Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

ARMAVIR PROVINCES TO RAISE $23 MILLION FROM LAND SALE

ArmenPress
Oct 14 2004

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, ARMENPRESS: State subsidies to the province
of Armavir rose from 29 million Armenians drams in 1998 to 142
million drams in 2004, which, according to the province’s governor,
Albert Heroyan, is an apt illustration of real economic growth.
Another indication of the robust economic growth, according to the
governor, is a significant increase in teachers’ wages which have
risen to 30,000 drams (approximately $60).

Heroyan said the sale of some 14,000 hectares of formerly state
reserve lands in the province will bring some $23 million to the
provincial budget.. He said more than 1,000 hectares of that land
was already auctioned and the raised proceeds, according to the law,
will go for improvement of local infrastructure facilities, health
and education sectors.

The governor also said many families that had chosen to leave the
provinces are now coming back. “We are planning to build three blocks
of apartments for them,” he said.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 13, 2004, Wednesday

WASHINGTON PUNISHES ALIYEV

SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 11, 2004, p. 10

by Rauf Mirkadyrov

WASHINGTON DECIDED TO MINIMIZE CONTACTS WITH THE AUTHORITIES OF
AZERBAIJAN

US Senate voted for $38 million of assistance to Azerbaijan in 2005.
Armenia will get $75 million or $10 more than what the House of
Representative endorsed. At first, the White House had planned more
or less equal financial assistance to both.

A source in the US Department of State says that official Washington
is disappointed in official Baku. The former is under the impression
that the latter is playing with the United States and Russia at the
same time. Washington believes that by “ruining” its NATO exercises
in Azerbaijan, official Baku demonstrated its loyalty to Russia which
is notorious loath of having exercises like that close to its
borders. Washington thinks therefore that Baku offended it in the
eyes of the international community. After all, it is the United
States that is the major lobbyist of countries of the southern part
of the Caucasus in international affairs.

Translated by A. Ignatkin

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

“Dialogue and Cooperation among Religions

Essential for the World Today”

Affirms His Holiness Aram I

Antelias, Lebanon – Hundreds of students, professors, and Swedish
citizens attended a lecture delivered by His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, at the University of Uppsala,
Sweden. Included in the large audience was Archbishop K. G. Hammar,
the head of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, as well as a number of
prominent bishops and theologians.

His Holiness’s lecture was on the inter-religious dialogue and its
implications on Ecumenical Movement. The Catholicos described the
meaning of religion in various contexts. He covered three basic points:
1. Living Together. 2. Reflecting Together. 3. Working Together. He
emphasized the importance of dialogue, as a way of life in the
world today.

At the conclusion of his lecture, His Holiness answered questions
from the audience. The lecture was followed with a reception in
the University’s large reception hall where the President of the
University praised His Holiness’s visit and expressed thanks for his
role in promotion of theological education, as well as for his efforts
to expand inter-church and inter-religious dialogue. The President
presented His Holiness with a distinguished gift from the University
in the presence of more than 100 lecturers.

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View printable pictures here:

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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
Ecumenical activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer
to the web page of the Catholicosate, The
Cilician Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is
located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Newark Star Ledger, NJ
Oct 7 2004

American dancers stay in step with their Armenian ancestors

BY ROBERT JOHNSON
Star-Ledger Staff

Dreams of their ancestral homeland — far-off Armenia — motivate the
dancers of the Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble, a lively group that
draws many of its members from churches and communities in New
Jersey. The ensemble will bring its latest folk-dance spectacle,
“Journey Through Dance,” to the Bergen Performing Arts Center in
Englewood on Saturday.

Though she was born in the United States, Joyce Tamesian-Shenloogian,
who has directed Antranig since 1986, says she feels a special bond
with the country that her grandparents fled during World War I.

“It’s not the Bahamas. It’s not Hawaii,” Tamesian-Shenloogian allows,
referring to the mountainous republic in Western Asia. “But it’s
yours. There’s something that always pulls you back there.”

Tamesian-Shenloogian, a graduate of Montclair State University’s
dance department, joined the Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble when
she was 17, generally an age when many Armenian-Americans become
members of the company. Performing with the ensemble seemed a natural
step for her, after spending years in after-school programs studying
the Armenian language (which has its own 38-letter alphabet) and
learning about her roots.

Like these after-school programs and other cultural groups, including
choral and dramatic societies, the Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble
exists under the umbrella of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, a
national organization based in New York City. Tamesian-Shenloogian
says the ensemble performs every couple of months.

Antranig, which numbers 30 dancers ranging in age from their teens to
their 40s, rehearses at St. Leon’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Fair
Lawn and recruits fresh talent from the Armenian communities in
Tenafly, Livingston and Union City. Although the ensemble toured
Armenia in 1989 and plans to return there next year, most of the
younger members have never seen their dances performed in their
native setting.

The ensemble maintains an important link with the homeland, however,
in the person of choreographer Gagik Karapetian, a former principal
dancer with the State Dance Ensemble of Armenia. Tamesian-Shenloogian
calls him Armenia’s answer to Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Karapetian has been working directly with the Antranig Ensemble since
1988, weeding out the foreign influences that had crept into the
immigrant group’s repertoire. Many Armenian families, including
Tamesian-Shenloogian’s, followed a circuitous route to America, first
settling in Middle Eastern countries whose own cultural traditions
affected their practices.

Thanks to Karapetian, “Journey Through Dance,” which received its
premiere this summer at Lincoln Center in New York, will be authentic
in every detail, including the vivid costumes and the graceful,
“flowerlike” hand gestures that Tamesian-Shenloogian says typify
Armenian women’s dances.

“They’re allowed to do more. They’re not stoic,” she says, comparing
Armenian women with their counterparts in Georgia, another region of
the Caucasus. The men, for their part, look bravely defiant, adopting
a solid stance called the “Kotchari,” in a dance of the same name.
Though Armenia is a small country, with fewer than 4 million
inhabitants, it has a rich history and more than 200 regions from
which Antranig draws its repertory.

While the dancers perform traditional steps arranged in geometric
patterns, or pantomime humorous skits, the audience will hear the
recorded sounds of ancient Armenian instruments, from the tootling of
the duduk to the plucked strings of the kemenche and the powerful
rhythms of the dahoul drum.

While sharing their traditions with Americans of all backgrounds, the
members of Antranig are able to tap something deep within themselves.
Says Lena Jinivizian, a Rutgers University student and Antranig
dancer quoted in the company’s program: “I couldn’t imagine my life
without the passion and energy that Armenian dance brings out of me.”

ARMENIAN AND RUSSIAN MPs ATTACH IMPORTANCE TO FASTEST POSSIBLE OPENING
OF LAND ROUTE FOR ARMENIA

YEREVAN, October 1 (Noyan Tapan). On October 1 – the first day of its
visit – the delegation headed by Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the
Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly, had a private talk with
the RA NA Assembly Artur Baghdasarian and then met with Chairmen of
the RA standing committees, as well as leaders and members of the
factions. According to the NA PR Department, the meeting participants
condemned terrorism. It was noted that a commission was set up in the
RF Federal Assembly to investigate the facts of Beslan’s terrorism
becoming possible and its consequences in order to make an overall
analysis of what happened and to present the results to the
public. Addressing the strategic cooperation between the two
countries, the RA NA Chairman Artur Baghdasarian attached much
importance to the conference of the Armenian and Russian busissmen
organized under the aegis of the parliaments of the two countries in
Samara, as well as to the presentation of Armenia and the effective
work of the Armenian pavilion at the 8th Economic Forum in Saint
Petersburg. Inter-regional cooperation agreements were signed as a
result of the two conferences. The cooperation of the two parliaments
in the CIS Interparliamentaru Assembly and in international structures
was also mentioned as important. Special importance was attached to
the work of the Commission on Interparliamentary Cooperation whose
next session will be held in Moscow. In covering the
interparliamentary and trade and economic cooperation issues Sergei
Mironov attached significance to further developmewnt of the stratigic
cooperation. Speaking about the Armenian trucks accumulation as a
result of the strict measures introduced at the check point of the RF-
Georgia State Border after the terrorist act and Armenia’s factual
blockade, the sides considered it important to ensure security, as
well as to open this land route for Armenia as quickly as possible,
taking into account that another road connecting Aemenia to the big
world is almost impassible, and difficulties may arise with the
approach of winter. Vahan Hovannisian, Armenian Co-chairman of the
RA-RF Interparliamentary Cooperation Commission and Vice Chairman of
the RA NA, also touched upon the strict measurs being taken in Russia
after the terrorism with respect to the Armenians who are not citizens
of the RF but live and work there. He suggested to solve the problem
by granting a temporary status to them, which will guarantee their
security. At the end of the meeting Artur Baghdasarian and Sergei
Mironov signrd a joint statement in which the heads of the RA National
Assembly and the Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly express
their deep codonlence over the victims of the terrorist acts in the RF
in August-September 2004, as well as their determination to carry on a
struggle against the international terrorism, condemning the cruel and
barbaric actions of the terrorists incompatible with humanity and
morality. An agreement was reached to continue developing further the
Armenian-Russian trade, economic, scientific, cultural, military and
industrial relations. Towards the end of the meeting at the
instructions of the RA NA Chairman Artur Baghdasarian, the Chairman of
the Federation Council of the RF FA Sergei Mironov was awarded a medal
of honor of the RA NA for his great contribution to the development of
the Armenian-Russian interparliamentary relations and strengthening of
the interparliamentary friendly links.

Armenian, Chinese leaders sign joint declaration

Mediamax news agency
27 Sep 04

Yerevan

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who is paying a state visit to
China, today met Chairman of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao.

A special correspondent of Mediamax reports from Beijing that according
to the results of the negotiations, the two countries’ leaders signed
a joint declaration.

The document says: “The sides think that the current international
situation is still facing deep and complicated changes. Peace and
development remain the leitmotif of this epoch and are the common
concern of the peoples of all the countries of the world. The
international community should step up its consultations, defend
the diversity of the world and promote the exchange and reciprocity
between various civilizations and models of development in the world.

“The sides stress that the role of the United Nations in the cause of
maintaining peace and security in the whole world is irreplaceable
and that the main purposes and principles of the UN charter remain
a cornerstone norm to be observed in settling international affairs.

“The sides positively assess the coordination of cooperation and mutual
support by both countries in international and regional organizations,
including the United Nations.”

REPORT CONCERNING THREE REPUBLICS OF SOUTH CAUCASUS TO BE CONSIDERED
IN ASSEMBLY OF WEST-EUROPEAN UNION IN DEC

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25. ARMINFO. A report concerning the three
republics of the South Caucasus will be considered in the Assembly of
the West-European Union in Dec of the current year. Deputy Chairman of
the Assembly of the West-European union Marco Zacchera stated during
the press conference today.

He stressed that before preparing his report Zacchera will certainly
get acquainted with the document prepared by PACE Rapporteur for
Nagorny Karabakh Terry Davis. According to Zacchera, before the
discussions of this report at the sitting of the Assembly the document
will be sent for examination by the leadership of the three South
Caucasian republics. Representatives of the countries of the South
Caucasus will also be present during discussion of the report, Marco
Zacchera said, promising that the document will be balanced and the
positions of all the three republics will be indicated in the
document. “The purpose of my visit to the South Caucasian region is to
get acquainted with the situation in the place and to prepare an
impartial report”.

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
Sept 24 2004

OSCE to Monitor Frontline

24/09/2004 17:18

The OSCE will hold a monitoring of the frontline between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in the vicinity of Mezemli
settlement, Gazakh District, on September 24, the Defense Ministry
said.

Assa-Irada — The frontline will be monitored by the OSCE chairman’s
special envoy Anjei Kaspshik’s field assistants Miroslav Vimetal and
Imre Palatinus on the Azerbaijani side and by the special envoy and
his field assistants on the Armenian side.

No incidents were registered during the previous monitoring held in
the Shurabad settlement, Agdam District.

IRAQI ARMENIAN GEVORG URBANIAN DISCLOSED HIS SECRET

Azg/am
24 Sept 04

Mysterious Pages of Iraqi-Kuwaiti War

Gevorg Urbanian used to work for a Dutch company in Basra (well-known
these days) during the Iraqi-Kuwaiti war. Gevorg had to keep the
secret in the days of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship fearing revenge.

It was in 1990 when one of the Arab workers of the company died. The
president of the company asked Gevorg to transfer the worker’s bodyto
his hometown of Malgiv. But Gevorg failed transferring the body to
Malgiv, and he buried it in the graveyard of Basra. Here the workers
of the graveyard told him abouta mass burial that took place the other
day. “A bus, chock-full of dead Kuwaitis, arrived and they buried the
corpses”. Grave diggers indicated the vast area where the war
prisoners allegedly were buried.

Two years ago Gevorg left for Tehran (his father was a citizen of
Iran) and called the consulate of Kuwait in Tehran and tried to tell
them his secret but nobody listened to him, saying that the consul was
not in the country. Thenhe returned to Baghdad and learnt that the
Kuwaitis of Baghdad were looking for the relatives they lost during
the war. He attempted to inform the staff of Kuwaiti TV that was in
Baghdad to make a film. Bahe Obu Zakaria, of the staff, told him that
they shouldn’t take the relatives back to those days.

Gevorg Urbanian together with his family settled in Armenia this year
after the oppression of Iraq’s Christian population started. 15 days
ago he heard on TV that the Kuwaitis keep on looking for their lost
relatives and even are ready to reward those who may help with
information.

Gevorg Urbanian turned to Azg Daily hoping that his voice will be
heard and that the Kuwaitis will respond. Those who are interested may
contact Azg Daily’ s editorial staff.

By Karine Danielian

Turkish opposition calls for key reform debate
EUobserver.com
22.09.2004

By Lisbeth Kirk

Turkey’s main opposition party, The Republican People’s Party, has
called for a special parliamentary session to be held on 28 September
to adopt the new penal code, in a bid to keep Turkey’s bid for EU
entry on track.

“We want to open a window of opportunity for Turkeyâ=80¦. Turkey
shouldnot destroy its advantages with its own hands”, leader of the
party, Deniz Baykal, told reporters, according to the IHT.

The governing party indicated yesterday (21 September) that it might
allow the Turkish Parliament to reconvene to pass the laws.

Last week Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to
delay penal code reform because of a row within his own party over
plans to criminalize adultery.

The 346-paragraph code was originally intended to bring Turkey into
line with European norms, but the inclusion of the proposal to
criminalize adultery brought widespread protests in the EU as well as
in Turkey.

Turkish boders with Armenia – new prerequisite?

Meanwhile the European Commission has denied apparent comments from
President Prodi calling for Turkey to reopen its borders with Armenia
as a new prerequisite for starting EU membership talks.

On Tuesday a Commission spokesperson told Turkey’s Zaman newspaper
that Mr Prodi had said nothing that would lead one to believe that
such a condition would be placed on Turkey.

During a visit to the Southern Caucuses last week the Armenian
Mediamax agency reported that Mr Prodi said Ankara must reopen its
border gate with Armenia as a condition for eventual membership.

“I do not exclude that the issue of closed borders could be one of the
preconditions for Turkey’s membership”, Mediamax news agency quoted Mr
Prodi as saying.

Turkey closed its gate with Armenia and severed its diplomatic ties a
decade ago, in protest of Armenia’s occupation of the Azeri territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

EU officials have called on Turkey to revise its decision but have
never publicly linked the issue to Ankara’s bid to join the EU.

Erdogan in Brussels on Thursday

In the final run up to publication of the Commission’s crucial report
due 6 October the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to
meet in Brussels on Thursday (23 September) with EU enlargement
commissioner Günter Verheugen and with leaders of the political
groups in the European Parliament.

The report will serve as a basis for a decision by EU leaders on 17
December on whether or not to give Turkey a starting date for
membership negotiations.