Author: Tashjian Arbi

PARLIAMENT SPEAKER ADORES ARMENIA’S FRIENDLY TIES WITH IRAN

Fars News Agency, Iran
Sept 12 2006

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad
Adel appreciated the Republic of Armenia for its friendly attitude and
kindness to Iran during the two thousand years of the two countries’
neighborly relations.

Visiting Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel met with
his Armenian counterpart Teigran Torousian in Yerevan on Tuesday,
a statement released by the Information and Press Department of the
Islamic Consultative Assembly said.

During the meeting, Haddad Adel described the two countries’ ties in
the last 15 years as exemplary and stated that ever since the victory
of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has based its political relations with
other countries on the understanding of its religious leaders, adding
that justice-centered approach (that Iran has always been pursuing)
rises from Islamic teachings.

Reminding that Iran is an extensive country with a large population
and abundant possibilities and potentials, he thanked the Republic
of Armenia for its friendly attitude and kindness towards Iran during
two thousand years of coexistence of the two nations, and mentioned,
"And it is now the time for the two parliaments to help to the
consolidation of mutual ties."

The top legislative official further voiced preparedness of the
Islamic Consultative Assembly to ratify the laws required for the
development of Iran-Armenia relations, specially in the economic
areas, and expressed the hope that the two nations’ friendship would
further deepen and consolidate through the exchange of visits by the
parliament members of the two countries, Parliamentary friendship
groups in particular.

For his part, Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly Teigran Torousian
expressed pleasure with the presence of the Iranian parliamentary
delegation in Yerevan and described the visit as a significant step
for the consolidation and strengthening of mutual ties.

He also viewed Tehran-Yerevan relations as exemplary and appreciated
the Islamic Republic of Iran for all the aids and assistances it has
extended to Armenia during the years of his country’s independence.

The chief law maker also noted the significance of Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline, Aras hydropower Plant and the high voltage power projects and
said that development of such cooperation would further reinvigorate
the two countries’ ties.

He also praised Iran’s due attention and efforts to safeguard the
historical and cultural heritage of the Iranian Armenians as well as
Tehran’s attention to the Armenian society in Iran.

To conclude his words, Torousian called for the expansion of the two
states’ parliamentary relations in all the various spheres.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Sept 7 2006

AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD
Small community in Armenia strives to preserve its heritage

By Yasha Levine
September 7, 2006

SEVAN, Armenia, Sept. 7 (JTA) – A community of rural residents in the
former Soviet Union, descended from Russian peasants who converted
to Judaism two centuries ago, may soon be consigned to the dustbin
of history.

Mikhail Zharkov, the 76-year-old leader of Armenia’s tiny Subbotnik
community, says only 13 of the 30,000 people living in his small
alpine town of Sevan are Subbotniks. There are three men and 10 women,
and all are nearing the age of 80.

The community in Sevan is part of an estimated 10,000 to 15,000
Subbotniks spread across the former Soviet Union.

Zharkov, a retired welder who is wiry and full of energy and has a
head full of white hair, estimates that about 2,000 Subbotniks lived
in Sevan during the community’s zenith in the 1930s.

Located at an altitude of 6,000 feet, Lake Sevan’s turquoise waters
were seen as a vast exploitable natural resource. After Armenia became
a Soviet republic in the 1930s, the lake fell victim to disastrous
Soviet planning and industrial expansion.

During Soviet rule, the Subbotniks’ religious freedom, which had
helped preserve their identity for almost two centuries, vanished
along with their prime waterfront real estate.

According to Zharkov, Soviet authorities confiscated the Subbotnik
synagogue in the mid-1930s. It has since been privatized, and the
building no longer belongs to the community.

An unknown number of Subbotniks from elsewhere in the region immigrated
to Israel after the fall of the Soviet Union, but community members
in Sevan never dreamed of leaving for Israel.

In Sevan, Soviet repression, combined with Armenia’s difficult economic
conditions after the fall of communism 15 years ago, tore into the
fabric of the community.

"My son, who is 48, and daughter, who is 36, are in Moldova. And of
course they have been baptized," Zharkov said. "They did it without
consulting me or my wife. My daughter had to. She married a Russian
Orthodox man."

Zharkov’s family situation is mirrored in the rest of the community.

Sevan’s Subbotniks have dispersed all over the former Soviet Union
and offer no financial assistance to their parents, Zharkov says.

"We lead a simple life, but life has become very expensive. Without
the aid of the Jewish community, we would have a very tough time,"
he said. "Our pensions are meager, not even enough to cover utilities."

The Armenian office of Hesed Avraham, a welfare center sponsored
by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, periodically
provides the Subbotniks with food packages.

The Subbotniks’ mysterious 19th-century conversion to Judaism,
strict adherence to the Torah and staunch refusal to convert back to
Christianity exposed them to repression and persecution. During the
rule of Czar Alexander I in the first quarter of the 19th century,
Subbotniks were deported en masse to remote parts of the Russian
Empire.

According to Michael Freund, founder of Shavei Israel, an Israel-based
organization that reaches out to "lost Jews," the Subbotniks are spread
out in small pockets across remote corners of the former Soviet Union.

Sevan’s Subbotniks do not know what part of Russia their ancestors
came from or what prompted them to convert to Judaism.

"Maybe they thought it a purer form of religion," Zharkov speculated.

Subbotniks derived their name from their observance of the Sabbath
on Saturday – Subbota in Russian – rather than Sunday.

Most Subbotnik communities practice circumcision, but otherwise the
Subbotniks do not differ in outward appearance from other Russian
peasants.

The women wear headscarves and long skirts; the men dress in simple
slacks and shirts. They do not observe kashrut or Jewish dietary
laws, and their melodic Shabbat prayers, chanted in Russian, could
be mistaken for Russian folk songs.

According to Gersh-Meir Burshtein, who heads a small Chabad-sponsored
synagogue in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, the fact that the
community owned two Torah scrolls is proof that Sevan’s Subbotniks
once were well-versed in Hebrew.

Some years ago one of the old Torah scrolls was taken to the Yerevan
synagogue, where it remains to this day. The other was stolen from
the small community. Sevan’s Subbotniks now sing and read out of
their own Torah-based Russian-language prayerbook.

"Maybe at some point one of their elders realized that the community
was losing its Hebrew knowledge and adopted the Torah into a
Russian-language prayer book that they use now," Burshtein told JTA.

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UNPRECEDENTED STATE OF OPPOSITION SINCE INDEPENDENCE

Lragir.am
08 Sept 06

The elections of 2007 and 2008 are going to be crucial, a
breakthrough. Such a statement was made again on September 8, and
this time the author is the leader of the National Democratic Party
Shavarsh Kocharyan. He announced at the Pastark Club that a peculiar
pre-election situation has occurred in Armenia, when on the one hand,
the government continues using non-democratic approaches in governance,
and on the other hand, the amendments to the Constitution provide
for the first time a chance to change the situation and establish
democracy in Armenia.

Shavarsh Kocharyan thinks, however, that the political situation in
the country does not correspond with the existing possibility and
challenges. The leader of the National Democratic Party says with his
political biography there are still some things he cannot understand.

"Look what is going on. The government typical of our type of
countries directs all its steps at reproduction. Hence, this is
not a new thing, and it is clear. So is in all the autoritarian
countries, and we have witnessed this for a number of times. What can
bar reproduction? First of all people, then the opposition and the
international organizations. These three factors may enable overcoming
the hindrance of fair election," says Shavarsh Kocharyan.

He says when people is considered an underlying factor, it is natural
that they should see there is an alternative to the government.

"If there is an alternative, they come together, get inspired, they
can see prospects," says the head of the National Democratic Party.

He says the developments in the opposition over the past year do not
create an alternative. "At least you know that it is already apparent
that since we became independent we have not had such a situation in
Armenia, such a frustrated society and an opposition with such a bad
reputation," says Shavarsh Kocharyan.

He says his political party has offered a project costing 4 million
dollars, which was rejected by international donors, however,
saying that the other political forces were indifferent towards
this project. Shavarsh Kocharyan says the representatives of the
international organizations told him what the reaction of the other
oppositionist forces was.

"I’m simply amazed, I do not give names, the names of the famous
political figures in the opposition, whom I asked about their opinion
on such a project, and it became clear that it does not interest them,"
says Shavarsh Kocharyan. This is what he cannot understand. Kocharyan
says instead of uniting and implementing a project in the opposition
the opposition is competing "for making one call or another the first,
whose call will bring everyone together, who will declare the day of
the revolution, who will tell first in which cell the famous ruling
tandem will be serving their sentence."

Shavarsh Kocharyan says the idea of the project, deep, targeted work
lost its reputation and the change of power was pushed forward. The
leader of the National Democratic Party says even the idea of rallies
has lost its meaning. "This idea lost its meaning in Armenia in a
way that rallies are viewed today in the following way: they must
rally today to go to the residence of the president tomorrow. And by
such wrong steps they took away the constitutional right of people,"
says Shavarsh Kocharyan.

According to him, it is established that the change of power
is primary, then everything will be all right, this approach is
condemned. It will be impossible to do anything on the election
day, everything should be done before that to reach a change of
the situation, because the election day is merely the reflection of
the current situation, says Shavarsh Kocharyan. However, he says,
if he were not hopeful that the situation could be changed in the
opposition, he would not give a negative evaluation. The leader of
the NDP believes that the society also feels the necessity to change
the methods, as well as the majority of the opposition, because they
realize that otherwise they are going to resemble the Russian Duma
where there is not an opposition, there is only a formal species.

ARAB CHURCH LEADERS REJECT CHRISTIAN ZIONISM AS ‘FALSE TEACHING’
By David Dolan

CNSNews.com, VA
Sept 6 2006

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Following the recent Israeli-Hizballah war
in Lebanon, four Arab church leaders based in Jerusalem have issued a
scathing attack on Christians who actively support the Jewish state,
indirectly including President George W. Bush.

In a statement published just one week after a United Nations ceasefire
went into effect on August 14, Nazareth-born Roman Catholic Patriarch
Michel Sabbah was joined by two Arab Protestant bishops and one Arab
Orthodox archbishop, in charging that "the Christian Zionist program
provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology
of empire, colonialism and militarism."

"We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false
teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and
reconciliation," the statement said.

Signed by Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad, along with
Sabah and the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran bishops of Jerusalem,
the joint statement indirectly denounced President Bush for declaring
his support last May for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan
to hold onto some Jewish settlements in the disputed West Bank after
unilaterally withdrawing from many others.

"We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist
leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel
and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral
pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine."

The clerical statement, titled "The Jerusalem Declaration on Christian
Zionism," alleged that "Christian Zionism advances racial exclusivity
and perpetual war rather than the Gospel of universal love, redemption
and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ."

(Zionism refers to the modern movement for a Jewish national homeland,
which started in the 1800s.)

The church leaders’ statement also mentioned the Arab-Christian
contention that international Christians who actively support Israel
desire to bring on the Apocalypse and the Second Coming of Jesus.

"Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon, we call
upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism
and occupation."

Three Jerusalem-based Christian Zionist leaders — two Americans
and one South African — picked up the gauntlet by issuing their own
joint rebuttal one week later. They said that "certain church clerics"
had used "inflammatory language to express views that are far from
the truth."

"Christian Zionism is not heretical. In fact, Christians from all
traditional backgrounds have held such a view for two thousand years,"
said the statement.

It was signed by Malcolm Heading, who leads the 26-year-old
International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, along with Ray Sanders,
who has headed the Christian Friends of Israel group since 1985,
and Rebecca Brimmer of Bridges for Peace.

Together, the three Jerusalem-based Christian Zionist organizations
maintain staffs of several hundred permanent and volunteer workers,
and branches in dozens of countries around the globe.

The three prominent Christian leaders, who have each lived in Israel
for many years, issued a six-point rebuttal of the Arab bishops’
central charge that Christian Zionism is heretical.

Stating that such Christians believe in a literal interpretation of
the Bible, they pointed out that "replacement theology" (which teaches
that the church has totally supplanted the Jewish people in God’s
plans and purposes) has played "a pivotal role in the persecution of
Jews through the centuries."

Addressing the bishop’s "apocalypse" contention, the three leaders
wrote that "Christian Zionists do not base their theological positions
on end-time prophecy, but on the faithful covenant promises of God
given to Abraham some four thousand years ago."

The counter-statement ended by noting that the four Jerusalem
church officials had "totally ignored the jihadist goals of the
Hamas government, and turned a blind eye to terrorism perpetrated by
this regime." It added that such a "one-sided unbalanced view of the
conflict is in fact unhelpful to the peace process, and contributing
to its failure."

Christian Embassy spokesman David Parsons told Cybercast News Service
that it was not the first time that the four Arab church leaders had
joined together to attack Christians who support Israel.

He pointed out that the bishops lead flocks "that are actually
fairly small" in the Holy Land, even if they are "part of much larger
international bodies, especially the Roman Catholic Church."

"There are far more Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Armenian
Orthodox Christians living in the land, but their leaders did not
endorse the acerbic statement," Parsons pointed out.

"These four Arab bishops also don’t represent the millions of
Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans, including the Vatican itself,
who recognize that the biblical covenants made between God and the
Jewish people remain in effect."

The American-born Parsons, who also edits the Jerusalem Post
International Christian Edition and has written extensively about
Christian Zionism, noted that the bishop’s August 22nd statement
borrowed heavily from a similar one issued at the end of a 2004
anti-Zionist church conference held in Jerusalem, attended and
addressed by the same four clerics, among others.

Parsons said one of the four Arab church leaders, Nazareth-born
Anglican Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, is widely known for his outspoken
Palestinian nationalism.

He added that the local Episcopal leader "has publicly stated several
times that Palestinian martyrs, including Muslim suicide terrorists,
receive eternal life."

.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200609/INT200609 06c.html

FOR MANY LEBANESE, WAR IS NEW REALITY: BUT WILL THEY STAY?
By Katherine Zoepf

New York Observer, NY
Sept 6 2006

AMMAN, JORDAN-By now, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
is winding down his latest Middle East trip, a grueling 11-day tour
that has had him hop-scotching from Beirut to Tel Aviv to Tehran
to Damascus to Ankara. The trip was organized in order to shore
up regional support for a Security Council resolution that ended
the month-long conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militia,
Hezbollah, and to discuss Lebanon’s reconstruction. So far, the most
concrete result of all this diplomacy appears to be a plan, still not
yet firm, to lift Israel’s naval blockade on Lebanon later this week.

But even if Mr. Annan succeeds and the Israeli blockade is lifted,
it will still come too late for Jack Yacoubian, a Lebanese Armenian
goldsmith that I met in Amman yesterday. Mr. Yacoubian, who is in
his early 30’s, has spent his entire life in Bourj Hammoud, Beirut’s
Armenian enclave. He recently lost his job with a large Lebanese
jewelry company because the Israeli blockade has made it impossible for
his employers to ship their products to overseas customers, mainly in
the Persian Gulf countries; about 170 employees were laid off, he said.

"I have lost my work; I have lost everything," Mr. Yacoubian said.

"Many of us Armenians are jewelers, and our business has been ruined.

Our boss tried to help us; he paid all of us out of his own pocket
for a whole month, even though he couldn’t sell anything. But after
that it was all over. He finally had to let us go."

When I met him in Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport early
yesterday morning, Mr. Yacoubian was on his way to seek his fortune
in Bogota, Colombia, where he has friends that he believes may be
able to help him to find a new job. He doubts that he will be coming
back to Beirut any time very soon.

"I will give it two months, three months, in Colombia, and then I
will see what is the situation in Beirut again," Mr. Yacoubian said.

"But I do not feel very hopeful now. I think that Lebanon has many
difficulties still ahead."

Whatever promises to aid Lebanon or to support its troops near
the Israeli border that Mr. Annan succeeds in extracting from Arab
leaders this week, rebuilding Lebanon’s economy will take a very long
time. Many highly educated or specially skilled Lebanese like Mr.

Yacoubian, even including some of those who stayed throughout the
war, are now making very painful and personal choices: about whether
to stay in their country, or to seek greater stability and better
opportunities overseas.

Many Lebanese who fled during their country’s long civil war had
returned in recent years, and thanks in large part to their skills,
energies and investments, Beirut had once again become a thriving
Mediterranean capital. But many middle and upper-class Lebanese have
dual passports, and extended families abroad. They have ambitions
for themselves and their families that are not necessarily rooted in
Lebanon, and they have options.

"How many times in your life can you rebuild everything?" a middle-aged
Lebanese woman asked me the other week in Damascus. "Two times,
three times maybe? You rebuild your home, your business two or three
times. And after that maybe you say, that’s enough, and you find a
home someplace else."

A extraordinarily cosmopolitan people, many Lebanese, particularly the
educated elite, are asking similarly agonized questions these days,
trying to figure out whether the ceasefire will last, trying to decide
whether they can bear to start all over again in the midst of such
a tenuous peace. Loving your country is all very well, they say, but
what good is patriotism in the face of domestic factionalism and the
constant threat of Israeli attack? What sort of crazy devotion would
make an educated, ambitious young person forsake other opportunities
in order to stay in such a place?

In Beirut last week, and among the groups of Lebanese who remain in
Damascus and Amman in recent days, I’ve heard these questions asked
constantly. How the majority will eventually decide to answer them
will have a huge effect on Lebanon’s prospects for a speedy recovery.

Among those Lebanese who have already resolved to stay, there is
naturally some resentment of those who are on the fence. A young
university professor that I met in Beirut last week spoke witheringly
of his privileged students, most of whom had fled to Europe or the
United States with the onset of Israeli air strikes, and some of whom
have said that they don’t plan to return.

"These kids are rich," the professor told me bitterly. "That means
they have the chance to decide whether or not they are Lebanese."

For parents, the questions are even more difficult. It is impossible
to spend much time in Lebanon these days without hearing a great deal
about the effects that the war has had on Lebanese children, about the
unusual tearfulness and aggression shown by even normally even-tempered
young children. A Lebanese friend, Patrick, spoke of his decision to
send his 10-year-old daughter to stay with relatives in Europe during
the worst of the fighting, and then his eventual decision to bring her
home again, despite some relatives’ urgings that he educate her abroad.

"These children, this generation, knew nothing of war," Patrick said.

"When I was a teenager, we used to go out dancing, and we’d hear
explosions. We’d leave the club for a few minutes, pull people out
of the rubble and take them to the hospital, and then go right back
to drink and dance. We didn’t think anything of it. This was normal
life for us.

"I had really thought that for my daughter it would be different,"
Patrick continued. "I felt angry when the fighting began, and I decided
to send her abroad, so that she wouldn’t see this. But I’ve decided
to bring her home. She will start the school year here, whatever
happens. She is Lebanese, and this fighting, these bombings, are her
heritage. She is 10 years old; she is old enough to understand."

1/20060911_Katherine_Zoepf_thecity_newyorkersdiary .asp

12-MONTH INFLATION TO EXCEED PLANNED 3% IN 3RD QUARTER OF 2006

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 6 2006

YEREVAN, September 6. /ARKA/. At the end of the 3rd quarter of 2006,
12 -month inflation is expected to exceed the planned 3%, says a
protocol of the sitting of the Board of the Central Bank of Armenia
(CBA) "On refinancing rate".

Among the risks and inflationary pressures are both internal and
external factors. Concerning the external factors, the protocol says
that in August the trends formed early in 2006 – USD devaluation
against the EURO (5.1% in August 2006 compared to August 2005),
high rates of rise in prices for raw materials, particularly for oil
(26.8%) – were maintained.

Among internal risks is setback in agricultural production, which
forms serious inflationary pressures on the consumer market.

Besides, the increase in cash incomes has influenced the price for
nonfoods and services. The CBA Board believe that further influence
should be expected.

The CBA Board members also attach importance to the fact that huge
on-budget expenditures expected before the end of the year, especially
during the last few months, will cause an inflation rise, which will
be evident in the first half 2007. This phenomenon, accompanied by the
aforementioned factors, will cause considerable inflationary pressures.

According to the protocol, 7.2% inflation was recorded in August
2006 compared to August 2005. An 8% rise in prices for food products
(alcoholic beverages and tobacco inclusive) was recorded. A 5.3%
rise in prices for nonfoods and a 4.5% rise in prices for services
were recorded. 2.7% inflation was recorded compared to December 2005,
and 0.9% inflation compared to July 2006.

The highest inflation (compared to August 2006) was recorded in such
groups of products as sugar (35.2%), fruit (25.2%), and vegetables
and potatoes (49.2%). Since the beginning of 2006, the price for
these products has risen by 30.7%, 7.9% and 8.4%.

As regards nonfoods, the highest rise in prices for jewelry was
recorded (31.9%), for gardening implements (23%), for personal cars
and petrol (8.8%), for building materials (5.7%). Since the beginning
of 2006, the highest inflation was recorded in the following services:
shoe repair (5.1%), medical service (6.9%) and communication (10.6%).

A 20.4% rise in the USD import prices was recorded in the 2nd quarter
of 2006 compared to the corresponding period of 2005. The prices for
both consumer goods and for raw materials rose as well.

3% inflation is budgeted in Armenia this year.

ARTHUR ABRAHAM BECOMES CITIZEN OF GERMANY

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 05 2006

BERLIN, SEPTEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. IBF middleweight
world champion Arthur Abraham, who is of the Armenian origin, became
a citizen of Germany.

According to the "Regnum" information agency, the German passport was
given to Abraham after he had passed the exam on the German language.

26-year old Arthur Abraham (Avetik Abrahamian) was born in Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia. He left for permanent residence for Germany
in 2004.

MORE THAN 10% OF INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA FALL ON RUSSIA

SKRIN Market & Corporate News
September 5, 2006 Tuesday 1:18 PM GMT

Foreign investments into real sector of the Armenian economy totaled
$178.5mln in the first half of 2006, having increased by 27.9%,
comparing with analogous index of 2005, Cbonds said. As REGNUM was
informed at the Armenian National Statistic Service, direct investments
totaled about $86.3mln (9.2% increase). In first half of 2006, 33.1%
of direct investments were sent into communication sphere; 14.3% –
into minerals industry; 9.4% – into air transportation sphere.

Major investors into real sector of the Armenian economy are Lebanon
– $49.6mln (increase by 2.1 times), Greece – $37.9mln (decrease by
35%), Argentina – $17.2mln (increase by 3.7 times), Russia – $19.2mln
(increase by 41.9%), the USA – $14.8mln (increase by 59.2%), and
Germany – $12.1mln (increase by 63.1 times).

ANDRANIK NOREKYAN APPOINTED CBA BOARD MEMBER

ArmRadio.am
05.09.2006 14:36

September 1 President Robert Kocharyan signed a decree on appointing
Andranik Norekyan Board Member of the Central Bank of the Republic of
Armenia for the period of five years, President’s Press Office informs.

ARMENIAN NA SPEAKER MEETS WITH SYRIAN MUFTI

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 4 2006

YEREVAN, September 4. /ARKA/. Speaker of the Armenian Parliament
Tigran Torosyan has held a meeting with Mufti of Syria, Sheik Ahmad
Badr Al-Dina Hassun. During the meeting, Speaker Torosyan pointed
out the importance of the Mufti’s visit to Armenia now that "the
neighboring state’s spiritual leader threatens Armenia with jihad."

"Religions cannot be a factor of estranging peoples. There are
high values uniting people and allowing them to meet challenges,"
Torosyan said.

In his turn, Sheik Hassun, commenting the statements on jihad made
by the Leader of the Caucasian Muslims, said that jihad means life,
but not war and murders. Jihad unites people round good ideas,
and spiritual leaders’ task must be helping political leaders in
establishing peace and prosperity, he said.

In this context, Speaker Torosyan stressed that just as jihad can have
different interpretations inside one and the same religion, the term
"democracy" an be interpreted in different ways. "This is defined as
a form of government giving people prosperity and protection. But
there are individuals and groups making use of democracy for war,
though good is not imposed by means of war," Torosyan said.

The sides pointed out the importance of retaining national identity
by resisting globalization challenges.

Torosyan thanked Syria for caring about the Armenians that survived
the 1915 Genocide and become Syrian citizens enjoying full rights. He
also stressed that he is closely watching the events in the Near
East. Torosyan said that he is concerned over the fate of not only
his compatriots, but also friendly people.

The leader of the Caucasian Muslims Allahshukyur Pashazade recently
stated his readiness to declare jihad for liberating "Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories" when time comes.