Author: Nalchajian Markos

The Gazette (Montreal)
January 19, 2005 Wednesday
Final Edition

Other ethnic groups funded: Greeks and Armenians benefit from similar
arrangements, prominent Jews say

JEFF HEINRICH, The Gazette

Smarting from charges that their community bought special status for
its school system with payoffs to the Quebec Liberal Party, prominent
Jews yesterday chastised critics and also each other over the way the
affair has been “spun” in the news media.

Jews are not the only ethnic group to get 100-per-cent funding for
secular studies at their privately run schools; Greeks and Armenians
in Quebec also enjoy similar arrangements, and have for many years,
some noted.

It’s also no secret that Jews have long wanted full funding for their
schools – and almost got it a decade ago under another Liberal
government, others said.

“This is not the first time that this has been attempted,” said Barry
Rishikof, a former president of the Quebec Association of Jewish Day
Schools.

It’s also well established that the Jewish community has always been
a strong financial supporter of the Liberals, and raised campaign
cash for Jean Charest at numerous fundraisers before his party’s
election in 2003, others said.

But to imply that the Liberals agreed to better school funding only
after getting cash in their coffers is cynical and naive and feeds
old stereotypes of rich Jews buying their way to political privilege,
they said.

“The criticism is painful, and some of the sentiments implicit to the
criticism are troubling,” said Reuben Poupko, rabbi at Montreal’s
Beth Israel Beth Aaron synagogue.

“Jews exercise their right like all citizens to participate in the
political process through voting and supporting their candidates.
It’s a healthy expression of their involvement.”

Added Jack Jedwab, a past executive director of the Canadian Jewish
Congress in Quebec: “It’s perfectly natural for individuals to raise
issues (with politicians) that they believe to be important to their
constituencies.”

In a terse statement, the philanthropic organization Federation CJA
said it “neither contributes to, nor raises money on behalf of, any
political party.”

Its president, Sylvain Abitbol, did not respond to a request for an
interview.

Some Quebec Jewish leaders yesterday privately expressed exasperation
over how poor salesmanship of the idea of taxpayer-funded Jewish
schools led to the public-relations fiasco it appears to have turned
into.

The Liberals and their Jewish supporters blundered, they said, when
they sold the change from partial to full funding as a way to help
Jewish schools reach out and get involved with non-Jewish schools – a
“rapprochement fig leaf” that didn’t fool anyone, as one put it
yesterday.

Instead, they said, the change should have been touted for what it
really is: simply a way to reward schools that churn out some of the
most productive members of Quebec society.

Little wonder the approach was rejected, however, for that flattering
self-appraisal grates other Quebec ethnic groups who feel left out in
the bargain, including Muslims who don’t benefit from the same
privileged subsidies for some of their schools.

“I support the 100-per-cent funding of the Jewish schools, but the
government should be funding our schools in the same way,” said
Muslim community member Abdul Muttalib, who like many others gives
private donations to the non-subsidized Ecole musulmane de Montreal
private high school.

Allison Lampert of The Gazette contributed to this report

Two Las Vegas Girls Are Deported to Armenia

KLAS-tv.com (Las Vegas, Nevada)
January 18, 2005

By Atle Erlingsson, Reporter ([email protected])

Two local teenaged girls are headed for Armenia, a country completely
foreign to them. They grew up here and are completely Americanized, but
federal immigration says they’re not legal residents and must leave. The
family told Eyewitness News their heart-wrenching story.

Fourteen years ago the girls and their mother fled the former Soviet
Union seeking asylum in the United States. They were denied and ordered
to leave but ultimately slipped through the cracks and were able to
establish a new life here. They became a successful and productive
family. Now, years later the government is breaking the family bonds.

The pain is so deep. Ruben Sarkisian can only cry. His two oldest
daughters, 18-year-old Emma and 17-year-old Miriam, have been taken
away. Federal immigration officials detained the girls as they tried to
gain residency Friday at the Las Vegas office of the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, or USCIS. They are now in Los Angeles just
hours away from being flown to Armenia.

Ruben Sarkisian said, “We never had an opportunity to say goodbye to
each other, and it’s just so difficult to describe for me.”

Sarkisian is safe to stay here. He married an American woman although
later divorced. The three younger sisters are also okay because they
were born here. But Emma and Miriam have no such protection. They are
two American teenagers forced to return to Armenia, a country completely
foreign to everything they know.

“They don’t know how to write. They don’t know how to speak. There is
nobody who will take care of them there. And I have no idea how I can
help them,” Ruben said.

The federal government says there is little the Sarkisian’s can do.

The family’s attorney, Jerry Stuchiner, is baffled the girls aren’t
being allowed to stay and become residents, especially after so many
years in the country. “These girls are not terrorists. They’re not
criminals. They’re girls,” Stuchiner said.

Immigration and customs enforcement officials declined to speak on
camera about this case. They say they’re simply following the law. The
girls were denied asylum and must be deported.

There are many complicated and tangled legal issues that are too
difficult for a 13-year-old girl, like Michelle, to understand. She just
wants her older sisters to come home. “I don’t understand. They didn’t
do anything wrong. They just wanted to be successful like you and
everybody else. They didn’t do anything. Like, why they were taken? I
don’t understand,” she stated.

Sarkisian has no way of contacting his daughters who will soon to be
thousands of miles away with nothing but the clothes on their backs. “I
feel like my family is being destroyed because we are nothing without
these girls. We are just one piece and this is how we’ll always be,”
Rueben said.

They are a family of six, physically broken apart with little hope in
sight. What’s even more painful for the family is the father, who owns a
local Tropicana Pizza restaurant, is just months, possibly weeks, away
from establishing full citizenship.

If the government waited for that, the girls would then be allowed to
stay. But once in Armenia, they will have to file all new paperwork,
which could take years.

USCIS falls under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security. It was formerly known as INS, or Immigration and
Naturalization Services.

;nav=168XVNXS

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

CROSSROADS E-NEWSLETTER – January 13, 2004

22nd MUSICAL ARMENIA CONCERT SERIES
WILL TAKE PLACE JANUARY 30
The 2005 Musical Armenia concert, the twenty-second performance in the
series, will take place on Sunday, January 30, 2005, at 2 pm at Weill
Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City. The concert will feature the
baritone Oshin Gregorian and the works of the composer Eric Hachikian.
The Musical Armenia program was established by the late Archbishop
Mesrob Ashjian and the Prelacy Ladies Guild in 1982. The concert series
emerged from the success of a Prelacy-sponsored recital in 1981, in
recognition of the ongoing importance of discovering and supporting talented
young Armenian artists.
For details about the concert go to:

ST. STEPHEN SCHOOL WILL MARK
20TH ANNIVERSARY WITH GALA
St. Stephen Armenian Elementary School in Watertown, Massachusetts, will
celebrate the 20th anniversary of the school on Saturday, January 20, with a
Gala at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge.
Vartan Gregorian, who currently serves as president of the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, will be the special guest and keynote speaker.
St. Stephen School began twenty years ago with eight students at the nursery
level. Today, it has an enrollment of 176 studentrs from nursery through
grade 5. It is a fully bilingual private Armenian American school, which
received full accreditation from the Association of Independent Schools in
New England (AISNE) in 2003.
Visit the school web site for information about the school
and the January 20 gala.

FEAST OF THE NAMING OF OUR LORD
Today, January 13, the Armenian Church commemorates the naming (and
circumcision) of our Lord Jesus Christ in accordance to Jewish custom. The
celebration of this event, inspired by the Gospels (Matthew 1:20-23; Luke
1:30-32), comes seven days after the Feast of Theophany.

BIRTH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
This Saturday, January 15, the Armenian Church commemorates the birth of
St. John the Baptist, who was the Forerunner of Jesus Christ. He is an
important figure in the four Gospels of the New Testament and is identified
with the start of the ministry of our Lord. He was the son of Zechariah and
Elizabeth, who was a relative of the Virgin Mary. He was a prophet who came
out of the desert to proclaim the advent of the Kingdom of God and issue a
call to repentance. In modern terminology John preached about social
injustice, decency, and human rights. He baptized those who repented and
announced the coming of the Lord: I baptize you with water for repentance;
but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to
carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
(Matthew 3:11)
John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River at the beginning of Jesus’
ministry. At the moment of the baptism the Holy Spirit, in the form of a
dove, descended on Jesus and a voice from heaven declared, This is my Son,
the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)
The Church Fathers considered the Feast of St. John to be very important
and placed it on the Church calendar soon after Theophany and immediately
after the Naming, which would place it on January 14, unless this falls on a
Wednesday or Friday, which are days of abstinence. In these cases, as it is
this year, the Feast is celebrated on January 15.
The name Hovhaness (John) and its derivatives (Hovhan, Ohan, Onnik,
Hovik, Arakel, Garabed, Mgrditch, etc.) are very popular. Traditionally the
Armenians celebrated their name days rather than their birth days.
From the fourth century onward Armenians built many churches,
monasteries, and chapels dedicated to John. Perhaps one of the most famous
was St. Garabed Monastery of Moush, which was one of the most revered
pilgrimage sites. It was a large expansive and fortified complex. Up until
1915 it was a viable site. Some of us here at Crossroads had the honored
privilege to visit this site several years ago with Archbishop Mesrob
Ashjian, of blessed memory. It was a life-defining moment, veiled in sadness
as we viewed the meager remnants, remembering that it was once a huge
bastion capable of housing more than 1,000 pilgrims.

MONDAY IS MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY
This Monday, January 17, the United States celebrates the life of Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929. He attended public schools in
Georgia and graduated from high school at age 15. He received the B.A.
degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta. After three years of theological
study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he received the B.D.
degree and continued graduate studies at Boston University where he
successfully completed his doctoral studies in 1955. Two years later he was
elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an
organization formed to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement.
King took the ideals of this organization from Christianity and its
operational techniques from Gandhi. From 1957 to 1968 he traveled more than
six million miles and delivered more than 2,500 speeches, appearing wherever
there was injustice. In 1964, at age 35, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Four years later, on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee.

I HAVE A DREAM.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and
frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all
men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert
state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governors lips
are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification,
will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls
will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk
together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill
and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and
the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

An excerpt from the speech made by Martin Luther King, Jr., on August 28,
1963, on the great mall in Washington, DC, between the Lincoln Memorial and
the Washington Monument.

Visit our website at

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 11 2005

PUTIN: MOSCOW READY TO ACT AS INTERMEDIARY IN SOLUTION OF CONFLICTS
IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will act in the settlement
of Karabakh conflict and relations between Turkey and Armenia only as
an intermediary, stated Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Turkish
businessmen in Moscow.

Answering a question posed by the Turkish media, the Russian
President announced that during the meeting the sides did not discuss
the Karabakh problem. “We touched upon general issues of relations
between countries in the region – Russia and Armenia, Armenia and
Turkey,” Mr. Putin said.

Both sides, he stated, expressed the desire to establish friendly
relations among neighbors.

“Russia will do everything possible to settle the conflicts remaining
on the post-Soviet space, including the long-lasting Karabakh
conflict,” Mr. Putin announced. “However, we will do it only as an
intermediary and guarantor of agreements which are going to be
reached by conflicting sides.”

The ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has
been lasting for more than ten years, and the involvement of
international intermediaries in the framework of the OSCE Minsk group
did not bring the sides any closer to the final solution of the
conflict. Baku insists on the primacy of territorial integrity, the
return of self-proclaimed Nagorny-Karabakh republic to the
jurisdiction of Azerbaijan and the withdrawal of Armenian
(occupation) forces.

The Turkish Prime Minister, in his turn, called for future
improvement of relations with Armenia.

He reminded that Turkey has already opened the Istanbul airport for
flights from Armenia. The land border is still closed and its opening
will depend on the progress of negotiations between the two
countries, the Turkish Prime Minister underlined.

He stressed that Turkey was interested in the development of
relations with Armenia. “We do not wish to have resentful neighbors,”
he stated.

The Armenian authorities demand that Ankara officially apologize for
the genocide of Armenianpeople (according to Yerevan) committed by
the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 10, 2005 Monday 10:57 AM Eastern Time

Russia, Georgia to launch railway ferry service (adds)

By Eka Mekuzla

TBILISI

Georgia and Russia have agreed to launch railway ferry service
between the Georgian port of Poti and the Russian port of Kavkaz.

Georgian Economic Development Minister Aleksi Aleksishvili and
Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin signed three relevant
documents in Tbilisi on Monday.

Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who attended the signing ceremony, said
“The agreements and the launching of ferry service between the ports
of Poti and Kavkaz will create positive tendencies in the development
of trade relations between Georgia and Russia.”

The documents cover ferry service, carriage rules, and temporary
ferry operation rules. “The temporary ferry operation rules will be
in force till February, when railway carriage member-countries are to
hold a meeting on the ferry service,” Levitin said.

The Poti-Kavkaz ferry service will also be available to Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Central Asian countries.

The ferry will make its first trip in late January. At first it will
run once in three days and transport 25 railway carriages.

The launching of the ferry service is very important since there has
been no railway communication between Russia and Georgia in the last
12 years. It was suspended in August 1992 after a military conflict
had broken out in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

================================================
Thursday 6 January 2005
ARMENIA: RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR FORCIBLY TAKEN TO
NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Armen Grigoryan, a religious conscientious objector who is seriously
contemplating becoming a Jehovah’s Witness, has been forcibly taken by the
Armenian authorities from Armenia to a military unit in Nagorno-Karabakh,
Forum 18 News Service has learnt. After he was beaten up, Grigoryan was
forced to stand in his underwear in front of about 1,800 soldiers to tell
them why he refused to do military service. “He told everyone present
that his rejection was based on his religious beliefs and his study of the
Bible,” his father told Forum 18. This is the first instance known to
Forum 18 of an Armenian religious conscientious objector being forcibly
taken to a military unit in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia has repeatedly broken
its promises to the Council of Europe on the treatment of conscientious
objectors. Grigoryan has now escaped from the military and has written to
the Armenian authorities from his hiding place, to say that he is prepared
to do alternative civilian service.

ARMENIA: RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR FORCIBLY TAKEN TO
NAGORNO-KARABAKH

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

An eighteen-year-old Armenian citizen, Armen Grigoryan – who is from a
Jehovah’s Witness family, has attended their meetings and is seriously
contemplating baptism as a Jehovah’s Witness – was summoned to the military
recruitment office in the Armenian capital Yerevan under a pretext on 21
June 2004. Within 24 hours and against his will he had been taken out of
Armenia and transferred to a military unit across the border in
Nagorno-Karabakh.

On refusing to swear the military oath and sing the national anthem for
religious reasons at the second regiment base in Martuni region of eastern
Karabakh, his father Hovhanes Grigoryan told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 5
January, Armen Grigoryan was beaten by Lieutenant Shakaryan (first name
unknown) and Captain Hovhanes Danielyan. With the help of his father,
Grigoryan wrote to several government departments and human rights
organisations but “it worsened his situation”.

Lieutenant-General Vladik Khachatryan ordered that legal proceedings be
instituted against Grigoryan. At the instigation of the prosecutor’s
assistant, he was stripped and forced to stand in his underwear in front of
about 1,800 soldiers in the unit to tell them why he refused to do military
service. “He told everyone present that his rejection was based on his
religious beliefs and his study of the Bible,” Hovhanes Grigoryan told
Forum 18. “He explained that he had asked to be provided with civilian
alternative service. Then he was offered military alternative service which
he rejected.”

In the presence of the unit commander, Grigoryan again wrote an application
for civilian alternative service to Armenia’s ombudsperson, Larisa
Alaverdyan. Alverdyan has in the past denied to Forum 18 that jailing
Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors breaks Armenia’s Council of
Europe and OSCE commitments, and has blamed Jehovah’s Witnesses for the
problems they face from the Armenian government (see F18News 3 August 2004
).

After a month Armen Grigoryan was briefly hospitalised with gastritis, but
after a visit from an official of the procuracy escaped from his military
unit in Karabakh on 25 August and is now being hunted. His father, whose
other son spent several years in prison in Armenia for refusing military
service on grounds of religious conscience, told Forum 18 that Armen
Grigoryan has written to the Armenian authorities from his hiding place to
say he is prepared to do alternative civilian service.

A Baptist young man from Nagorno-Karabakh, Gagik Mirzoyan, who also refused
because of his faith to serve in the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces, was
also beaten up, and is currently been held in an unknown location by the
authorities. Relatives have been denied information about his location and
acess to him, and Ministry would only tell Forum 18 that he “is still
alive.” (See F18News 6 January 2005
).

Nagorno-Karabakh’s deputy foreign minister Masis Mailyan told Forum 18,
from Stepanakert on 5 January, that the issue of why Grigoryan was forcibly
transferred against his will from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh was an issue
for the Armenian authorities. As for the maltreatment in the unit in
Karabakh, Mailyan said he had no information.

Armenia has promised the Council of Europe that it will introduce
alternative civilian service and free religious prisoners of conscience
imprisoned for conscientious objection, but has repeatedly broken these
promises (see F18News 19 October 2004
). Deputy foreign minister
Mailyan insisted to Forum 18 that “laws on subjects that form part of
Armenia’s obligations under the Council of Europe also extend to the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.” Mailyan however, also claimed that the
Karabakh armed forces are under local control, not under the control of
Armenia (see F18News 6 January 2005
).

Nagorno-Karabakh has been under martial law since 1992, and imposes
restrictions on civil liberties, including banning the activity of
“religious sects and unregistered organisations”, banning
demonstrations and imposing media censorship. Officials claim that only
“registered organisations” can hold meetings, and the only
religious community to have registration is the Armenian Apostolic Church
– effectively Karabakh’s state church. Baptists have faced continued
harassment from the authorities but although other communities –
including Pentecostal Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses – have faced
problems, pressures have generally eased in recent years.

A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
;Rootmap=azerba
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.

A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
;Roo tmap=armeni
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.

You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 4 2005

President Meets Security Council Members

Talks on settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno
Karabakh are going in the direction suitable for Baku, President
Ilham Aliyev said in a meeting with the Security Council members on
Monday.

Azerbaijan’s political, economic and social achievements and work to
be done in 2005 were among the issues discussed.

Aliyev spoke of the steps taken towards the socio-economic
development of regions. He also expressed his confidence that the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and other major economic projects will be
implemented successfully this year.

‘Clerical leader’s intention to engage in politics contradicts Constitution’

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Dec 23 2004

The Caucasus Clerical Office chairman Sheikh Allahshukur Pashazada’s
intention to engage in politics contradicts constitutional regulations
and laws, chairman of the State Committee on Work with Religious
Organizations Rafig Aliyev said.”Under the existing legislation,
religion is separate from the state, and accordingly, from politics.”
He stated that the law “On Freedom of Conscience” also forbids
religious figures’ involvement in politics.

“The establishment of a democratic, secular and a sovereign state was
the main principle in Heydar Aliyev’s activity. Individuals holding
religion-related positions cannot run for legislative bodies either.

I believe that the Caucasus Clerical Office chairman is aware of these
constitutional provisions. However, in order for the clerical leader
to resemble the Armenian Catalicos Garegin II or Georgian Patriarch
II, and particularly, Ayatollah Khomeni, his aspirations are not
sufficient, as such activity must be consistent with the law.”

Sheikh Pashazada earlier said that he intends to become actively
involved in political activity.

Azeri court sentences would-be Karabakh guerrillas to various prison terms

ANS TV, Baku
22 Dec 04

[Presenter] The trial of 21 people accused of establishing an illegal
armed group [to fight in Karabakh] ended today. The judge read out
the verdict.

[Correspondent, over video of trial] At the Grave Crimes Court
today judge Azar Orucov announced the sentence for those accused of
establishing the illegal armed group, possessing the large number
of arms and ammunition and smuggling. Thus, the leader of the group,
Rovsan Badalov, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, other members of
the group, Musviq Qurbanov and Xizir Marqusvili to nine years. Mammad
Mammadov and Adalat Agayev received eight years in prison. Seven
defendants received six years in prison, one defendant five years,
two defendants four years and two more defendants three years.

Four defendants were given suspended sentences. Etibar Zeynalov and
Firuz Rasulov were given a two-year suspended sentence and were set
free in the courtroom. Rovsan Pasayev and Telman Orucov were given
a six-year suspended sentence and were set free as well.

Rasad Isgandarov, Ramil Yaqubov, ANS.

Armenia agrees with Azeri President over “forepost” notion

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Dec 20 2004

Armenia agrees with President Ilham Aliyev’s recent statement that
this country is a “forepost” for Russia, Armenia’s Panarmenia news
agency reported on Friday.

The report termed the utterances by the Speaker of Russian State Duma,
Boris Gryzlov, who paid an official visit to Yerevan on Thursday,
on Armenia as a questionable benefit upon this country. The report
also said that it is surprising that not Armenian politicians but the
Azerbaijani President first voiced his position on Gryzlov’s statement.

The publication said that “Russia needs Armenia more than Armenia
needs Russia” and that the Russian speaker has only made the matters
worse with his utterance.

President Ilham Aliyev stated on Friday that Russia is an obstacle
for settlement of the Upper Garabagh conflict.

Aliyev stressed that it is yet to be determined whether Azerbaijan
should negotiate with Armenia, which is a forepost country, or with
its “owner”.

“If the issue is clarified in Armenia, then favorable conditions will
be created for holding talks,” Aliyev said.

The fact that Armenia has not changed its policy of aggression yet
is related to the existence of this country’s giant patron in the
region. Although Russia’s attitude towards Armenia, which it calls a
“forepost” in South Caucasus, was hidden under the cover of foreign
policy, finally, the former’s “paternal care” was indicated by the
Russian parliament speaker.