Author: Chmshkian Vicken

CONCERNS RELATED TO SPITTING INCIDENTS

Armenian Patriarchate of St. James, Jerusalem
OFFICE OF ECUMENICAL AND FOREIGN RELATIONS
Contact person: Bishop Aris Shirvanian
Tel: 972-2-6282331
Fax: 972-2-6282331
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website:
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OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUÉ

Jerusalem, 31 October 2004

The wide-scale media coverage of spitting by a young Jewish Yeshiva student
in the Old City of Jerusalem upon Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, the Grand
Sacristan, and the processional Cross during a solemn procession to the Holy
Sepulchre Church, generated a positive sequence of events.

The Patriarchate received numerous calls from Jewish Rabbis and other
dignitaries expressing abhorrence and regrets over such an offensive
phenomenon.

The Patriarch, His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, wrote letters to
the President of Israel, His Excellency Mr. Moshe Katzav, and the Prime
Minister, His Excellency Mr. Ariel Sharon concerning this issue and asked
them to take the necessary measures to bring to a halt similar disrespectful
anti-Christian acts by some extremist religious Jews. His Beatitude
appreciated the condemnation of such acts by His Excellency Mr. Abraham
Poraz, Minister of Interior.

In a letter to His Beatitude leaders of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Museum of
Tolerance of Los Angeles, California, expressed their outrage over the
contemptible spitting attack and pledged to redouble their efforts to
prevent such incidents.

Also the Vatican issued a Statement on October 19, 2004, by the Holy See’s
Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the Chief Rabbinate of
Israel, stating: “Jerusalem has a sacred character for all the children of
Abraham.. We call on all relevant authorities to respect this character and
to prevent actions which offend the sensibilities of religious communities
that reside in Jerusalem and hold her dear.”
“We call on religious authorities to protest publicly when actions of
disrespect towards religious persons, symbols and Holy Sites are committed,
such as the desecration of cemeteries and the recent assault on the Armenian
Patriarch of Jerusalem. We call on them to educate their communities to
behave with respect and dignity towards people and towards their attachment
to their faith.”

On October 21, the Mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Uri Lupolianski, met with His
Beatitude and Bishop Aris Shirvanian, Director of the ecumenical and Foreign
Relations of the Patriarchate, and apologized for the spitting assault by
the yeshiva student. He pledged to talk to Rabbis to combat this type of
behavior through education. He also stated that he would appoint an advisor
for Christian Affairs to serve as a contact with Christian Churches. His
Beatitude appreciated the Mayor’s gesture.

On October 26, representatives of Christian Churches met with the Ashkenazi
Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger on his invitation at the Chief Rabbinate
Office. This was a first historic meeting of its kind in Israel for which
Christian leaders expressed their appreciation. Present were bishops and
priests of the Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, Ethiopian and Russian
Orthodox Churches, Latin, Greek Catholic, Armenian Catholic and Lutheran
Churches. Bishop Aris Shirvanian represented the Armenian Patriarch. Also
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and
Jews and officials of the Ministry of the Interior and of Religious Affairs
were in attendance.

The Chief Rabbi welcomed all. He strongly condemned the disrespect to
members of other faiths noting that they all were created “in the image of
God” and therefore they should mutually be respected in spite of different
religious beliefs and customs. Furthermore he announced that he would
instruct rabbis to teach their faithful in the synagogues to refrain from
offensive acts towards Christians and to respect them.

Bishop Aris emphasized that the spitting incident that was reported two
weeks earlier was not an isolated one. Since then there had been two other
instances by extremist religious Jews. He stated that such acts are not
committed just by Jewish men, but even by women and children who need to be
educated by their rabbis. However, he noted that most Jews were respectful
towards Christian clergy.

The meeting was concluded by all the participants signing a declaration in
which as leaders of Jewish and Christian religions they called upon their
followers “to increase their tolerance, respect and understanding for
members of different faiths.”

DIVAN OF THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE

Persian Journal, Iran
Oct 31, 2004

Royal Road, Connecting Imperial Capitals of Persia

Persian Empire

According to the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus (5th
century BCE), the road connected the capital of Lydia, Sardes, and the
capitals of the Achaemenid empire, Susa and Persepolis. From cuneiform
texts, other royal roads are known.

Herodotus describes the road between Sardes and Susa in the following
words [History of Herodotus 5.52-53].

As regards this road the truth is as follows. Everywhere there are
royal stations with excellent resting places, and the whole road runs
through country which is inhabited and safe.

1. Through Lydia and Phrygia there extend twenty stages, amounting to
520 kilometers.
2. After Phrygia succeeds the river Halys, at which there is a gate
which one must needs pass through in order to cross the river, and a
strong guard-post is established there.
3. Then after crossing over into Cappadocia it is by this way
twenty-eight stages, being 572 kilometers, to the borders of Cilicia.
4. On the borders of the Cilicians you will pass through two sets of
gates and guard-posts: then after passing through these it is three
stages, amounting to 85 kilometers, to journey through Cilicia.
5. The boundary of Cilicia and Armenia is a navigable river called
Euphrates. In Armenia the number of stages with resting-places is
fifteen, and 310 kilometers, and there is a guard-post on the way.
6. Then from Armenia, when one enters the land of Matiene, there are
thirty-four stages, amounting to 753 kilometers. Through this land flow
four navigable rivers, which can not be crossed but by ferries, first
the Tigris, then a second and third called both by the same name,
Zabatus, though they are not the same river and do not flow from the
same region (for the first-mentioned of them flows from the Armenian
land and the other from that of the Matienians), and the fourth of the
rivers is called Gyndes […].
7. Passing thence into the Cissian land, there are eleven stages, 234
kilometers, to the river Choaspes, which is also a navigable stream;
and upon this is built the city of Susa. The number of these stages
amounts in all to one hundred and eleven.

This is the number of stages with resting-places, as one goes up from
Sardes to Susa. If the royal road has been rightly measured […] the
number of kilometers from Sardes to the palace of [king Artaxerxes I]
Mnemon is 2500. So if one travels 30 kilometers each day, some ninety
days are spent on the journey.

This road must be very old. If the Persians had built this road and had
taken the shortest route, they would have chosen another track: from
Susa to Babylon, along the Euphrates to the capital of Cilicia, Tarsus,
and from there to Lydia. This was not only shorter, but had the
additional advantage of passing along the sea, where it was possible to
trade goods. The route along the Tigris, however, lead through the
heartland of the ancient Assyrian kingdom. It is likely, therefore,
that the road was planned and organized by the Assyrian kings to
connect their capital Nineveh with Susa. Important towns like Arbela
and Opis were situated on the road.

It is certain that the Assyrians traded with Kanesh in modern Turkey in
the first half of the second millennium BCE. The names of several
trading centers and stations are known and suggest that the route from
Assyria to the west was already well-organized. This road was still in
existence in the Persian age.

A traveler who went from Nineveh (which was destroyed by the Medes and
Babylonians in 612) to the west, crossed the Tigris near a town that
was known as Amida in the Roman age (and today as Diyarbekir). This was
the capital of a country called Sophene. Further to the west, he
crossed the Euphrates near Melitene, the capital of a small state with
the same name, which may have been part of the Persian satrapy Cilicia.
It is probable that the ruins of the guardhouse mentioned by Herodotus
are to be found near Eski Malatya.

The border between Cilicia and Cappadocia was in the Antitaurus
mountain range. The last town in Cilicia, and probably the place of the
‘two sets of gates and guard-posts’ mentioned by Herodotus, was at
Comana, a holy place that was dedicated to Ma-Enyo, a warrior goddess
that the Greeks identified with Artemis.

The route continued across the central plains of modern Turkey, a
country that was called Cappadocia. The exact course of the road is not
known, but it is likely that it passed along the capital of the former
Hethite empire, Hattuas.

The Halys was crossed near modern Ankara -which may well have been a
guard-post- and the next stop was Gordium, the capital of another
kingdom that had disappeared in the Persian age, Phrygia. Passing
though Pessinus, a famous sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Cybele,
and Docimium, famous for its pavonazetto marble, the Royal road reached
Sardes.

At Persepolis, many tablets were found that refer to the system of
horse changing on the Royal road; it was called pirradazi. From these
tablets, we know a lot about the continuation of the road from Susa to
Persepolis -23 stages and a distance of 552 kilometers- and about other
main roads in the Achaemenid empire. No less important was, for
example, the road that connected Babylon and Egbatana, which crossed
the Royal road near Opis, and continued to the holy city of
Zoroastrianism, Rhagae. This road continued to the far east and was
later known as Silk road.
Herodotus describes the pirradazi -for which he uses another name- in
very laudatory words: There is nothing mortal which accomplishes a
journey with more speed than these messengers, so skillfully has this
been invented by the Persians. For they say that according to the
number of days of which the entire journey consists, so many horses and
men are set at intervals, each man and horse appointed for a day’s
journey. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness of night prevents
them from accomplishing the task proposed to them with the very utmost
speed. The first one rides and delivers the message with which he is
charged to the second, and the second to the third; and after that it
goes through them handed from one to the other, as in the torch race
among the Greeks, which they perform for Hephaestus. This kind of
running of their horses the Persians call angareion.
[History of Herodotus 8.98]

To the Greeks, this was most impressive. There is a story by Diodorus
of Sicily that between Susa and Persepolis, even greater communication
speeds were reached:
Although some of the Persians were distant a thirty days’ journey, they
all received the order on that very day, thanks to the skilful
arrangement of the posts of the guard, a matter that it is not well to
pass over in silence. Persia is cut by many narrow valleys and has many
lookout posts that are high and close together, on which those of the
inhabitants who had the loudest voices had been stationed. Since these
posts were separated from each other by the distance at which a man’s
voice can be heard, those who received the order passed it on in the
same way to the next, and then these in turn to others until the
message had been delivered at the border of the satrapy.
[World history 19.17.5-6]

We can not establish whether this is true. If it is, it is the ultimate
tribute to the Persian talent to organize this; if it is a mere
fantasy, it is a beautiful compliment.

The road, although without the pirradazi? system, was still in use in
Roman times. The bridge at Amida (modern Diyarbakir in Turkey) is an
illustration.

Playbill.com, NY –
Oct 29, 2004

Aznavour Songs Fill New Musical Happy Anniversary!, Getting NYC Reading
With Schaffel and Cuccioli
By Kenneth Jones
29 Oct 2004

Ed Dixon, the actor-writer-composer not afraid to juggle multiple
projects, has conceived a new four-person musical, Happy Anniversary!,
drawing on the music of Charles Aznavour.

The developing show by the author of the musical Fanny Hill will be
seen in an invitation-only reading in Manhattan Nov. 8 in a
presentation by Hell’s Kitchen Musicals, a new group. Happy
Anniversary! was previously seen in a presentation at The York Theatre
Company’s venue.

In the show, Marla Schaffel (Jane Eyre) and Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll &
Hyde) will play a New York couple celebrating their 20th wedding
anniversary. Amanda Watkins and Matthew Scott play their extramarital
interests – a maid and the delivery boy, respectively.

“Everything looks O.K. on the surface, but underneath it’s really not
O.K. – they love each other but can’t stand each other,” Dixon said of
his married pair. He is calling the show a book musical, not a revue of
Aznavour songs.

The show’s title comes from one of Aznavour’s most famous songs.

Happy Anniversary! was sparked when Sybil Goday, the widow of Happy
Goday, the music publisher of Aznavour’s songs, invited Dixon to a
meeting and said she was looking for an original stage show that would
celebrate such Aznavour songs as “Sailor Boy,” “Yesterday, When I Was
Young,” “She,” “I’ll Be There” and “You and Me.”

“She wants to introduce a much larger group of people to his music,”
Dixon said.

Goday had seen Dixon in another developing Aznavour driven show, Az, in
2003 and liked his style. She agreed to grant him the rights to the
Aznavour catalog if he could come up with an original story. The
English lyrics are by Don Black, Herbert Kretzmer and Dee Shipman.

The project – conception, book and arrangements by Dixon – has come
together in the past six months, Dixon told Playbill On-Line.

Drew Scott Harris directs the 5 PM Nov. 8 presentation. Larry Yurman is
musical director.

The show covers the day of the characters’ anniversary leading to a
party at the Ritz Carlton in New York. “It’s a tiny, tiny musical,”
Dixon said, but it addresses a full range of emotions from “funny to
touching to sad.”

“I fell in love with the music and the topics – thwarted love, love not
working out,” Dixon explained of his earlier brush with Aznavour’s
songs.

But, he added, the show will have a large dose of hope in it. “It’s not
all strum und drang,” he promised.

Charles Aznavour, the French singer and songwriter, made a rare
Broadway appearance in 1998 at the Marquis Theatre, Oct. 20-Nov. 15. A
tour followed.

Aznavour was born in Paris in 1924, the son of an Armenian cook. A
singer since the late ’50s, he has written many songs, including
“Yesterday, When I Was Young.” He’s appeared in films since 1958,
including Truffaut’s “Shoot the Piano Player” and “The Tin Drum.” He
has also written the scores to several films.

His recent 80th birthday was celebrated around the world.

Ed Dixon will play Armand in the Off-Broadway musical, Under the
Bridge, based on the children’s book “The Family Under the Bridge,”
starting in December at The Zipper Theatre, where he appeared in Here
Lies Jenny May-October 2004.

“FAITH” ORGANIZATION TO DEVELOP NATIONAL PROGRAM ON SOLVING PROBLEMS
OF THE DISABLED

YEREVAN, October 22 (Noyan Tapan). The “Faith” public organization of
the mothers of children with bad hearing is currently implementing a
program called “From Equal Rights to Equal Opportunities.” Chairwoman
of the organization Susanna Zhamkochian told NT the program stipulates
comparing the RA legislation on the rights of the disabled with those
of the developed countries, as well as developing a national program
for solving the problems of the disabled. A propaganda campaign and a
monitoring are also implemented all over the country as part of the
program. S. Zhamkochian stated that another program called “Creating
Centers for Integration of Deaf Children” is also underway at the
moment. This program aims to develop the oral speech of deaf children
of pre-school age and organizing computer training courses for
schoolchildren. The chairwoman said the organization is also
implementing a program for providing children with bad hearing with
hearing device. This program has been implemented with the assistance
of the “Howard Karagyozian” Foundation since 2002. So far, 400 hearing
device have been imported and distributed within the program.

Zenit News Agency, Italy
Oct 20 2004

Catholics and Jews Appeal Jointly for Sake of Jerusalem

“We Are Partners in Articulating Moral Values,” Says Panel

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2004 (ZENIT.org).- A Catholic-Jewish panel
made an appeal for respect of the sacred character of Jerusalem as
well as of the various religious communities that live in the Holy
City.

The exhortation was made in a press statement after the meeting of
the bilateral committee of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious
Relations with the Jews and the Grand Rabbinate of Israel, held at
Grottaferrata, near Rome, from Sunday through today.

The theme of the meeting was “A Common View of Social Justice and
Ethical Conduct.” According to the text, the participants express
that “there is not wide enough awareness in our respective
communities of the momentous change that has taken place in the
relationship between Catholics and Jews.”

They stated: “We are not enemies, but unequivocal partners in
articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare
of human society.”

After pointing out that “Jerusalem has a sacred character for all the
children of Abraham,” the Jewish and Catholic representatives appeal
to “all relevant authorities to respect this character and to prevent
actions which offend the sensibilities of religious communities that
reside in Jerusalem and hold her dear.”

The statement is signed by six members of the Jewish delegation, five
of them rabbis, among whom are Shar Yishuv Cohen, former chief rabbi
of Haifa, and David Rosen, international director for religious
affairs.

The Catholic delegation was led by Cardinal Jorge María Mejía,
retired archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, as well as
Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the Pontifical
Household.

“We call on religious authorities to protest publicly when actions of
disrespect towards religious persons, symbols and Holy Sites are
committed, such as the desecration of cemeteries and the recent
assault on the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem,” the committee
members affirmed.

“We call on them to educate their communities to behave with respect
and dignity towards people and towards their attachment to their
faith,” they concluded.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Commission for Religious
Relations with the Jews, and Ricardo Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, were
to analyze the state of the present Jewish-Catholic dialogue during a
conference organized this afternoon at the Gregorian University.

On the 30th anniversary of the Commission for Religious Relations
with the Jews, established by Paul VI, Cardinal Kasper, accompanied
by a delegation of the commission, will visit the Synagogue of Rome
this Friday afternoon.

In statements on Vatican Radio, Father Norbert Hofmann, secretary of
the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews,
acknowledged that in the wake of the Second Vatican Council,
Catholics are discovering the Jewish roots of their faith.

“Jesus was Jewish, the Mother of God was Jewish, the apostles were
Jews,” he said. “Christianity has Jewish roots and we are
increasingly rediscovering what we have in common.”

Vatican, Chief Rabbinate slam assault on Armenian Patriarch

20/10/2004 13:08

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

The Holy See and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel this week issued a
joint condemnation of an assault on the Armenian Patriarch of
Jerusalem, when he was spat at by a yeshiva student in the Old City.

In a joint statement released Tuesday in Rome, the Vatican and the
Chief Rabbinate called on ?religious authorities to publicly protest
when actions of disrespect towards religious persons, symbols and Holy
Sites are committed.

The statement gave as an example ?the desecration of cemeteries and
the recent assault on the Armenian Patriarch.?

The statement also calls on ?all relevant authorities? to respect the
?sacred character of Jerusalem and to prevent overt and immodest
actions which offend the sensibilities of religious communities that
reside in Jerusalem and hold her dear.?

The common declaration came at the conclusion of a three-day meeting
of Catholic and Jewish officials in Grottaferrata, south of Rome,
constituting the 4th ?dialogue session? since June 2002 between the
Holy See and the Chief Rabbinate.

The discussions this time were focused on Judeo-Christian beliefs
regarding social justice and ethical behavior. Previous sessions have
concentrated on the dignity of Man, the value of human life and the
family, and the importance of Scripture for contemporary society.

The Vatican delegation to the meetings this week was headed by
Cardinal Jorge Meija, the former Vatican archivist. The Israeli
delegation was lead by Sh?ar Yishuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa,
and its members included Rabbi David Rosen, from the American Jewish
Committee, and chief rabbis of several other Israeli cities.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of a Vatican
commission for the relations with Judaism by Pope Paul the 6th , the
head of the commission, Cardinal Walter Kasper, and Cardinal Meija
will visit Rome Synagogue for the Shabbat services.

Also this week, Cardinal Kasper and Riccardo di Segni, the chief rabbi
of Rome, will open a seminar at one of the Vatican universities, which
will focus on Jewish-Catholic relations of the past few decades.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 20, 2004, Wednesday

A GROUP OF U.S. SPECIALISTS WILL ARIVE IN ARMENIA IN ORDER TO
EVALUATE THE TASKS OF REALIZATION OF THE PROGRAM OF U.S. AID

A group of US experts will soon arrive in Armenia. This statement was
made by US Deputy Secretary of State Laura Kennedy at a meeting with
Armenian Defense Minister Serj Sargsyan. The information and
propaganda department of the Armenian Defense Ministry reports that
the experts’ conclusions will let the republic concentrate on
concrete tasks of realization of the program of US aid. Laura Kennedy
thanked the Armenian government for its readiness to send a military
contingent to Iraq. Sargsyan focused on the development of
US-Armenian military relations. He said: “I’d like to note that this
is very important for us.” According to the agreement signed in 2002
the US government gave $7 million to Armenia for modernizing military
communication systems.

Source: RIA Novosti, October 18, 2004

Plight of Iraqi Christians Provokes Calls for Special Protection
by Jim Lobe

Antiwar.com, United States
Oct 15 2004

While the successful penetration by suicide bombers, who killed
ten people, including four U.S. nationals, of the carefully guarded
“Green Zone” in downtown Baghdad grabbed headlines here this week,
another measure of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq came
from a more surprising source.

In an article published Thursday in the online edition of the
right-wing National Review, an influential neoconservative activist
appealed to the Bush administration to create a “safe haven”
within Iraq specifically for Iraq’s estimated 800,000 Christians,
or “Chaldo-Assyrians,” 40,000 of whom are believed to have left the
country since the U.S. invasion in the face of growing persecution.

The creation of such a zone, which is contemplated under the interim
constitution approved by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) earlier this year, could curb the growing exodus and might even
persuade some who left to return, according to the author, Nina Shea,
the director of Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom.

“The community needs U.S. help to create such a district which should
encompass the traditional community villages located near Mosul, in
the Nineveh Plains,” according to Shea. “They believe that thousands
of their members who have fled to other countries in the Middle East
over the decades but are not permanently resettled could be persuaded
to return to such a secure place.”

She also called on the State Department to begin providing
reconstruction aid directly to the Christian community in the region,
and not just to Arab and Kurdish groups living in the region.

Calling the Chaldo-Assyrians the “canaries in the coal mine for the
Great Middle East,” Shea, who enjoys good relations with the Bush
White House, noted that “the extent to which they are tolerated in
the new Iraq is being watched closely by Maronites of Lebanon, the
Copts of Egypt, and other non-Muslim populations in the region.” Like
the Chaldo-Assyrians, the Maronites and Copts are Christian.

Her appeal echoed those of a number of Iraqi-American Christian
groups which met here earlier this month in a concerted effort to draw
attention to their co-religionists’ communities which has deteriorated
sharply since the U.S. invasion.

“Widespread and systematic abuse of human rights and targeted
killings of Christians continue every day in Iraq, mainly in the
Kurdish-controlled areas in the North, Mosul, and Baghdad,” asserted a
letter to the U.S. Congress sent by the 70-year-old Assyrian American
National Federation (AANF) late last month. “As a result of such
atrocities, some 40,000 Assyrians have already fled Iraq since July
of this year.”

“Iraq, once the center of the earliest Christian churches in the
world, may soon be cleared of its Assyrian population, the only
indigenous people of that country – ancient Mesopotamia,” warned the
letter, which also called for Congress to earmark five percent of
total reconstruction aid for Iraq “for the safety of the Christian
population and the rebuilding of their villages.”

Communities of Christians have indeed inhabited modern-day Mesopotamia
virtually since the dawn of Christianity 2,000 years ago. Most are
Chaldeans, or Eastern-rite Catholics, whose native tongue is Aramaic,
the language of Jesus. Most of the other Christians are Assyrian,
who belong to different denominations, including the Ancient Church
of the East, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Church,
and Protestant churches. The remainder consist primarily of Syrian,
Armenian, Greek Catholics; Armenian and Greek Orthodox; and, Mandaeans,
who are followers of John the Baptist.

Historically, the Chaldeans and Assyrians have been concentrated in
the Mosul area, although many left seeking economic opportunities
in other regions. During successive periods of “Arabization” in
the post-colonial era, and particularly under Ba’athist rule, some
Christian communities, like other non-Arab groups, particularly Kurds,
were displaced in order to make way for Arabs, especially from the
southern part of the country.

According to the last national census in 1987, Iraq had some 1.4
million Christians, but most sources estimate that 800,000 at
most remain in the country of some 23 million today. Most of the
emigration took place after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 when UN
sanctions brought intense economic hardship on middle-class families,
in particular, a disproportionate number of which are Christian.

As the sanctions continued to weaken the middle class during the 1990s,
tens of thousands of Christians emigrated to nearby Arab countries,
notably Syria and Lebanon, Europe and North America.

Under Saddam Hussein, Christians, particularly Assyrians who were
sometimes referred to as Christian Kurds, suffered from forced
relocations in the north, and, like Kurds and Shiites, were banned from
organizing political parties. At the same time, they were welcomed
into the Ba’ath Party (which was co-founded by a Christian) and were
permitted to rise, as did then prime minister Tariq Aziz, to senior
posts. The regime did not interfere with their religious practice,
and, in some cases, even provided subsidies to churches.

With the rise of Islamist sentiment, even before the U.S.-led invasion
last year, Christians grew increasingly concerned about their fate in
Iraq. Popular pressure induced the regime to adopt Islamic slogans,
build mosques and even introduce a ban on alcohol, which hit the
almost exclusively Christian liquor-store and restaurant owners
particularly hard.

On the eve of the war, Pope John Paul II, along with a number of
Iraqi Christian clerics, made private and personal appeals to the
Bush administration not to go to war, in major part because of their
fears that the aftermath could expose the community to much greater
risks and persecution.

“The concern is that Christians will disappear,” Bishop Pierre Whalon,
an Episcopal official working with the Chaldean church, told the
London-based Financial Times on the eve of the war. “The present
regime gives them some tolerance; who knows what the next one will do.”

Those fears, which were broadcast before the war by U.S. Christian
denominations but pooh-poohed by the neoconservatives and other hawks
before the war, now appear to have been well-grounded. Christian
liquor-store and restaurant owners and their families have been
attacked – sometimes fatally – in predominantly Muslim towns and
cities, while last August, five churches in Baghdad and Mosul were
blown up in a coordinated series of bombings. At the same time,
wealthier Christian families have been targeted for kidnapping by
criminal gangs.

Christians have also come under attack by Kurdish militias in the
north, including Mosul itself, where Kurds have clashed frequently with
Arabs and other minorities as they have tried to extend their control
to “Arabized” areas, which they consider to have been traditionally
Kurdish.

“They worry that this may be the beginning of either a jihad by
Muslim extremists or an ethnic-cleansing campaign by Kurds, with whom
they live in close proximity, or both,” wrote Shea, who said the
administration “cannot afford to be indifferent to the persecution
facing the Chaldo-Assyrian religious minority.”

The result has been an exodus of an estimated 40,000 Christians so far,
most of whom have emigrated to neighboring Syria. At the same time,
many others from Baghdad and the south have reportedly tried to move
back to their traditional homeland near Mosul, particularly around
Dahouk, Zakho, and Irbil.

It is this area that, according to Shea and the Christian
Iraqi-Americans, should be carved out and given special protection
as contemplated by section 53(D) of the CPA-approved Basic Law,
on which the interim government, however, has not yet taken a position.

(Inter Press Service)

ECONOMIC INTEREST OF RUSSIA

A1 Plus
13-10-2004

WHEN SAYING THE ECONOMIC INTEREST OF ARMENIA, SUPPOSING THE The
recent days in Armenia can be called as the days of Russia in
Armenia. Numerous officials of Russia are now in Armenia and hold
meetings. Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin has today partaken
in opening of Armenian International Economic Forum.

It was stated during the arrangement that in 2004 the Armenian-Russian
trade turnover increased by 34,5 in comparison with 2003 and crossed
the limit of $ 200 million. As a rule the Russian investments were
directed to production and bank spheres of Armenia.

The Russian side considers establishment of “Armenal” joint venture
in 2000 and allocation of 70% of “Armavia” Company stocks to “Siberia”
Airlines as profitable investment.

Russia stresses with pleasure “Property for Debt” program, through
which some Armenian enterprises were handed to the Russian part.

Igor Levitin, Russian Transport Minister and Chairman of
Inter-parliamentary Commission for Armenian-Russian Economic
Cooperation, assures the private banks of Russia show interest in
supporting the Russian enterprises set up in the territory of Armenia
and establishment of new joint ventures.

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:

His Holiness Aram I and Archbishop Hammar

Emphasize the Importance of Ecumenical Collaboration

Antelias, Lebanon – His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great
House of Cilicia, who was the official guest of the Church of Sweden,
had several meetings with various leaders of the Church of Sweden,
including diocesan archbishops.

Included in the high-level meetings and consultations was a
meeting with the head of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Archbishop
K. G. Hammar. The two church leaders emphasized the current importance
of the Ecumenical Movement and inter-church dialogue.

The Catholicos also spoke candidly and in detail about the Armenian
Genocide and the rights of the Armenian people. The two church leaders
have been friends for many years and five years ago Archbishop Hammar
visited Antelias, the seat of the Cilician See.

During his visit to Sweden, His Holiness had meetings with leaders of
other church denominations, as well as with leaders of the European
Conference of churches.

In spite of his extensive and busy schedule, His Holiness granted
interviews to the media. He spoke about Christian-Moslem dialogue,
the situation in the Middle East, the Armenian Genocide, and the
Ecumenical Movement.

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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.