Author: Nargizian David

IN FIRST HALF-YEAR OF 2004 INDIRECT INVESTMENTS INCREASE BY 20% IN
ARMENIA

YEREVAN, August 6 (Noyan Tapan). According to preliminary estimations,
in the first half-year of the current year the indirect investments in
RA made $90m, which exceeded the last year index by 20%. The volume of
direct investments made about $60m, which exceeded the last year index
by 39%. The index on the line of direct investments doesn’t include
the credits received on the systems of state government and banks.

Karen Chshmaritian, RA Minister of Trade and Economic Development,
declared at the August 6 press conference that the resources received
from privatization become less year by year.

Jerusalem Post (subscription), Israel
Aug 4 2004

Snap judgement: Between Ararat and Zion
By CALEV BEN-DAVID

For centuries, a people with its own unique culture, language and
religion lived in exile from its ancestral homeland as it lay under
foreign rule.

Scattered in diaspora communities across the globe, these people
suffered ostracism, persecution and even genocide, while dreaming of
the day their nation would regain its independence. Finally, through
an almost miraculous set of geopolitical circumstances, that dream
was fulfilled against all odds.

It’s not the Jews I’m talking about – it’s the Armenians, whose
homeland achieved long-awaited independence with the breakup of the
Soviet Union in 1991.

At that time, Armenia’s resident population was thought to be
comparable with that of the Armenian diaspora, numbering in the
three-to-four million range. No longer. Armenians are now free to go
home; however, they are also free to leave, and apparently, many are
doing just that.

According to a recent report in The Washington Post, there has a been
a mass exodus of Armenians out of their country in the past decade.

Although an Armenian census in 2001 listed the official population as
3.2 million, most Armenians believe the actual figure is now at least
a million, if not two million, lower than that. Most of the emigrants
have gone to Russia, with others joining the large ethnic Armenian
communities in France, North America and elsewhere.

“It’s the economy,” a member of the Armenian community in Jerusalem
told me. “It’s gotten so bad people can barely get bread to eat
there.”

Gevorg Pogosyan, a sociologist in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, told
The Washington Post: “I call it depopulation. It calls into question
whether Armenia is a country with a future. We are a weak society,
weakened both politically and economically by this migration.”

Why are things so bad in Armenia? Well, it’s a small country with few
natural resources that must share its borders with hostile Muslim
countries (Turkey and Azerbaijan)… you get the idea.

Reading of Armenia’s plight, I couldn’t help thinking of the
similarities with Israel, as well as the differences. Comparisons
between Armenians and Jews have been noted fairly often in the past,
and Armenian activists have admitted taking inspiration from their
Jewish counterparts in trying to get the world to acknowledge what
they see as the Turkish genocide perpetrated against their people
during World War I.

The Armenian diaspora, just like the Jewish one, is also pumping
billions of dollars back home to alleviate the situation there. “If
not for these billions, we would have had riots and revolutions
here,” Pogosyan told The Washington Post.

Although things aren’t quite as dire in Israel, the parallels between
the Armenian and Jewish diasporas in the relationship to their
“national homelands” are striking. Both even express their
nationalistic yearnings through the symbolism of holy mountains,
Ararat and Zion.

Is there anything useful for Israel and the Jewish people to learn
from Armenia’s current migration plight? One lesson almost too
obvious is that the deepest feelings of yearning for a beloved
motherland, even those inculcated from birth, are not enough to
attract (or even hold) a population there if that nation cannot offer
its people adequate material conditions.

All the money invested in such worthy programs as birthright israel
won’t help bring aliya from the Western world if foreign capital
isn’t also being invested in Israeli businesses. Promoting Israel to
the Jewish world primarily as a charity case also doesn’t help
matters, which is why Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor was right
this week to take exception to the new government plan to use funds
raised abroad to directly underwrite the providing of hot lunches for
Israeli schoolchildren.

Maybe, though, we should be cautious about taking this comparison too
far. After all, Israel has gone through bad patches comparable to
Armenia’s, perhaps even worse in terms of the security situation. And
although an estimated hundreds of thousands of Israelis have voted
with their feet to seek a better life elsewhere, this country’s
population has risen steadily, often dramatically, since its birth,
sometimes during its most difficult periods.

The difference, of course, lies not with the situations of the
nations of Israel and Armenia, but of their respective diasporas. A
series of historical circumstances since Theodor Herzl first called
for the re-establishment of a Jewish commonwealth more than a century
ago has propelled much of the Jewish world back to its ancestral
homeland, often not out of ancient yearnings, but as a last refuge.

Looking back over just the past quarter-century, it’s remarkable how
a confluence of events in most of the remaining major centers of the
Jewish diaspora – the former Soviet Union, Argentina, and now France
– has seemingly contrived to nudge a significant number of Jews in
the direction of Israel. As bad as things have gotten here at times,
it seems there is always someplace else in the world where it’s even
worse for the local Jewish population.

This isn’t cause for complacency, though, and Israel should take note
of Armenia’s current woes as a cautionary example. It’s in this
context, perhaps, that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent call for
the Jews of France to make aliya should be understood – and not as
French President Jacques Chirac interpreted it, as a rebuke to France
for failing to prevent the rise of Muslim anti-Semitism. If Jews
aren’t coming to Israel, from France and elsewhere, then they’re
probably leaving it, and “depopulation” is a phenomenon this nation
can’t afford.

Gagik Yeganyan, the government official in charge of dealing with the
Armenian migration crisis, told The Washington Post: “We have a
national idea – ‘One country, one nation, one culture, one religion.’
It means that Armenia is considered the motherland for all Armenians
living around the world, even though only 30 percent of Armenians
live on the territory of the motherland. Armenians who leave always
think they are not leaving forever.”

Right. Now where have I heard that one before?

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1) Armenian Church Among Five Bombed over Weekend in Iraq
2) Judge Approves $20M Armenian Settlement Against New York Life
3) Karabagh Armenian Army to Hold Annual Maneuvers
4) Weekend Gunfire Leaves Casualties

1) Armenian Church Among Five Bombed over Weekend in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Combined Sources)–The Armenian Apostolic Church condemned on Monday
the weekend wave of bomb attacks on an Armenian Catholic church and four other
Christian worship sites in Iraq that left 11 people dead and more than 50
others wounded.
The series of coordinated explosions rocked five churches across Baghdad and
the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and injuring
dozens more in the first attacks targeting the country’s Christian minority
since the 15-month violent insurgency here began.
The attacks began just after 18:00 local time, when an attack parked a
vehicle
packed with explosives and mortar bombs in front of an Armenian church in the
Karada neighborhood of Baghdad. The blast, just 15 minutes into the evening
service, blew out windows and damaged cars and nearby houses.
Some 20 minutes later, as survivors gathered in the streets and rescue
workers
streamed to the scene, a second blast occurred in front of the Assyrian
Catholic church only 500 meters away.
There was no word on whether there were any Armenians among the dead. “I saw
injured women and children and men, the church’s glass shattered everywhere,”
Juliette Agob, a woman who was inside the Armenian church during the first
explosion, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
The church’s governing Mother See in Etchmiadzin, said although none of its
churches and other property in Iraq was targeted in the apparently coordinated
series of explosions on Sunday, it is deeply saddened by the loss of life.
“The Armenian Apostolic Holy Church expresses her sympathies to the families
of the victims and all Iraqi people, and wishes complete recovery to the
wounded and injured,” the office of Catholicos Garegin II said in a statement.
“We pray that the centuries of friendship and peaceful co-existence among
Christian and Muslim peoples in the East will not be endangered by similar
condemnable violence; for peace to be re-established in the region; and that
the Iraqi people continue with the creation of their safe and progressing
lives.”
“I saw wounded women and children and men, the church’s glass shattered
everywhere. There’s glass all over the floor,” said Juliette Agob, who was
inside the Armenian church during the first explosion.
After the second bombing, Iraqi police rushed to search other churches in the
city. The sweeps turned up a sixth bomb, which was neutralized by American
sappers. However, as police hunted for more bombs, two more explosions
occurred, one outside the Chaldean Patriarchate in the southern district of
Dora and the other in New Baghdad in the eastern part of the city.
The attack on the Chaldean Patriarchate occurred as worshippers began
arriving
for Mass around sunset. Five people were killed, including a child. The LA
Times quoted witnesses who described seeing two men pull up in separate cars,
park them near the church, then casually walk away. Minutes later, the
vehicles
exploded, hurling shrapnel in all directions and leaving gaping craters in the
road.
The apparent target of the attack in New Baghdad was St. Elya’s Chaldean
Church. However, a nearby Shiite mosque bore the brunt of the blast. Both the
mosque and the church were holding funerals at the time of the attacks.
In the Mosul attack, insurgents parked a white Toyota Supra packed with
explosives and mortar shells outside a Catholic church. The assailants first
launched a rocket toward the building and then detonated the car bomb,
according to a US military statement. The blast killed a passing motorist and
wounded four other people. The church office was badly damaged, but there was
little damage to the church itself. Police said the toll could have been
higher
if all the mortar shells in the car had detonated.
The attacks all used similar modus operandi; carbombs filled with explosives
and crude bombs made of mortar shells were parked in front of the churches.
The
drivers left the vehicles and detonated the explosives by remote control. None
of the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. The methods and materials
used were a departure from the high-profile attacks on Shiite targets earlier
this year, leading some experts to believe they were carried out by a
different
group.
Numbering some 750,000, the minority Christians were already concerned about
the growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism, so long repressed under Saddam
Hussein. The majority of the Christians are Chaldean Roman Catholic, the rest
Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Assyrian. Most live in Baghdad and its
outskirts and some dwell further to the north.
Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut down
their businesses, and have turned their sights on fashion stores and beauty
salons. The increasing attention on this minority community has many within
looking for a way out. Many are in neighboring Jordan and Syria waiting for
the
security situation to settle, while others have applied to leave the country.

2) Judge Approves $20M Armenian Settlement Against New York Life

LOS ANGELES (AP)–A judge Friday formally approved a $20 million settlement in
a class action lawsuit between New York Life Insurance Co. and the descendants
of Armenians killed nearly 90 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
The landmark legal agreement approved by US District Court Judge Christina A.
Snyder is believed to be the first ever in connection to the Armenian
genocide.
Snyder granted preliminary approval for the unpaid death benefits earlier
this
year.
“As lawyers and descendants of victims of the genocide, we were able to bring
to court a lawsuit that brings some recognition of the genocide,” said
attorney Brian S. Kabateck, who, like co-counsel Mark Geragos, is
Armenian-American.
One of the plaintiffs, 89-year-old Martin Marootian, will receive $250,000
stemming from his efforts to bring about the lawsuit. His mother first sought
benefits in 1923 for Marootian’s uncle, who bought a policy in 1910 and was
killed in 1915.
“What it really is an insurance case and not an Armenian genocide case, but
the two are interwoven together,” Marootian said Friday.
New York Life sold about 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire beginning in
the
1880s, with less than half of those bought by Armenians. It stopped selling
insurance there in 1915.
Many of the policies languished because remaining heirs could not be found,
the firm said. The company has located about one-third of the policyholders’
descendants to pay benefits.
About $11 million will be set aside for potential claims by heirs of some
2,400 policyholders, $3 million will go to Armenian charities and the rest
will
pay attorneys’ fees and administrative costs.

3) Karabagh Armenian Army to Hold Annual Maneuvers

YEREVAN (RFE-RL)–Mountainous Karabagh’s armed forces will start on Tuesday
annual exercises which the leadership of the Armenian-populated disputed
region
says are aimed at testing and improving their strength.
In a statement on Monday, the Defense Ministry of Mountainous Karabagh
Republic said the ten-day war games will take place to “review the combat
readiness of the Defense Army when it is brought to a state of highest alert.”
They are also meant to improve “the process of troops’ inter-operability
during
defensive and counter-offensive operations,” the statement said.
The Karabagh military also said that the exercises are part of its regular
training plan for this year. Officials in Stepanakert said the exercises would
be attended by army reservists and involve the use of live ammunition by light
and heavy weapons.
The precise venue of the drills was not specified.

4) Weekend Gunfire Leaves Casualties

(Messenger)–Six Ossetian paramilitaries were killed and two Georgian
policemen
were wounded as a result of shooting in the conflict zone early on August 1,
according to Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to the ministry, gunmen opened fire against the Georgian village
Tamarasheni around 5:00 AM Sunday morning from territory controlled by the
de-facto republic of South Ossetia.
“The attack started in the morning and we decided to respond,” said the head
of the press office of Ministry of Internal Affairs Guram Donadze.
He stressed the units that attacked the Georgian village were formed by hired
paramilitaries of a variety of nationalities. During his visit to Moscow last
week, the leader of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoiti told the Russian press that
although illegally armed formations were withdrawn from the territory of South
Ossetia, the separatist government still pinned substantial hopes on their
support and would use it whenever needed.
Also on Sunday, former residents of Ossetia living in Moscow led a protest in
front of the Russian Federation’s Duma demanding that Russia annex the region.
As reported by Rustavi-2, the protesters carried posters stating, “The
so-called Georgia is fiction and her territorial integrity is nonsense.”
Shortly before the shootings, representatives of the four-member Joint
Control
Commission (JCC) had taken measures to curtail the sporadic gunfights that
have
erupted in the region recently. According to the Georgian government,
separatists used mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns in an early
morning attack on Tamarasheni Friday, although the South Ossetian officials
blamed Georgian troops for starting attacks.
On Saturday members of the JCC met in Tskhinvali bringing together the
Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and North Ossetian sides. State Minister
Goga
Khaindrava and Minister of Internal Affairs Irakli Okruashvili represented the
position of the Georgian government.
According to reports, the sides decided to set up a joint checkpoint near
Tskhinvali to avoid any future attacks.
It is unclear if Georgian or Russian troops were stationed at the checkpoint
at the time of Sunday’s shooting.
In Georgia’s latest bid to gain diplomatic support, Minister of Foreign
Affairs Salome Zurabishvili addressed the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna,
Austria, on Thursday July 29 and asked the organization to increase its
activity in the region and even set up a joint check point at the Roki tunnel
into Russia.
Her appeal was welcomed by the US Ambassador to the OSCE Stephan Minikes who
said his government “noted with great interest the proposal of the Foreign
Minister which was made today to expand the mandate of the OSCE Mission to
Georgia.”
“We stand willing to work with the Government of Georgia and other key
interested parties and participating States to come to agreement early this
fall on how best to amend the mandate of the OSCE Mission in Georgia so as to
promote greater stability in South Ossetia and a more rapid settlement of the
conflict there that is fully in line with OSCE principles,” he said in
published remarks.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rebuffed the proposal, saying,
“Unbiased assessment of the situation is essential and not the increase of
number of observers,” as reported by Civil Georgia. The Russian government has
frequently accused the OSCE of giving Georgia preferential treatment while
carrying out its existing–limited–monitoring mission in South Ossetia.
The Russian ministry added that overtures like Zurabishvili’s “aim at
switching attention from the major problem and hinder reaching decision that
would really foster putting an end to escalation of tensions in the region.”

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PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
August 2, 2004

Statement from the Mother See on Church Bombings in Iraq

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin learned with sorrow from the Armenian
Diocese of Iraq of the terrorist events of August 1, the result of which
caused loss of life and many to be injured. Five churches were damaged,
among them being an Armenian Catholic church. The Armenian Apostolic
churches and Diocesan headquarters of Iraq were not attacked or damaged.

The Armenian Apostolic Holy Church expresses her sympathies to the families
of the victims and all Iraqi people, and wishes complete recovery to the
wounded and injured. We pray that the centuries of friendship and peaceful
co-existence among Christian and Muslim peoples in the East will not be
endangered by similar condemnable violence; for peace to be re-established
in the region; and that the Iraqi people continue with the creation of their
safe and progressing lives.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT AND WB SIGN THREE CREDIT PROGRAMS WORTH $34.3 MLN

YEREVAN, JULY 30. ARMINFO. The Armenian Government and the World Bank
signed today three credit programs worth a total of $34.3 mln.

Armenia’s Finance and Economy Minister Vardan Khachatryan says that
$10.15 mln will be spent on the modernization of the state sector, $19
mln and additional $1.250 mln grant on the improvement of the health
care system and $5.15 mln on the social sector.

Khachatryan says that it’s for the first time that the WB is lending
money on state administration reforms in Armenia. The money will be
used for introducing digital signature to make the sphere more
transparent and efficient. In the health care sector the money will be
spent on repairs of medical instititions, purchase of equipment,
training of doctors and developing the institution of family
doctor. In the social sector the funds will be used to establish
computer communication with regional social security services,
repairing employment offices, holding pension reforms.

Khachatryan says that the Armenian Government ha changed the form of
cooperation with the WB and now all credit programs will be signed in
Yerevan.

The loans will be provided through International Developent
Association for 40 years at 0.75% the repayment period starting in 10
years. Since 1992 the WB has implemented in Armenia 36 programs worth
a total of $820.80 mln.

Calcutta Telegraph, India
July 30 2004

Final bloom and timely end
Park Street represented a way of life and culture that died out soon
after the Europeans bid adieu to the country, says Soumitra Das

The brown sahib in me winced. The hunks, who paraded in and out of
the gym in Queens Mansion to growl into their cell phones, wore their
Tommy Hilfigers all right, and uniformly resembled Dirk in the
popular comic strip Luann, but they spoke Hindi. Two, or maybe three
generations ago, when Blyton and Biggles were the only pabulum that
was thought fit for babas who went to English-medium schools, Hindi
was considered declasse in Park Street, that occupied a mental space
well beyond the actual thoroughfare.

It represented a leisurely, gracious and unhurried – and in
retrospect, an artificial and ephemeral – way of life nurtured by the
presence of the Europeans. That died a timely death soon after they
said goodbye.

The Park Street that my generation had seen in the Fifties up to the
early Seventies, was that culture in its final bloom before it wilted
as the city gradually plunged into chaos. Aided by the hallucinogen
of nostalgia, we still look back in wonder. Park Street resembled a
boulevard in the best of European traditions, when, as a one-time
flaneur sums up: `Beautiful Anglo-Indian women on one side. Beautiful
Armenian women on the other.’

Now some points in the street have become haunts of derelict
Anglo-Indians, who, frail of body and in tattered frocks or pants,
look more pitiable than the others who seem to be quite content to
live off the street. Armenians there are few, mostly an elderly lot,
rarely seen in public.

Designer and couturier Maggie Myers, who lives in Stephen Court, is
the last of her kind in Park Street. Close to 90, she belonged to an
upper class Jewish family, who owned landed property upcountry. One
of her four sisters had married Murshidabad, a few blocks away. She
had been trained in Paris, some say under the great Coco Chanel.
Severely coiffed and perfectly turned out even today, `she was the
NIFT of Calcutta at a time when there was no NIFT,’ says one of her
very successful former students.

Miss Myers was also a psychic. She would look into a small crystal
ball and tell people what the future held for them, helping them when
she foresaw trouble. Of late, she has lost the crystal ball. Or did
she forget where she kept it?

The wimpled Irish nuns of Loreto House in Middleton Row and the
Belgian and French Jesuits of St Xavier’s College opposite the thana
have become names to be conjured with in these two educational
institutions their orders set up over a century ago. These fathers in
their fluttering white cassocks were often seen sailing down the
street on their bicycles. Known for the personal interest they took
in every student, some of them, however, were martinets recalled with
terror.

A former professor of the B.Com department of St Xavier’s, who was
also a student of the same institution, remembers how they would go
to Loreto to court their respective girlfriends during the break.
Mother Superior had, perhaps, got wind. On one such occasion, a
friend said to him Father Joris, who would haul truant students out
of restaurants every morning, was standing next to him. Initially,
our teacher refused to take this seriously. `Then I suddenly saw a
white cassock flapping next to me. The speed at which I sprinted back
to my bench could have set a world record,’ he says.

The adjective `huge’ takes physical form in the flats of Queens
Mansion. A gray-haired, paunchy man in his fifties, who has lived
here nearly all his life, settles down into a chair as he mentally
travels back to times when heavy engineering factories and shipyards
boomed, and hordes of young men started their mercantile experience
in Calcutta. `Sixty-four to sixty-nine were the heydays of Park
Street. If you were part of the crowd and not at Trinca’s between
3.30 and 7.30 during the evening jam session, your only excuse was
that you were either in hospital with a broken leg or you were dead.
Come December, and youngsters from all over Bangalore to Bombay
congregated here. Even expats’ children would visit parents here.
When we were kids, ayahs would be seen with their babas. Now you
don’t see them here. A whole generation is missing. They have moved
out.’

Most of the old bungalows have become highrises or offices of various
degrees of ugliness. Yet Park Street can still boast five splendid
and sprawling apartment blocks. The grandest of them is Queens
Mansion, being given a facelift of late, whose wings embrace both
Park Street and Russell Street. Stephen Court looks like a
continuation of the Queens Mansion. No 20 is at the head of Middleton
Row, and Karnani Mansion progresses into Free School Street, its Park
Street wing housing two restaurants – Blue Fox and Mocambo – whose
once famous live bands and crooners turned the road into the place
for an evening out. Facing it is Park Mansion, a bastion of French
culture till the night when a fire broke out, gutting the Alliance
Francaise office and library, destroying the teak staircase of gate
no 4, still locked up.

During the monsoon, when an opalescent light appears fleetingly, one
does not need poetic licence to say that Park Street looks uncannily
like Gustave Caillebotte’s painting Paris, a Rainy Day.

Queens Mansion was originally called Galstaun Mansion, after the
Armenian landholder, merchant and sportsman J.C. Galstaun. Its
foundation was laid in 1920, and it was built in three years at a
cost of Rs 65 lakh. It was renamed in 1952 at the coronation of the
British sovereign. Today it is part of the estate of the LIC. After
years of procrastination, when it was practically falling to pieces,
LIC is getting it renovated, thereby giving the street itself a new
face.

Karnani Mansion is a classic example of how disputes between
landlords and tenants can condemn a mansion as large as this to
perdition. Constructed in 1929-30, it was one of the classiest
apartment blocks in the city, till it began to be associated with
sleaze. Tenants turned flats into brothels and factories. Squatters’
hovels occupy the terrace and the stairs are never cleaned. Of late,
the flesh trade has stopped but the factories are still very
functional. No 20 Park Street always looks spick and span. Cricketer
Sourav Ganguly is building a hotel where the servants’ quarters used
to be.

John Barry in his Calcutta Illustrated wrote that Armenian
philanthropist T.M. Thaddeus had built Park Mansion in 1910 on the
site of the former Doveton College. One of the first art galleries in
the city opened on the first floor of this building in 1955 with
exhibitions of Paritosh Sen, Gopal Ghosh and Prakash Karmakar. It is
said that when Jeet Paul seemed to be buying up the street to set up
The Park hotel on October 31, 1967, the industrialist asked a
paanwalla, who owned a kiosk on the same spot how much he wanted for
his shop. The paanwalla shot back: `What do you want for your hotel?’
The Pauls acquired Park Mansion, which housed the fabled restaurant
Skyroom, in the Eighties. Skyroom closed down in 1993 following
labour problems.

(To be concluded)

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected] Website;

Ararat Summer Youth Camp Committee Meeting with Participants, Families
and Friends

On Wednesday July 28, 2004 the organizing committee of the Diocesan
Ararat Summer Camp met with the participants, families and friends of
2004 Ararat Camp at Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church of Toronto.

His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian presided over the
meeting. Present were the pastor of St Vartan Armenian Church of
Mississauga Rev Fr Komitas Mirzakhanyan, Director of Ararat Summer
Camp, as well as participants, parents and friends.

The meeting opened with prayer conducted by Rev Fr Komitas
Mirzakhanyan, who then presented the schedule and the programs for
this year. Fr Komitas thanked His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian
for the care and attention he has shown towards the Ararat Summer Camp
project. New requests were submitted to the Director to be considered
during the organization of 2005 Ararat Summer Camp.

Upon the directive and instruction of His Eminence Bishop Bagrat
Galstanian, Primate, the Diocesan Summer Camp committee has organized
the 2004 Ararat Summer Youth Camp from August 9-14 at Woodland Trails
Conservation Area.

His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian back in Montreal

His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, Primate of the Armenian Church
Canadian Diocese arrived in Montreal, Canada, on Monday July 26 at
Trudeau International Airport.

During his ten days visit to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin His
Eminence met with His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos and Supreme
Patriarch of All Armenians. His Eminence then joined the St Sahag-St
Mesrob Saturday school participants who visited Armenia. Bishop
Galstanian also visited the premises where the Canadian Youth Mission
to Armenia are implementing their mission currently. Upon his arrival
Bishop Galstanian revised the schedule for the month of August during
which he will be presiding over many meetings.

We wish and pray that God grant him good health to continue the
pursuit of his objectives with a great enthusiasm.

A Princely Donation to the Armenian Church Canadian Diocese

In response to an appeal by His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian,
Primate of the Canadian Diocese, an anonymous benefactor, a devout
believer and supporter of the spiritual mission of the Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin and of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church, has
graciously donated the princely sum of 200.000 US dollars. The
donation is intended to promote the spiritual and national missions of
the Diocese and to foster the realization of many new projects.

This generous donation will permit to rekindle youth programs, as well
as educational and more specifically, spiritual projects.

For the past twenty years, under the auspices of the Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin, the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada has
been serving the faithful of the Armenian Church by advancing
spiritual, cultural and educational enrichment.

On behalf of the Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of
Canada, the Diocesan Council, the clergy and the faithful, we extend
our heartfelt gratitude and pray that Almighty God protect and grant
good health and longlife to the noble benefactor.

St Sahag-St Mesrob Saturday School Students are back from Motherland
Armenia

It is with deep spiritual joy and prayers of gratitude to Almighty God
that we announce to the faithful of the Armenian Church Canadian
Diocese that the St Sahag-St Mesrob Saturday school students are back
in Toronto, Canada. They arrived to Toronto at Pearson International
Airport on July 29, 2004 where they were greeted by His Eminence
Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, Primate of Canada and Arch Rev Father Zareh
Zargarian, Pastor of the Holy Trinity Armenian Church, Toronto and
parents/friends. The Group was thrilled to see His Eminence andRev
Father Zareh receive them at the airport.

Serpazan has already joined the group in Armenia to many of the trips
and outings with the students. While in Armenia His Eminence Bagrat
Serpazan arranged for the group to be at the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin and had a formal meeting with His Holiness Karekin II on
July 18, 2004.. On behalf of the Students and the Teachers the
Chairperson of the HTAC St Sahag and St Mesrob Saturday School Board
of Trustees, Ashkhen Shishmanian, presented His Holiness with a
ceramic plate specially designed and handcrafted for this
occasion. His Holiness blessed the group and presented each one with a
cross.

After the meeting they attended the Holy Badarak and received Holy
Communion and also visited the museum in the Veharan with His Eminence
Bagrat Serpazan. Serpazan also guided the students to the museum at
the Holy Etchmiadzin to see the Pagan relics on which the Main Alter
stands.

The students were so impressed that they paid another visit another
day just to see the Holy Etchmiadzin Church and have spiritual time
privately. Serpazan also met with the students and CYMA at
Saghmosavank where they stayed for three hours and special lunch was
served. Also the group and Cyma with the arrangement of the Serpazan
visited the Nork Hayortyatz Doun where a special cultural program was
presented by one hundred young professionals.

All the students and the teachers thank His Eminence Bishop Bagrat
Galstanian, Primate for his pastoral guidance, attention and special
care that he had shown for each and everyone during their stay in the
Motherland.

First Annual Armenian Youth Pilgrimage to St Catharine’s

The oldest and the first Armenian Apostolic Church in Canada,
St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church of
St. Catharine’s, On. will be hosting the first Annual Armenian Youth
Pilgrimage.

His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian will join the pilgrims from
Montreal, Laval, Toronto and Ottawa at this historic event that will
take place starting Saturday, August 14th in the evening and continue
on Sunday, August 15th with the 74th Annual “Blessing of the Grapes”
Holy Badarak and traditional Picnic.

St. Vartan Summer Day Camp 2004

On the morning of July 12, 2004 a group of 25 Armenian children (aged
3- 8 years) gathered at Fogolar’s Country Club in Oakville. They were
there to participate in the week long St. Vartan Summer Day Camp under
the leadership of Reverend Father Komitas Mirzakhanyan, Pastor of
St. Vartan Armenian Church of Mississauga. During the week the campers
participated in a variety of activities, each day having its own theme
(e.g. Armenian Alphabet, Holy Badarak, Armenia, and “I am special”). A
variety of hand-crafts were worked out by the children, including a
mosaic of Etchmiadzin, a Pourvar and Armenian flag magnets, among
others. The children also participated in games like Armenian Bingo,
learned Armenian traditional shoorch-bar and singing Armenian
songs. The children were also given the chance to play soccer and to
swim.

The camp wrapped up on Friday with an exhibition of crafts, a slide
show from the camp and a performance for the parents. The campers sang
the beautiful Hye Menank and Ayp ou Pen songs which they had learned
over the past week. The campers also recited the Lord’s Prayer, Hayr
Mer to open the show.

Such a camp was a major undertaking for the St. Vartan Mississauga
parish and could not have been possible without the contribution of
time and money of various individuals.

Thank you to the team of eight counselors who assisted Der Komitas
during the week. The counselors were Steve Beler, Armen Dumanian,
Garen Hamblin, Nairi Kazazian, Arlaine MacClennan, Caroline
MacClennan, Christine Sevadjian, Peter Sevadjian, and Tanya
Sevadjian. A thank you also goes out to the parent volunteers who
helped during the camp: Taline Paroyan, Ani Badiani, Alessia Aivazian,
Ani Altounian, Christine Sakarya, Christine Ermarkaryan as well as the
organizing committee of the camp who included Ani Altounian, Taline
Paroyan, Houri Houldsworth, and Christine Ermar-karyan.

We would like to thank the following members of our community for
their donations towards the operating expenses of the camp: Ian & Seta
MacLennan,Loris & Julia Dumanian, Arlette Boghosian, Mardig & Lilian
Sevadjian, Vic & Aida Sevadjian, John & Houri Houldsworth, Vazken &
Ani Altounian, Edouard & Taline Paroyan, Arno & Christine Ermarkaryan,
First Choice Haircutters, Kraft Canada, and Voortman Cookies.

Special thanks to the parents who supported the camp with the presence
of their children and made the 2nd annual St. Vartan Summer Day Camp a
great success!!

Last but not least, a special thanks to Der Komitas for his leadership
and efforts to continue to make this camp a reality.

Some thoughts and sentiments on the Pilgrimage to St Anne de Baupre

Gregory Kalaydjian

On July 9, 10, and 11, around 140 of us went on a three-day journey
from Toronto to Montreal and Quebec City. Our journey began on Friday
with a small tour of Montreal, where we visited Notre Dame and St
Joseph cathedrals. The architecture of these two cathedrals was
magnificent, as I stood there marveled by their beauty. Although we
did not get a chance to enter the Notre Dame Cathedral, we could still
appreciate its awe-inspiring stature from the outside. From the moment
I caught sight of the Notre Dame Cathedral, I knew our journey had
just begunâ=80¦

Our next stop was the St Joseph Cathedral/oratory, located atop Mount
Royal. This cathedral was a sight to behold. The altar is situated on
the topmost level of the cathedral, where one can either take the
escalators from the inside or climb the stairs on the outside to reach
it. The bottom level of the cathedral features a hallway adorned with
small candles. The candles can belit as a sign of respect for the
Saints, followed by a prayer. Our group of pilgrims headed for the
altar. Slowly but surely we all made our way to the top, as we were
able to observe the splendor and beauty that is St. Joseph.

As we gathered in front of the altar, I felt a sense of peace and
tranquility I had not felt in a long time. Suddenly, as if guided by
the Holy Spirit, the choir began to sing Armenian hymns. Anybody who
knew the words to the hymns joined the choir. It was a very spiritual
experience. I left the cathedral feeling blessed and spiritually
fulfilled.

The next day, along with around a hundred of our fellow pilgrims from
Montreal, we made our way to Ste. Anne de Beaupre located outside of
QuebecCity. This was to be the apex of our journey. This majestic
cathedral stood alone, isolated from everything else. It was a
spiritual oasis located in the middle of a desolate wasteland. Badarak
was held within the cathedral, whose walls are decorated with various
images of Jesus Christ and the Saints. I am gratefulto the council of
Ste. Anne de Beaupre for allowing us Armenians to perform our ceremony
in the cathedral. In return, we had the opportunity to share our
wonderful and enlightening ceremony we call ‘badarak’ with the
non-Armenians of Ste Anne de Beaupre.

I would like to thank Mr. And Mrs. Mario and Taline Gumushdjian for
being the driving force behind this trip; the Very Rev. Arch Father
Zareh Zargarian for his guidance and wisdom as he led us pilgrims on
this wonderful journey; Deacon Vrej Berberian, Mrs. Diana Bogosyan,
Mrs. Sonia Kokorian and all theothers who helped out with the
organization of the trip; my fellow members of the Christian Church
Mission for their patience and their ideas brought forth to the table;
Ms. Talar Chichmanian who helped co-ordinate the trip in Montreal; His
Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan along with all the priests and
deacons in Montreal who organized and co-ordinated badarak at Ste Anne
de Beaupre. I would also like to thank everyone who participated in
this pilgrimage for their patience, their enthusiasm, and their
determination. I hope your journey was as spiritually fulfilling as
mine.

Divan of the Diocese

YOUTH DEPARTMENT OF CATHOLICOSATE OF GREAT CILICIAN HOUSE ORGANIZES
LECTURE DEDICATED TO STRUGGLE AGAINST DRUG ADDICTION

ANTELIAS, July 30 (Noyan Tapan). The Youth Department of the
Catholicosate of the Great Cilician House started the initiative
dedicated to struggle against drug addiction. The first arrangement
entitled “To Know and Prevent Drug Addiction” was recently held at the
“Hakob Ter-Melkonian” hall of Burge Hamud, it was sponsored by Bishop
Gegham Khacherian, Head of the Armenian Diocese of Lebanon, and was
presided over by Minister of Youth Affairs and Physical Training of
Lebanon Sepuh Hovnanian. Father Geghard Kyusbeghian, executive of the
Youth Department of the Catholicosate of the Great Cilician House,
stressed the importance of the increase of the self-consciousness of
the people to drug addiction and similar social acts. A documentary on
damages caused by drug addiction was shown after the speech of the
father. This film provides information about different types of drugs
and damages caused by them to the people’s organizm and their mental
world. The section of lectures followed the show of the
film. According to the press divan of the Catholicosate of the Great
Cilician House, the Youth Department of the Catholicosate will come up
again with new initiatives within the framework of struggle against
drug addiction in the near future.

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest
29 juillet 2004

MONCONTOUR

Fête de Sainte-Radegonde

Célébrée dimanche 22 août. Mgr Rouet la présidera. Le groupe
folklorique « Sasun » d’Arménie y participera.

ISN, Switzerland
July 29, 2004

The new ‘Great Game’ in Central Asia

Geostrategic considerations, the struggle against terrorism, and
concrete economic interests are among the intertwining strands of a
new ‘Great Game’ in Central Asia, with the US inheriting Britain’s
imperial role and trying to consolidate its post-Cold War sphere of
influence.

By Lutz Kleveman for ISN Security Watch
About two years ago, I visited the US airbase in Bagram, some thirty
miles north of the Afghan capital Kabul. A US Army public affairs
officer, a friendly Texan, gave me a tour of the sprawling camp, set
up after the ouster of the Taliban in December 2001. It was a clear
day, and one Chinook helicopter after the other took off to transport
combat troops into the nearby mountains. As we walked past the
endless rows of tents and men in desert camouflage uniforms, I
spotted a wooden pole carrying two makeshift street signs. They read
“Exxon Street” and “Petro Boulevard’. Slightly embarrassed, the PA
officer explained, “This is the fuel handlers’ workplace. The signs
are obviously a joke, a sort of irony.” As I am sure it was. It just
seemed an uncanny sight as I was researching the potential links
between the “war on terror” and US oil interests in Central Asia.

Strategic struggle for Wild East

I had already traveled thousands of miles from the Caucasus peaks
across the Caspian Sea and the Central Asian plains all the way down
to the Afghan Hindu Kush. On that journey I met with and interviewed
warlords, diplomats, politicians, generals, and oil bosses. They are
all players in a geo-strategic struggle that has become increasingly
intertwined with the war on terror: the “New Great Game”. In this
re-run of the first “Great Game,” the nineteenth-century imperial
rivalry between the British Empire and czarist Russia, powerful
players once again position themselves to control the heart of the
Eurasian landmass, left in a post-Soviet power vacuum. Today the US
has taken over the leading role from the British. Along with the
ever-present Russians, new regional powers such as China, Iran,
Turkey, and Pakistan have entered the arena, and transnational oil
corporations are also pursuing their own interests in a brash, Wild
East style. Since 11 September 2001, the Bush Administration has
undertaken a massive military buildup in Central Asia, deploying
thousands of US troops, not only in Afghanistan but also in the
republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia. These first US
combat troops on former Soviet territory have dramatically altered
the geo-strategic power equations in the region, with Washington
trying to seal the Cold War victory against Russia, contain Chinese
influence, and tighten the noose around Iran.

Oil giants covet Caspian riches

Most importantly, however, the Bush Administration is using the “war
on terror” to further US energy interests in Central Asia. The bad
news is that this dramatic geopolitical gamble involving thuggish
dictators and corrupt Saudi oil sheiks is likely to produce only more
terrorists, jeopardizing US prospects of victory. The main spoils in
today’s Great Game are the Caspian energy reserves, principally oil
and gas. On its shores, and at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, lie the
world’s biggest untapped fossil fuel resources. Estimates range from
85 to 190 billion barrels of crude, worth up to US$5 trillion.
According the US Energy Department, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan alone
could sit on more than 130 billion barrels, more than three times the
US reserves. Oil giants such as ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and
British Petroleum have already invested more than US$30 billion in
new production facilities. The aggressive US pursuit of oil interests
in the Caspian did not start with the Bush Administration, but under
Clinton who personally conducted oil and pipeline diplomacy with
Caspian leaders. US industry leaders were impressed. “I cannot think
of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as
strategically significant as the Caspian,” declared Dick Cheney in
1998 in a speech to oil industrialists in Washington. Cheney was then
still CEO of the oil-services giant Halliburton. In May 2001 Cheney,
now US Vice President, recommended in the Administration’s seminal
National Energy Policy report that “the President make energy
security a priority of our trade and foreign policy,” singling out
the Caspian Basin as a “rapidly growing new area of supply.”

Chemical dependency

Keen to outdo Clinton’s oil record, the Bush Administration took the
new Great Game into its second round. With potential oil production
of up to 4.7 million barrels per day by 2010, the Caspian region has
become crucial to the US policy of “diversifying energy supply’. The
other major supplier is the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, where both the
Clinton and the Bush administrations have vigorously developed US oil
interests and strengthened ties with corrupt West African regimes.
The strategy of supply diversification is designed to wean the US off
its dependence on the Arab-dominated OPEC cartel, which has been
using its near-monopoly position as leverage against industrialized
countries. As global oil consumption keeps surging and many oil wells
outside the Middle East are nearing depletion, OPEC is in the long
run going to expand its share of the world market even further. At
the same time, the US will have to import more than two-thirds of its
total energy needs by 2010, mostly from the volatile Middle East.
Many people in Washington are particularly uncomfortable with the
growing turmoil in Saudi Arabia, whose terror ties have been exposed
since the 11 September 2001 terror attacks. As the recent bombings
and attacks on oil installations have shown, there is a growing risk
that radical Islamist groups could topple the corrupt Saud dynasty,
only to then stop the flow of oil to “infidels.” The consequences of
8 million barrels of oil – 10 per cent of global production –
disappearing from the world markets overnight would be disastrous.
Even without any such anti-Western revolution, the Saudi petrol is
already, as it were, ideologically contaminated. To supply the
ideological deficit left by lack of democracy, the Saudi ruling elite
relies on the fundamentalist Wahhabi version of Islam – many of whose
preachers see no room for compromise with nations like the US.

Tapping new veins

To escape its Faustian pact with Saudi Arabia, the US has tried to
reduce its dependence on Saudi oil sheiks by seeking to secure access
to the fabulous oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Guinea and the
Caspian. Central Asia, however, is no less volatile than the Middle
East, and oil politics are only making matters worse: Fierce
conflicts have broken out over pipeline routes from the landlocked
Caspian region to high-sea ports. Russia, still regarding itself as
imperial overlord of its former colonies, promotes pipeline routes
across its territory, notably Chechnya, in the North Caucasus. China,
whose dependence on imported oil increases with its rapid
industrialization, wants to build eastbound pipelines from
Kazakhstan. Iran is offering its pipeline network for exports via the
Persian Gulf. By contrast, both the Clinton and Bush administrations
have championed two pipelines that would avoid both Russia and Iran.
One of them, first planned by the US oil company Unocal in the
mid-1990s, would run from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to the
Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean. Several months after
the US-led overthrow of the Taliban regime Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, a former Unocal adviser, signed a treaty with Pakistani
leader Pervez Musharraf and the Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niazov to
authorize construction of a US$3.2 billion gas pipeline through the
Herat-Kandahar corridor in Afghanistan, with a projected capacity of
about 1 trillion cubic feet of gas per year. A feasibility study is
under way, and a parallel pipeline for oil is also planned for a
later stage. So far, however, continuing warlordism in Afghanistan
has prevented any private investor from coming forward. Construction
has already begun on a gigantic, $3.8 billion oil pipeline from
Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku via neighboring Georgia to Turkey’s
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. British Petroleum Amoco, its main
operator, has invested billions in oil-rich Azerbaijan and can count
on firm political support from the Bush Administration, which
stationed about 500 elite troops in war-torn Georgia in May 2002.

Pipeline perpetuates instability

Controversial for environmental and social reasons, as it is unlikely
to alleviate poverty in the notoriously corrupt transit countries,
the pipeline project also perpetuates instability in the South
Caucasus. With thousands of Russian troops still stationed in Georgia
and Armenia, Moscow has for years sought to deter Western pipeline
investors by fomenting bloody ethnic conflicts near the pipeline
route, in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and
in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and
Adjaria. Washington’s Great Game opponents in Moscow and Beijing
resent the dramatically growing US influence in their strategic
backyard. Worried that the US presence might encourage internal
unrest in its predominantly Muslim Central Asian province of
Xingjian, China has recently held joint military exercises with
Kyrgyzstan. The Russian government initially tolerated the US
intrusion into its former empire, hoping Washington would in turn
ignore Russian atrocities in Chechnya. However, for the Kremlin, the
much-hyped “new strategic partnership” against terror between the
Kremlin and the White House has always been little more than a
tactical and temporary marriage of convenience to allow Russia’s
battered economy to recover with the help of capital from Western
companies. It is unthinkable for the majority of the Russian
establishment to permanently cede its hegemonic claims on Central
Asia. Russia’s Defense Ministry has repeatedly demanded that the US
pull out of Russia’s backyard within two years. Significantly,
President Putin has signed new security pacts with the Central Asian
rulers and last October personally opened a new Russian military base
in Kyrgyzstan. It is the first base Moscow has set up outside
Russia’s borders since the end of the cold war. Equipped with fighter
jets, it lies only thirty-five miles away from the US airbase.

Strange bedfellows

Besides raising the specter of interstate conflict, the Bush
Administration’s energy imperialism jeopardizes the few successes in
the war on terror. That is because the resentment US policies cause
in Central Asia makes it easier for al Qaida-like organizations to
recruit new fighters. They hate the US because in its search for
antiterrorist allies in the new Great Game, the Bush Administration
has wooed some of the region’s most brutal autocrats, including
Azerbaijan’s Heidar Aliev, Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbaev and
Pakistan’s Musharraf. The most tyrannical of Washington’s new allies
is Islam Karimov, the former Stalinist dictator of Uzbekistan who
allowed US troops to set up a large and permanent military base on
Uzbek soil during the Afghan campaign in late 2001. Ever since, the
Bush Administration has turned a blind eye to the Karimov regime’s
brutal suppression of opposition and Islamic groups. “Such people
must be shot in the head. If necessary, I will shoot them myself,”
Karimov once famously told his rubber-stamp parliament. Although the
US State Department acknowledges that Uzbek security forces use
“torture as a routine investigation technique,” Washington in 2002
gave the Karimov regime US$500 million in aid and rent payments for
the US airbase in Khanabad. Though Uzbek Muslims can be arrested
simply for wearing a long beard, the State Department also quietly
removed Uzbekistan from its annual list of countries where freedom of
religion is under threat. Even though the US this year held back
US$18 million in aid, Powell assured Karimov he was still in their
good books. “Uzbekistan is an important partner of the United States
in the war on terror and we have many shared strategic goals. This
decision does not mean that either our interests in the region or our
desire for continued cooperation with Uzbekistan has changed,” the
State Department said. The current US policy of aiding Central Asian
tyrants for the sake of oil politics repeats the very same mistakes
that gave rise to bin Ladenism in the 1980s and 1990s because their
disgusted subjects increasingly embrace militant Islam and virulent
anti-Americanism. Tellingly, Uzbekistan has recently seen a sharp
increase in terrorist activities, with several bomb attacks shaking
Tashkent in April, including the first-ever suicide bombings in
Central Asia. More than forty people died in gun battles between the
terrorists and security forces.

Alternatives to fossil fuels needed

The 11 September attacks have shown that the US government can no
longer afford to be indifferent toward how badly dictators in the
Middle East and Central Asia treat their people, as long as they keep
the oil flowing. So, while the war on terror may not be all about
oil, certainly in one sense it should be about just that. A bold
policy to reduce the addiction to oil would be a wise strategy to win
the epic struggle against terrorism. In the short term, this means
saving energy through more efficient technologies, necessary anyway
to slow the greenhouse effect and global warming. The Bush
Administration’s old-style energy policies of yet more fossil-fuel
production and waste are continuing in the wrong direction. It is
time to realize that more gas-guzzling Hummers on US highways only
lead to more Humvees (and US soldiers) near oilfields. What is
urgently needed instead – for security reasons – is a sustainable
alternative energy policy. Ultimately, no matter how cleverly the US
plays its cards in the New Great Game in Central Asia and no matter
how many military forces are deployed to protect oilfields and
pipelines, the oil infrastructure might prove too vulnerable to
terrorist attacks to guarantee a stable supply anyway. The Caspian
region may be the next big gas station but, as in the Middle East,
there are already a lot of men running around throwing matches.

Lutz Kleveman ([email protected]) is the author of The New Great
Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia (Atlantic Books, 2003,
).