CYPRUS ATTORNEY GENERAL TAKES ON AGBU IN MELKONIAN CASE

Financial Mirror, Cyprus
May 25 2007

Cyprus Attorney General Petros Clerides, as the legal representative
of the Republic of Cyprus, is expected to take court action against
the AGBU within the next two or three weeks in an effort to resume
the campaign to save the Melkonian school in Nicosia and aim for its
earliest operation.

Some 50 members of the Armenian community, Representative Vartkes
Mahdessian and Melkonian alumni who gathered in Nicosia this week
heard lawyers Costas Velaris and Christina Sarris say that the
Attorney General, who has received several hundred letters, e-mails
and pressure, will take action on behalf of the Armenian community
of Cyprus.

Attorney General Clerides, in turn, will appoint Velaris, Sarris and
former Attorney General Alecos Markides to undertake the case in
his name as the three have nearly two years’ worth of preparatory
work and documentation. They had in the past represented Armenian
Patriarch Mutafyan of Turkey in the Cyprus cases against the AGBU.

Velaris appealed to the members of the community or anybody else
in the world to come forward with information or documentation that
could help the case.

He added that there would be transparency in the communication of
information and progress reports, while Christina Sarris said any
information would be posted on any website of the community’s choice.

Velaris was also caustic about some of the obstacles that the case
has faced, adding that no one or any organization had contacted the
three lawyers with a compromise deal or offer and neither were there
any threats or suggestions.

"Unfortunately the government of Armenia has sided with the AGBU in
this matter," he said, while he also expressed his dismay at the
decision of some judges in Cyprus courts, such as the case of the
overturning of the first preservation order on the Melkonian estate.

The preservation order has since been reinstated by the authority of
Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis.

As regards the future structure of the Melkonian, Christina Sarris
said that as the Attorney General has undertaken the case, he also
has the authority to appoint the trustees of the school and its estate
in the future.

Sarris also mentioned that "as far as I know the Melkonian will be used
by the nearby Aghlandjia state school" that had structural problem
and two construction workers were killed, and that the move would be
"from the new school year, in September."

— Marios Garoyian: "We must all work to reopen the Melkonian"

Marios Garoyian, the Armenian-born leader of the ruling Democratic
Party of Cyprus (DIKO) has pledged support to the campaign to save
and reopen the historic Melkonian school in Nicosia.

He told the visiting President of the Armenian Journalists Association,
Asdghig Kevorkyan and the chief editor of Azg daily, Hagop Avedikian,
that the historic school with a legacy of 80 years was an inseparable
part of modern Cyprus history and should be preserved in order for
it to reopen as a school

Azg’s Avedikian, who has been at the forefront of the media campaign
in Yerevan to save the Melkonian, told Garoyian that it was a shame
that Cyprus "did not utilize the large network of Melkoian graduates
around the world, who are probably the best ambassadors Cyprus could
ever have."

During their visit on the invitation of the Cyprus Union of
Journalists, the Armenian journalists visited the Nareg school in
Nicosia and the deserted grounds of the Melkonian Education Institute
and also attended the briefing of the lawyers in the Melkonian court
case in Cyprus.

— Parliament speaker: "I will raise the issue of Melkonian once again"

During a separate meeting, Azg’s editor asked House President and
communist AKEL party Secretary General Demetris Christofias about
efforts to help save and reopen the Melkonian, which Avedikian
described as not only a Cyprus issue but one that concerns all the
Diaspora.

Christophias praised the important role the 80-year-old school played
in Cyprus society and culture.

"Melkonian has been a tremendous contributing factor. The school is
part of the culture of Cyprus and we are proud that Cyprus has been
a host to such an establishment.

"This is a multi-faceted issue and we know that the key (to its
solution) lies in the U.S.," Christophias said, as the matter is in
the hands of the New York-based AGBU corporation that has ignored
previous Cyprus parliamentary calls to reopen the school.

"Unfortunately, some of your Armenians who have gone to America have
become more American and forgotten their roots in the name of money
and wealth," the outspoken Cypriot politician stated.

"I promise you I will put the matter once again to the President
of Cyprus," Christophias said, adding that, "I am sure that the
authorities and the government in Armenia share our views."