Massis Weekly Online
MassisWeekly.com
VOLUME 26, NO. 49 (1299)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2007

– President Bush Resubmits Hoagland Nomination For U.S. Ambassador To Armenia
– Opposition Leaders In New Alliance Talks
– Orhan Pamuk Attacks Oppression of Intellectuals in Turkey
– U.S. Diplomat Says Washington Wants Railway Connecting Turkey With
Azerbaijan to Run Through Armenia
– Very Rev. Fr. Baret Yeretzian Assigned New Pastor of St. Gregory the
Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church of Pasadena

– President Bush Resubmits Hoagland Nomination For U.S. Ambassador To Armenia

WASHINGTON, DC — President George W. Bush on Tuesday re-nominated
Richard Hoagland as ambassador to Armenia whose confirmation was
blocked by Senate Democrats in the last Congress.
The White House announced the submission of Hoagland despite calls by
top Democrats to withdraw the nomination because of his refusal to
call the World War I-era killings of Armenians genocide.
Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, blocked the nomination after
Hoagland?s refusal to use the word genocide at his confirmation
hearing in June. Bush needed to resubmit the nomination, because it
effectively expired at the end of the previous Congress in December.
Menendez and the Senate?s top Democrat, Harry Reid, wrote a letter to
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in early December asking the
Bush administration to withdraw the nomination.
The Bush administration has warned that even congressional debate on
the genocide question could damage relations with Turkey.

– Opposition Leaders In New Alliance Talks

YEREVAN — Armenia?s leading opposition forces are holding
negotiations on the possibility of forming new alliances ahead of next
spring?s parliamentary elections, their leaders told RFE/RL on Monday.
Artashes Geghamian, the leader of the National Unity Party (AMK),
indicated in particular that he is considering ways of teaming up with
another opposition heavyweight, Stepan Demirchian, and his People?s
Party of Armenia (HZhK).
?There have been some discussions on such possibility with the
People?s Party,? he said. ?We have primarily talked about doing
everything to ensure that the upcoming elections are democratic and
preventing falsifications.? Geghamian declined to give further
details, and HZhK leaders could not be immediately reached for comment.
Geghamian and Demirchian have had an uneasy personal rapport, falling
out during the presidential elections of February-March 2003 when they
were Robert Kocharian?s main opposition challengers.
The two men joined forces a year later to lead an ill-fated opposition
attempt to force Kocharian into resignation with a campaign of street
protests. The failure of the campaign opened a new rift between them.
It seemed to have deepened in May last year when Demirchian accused
the outspoken AMK leader of lying about his late father and the HZhK?s
founder, Karen Demirchian. Geghamian was quick to try to mend fences
with his Demirchian at the time. It is not yet clear if the two
leaders are prepared to again have another, more radical
oppositionist, Aram Sarkisian of the Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party,
on board. Sarkisian claimed that he is also involved in the ongoing
talks. ?Formation of alliances is always much easier ahead of
elections,? he said. ?I am really delighted with the current
negotiations in terms of their quality and responses of opposition
leaders.?
Sarkisian added that the talks have so far focused on the nomination
of single opposition candidates in all of Yerevan?s 15 electoral
districts. He would not be drawn on chances of a new broad-based
opposition alliance emerging soon in place of the largely moribund
Artarutyun (Justice) led by Demirchian.
Meanwhile, there is also growing talk of another major electoral
alliance that could be led by former parliament speaker Artur
Baghdasarian and the former commander of Nagorno-Karabakh?s army,
Samvel Babayan. Among their potential allies is the Union for
Constitutional Rights (SIM), a small opposition party affiliated with
Artarutyun.

– Orhan Pamuk Attacks Oppression of Intellectuals in Turkey

ISTANBUL — Writer and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk used a day as
guest editor of a newspaper to highlight oppression of intellectuals
in his native Turkey. Mr. Pamuk, who has a degree in journalism, was
asked to edit the Radikal daily as part of its 10th anniversary
celebrations.
His cover story accused the Turkish state of suppressing free
expression and oppressing dissident thinkers. Mr. Pamuk, an acclaimed
novelist, is a controversial figure in Turkey. He is the author of
works such as Snow and My Name Is Red, and in 2006 won the Nobel Prize
for literature. A year earlier, he had faced charges of ?insulting
Turkishness? over comments on the mass killing of Kurds and Ottoman
Armenians, charges which were later dropped.
His cover article quoted a 1951 story about Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet,
declared a traitor and imprisoned for his left-wing views, in which
the public were urged ?to spit in his face?. ?This expression…
summarises the unchanging place of writers and artists in the eyes of
the state and the press,? the cover story said.
Other articles on his front page included a piece on the low
percentage of women in politics and reactions to video footage of
former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein?s execution.

– U.S. Diplomat Says Washington Wants Railway Connecting Turkey With
Azerbaijan to Run Through Armenia

BAKU –?We have always backed all projects which are designed to boost
transport links between neighbor countries and we have been trying to
develop projects aimed at linking the West and East and certainly we
would like that a railway that is supposed to connect Turkey with
Azerbaijan runs through Armenia,? a senior U.S. diplomat was quoted as
saying by Azerbaijani Press Agency (APA).
The diplomat, Mathew Bryza, a deputy assistant secretary of state for
European and Eurasian affairs and a U.S. cochairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, said the U.S. administration cannot block the construction of a
railway that Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan want to build, but added
that the U.S. hopes that in near future a transportation scheme that
will include all the countries of the region will emerge.
Last December U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law a
resolution imposing a ban on U.S. financing of a proposed railroad
that would bypass Armenia. The proposed new Caucasus rail line – at
the urging of Turkey and Azerbaijan – would circumvent Armenia.
Promoters of the project have sought, even at the planning stages, to
secure U.S. financing for this undertaking, prompting Congressional
friends of Armenia to preemptively block such attempts.
In October of 2005, the European Commission voiced official opposition
to the proposed Caucasus railroad bypass of Armenia. A formal
statement by the Commission?s Directorate General for Transport and
Energy noted that its construction was both unnecessary and
inefficient in light of the existing railroad connecting Kars, Gyumri
of Armenia and Tbilisi.

– Very Rev. Fr. Baret Yeretzian Assigned New Pastor of St. Gregory the
Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church of Pasadena

Very Rev. Fr. Baret Yeretzian has been assigned the new pastor of St.
Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church of Pasadena by His
Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese
of the Armenian Church of North America. Fr. Baret will celebrate his
first Divine Liturgy as pastor at 10:30 AM on Sunday, January 14,
2007. His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian will formally introduce
Very Rev. Fr. Baret Yeretzian to the St. Gregory the Illuminator
Armenian Apostolic Church faithful before the sermon. Upon the
conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, January 14.
Fr. Baret brings a wealth of pastoral experience to his new ministry
in Pasadena. A native of Jerusalem, he started serving in the Armenian
Church at a young age. Fr. Baret is a graduate of the Armenian
Theological Seminary (Jharankavoratz Varjharan) of the Armenian
Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In 1966, he was ordained into the sacred
order of priesthood by the late Archbishop Yeghishe Derderian, the
former Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem. The late Bishop Guregh
Kapikian served as Fr. Baret?s /khardavilag /(sponsoring priest of
ordination).
Fr. Baret is a member of the St. James Brotherhood of Jerusalem. Fr.
Baret has had vast pastoral experience. Upon the invitation of the
former Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
(Eastern), Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, Fr. Baret was accepted into
the Eastern Diocese in 1974. He served as assistant pastor of St. John
Armenian Church in Southfield, Michigan from 1974 ? 1977. Fr. Baret
was pastor of St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Cathedral in
Montreal, Canada from 1977 ? 1981, Holy Cross Armenian Church of
Lawrence, Massachusetts from 1981 ? 1985, and Sts. Sahag and Mesrob
Armenian Church of Providence, Rhode Island from 1985 ? 1993. Fr.
Baret returned to Detroit as pastor of St. John Armenian Church from
1993-1998. Fr. Baret served as pastor of St. Kevork Armenian Church of
Houston, Texas from 1999 ? 2000.
Fr. Baret served for twelve years as a member of the Diocesan Council
of the Eastern Diocese, two of which he was the vice-chairman. He has
also served as Vicar General of the New England region of the Eastern
Diocese.
In 2000, upon the invitation of His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom
Manoogian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fr. Baret returned to his
birthplace to serve as Dean of the Armenian Theological Seminary
(Jharankavoratz Varjharan) until 2006. Upon the invitation of the
Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North
America, Fr. Baret was accepted into the Western Diocese in September,
2006. He served as Director of the Mission Parishes of the Western
Diocese and as visiting clergy to the Armenian Church of Arizona.
Fr. Baret holds a Bachelor?s degree in political science from the
American University of Jerusalem. He also studied for three years at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Biblical Archeology. He
completed his graduate courses in political science from Wayne State
University of Detroit. Fr. Baret was elevated to the rank of
/Dzayrakooyn Vartabed/ in 1982.

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