Pasadena Star-News, CA
April 26 2004

Consecration of stones, lives
Armenian church officials bless sanctuary foundation

By Emanuel Parker , Staff Writer

PASADENA — Sixteen foundation stones were blessed Sunday in
preparation for their inclusion in the new sanctuary at St. Gregory
the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church, 2215 E. Colorado Blvd.

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian and Pastor Zaven Arzoumanian presided
over the 30-minute ceremony, which featured singing and chanting as
each stone was consecrated.

The $2.2 million sanctuary is scheduled for completion in November,
said Nicholas Lambajian, sanctuary building chairman. It will be the
largest Armenian church in Southern California and, at 85 feet, the
tallest church on E. Colorado Boulevard, Lambajian said.

“It will be in traditional Armenia style, covered with traditional
Armenian materials imported from Armenia, and built by Armenia
craftsmen,’ he said.

Besides the sanctuary seating 550, the building will house meeting
rooms and a full commercial kitchen. If the building is finished by
November, its consecration will coincide with the 40th anniversary of
the church at the E. Colorado Boulevard location, Lambajian said.

“The consecration of the cornerstones for the new church is also the
consecration of our spiritual lives … a rebirth in our spiritual
lives,’ Derderian said. “We were strengthened once again in our
commitment, in our calling to serve God, our community and this
beloved country, America, which has blessed us in many ways.’

Arzoumanian said the church is the foundation upon which Armenians
base their faith “and our foundation is the indestructible armor
against all kinds of enemies.’

Shoghig Giragosian, parish council vice chair, said the Armenian
Church is 1,700 years old and has survived several periods of
persecution.

“The rebuilding of this church shows that at this day and age not
only has our nation and people survived, but so has our church and it
came back stronger and better.’

Arutz Sheva, Israel
April 26 2004

Armenian Genocide Remembered in Jerusalem
11:50 Apr 26, ’04 / 5 Iyar 5764

(IsraelNN.com) April 24 is the day Armenians mark the Ottoman Turkish
massacres of their people that were carried out from 1915 to 1925.
Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed in what was in effect an
attempt at genocide.

This year, about 1,000 people – Armenians and others – from
Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth and overseas marked the anniversary
Saturday at the Armenian Convent in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Armenian Orthodox Christian prayers were recited, with incense and
candles lit in honor of the occasion.

Kathimerini, Greece
April 26 2004

Armenian genocide

Government and parliamentary officials yesterday attended a ceremony
in Athens to honor the memory of the estimated 1.5 million Turkish
Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. In Thessaloniki,
hundreds of Armenians marched on the Turkish consulate to demand that
Ankara recognizes the genocide.

PRESS RELEASE
Adhoc Armenian Committee for Tibet China Negotiations
Viken L. Attarian
Dollard-Des-Ormeaux
Quebec CANADA
514-244-7575, [email protected]

AD HOC ARMENIAN COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF TIBET CHINA NEGOTIATIONS SECURES
THREE ADDITIONAL MP SIGNATURES AND DECLARES SUCCESS

Montreal, QUEBEC, CANADA April 23, 2004– The Ad Hoc Armenian Committee in
Support of the Tibet China Negotiations has secured three additional MP
signatures to Mr. Sarkis Assadourian’s in support of their cause. The MPs
who have signed just prior to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to Canada
are Harvey André, Yolande Thibeault and David Price.

“We are grateful to these three new MPs who have signed on, bringing the
total of supporting Members of Parliament to 165 “, says Mr. Azad
Chichmanian, a member of the committee, “hundreds of emails and letters were
sent through our committee to achieve this objective and we have been
successful. The Prime Minister has actually met with His Holiness as a
result of the effort of all Canadians and we are proud to declare our
successful campaign to be officially closed”.

“Our special thanks go to those Canadian-Armenians who have listened to our
call and have responded postitively, and to all our friends who have worked
in the background to achieve this success” says Mr. Viken L. Attarian,
another member of the committee. “This is a particularly moving moment for
Armenians because in this same week, the Canadian Parliament, following in
the footsteps of the Canadian Senate, has officially recognized the Armenian
Genocide. Armenians, as a nation who have suffered a great historical
injustice, have reached out to our fellow Tibetans and actively worked in
support of human rights. It was our duty to do so as Armenians, as
Canadians and as human beings”.

For Further information please contact Viken L. Attarian at 514-244-7575.

The Hindu, India
April 26 2004

Eljanov shoots into sole lead

Dubai, April 26. (PTI): Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, yet again
slipped to joint second spot after drawing with GM Artashes Minasian
of Armenia, in the seventh round of the Dubai International Chess
Championship at Dubai Chess and Culture Club here.

GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine, shot into sole lead following a
hard-fought victory over GM Alexei Federov of Belarus.

Eljanov on six points is closely followed by top seeded Liviu-Dieter
Nisipeanu of Romania, Azerbaijani World Junior Champion Shakhriyaz
Mamedyarov, Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, Alexander Goloshchapov of
Ukraine, Norwegian whiz-kid Magnus Carlsen, Minasian, Sasikiran and P
Harikrishna who all have 5.5 points each in their kitty.

With just two rounds remaining in this $41,000 tournament, another
pack of 8 players is in contention for top honours with 5 points
apiece.

The Indian IM norm aspirants suffered a setback in their quest as
Parimarjan Negi and Manthan Chokshi went down fighting against
Russian GM Alexey Kuzmin, and Armenian GM Karen Asrian, respectively.

Also losing was National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly who failed to
counter the bubbling energy of 13-years old Carlsen and IM D V Prasad
who fell back on a 50 per cent score after losing to Goran Dizdar of
Croatia.

Trinidad & Tobago Express, Trinidad and Tobago
April 20 2004

‘I had no heart. We were animals’

The quotation above is from a Hutu peasant recounting the day ten
years ago when he actively participated in the killings. At interview
he was probably about 45 or so had somewhat bloodshot eyes, and a
saddened countenance. He went on to explain that the Government had
decided to kill the Tutsis and they had been handed over to the gangs
of killers who had been transported to the killing fields-a Roman
Catholic church! Apparently there were also similar slaughters in the
Seventh Day Adventist church. The skulls and bones now adorn these
churches. He admitted to killing a ten-year-old child and when
questioned by the interviewer about killing a child when he himself
had a child of the same age, he simply shook his head-I had no heart.
We were animals. After watching the BBC account of then and now I
still found it impossible to determine from physical appearances who
was Hutu and who was Tutsi, any more than I could tell Catholic Irish
from Protestant Irish, or a Muslim from a Hindu in India, or Jew from
Palestinian.

There are two things that struck me about this brief exchange. We
were animals and the government handed them over for killing. Poor
maligned animals. All life on the planet of course competes for the
resources necessary for continued existence and all animal life is
dependent on plant life. There are few plants that can kill animals
when eaten. This is simply the self-defence mechanism of production
of toxins in their tissues. Some may also trap animals to obtain
essential nutrients in nutrient poor conditions. Few animals kill
members of their own species although it is known in some cases,
especially where there may be severe overcrowding or deprivation.
Rats in overcrowded cages often develop aberrant behaviour and kill
cage mates, including their young.

In contrast, the human species currently kills, has killed and will
continue to kill, not only at the one-on-one killing level, where
states at least try to regulate and punish individual killers, but
also in group or state interactions. To the innocent who has had her
head bashed in with a club in a church in Rwanda, or to a mother and
child being torn apart by shrapnel from an American smart bomb in
Iraq, or to a group of Jews being marched into the gas chambers, or
to Armenian families being marched into the desert, or to West
Africans being enslaved and killed by both Arabs and Europeans, or
Hindus and Muslims mutually slaughtering each other in 1947, it is
all the same-the behaviour of an aberrant species. If the species has
been indeed “created” as many believe, the design was obviously poor.
Animals do not really behave in this way.

But there is a possible explanation. We have only to look at our
nearest relative, the chimpanzee, an animal with whom we share the
bulk of our genes, some 99 per cent. Jane Goodall, the primatologist,
has spent decades studying the behaviour of chimpanzees in the wild.
Much of what had hitherto recorded of the behaviour of chimpanzees
and other apes had been based on observations of the animals in
artificial environments of zoos. Much of the general behaviour of
chimpanzees is described in her book, Reason for Hope-A Spiritual
Journey. Although very much a personal narrative, she does toward the
end describe what the account is really about. It is about her
personal journey, as she states, from evil to love, drawing on
childhood perception of the architects of the Holocaust, the German
slaughter of millions of Jews. But the science is there in the book
and may also be seen in countless other field studies on chimpanzees
in Africa.

Chimpanzees are not the clownish creatures they are often made out to
be. Their basic social unit is essentially an extended family
grouping that may be as large as 50 or so individuals more or less
male-dominated, with one top male and several sub-dominants, females
organised in some sort of hierarchy, juveniles and infants, more or
less occupying a measurable expanse of territory supporting the
group. But there is much more to the science of the behaviour of
chimpanzees. Chimpanzees can be murderous as a group when they raid
other territories in a primitive sort of warfare, killing other
chimpanzees. Internally, in a group, individuals may be bullied,
ostracised, expelled or even killed. Infanticide has also been
recorded. Leadership of a group is under constant threat from
sub-dominants. There is even the behaviour of male bonding when the
males go of together on a hunt, even at times when their normal food
supply is abundant. There are even different regional “languages”. It
is not difficult to make comparisons with human behaviour.

The other thing that struck me was the excuse given by the Hutu
interviewee-it was a Government decision to kill the Tutsis,
reminiscent of the attitudes seen with all genocide. The individual
justifies killing simply as being caught up in the process. The fact
that murder is known in all societies, some being more murderous than
other, and that genocide, deliberate or incidental, is the norm in
human society, suggests that human social organisation is not
genetically ordered as is seen in highly social species such as ants,
bees and wasps, and termites. In the science of ethology or animal
behaviour the term behavioural plasticity refers to the degree of
variability of behaviour of a species in response to external
stimulus. Social insects demonstrate no plasticity. Anyone who has
kept dogs will demonstrate considerable behavioural plasticity, even
within a litter. Certainly chimpanzees demonstrate plasticity of
behaviour, both in the wild and in captivity. The range of human
behaviour suggests the greatest degree of plasticity of behaviour of
any species known to science.

There is nevertheless one aspect of social behaviour in vertebrate
animals that warrants some comment. This is schooling, flocking or
herding, seem amongst many fishes, birds and mammals. Social grouping
of animals as they go about their individual lives does offer some
advantage mainly against predation. In primates, however, this type
of behaviour is the exception rather than the rule. Primate grouping
is generally the family grouping. This raises the question of group
leadership. Certainly in chimpanzees leadership is by the dominant
male, until his displacement and the size of groupings is regulated
by natural processes.

Humans, however, have conquered disease and starvation (they think),
the natural population regulators and numbers exceed six billion,
unprecedented for a mammal. It should therefore not surprise anyone
that given genetic programming, plasticity of behaviour, inheritance
of learned behaviour and numbers, herding, a product of conditioning
and culture, becomes the norm of human behaviour, not rationality.
This behaviour can lead to exploitation of the herd. Simply follow
Martin Daly’s Sunday Express commentaries over the past few weeks to
understand the phenomenon. In conflict for power by the dominant male
or males, individual members of the herd suffer. Millions are
sometimes massacred by the herd. Jane Goodall and others suggests
hope in “spiritual and moral values”. Rationality, however, might
save the species. Some hope indeed.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
April 26, 2004

Commemoration of April 24 in Armenia

On the morning of Saturday, April 24, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, diocesan primates, high ranking
clergymen, and members of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin visited the
“Tsitsernakaberd” Memorial to the Armenian Genocide of 1915, to pay tribute
to the memory of the victims of the first genocide of the 20th century. His
Holiness offered a solemn Requiem Service in memory of the 1.5 million
Armenian martyrs who perished in Turkey and the deserts of Syria in the
final days of the Ottoman Empire.

In attendance for the commemoration were President of the Republic of
Armenia Robert Kocharian, President of the National Assembly Artur
Baghdasarian, Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Margarian, President of the
Constitutional Court Gagik Harutiunian, high ranking government officials,
ambassadors and representatives of foreign states, and guests from Armenia
and abroad.

* * *

The same day a solemn Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Mother Cathedral
of Holy Etchmiadzin. His Holiness Karekin II presided during the service
commemorating the 89th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which was
celebrated by Very Rev. Fr. Arshak Khachatrian, Chancellor of the Mother
See.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, the Pontifical procession gathered around
the Armenian Genocide Monument located north of the Cathedral on the grounds
of the Mother See, as His Holiness presided during a Repose of Souls
service.

High ranking clergymen, Apostolic Nuncio for the Roman Catholic Church Abp.
Claudio Gugerotti, and hundreds of faithful were present.

##

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian National Committee of Wisconsin
4100 N. Newman Road
Racine, WI 53406

April 26, 2004
For Immediate Release

Contact: A. Zohrab Khaligian
[email protected]

WISCONSIN ARMENIANS COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

MADISON, WI–For the fourth year in a row, Wisconsin Armenian Americans
gathered at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to commemorate the
Armenian Genocide. Over 70 people–including 13 State Representatives and
Senators–attended the reception and program held on Tuesday, April 20 in
the GAR Hearing Room. The event was co-hosted by the Armenian National
Committee (ANC) of Wisconsin, State Representatives Mark Honadel, Bonnie
Ladwig, and Jeff Stone, and State Senators Jeff Plale, Mary Lazich, and
Cathy Stepp.

The purpose of the program was to thank the Wisconsin State Assembly and
State Senate for adopting Armenian Genocide resolutions, which designate
April 24 of each year as “Wisconsin Day of Remembrance for the Armenian
Genocide of 1915 to 1923,” and to continue to educate and promote awareness
of Armenia and Armenian issues, particularly the Armenian Genocide. The
featured speakers included Robert O. Krikorian, Ph.D., Representative Jeff
Stone, and Senator Mary Lazich. The program also included the reading of
commemorative statements from US Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl.

Zohrab Khaligian, representing the ANC of Wisconsin, presented the welcoming
message. Khaligian thanked everyone for attending the program and voiced
his disbelief that almost 90 years had passed since the Ottoman Turkish
government attempted to eliminate an entire nation, that their crime has
gone largely unrecognized and totally unpunished, and today the crime of
genocide continues as rumors abound about atrocities in Sudan.

Khaligian thanked the State Assembly and Senate for not ignoring the past
and setting the record straight by adopting Genocide resolutions which
reaffirm the Armenian Genocide as a fact of history. Khaligian also thanked
Wisconsin’s US Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Mark Green, Jerry Kleczka,
Paul Ryan, and F. James Sensenbrenner for co-sponsoring the Genocide
Convention Resolution–H.Res.193–which is currently waiting to be brought
to the House floor for a vote. Khaligian singled out Representative
Sensenbrenner for his leadership on the House Judiciary Committee, ensuring
that this legislation was adopted at the committee level following intense
pressure to eliminate the mention of the Armenian Genocide by pro-Turkish
lobbyist Bob Livingston and the Turkish Ambassador to the United States
Faruk Logoglu.

US Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl were also thanked for cosponsoring
the Senate version of the Genocide Convention Resolution (S.Res164).
Khaligian introduced Katie Crawley from Senator Feingold’s Middleton office
and Darci Louma from Senator Kohl’s Madison office, and then read each of
the Senator’s commemorative statements. (Full text of statements below).

Guest speaker Robert O. Krikorian, Ph.D. was then introduced. Dr. Krikorian
is a historian with the Office of the Historian at the US Department of
State, a Professorial Lecturer at the Elliott School of International
Affairs at George Washington University and a fellow at the university’s
Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. It was announced
that prior to the program, Dr. Krikorian was the featured speaker at a
series of lectures organized by the ANC of Wisconsin. The series included a
talk on Saturday, April 17th with the Racine Chapter of the Armenian Youth
Federation on Dr. Krikorian’s experiences in Armenia and Artsakh from
1988-1991. A lecture titled “Education and Responsibility” on Sunday, April
18th at St. Hagop Armenian Church in Racine and an academic lecture entitled
“In the Shadow of War: The Ottoman Empire and the Destruction of the
Armenians” on Monday, April 19th, which was presented twice, once at the
University of Wisconsin-Parkside Library, and once at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union. The Friends of the UW-Parkside Library,
and the UW-Madison Armenian Student Association and History Department
hosted the latter two lectures, respectively.

Dr. Krikorian explained that the Ottoman Empire’s massacre and deportation
of the Armenian people during World War I should be understood in the
context not only of the war itself, but in the decline of the empire.
Beginning in the latter part of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire
suffered a series of military and political reverses, culminating in its
total defeat in 1918. The significant losses of territory in the Balkans,
North Africa, and Western Armenia preceding the Genocide created the
preconditions for carrying out this final solution to the Armenian Question.

The final two speakers were Representative Jeff Stone and Senator Mary
Lazich. A co-host since the first commemorative program, Representative
Stone commended the Armenian American community of Wisconsin for remembering
their history in an effort to prevent history from repeating itself.
Senator Lazich, speaking for the first time since becoming a co-host in
2002, read excerpts from an article written by Dr. Richard Hovannissian to
highlight the enormity of the Armenian Genocide.

Prior to closing the program, Zohrab Khaligian thanked Representative Bonnie
Ladwig for her support and guidance in making the State Capitol program a
success. Representative Ladwig will be retiring from the Assembly in the
Fall due to health reasons and will be sorely missed by the
Armenian-American community in Racine.

In closing, Khaligian explained that the objective for obtaining recognition
of the Armenian Genocide can no longer be to obtain justice for the Armenian
people. As the crime of genocide has continued to the present day, the
Armenian people and their supporters must strive to obtain recognition and
justice for the Armenian Genocide in order to prevent future genocides from
ever occurring again. Khaligian wondered aloud that if the crime of
genocide is allowed to continue, who will be left alive?

The Armenian National Committee is the largest Armenian American grassroots
political organization in Wisconsin and nationwide. The ANC actively
advances a broad range of issues of concern to the Armenian American
community.

####

—————————-
Statement by Senator Herb Kohl
—————————-

Dear Friends

Please allow me to extend my best wishes and greetings to all of you who
have gathered today to commemorate the 89th Anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. I regret my schedule prevents me from attending, and I hope this
event raises awareness and pays tribute to the victims of this seminal
moment.

I also hope this event provides everyone in attendance with an opportunity
to reflect on the tragic events of 89 years ago, and steels our resolve to
prevent it from ever happening again. We have an obligation to future
generations to share our lessons and experiences so that atrocities are
never repeated. Commemorations like this lay the important foundation of
that critical task, while also offering a fitting forum to pay our respects
to the victims of the tragedy.

Thank you for your efforts to promote peace, tolerance and a memorial of the
past. Best wishes.

Sincerely

Herb Kohl [signed]
US Senator

——————————-
Statement by Senator Russ Feingold
——————————-

Statemen t of US Senator Russ Feingold
Commemorating the 89th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
April 20, 2004

“I am sorry that I am unable to attend this important commemoration. Thank
you to the Armenian National Committee of Wisconsin for organizing this
event. Today, we remember the Armenian men, women and children who lost
their lives during the Armenian genocide. 89 years ago between 1915 and
1923, the Ottoman empire undertook a policy to isolate, exile and eliminate
the Armenian population. One and a half million Armenians were
systematically murdered in this campaign. Hundreds of thousands more were
forced to flee their homes.

The Armenian genocide must not be denied or forgotten. We have an
obligation to remember and remind others of the horror that occurred. As
seen by the killings in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda over the past decade,
targeting people for their ethnicity is still a frequent occurrence. Its
repetition demands that we speak out and inform others in order to prevent
future atrocities.

Today, I join you in solemnly remembering the victims of the Armenian
genocide, and in honoring their memory by reaffirming our resolve to prevent
genocide from occurring again.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AGBU PRESS OFFICE
55 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone (212) 319-6383
Fax (212) 319-6507
Email [email protected]
Webpage

Monday, April 19, 2004

AGBU PRESIDENT BERGE SETRAKIAN’S REMARKS AT THE 2004 ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY
NATIONAL CONFERENCE

AGBU, along with the Eastern and Western Dioceses of the Armenian
Church, joined the Armenian Assembly of America in the organization of
the National Conference and Banquet, which was held in Washington
D.C. from April 18-20, 2004.

AGBU President Berge Setrakian addressed the convention during the
Gala event and below is the full text of his speech.

* * *

It is a sincere and rewarding pleasure to be here this evening with a
most outstanding and dedicated audience. The Armenian Assembly has put
much effort into arranging this important and worthwhile event. It is
an event that allows dedicated Armenians such as yourselves to become
advocates for the issues of importance to all Armenians. As President
of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, I am particularly proud that
our organization is a cooperating partner in the conference, along
with both the Eastern and Western branches of the Armenian Church of
America. Armenian organizations worldwide must establish vital
relationships with one another, and this conference serves as a great
example of how we can work together closely to create a momentum of
improvement in our community. In fact, at the AGBU worldwide
convention in New York two years ago, I called on our own membership
to begin a strategic process of working hand in hand to facilitate
cooperation-not competition-among A! rmenian organizations. This
spirit of cooperation must be encouraged and expanded, as it has the
potential to be one of our greatest sources of strength.

In the complex and changing world we live in today, it is even more
imperative for us to unite and strengthen our voices as we express our
concerns within the American political arena. Widespread understanding
and awareness of Armenian issues among our fellow Americans is an
important goal for each and every one of us. We must do all we can to
tell people about such issues and the need for their support from the
American government. The way we do that best is by remaining united
and remaining active, as we have been over the course of this
conference.

I would like to take this opportunity to share another major goal of
the AGBU at this moment, a goal with which I hope you can agree. More
and more at our organization, we are renewing our commitment to
serving the community by coming up with new ways to address its
needs. There is so much need in our community that we must constantly
reevaluate how to put our resources to their best and most effective
use. As we push to preserve our Armenian identity through cultural,
educational, and humanitarian efforts, we come to the conclusion that,
so to speak, doing ‘business as usual’ will no longer work. We face
new challenges, new conditions, and new parameters. We exist in a
world that is constantly changing, and we must adapt accordingly to
ensure our strength and survival indefinitely. To every challenge we
face in every program we run, we must design new responses that can
more effectively achieve our mission of serving the Armenian
people. This requires from us a certain vigila! nce-a promise that we
will create new programs and institutions to fulfill our urgent needs,
and dedicate our existing resources to that fulfillment.

Our need to evolve as a community and as individual organizations is
part of our responsibility to the Armenian youth, the new generation
who may not be as tightly linked to the traditional forms of identity
and heritage. Today, we serve a generation of young Armenian-Americans
who are more, if not fully integrated in American society. These are
young people who, even more than those of us who arrived as
immigrants, have an allegiance and loyalty to their native United
States. If a dedication to the Armenian homeland of their ancestors is
to exist, it will exist alongside an equal dedication to their
American homeland. Being Armenian-Americans does not mean that they
are 50% Armenian and 50% American. No-it means that they are 100%
Americans, who feel a strong and full commitment to their Armenian
identity. Therefore, as we work together in the future, we must take
into account that the next generation feels and lives its Armenian
identity in ways that are different from those! of our older
community. Our programs must understand this and take it as a premise
of how they operate and what they hope to achieve. We must commit
ourselves to building programs that make not only great Armenians, but
great Americans.

I believe that this conference has been an activity of that
nature-here, we have come together as full and active Americans
dedicated to the causes of Armenian concern. We have honored the goal
of unity, of service, and of being good American citizens and loyal
Armenians.

In closing, let me again express my gratitude and that of the AGBU to
the participants and supporters of this landmark event. We are proud
and grateful to have been part of this Conference in Washington and
look forward to moving together into a bright and prosperous future.

Democracy – beyond the market

Throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Richard Swift finds a
new breed of activists are struggling for sustainable democracy.

Eleanora Manandyan – social justice worker

Eleanora explains how her agency for helping poor youth in Armenia got its
name quite simply. ‘We face a severe psychological problem here in Armenia.
Everyone will tell you they have no hope, no belief in the future. “New
Armenia” gives the idea of hope.’

The agency does casework with young people but its ambitions go well beyond
that of a Westernstyle social agency, fundamentally challenging the corrupt
political oligarchy that runs her country.

As a former student activist herself, Eleanora is enthusiastic about
building a network of pupil councils throughout Armenian high schools to
empower youth. She talks despairingly of the aid money that disappears into
a black hole. ‘Money for schools is stolen. Electricity privatization money
disappears. Enough money is given to fund 20 HIV education centres, [but
only] 2 get funded. And if anyone gets close to this problem they disappear.
‘ She quotes a police inspector who told her in confidence: ‘It is possible
to solve all Armenia’s problems in 24 hours – put all these oligarchs in
prison and put their money back into the state budget.’

Eleanora doesn’t let her frustration overwhelm her. ‘We must create new
hope. Our only hope is to work with children.’

—