PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: armenian@idx.com.au

18 July 2006

SYDNEY-BASED DANCE GROUP HEADING HOME FROM LEBANON

Sydney, Australia – The Hamazkaine Sevan Dance Group and entourage
of parents and minders are now making their safe passage home from
Lebanon.

After spending anxious days and moments in what is now become war torn
Beirut yet again, the 80 plus group was bussed in a covert operation
through Syria and are at this very moment in Amman, Jordan from where
they will fly home to Sydney.

Throughout this ordeal, the office of the Primate of the Armenian
Church and Welfare Centre has been a contact point for media and
government departments in collaboration with Sydney’s Armenian
community leaders and organisations.

On Saturday, 15 July Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate of the Diocese
of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand met with community
leaders and families of the stranded group members at the Panoyan
Cultural Centre in Bonnyrigg at a press conference. Loved ones were
assured the Armenian Community of Sydney had banded together and in
collaboration with the Australian Government were exhausting every
avenue to mobilise the safe passage of the group.

There has been overwhelming local and community media coverage of the
events as they have unfolded. Now the local Armenian Community eagerly
awaits the safe arrival of the group in Sydney which is anticipated
in the next few days.

The Hamazkaine Sevan Dance Group has been touring Armenia, Syria and
Lebanon since mid-June performing at an international dance festival
in Armenia and a series of concerts in the motherland as well as in
Beirut and Aleppo. It was on the morning of their due departure from
Beirut when the airport bomb strike happened.

Yesterday, contact was established with the group by Archbishop
Baliozian who passed on the blessings and prayers of His Holiness
Karekin II Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

There are still thousands of Australians stranded in Beirut and the
foremost evacuation of the Armenian dance troupe which consists mainly
of teenage youth remains nothing short of a miracle for the anxious
parents and families in Sydney. The Armenian Community is forever
grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Australian Embassy
in Lebanon and the Australian Government for the tireless efforts to
ensure the safe passage home of our children.

We thank our Almighty Father for His Divine intervention. We trust
in Him to bring the group safely home to reunite with their families
very soon. Our prayers are now for the thousands still stranded in
Beirut that they too will be led to the safe haven of Australia.