Author: Chavushian

Jack Lang appelle Sarkozy a “liberer deux enfants” en centre de retention

Agence France Presse
16 mars 2006 jeudi 5:41 PM GMT

COQUELLES (Pas-de-Calais) 16 mars 2006 — Jack Lang, depute PS du
Pas-de-Calais, a appele jeudi le ministre de l’Interieur Nicolas
Sarkozy a prendre “les mesures necessaires pour faire liberer” deux
enfants d’origine russo-armenienne scolarises en France et retenus
avec leurs parents dans un centre de retention a Coquelles.

Places dans un centre de retention la semaine dernière a Lyon, les
quatre personnes – le père armenien, la mère russe et les enfants
apatrides nes en Russie – ont ete transferes depuis dimanche dans ce
centre du Pas-de-Calais.

Dans une lettre adressee au ministre, Jack Lang a fait appel a son
“humanite” pour agir en faveur d’Artem et Levon Arutyunyan, les deux
enfants de 7 et 11 ans, qui etaient scolarises depuis la rentree
a Decines (Rhône). L’ancien ministre socialiste rappelle que la
circulaire du 31 octobre 2005 suspend les expulsions jusqu’a la fin
de l’annee scolaire.

M. Lang “conjure” le ministre de “prendre immediatement les mesures
necessaires pour faire liberer” les deux enfants et leur parents,
et leur permettre “d’attendre la fin de leur annee scolaire a Decines”.

De leur côte, quatre elus de gauche de Decines et trois parents
d’elèves de l’ecole des enfants se sont rendus jeudi a Coquelles pour
exprimer leur soutien aux quatre personnes.

La famille avait quitte la Russie fin 2004 pour la Suède où elle avait
ete deboutee du droit d’asile en avril 2005. Elle s’etait installee
ensuite a Decines, où vit une forte minorite armenienne.

–Boundary_(ID_rgQ+WqIG5gxTyGLSJkVkkw )–

Synapse, CA
UCSF student newsletter
March 17 2006

Opinion: Your Chance to Stop a Genocide

By Adam Greenwald and Jeannie Biniek
Contributing Writers

Sixty years ago, the world stood silently by as six million Jews were
consigned to flames in Auschwitz and other factories of death. In the
aftermath of the Holocaust, humanity pledged never again to be
complacent in the face of genocide. Sadly, we failed to keep that
promise in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda. In our own day, we have
allowed the genocide in Darfur to rage unabated for three agonizing
years.

Since February 2003, the Sudanese government has sponsored militias
who have carried out a systematic policy of massacre, rape and forced
displacement against the black population of that country’s Darfur
region. To date, 400,000 people have been brutally killed and 2.5
million more have been forced to flee for their lives. Ninety percent
of all Darfur villages have been destroyed. The U.S. government has
declared this staggering human catastrophe to be genocide.

Today, UC students are leading the fight to end Darfur’s nightmare.
Because of student pressure, the Regents of the University of
California agreed to establish a task force in late-January
responsible for creating a substantial, targeted divestment strategy
from certain companies doing business in Sudan. The task force’s goal
was to make exactingly sure that divestment efforts would only target
those countries that are contributing to government revenue, but are
not provide any benefit to the country’s population. The task force’s
findings and recommendations will be presented to the UC Regents for
a vote at their March 16 meeting on the UCLA campus.

If such a targeted divestment strategy is adopted, the UC will send a
powerful message that the world will not stand idly by while the
Sudanese government murders its citizens. However, this is no mere
symbolic action. We know that Sudanese military expenditures are
closely linked to foreign direct investments; by divesting, we can
limit Sudan’s ability to buy the guns and bombs that they are using
to butcher innocent civilians. By targeting divestment to only a
subset of companies, the UC avoids hurting more innocents.

A broad coalition of leaders support divestment. To date, 23 U.S.
Congresspeople have added their names to this effort, as have more
than two-dozen state legislators. They are joined by scores of
activists, clergy, union representatives, faculty and thousands of
students. Please add your name to this coalition by signing our
petition at
On March 16, the UC Regents will decide, once and for all, whether
the UC take the lead in fighting genocide.
The world remained silent through the Armenian genocide, the
Holocaust, the killings by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the
genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. The genocide in Darfur is still
ongoing. Millions of people remain in imminent, mortal danger. We
have a chance not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We dare not
miss the opportunity. Support targeted divestment of UC investments
from Sudan.

For more information see our Web site, Adam
Greenwald is an Executive Member of the UC Sudan Divestment Taskforce
and President of the Progressive Jewish Student Association of UCLA.
Jeannie Biniek is External Vice-President of the UCLA Undergraduate
Student Association and an Executive Member of the UC Sudan
Divestment Taskforce.

606/gen.html

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

It is time to rouse & strengthen Azeri-Turkish lobby – Akkan Suver

Source: Trend
Author: J.Shahverdiyev

17.03.2006

It is time to rouse and strengthen Azerbaijani-Turkish lobby, Trend
reports quoting Akkan Suver, the head of the Marmara Strategic and
Social Studies Group, as saying to journalists on Friday.

He noted that complaints voiced so far concerned lack of joint
Azerbaijani-Turkish lobby. Nevertheless, organization of the
2nd congress of world Azerbaijanis demonstrate the issue is under
solution. “Azerbaijan recommended us to set to the issue.

Strengthening of the lobby is necessary not only for Azerbaijan and
Turkey, but also the all Turkic world,” Suver stressed.

He also stressed that there was an item on the activities of
Azerbaijani-Turkish Diaspora among documents, adopted during the 2nd
congress. “Many countries assailed Turkey after recognizing of the
invented genocide of Armenians. We have to act jointly due to the
single problem. It is necessary to carry out joint struggle with the
forces hostile to the all Turkic world,” Suver stressed.

Ressort: Meinung

DAS politische BUCH
Armenien – Erinnerung und Leugnung

Von Wolfgang G. Schwanitz

Die politische Elite Deutschlands verhalte sich zuruckhaltend zum Volkermord
des turkischen Regimes an Armeniern vor 90 Jahren. Das behauptet Annette
Schaefgen. Wie ist das moglich, wo man selbst die Erfahrung mit kollektiver
Verantwortung und kritischer Aufarbeitung erkannt hat? Dem stellt sich die
Berliner Historikerin am Zentrum fur Antisemitismusforschung und sucht in
ihrem Buch Grunde, warum der Genozid zunachst schwach rezipiert wurde.

Engagiert stellt die Autorin dar, wie Deutsche den Volkermord aufgenommen
haben, von seinem Beginn am 24. April 1915, uber das Buchverbot von Johannes
Lepsius’ “Der Todesgang des armenischen Volkes” im Folgejahr bis zum Mord am
ehemaligen turkischen Innenminister in Berlin 1921. Dann kam die große
Stille, gegen die Literaten wie Franz Werfel angingen.

In der Bonner Republik erhielten die Beziehungen zum Nato-Mitglied Turkei
Vorrang. Ähnlich verhielt es sich mit der Sowjetunion und ihrer
Sowjetrepublik Armenien. Wie Schaefgen herausfindet, liefen die Armenier
unter Innenpolitik und in der Kategorie “Minoritaten”. Botschafter Fritz
Oellers, der die Ostturkei bereiste, berichtete, Turken hatten die
Armenierfrage “restlos gelost”. Diejenigen, so Oellers 1957 weiter, die die
Pogrome im Ersten Weltkrieg uberlebt hatten, waren danach verzogen.

Das anderte sich kaum ab 1961. Sowohl Turken als auch Armenier zogen nach
Westdeutschland. Armenier kamen auch 20 Jahre spater in die Berliner
Republik, die 2003 mit Robert Kotscharian erstmals einen Prasidenten
Armeniens in Berlin begrußte. Am Rande kam die Frage auf, ob der Bundestag –
wie das Pariser Parlament – eine Resolution beschließe, die den Genozid an
Armeniern anerkennt. Die Standardformel lautete: Regierung und Parlament
nehmen nicht zu historischen Ereignissen in anderen Landern Stellung. Eine
Petition von 2000 beforderte die Erklarung des Bundestages vom Vorjahr uber
die Vertreibung und die Massaker an Armeniern.

Drei Viertel der in Deutschland lebenden Armenier stammen aus der Turkei.
Insbesondere fur sie, sagt Schaefgen, sei das hier fehlende Wissen uber ihre
Geschichte verletzend. Oft herrsche die Sichtweise der turkischen Regierung
vor, die den Volkermord als “kriegsbedingte Maßnahme” rechtfertige. Die
Provokationsthese werde angefuhrt, wonach sich Armenier gegen Osmanen
erhoben oder zuvor Massaker an Turken und Kurden begangen hatten. Die Zahl
der Opfer werde meist relativiert oder die Vorsatzlichkeit der
systematischen Tat geleugnet. Dies sei die Staatsdoktrin. Wer davon abweiche
und in Rede oder Schrift feststelle, der Volkermord an Armeniern fand statt,
konne nach turkischem Recht wegen Herabsetzung des Turkentums belangt
werden.

Zu Recht betont Annette Schaefgen, dass viel zu erforschen ist, trotz der
unzuganglichen turkischen Archive. Dabei ware auch der Plan des deutschen
Diplomaten Max von Oppenheim zu erhellen, der die islamische Bevolkerung
1914 gegen England mobilisieren wollte und so Ol in das Kriegsfeuer goss.

An diesem Samstag demonstrieren turkische Nationalisten in Berlin zum
zweiten Mal gegen den Vorwurf des Volkermordes an den Armeniern. Die Polizei
wollte die Aufmarsche verbieten, das Berliner Verwaltungsgericht gab dem
Eilantrag gegen das Verbot statt.

– Annette Schaefgen: Schwieriges Erinnern: Der Volkermord an den Armeniern.
Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2006. 200 S., 18 eur. Das Buch erscheint am 24. 3.

–Boundary_(ID_w52RfSB6HDwx1mMbWtQ07w)–

GEORGIANS STAGE RALLY FOR “PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE” IN MULTIETHNIC DISTRICT

Prime-News
16 Mar 06

Tbilisi, 16 March: Georgian residents of Tsalka District staged
a peaceful rally outside the local administration building today
and called on the non-Georgian population of the district to seek
peaceful coexistence.

The head of the Tsalka District administration, Mikheil Tskitishvili,
told Prime-News that several dozen participants of the rally did
not demand privileges for the Georgian population but agreed with
the administration’s position that law enforcers should carry out
preventive measures more actively. Wrongdoers should be punished by law
equally, regardless of whether they are ethnic Armenians or Georgians,
the rally participants said.

As regards official record keeping, it should be carried out in
Georgian, the state language, they said. The participants called
on the non-Georgian population to live in peace. [Passage omitted:
background on recent protest rallies staged by ethnic Armenians]

There are 10,000 ethnic Georgian and 12,000 ethnic Armenian residents
in Tsalka District.

EUROPEAN UNION’S NEW CAUCASUS SAYS CONFLICT RESOLUTION TOPS HIS LIST

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
15 Mar 06

The new EU envoy for the South Caucasus has said that the resolution of
“frozen” conflicts will be his priority. In a wide-ranging “exclusive”
interview to Mediamax, Peter Semneby said: “My top priority…is the
resolution of frozen conflicts in the region” and in particular the
one over the disputed region of Nagornyy Karabakh.

He called on countries of the region to cooperate closer which he
said would help them resolve their disputes. The following is an
excerpt from report by the Armenian news agency Mediamax headlined
“Contribution to the conflicts resolution will be my top priority”;
Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

An exclusive interview with Peter Semneby, the EU special
representative for the South Caucasus, to Mediamax news agency

On 1 March, Peter Semneby assumed his responsibilities as the new
European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for the South Caucasus.

His first interview in this post Peter Semneby gave to Armenia’s
Mediamax news agency. Mediamax’s special correspondent met Mr Semneby
in Berlin on 12 March.

[Passage omitted: Semneby worked in Croatia, Latvia and the Swedish
embassies in Germany, Ukraine and the USSR]

Ambassador Semneby has had an opportunity to work and travel in the
South Caucasus region on many occasions throughout his career. He
participated in the relief effort immediately following the earthquake
in Armenia in 1988 and was a member of the OSCE Mission in Georgia
when it was first established in 1992.

[Passage omitted: Semneby speaks several languages]

Conflict resolution – “top” priority

[Correspondent] Your mandate includes a number of objectives. Which
one do you consider to be the most important one?

[Semneby] My top priority will be to contribute to the resolution of
frozen conflicts in the region. I am aware of the existing expectations
that the European Union will play a big role after the settlement is
achieved, and this is also something that needs to be prepared. The
conflicts are taking so much political attention, they are consuming
financial resources and they hamper normal development of the countries
in the region.

There are a number of other important issues as well. In particular,
we should continue with the assistance to state building in the three
countries of the South Caucasus, to ensure normal relationships between
the countries of the region, to foster the regional cooperation at
a larger framework than the narrow framework between three countries.

OSCE Minsk Group

[Correspondent] According to your mandate, you have to support the
activities of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen. How do you see your
role in this process?

[Semneby] I have only been 10 days in office and hadn’t enough time
to have a formal meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen. I
will, of course, have very close contacts with them to make sure
that whatever initiatives are taken, whatever messages are given,
they are clearly coordinated.

Perhaps, more important is to prepare the ground for what will
happen after the settlement is reached and this can also be used as
an incentive for the parties to come to a settlement.

Karabakh talks

[Correspondent] There were a lot of expectations ahead of the meeting
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in France last month,
and a lot of disappointment after the talks. Do you still believe it
is possible to resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict in 2006?

[Semneby] For sure, I have hopes. I can’t say now whether they are
realistic or not taking into account the fact that the expectations
were dashed at the most recent meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents. For having a better understanding I need to make my
first visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan and to talk to the Minsk
Group co-chairmen. But I definitely maintain a high degree of hope,
otherwise I should not have accepted this job.

[Correspondent] Heikki Talvitie, your predecessor in this post, paid
a lot of attention to the improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations.

Are you going to continue these efforts?

Energy security

[Semneby] Essentially, there are two difficult relationships with
neighbours in the region: it’s Armenia-Turkey and Georgia-Russia.

Both of them will be among my priorities.

[Correspondent] Energy security is becoming an important issue on
the agenda of Armenia-EU relations. Will you deal with this issue?

[Semneby] My mandate is broad enough to include the issue of energy
security. Given the developments that have taken place both in the
region and beyond it in last several months, I think there is a
reason to take a more active interest in this issue. Energy security
is definitely much more on the agenda that it used to be.

[Correspondent] Despite numerous efforts and funding provided by the
EU for the development of regional cooperation in the South Caucasus,
little has been achieved. Do you think such cooperation is possible
before the resolution of existing conflicts?

Regional cooperation key to conflict resolution

[Semneby] Efforts to establish regional cooperation should be developed
in parallel with the efforts to resolve the conflicts.

Probably, it should involve a broader context than just the countries
of the South Caucasus.

[Correspondent] What is your opinion about the prospects for further
democratic transformation in Armenia?

[Semneby] Democratic standards are always at the forefront of the
interests of the EU. I have experience from my previous jobs as
head of the OSCE missions in Latvia and then in Croatia, where I
monitored similar issues and gave support in overcoming obstacles
related to democratic institutions, electoral systems, etc. Of
course, these issues are not easy, they are also problems in many
mature democracies. But as long as there is a mutual commitment and
willingness to resolve the existing difficulties, I am confident that
the issues related to the development of democratic institutions will
not be a major obstacle.

[Correspondent] We know that you have visited Armenia after the 1988
earthquake. Could you tell us more about this experience?

[Semneby] That was really one of the most defining moments in my
life. I spent a week in Leninakan [Gyumri] immediately after the
earthquake. I was working at the embassy of Sweden in the USSR and came
to Leninakan two days after the earthquake together with the Swedish
rescue team. We were searching through the ruins after the survivors.

It was a heartbreaking experience, but at the same time I felt huge
respect for the dignity and the resilience of the people who were so
severely affected by the earthquake. I am very much looking forward
to go back to this area and see what the situation there is now.

ERSTE DEMONSTRATION TURKISCHER NATIONALISTEN VERLAUFT FRIEDLICH

Agence France Presse — German
Mittwoch, 15. Marz 2006

Turkische Nationalisten haben am Mittwoch in Berlin die erste ihrer
umstrittenen Demonstrationen gegen den Vorwurf des Volkermordes
an den Armeniern abgehalten. Etwa 30 bis 40 Demonstranten hatten
sich versammelt, teilte ein Polizeisprecher mit. Zugleich hatten
etwa 30 Menschen dagegen protestiert. “Alles verlief friedlich”,
sagte der Sprecher weiter. Die großere Demonstration mit etwa 2000
Teilnehmern soll am Samstag in Berlin sein. Die Polizei wollte die
Aufmarsche verbieten, doch gab das Berliner Verwaltungsgericht dem
Eilantrag der Organisatoren gegen das Verbot statt. Ein Beschluss
des Oberverwaltungsgericht uber den Widerspruch stand noch aus.

Die Polizei hatte beide Demonstrationen mit der Begrundung verboten,
dass es dabei zur Verunglimpfung des Gedenkens von Verstorbenen
kommen konnte. Dass dieser Tatbestand erfullt ist, daran hatte das
Verwaltungsgericht erhebliche Zweifel, weshalb es dem Eilantrag der
Organisatoren statt gab.

Die Veranstalter vom “Verband der Vereine zur Forderung der
Ideen Ataturks” nehmen das Attentat auf den einstigen osmanischen
Innenminister Talaat Pascha zum Anlass fur die Demonstrationen, der
am 15. Marz 1921 in Berlin von einem Armenier erschossen worden war.

Grunen-Chefin Claudia Roth erklarte dazu: “Die in der Turkei aus dem
Boden gestampfte ‘Talaat-Pascha-Bewegung’ ruft in einer inakzeptablen
martialischen Sprache zu Protestaktionen in verschiedenen Stadten
Europas darunter auch in Berlin auf.” Sie sprach von einem
“Sammelsurium von ultranationalistischen, antieuropaischen und
rechtsextremistischen Kraften”, die eine EU-Annaherung der Turkei
verhindern wollten. Ziel sei auch die Revision der Beschlusse in
einigen europaischen Parlamenten.

Der Bundestag hatte am 16. Juni 2005 mit den Stimmen aller Fraktionen
eine Entschließung zum Gedenken an die turkischen Massaker an den
Armeniern verabschiedet. In der Resolution selbst ist nicht von
“Volkermord” die Rede, wohl aber in der Antragsbegrundung. Die
turkische Regierung hatte den Beschluss scharf kritisiert.

1915/1916 wurden im untergehenden osmanischen Reich tausende Armenier
massakriert. Armenien wirft den Turken vor, 1,5 Millionen Armenier bei
Vertreibungen gezielt ermordet zu haben und fordert die Anerkennung
als Volkermord. Die Turkei hat bisher lediglich eingeraumt, dass
damals mindestens 300.000 Armenier ermordet wurden.

Den Vorwurf des Volkermords weisen die Turken aber strikt zuruck.

–Boundary_(ID_sHuE/uKIKfkqiaX7IRnc+w)–

YOU CAN STOP THE GENOCIDE
Trudy Rubin
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Charlotte Observer, NC
March 8 2006

Individuals must pressure governments to stop the slaughter.

Can an individual do anything to stop a genocide?

Let’s hope so, because governments aren’t doing much. Two years after
Sudan began a genocidal slaughter in Darfur province, the killing of
black African Muslims by black Arab Muslims continues. No government
seems willing or able to force Sudan to stop.

The Bush administration calls this killing by its rightful name —
genocide — but has yet to use the kind of political muscle that
might stop it.

So it is left to ordinary individuals to act. Think you can’t do
anything? Then listen to the words of former Marine Capt. Brian
Steidle, who thinks you must. He photographed Darfur’s horrors, and the
images are driving him crazy. He wants a million Americans to write
to President Bush and urge him to ensure that a strong multinational
force is sent to Darfur.

Toothless observers Steidle, 29, was one of three U.S. military
observers assigned to the African Union (AU), which has a toothless
force of 7,000 monitors in Darfur. The monitors are permitted only
to observe a nonexistent cease-fire. Steidle went to this killing
field in September 2004 armed only with a pen, pad and camera; he
took more than 1,000 photos.”We saw villages leveled, burned bodies,
babies that had been shot, and all we could do was write reports and
take pictures,” he recalls.

The ex-Marine had no doubt who was to blame for the carnage, which
has killed about 180,000 in the last three years and driven 2 million
Darfurians from their homes. The Sudanese government, in an effort
to crush Darfur rebels, sent in its army along with an Arab militia
known as the janjaweed. Their goal: “cleanse” Darfur of its ethnic
African population.

Steidle’s reports to the AU disappeared down a black hole. So he quit
in February 2005, went home, met the media, and found sympathetic
legislators who displayed his photos. He even met senior Bush
officials. “But I couldn’t get the administration to listen,” he says.

Screaming in a dream Bush officials talk tough and give lots of aid,
but their words have had little impact. The scale of mayhem has gone
down — though Steidle says 75 percent of south Darfur’s villages
have already been destroyed. Yet the janjaweed still kill, attack
refugee camps, rape women and spread terror into neighboring Chad.

“For the last year, I’ve been banging my head against the wall,”
Steidle says. “It’s like screaming in a dream, and no sound comes
out.” So he decided to approach the public directly. He wants you to
lobby for a U.N. force that would protect civilians in Darfur.

He is touring 22 cities, in a campaign backed by Jewish, Armenian,
mainstream Protestant, evangelical and other groups that will culminate
in an anti-genocide demonstration April 30 in Washington.

The goal: get 1 million Americans to send this message to the White
House: “Dear President Bush: During your first year in the White
House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan genocide,
`Not on my watch.’ I urge you to live up to those words by using the
power of your office to support a stronger multinational force to
protect the civilians of Darfur.”

Cynical opposition To set up a robust force would require approval
from the U.N.

Security Council. The council would also have to authorize immediate
help — perhaps from NATO — during the months it would take to set
up a U.N. force.But Sudan is lobbying the Security Council to block
a U.N. force. China, which buys Sudanese oil, is opposed, as are
Russia and Qatar, the current Arab representative on the council. Arab
solidarity apparently trumps the protection of African Muslims.

Khartoum has also persuaded the AU to back off its earlier willingness
to hand over command to the U.N.; African solidarity apparently trumps
saving African lives.

Sudan claims that a U.N. force will mean a Western takeover of the
country, which should be resisted by Muslims, and might inspire attacks
from al-Qaida. Muslims who demonstrated violently over cartoons have
yet to show the same passion about the murder of Darfurian Muslims.

Those who oppose genocide can’t accept such cynicism. Nor can global
hostility to Bush be used as an excuse to let thousands more die.

What’s needed now is grassroots pressure on the White House. Such
pressure would demonstrate that there are people who refuse to
tolerate genocide. Brian Steidle wants to show that one person can
make a difference. But he can succeed only if, one by one, other
Americans join in.

How To Help Darfur Get information or send a message to the White
House online at Contact the Save Darfur Coalition
at 2120 L St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20037 or by phone at
(202) 478-6132.

ARCHBISHOP SEPUH SARGSIAN: ENEMY OF RELIGION IS NOT OTHER RELIGION, BUT GODLESSNESS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 09 2006

TEHRAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “Every religion
has its holinesses, sanctuaries, its prophets and the credo, making
the axis of its belief. Nobody has right to despise or to mock the
cherished holinesses, authorities of another religion. This is one of
the most important circumstances of the human morality”, announced
Archbishop Sepuh Sargsian, the primate of the Armenian diocese of
Tehran, making a speech at the second sitting of the regional council
of the Religious leaders, that was held on March 4 in the building
of the Islamic Culture and Communication organization. His Holiness
Sepuh mentioned that ten days before, the 9th conference of the
International Council of Churches, held at the city of Porto Allegre,
Brazil, which was headed by Aram I Catholicos of the Great House
of Cilicia, refered to this phenomenon with a special announcement,
condemned the happened and called to avoid the savagenesses. “The enemy
of religion is not the other religion, but the Godlessness, poverty,
the usage of drugs, unjustice, the degradation of moral values and
the globalization. We all are called to be unanimous in order to
fight against this kind of phenomena”, mentioned the primate of the
Armenian diocese of Tehran. As the Tehran daily “Alik” (Wave) informs,
Gholamali Haddad Adel, President of the Islamic Parliament of Iran;
Seyed Mohammad Khatamin, Ex-President of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Director of the International Center of Dialogue of Religions
and Civilizations; Saffar Harandi, the Minister of Islamic Culture
and Leadership; the Deputies of the religious minorities of Iran,
the President of the Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia, the
Ambassador of Vatican in Iran and others also made speeches. Among
those invited were Archbishop Nshan Garakeheyan, the Primate of the
Armenian Catholicos Community of Iran, Henrik Shahnazarian, spiritual
paster of the Armenian Gospel Community of Iran, Academician, Doctor
Harmik Davtian, Gevorg Vardanian and Robert Beglarian, Deputies of the
Northern and Southern Armenians of Iran in the Islamic Parliament,
representatives of the Armenian Diocesan Council of Tehran and of
national primacy. The participants of the sitting condemned the
outrage against the religious holinesses. At the end of the sitting
a resolution was read, one of the points of which, that was worked
out with help of the Armenian Diocese of Tehran, was the following:
“The present century is a century of dialogue. For true, valid and
sincere dialogue the following should be taken into consideration:
every religion has its ideological world, credo. We shouldn’t give
us right to explain and comment upon that persuasions and credos and
to present it as a absolute truth”. At the end of the sitting trees
were planted as a token of dialogue of religions.

PARLIAMENTARY HEARING ON ENERGY SECURITY OF ARMENIA TO BE HELD ON MARCH 25

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 9 2006

YEREVAN, March 9. /ARKA/. On March 15 2006, the RA Parliament is to
hold a hearing on energy security of Armenia. The hearing has been
organized by the Standing Commission for Defense, National Security
and Internal Affairs.

Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Artur Baghdasaryan earlier reported
that during the hearing the RA Parliament will discuss the prospects
for Armenia’s energy development.

Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs stated on March 7 that energy diversification is a
solution to the problem of Armenia’s energy security.