Author: Kanayan Tamar

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:

17th anniversary of the death of
Imam Ruhollah Khomeini

“THE CURRENT SOCIETY SUFFERS FROM
A FALLBACK IN MORAL VALUES”

SAYS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

His Holiness delivered the above message during an official commemoration
held in UNESCO Palace on June 6 on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of
the death of Imam Ruholla Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“One of the greatest conflicts of current society is the fallback in moral
values. We see this worrying phenomenon in families, in structures that
function within societies, in government institutions and in the current
world order in general. The health of a society does not rely on its
political, military or economic power, but on the existence of moral values.
Where moral values are absent, injustice, insecurity, violence, human rights
violations and all kinds of evil reign. Thus we consider the return of moral
values an imperative necessity,” wrote the Catholicos in his message.

The Pontiff’s message was read out by the Primate of the Diocese of Tabriz,
Bishop Neshan Topouzian. The representative of the Lebanese Parliament’s
speaker and the spiritual leaders of the country’s Christian and Muslim
communities also gave speeches during the event.

##
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.

JUNE 18 – 20 10TH ROUND OF NK TALKS TO BE HELD WITHIN THE FRAMES OF DARTMOUTH CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL CONFLICTS

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
June 8 2006

June 18 – 20 the 10th round of the talks between the representatives
of RA, Azeri and Nagorno Karabakh public within the frames of the
American-Russian Working group of Dartmouth Conference on Regional
Conflicts will be held in Snegiri, a town in the Moscow region.

The issues to be discussed will be determined at the spot, RA
Democratic Party leader, RA NA deputy Aram G. Sargsyan told DE
FACTO Information-Analytics Agency. However, it is known that in the
course of the 10th round of the talks the outcomes of the RA and AR
Presidents’ Bucharest meeting are to be discussed.

Aram G. Sargsyan also said some modifications had been made in
RA delegation: RA first ombudsman, executive director of the Fund
against Violations of Law Larissa Alaverdyan had been included in the
delegation. To note, Mrs. Alaverdyan has already participated in the
work of the Dartmouth conference on Karabakh, however, she suspended
her activity being appointed RA ombudsman.

Dartmouth Conference on Regional Conflicts is the only format of the
Karabakh talks held with the participation of the representatives of
the Nagorno Karabakh public. At the 9th round of the talks within
the frames of the Dartmouth conference on Karabakh conducted in
December, 2005 a Frame Agreement on peace process in the region was
coordinated and approved by the representatives of RA, Azeri and
Nagorno Karabakh. March 2006 the Co-Chairs Harold Saunders and Vitaly
Naumkin visited Baku, Yerevan and Stepanakert for the first time.

“ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO SETTLE THE CONFLICT IN PEACEFUL WAY WAS MISSED”

A1+
[03:44 pm] 08 June, 2006

“The window is open, we mustn’t exclude any development, hope dies
but last; we must anchor hope that we shall be able to come to an
agreement on the matters of principle,” RA Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian announced in today’s press release.

The latter didn’t exclude the possibility of meeting with his Azeri
counterpart at any moment but he didn’t go into details and didn’t
inform anything about that forthcoming meeting. “Every meeting is
held when there are new approaches and new offers,” noted Vartan
Oskanian and added that he didn’t see any ground for new offers
yet. He connected the efficiency of the Bucharest meeting with the
offer which is in the process of discussions and with the complication
of the matter. “Unfortunately we failed; the matter under question
was rather complicated. It was also put in front of the Presidents
in Rambouillet and it was again a failure. The new approaches were
not approved either.”

Yesterday the Azeri deputy informed the Armenian journalists that the
Armenian side refused to take the Armenian forces out of 6 regions
and turned down the offer to allocate the peace-keeping forces
instead though they had agreed beforehand. Asked the question by
“A1+” whether the announcement of the Azeri deputy was grounded and
whether the offer was finally turned down Mr. Oskanian answered, “Today
all the questions connected with the conflict settlement are put on
the table. Our foremost task is the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh
status. As for the elimination of the consequences it must be done
after the NKR recognition.”

By the way, if one-page document was put in front of the presidents
during the Paris meeting, it turned into two-page document in
Bucharest. Asked the question what the length of the document is
determined by Vartan Oskanian answered jokingly, “Not by the budget”
and then added that there were no many changes in the contents only
the length of the document changed.

As for Serge Sargsyan’s announcement that Azerbaijan is likely to lose
its chance to settle the conflict in peaceful way Oskanian answered
diplomatically, “After each negotiation we think that another chance
to settle the conflict in peaceful way was missed.”

Vartan Oskanian once more claimed that the NKR conflict has no military
solution; if it had it would have been settled long ago. The Armenian
side frequently announces about the necessity of peaceful negotiations.

‘YOU’VE GOT MAIL,’ SAYS BUNNY NABAZTAG

OhmyNews International, South Korea
June 7 2006

French wi-fi rabbit debuts in the United States
Claire Ulrich (briconcela)
Nabaztag, the wi-fi rabbit
©2006 Violet Company

A CNN tech report, an article in the New York Times, top tech blogs
like Engadget all gush about Nabaztag, a cute plastic rabbit with
wifi-superpowers that makes it the first known wifi-toy on this
planet. To French technophiles, this is old news. Nabaztag was born
in Paris in mid-2005.

50,000 rabbits have been sold since in Europe, where an on-line
cult is developing around the tech-pet. Sold on line or at high-end
retailers for the not cheap price of US$150, it now tackles the North
American market.

What does this 9-inch bunny do, exactly? Nothing robotic. Everything
wi-fi. With a Nabaztag at home, you don’t have to stay glued to
your desktop to stay tuned. Your rabbit will flash colored signals,
tweak its ears, sing, talk, to keep you informed of what goes on in
your online life while you are busy in the kitchen or watching TV in
the lounge.

Given a power outlet and a wifi connection, it warns you of incoming
mail, activity in your RSS reader, briefs you on stocks price, air
quality, weather,trafic conditions in your town (or on the other side
of the world). What else? Wake-up calls, text-to-voice SMS and mails,
domotic alerts (red cheeks? you forgot to close the garage door! ).

And a few fun options, such as Tai-Chi classes for your rabbit, or
marrying two bunnies to synchronise their tasks and ear-positions
through rabbit-to-rabbit communication. Some services are free of
charge, others require a paying subscription.

Nabaztag has a story. It was created by Rafi Haladjian, a French
Net entrepreneur. Why a rabbit? “Because, by pure chance, there
was a toy-rabbit sitting on my desk when we brainstormed about a
non-intrusive object that didn’t need a screen to provide information
in the home.” Why name it Nabaztag? “Because it’s the word for rabbit
in Armenia, my parents’ country.”

Nabaztag is not Mr Haladjan’s first venture. In 1993, he founded
FranceNet, the first French Internet provider, then Fluxus (sold
to British Telecom), and now manages Ozone, an Internet thought
wi-fi network, as well as the Violet company, a design studio of
“smart objects.”

Nabaztag is Violet’s first release. A test run of 5,000 Nabaztags
sold out within a few days in France in July 2005. The company main
challenge nowadays is to keep ahead of the demand, while working on
brothers and sisters for Nabaztag, a whole family of smart objects.

In France, Mr Haladjian is considered an expert on the future of the
Internet. He believes in the dawn of “Pervasive network,” a concept
he frequently lectures about at universities and French think tanks.

He forecasts that Internet connection, thanks to wifi technology, will
soon become as natural and expected as electric power or running water
in homes. At least, in industrialized countries. Screens, desktops,
UC towers will then be cumbersome things of the past.

Borders between the physical and digital worlds will slowly be
erased. Smart objects in your home and life will link directly to a
wifi flow of orders and information. Mr Haladjan intends to make those
not only intelligent but beautiful, poetic, soothing and, above all,
not intrusive.

Right now, cuteness is obviously Nabaztag’s main asset. But will the
tech-bunny become a mainstream household feature? A survey on the
Nabaztag French blog profiles users and their motives for adopting
a wi-fi rabbit. One French fan uses it daily to check on weather and
traffic conditions in Athens (Greece) where her boyfriend lives.

Another writes candidly about what hooked her to her tech-pet:
“Nabaztag makes me feel superior. I am the only one who understands
what my rabbit is telling me.”

Photo:

Rafi Haladjian takes a break in a Paris cafe: the creator of Nabaztag
is at work on a new breed of smart objects for the Internet age ©2006
Claire Ulrich

ticle_view.asp?article_class=4&no=296953&r el_no=1

–Boundary_(ID_YRGFwsv+wx8Z0rsfHqXkkA)–

TURKEY EAGER TO HAVE FRIENDLY TIES WITH ALL NEIGHBORS

Today, Azerbaijan
June 6 2006

State Minister Beshir Atalay said on Monday that the government’s
policy of seeking to avoid problems with neighboring countries
included Armenia.

“As the government, our policy is, first of all, the elimination
of all problems with our neighbors,” Atalay told the Anatolia news
agency in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, where he was attending
a summit aimed at fostering cooperation in the Black Sea region.

Stating that Turkey has so far settled many of its disputes with
neighboring Syria and Greece within a reasonable framework, Atalay
said: “There are problems with Armenia due to well-known reasons. We
expect Armenia to act reasonably and wish as a neighbor to normalize
our relations with Armenia.”

The border gate between the two countries has been closed for more
than a decade. Turkey closed the gate and severed diplomatic relations
with Armenia after Armenian troops occupied the Azerbaijani territory
of Nagorno Karabakh.

Ankara now says normalization of ties depends on Armenian withdrawal
from Nagorno Karabakh as well as on progress in the resolution of
a series of bilateral disagreements, including Armenia putting an
end to its support of Armenian diaspora efforts to win international
recognition for an alleged genocide of Armenians during the latter
days of the Ottoman Empire.

/

URL:

“ARMENIA WILL NOT BE LEFT OUT FROM THE REGIONAL PROGRAMS”

A1+
[09:14 pm] 06 June, 2006

“The member countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
Organization (BSEC) are guided with the principle of egality, non of
the member countries pursues its objectives and there is no threat that
Armenia will be omitted from the regional programs,” announced general
secretary of the BSEC Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos in Yerevan today.

Asked to share his opinion on the Kars-Akhalkalaq-Tbilisi-Baku railway
construction taking into account the fact that the BSEC has already
expressed its opinion on the existing Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway
Mr. Chrisanthopoulos answered that Armenia will be included in the
ring-shaped highway which is still being worked out.

As for the railway he noted that it will be opened when the relations
with Turkey better. Thus, Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos didn’t give direct
answer to the question relating to the Kars-Akhalkalaq-Tbilisi-Baku
railway and announced that in his opinion Armenia will not be left
out of the regional transportation programs.

Just at the beginning of the press release Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos
announced that he is greatly impressed by the progress evident in
Armenia in comparison with 1994. Russia will preside over the BSEC
from May to August 1. Next year Turkey will take up the presidency
during the symposium held in Istanbul.

By the way, RA deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan informed that
this is the only organization which gives an opportunity to get in
touch with Azeris and Turks. “According to its legislation this is
an economic cooperation organization and it mustn’t be used by any
country as a political means to solve its private matters.”

By the way, Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos was the Greek Ambassador
to Armenia in 1992 – 93 and even has a book titled “Caucasian
chronicle.” He met with President Kocharyan and RA Foreign Minster
Vartan Oskanian today.

The key issues of the meeting were the developments of the Black
Sea region, particularly issues connected with economy, security and
stability. They focused on the issues enhancing mutual cooperation.

The general secretary presented the future plans of the organization
and the reforms initiated by him in the secretariat located in Istanbul
to the RA Foreign Minister.

They also referred to a number of agenda issues of the Foreign
Ministers’ forthcoming meeting and to the symposium of the
presidents and governments of the countries in connection with the
15th anniversary of the BSCO. While speaking of the programs of
the organization Minister Oskanian underlined that the promotion of
the transportation and energy substructures is the vital pledge for
regional prosperity and on this score the exploitation and rerunning
of the current substructures is very important.

PRESIDENT OF RA COURT OF APPEAL RECEIVED COE REPRESENTATIVES

ArmRadio.am
06.06.2006 15:11

President of RA Court of Appeal Hovhannes Manukyan received
representatives of the Council of Europe Directorate on Legal Issues
Alesandro Manchinie and Jose Maria, as well as Special Representative
of the CoE Secretary General Boyana Urumova.

The meeting aimed at discussing cooperation in separate directions
between court systems of Armenia and the Council of Europe.

Hovhannes Manukyan presented the process of judicial-legal reforms
in Armenia, which is conditioned both with Constitutional amendments
and the results of activity of the judicial system.

The CoE representatives welcomed the activities directed at creating
an effective court system. On his part, Hovhannes Manukyan expressed
the willingness to cooperate in all those spheres, which will be
considered priority by the Council of Europe.

AZERI, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT
Author: A.Mammadov

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006

Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian
met in Bucharest on 4 June to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
Trend reports citing Radio Liberty.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs involved in the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict also were in attendance.

The details of the meeting are still kept secret. Aliyev and Kocharian
are probable to continue talks on 5 June, local television channel
ATV announced.

ARMENIA, UKRAINE CLINCH TITLES
Rakesh Rao

Hindu, India
June 5 2006

TURIN: The gallant Indian women fell out of top-10 bracket after
running into top seeded Russians in the final round of the Chess
Olympiad before the men’s team ended its agonizing campaign with a
hard-earned victory over Italy `B’ at the Oval here.

On a day when the Armenian men and the Ukrainian women made history
by taking their maiden gold in the game’s premier team competition,
China emerged as the team of the Olympiad by winning medals in both
sections. In the Open section, China took the silver, its first-ever
medal while as defending champion in the ladies category, the team
followed Ukraine and Russia into the medal bracket.

Armenia, winner of the bronze medal in 1992, 2002 and 2004, was
worthy of the gold after being the only undefeated team in the field
of 148 teams. For once, favourite Russia was knocked out of the medal
bracket after losing to Israel 1-3 in the final round. This result,
coupled with China’s victory over Netherlands and USA’s whipping of
Norway pushed Russia to the sixth place, its worst in decades.

On this day, the Indian men went through the motions and the result
did not mean much. With an off-colour Viswanthan Anand choosing to
stay away from the action, victories for K. Sasikiran and P. Hari
Krishna on the top two boards, followed Sandipan Chanda’s fighting
draw on the contributed to the victory. Surya Shekhar Ganguly crashed
to his second straight loss on the third table.

The narrow victory lifted India from its overnight 33rd spot to the
eventual 30 in the standings. This was India’s worst showing since
1998 when it finished 33rd. Since then India took the eighth spot in
2000, 29th in 2002 and a best-ever sixth in 2004.

In comparison, the Indian ladies fared better and took the 12th spot
after suffering a 1-2 defeat at the hands of top seed Russia. While
K. Humpy and D. Harika drew, Swati Ghate’s defeat on the third board
proved decisive.

The results:

Open: Armenia (36) drew with Hungary (32.5) 2-2; China (34)
bt Netherlands (31) 2.5-1.5; Russia (32) lost to Israel (33) 1-3;
Bulgaria (32) bt France (32) 2.5-1.5; USA (33) bt Norway (29.5)
3.5-0.5; Ukraine (32) bt Poland (30) 3-1; Spain (32) bt Denmark
(30) 3-1; Cuba (30.5) drew with Georgia (31) 2-2; Italy ‘B’ (28.5)
lost to India (29.5) 1.5-2.5 (Niccolo Ronchetti lost to K. Sasikiran;
P. Hari Krishna bt Daniele Vocaturo; Sabino Brunello bt Surya Shekhar
Ganguly; Sandipan Chanda drew with Denis Rombaldoni).

Standings:

1. Armenia, 2. China, 3-4. USA and Israel, 5. Hungary, 6-10. Russia,
France, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Spain. 30-35. India, Norway, Brazil,
FYROM, Canada and Italy `A’.

Women: Ukraine (29.5) drew with Armenia (24) 1.5-1.5; India (23)
lost to Russia (27.5) 1-2 (K. Humpy drew with Alexandra Kosteniuk; D.
Harika drew with Tatiana Kosintseva; Swati Ghate lost to Nadezhda
Kosinteva); China (27.5) bt Belarus (22.5) 2.5-0.5; Germany (23.5)
drew with USA (24.5) 1.5-1.5; Poland (22.5) lost to Georgia (24.5)
0.5-2.5; Hungary (24.5) bt Greece (22.5) 2.5-0.5; Czech Republic
(24) bt France (22.5) 2.5-0.5; Philippines (22) lost to Slovenia
(24) 0.5-2.5; Cuba (23) drew with Vietnam (23) 1.5-1.5; Mongolia (21)
lost to Netherlands (24.5) 3-0.

Standings: 1. Ukraine, 2. Russia, 3. China, 4-7. USA, Hungary,
Georgia and Netherlands, 8-10. Armenia, Slovenia and Czech Republic.
11. Germany, 12-17. India, Bulgaria, Romania, Vietnam, Cuba and Latvia.

oikotimes.org, Greece
June 2 2006

Armenia: Andre in press conference stated that not only the diaspora
voted for his entry

Fotis Konstantopoulos reporting from Athens (Greece)
source: armeniadiaspora.com – photo: armeniadiaspora.com

Armenia’s first participation in the Eurovision-2006 song contest
registered great success, whereas there were countries that have
participated in this contest for several dozens of times but have no
success. Singer Andre who represented Armenia at the contest declared
this at the May 31 press conference. Armenia took the 8th place as a
result of voting of viewers of 38 countries and this means that a
representative of Armenia receives an opportunity to perform in the
final without taking part in the semi-final in the next,
Eurovision-2007 festival. Andre is sure that not only the Armenian
Diaspora, but also foreigners have voted for Armenia as they liked
the song.

According to Andre, his performance in semi-final had some
shortcomings that were caused by sound directors. The singer said
that almost participants of all countries had technical problems,
which was normally accepted by them. “We treated this contest very
seriously, whereas for other countries this was a common TV show,” he
emphasized. According to Andre, even the videoing was not done in
accordance with the requirements of the producers of
country-participants. Andre also mentioned that singers with strong
voices, such as representatives of Cyprus and Belgium, took part in
the Eurovision-2006, but they did not pass even to the final: “As a
result, Finland won, which, as the organizers estimated, had come to
Athens for mocking the Eurovision.”