Author: Toneyan Mark

PRESS RELEASE

Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

WESTERN PRELACY’S APRIL 24 EVENT

DIANA APCAR: A HEROIC SERVANT OF THE ARMENIAN CAUSE

In the month of April, with the deluge of Genocide commemoration
events, it’s rare and refreshing to find a hall filled to capacity for
what many refer to as a “cultural” event. On the evening of Sunday,
April 30, under the auspices of His Eminence Archbishop Moushegh
Mardirossian, Prelate, Los Angeles area residents were educated
and enlightened about the power and strength of Armenians all over
the world.

The main attraction of the event was the book, From the Book of
One Thousand Tales: Stories of Armenia and Her People 1892-1922,
a collection of sixteen short stories, written by Diana Apcar,
Armenia’s Honorary Consul General to Japan during the first Armenian
Republic. Lucille Apcar, granddaughter of Diana Apcar, contacted H.E.

Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian to introduce herself and her
grandmother’s book, after she discovered the original manuscripts in
the rubble of her parents’ home in Yokohama.

The program went beyond introducing the author and the book to Western
Prelacy friends and supporters. It went beyond commemorating the
Armenian Genocide victims and martyrs. The program distinguished itself
from other events due to its unique content and messages delivered
by activist Raffi Hamparian, Lucille Apcar and Archbishop Mardirossian.

Raffi Hamparian reminded attendees about the importance of
collaboration, participation and support. He continued by emphasizing
the value of time as he requested individuals to remember Genocide
survivors who did not abandon their culture or heritage after
witnessing the burning of churches, inhumanities to man, and the
continuance of struggle to merely survive.

The program included a brief biography of Diana Apcar presented by
Master of Ceremonies Mr. George Bedigian, comments by Honorable Gagik
Giragossian, Consul General of Armenia, and Honorable Dr. Masahiro
Kohara, Acting Consul General of Japan. The program also included
the reading of excerpts from the book, including “The Sultan’s Cat,”
a short story with a stunning metaphor equating the well-mannered
feline pet with an obsequious Turkish Sultan seeking the acceptance and
respect of his surrounding countries, including the Armenian Patriarch.

Entertainment that evening included musical interludes by Ms. Nanor
Jamakordzian, Violin and Ms. Hermine Amirian, Vocal, accompanied by
Mrs. Garine Der Gevorkian on the piano.

Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian closed the program with words of
praise, gratitude and prayer. His remarks celebrated the life of
Diana Apcar and the many lost lives of the Armenian Genocide. He
acknowledged the grand efforts of men and women around the world
and their dedication to their faith and the Armenian nation-women
like Diana Apcar, whose knowledge and grasp of Armenia’s history
is incredible when one learns that she was born in Burma, lived in
Japan for 43 years and never set foot in any of the countless Armenian
cities and towns of which she wrote about. Thus, this can only attest
to a voracious reading of Armenian history and a lasting love of her
ethnic heritage.

“The Western Prelacy is dedicated to working diligently to revitalize
the cultural, spiritual, and educational conditions of its community,”
said Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian. “The Western Prelacy has and
will continue to make a substantial impact on expanding its reach
to the Armenian-American community as we continue to see dedicated
activists and humanitarians like the Apcar women.”

To view this special event, please watch the Western Prelacy T.V.
program on Sunday, May 7th at 9:00 a.m. on Horizon. For a copy of
this book, please call the Western Prelacy at 818-248-7737.

TRIAL OF AZERBAIJANI ARMY OFFICER RAMIL SAFAROV TAKES PLACE TODAY

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 3 2006

Trial on claim raised by jailers against Azerbaijani Army Officer
Ramil Safarov who is accused of murder of Armenian officer Gurgen
Markaryan in Hungary, has taken place today.

Azerbaijani embassy in Hungary told APA that witnesses gave testimony
on in the trial presided by Judge Tot Dyendver. The trial is
continuing now.

No decision is expected to be made in the trial.

Azerbaijani embassy representatives and students attend the trial.

Ramil safarov’s lawyer is Hungarian Klara Fiser.

Jailers demanded Ramil Safarov to give the phone card on June 19,
2004. Safarov don’t know Hungarian language and he therefore didn’t
understand the jailers and this misunderstanding caused incident
among them. 8 police tied Safarov’s arms and exercised force.

safarov’s lawyers appealed to the court but the court didn’t meet
the appeal through lack of evidences. Then the jailers appealed to
the court claiming Safarov put up resistance to jailers.

Safarov’s lawyer Adil Ismayilov told APA that Defense Ministry assumed
all expenditures for defense of Safarov.

“HOPE” WILL BE RECOSTRUCTED

A1+
[12:52 pm] 02 May, 2006

The reconstruction of the second building of the Gyumri orphanage
“Hope” will initiate as soon as the weather gets warmer. The account of
the project expenditure has already been presented but the construction
competition has not been held yet.

According to the head of the orphanage, the competition will be held
in Yerevan, and the construction organization will likely be selected
from the capital.

The primary cost of the building is 100 thousand USD.

30 thousand EU of the total sum was given by the French province Bush
due Ron. Only the reconstruction of the roof requires 15 thousand
USD. At present the orphanage doesn’t have the necessary sum, so the
construction will start from the exterior and then they will pass
to the roof and finish it by the time the governor of Bush due Ron
Noel Gerin arrives in Gyumri. The director of the orphanage Ruben
Markosyan voices hope that Gerin will give money for the rest of the
restoration provided he likes the interior work.

Otherwise, they will have to look for new benefactors and sponsors.

TV Company “Tsayg” of Gyumri

The Free Lance-Star, VA
April 29 2006

Faith groups rally in D.C. to ‘Save Darfur’

A displaced Sudanese mother and child wait in a dispensary run by the
French organization Action Against Hunger in South Darfur. Religious
leaders will rally on the Mall tomorrow for the refugees.

Faith groups unite for action in Darfur

By NATASHA ALTAMIRANO

Religious leaders of different faiths will stand together in the
nation’s capital tomorrow for a basic tenet that crosses theological
and political lines: human rights.

Representatives from dozens of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups
will unite for “Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide” on the National
Mall.

“God does not challenge us to speak out just for Christians–he
challenges us to speak out for the human rights of all people,” said
the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for
the Washington-based National Association of Evangelicals.

“If there’s one thing that we can all stand together and say as faith
leaders and as citizens, it ought to be this.”

Cizik, who lives in southern Stafford County, is on the executive
committee of the Save Darfur Coalition, which organized the rally.

The Sudanese government has killed more than 300,000 people in the
Darfur region in western Sudan. An estimated 3.5 million refugees
depend on foreign aid for survival, according to the coalition.

“The world stood silent in the face of Armenian, Jewish, Cambodian
and Rwandan genocide,” said Cizik, who will lead the rally’s opening
prayer. “Nothing on the global agenda is more urgent than rescuing
Darfur’s people from a campaign of extermination.”

Inaction on previous genocide is a major reason Darfur has become
such an important issue to the Jewish community, said said Julie
Weingrad, assistant director of the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Greater Washington.

The council has $45,000 for humanitarian aid in Darfur, Weingrad
said.

“A lot of people look back to the genocide in Rwanda and think, ‘I
wish I had done more, so I’m going to do more now,'” she said.

Experiencing the reality of genocide through the Holocaust is another
reason Jews have played an active role in the Save Darfur campaign.

“It’s something that’s affected someone in almost every Jewish
person’s family,” Weingrad said.

Like all people of strong faith, the Jewish community feels an
obligation to social justice.

“There’s a very strong sense that, as Jews, we need to participate in
‘tikkun olam’–it literally means ‘repairing the world,'” Weingrad
said.

The rally culminates a 22-city tour to raise public awareness of the
situation in Darfur and to pressure Bush administration officials and
congressional leaders to intervene.

The event also marks the end of the “Million Voices for Darfur”
campaign to generate 1 million postcards urging President Bush to
take action in Darfur.

More than 500,000 electronic and hard-copy postcards have been
signed. They will be delivered to government officials tomorrow.

Other religious leaders scheduled to speak include the Rev. Richard
Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and
Religious Liberties Commission; Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director
of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; and Cardinal Theodore
McCarrick, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Washington.

Imam A. Rashied Omar with the Kroc Institute for International
Studies at Notre Dame University, former Sudanese NBA basketball
player Manute Bol and refugees from Darfur also will be there.

They’ll be joined by Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney; Sen.
Barack Obama, D-Ill.; and House of Representatives Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., among other political leaders.

For details, visit savedarfur.org/rally.

ELECTIONS OF CIVIL SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVES TO MILLENNIUM CHALLENGES –
ARMENIA PROGRAM BOARD OF BENEFICIARIES TO TAKE PLACE ON MAY 2

YEREVAN, APRIL 28, NOYAN TAPAN. Voting on the elections of civil
society representatives to the Board of Beneficiaries of the
Millennium Challenges – Armenia Program will be held at the American
University of Armenia (AUA) on May 2. According to the working group
of the Millennium Challenges – Armenia Program, the voting results
will be summarized on the same day until 9:00 pm.

South Wales Echo
April 26, 2006, Wednesday
City Final Edition

Service to mark genocide

Cardiff council has been urged to formally recognise the Armenian
genocide of 1915 with a vote.

South Wales’ small Armenian community gathered at the Temple of Peace
in Cathays Park yesterday for a service to remember the killing of
1.5 million people in eastern Turkey during World War I. Around 50
people with links to the region live in South Wales.

Riverside councillor Gwenllian Lansdown told them: ‘I also think that
it would be fitting for Cardiff council to formally recognise the
Armenian genocide, as other councils have done.’

VALCAV HAVEL: ARMENIANS ALSO SUFFERED HOLOCAUST

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
April 26 2006

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel equated the Turkish killing of
Armenians during World War I to the slaughter of Jews in World War II.

Havel made his comments yesterday during a speech in Prague at a
Council of Europe conference on Holocaust education, saying that
civilization’s moral failings were responsible for genocides, “be it
the holocaust of Armenians or Jews.”

“These big catastrophes in fact are monstrous but in a way
understandable products of this civilization.”

Up to 1 million Armenians died in ethnic strife under the Ottoman
Empire from 1915-1917.

Twenty-four countries officially recognize the Armenian deaths as a
genocide, but Turkey is adamant that no genocide occurred.

RUSSIAN GENERAL PRAISES PERFORMANCE OF CIS UNIFIED AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM’S ON-DUTY FORCES DURING EXERCISE

Interfax News Agency
Central Asia General Newswire
April 25, 2006 Tuesday 7:36 PM MSK

On-duty forces of the CIS Unified Air Defense System have accomplished
all missions of the command post exercise (CPX) held on Tuesday,
Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, Russian Air Force deputy
commander-in-chief, told Interfax-Military News Agency.

“Over 10 issues related to strengthening of CIS aerial borders were
worked on during the exercise held in the entire area of responsibility
of the Unified Air Defense System,” Bizhev said.

“Army general Vladimir Mikhailov, Air Force commander-in-chief, who
was in charge of the exercise, expressed satisfaction with actions of
national armies of CIS member states that took part in the exercise
and rated them as excellent,” he noted.

Bizhev recalled that the exercise involved air defense and air force
units of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

He stressed that the exercise focused on rehearsing actions of
electronic warfare, surface-to-air missile, and aviation units of the
Unified Air Defense System while accomplishing combat duty missions.

S-300, S-125, S-75 and Buk air defense missile systems and over 60
aircraft of all participating nations were involved.

“In particular, some missions were accomplished by the personnel of
Russian air bases in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,” Bizhev said.

Mutual maneuvers of Su-24, Su-27 and MiG-31 planes of Russia,
Kazakhstan and Belarus were a success, he went on. Moreover, on-duty
air defense forces and assets were used to engaged a supersonic
stratospheric target in an interaction with the A-50 long-range
AWACS plane.

“Aircraft of NATO countries observed the exercise. They were especially
active in the north and northwest,” he said.

LAWYER QUITS AZERI OFFICER’S DEFENSE

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 19 2006

Baku, April 18, AssA-Irada
Since the status of defense lawyer for Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani
officer sentenced for life by a Hungarian court for killing an
Armenian counterpart in 2004, has not helped him achieve anything,
Adil Ismayilov has decided not to go to Hungary in this capacity any
more, he told a news conference on Tuesday.

“Even though I had very little decision-making powers, the blame for
all the failures is now being put at my feet. Not many people know
that I didn’t even have the right to speak in court,” he said and
added that there was no opportunity to influence Safarov’s Hungarian
lawyer either.

“I have many cases to deal with in Baku. Nevertheless, only out of
respect for Ramil Safarov, I had to travel all the way to Budapest
every time. If I go there again, I will go only as his friend,”
the lawyer stressed.

He also said he was pleased with the measures taken by the Azerbaijani
state to defend the officer, but acknowledged that the efforts would
have been far more effective if properly coordinated.

“All powers must be vested in one person who can then be held
accountable for the results,” he said and concluded that he could
take up that mission if asked to do so.

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

MEDIA ALERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2006
CONTACT: Karoon Panosyan
Email: [email protected]

RE: Boston Globe: “Armenians get allies in genocide teachings,” Boston
Herald: “Expert says slaughter fits bill, despite Turks’ denial”

The Armenian Assembly would like to call your attention to two articles
below: the first published by the Boston Globe entitled, “Armenians get
allies in genocide teachings, Group stands up against denial” and the
second published in the Boston Herald entitled, “Expert says slaughter
fits bill, despite Turks’ denial.” The articles include comments by
Armenian Assembly Board of Trustees Member Anthony Barsamian and
Armenian Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

The articles can also be accessed at the following links:

Boston Globe:
tion=doc&p_docid=1111E3
678F8D3F38&p_docnu m=1

Boston Herald:
/view.bg?articleid=135744

Boston Globe

Armenians get allies in genocide teachings
Group stands up ‘against denial’

By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff
April 20, 2006

Leading politicians and groups from a range of communities are joining
with Armenians in their battle to ensure that the Armenians’
early-20th-century history be taught as genocide.

The Armenians are fighting a federal lawsuit that seeks to include
opposing views of the genocide in teaching materials for Massachusetts
high schools.

A new group, called kNOw Genocide, includes the Jewish Community
Relations Council, the Irish Immigration Center, the Massachusetts
Council of Churches, Rwanda Outlook, and the Cambodian Mutual Assistance
Association, among others. Standing with them will be Attorney General
Thomas F. Reilly, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey — both gubernatorial
candidates — and several state legislators.

A rally tomorrow at the State House is expected to draw representatives
from the diverse coalition, in a testament to the political clout that
the Armenian community has in Massachusetts.

“This allows our community, together with other communities, to stand
together against denial,” said Anthony Barsamian, a member of the
Armenian Assembly of America board, based in Washington. “And those who
try to deny genocide will be beaten back.”

The coalition is being launched at a time of considerable debate over
events in Ottoman Turkey early last century. Several PBS stations were
criticized this week for airing a documentary called “The Armenian
Genocide” and declining to air an accompanying panel discussion that
included scholars who have denied that a genocide took place.

Those who believe that both views should be heard accused PBS stations,
including Boston’s WGBH, of bowing to pressure from Armenians and their
supporters.

Armenians and many historians have long maintained that the events of
1915 in Ottoman Turkey — in which more than 1 million Armenians were
killed and many more were driven from their homes — constituted
genocide.

In Massachusetts, home to about 30,000 Armenians, legislators
established a day of remembrance for victims.

But the Turkish government, and some historians, say what happened
should not be described as genocide because the deaths were part of a
civil war that resulted in the murder of innocent people on both sides.

In the lawsuit, now pending at US District Court in Boston, a teacher
and a student from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, and the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations, have demanded that the state
Department of Education include dissenting views on the Armenian
genocide in a curriculum guide on the topic.

A draft of that guide originally included the dissenting views, but did
not mandate that they be taught in Massachusetts schools. The plaintiffs
say the removal violates freedom of speech.

The attorney general, who is defending the state, argues that because
the curriculum guide is a government document, it is not bound by free
speech. Armenians and supporters say presenting opposing views of the
1915 events is like denying the Holocaust.

The struggle has drawn support from other groups who say they speak from
their own painful histories of oppression.

“As members of the Jewish community, we identify with the Armenian
community in terms of the Armenian genocide, and it’s important to fight
denial,” said Nancy Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Greater Boston. “We thought this was a battle that
had been won long ago.”

Harvey Silverglate, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the
Department of Education suit, said his clients are not denying that a
genocide took place. “We are not admitting it, we’re not denying it,
we’re taking no position,” he said. “We simply want to open up the
avenues for honest debate and restore the censored articles to the
Massachusetts curriculum.”

Boston Herald

Expert says slaughter fits bill, despite Turks’ denial

By Kevin Rothstein
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Turkish government’s fierce PR campaign to cast doubt on the
Armenian genocide has spilled into the courts, Congress and even public
television – but not into Harvard genocide expert Helen Fein’s mind.

“It is a genocide by all criteria of genocide,” said Fein, director of
the Institute for the Study of Genocide. “It’s insulting and ridiculous
to argue with these deniers.”

The Republic of Turkey has paid millions of dollars to Washington-based
lobbying firm the Livingston Group, trying to battle a congressional
human rights bill that would recognize the deaths of 1.5 million
Armenians, at the hands of Turks, was genocide.

“Given the fact that Turkey continues its denial campaign, it becomes
that much more important for the U.S. and other countries to remember
and reaffirm what happened so we cannot repeat the mistakes of the
past,” said Bryan Ardouny, head of the Armenian Assembly of America.

The Turkish ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, yesterday
blasted a PBS documentary, “The Armenian Genocide,” that aired last
night on WGBH-Boston as a “blatantly one-sided perspective of a tragic
and unresolved period of world history.” Many Turkish authorities argue
that civil war, disease and famine, not genocide, contributed to the
deaths of Armenians as well as Turks between 1915 and 1918.

As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 1900s, Turks embarked on a
campaign of death and destruction against Armenians. The campaigns are
substantiated, Fein said, by eyewitness accounts from Armenians,
European missionaries and desperate missives from the U.S. ambassador,
Henry Morgenthau. He cabled Washington on July 16, 1916, that only force
would dissuade the Turks.

Armenians observe the genocide each year on April 24.

NR#2006-039