Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Noyan Tapan
July 27 2004

FRENCH SOCIALISTS CONSIDER RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AS

PARIS, 27.07.04. The Socialist party of France considers the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide as an indispensable condition
for Turkey`s membership in the European Union. Francois Holand,
Secretary General of the party, reported about it after his meeting
with Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayipp Erdogan, answering Turkish
correspondents` questions. `It is impossible to specify the term of
negotiations on membership as long as Turkey didn`t recognize the
Genocide,` he said. According to the `Marmara` newspaper of Istanbul,
when journalists said that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide
isn`t considered as a criterion in the issue of the EU membership,
and for what basis the Socialist Party lays down such a condition, F.
Holand reminded that the French parliament had recognized the
Armenian Genocide. News agencies report that the issue of the
Genocide was touched upon during the Holand-Erdogan meeting and
Erdogan noticed that this issue should be submitted to historians for
discussion.

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
July 24 2004

One More Asylum-Seeking Armenian Appears in Baku

Baku Today 24/07/2004 12:32

One more ethnic-Armenian appeared in the capital of the arch foe
neighbor, Azerbaijan, on Friday, seeking to find an asylum in a third
country, ANS reported.

Ispek Sumbatovich, 65, who was detained in Baku’s main airport named
after Heydar Aliyev, claimed that he fled from Armenia in order to
get rid of the hard economic and political situation in his home
country.

Sumbatovich, who confessed that he had fought against Azerbaijan in
1991-94 war, said he would inform the people of Azerbaijan about the
hard conditions in Armenia.

It was the second case of Armenians’ fleeing to Baku to find refugee
in a third country. Two Armenians, Roman Teryan and Artur Apresyan,
surprisingly appeared in Baku’s private ANS television early April of
this year, also claiming that they had left Armenia because of what
they called intolerable conditions in their country.

The two still are kept in the prison of Azerbaijan’s National
Security Ministry. Local media has cited former National Security
Minister Namiq Abbasov as saying that Teryan and Apresyan would be
moved to a third country by late July.

Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics in the southern
Caucasus, are at a state of no war no peace since the latter occupied
one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s territories during the war.

Azerbaijan’s occupied territories include Nagorno-Karabakh, a western
region that was home to nearly 100,000 ethnic-Armenians in late
1980s, and also seven administrative districts around
Nagorno-Karabakh; Lachin, Kelbejar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jebrail, Zengilan
and Qubadli.

Armenian troops continue occupying the Azerbaijani territories since
a cease-fire agreement signed in 1994 despite four UN Security
Council resolutions demanding immediate withdrawal from the
administrative districts.

The Globe and Mail, Canada
July 22 2004

The gentleman writer’s epic

The remarkable success of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin in 1994 has
allowed Louis de Bernières to write his latest exotic epic at a
leisurely pace at his English country house, he tells REBECCA
CALDWELL

By REBECCA CALDWELL
Thursday, July 22, 2004 – Page R1

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Louis de Bernières’s latest
novel, Birds Without Wings, is a grand saga encompassing the full
range of human experience in the lives of villagers in the tiny
hamlet of Eskibahce in Turkey around the time of the First World War.
Fans of the author’s 1994 sleeper bestseller Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin, an epic tale fleshing out the extent of humanity on a tiny
village on a Greek island during the Second World War, would hope for
no less. No, the real shocker of Birds Without Wings is that the book
began not in some sun-drenched Mediterranean paradise, but in
Calgary.

Before Cowtowners start rejoicing at their newly minted literary
importance, it should be noted that the first line of the book that
de Bernières wrote in 1996 while a writer-in-residence at the
University of Calgary’s Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers program
is shot through with insanity and tragedy: “The people who remained
in this place have often wondered why Ibrahim went mad.”

“It might have been from being in a tiny little office with no
windows at a university,” he jokes during a phone interview from his
home, a country house in Norfolk, England. “No, I’d had this going
through my mind for some time, and I think I was waiting for one of
my victims to arrive and I just had this idea about what the first
page should be.”

Although he ended up completing his manuscript on a return journey to
Calgary last year as well, the real inspiration for Birds Without
Wings was a visit to a ghost town in Turkey about a decade ago.

De Bernières was struck by how he could still see the pretty pastels
of the ruined houses of a once-harmonious multicultural community,
home to Christians and Muslims, Greeks and Turks, that was devastated
by political turmoil and a disastrous policy of expulsions and
resettlements, first of Armenians, then of Christian Greeks,
following the First World War, one of the first swellings of a new
wave of 20th-century nationalism.

“They obviously used to have a sophisticated and pleasant life. All
the houses had water systems that filled up off the gutter on the
roofs and had an outside loo on the corner,” he said. “When [the
Christians] left, the local economy collapsed. They lost everybody
who knew how to make anything, and everybody who knew how to do
anything. Some people did come to replace the Christians, but they
were never the same again.”

It was in such a town where de Bernières imagined the setting for his
sketches of young lovers, Christian Philothei and Muslim Ibrahim;
childhood friends Karatavuk and Mehmetcik; the two spiritual leaders
of the town, Father Kristoforos and Abdulhamid Hodja; and the wealthy
landlord, Rustem Bey, his wife Tamara and his Circassian mistress
Leyla.

Interspersed between their vignettes are nearly straight segments of
the historical events of the early 20th century that would shatter
the bucolic world, notably the rise of Mustafa Kemal. Better known as
Mustafa Ataturk, he would lead the disintegrating Ottoman Empire
through the First World War and the savage Gallipoli campaign,
eventually consolidating his own power as the first chief of the new
nation of Turkey.

With 625 pages broken into 95 chapters, plus six epilogues and a
postscript, Birds Without Wings feels a bit episodic, a result not of
intended structural design but how his work evolves from short
stories, he says. De Bernières’s seemingly characteristic impulse to
write about Big Ideas such as nationalism and religious intolerance
also wasn’t a deliberate artistic aim. That he happened to write a
book about the historical failure of nationalism and religious
fanaticism at a time when issues of nationalism and religious
fanaticism are once again radically dividing the world was
coincidental, he says. If anything, the civil and religious wars that
tore through the former Yugoslavia in the nineties were more salient
when he started the book, he points out.

“What gets me interested in a story is a narrative,” said de
Bernières. “The themes, I suppose, come up almost by accident when
you’re writing a book like this. They’re there, but you don’t have to
put them in on purpose. There’s all sorts of things, you know,
there’s nationalism and religion and honour and love, war,
comradeship, all of these things. But I would never sit down and
think, ooh, I must write a book about comradeship.”

For the record, though, the abuse of nationalism and religion is
something he feels strongly about. In a way, writing about the topic
is his inheritance: De Bernières may be a French name, but he is
English, a descendent of Huguenots fleeing persecution in
18th-century France.

“I actually think religion is evil when it’s in its militant phase,”
he said. “When you’re militant, and you think you have God on your
side and you have a direct telephone line to him, then you’re going
to start all sorts of unpleasant mayhem. I actually think it is
absurd to claim to know things that are actually unknowable. And I
know that nationalism is a load of rubbish. Look at my country. There
is no such thing as a purebred Englishman.”

In the slow summer book season, newspapers in Britain have been
anxiously awaiting their turn to weigh in on what’s being touted as
the adult equivalent of a Harry Potter novel. As with Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin, the initial critical reception to Birds Without
Wings in Britain has been mixed (North American reviews will wait
until the book’s official release date on July 24). The Independent
declared it a masterpiece; while Peter Kemp of The Sunday Times
accused him of “stereotypes spray-painted with exoticism.”

The somewhat publicity-reluctant de Bernières — he’s not doing any
television interviews in Britain because, “As soon as you are on the
television, you become interesting to the tabloid newspapers, and
then you have people on the lawn with cameras” — doesn’t go out of
his way to read reviews, although people will call him up with
congratulations or commiserations.

“Sometimes you read criticism which is actually quite helpful, and
you think, hmm, yes, that’s a good point,” he said. “The Peter Kemp
one — he was annoyed with me that everyone was called Ali the
Broken-Nosed or Ali the Snowbringer, or etc, etc. The fact is that
back in those days, Turks didn’t have surnames, so that’s what they
were being called, but Peter Kemp thought that was just me trying to
be fake-exotic. That kind of criticism is just so ignorant, it just
makes you feel contemptuous rather than hurt.”

De Bernières, 49, is in the fortunate position of being able to take
the occasional bad review in stride. He’s earned his professional
cred long ago, selected as one of the Best of Young British Novelists
by Granta in 1993 and claiming a fistful of Eurasia-region
Commonwealth Writers Prizes — for a double-dose of magic realism,
1990’s The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts and 1991’s Senor Vivo
and the Coca Lord. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin won the overall
Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1995, but more important, Corelli won
him some creative breathing space.

Since being released in 1994, Corelli has sold 2.5-million copies in
the Commonwealth alone, propelled by a marketer’s impossible dream —
word-of-mouth sales. The film rights were sold for roughly £200,000
(almost $486,000 Canadian). With his money, de Bernières was able to
stop scratching out a living as a substitute teacher and buy his
country house, which he shares with his partner, an actress and
director. There, the rural-Surrey-bred, prep-school-educated author
has built his own Arcadia.

In the 10 years since Corelli, he’s leisurely produced Red Dog, a
children’s book about a legendary Australian mutt, and Sunday Morning
at the Centre of the Universe, a radio play meant as a farewell to
his old London community before he left for the country. De Bernières
has plans for two more novels as well as two books of short stories,
but he’s not racing to write them, although not because the success
of Corelli means he doesn’t have to.

“I only ever wrote when I felt like it, so that hasn’t changed,” he
said. “There was never a time when I suddenly thought, ooh, my life
has changed, everything is completely different, because it was all
happening so gradually. The best thing is that I bought myself a
house in the country where I can live with lots of space and
tranquillity.”

He spends his newly purchased spare time not writing more, but
tinkering about with cars (he has fixed up three, his oldest a 1947
Ford Pilot) and indulging in his one real obsession: playing music
and restoring instruments. He’s fond of woodwinds, and “things with
frets and strings” including guitars, banjos and, of course,
mandolins.

“It was the first time I’d had any money or spare time and I found
that when I quit teaching, I suddenly had that much more time for
hobbies, so I didn’t write any more than I did before,” he said. “I
also wanted time for my style and approach to change a bit, to
mature. I didn’t want to write Captain Corelli’s Mandolin twice.”

Waiting in pain

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has left families of missing
soldiers in agonies of uncertainty, reports Nick Paton Walsh

The Guardian
Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Gammadin Mamedov has endured nearly twelve years of pain, living with
the belief that his young conscript son, Ikhtiyar, who disappeared in
1993, is still alive.
Clutching a picture of him, he says: “I have seen a Red Cross list of
prisoners who are still alive, and he is on it.”

A decade after a fragile ceasefire was implemented, the uncertainty over
the destiny of people like Ikhtiyar is fuelling tensions in the
long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Daily skirmishes
have haunted the border between the two countries, on the edge of a
disputed territory known as Nagorno-Karabakh.

When the open warfare that claimed 25,000 lives and uprooted 600,000
Azeris was at its peak, Ikhtiyar was 18 and serving in the relative
safety of the Baku unit 126, guarding the capital city’s key sites. Yet
suddenly, on February 13, he was drafted to the frontline. Six days
later, his unit found itself caught up in some of the fiercest fighting
of the war, at Agdara. Ikhtiyar, the unit’s radio operator, got
separated from the other soldiers. “They did what they could to find
him,” says Gammadin, “but they lost 13 men that day. It was messy.”

In the days after their disappearance, the parents of the 13 men
searched the battled-scarred hills for their sons to no avail. “We heard
nothing about him,” Gammadin says under the shady bows of a tree outside
his house in the border village of Shukubayli. “But a year later one of
the thirteen missing troops was released. He showed me photos of
Ikhtiyar, working at a bakery in the town of Shusha [in Nagorno-Karabakh].”

The appearance of Ikhtiyar’s name on the lists of prisoners from the
Azerbaijani state commission for the missing feeds Gammadin’s hopes.
“The Red Cross list was last updated in February,” he says. “I am just a
poor person, not a minister, and do not know if we should make war
again. Our wounds from the last war are still healing. I am just a
father who wants his son back.”

The fate of the so-called “NK missing” has helped keep the two
countries’ knives at each other’s throats. Azerbaijan claims there are
4,959 people “missing” since the war and charges that 783 are still
being held captive by Armenia. Armenia claims 600 are missing.
Azerbaijan says the Armenian claims they have only held 50 or 60
prisoners at a time are nonsense, as they released 1,086 people between
1993 and 2000.

International observers say that most of these people are dead. “It’s
pretty expensive and hard to conceal if an impoverished state keeps 800
people prisoner for twelve years,” says one. They accept there are a few
exceptions, although details are sketchy and often mired in the secrecy
that surrounds this sensitive issue. Arzu Abdullayeva, a human rights
worker from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly who specialises in the
missing, says the last release was this year in January but does not
provide further details.

Armenia was the de facto victor in the war, Nagorno-Karabakh – a large
slice of former Azerbaijani territory – seized during two years of open
warfare. Armenia, a predominantly Christian state, considers
Nagorno-Karabakh within its ancient borders, first demarcated in 782BC.
Yet Azerbaijan, most of whose people are Shia Muslims, says the
territory was part of the old kingdom of Albania, from whose Alban
people Azerbaijan claims ancestry going back 10,000 years.

Fighting first began under the Soviets in 1988 and 11,000 extra Russian
troops could not stop the fighting from escalating a year after the two
states got independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Over 1.4 million
refugees were created by the conflict.

Azerbaijan labels the Armenian-backed government of Karabakh, whose
territory is not internationally recognised, as “terrorists”. Irascible,
they even threatened to take away the BBC’s right to broadcast their
Azeri language service in the country because of coverage of the
conflict they considered “biased”.

Inter-governmental bickering only sours Gammadin further. “This was not
a real war, but one of special interests: the poor died and the rich got
richer. I am ready to give my house up to buy him back, or my life.
Today would have been his 30th birthday,” he says, his silent rage
turning his wife Roza to tears.

Around the village, there are several families feeling the same sense of
bewilderment and loss as the Mamedovs. Yet, despite such raw wounds, the
new Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliev, said recently that, if
negotiations failed, he would retake the disputed territory “at any cost”.

Playing to those critics who feared he would use the conflict to unite
the impoverished and frustrated Azerbaijani people, he added: “Our army
is capable of freeing occupied territory at any moment. Azerbaijan is in
a condition of war.”

A few hundred metres down the road from Gammadin’s windowless house,
built for him by the Red Cross, this war is very real. A ramshackle
gaggle of conscripts mill around a dishevelled farmhouse that is about
300 metres from the front line, marked by a gaggle of white buildings in
the distance, off limits to reporters.

“You could get shot at any moment,” says the lieutenant in charge of the
unit. As well as the danger of snipers, there are the snakes. The grass
of the hot and dusty plains has been burned away around some key
buildings, the sooty, charred turf less hospitable to snakes whose venom
can only be treated in the central hospital, too often an expensive
drive away. The young men, many wearing only tatty flip-flops, chase the
water truck with their empty tin mugs as it drives up to the base.

A week ago today, the war claimed its last publicised casualty.
Azerbaijan announced that Private Elnur Aliyev, 19, died from a gunshot
wound in his chest at the village of Agdam, on the border. He was the
fourth soldier whose death was admitted by the ministry of defence.
Three civilians have also died from fighting and 11 from the landmines
that pepper the borders.

International monitors say the number of clashes along the border has
this year been at its highest since the ceasefire began. While most
observers say neither side is sufficiently well-equipped to want to
start a proper war, there are fears the clashes may spiral out of
control and a slow, open war of attrition may break out, specifically
over the water and hydroelectric interests in the disputed, dry region.

But to Vugar, a conscript who has moved his metal bed out of the parched
squalor of the barracks to set up a makeshift dormitory with three
friends beneath the endless blue sky on a nearby, arid hill, the clashes
are just something else to survive. “One of our friends was shot in the
head by a sniper last month,” he says. “And then they shot a shepherd
and his two sons as well. All I want to do is live.”

The Moscow Times
Tuesday, July 20, 2004. Page 5.

Sukhoi, Sibir Ink $1Bln Jet Contract

By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer

Sukhoi Aviation has reached an agreement with No. 2 domestic carrier
Sibir for a $1 billion acquisition of 50 regional jets that Sukhoi
develops jointly with Boeing, the companies said in a joint statement
Monday.

“This is more than a memorandum of understanding,” Sukhoi deputy
general director Vadim Razumovsky said at the Farnborough
International Air Show that opened in England on Monday. “We will sit
down and in a short period of time outline the contract, its schedule
and financing,” he said, adding that he expects the deal to be firmed
up later this year.

Razumovsky said that Sibir has opted for the 95-seater version of
Sukhoi’s Russian Regional Jet family with the catalogue price of $26.2
million per jet. Delivery of the aircraft will start in 2007.

Sukhoi’s revenues were $1.5 billion last year, mainly from the export
of its fighter jets.

“[Agreement with Sibir] will allow us to fully launch the programs of
the new family of Russian regional aircraft in the near future,”
Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan said in the joint statement.

Sukhoi, which began the RRJ program in 2001, was waiting for a launch
order to get the program off the ground.

Flag carrier Aeroflot, which is soon due to announce a tender for 50
regional jets, in 2001 signed a memorandum of understanding for 30
RRJs that has not been formalized into a contract.

“I hope that Sukhoi’s promises about aircraft characteristics and
delivery schedules will be fulfilled, we needed regional aircraft
yesterday,” said Sergei Koltovich, head of fleet planning for
Aeroflot.

He said the listed price of $26 million is high and will make it
difficult for an airline to turn a profit, especially in Russia, with
low domestic yields.

Aeroflot is looking for jets at half that price.

Sibir spokesman Ilya Novokhatsky said that Sibir has yet to identify
the sources of financing, which will most likely come in the form of
loans.

Russia’s fastest-growing airline, Sibir has a fleet of 52 Tupolevs and
Ilyushins, which last month and this month have been supplemented by
two Airbus 310s formerly operated by Aeroflot.

In the past Sibir has been critical of the domestic aircraft industry
and its programs, including the RRJ, for the lack of immediate
availability and economic efficiency.

A source in the aviation industry said Monday that the agreement is a
trump card for Sibir, which is trying to get preferential treatment
from the administration in Novosibirsk, where the jet will be
produced, in the upcoming sale of the state’s 51 percent stake in
Novosibirsk’s airport, one of Sibir’s bases.

Sibir declined to comment on this.

RIA Novosti, Russia
July 17 2004

OSCE: KARABAKH TEAM CO-CHAIRS FOR AZERI TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

BAKU, July 16 (RIA Novosti’s Gherai Dadashev) – All three co-chair
countries on the OSCE Minsk group insist on Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. They have not recognised independence of the
self-proclaimed Karabakh republic in the Azeri Armenian-populated
enclave.

The statement came from Yuri Merzlyakov, co-chair for Russia, as he
was addressing a news conference to sum up the three co-chairs’
preceding visit to the Karabakh conflict zone.

As Stephen Mann, co-chair for the USA, emphasised to the conference,
the Minsk group countries see peaceful settlement as the only way out
of the Karabakh conflict. They firmly believe in that road alone to
lead to lasting peace in the area. If things take a different turn,
the outcome will certainly be tragic, he warned.

The co-chairs did not mean by their visit to prompt any of the
conflicting parties to whatever resolutions. Success at the
negotiation table depends on the Parties’ goodwill to meet each other
halfway. Responsibility for the talks lies on the Armenian and Azeri
leaders alone-certainly not on the Minsk group of the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Progress of the talks also
depends on the national leaders alone, stressed Mr. Mann.

Henri Jacolin, co-chair for France, said he would not like to sum up
the Minsk group heads’ negotiations with Armenian and Azeri spokesmen
proceeding from whatever value scale. It will take a long time to
settle such an entangled issue as the Karabakh, he emphatically
added.

The co-chairs will stay in consultation with the conflicting parties
within a few next weeks, they said.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 14, 2004 Wednesday

OSCE envoys come to Armenia without new proposals on Karabakh

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Representatives of the Minsk Group for settling the conflict in
Nagorny Karabakh reporting to the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe told a news conference here Wednesday they had
not brought along with them any new proposals on how to settle the
conflict dragging on since late 1980’s.

The diplomats addressed the correspondents at the outcome of meetings
on the problem, but refrained from disclosing any details citing
confidentiality of the talks.

“We believe the sides must not waste time away, and actions must be
taken right now,” said the Russian envoy Yuri Merzlyakov.

“The sides are now working on the agenda of future talks in the light
of changes in the situation after elections in Azerbaijan,” he said.

Merzlyakov had to admit, however, there was nothing new at sight.

Steven Mann, a U.S. envoy, said solution of the problem was highly
dependent on contingent on the stance that Armenia and Azerbaijan
would take, and the Minsk Group could only help them tap the
practical solutions.

The sides will be the brunt of responsibility for decision-making,
and the OSCE leaves it up to them to decide who should take part in
the talks, Mann said.

The French envoy, Henri Jacolin, said the talks would definitely take
some time, since one or two meeting would by no means suffice to
untangle of conflict like the one in Nagorny Karabakh.

He also warned that there was no external force, including the Minsk
Group that could possibly offer a miraculous solution to the Karabakh
problem.

Jacolin stressed the European Union’s great interest in a peaceful
settlement of the dragged-out conflict and general stability in
Southern Caucasus, in the light of which the Europeans were closely
watching the progress of talks on Karabakh.

The EU is ready to take part in rehabilitation, social and economic
development of the region after the conflict is settled, Jacolin
indicated.

ARKA News Agency
July 16 2004

New German Ambassador to Armenia Haikke Renate Paich to arrive in
Yerevan in the middle of August

Photo-journalism courses to open in Caucasus Media Institute since
October 1

*********************************************************************

NEW GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA HAIKKE RENATE PAICH TO ARRIVE IN
YEREVAN IN THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST

YEREVAN, July 16. /ARKA/. New German Ambassador to Armenia Haikke
Renate Paich will arrive in Yerevan in the middle of August, RA NA
told ARKA with reference to German Ambassador to Armenia Hans Wolf
Bartels. The Ambassador considers it important to deepen bilateral
economic cooperation in all directions. He also expressed hope that
German businessmen will continue investments in Armenian economy.
L.D. –0–

*********************************************************************

PHOTO-JOURNALISM COURSES TO OPEN IN CAUCASUS MEDIA INSTITUTE SINCE
OCTOBER 1

YEREVAN, July 16. /ARKA/. Photo-journalism courses will open in
Caucasus Media Institute since October 1. According to CMI Director
Vigen Chiterian, two-year education program, conducted by CMI and
World Press Photo, will allow young photo-journalists directly
communicate with leading photo-reporters of the world. According to
him, WPP specialists will teach at the courses. Besides, in the end
of the courses the works of the students (photo story) will be
represented at photo-exhibition in Amsterdam.
The courses are envisaged for photo-journalists from Armenia and CIS
at the age of 17-30 years.
The cost of 9-months course makes $300.
World Press Photo is one of the most authoritative organizations in
the field of photo-journalism. It was founded in 1995 in Netherlands.
L.D. –0–

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
07/15/2004
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://

1. Armenian Patriarch of Turkey Speaks in Favor of Turkey EU Membership
2. Western Prelacy Blesses Saints Dertad And Ashkhen Chapel Cornerstone
3. Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia Sign Accord to End Separatist Conflict
4. NEWS BRIEFS

1. Armenian Patriarch of Turkey Speaks in Favor of Turkey EU Membership

ISTANBUL (ARMENPRESS)–The Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Archbishop Mesrob
Mutafian, met recently with the France’s Consul General in Istanbul,
Jean-Christophe Peaucelle, who was eager to learn about the religious leader’s
views on Turkey’s accession to the European Union (EU). To date, France has
resisted Turkey’s efforts to gain EU membership.
Archbishop Mutafian told Peaucelle that it would incorrect to view the
international community of Armenians as a homogeneous body. “French Armenians
who resist Turkish EU membership represent only one part of the Armenian
community. Along with Diaspora Armenians who advocate against Turkey’s
accession to EU, there are also Armenians who support the process because they
realize the benefits Turkey’s membership can have on Turkish-Armenian
relations,” he said.
Mutafian said that he too, as the Armenian Patriarch, often speaks in
favor of
Turkey’s drive, and believes that its membership will have a “very positive”
effect on a number of issues, including Turkish-Armenian relations, regional
stability, and the condition of Turkey’s national minorities.

2. Western Prelacy Blesses Saints Dertad And Ashkhen Chapel Cornerstone

LA CRESCENTA–The Western Prelacy marked an important milestone on Sunday,
July
11, with the blessing of the Prelacy chapel cornerstone, which signaled the
beginning of the chapel’s construction, and the renovation of the Prelacy
building.
Many faithful gathered at the Prelacy in La Crescenta to witness the historic
event and to partake in the ceremony which was conducted by Prelate Archbishop
Moushegh Mardirossian, and Prelacy clergy.
Prelacy benefactors were on hand, along with those who have sponsored the
Chapel, Altar, baptismal font, the 16 pillars and various parts of the
Prelacy.

Also present were representatives of the Catholicosate of the Great House of
Cilicia, Prelacy Executive Council, Prelacy committees and parishes, and a
congregation of supporters.
As the reading of prayers and scripture proceeded, His Eminence the Prelate
conducted the washing of the cornerstones of the Alter and the 16 pillars of
the chapel with wine and water. The 16 pillars symbolize Christ’s Disciples,
the Evangelists, and the founder of the Armenian Church, St. Gregory the
Illuminator.
The Prelate then anointed each stone with Holy Oil and handed them to the
godfathers to be placed at the foundations of the chapel.
After the ceremony, the Prelate expressed his contentment for the achievement
of the significant milestone, accomplished with the grace of God, and informed
the faithful that the new chapel would be named after the first Christian king
and queen of Armenia, St. Dertad and St. Ashkhen.
Recalling that the year 2004 has been declared the “Year of the Armenian
Family,” by Catholicos Aram I, the Prelate said it is “most appropriate to
name
the chapel after the first Christian family of our nation.”
Thanking all sponsors and Prelacy benefactors, the Prelate extended a special
appreciation to the Bedrosian, Carolan, and Pilavjian families, who have
provided both moral and financial support, not only to the Prelacy Building
project, but also to the Prelacy as a whole, enabling it to carry out its
mission to serve the mother church and the Armenian Community.

3. Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia Sign Accord to End Separatist Conflict

MOSCOW (AFP)–Russia, Georgia and its separatist region of South Ossetia
signed
an agreement aimed at ending the escalating conflict over the disputed
province.
The tiny mountainous region on Georgia’s border with Russia has seen a string
of clashes recently that have increased tensions between Tbilisi, South
Ossetia’s self-proclaimed government, and its protector Moscow.
“All sides signed the agreement,” Russian army deputy chief for peacekeeping
operations, Valery Evnevich told reporters in Moscow.
Georgian, South Ossetian, and Russian officials had met behind closed doors
for two days in Moscow as part of a joint commission working to defuse the
recent tensions over the disputed province.
“All sides reaffirmed their aim to strictly follow the principle of
peacefully
resolving the conflict and emphasized that using force and economic
pressure as
unacceptable,” Evnevich said.
But he also said the joint commission would continue to meet in South
Ossetia’s capital Tskhnivali until the conflict was completely resolved, a
hint
that tensions in the volatile region were unlikely to die down immediately.
Recent flareups have included armed South Ossetians detaining Georgian police
officers at gunpoint and Georgia seizing two Russian convoys, including one
with military equipment reportedly for Moscow’s peacekeepers stationed in the
region.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia after fighting a civil war
against Tbilisi with Russian support in the early 1990s, following the fall of
the Soviet Union.
Today, the province is effectively a Russian protectorate, with most
residents
holding Russian passports, using rubles and relying on Moscow to keep Tbilisi
at bay. Peacekeepers from Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia patrol separate
parts of the province.

But tensions in the region have risen recently amid moves by Georgia’s new
president Mikhail Saakashvili, to make good on his January election pledge to
reunify his fractured former Soviet republic.
Russia, the traditional power broker in the Caucasus, has warily watched the
efforts of the pro-Western Saakashvili, who in May succeeded in ousting a
pro-Moscow leader in Georgia’s semi-autonomous region of Adjara.

4. NEWS BRIEFS

HALO Trust Continues Progress in Karabagh

STEPANAKERT (ARMENPRESS)This year, the HALO Trust has destroyed 240
antipersonnel landmines, 230 antitank mines and 718 items of unexploded
ordnance in Mountainous Karabagh. In a press relase on July 14, the
organization also announced that it has helped clear some 2,400 acres of land
in 2004 alone.
Nagorno Karabagh is one of the most mine-affected areas in the world and
accidents continue to plague the region. The per capita accident rate is
higher
in Karabagh than in more publicized countries like Afghanistan and
Cambodia. As
people are repatriated into uncharted, potentially mined territory, landmine
accidents continue to occur,” the press release noted. In the month of June
alone, HALO reported three accidents that injured four civilians.
HALO is a NGO that provides employment for 199 locals in Karabagh. At present
manning levels, the organization expects to clear the Karabagh’s mines in five
to seven years. For more information about HALO visit

Aliyev Reiterates His Position on Karabagh Conflict

YEREVAN (YERKIR)Speaking at the opening ceremony of a new plant in Baku on
Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reiterated his government’s
stance on the settlement of the Mountainous Karabagh conflict.
“The conflict can be resolved only by maintaining Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. Azerbaijan will not compromise its position on the settlement of
the
Mountainous Karabagh conflict. This is a fair position…” Aliyev said.
Aliyev also indicated that the government will be able to spend one-third of
its recently generated surplus on its army. “This is our priority and
Azerbaijan has a powerful army. The army has to be stronger and it will be,”
Aliyev added.

Saakashvili Calls on West to Put Pressure on Russia

LONDON (ARMENPRESS)At a news briefing in London on July 14 Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili called on western powers to place pressure on Russia, over
its policy on South Ossetia.
“I do believe that some elements in Moscow are carrying out aggressive plans;
and not just plans but they are carrying out aggressive actions. These are
people who have rid themselves of their imperial ambitions,” Reuters and AP
quoted Mikhail Saakashvili as saying.
Russia says that it can not remain “indifferent towards the fate of its
citizens, which comprise an absolute majority in South Ossetia.”

Armenian Student Provides Bone Marrow to Italian Child

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)A five-year Italian child with leukemia was saved after
her genetic makeup matched that of 22-year-old Armenian student, Vahe
Vardanian. The bone marrow transplant operation was performed on July 6 in
Italy. Experts say the results of the procedure will be evident in a year.
Last year, Vardanian was included in the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry,
which now has 8000 members. By increasing the pool of donors, registry
participants give blood-disease patients a greater chance of survival.

Armenian Minister, Indian Ambassador Discuss Cooperation

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)On July 14, Armenian Urban Minister Aram Harutunian met
with India’s Ambassador to Armenia Deepak Vohra to discuss, according to the
ministry press office, “cooperation prospects between the two countries.”
Both men stated that cooperation between the countries may involve such areas
as the construction of seismic-resistant buildings, the preservation of
historical towns and the organization of architectural exhibitions. The sides
also plan to share information about urban planning. The meeting indicated
that
India may serve as a donor country in a Council of Europe implemented project
aimed at the rehabilitation of architectural and historical sites in Armenia.
Vohra said he will brief the newly appointed Urban Minister of India about the
details of the meeting

Construction of Entertainment Center Stopped

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)Following public outcry, the construction of another
entertainment center in downtown Yerevan was halted. A municipal official said
the orders came from the president and mayor. Some trees in the area had,
however, been cut before government officials interfered. The construction
center, which was approved by former Yerevan mayor Robert Nazarian, was to be
built at the intersection of Isahakian and Teryan streets.

Government Releases Urgent Aid to Syunik

KAPAN (ARMENPRESS)The government has allocated 33 million drams in emergency
assistance to the southern province of Syunik, which was recently
devastated by
strong hailstorms and winds that destroyed tens of homes. The money was used
for building materials that will be distributed to the affected communities.

French-Armenian Relations Continue to Develop

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)”I am so happy to celebrate the national holiday of
France in the company of so many Armenian friends,” Henry Cuny, the French
Ambassador in Yerevan told journalists on June 14 when the embassy organized a
special ceremony to mark the holiday. In his remarks, the ambassador, who
spoke
about the excellent relations between the two countries, noted that France
will
declare the 2006-2007 year as the Year of Armeniaan arrangement that was
agreed
to by the presidents of the two countries. “Armenian-French relations today
encompass virtually all sectors and continue to develop based on a similar
approach,” Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said. Oskanian also
thanked and commended France for helping Armenia integrate into the European
family.

Armenian-British Agreement on Cultural Center Signed

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)On Thursday, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
and
British ambassador to Yerevan Thorda Abbot-Watt signed an agreement concerning
the development of cultural centers. Under the agreement, the British Council
is officially recognized as the body that coordinates cultural ties between
Armenia and Great Britain. The agreement also stipulates that each party has
the right to establish cultural centers in their partners’ capital city.

Armenian Fencers to Compete in Tehran

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)On Thursday, a 4-member Armenian team of fencers left
Yerevan for Tehran. The athletes will compete in an international fencing
competition to be held from July 17-20.

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Pioneer Press Online, IL
July 14 2004

Mixed group focuses on library
BY CHUCK FIELDMAN
STAFF WRITER

With a long-range plan for the Elmwood Park Public Library due to the
state in October, director Shawn Strecker figured it was a good time
to get some input from the community.

Instead of writing such a plan herself or having one of the
librarians compose something, Strecker opted to form sort of a focus
group and invite approximately 30 Elmwood Park residents to a May 22
meeting. The result of that forum was a collection of opinions and
information that will be used to write a new long-range plan and a
mission statement for the library.

“I haven’t been here that long, only a couple of years, so I thought
it would be beneficial to invite members of the community for some
input,” Strecker said.

She made it a point to have a good cross section of residents at the
May 22 meeting, including educators, village officials, seniors,
teens and representatives from a variety of community groups.

“We had people who use the library and some who really don’t,”
Strecker said. “There wasn’t a lot of difference (from those two
groups) in what they had to say.”

The first part of the meeting focused on Elmwood Park as a village
and not the library specifically. From there, discussions were
conducted about how the library fits in with opportunities, strengths
and weaknesses in the village.

“Elmwood Park has become a combination of different ethnic groups,”
Strecker said, “and there are a lot of new residents who have just
come from another country. We talked about these people fitting in
and what the library can do to help.”

The biggest surprise to Strecker, she said, was a consistent opinion
about the importance about preserving the heritage of the residents,
regardless of where they came from.

Elmwood Park traditionally has had a very large Italian population.
That still is the case, but many newer residents come from other
places. There has been an especially large increase in both the
Polish and Armenian populations over the past few years, Strecker
said.

“It was very important to everyone that four generations from now
that there still is something to mark the heritage of where people
(in Elmwood Park) came from,” she said.

Strecker said there also was considerable input about how many
Elmwood Park residents feel that the train tracks that run through
the village create a dividing line.

“It seemed that a lot of people feel like it’s almost two different
communities, one south of the tracks and one north,” she said. “And
some of the people who live south of the tracks feel separated from a
lot of things in the community, like the library, which are north of
the tracks.”

Strecker said there was a particular concern from parents of young
children who live south of the tracks because about safety because
train tracks have to be crossed in order to get to the library.

A mission statement is being worked on by Strecker and the Library
Board, as is a new long-range plan, written to cover the next three
to five years.

“The (focus group meeting) definitely was beneficial,” Strecker said.
“It will help us to create a better long-range plan and mission
statement.”