Author: Nahapetian Lilit

EU MEMBERSHIP COULD FORCE ARMY DRAFT ON CYPRUS MINORITIES

Agence France Presse — English
January 9, 2007 Tuesday 3:38 PM GMT

EU membership could force the minority Christian communities in Cyprus
to sign up for military service in the Greek Cypriot national guard.

The defence ministry said Tuesday it will move to revoke a cabinet
decree exempting the Armenian, Latin and Maronite communities
from compulsory military service, after a meeting with their
representatives.

"We briefed them of the ministry’s decision to extend compulsory
military service to their community … EU accession now means equal
treatment under the law," defence ministry permanent secretary Petros
Kareklas told reporters.

"The time has come for this special treatment to come to an end, all
citizens must share in the burdens and rights of their EU country,"
he added. "By the end of February, this issue should be wrapped up."

The divided island of Cyprus, where young Greek Cypriots serve 25
months in the 10,000-strong national guard, became an EU member state
in May 2004.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and
seized the island’s northern third in response to an Athens-engineered
coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

About 6,000 Maronites, up to 3,000 Armenians and 700 Latins live on
the eastern Mediterranean island as part of the Greek Cypriot rather
than the Turkish Cypriot community.

Capacity and Development for Civil Society NGO announces

Dear all

Partners and students
youth of the world !!!

Join the enthusiastic team of American teachers and Armenian counselors to
gain knowledge of civics and practice leadership skills. The camp will take
place in one of the most picturesque corners of the world, Lori Region
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http://www.armenia <http://www.armenia/> . am/ and will combine an
intensive schedule of comprehensive classes and fun-loaded activities time!

Armenia Camp 2007 was designed based in Ukrainian camp 2006.

This innovative project will join lots of enthusiastic, creative young
people, who are going to make a BIG difference in the world.

OUR MISSION

Instill belief and skills in young people that they can create the civil
society they want to live in – locally and globally

Goals:

1. Improve English language skills so students can confidently participate
in the global community.

2. Increase skills in civic leadership, evaluation of global issues,
reasoned communication and project planning so participants can create
change on a local or global scale.

3. Increase capacity of local participants to develop curriculum, team and
program design and management skills for long term sustainability.

4. Model positive attitude, behavior and problem-solving skills to increase
self-confidence of participants that they can initiate change.

5. Develop respect and appreciation for cultural differences on an
individual level that evolves into a desire to work together collectively.

Now applications are open for both countries Armenia and Ukraine, for
international students and youth and for locals. You can look in website

<http: //; 2007-armenia.php

We are now in the fundraising procedures and all donations are welcome

Also Please see applications and related documents attached

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact:

Armenian Camp Coordinator
Lusine Simonyan
email: [email protected] , [email protected]
tel: (37491) 534403
fax: (374)23287

Ukrainian local coordinator
Dmitriy Say
tel: 380-512-56-57- 91
email: dimitrious2002@ yahoo.com
Thanks and welcome to Armenia and Ukraine!!!
Open new cultures and adventures!

CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
Tel:+995 32 75 19 03/04
Fax:+995 32 75 19 05
E-mail: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
URL: <;

SANA – Syrian Arab News Agency, Syria
Jan 6 2006

Armenians Denomination Celebrates Eastern Christmas

Saturday, January 06, 2007 – 05:25 PM
Damascus,(SANA)-

The Armenian Orthodox Denomination which follows the Gregorian
Calendar celebrated Christmas on Saturday .
The Armenian Orthodox Church in Damascus conducted Mass prayers led
by Archbishop of the Armenian Orthodox, Armach Nalpindyan .
In his sermon, Archbishop Nalpindyan underlined that Christmas
celebrations came while the Palestinian people are suffering from the
Israeli occupation , and the Iraqi people are suffering from the
American occupation.
He praised Syria for enjoying strong national unity under the
leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.
Secretary of the Damascus Branch Baath Party, Khalil Mashhadiya and
Damascus Governor, Bishr Sabban visited the Armenian Orthodox Church
and wished Archbishop Nalpindyan Merry Christmas.
A.N.Idelbi

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest, France
03 janvier 2007 mercredi
Edition INDRE ET LOIRE

"Rêves fragiles" d’Arménie

pimbert

Pour l’année de l’Arménie en France, plusieurs événements sont
proposés à la bibliothèque de Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. Le premier
d’entre eux, du 2 au 27 janvier, est une exposition photographique
d’Antoine Agoudjian intitulée « Rêves fragiles ». Depuis son
engagement humanitaire suite au tremblement de terre subi par
l’Arménie en 1988, Antoine Agoudjian consacre son travail
photographique à l’histoire et donc à la mémoire du peuple arménien.
Il a parcouru la terre de ses ancêtres et les régions avoisinantes
(Turquie, Géorgie, Liban…) afin de nous montrer des portraits de ce
peuple et ce pays si douloureusement marqués par l’histoire.

–Boundary_(ID_Y2F53Ej0WzozhycscaswOQ )–

HMAYAK HOVHANISSIAN: THE YEAR 2006 WAS EFFEICIENT FOR ARMENIAN SOCIAL AND FOREIGN POLICY

Noyan Tapan
Dec 28 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The spite and envy in Armenia’s
home political field will be left behind, and the coming 2007 will
be a year of civilized disputes. Hamayak Hovhanissian, Chairman
of the Union of Political Scientists of Armenia, deputy of the
RA National Assembly, expressed this conviction at the December
28 press conference. According to him, 2006 was efficient in a
number of spheres, particularly in social and foreign policy and in
reform-making. He indicted the government’s decision to continue
payment of partial compensation to depositors of the former USSR
Savingsbank as an achievement of the year. In the words of the
political scientist, another achievement is that "with his personal
efforts it became possible to prevent a 40% rise in salaries of
officials, judges and prosecutors and to allocate the saved funds to
construction of schools and kindergartens." Besides, as H. Hovanissian
noted, at his suggestion the expression "strategical partnership",
which characterized the level of Armenian-Georgian relations, was
removed from the RA National Security Strategical Program’s section on
Georgia. Instead, the relations with Georgia were defined as partner
ones. H. Hovanissian noted that it will be possible to speak about a
strategical partnership only when Georgia shows good will and admits
the inadmissibility of the Kars-Akhalkalak program and the necessity
of operating Kars-Gyumru railway.

MAIN STUMBLING-BLOCK FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT PARTIES ARE TERRITORIES UNDER CONTROL OF KARABAKH

Yerevan, December 26. ArmInfo. The main stumbling-block for the
Karabakh conflict parties are the territories under control of
Karabakh, said the political expert Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan at
"Friday" Club, Tuesday.

In addition, the political expert is sure that the sharply
contradictory positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan hold them from
getting a solution. In this connection, Melik-Shahnazaryan said it
is favorable for the Armenian party that the conflict is considered
from the legal angle. "From the legal point of view, we are in a
perfect state as Nagorny Karabakh has never been part of Azerbaijan
and the citizens of Nagorny Karabakh are not citizens of Azerbaijan,"
he said. The world has started comprehending this fact.

At the same time, Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan said that in 2006 there
was no window of opportunity for settlement of the conflict. The
statement on opening of the "window of opportunity" was made by U.S.
Co-chair of OSCE MG Matthew Bryza, however, the USA was mistaken.

"There were no specific opportunities for the conflict settlement in
2006 and one should not speculate on this," the political expert said.

CHURCHES TO BE OPEN ON DECEMBER 31

A1+
[04:40 pm] 25 December, 2006

Santa Claus, as is usually called in the West, was a clergyman,
Nikoghayos Patriarch.

Patriarch used to wander in the streets leaving money and presents on
the window sills of the poor. They say that Father Frost originated
from Nikoghayos Patriarch and the word "Santa Claus" originally meant
St. Nikoghayos. Thus, we can assume that children accept the presents
of the Santa Claus as gifts from God.

Christmas is one of the great holidays common among the Christians
all over the world. It implies deeper meaning and is associated with
the beginning of new life for all the human beings. It symbolizes
the birth of God’s son. Over 2000 years people have distinguished
between BC and AD connected with the birth of Jesus Christ.

Clergymen urge Armenians to see New Year in inside churches, to
contemplate over spiritual values and to get God’s blessing.

It is noteworthy that the central churches of the capital will be
opened on December 31 by 2:00 a.m.

SPECIAL SESSION OF RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY INTERRUPTED UNTIL DECEMBER 25

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, NOYAN TAPAN. At 5:00 om December 22, the
RA National Assembly was to vote on the special session’s agenda
issues discussed on the same day, but it had to interrupt its work
until December 25, postponing the vote. The discussions ended 20
minutes before the appointed time. The attempts of the RA NA Vice
Speaker Vahan Hovhannisian to invite deputies, who were "preparing"
for the spring session in their working rooms, to the sittings’ hall
were futile because about 50 deputies were present in the sittings’
hall at the appointed hour. "Unfortunately, it is obvious that if we
hold a vote now, today’s work of the parliament will be useless," the
RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosian said. The majority of the 96 deputies
registered in the morning later left the hall after the vote at the
beginning of the first sitting. During the day, discussions took place
in the almost empty hall with the participation of about ten deputies.

INCREDIBLE EVENTS FROM HISTORY OF HAYGAZIAN UNIVERSITY
By Hakob Tsulikian

AZG Armenian Daily
20/12/2006

The 14th issue of "Armenia" periodical, issued by the editorship of
Hamo Moskofian, was fully dedicated to the history of the Haygazian
University as one of the best educational institutions of the
Diaspora. In particular, the issue contained interesting information
about "The Lebanese Rocket Company" led by Doctor Manouk Manoukian
from the Haygazian University.

It may sound incredible, but it turned out that the company was
established at the very Haygazian University by Doctor Manouk Manoukian
and Doctor Eduard Heart.

Besides, Simon Abrahamian, Karapet Basmajian, Hambardzum Karagyozian,
Hrayr Keleshian , Mickael Ladan and John Tilikian also participated
in the establishment of "The Lebanese Rocket Company." The initial
budget of the company amounted to 750 Lebanese pounds allocated by
the parliament member Emil Butani.

The first rocket was launched in April, 1961, and reached 1 kilometers
of height. The crewmembers weren’t satisfied with the result. Soon they
launched the second HCRS-3 rocket, which doubled the previous result.

Being impressed by the results of the abovementioned scientific
initiative, Faud Shehab, Lebanese President, grants 10 thousand
Lebanese pounds in 1961 and 15 thousand Lebanese pounds in 1962 to
the scientific initiative. Thanks to the efforts of the Haygazian
students, the rocket construction activities improved and on May 25,
1961, HCRS-7 "Sedar" reached 11,5 kilometers of height. Besides, a bit
later, "Sedar 11-B" and "Sedar 11-C" reached 20 kilometers of altitude.

In the course of all of these launchings the Lebanese army carried
out the security control. Later, the interest to the initiative
grew so much that new members joined that. Soon the initiative was
enlarged and was reshaped into "Lebanese Rocket Company." This story of
scientific success ended in the summer of 1964, due to some political
and strategic reasons, as well as because two students were wounded
during the experimental works. Later the students were recovered.

ZHIRAYR SEFILYAN APPEALED TO PEOPLE TO CONSOLIDATE AND STRUGGLE FOR CHANGE OF POWER IN ARMENIA

Yerevan, December 18. ArmInfo. Today, the Union of Armenian Volunteers
gave journalists the record of speeches Zhirayr Sefilyan and Vardan
Malkhasyan made at the constituent meeting of the organization. These
speeches became a basis for arresting Zh.Sefilyan and V.Malkhasyan for
the attempt of forced change of the constitutional system in Armenia.

Particularly, in his speech Zh.Sefilyan appealed to members of the
organization to consolidate and struggle against the ruling regime
by joint efforts in the name of changing the power. According to
him, neither peaceful rallies, nor slogans, nor even the foreign
pressure will make the present authorities resign. "We fought not to
see the enslaved and humiliated people and the immoral situation in
the country. Our consolidation aims to create an ideological army,
a political unit where national, Christian and spiritual values
will predominate>, he said. Speaking of the possible return of the
territories which are under the Armenian control, Zh.Sefilyan said
that there are a lot of people in the country willing to "blow up>
the man making territorial concessions.

V.Malkhasyan’s speech was more radical. He noted that the power in
Armenia belongs to enemies. Those who humiliate the Armenian people,
hold negotiations with Turkey, and are willing to return the liberated
territories, are the nation’s enemies. They are representatives of
the criminal world. "We should free ourselves from these Turks with
Armenian surnames by an armed struggle and rebellion>, he said.

To note, Zh.Sefilyan and V.Malkhasyan are activists of the Karabakh
war. Zh.Sefilyan is a Lebanese citizen and he applied to the Armenian
authorities for Armenian citizenship for many times, but his request
was rejected.