidos por el patriarca ortodoxo de todas las Rusias, Alexis II,
un grupo de expedicionarios rusos partio ayer hacia el monte turco de
Ararat (en el extremo este de Turquia), en cuyas estribaciones
esperan encontrar los restos de la mitica Arca de Noe.
Guiados por el afamado orientalista y periodista Andrei Poliakov, los
arqueologos rusos emprenden estas particular travesia por el desierto
con la conviccion de que no se volveran con las manos vacias.
Para Poliakov, esta sera su segunda expedicion al Ararat, de donde el
ano pasado se trajo consigo unas fotografias de inscripciones y
dibujos sobre piedra, que hallo entre las lapidas de un cementerio
armenio abandonado en la montana, informa Novaya Gazeta. Sometidas a
la lupa de los expertos, las inscripciones se revelaron algo parecido
a instrucciones de supervivencia para Noe y sus descendientes.El
grupo ha puesto toda la fe en este hallazgo que les ha permitido
poner la equis definitiva en el mapa del tesoro biblico. Ademas de
los rusos, muchos otros aventureros parten cada ano al Ararat
creyendose en posesion de la llave del misterio. Entre ellos se
encuentra un grupo formado por turcos y estadounidenses -encabezados
por el empresario Daniel McGivern- motivados en su busqueda tras el
reciente avistamiento por satelite de un gran objeto parcialmente
descubierto por los ultimos deshielos.
Segun informo la radio Eco de Moscu, los Indiana Jones rusos fueron
bendecidos ayer por el maximo representante de la Iglesia Ortodoxa,
que les despidio con reconfortantes palabras. “La subida al Ararat en
busca del Arca es tarea dificil. Rezaremos para bendecir ese trayecto
y por su exito”, dijo Alexis II, que entrego a los componentes de la
expedicion un icono de San Jorge Victorioso.
“Esta expedicion va a dar la respuesta definitiva a todas las
preguntas que rodean al Arca”, explico Poliakov antes de emprender
una aventura que se prolongara hasta primeros de agosto.
En 1916, un grupo de expedicionarios encabezados por el teniente
Roskovitski, fue enviado a Turquia por el zar Nicolas II. Pese a que
el grupo realizo algunos hallazgos, la revolucion de 1917 hizo
naufragar la busqueda.
El milagro de la television permitira retransmitir los progresos de
los arqueologos en tiempo real por medio de conexiones en directo a
cargo de periodistas integrados en la expedicion, organizada por el
canal Rambler Teleset. Seguro que al director de cine Steven
Spielberg no le importaria sustituir, aunque solo fuera por unos
dias, al camara de esta cadena rusa.
GRAPHIC: Caption: El responsable de la financiacion del proyecto,
Daniel McGivern, con el monte Ararat de fondo. / AP

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
July 17, 2004, Saturday
Asesinado otro periodista extranjero en Moscu
Moscu, 17 jul
Una semana despues del asesinato del redactor jefe de la edicion rusa
de la revista economica “Forbes”, hoy murio otro periodista
extranjero en Moscu, victima de un asalto, informaron las autoridades
rusas.

Conductores encontraron el cuerpo sin vida del corresponsal armenio
Pail Peloyan esta manana en la autopista circular de Moscu, dijo el
fiscal en la capital rusa. La victima trabajaba para la revista de
emigrantes “Calle armenia”, que se publica en Moscu.

El periodista armenio fue apaleado y apunalado por desconocidos y de
momento se desconocen los motivos del asesinato. Tan solo una semana
antes, el periodista de investigacion estadounidense y redactor jefe
de la reivsta economica “Forbes”, Paul Klebnikov, fue tiroteado en
plena calle. La policia no ha facilitado datos de momento acerca de
los posibles responsables de este asesinato por encargo.

Rusia es uno de los paises mas peligrosos para los periodistas a
nivel mundial. En 2003, al menos ocho periodistas rusos fueron
asesinados. El norteamericano Klebnikov habia publicado recientemente
una lista detallada de los cien rusos mas ricos.

Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
July 14, 2004, Wednesday
UNMC’s wide reach Omaha-based medical instruction is helping
developing countries.
When a nursing student in the Nebraska Panhandle has a question, the
University of Nebraska Medical Center can provide the answer.
With more than 75 online nursing courses available statewide, UNMC is
providing an important service.
Now the reach of UNMC, in collaboration with the Nebraska Medical
Center, is slowly being extended further — to the other side of the
globe.
In all, UNMC has some 40 cooperative agreements with medical
institutions around the world. About 15 of the agreements are
particularly active. Just a few weeks ago, UNMC officials signed four
cooperative agreements with hospitals in China while accompanying
Gov. Mike Johanns on a trade mission to East Asia.
Harold Maurer, UNMC’s chancellor, has encouraged such international
efforts, which have become reality through the work of such staff
people as Nizar Mamdani, executive director of the Office of
International Healthcare Services; Dr. Ward Chambers, associate
professor of cardiology; Sheila Ryan, a professor in the College of
Nursing; and Donald Leuenberger, vice chancellor for business and
finance.
Ryan, for example, has worked to establish links with nursing staff
in several developing countries. The connections she has forged with
Armenia are particularly impressive. The same types of nursing
courses available throughout Nebraska are now available to students
in that former Soviet republic, which remains wracked by instability.
Significant, too, has been UNMC’s efforts in Afghanistan, another
country attempting to climb out of upheaval. As noted in a
World-Herald story by staff writer Stephen Buttry, Chambers has
visited the Afghan capital five times to cement ties between UNMC and
Kabul Medical University.
It would be hard to exaggerate the severity of medical needs in
Afghanistan. The country’s infant mortality rate is the highest in
Asia. Ninety percent of women do not have prenatal care. One-quarter
of children die before the age of 5.
In the wake of decades of war, Afghanistan’s hospitals and medical
schools have enormous needs, Chambers says. Many hospitals lack
running water and electricity. The country has no magnetic resonance
imaging scanners, efficient computers are scarce, and medical
textbooks are out of date.
UNMC has the potential to do tremendous good by establishing online
medical instruction and other assistance for Afghan medical students.
These efforts display great vision. UNMC is demonstrating an
impressive generosity as it extends a helping hand to those who need
it, not just here in the Midlands, but even on the other side of the
world.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
July 18, 2004 Sunday ALL EDITION
Midwest Passages
MIKE MAGNUSON AND JUDITH CLAIRE MITCHELL
Former Menomonee Falls resident Mike Magnuson (author of “Lummox”)
returns to the Milwaukee area this week to read from his new book,
“Heft on Wheels,” a memoir about a big man’s determination to turn
his life around.
Magnuson weighed 250 pounds a few years ago. Booze, cigarettes and a
rotten diet were his way. But he joined a biking club — and began
cycling slowly as part of a balanced diet-and-exercise routine.
Instead of being nuts on parties, he became nuts on cycling.
The man is 175 pounds today and cycles in tournaments. “Heft on
Wheels” is a humorous look at a makeover. Magnuson, now head of
Southwestern Illinois College’s creative writing department, has
arranged his book tour to Milwaukee to coincide with Saturday’s
Downer Avenue bike race. Yes, he plans to ride.
A few years ago, a friend gave University of Wisconsin-Madison
creative writing teacher Judith Claire Mitchell a stack of letters to
read.
They were written by the friend’s great aunt, who had been a YMCA
volunteer in France in 1919. One of the letters mentioned an Armenian
who lost his family during deportations.
Mitchell used that tiny thread to begin weaving her debut novel, “The
Last Day of the War.”
She reads on Wednesday from this love story between a Jewish girl
from St. Louis and an Armenian-American soldier in Paris at the end
of World War I.
IF YOU GO
What: Talk Who: Mike Magnuson When and where: 7 p.m. Tuesday at Harry
W. Schwartz Bookshops, 2559 N. Downer Ave.
What: Discussion, reading Who: Judith Claire Mitchell When and where:
7 p.m. Wednesday at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, 4093 N. Oakland
Ave., Shorewood.

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected] Website;
ON THE OCCASSION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CANADIAN ARMENIAN
DIOCESE PILGRIMAGE TO STE. ANNE DE BAUPRE
Among the many events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the
establishment of the Canadian Armenian Church Diocese, perhaps the
most significant and memorable could be considered the three-day
pilgrimage on the weekend of July 9-11 to Quebec City’s Ste. Anne de
Baupre Shrine. This was the initiative of Rev. Fr. Zareh Avak Kahana
Zargarian, Pastor of Toronto’s Holy Trinity Church, and organized by
the Church’s Christian Education Council, under the auspices of His
Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, Primate.
In the afternoon of July 9, about 150 pilgrims arrived from Toronto to
Montreal, where they were greeted and welcomed by Rev. Fr. Vazken
Boyadjian, Pastor of St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral. After a
brief rest, they visited two famous Montreal landmarks – the
St. Joseph’s Oratory and Notre Dame Basilica – where the pilgrims
prayed jointly, then retired for the night in high spirits.
The next morning, some 120 pilgrims from Montreal’s St. Gregory the
Illuminator and Laval’s Holy Cross Churches joined the Toronto group
and the caravan of busses carrying close to 270 pilgrims headed
towards Quebec City, after the blessings and prayers of the Primate,
Rev. Fr. Hayrig Apegha Hovhannisian, Rev. Archpriest Fr. Zareh
Zargarian and guest visitor Rev. Fr. Zaven Avak Kahana
Arzoumanian. The three-hour pleasant journey was marked by religious,
national and popular songs all the way to Quebec City. Upon arrival to
Ste. Anne De Baupre Shrine, the pilgrims were welcomed by the
sacristan of the Shrine Fr. Pallette. The Divine Liturgy was
celebrated on the main altar by the Primate, assisted by
Rev. Fr. Hayrig and Rev. Fr. Zareh. The Altar servers were the young
Deacons and Sub-deacons of Holy Trinity led by senior deacons Nourhan
Ipekjian and Ara Anmahouni. The choir of Holy Trinity conducted by
Mr. Hagop Deukmedjian sang harmoniously throughout the ceremonies,
highly impressing the attending large number of both Armenian and
non-Armenian faithful, who were also joined by the small Armenian
community of Quebec City. It was the first time that Armenian Badarak
was being celebrated in the magnificent Shrine. Darius Gumushian, 21,
says “I am now a pilgrim. Becoming one has taken me to the depths of
Quebec to huge cathedrals that could only be found in books or
television. Here I learned to take nothing for granted and that we are
not only God fearing community on earth. Rethinking with our
counterparts in Montreal and Quebec City is always a good
thing. However, more importantly, the spiritual aspect is most
important by performing the Holy Badarak in other Churches. I believe
we all bonded well and I cannot wait to return to Toronto to share our
experiences with others”.
Following lunch the pilgrims had a tour of the old city and arrived in
Montreal to be hosted to a wonderful and warm reception in Laval, by
the Holy Cross Church. A joyous program extending into the late night
kept everybody in high spirits. “Before coming to the pilgrimage I did
not understand the reason I was going, but now when we have performed
mass at the beautiful churches it felt different. Spiritually, I felt
very good” Saro Sahagian, 19.
On Sunday morning, pilgrims assembled in St. Gregory the Illuminator
Cathedral, where the Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Rev. Archpriest
Fr. Zareh Zargarian, assisted by Rev. Fr. Vazken Boyadjian. The altar
servers and the choir singers were from Toronto’s Holy Trinity. Before
the sermon, Fr. Boyadjian welcomed the pilgrims and Fr. Zareh, who had
been the pastor of St. Gregory the Illuminator for seven years before
moving to Toronto, said in his sermon that this pilgrimage was a
reaffirmation of our faith in God and in the Mother See of the
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church in Etchmiadzin. In appreciation of the
Primate’s dynamism, Fr. Zargarian presented His Eminence with a
decorative cross as a memory from this historic pilgrimage. Bishop
Galstanian in turn thanked all and presented Fr. Zargarian with an
antique chest cross, wishing him strength and good health in his
mission of service to the church and to our people. “The pilgrimage
to Montreal was very enlightening. I was very surprised by the impact
I received spiritually after this historical event. It was a great
honor for me to be able to celebrate Holy Mass at the Cathedral in
Montreal. The pilgrimage rejoiced and recharged my soul which will
last me through the hardships o this world” says sub-deacon Mher
Torossian, 20.
Following the ceremonies, upon the directive of His Holiness the
Catholicos of All Armenians, prayers for the repose of the souls of
benefactors Alex and Marie Manoogians were conducted. The congregation
then assembled in the Church’s Marie Manoogian hall where a luncheon
was served by the Parish Council and the Ladies’
Auxiliary. Rev. Fr. Zaven Arzoumanian welcomed the pilgrims and
praised the organizers as well as the participants for a unique type
of event to commemorate the Diocese’s 20th anniversary. Fr. Boyadjian
thanked once again the young deacons and presented each one of them
with the Church’s emblem. “I think that this pilgrimage is very
special, because there is a difference in doing the Holy Masses where
we did because there is a history and I really enjoyed it” Haigaz
Mirzoyan, 23.
The gathering ended by Fr. Hayrig’s blessings, and the pilgrims went
up to the Diocesan quarters to receive the Primate’s blessings before
departing for Toronto.
Indeed this has been a weekend full of spiritual revival and joy for
the pilgrims and for the clergy alike.
Department of Christian Education
Information Office

Noyan Tapan, Armenia
July 7 2004
Armenians in Turkey want own radio and TV station

Representatives of the Armenian community of Turkey have filed a
statement to the Supreme Board of Radio Television (RTUK) demanding
broadcasts in Armenian. This demand followed the start of broadcasts
in Kurdish and Assyrian by Turkish Radio and Television. Zaman
Turkish daily reports that the editor of Akos Armenian-language daily
published in Istanbul Grant Dink said that the Armenian community has
launched a donation drive to help it be realized. It is expected that
a total of US$300,000 will be donated. Armenian radio has been a
dream for 10 years, Dink added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress