Author: Ekmekjian Janet

FIRST STONE OF ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN ABU DHABI LAID

Pan Armenian News
03.10.2005 02:34

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 1 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian departed for the United Arab Emirates on a formal visit. He
is scheduled to meet with the UAE leadership, RA MFA press center
reported. On the same day the first stone was laid into the foundation
of the Armenian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. The building plan has been
already drawn and the construction works will start in the near
future. The territory for the Embassy was granted during Armenian
President’s visit to the UAE in spring 2002. To note, Armenia also
granted a ground area for the construction of the UAE diplomatic
representation in Yerevan.

Boston Globe
Oct 2 2005

Criticism grows as legislatures press for courses on races
By Michael Gormley, Associated Press | October 2, 2005

ALBANY, N.Y. — State legislators are directing schools to teach
students more about the struggles and triumphs of different races and
ethnic groups, and some critics are objecting.

A mission in New York will examine whether the ”physical and
psychological terrorism” against Africans in the slave trade is being
adequately taught in schools.

The commission is named for the slave ship Amistad, which was
commandeered by slaves who eventually won their freedom in a US
Supreme Court ruling.

The recommendations could mean rewriting textbooks, which may
influence educators in other states, according to the National
Council for the Social Studies.

Other states have approved similar measures, the National Conference
of State Legislatures says.

In Illinois, an Amistad commission was also created this year, and
lessons on the Holocaust were added. In New Mexico, the Legislature
required that Indian education lessons be bolstered in kindergarten
through Grade 6.

In 2001, New Jersey created an Amistad commission, as well as a
Commission on Italian and Americans of Italian Heritage Culture and
Education to advise those involved in making policy.

In California, a Cesar Chavez Day was created in 2000; schools were
directed to include lessons about the farm labor activist. Also in
2000, schools in Rhode Island were directed to teach about genocide
and human rights violations, including the slave trade, the Irish
potato famine, the Armenian genocide of the early 1900s, the
Holocaust, and Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime in wartime Italy.

Virginia directed schools that year to teach about the
accomplishments of people from different backgrounds and races.

But while most legislatures approve curriculum changes recommended by
education departments, teachers, and researchers, New York’s Amistad
Commission is a case of the Legislature trying to circumvent the
state’s policy-setting Board of Regents, according to the law’s
cosponsor.

”We feel there is, indeed, a void in our education curriculum in New
York state when it comes to the issue of slavery and the
dehumanization of Africans,” said Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., a
Brooklyn Democrat.

Critics say that the goal of the commission is laudable but that
teachers have limited time to teach history. They also say educators
are needed on the panel to determine feasibility.

ARMENIAN STUDIES PROGRAM AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY
Contact: Prof. Michael E. Stone ([email protected])
Dr. Sergio La Porta <[email protected]>
Web:

Hebrew University Armenian Faculty Attend International Conference

Jerusalem – From 7-9 September, over 60 scholars of Armenian Studies
gathered in Vitoria, Spain for the Tenth General Conference of the
Association Internationale des Etudes Armeniennes (AIEA). AIEA, which
was founded in 1980 by Professor Michael Stone of the Hebrew University
and Professor J.J.S. Weitenberg of Leiden University in Holland, is an
organization of scholars of Armenian Studies, with its centre in
Europe. The suggestion to found the organization was made by Dr. Nira
Stone. Professor Michael Stone is Honourary Life President of AIEA.

The meeting was attended by scholars from all over Europe, America,
Armenia and the Middle East. From the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Dr. Sergio La Porta, Professor Michael Stone and doctoral student
Mikayel Arakelian all presented lectures, while Dr. Nira Stone also
participated. They met there Hebrew University Armenian Studies PhD
graduate, Professor Peter Cowe of UCLA, and former Armenian Studies
student Pablo Trojiano who teaches at the Compultensian University in
Madrid. Former visiting researcher Prof. Theo van Lint, Gulbenkian
Professor of Armenian at Oxford University also joined in the Hebrew
University reunion.

All the Armenian Studies faculty from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem’s Armenian Studies program were there and they all brought
home new and stimulating ideas. They were able to discuss matters with
colleagues, and as a result new directions of cooperative work are
emerging and will soon be announced. The lectures of the Hebrew
University team were enthusiastically received and garnered very
positive reactions.

Professor Stone devoted his lecture to his recently completed
translation of the medieval Armenian epic poem about Adam and Eve,
written by Arakel of Siunik at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
The poem, a complex composition of quite startling beauty, contains
over 5,500 lines of poetry, which Professor Stone translated into
English poetry. It is presently being considered for publication.

Quite different, but equally stimulating, Dr. Sergio La Porta presented
a paper on `The Earliest Armenian Scholia on the Works Attributed to
Dionysius the Areopagite.’ Dr. La Porta reported on his most recent
progress in the preparation of an edition and translation of the
Armenian commentary on this highly influential work. He proposed a new
date for the composition of the comments as well as challenging their
modern attributions. In addition to providing a linguistic analysis of
the scholia, Dr. La Porta posited the locus of their production and the
context in which they were composed.

Mikayel Arakelian described in detail the catalogue he has prepared of
illuminated late medieval Armenian manuscripts in Germany. This very
thorough work will make known several hundred unknown or little known
manuscripts, describing their character, context and particularly their
artistic character. Mikayel is writing his doctoral thesis on the
Armenian art of New Julfa.

______________________________
The Armenian Studies program at the Hebrew University was established
in 1966. It offers BA, MA and PhD degrees. For further information
contact Prof. Michael E. Stone ([email protected]) or Dr. Sergio
La Porta ([email protected]). The Jerusalem Armenian StudiesWeb Site
is:

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 29, 2005 Thursday 12:34 AM Eastern Time

Georgia PM to attend inter-govt panel meeting in Yerevan

By Eka Mekhuzla

TBILISI

Georgia-Armenia cooperation in the fields of transport, the power
industry, tourism, and construction will be discussed at a meeting of
the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation in Yerevan
on Thursday. The meeting will be attended by Georgian Prime Minister
Zurab Nogaideli, an official in Georgia’s Office of the State has
told Itar-Tass.

During a one-day working visit to Yerevan, Nogaideli is also to hold
talks with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan, and Artur Bagdasaryan, Chairman of the National
Assembly.

In the light of acute shortages of electric power in Georgia in
recent years, Armenia supplies the neighbouring country with up to
160 megawatts of power, or about 10 percent of the entire amount that
Georgia needs.

Mediamax news agency
29 Sep 05

CIS INTERIOR MINISTERS GATHER IN ARMENIAN CAPITAL

Yerevan, 29 September: A session of CIS interior ministers opened in
Yerevan today.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Markaryan said that “today, when the whole world faces new
challenges, we need to draw up a strategy and organize a vigorous
counter-attack against the most dangerous elements of crime”.

“Terrorism, organized crime, illegal drugs and weapons trafficking,
illegal migration and human trafficking are the phenomena that do not
recognize state or political borders and are a real force able to
oppose governmental structures and threaten the national securities
of countries,” the head of the Armenian government said.

Andranik Markaryan pointed out that it is “well-coordinated actions
by all CIS countries that could stamp out terrorism”.

ERDOGAN SAYS EP DECISION WON’T HARM TURKEY’S EU PROCESS

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Sept 29 2005

Ankara never claimed its declaration on not recognising the Greek
Cypriot Administration was a legal document, the Prime Minister said.

Guncelleme: 04:19 ET 29 Eylul 2005 PerºembeABU DHABI – The decision
of the European Parliament to defer the ratification of Turkey’s
extended customs union with the European Union would not have any
impact of the opening of accession negotiations next week.

Responding to the European Parliament’s decision Wednesday to delay
a vote on the amended customs union protocol due to Turkey’s refusal
to recognise the Greek Cypriot state, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said the parliament’s decisions were not binding. “The decision
would not have an impact on our EU process,” he said during a visit
to Saudi Arabia.

Erdogan said that the European Parliament’s vote calling for Turkey’s
recognition of the alleged genocide by the Ottoman Empire against
its Armenian citizens during the First World War was also not binding.

The Turkish Prime Minister said that the EU risked being labelled
a Christian club if it blocked Turkey’s accession. What will the
EU achieve by admitting Turkey? It will become a bridge between the
1.5-billion strong Muslim world and the EU. It will start an alliance
of civilisations,” he said.

Erdogan also slammed a report in the US paper The Washington Times
claiming that he condemned European values and freedoms and was
turning Turkey into a Islamic-fascist state. Erdogan said that no
one could pass such a sentence on a prime minister.

–Boundary_(ID_4oOA84iHdTeAzUz00pUpSg)–

Agence France Presse — English
September 28, 2005 Wednesday 1:11 PM GMT

Britain warns stalling Turkey’s EU membership bid would be a
‘betrayal’

BRIGHTON, England

It would be “a huge betrayal” if the European Union were suddenly to
slam the door on Turkey’s bid to join the bloc, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw said Wednesday.

Straw told the Labour Party’s annual conference in Brighton,
southeast England, that launching accession talks with Turkey next
Monday was one of the “highest priorities” of Britain’s turn at the
rotating EU presidency.

“It would now be a huge betrayal of the hopes and expectations of the
Turkish people and of Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan’s
programme of reform if, at this crucial time, we turned our back on
Turkey,” he said.

Straw will chair an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg next
Monday that is to finalise a negotiating framework, or set of guiding
principles, for the accession talks that would start the same day,
but last many years.

EU leaders gave Turkey a green light at a summit in Brussels last
December for the talks to begin. But strains flared anew after Ankara
reaffirmed last July its refusal to recognize the government of
Cyprus.

Turkey has also come under pressure to recognize what Armenians call
a genocide against their people in the final days of the Ottoman
Empire during World War I — an event that remains highly sensitive
for Turks.

Worries about overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey was a key factor as well
in the stunning rejection of the EU constitution by French voters in
a referendum last May.

Straw said Wednesday: “The decision on Turkey will be made by EU
foreign ministers next Monday, under our presidency… But the test
next week will be of the EU as a whole.”

“Like the United Nations, the EU has to change with a changing
world… Turkey would lose from a ‘no’ decision — but Europe and its
people would lose even more.”

Straw drew a round of applause from Labour delegates when he linked
Turkey’s EU aspirations to the need for the West to engage the Muslim
world, particularly the Middle East.

“Anchor Turkey in the West and we gain a beacon of democracy and
modernity, a country with a Muslim majority, which will be a shining
example across the whole of its neighbouring region,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday in Strasbourg, the European Parliament gave its
cautious backing to next week’s start of talks with Turkey, while
demanding that Ankara recognise Cyprus and the Armenian “genocide”
during the negotiations.

Turkey’s refusal to recognise Cyprus, which joined the EU last year,
has so far proved to be the main stumbling block to the opening of
talks, which could last for 10 to 15 years even if all goes well.

Turkey has steadfastly refused to endorse the internationally
recognised Greek-Cypriot government since Ankara’s troops occupied
the island in 1974 in response to a coup aimed at uniting Cyprus with
Greece.

Speaking to the European Parliament, Britain’s Europe Minister
Douglas Alexander sought to allay fears about the financial burden of
absorbing Turkey, a developing country in relation to the rest of
Europe.

“The negotiations with Turkey will be the most rigorous yet,
reflecting lessons learnt from the previous wave of enlargement. They
are also expected to take many years to conclude,” he said.

A NEW FILM ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT ‘MOSCOW’ CINEMA
By Tamar Minasian

AZG Armenian Daily #173
28/09/2005

Cinema

On October 16, “Moscow” cinema will show the premiere of “Arakel”,
film director Zohrap Bek-Gasparents told journalists yesterday. The
movie depicts events of 1910-15 in Eastern Armenia. It is a story
of a frustrated love that continues and gains momentum as deported
Armenian workers and intellectuals carry out their exile. “This is
a real story that happened to my grandpa’s brother. On this road it
is love that saves them, love that is peculiar only to Armenians and
their faith in God”, the filmmaker said.

The preparatory works of the film began in December of the last
year. The film was shot in Lori, Gyumri, in the surroundings of
the Lake Sevan and Yerevan. The budget of “Arakel” amounted to
$100.000. The film director thinks that this is a very small sum for
a fiction but it’s more important that one has a wish to shoot. Zohrap
Bek-Gasparents thinks that everybody should work hardly in his sphere
to gradually approach the day of Armenian Genocide’s international
recognition.

The film is currently being translated into Russian, English and
French. The authors of the film will make every effort to show it
in Turkey. They also work to represent the film at international
festivals and have so far made several arrangements.

“We have to go back to our faith. We can only pin our hopes on our
God and us. The Armenians are very forgiving. If someone apologizes
for a crime he committed he is sure to be forgiven. As far as our
neighbor lacks nobility to say sorry, we have to present as many
films and books as needed to make them understand”.

PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
e-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: Iris Papazian

September 26, 2005

Ecumenical Symposium in New York and International Conference
In Massachusetts will Convene During Catholicosal Visit to Eastern Prelacy

NEW YORK, NY-An Ecumenical Symposium and an International Conference are
part of the many events scheduled during the visit of His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, to the Eastern Prelacy.
His Holiness will arrive in New York City on October 19, beginning the
final segment of his visit to North America, which included visits to Canada
and California. Commemorative events in celebration of the 75th anniversary
of the establishment of the Seminary at Antelias, as well as religious
services and celebratory banquets are scheduled in a number of the cities
the Pontiff will visit.
An Ecumenical Symposium and an International Conference are two special
events that were planned to coincide with the Catholicos’s visit. His
Holiness will attend and participate in both.

Ecumenical Symposium
In conjunction with His Holiness’s visit, a special ecumenical symposium
has been organized on Saturday, October 22, 2005, at The Interchurch Center,
475 Riverside Drive in New York City under the general theme, “Challenges
Facing the Ecumenical Movement in the 21st Century.” The symposium, which
features The Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, Secretary General of the World Council
of Churches (WCC), as the keynote speaker, is jointly sponsored by the
Eastern Prelacy, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA,
and the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Other speakers and participants include the Rev. Dr. Wesley
Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary of the Reformed Church of America;
The Rev. Dr. Diane Kessler, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council
of Churches; Bishop Thomas Hoyt, President of the National Council of
Churches of Christ in the USA; Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary
of the National Council of Churches; Dr. Anthony Kireopoulos, Deputy General
Secretary of the National Council of Churches; The Rev. Deborah DeWinter,
Program Executive for the United States, World Council of Churches; Fr.
Leonid Kishkovsky, Moderator of the U.S. Conference for the World Council of
Churches and Ecumenical Officer, Orthodox Church in America and a
representative from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Archbishop Oshagan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy, one of the hosts of the
symposium, will provide the welcome. The Symposium will start with prayers,
in the tradition of the Armenian Apostolic Church and a Meditation by Rev.
Prof. Robert Wright, General Theological Seminary.
Closing reflections will be offered by His Holiness Aram I. Attendance
to the all-day event is by pre-registration only.

International Conference
In celebration of the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian
alphabet, an International Conference will take place October 28 and 29, at
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Conference is sponsored by
the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, and Harvard
University’s Mashtots Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations, and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
Scholars from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Armenia
will participate in the two-day conference, which will be attended by His
Holiness Aram I, who during the opening session on Friday evening will
address the gathering.
Papers pertinent to the alphabet and its creator will be presented by
the following specialists: James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian
Studies, Harvard University, Massachusetts; Robert W. Thomson, Gulbenkian
Professor of Armenian Studies (emeritus), University of Oxford, Great
Britain; Gohar Muradyan, Senior Scholar at the Matenadaran, Yerevan,
Armenia; Abraham Terian, Director of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, New
York; Michael Stone, Professor of Armenian Studies, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem; Karen N. Yuzbashian, Oriental Institute, Russian Academy of
Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia; John Huehnergard, Professor of Semitic
Languages, Harvard University; Prods Oktor Skjaervo, Aga Khan Professor of
Iranian Studies, Harvard University; Lusik Stepanyan, Senior Scholar at the
Matenadaran, Yerevan, Armenia; and Akeksan Hagobyan, Senior Scholar at the
Institute of Oriental Studies in Yerevan, Armenia.
The conference is open to the public. The sessions will take place at
Harvard University’s Center for Government and International Studies.
For information on both the Ecumenical Symposium and the International
Conference contact Iris Papazian at the Prelacy, 212-689-7810.

Ecumenical Leader
Catholicos Aram has been an active participant in the worldwide
Ecumenical Movement since the early days of his ministry, and is today an
internationally recognized and respected religious leader. For the past
fourteen years he has been serving as the Moderator of the Central and
Executive Committees of the WCC.
He became intensely active in inter-church dialogue, relations, and
collaboration in 1972 when he was appointed the Catholicosate’s
representative for ecumenical relations, a post he maintained until 1995
when he was elected Catholicos. Through these years he represented the
Church at major theological and ecumenical conferences, assemblies, and
consultations in different parts of the world.
As a strong supporter of inter-religious relations, dialogue and
cooperation, His Holiness has played a significant part in promoting common
values, mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence among religions.

Pontifical Divine Liturgy in New York
A large number of the faithful, especially from the greater Mid-Atlantic
area, are expected to attend the Pontifical Divine Liturgy on Sunday,
October 23, 1:30 pm, at St. Bartholomew’s Church, one of New York City’s
landmark churches. Parishes in the area are arranging bus transportation.
Contact your local parish for information.
A banquet at The Pierre, Park Avenue at 61st Street, will follow the
Divine Liturgy. Reservations for the banquet ($200 per person) can be made
by contacting Dr. Louiza Kubikian, 516-248-2955 or Sophie Khachatryan,
212-689-7810.
Complete details of the Catholicos’s visit are on the Prelacy’s web page
().

REFERENDUM WILL TAKE PLACE DESPITE ANYTHING

A1+
| 17:40:28 | 26-09-2005 | Politics |

Tomorrow in the Parliament a special session will be convened where
the draft Constitution will be discussed. At present the draft which
is to be presented by third reading is not yet distributed to the
Parliamentary fractions; it will be distributed either tonight or
tomorrow morning.

By the way, it is not yet clear if the special session will be
broadcast live or not. The NA deputy President Tigran Torosyan could
not answer the question, but he reminded that the opposition which has
decided to participate in the session does not have much possibility
as the regime of the third reading does not give much time for speeches
and questions.

Asked if there were enough changes introduced into the draft and if
they can say “Yes” to the draft Tigran T Torosyan naturally enough
said, “Yes, of course”. According to Tigran Torosyan, the editing
works are fulfilled, and the formulations are cleared.

Despite the announcements of other deputy Presidents and Armen
Roustamyan who said that the referendum may be postponed, Tigran
Torosyan said that nothing of the kind will take place.

As for the statement that the society is not ready for the referendum,
Tigran Torosyan disagrees with it, “Whether the society is ready or
not the responsibility falls on political powers. For that purpose
after the third reading we must make all efforts to raise public
awareness about it”.

The whole interview with Tigran Torosyan will be published in the
“Ayb-Fe” weekly.