Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Press Release
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

CHRI STIAN EDUCATION

ANTELIAS PUBLISHES NEW RELIGION TEXTBOOKS

The Catholicosate of Cilicia recently published new textbooks in religion
and the history of the Armenian Church, fulfilling the long standing need of
Armenian schools in this respect.

The need for modern and contemporary religion textbooks has always been an
important issue on the agenda of the Religious Council. An initiative for
special courses in the history of the Armenian Church for more senior
students has also featured with high importance during the Council’s
discussions.

As such, the Christian Education Department of the Catholicosate of Cilicia
worked on publishing these textbooks under the high sponsorship of His
Holiness Aram I.

The first two volumes of modern religion textbooks for Armenian schools have
already been published. Prepared specially for the students of fifth and
sixth classes, these textbooks include pictures, activities, exercises and
detailed explanations on the Armenian Church’s traditions.

Although these books are considered for the students of the fifth and sixth
classes, they can be used for students of lower or higher classes according
to the corresponding literacy in Armenian language in the schools of various
dioceses.

Each pair of textbooks also has a teacher’s guidebook, which explains the
teacher’s room in the classroom and the lively method by which these topics
should be taught. The textbooks of the seventh and eighth classes and their
teacher’s guidebooks are also in the course of preparation and will be
published soon in the Antelias headquarters of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

A brief record of the history of the Armenian Church, its rites and rituals,
its traditions and its differences in principle and ritual from other
churches, has been prepared by the late Ms. Manoushag Boyadjian, with the
aim of introducing the senior students of Armenian Schools to the history of
their church.

This volume is published today following the decision of the Armenian
Pontiff and with the funding of the Department of Armenian Affairs of the
Gulbenkian Foundation, both as an appreciation of Ms. Boyadjian’s dedication
to the Holy See of Cilicia and as a fulfillment of the need for such
textbooks in Armenian schools.

In addition to these projects, a special Bible for teenagers is underway in
cooperation with the Bible Society. The Bible will be published soon,
filling yet another need in the Christian education of the new Armenian
generation. A special Bible for kindergarten students is also being prepared
to encourage the students of Sunday schools.

The Catholicosate’s Christian Education Department has formed a special
committee to embark on publishing, educational and musical activities to
achieve the projects of Sunday Schools and their corresponding bodies.

##
View the book covers here:
es88.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
jurisdiction and the Christian Education activities in both the
Catholicosate and the dioceses, you may refer to the web page of the
Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

LEVEL OF INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES OF ARMENIAN COMMERCIAL BANKS GROWS BY
10% AND MAKES 83,12% AS OF JUNE 30

Yerevan, July 29. ArmInfo. The level of investment activities grew by
5,6% in the first half of 2006, by 10% in a year and made 83,12% as
of June 30.

According to ArmInfo ranking of the Armenian commercial banks, this
indicator grew by 12,89 % in the course of the last three years.

In the period under review, the volume of the sources attracted by the
commercial banks made AMD 267.9 billion. Besides, taking into account
the total obligations of the commercial banks, the sources they
allocated made 70,9% and the grater part of these sources were
directed to crediting the physical entities. According to the experts,
in fact, the commercial banks finance the development of the Armenian
economy, including the agricultural spheres.

According to the level of investment activities, ACBA Bank occupies
the leading position securing 194,21% or AMD 13.8 billion as of June
30, 2006. The bank made AMD 26.9 billion of crediting investments,
including 63,2% for crediting the economy and 36,1% for crediting
physical entities. ACBA Bank manages to effectively allocate the
sources in the given spheres, securing profits for many years
already. According to the level of investment activities, the five
leading Armenian commercial banks are as follows: ArmSwissBank(174,7%
or AMD 1.5 billion), "Ararat" Bank(173,5% or AMD 1.5 and 2.7 billion),
Artsakhbank(165,1% or AMD 9.8 and 16.1 billion) and "Prometey" Bank
(122,3% or AMD 2.7 and 3.3 billion). BTA Investbank secured the
highest level of investment activities that made 982,6%. This great
difference is conditioned by the fact that "BTA Investbank" entered
the Armenian commercial bank in the second quarter of 2005 by
purchasing the 48,9% of the Mezhinvestbank shares. The lowest level of
investment activities was secured by "HSBC Bank Armenia" (39,0% or AMD
23 billion).

Boston Herald, MA
July 28, 2006

One chapter ends as another begins
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Friday, July 28, 2006

Had Matt Amorello resigned from the Turnpike Authority on July 11 he
might have been seen as a martyr – willing to quit for the simple
reason that a woman died in a tunnel he was charged with ensuring was
safe. He wouldn’t have emerged unscathed, but after the requisite
apology tour he might have stitched together his tattered reputation.

With Amorello, though, it was never about doing the right or
obvious thing. It was about lawyers and liability, politics and yes,
paychecks. It took two weeks and careful negotiations but he finally
agreed to step aside, and we can’t say we’ve shed a tear. The focus
now is rightly and solely on the investigation into the ceiling
collapse that killed Milena Del Valle and the safety of the entire
tunnel system.

But as the saying goes, when the door slams shut on Amorello’s
rear end, a window opens – an opportunity to view both the bricks and
mortar of the Big Dig infrastructure and the stalled `development’
along the Rose Kennedy Greenway with a whole new perspective.

The Greenway was supposed to be our reward for putting up with
nearly two decades of inconvenience. Among Amorello’s greatest
contributions – planting trees and doing the bidding of friends in
the Legislature by granting one of the precious few parcels to a
group that plans a memorial to victims of the Armenian genocide.
Let’s just say Amorello never quite got the `vision thing.’

It’s a little late, but Amorello’s departure still presents an
opportunity to shake the old-school politics plaguing this project
and to ensure that the promise of the Greenway is fulfilled. Gov.
Mitt Romney will select a third new board member to replace Amorello
and the new MTA board will have its first meeting on Aug. 16. Their
work is cut out for them.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Government House # 2, Republic Square
Yerevan 0010, Republic of Armenia
Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

28-07-2006

Acting Press Secretary Vladimir Karapetian Replies to
Question by Panorama.am Electronic Newspaper

Question: What is the situation with the Armenian citizens gathered at the
Ergnet border crossing point in Georgia? What news do you have?

Mr. Karapetian: We were informed tonight that the Georgian authorities have
decided as an exception to allow the citizens of Armenia to pass the border
crossing point near Egnet. We would like to reiterate our gratitude for this
step taken by a good neighbour.

During the coming hours, a string of cars accompanied by the representatives
of the Armenian Embassy in Tbilisi and the OSCE office in Georgia will be
headed for Armenia.

I take this opportunity to once again appeal to those citizens of the
Republic of Armenia who travel from Russia to Armenia via Georgia not to
take the road passing through South Ossetia. Georgia. The South Ossetia
administrative border crossing point is not functioning. The only possible
way to reach Armenia from Russia today is by means of the Poti –
Novorossiysk ferry.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY FORCES DISCUSS AMENDMENTS SUBMITTED BY OPPOSITION PARTIES

AZG Armenian Daily #140, 27/07/2006

Speaker of the National Assembly Tigran Torosian and the leaders of
Parliament factions discussed the amendments to the Electoral Code
suggested by the opposition. The opposition suggests adoption of 100%
proportional electoral system and forming of electoral committees
exclusively from members of political parties. The participants of
the meeting did not come to consensus on these questions. Before late
august a parliamentary workgroup is to be created in order to consider
the notes by the Venice Commission and the opposition suggestions.

SECURITY EXERCISES TO BE HELD AT THE ARMENIAN ATOMIC POWER PLANT ON JULY 25

Yerevan, July 25. ArmInfo. Security exercises on emergency prevention
at the Atomic Power Plant will be held in Yerevan and Armavir region
on July 26-27. The head of the information center of the Emergency
Department Nikolay Grigorian aims to enhance the prevention and
the populations’ protection from atomic and radiation emergencies.
Representatives of 13 ministries and departments will take part in
the exercises.

KOCHARYAN AND SEMNEBI DISCUSS ARMENIA-EU RELATIONS

Arka News Agency, Armenia
July 25, 2006

YEREVAN, July 25. /ARKA/. On July 24, President of Armenia Robert
Kocharyan and Peter Semnebi, the EU Special Representative for
South Caucasus, discussed relations between Armenia and the European
Union in Yerevan. According to the Press Service of the President,
interlocutors touched upon issues of coordination and adoption of the
activities’ program on Armenia within the scope of "New Neighborhood"
EU policy. During the meeting Kocharyan and Semnebi also turned to
the Karabakh conflict and regional developments. Peter Semnebi was
appointed the EU Special Representative for South Caucasus on March 1,
2006. S.P.–0–

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PRESS RELEASE

Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected]

24 July 2006

SAFE ARRIVAL HOME FOR SYDNEY-BASED DANCE GROUP

Sydney, Australia – The last of the 80 plus group of the Hamazkaine
Sevan Dance Group caught up in the bombings in Lebanon touched down
in Sydney on Saturday evening after a harrowing ordeal.

The 45 person dance troupe, mostly made up of teenage youth, with their
minders had been on a concert tour of Armenia, Syria and Lebanon and
were due to fly out of Beirut the same day the airport was first
bombed. The group was part of the first convoy organised by the
Australian Government to evacuate from Beirut, enduring a 17-hour
road trip which saw them enter Syria through a northern border and
onto Amman, Jordan. The evacuation operation, considered high risk,
was kept secret for security reasons until word was received that
the group had arrived safely in Damascus, Syria.

Thereon in, evacuees and their loved ones back home took some comfort
as the group spent anxious but safer days in Amman awaiting a flight
back to Sydney. The group finally made its safe passage in three
waves with the first arrivals on Thursday evening.

His Eminence Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate of the Diocese of
the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand joined contingents
of family, friends and concerned community members to welcome the
evacuees each day.

As they made their way into the arrivals hall of Sydney International
Airport there was much cheering and overwhelming emotions among
the commotion of ‘welcome home’ banners, balloons, well-wishers and
media frenzy.

As the members of the group arrived, reunited families gathered in
the arrival area altogether to receive the blessing of Archbishop
Baliozian, offering prayers of thanksgiving to the Almighty for guiding
the children of our community back to the safety of their loved ones
and homes.

Over the past two weeks, prayer services resonated at the Armenian
Apostolic Church of Holy Resurrection, initially requesting of our
Heavenly Father His guidance in delivering our faithful safely out of
the dangers of the conflict region. On Sunday, prayers of thanksgiving
were offered for His careful delivery of the troupe to Australia as
well as prayers for peace to reign and protection of the thousands
of people affected in the region.

In appreciation of the Australian Government’s efforts and vigilant
care of the Armenian dance group in securing their safe passage home,
the Primate sent letters of gratitude to both the Prime Minister and
Foreign Affairs Minister of Australia.

A refugee, and a survivor of crime and tragedy who thought God would
keep him safe in the lions’ den

Maclean’s, Canada
July 24, 2006

OHTAJ HUMBAT OHLI MAKHMUDOV;
1961-2006

By BY VASYL PAWLOWSKY

Ohtaj Humbat ohli Makhmudov was born in 1961 in the Azerbaijan Soviet
Socialist Republic’s Kyudamyrsky region. His father, Humbat, was head
of the regional party council of the Communist party. While the large
family was quite well off, it experienced many tragedies. Of the eight
children, two died while Ohtaj was in his teens: a sister, Aubeniz,
in a 1976 gas explosion at the local bathhouse, and a brother, Alih,
the following year in a knife fight.

For Ohtaj, though, the future appeared bright. "He was a very good
student in high school," says his classmate Azer Husanov, currently
living in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. "He finished in 1979 and
was immediately accepted to the National Economics Institute." Ohtaj
graduated from the institute with a degree in economics in 1984,
and then opened a store in Baku, which he ran for five years. "This
happened during the perestroika movement, a time in which people had
the opportunity to become successful," Azer says. "And he jumped on
this chance."

But the new openness of the Mikhail Gorbachev era in the Soviet
Union unleashed other forces as well. Demands by Nagorno-Karabakh,
a primarily Armenian enclave of the Azerbaijan S.S.R., to unite with
the neighbouring Armenian S.S.R., resulted in prolonged bloodshed
between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Ohtaj, whose family had some years
before unfortunately relocated to the Tertersky region of Karabakh,
decided to move to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. There, "he married
a local woman, who subsequently bore him a son," recalls Ali Damirov,
Ukraine representative of the Turan Information Agency, an independent
Azerbaijani news service. "Overall, he was quite a simple and quiet
person," adds Damirov, who knew Ohtaj since 1989. "I used to see him
at the Azerbaijani Centre in Kyiv, which he would occasionally attend
on national holidays."

In Kyiv, Ohtaj also tried his hand at the retail business. In the
early 1990s, he began trading at the Bessarabskiy Market in the
city’s downtown, and also got involved in wholesale. Ohtaj, Ali says,
was doing quite well, expanding his business and opening kiosks in
some of Kyiv’s other outdoor markets as well. But while friends and
acquaintances are reluctant to speak of details, Ohtaj ran into
problems with criminal elements in the mid-1990s. "At the time,"
Ali explains, "racketeering had become a regular modus operandi in
this part of the world." That brought further sadness into Ohtaj’s
family: in 1995 his brother Yaver, who had joined him in Kyiv along
with Avuz, another brother, was murdered. Back home, upon hearing
the news of Yaver’s death, Ohtaj’s mother suffered a heart attack,
Azer Husanov says.

Shortly after, Ohtaj went bankrupt. His wife subsequently left him,
departing with their son for Italy in search of better opportunities
— and sending Ohtaj spiralling into depression. "At the end of
the 1990s he spent two years in the Pavlov psychiatric hospital in
Kyiv and was released in 2000," says Khahani Murmat ohli Huseynov,
an Azeri acquaintance of Ohtaj who has been living in Kyiv since the
early 1990s. Then tragedy struck again: in 2002, Ohtaj’s brother Avuz
died in the same psychiatric hospital where he had undergone treatment.

Ohtaj left Kyiv. Aquaintances say that, as far as they know, he went
to Tertersky. "What he could have possibly been doing there is not
clear," Ali says. "After all, this place is a completely war-torn
region." But Ohtaj returned to Kyiv this year, at the end of May. Ali
says he took Ohtaj around town, "to show him how things had changed
since he left. Although he seemed very indifferent to what he saw,
he looked like somebody who had been put through the wringer."

On Saturday, June 3, Ohtaj visited the Kyiv Zoo. According to
eyewitnesses, he asked many questions regarding the behaviour of
lions and tigers. He returned the next day. At 6:45 p.m., when there
weren’t many people by the lion exhibit, Ohtaj removed his socks and
shoes. He carefully placed them on a cellophane packet, and removed
his jacket and hung it on the back of a chair belonging to one of
the vendors at the zoo. Ohtaj then tied a piece of rope to a metal
handrail and climbed down into the lions’ pit.

The lions may not have taken notice of him. But Ohtaj approached
the animals, waving his arms and, according to witnesses, shouting,
"Because God loves me, the lions will not harm me!" Other visitors
screamed at him to get out. But by that time, Ohtaj had drawn the
attention of Veronica, one of the zoo’s three lionesses. She pounced
on Ohtaj. Andriy Bakaj, an investigator from Kyiv’s Pechersk district
prosecutor’s office who examined his body at the scene, said, "The
deceased had 10 puncture wounds in his neck, two of which were in
the area of his windpipe. He died instantly."

Georgian President delays his visit to Moscow

ArmRadio.am
21.07.2006 16:00

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili postponed his visit to Moscow,
where he had to participate in the non-official summit of CIS leaders,
Georgian President’s Press Service informs. The reasons for delay
are not announced.

This was a complete surprise for the persons, who were to accompany the
President to Moscow. The journalists to accompany Mikhail Saakashvili
had already arrived at the airport. Georgian state diplomats do not
notify whether Saakashvili will leave for Moscow today or tomorrow
or not.