Author: Nalbandian Eduard

UNITED ARMENIAN FUND
1101 N. Pacific Avenue # 301
Glendale, CA 91202
Tel: 818.241.8900
Fax: 818.241.6900

PRESS RELEASE
3 June 2006

UAF’s 138th Airlift Delivers $12 Million of Aid to Armenia

Glendale, CA – The United Armenian Fund’s 138th airlift arrived in
Yerevan on June 3, delivering $12 million of humanitarian assistance.

The UAF itself collected $10.8 million of medicines and medical supplies
for this flight, most of which were donated by AmeriCares ($9.9
million); MAP International ($481,000); Health Partners International
of Canada ($298,000) and Catholic Medical Mission Board ($150,000).

Other organizations which contributed goods for this airlift were:
Pfizer Inc. ($445,000); UMAF from France ($309,000); Armenian Eyecare
Project ($74,000); Armenian International Ophthalmic Association
($50,000); Nork Marash Medical Center ($44,000); International Academy
of Telepathology ($38,000) and Howard Karagheusian Commemorative
Corporation ($36,000).

Also contributing to this airlift were: Foundation Semra ($28,000);
Armenian American Health Association of WA ($20,000); Armenian American
Cultural Association ($20,000);

Since its inception in 1989, the UAF has sent $441 million of
humanitarian assistance to Armenia on board 138 airlifts and 1,312 sea
containers.

The UAF is the collective effort of the Armenian Assembly of America,
the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Missionary
Association of America, the Armenian Relief Society, the Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America, the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church
of America and the Lincy Foundation.

For more information, contact the UAF office at 1101 North Pacific
Avenue, Suite 301, Glendale, CA 91202 or call (818) 241-8900.

###

ARMENIANS ASSAULTED IN MOSCOW AGAIN

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.06.2006 13:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Sunday in Podmoskovye 50 mailfactors assaulted
the family of rector of the Institute of Social Sciences Ernest
Grigoryan. As PanARMENIAN.Net came to know from the information
department of the Union of Armenians of Russia (UAR), the men were
beaten to loss of consciousness, women were taken to hospital with
concussion of brain. The police arrested the victims accusing them
of instigating the fight.

The situation cleared up, when at the police station the Armenians
recognized the policeman, whom they could not make way for because
of a jam an hour before. To all appearance, some of his subordinates
were among those 50 villains, who are sure of their impunity. According
to UAR press office head David Babayan, the Grigoryans intend to take
the matter into court.

Kurdish Media, UK
June 4 2006

Do the Turks understand the rights of a passport holder

6/3/2006 KurdishMedia.com – By Heval Hylani
Introduction

A passport is an identity document issued by a sovereign country to
its people. The identify document facilitates entry and exist into
international borders with relative ease. The color, shape and size
of the identify document varies from country to country and it
usually depicts the holder’s photograph, signature, date of birth,
nationality, and sometimes other means of individual identification.

In modern time, passports are used, reused and even misused by one
and all for various reasons. To arrest any misuse or forgery, many
countries are in the process of developing biometric properties for
their passports in order to further confirm that the person
presenting the passport is the legitimate holder.

Language on Passports

In 1920 the International Conference on Passports, Customs
Formalities and Through Tickets mandated that passports be issued in
French and at least one other language, though many countries,
particularly in Asia, now issue passports in English and the language
of the issuing country. For example:

1. Belgium allows its citizens to choose which of its three official
languages (Dutch, French, or German) should appear first in the
individual’s passport.

2. The face page of the Hungarian passports (“Útlevél” in Hungarian,
lit. “Roadletter”) is in Hungarian only, though on the inside there
is a second, Hungarian-English bilingual page citing “Passport” also.
The personal information page offers trilingual Hungarian, English
and French explanation for the details. An additional page including
the explanations in English, French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and
Arabic has been added in recent years.

3. Passports issued by European Union member states bear all of the
official languages of the European Union.

4. United States passports, once issued in English and French only,
are now issued in English, French, and Spanish since the second
Clinton administration, due to the fact that they are used in
Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico. Soviet passports were also printed in
Russian and French.

Iraqi passport with Kurdish language

Most of the countries recognise Iraqi passports, with few exceptions.

Generally these exceptions are due to circumstances where one country
does not recognise another territory’s administration as a sovereign
state, but Iraq is a sovereign state, and Kurdistan is a Federal
State in its motherland Kurdistan.

Double standards with Cyprus

The Turks have unwise experience in passport disputes. The `Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)’ issues passports, but only Turkey
recognises the statehood of Northern Cyprus. TRNC passports are not
accepted for entry into the Republic of Cyprus. Until 2003, the
Republic of Turkey did not accept passports of the Republic of
Cyprus, because it did not recognize that government.

Turkey now accepts Republic of Cyprus passports, but does not stamp
them; rather, Turkish immigration officials stamp a separate visa
issued by the Turkish state.

Turkey’s fear and hatred

A complex and bizarre situation exists in Turkey, where Kurds living
as dhimmis-subjugated non-Muslims, are facing the dual-loyalty issue.
The hatred of the Federal State of Kurdistan by the Kamelist cannot
be considered unique. Turkey desired to see the Kurdish Federal State
destroyed. Turkey has taken control of many extreme terrorist cells,
and giving them funds and orders to attack the Kurds in their
homeland in particularly in Kirkuk.

Kurds in Turkey face wide-spread hatred and there are obviously hate
in Turkish blood vessels. The Kurds in Turkey experience constant
distrust, as Kamelist authorities consider them threat to their
uncivilized state rules.

Hatred of the Federal State of Kurdistan is an issue which needs to
be examined in Turkey. When looking at Turkish society, we find many
sensitive issues facing the Kurds. Like in many other Muslim
countries Turks are in fear, whether they admit it openly or not.
They answer is not one we will establish here, that question will
remain open for now.

Turkey and the European Union

The question that remained subject to the dialogue is: How on earth
Turkey apply to become a member of the EU? How could EU baptise a
dirty mind by washing it is body. Turks built their state on
Armenian, Kurds bodies and hate to everyone. How could they enter EU
if they are not willing to share, to learn, to civilise.

Conclusion

The Kamelist have to understand that the international community will
condemn and force them to abandon the national hate that `Turkey is
only for the Turks’ and begrave the roots of this national hate. The
Turks not only hate the Kurds, they also hate Arabs. In Turkey if a
Turk acts stupidly (which is very usual), they call him `Arab’. So
why the Turks are happy with the Arabic text, but not the Kurdish.

We all know that the time will come soon for the 35-40 millions Kurds
in Turkey to say NO to Kamelist and force the Turks to bend for the
Kurdish Human Rights, otherwise the roads to EU would be impossible
for their crimes against humanity.

Agence France Presse — English
June 4, 2006 Sunday 2:48 AM GMT

Business against all odds at a Caucasus mountains market

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia, June 4 2006

At the ramshackle market in this Caucasus mountains town, Zaira sells
green prunes and peppers from her native South Ossetia — a breakaway
Georgian republic just to the south of the snowy peaks.

“They are better than the few that grow here because the climate is
drier there,” said Zaira, a former accountant who fled to Russia when
a war between Ossetians and Georgians broke out in her homeland in
the early 1990s.

Here in Vladikavkaz, a Russian town of 350,000 people, stallholders
from the Caucasus region’s many ethnic groups mix peacefully but the
trade bans that characterise these borderlands make business tough.

In the Caucasus, Armenians and Azerbaijanis have fought over
Nagorny-Karabakh, Georgians and Ossetians over South Ossetia,
Georgians and Abkhaz over Abkhazia and Chechen separatists have
fought for independence from Russia since the collapase of the Soviet
Union in 1991.

“I stopped bringing in fruit from Georgia, it’s hell now. I buy my
stuff in Azerbaijan,” said Zaor, a 29-year-old Georgian who has lived
in Vladikavkaz for the past five years, pointing to a truck filled
with sacks of garlic from Azerbaijan.

“There used to be a big wholesale market for Georgian fruit in South
Ossetia. But for many months now Russian border guards and Ossetian
customs have not been letting us through,” he added.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have cooled since President
Mikheil Saakashvili, a pro-Western leader, came to power in 2004
after a wave of popular protests in 2004.

Russia has banned major Georgian imports, including wine and mineral
water, and Tbilisi accuses Moscow of supporting the Georgian
separatist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which lie
on key Caucasus transport routes.

Like many at the market, where Georgians rub shoulders with Ossetians
and Armenians with Azerbaijanis, Zaor blames the region’s politicians
for stirring up ethnic tensions.

Smiling at Nana, the ethnic Georgian who runs the stall next to hers,
Zaira said there was no hatred between ordinary people — “It’s the
politicians who came up with it all.”

South Ossetia fought for independence from Tbilisi in a 1990-1992
conflict that killed hundreds of people and the rebel province is now
seeking to join up with Russia.

Every day, trucks laden with fresh produce snake 100 kilometres (60
miles) through the mountains from South Ossetia to Vladikavkaz. But
Nana complains that fruit from Georgia is harder to come by.

“This will have to be resolved from above,” said Zaor, expressing the
long-cherished hope of merchants in this impoverished region that
governments will ease conditions for business.

“They close roads, but it’s the people who suffer. Officials couldn’t
care less, they can take a helicopter.”

The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
June 2, 2006 Friday

China threaten Armenia

by Malcolm Pein

AN astonishing 4-0 whitewash of Georgia has moved China to within a
point of the leaders Armenia with four rounds to play of the 37th
Chess Olympiad in Turin.

Armenia overcame Ukraine 2.5-1.5 while Russia’s misfortunes continued
as they lost to France with the world champion, Vladimir Kramnik,
comfortably held to a draw by Etienne Bacrot.

Ian Gourlay starred as Scotland held Peru to a 2-2 draw after
Jonathan Rowson had lost to Julio Granda Zuniga on top board. England
had another disaster as Jon Speelman misplayed the opening and missed
a tactical shot, but wins from Michael Adams, who had to work very
hard, and Nick Pert, who did not, produced a minimal 2.5-1.5 win over
Mexico.

I Gourlay – Cr Cruz

37th Olympiad Turin (9)

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.c4 d4 4.b4 (gaining queenside space but also
intending to pressure d4 with Bb2 when Nc6 can be met by b4-b5)
4…c5 (now the game is a Benko Gambit in reverse, usually reached by
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5) 5.Bg2 Qc7 (5…cxb4 6.a3 bxa3 7.Bxa3 Nc6
8.d3 gives pressure on the queenside files after White plays Nbd2,
0-0, Qa4 and Rfb1) 6.e3!? (very enterprising) 6…cxb4 (6…dxe3
7.fxe3 cxb4 8.0-0 Qxc4 9.Ne5 Qe6 10.d4 with reasonable compensation)
7.Nxd4 e5 (7…Qxc4 is not bad but Black thinks he can do better)
8.Nf3 e4 9.Nd4 Qxc4 10.Bb2 Nc6 (Black stands well after the
conservative 10…Be7 11.a3 0-0 12.axb4 Nc6 but this involves giving
back the extra pawn for a while; 10…Bg4!? 11.d3 Qa6) 11.d3! (White
takes his chance to activate his pieces. Another pawn is of no
consequence) 11…exd3 12.Nd2 Qa6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Bxf6 (White always
has chances after this, the Black king cannot find total safety)
14…gxf6 15.Qf3 Bb7 16.0-0! (16.Qxf6 Rg8 17.0-0 Rg6) 16…Be7
17.Rfc1 Rd8 (17…Qb5!? 18.Nb3 0-0 19.Nd4 Qe5 20.Qg4+ Kh8 21.Qd7 Rab8
22.Nxc6 Bxc6 23.Bxc6 Rfd8 and the d pawn is very strong) 18.Nb3 Ba8
(unpinning the bishop in order to play c6-c5) 19.Qg4 Qb6? (19…Kf8!)
20.Qg7 Rf8 21.Qxh7 a5 (21…c5 22.Bxa8 Rxa8 23.Qxd3) 22.Nd4 c5
(22…Rxd4 23.exd4 Qxd4 24.Rd1 d2 25.Qc2) 23.Bxa8 Rxa8 (23…cxd4
24.Bc6+ Rd7 25.Qxd3) 24.Qe4! Ra7 25.Nf5 d2 (25…Rd7 26.Rd1 Qa6
27.Rac1 and Black will lose the d pawn with the c pawn to follow)
26.Rd1 Rd7 27.Rxd2! 1-0 in view of 27…Rxd2 28.Qxe7 mate.

Cruz

Gourlay

Position after 27.Rxd2! and if 27…Rxd2 28.Qxe7 mate. Or 27…Qa7
28.Qxe7+! Rxe7 29.Ng7 mat

Concordia Journal, Canada
Concordia University
June 2 2006

Haig Balian travels to Sri Lanka
allison martens

The winner of a $20,000 fellowship, Haig Balian is in Sri Lanka to
help promote journalistic ethics. He said journalism is the perfect
way to combine all of his interests, which include world travel and
politics.

Photo by allison martens
Haig Balian has scooped a $20,000 Journalism Fellowship from the
International Development Research Centre to promote media education
in Sri Lanka.

He will work with Voices of Reconciliation, a non-government
organization (NGO) that seeks to instruct the media in constructive
and conflict-sensitive reporting practices.

`In Sri Lanka, the media and NGOs don’t trust one another. NGOs are
seen as imperialist and viewed suspiciously,’ Balian said.

`They feel like what they’re trying to achieve isn’t accurately
portrayed by the media,’ which is frustrating whether they are trying
to improve health and education in the country or mediate a peaceful
resolution to the ethnic conflict there.

He will help media organizations and NGOs to understand one another
better. Similarly, he will encourage fairer and more accurate
reporting on everything from natural disasters to the ongoing civil
strife.

`It’s so important to the peace process to have a fair press. If
people don’t know what is going on, it could be a recipe for
disaster.’

Balian’s own parents left Beirut in the 70s at the height of the
Lebanese Civil Wars. Their ancestors had first settled in the Middle
East after fleeing the Armenian genocide in the early 1900s.

Peter Downie, Graduate Program Director in Journalism, says this
fellowship is a great way for Balian to kick start his career.

`Increasingly, our students are energized by international projects
that allow them to use the journalism skills they learned with us in
places other than the mainstream media.’

Balian also holds a BA in political studies from Queen’s. He has
traveled extensively throughout Asia and Oceania, and lived in
Australia for a year and a half.

He was attracted to journalism because, among other things, it would
permit him to work anywhere in the world.

`I like to create and to write. It’s a perfect fit that rolls all my
interests into one.’

44 MILITARY HARDWARE UNITS HEAD FROM BATUMI BASE TO ARMENIA

ITAR-TASS, Russia
June 1 2006

TBILISI, June 1 (Itar-Tass) – The train with 44 military hardware
units from the Russian military base in Batumi, Georgia, has left
for the Russian base in Gyumri, northwestern Armenia, a source at
the Georgian Defence Ministry told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

It will bring KamAz, Ural, GAZ-66 trucks, two armored personnel
carriers BTR-60 and four 120-millimeter mortar launchers.

The first train that headed for Gyumri on May 24 delivered 54 hardware
units and military equipment.

Georgian military accompany the train and ensure security.

Another four convoys with hardware and munitions are expected to be
delivered from Batumi to Gyumri in the upcoming months.

In compliance with the Russian-Georgian agreements, the military base
in Batumi should be closed in 2008.

All hardware and munitions will be pulled out from Georgia in 2006-2007
and redeployed in Russia’s military bases and Armenia’s Gyumri.

Last summer two Russian amphibious ships delivered 40 military hardware
units from Batumi to Russia.

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CHILD PROTECTION FOSTERS DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION

ArmRadio.am
01.06.2006 15:23

The three-day international symposium on child protection organized
by World Vision in cooperation with USAID and UNICEF was concluded
in Yerevan. The first of its type in Armenia, it brought together
more than 170 representatives of the Armenian Government, NGOs,
international organizations, charity foundations, educational
and healthcare institutions, specialists of special pedagogy and
inclusive education, and child protection experts from Russia, Georgia,
Switzerland, Serbia, and Norway.

This event was aimed at fostering exchange of Armenian and
international practices in child protection, contributing to the
effective synthesis of the latest academic research and practical
experience in this field, and enhancing the dialogue and productive
cooperation among various entities in the child protection system.

HOVANNISIAN FORCED OUT OF PARTY HEADQUARTERS
By Anna Saghabalian and Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 30 2006

Law-enforcement officials forced opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian
to leave the headquarters of his Zharangutyun (Heritage) party
on Tuesday less than 24 hours after allowing him to re-enter the
premises controversially sealed off by the Armenian authorities three
months ago.

Hovannisian and a group of his close associates locked themselves
in the Zharangutyun offices in downtown Yerevan late Monday, defying
eviction orders from the Service for Mandatory Execution of Judicial
Acts of the Armenian Ministry of Justice. They denounced the orders
as illegal, citing an injunction issued by a Yerevan court on April 14.

The injunction effectively annulled a March 4 decision by a state-run
theater, from which Hovannisian has leased the offices for over 15
years, to lock Zharangutyun out of its headquarters. It said that no
restrictive action can be taken against the property until the court
rules on a lawsuit filed by Hovannisian against the theater management.

According to the Zharangutyun leadership, this means the party
can regain control of the premises at least until the end of the
litigation. The Justice Ministry bailiffs, who took more than 40 days
to enforce the court order, did not object to this interpretation as
they reopened the Zharangutyun offices on Monday.

But they returned to the scene several hours later, claiming that the
party leaders were only supposed to briefly inspect their offices and
then leave them. They managed to force Hovannisian and his loyalists
out after two-hour negotiations the next morning.

“We let the plaintiff in yesterday to see if their property is
intact. But after that they illegally entered [the offices] and
refused to leave,” a senior bailiff, Vahram Yenokian, told RFE/RL.

Hovannisian insisted, however, that the bailiffs’ actions are illegal
and politically motivated. “Six hours after diligently implementing
the court order, the bailiffs received an order from another body,”
he said. “With their about-turn, they showed that justice in this
country is still a bubble.”

Hovannisian, who had served as Armenia’s first foreign minister
in 1992, regards the eviction as a government retaliation for his
December open letter to President Robert Kocharian which effectively
implicated the latter in high-profile political murders and electoral
fraud. Zharangutyun, which is expected to be a major opposition
contender in next year’s parliamentary election, has accused the
authorities of systematically harassing and bullying its activists
across the country in recent months.

Hovannisian sent on Tuesday a letter to Armenia’s top law-enforcement
officials demanding a criminal investigation into his claims that
government agents illegally accessed Zharangutyun computers and
stole confidential data shortly after the party was locked out of
its offices.

“It now becomes evident as to how the ‘national security’ bodies and
the local lackeys of the incumbent presidency were able to obtain
relevant information about the party’s support base nationwide,”
the party said in a separate statement. “As is widely known, the
persecution and pressure upon the local divisions of the Zharangutyun
Party have increased since the middle of March, with party members
being threatened and ordered to leave the party.”

A spokesman for the Armenian police told RFE/RL later in the day
that Hayk Harutiunian, chief of the national Police Service, has
received Hovannisian’s letter and ordered a police division to look
into the allegations.

Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, also pledged to
“examine these reports in detail.” “If what you are telling me is true,
then there was a violation [of the law] and we will react to that,”
he told RFE/RL. “But there needs to be a forensic examination to
determine whether somebody used that computer and other details.”

Harutiunian reacted extremely cautiously to the allegations about
a nationwide persecution of Zharangutyun activists, saying that he
can only comment on “concrete facts.” “Frankly, I always avoid making
generalized evaluations because I believe that is wrong as very often
there are subjective approaches involved,” said the former presidential
adviser. “I have to try to look at the issue more objectively.”

RUSSIAN “FIRST CHANNEL” CALLED ARMENIA’S PUBLIC TV COMPANY “H1” ONE OF
BEST PARTNERS IN CIS COUNTRIES

Moscow, May 29. ArmInfo. The Public TV Company “H1” is one of the best
partners of the Russian “First Channel” in CIS countries, the PR
Director of the “First Channel” OJSC Igor Burenkov told ArmInfo.

According to him, when the “First Channel” announced about the
intention to code the Channel programs broadcasting and to transfer to
a licensed broadcasting in the countries of South Caucasus and Middle
Asia, the partners from Armenia were first to respond. Burenkov noted
that unlike the Armenian “H1”, there problems arouse with
rebroadcasting of the Football World Championship in other CIS
countries. “Our Armenian partners acquired the rights for football
rebroadcasting beforehand”, Burenkov said. According to him, the main
purpose of transfer to a licensed broadcasting of the “First Channel”
programs is to increase the rating and not to loose the
Russian-speaking audience in CIS countries. The “First Channel” has
the highest rating in Armenia. Burenkov added that the “First Channel”
continues to supply its TV audience with objective information about
the internal political and foreign political processes in CIS
countries.

To be reminded, rebroadcasting of the Public Russian TV in Armenia was
replaced from May 25 by broadcasting of a special channel “First
Channel. CIS”. This is already the third specialized international
version of the Russian “First Channel”.