Author: Topchian Jane

Sun-Sentinel.com, FL
Feb 16 2007

Don’t repeat history – anywhere

Andrew Shumaker
Age 12 Don Estridge High-Tech Middle School Boca Raton
Posted February 16 2007

Even though Americans are slowly learning about the terrible genocide
in Darfur, the atrocities continue. People, worldwide, must become
more aware and involved because we need to stop the intentional
killing of innocent people.

There are many opportunities for students to make a change. Students
first need to educate themselves about the facts of the genocide, and
then must make an effort to inform and educate their peers. Attending
"Save Darfur" rallies, where many organizations meet, speak and share
ideas about this problem is a good start.

Contacting government officials allows them to change laws, arrange
international meetings to work toward a more international solution,
and to assign more money for relief.

Teaching tolerance is another way that students can make a
difference. Other genocides in history, such as the Armenian
genocide, and the Holocaust took millions of innocent lives, all
because people were seen as "different."

Knowing our history, young students, like adults, have an obligation
to end the horrific events in Darfur. During a recent sermon at my
synagogue, my rabbi (Rabbi Richard Agler, D.D.) firmly stated that
"never again" means "never again for anyone." We must not repeat
history!

ORGANIZATIONS FIGHTING AGAINST OUTDOORS ANIMALS FAIL TO MEET THEIR OBLIGATIONS

Panorama.am
16:31 13/02/2007

Several private companies which have won tender are now dealing
with the problem of outdoors animals. First deputy of Yerevan mayor,
Kamo Areyan, said today the companies could not meet their contract
obligations. He said the municipality will impost stricter rules on
them this year.

Prevention of natural growth is selected as a method for fight against
outdoors animals. In the opinion of deputy mayor, this method is more
acceptable for the society.

Baltic News Service
February 9, 2007 Friday 3:07 PM EET

ESTONIAN FOR MIN REJECTS EU COMMISSIONER’S IDEAS CONCERNING GEORGIA

Estonia’s Reformist Foreign Minister Urmas Paet does no see eye to
eye with Siim Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission and
former chairman of the Reform Party, concerning expediency of the
Estonian embassy in Georgia.

Kallas wrote in Diplomaatia (Diplomacy), a publication of the
international defense studies center, that Estonia should above all
stake on work in international organizations, not so much on
embassies in other countries. Kallas said that the Estonian decision
to open an embassy in Georgia had made him think about the issue.

Paet told BNS that the embassy in Georgia was very important as
Georgia was a development cooperation country of the highest priority
for Estonia and Estonia actively supported the country’s pro-western
reforms.

"Estonia would not be taken seriously if we didn’t have an embassy in
the country. We will be believed if we have a presence in Georgia,"
Paet said.

The foreign minister said that via the embassy Estonia urgently
leared of developments in the country and dispatch of a couple of
experts was not enough.

Paet said that Estonia had recently stepped up its activity and
number of diplomats also in international organizations, such as the
United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, the European Union and NATO.

Paet said that Estonia had opened most of its embassies in the late
1990s and they hadn’t operated for ten years yet. The foreign
minister said that the bilateral network of Estonian embassies was
now optimal in the European countries, but there were plans to open
an embassy in the Balkan region.

Siim Kallas wrote in Diplomaatia that in case of limited resources it
was necessary to prefer manning representatations at international
organizations with first-rate forces to supplying and financing of
bilateral embassies.

Kallas said that he had great sympathy for Georgia and was always
ready to support its pro-western and pro-reform initiatives.

"But where is the battle for the brave Georgian being waged?" he
asked. "It is being waged in the European Union, the European
Parliment the Council of Europe, the United Nations as well as in
NATO and the OSCE.

Kallas said that perhaps it would be more sensible to draw up a team
of those people that had been named to head the said organizations,
establish direct links between those people and Georgian politicians.

The vice-president asked what would happen in the reforms in Georgia
came to a standstill and Armenia instead would rise into the focus on
international politics. "After all, we have always had a warm
attitude also to Armenia," he said.

In Kallas’s opinion Estonia naturally needs embassies in key
countries, but that there are no more than 10 or 15 of them.

UNEMPLOYMENT: 520 VACANT POSITIONS ARE WAITING FOR GOOD ONES AND THE BEST ONES

Panorama.am
17:19 07/02/2007

At present the good candidates are selected as a result of the vacancy
announcement for the positions of civil servants. Chairman of Council
for Civil Service, Manvel Badalyan, told journalists today. He noted
it is desirable that the best ones were in the number of the candidates
in order the positions were replenished with just such personnel.

Of course, M. Badalyan agrees that the low salary repels many of them,
therefore good specialists prefer to work in private section or at
international structures. Up to date the Council for Civil Service
has announced 4,200 vacancies, but 520 positions have been left
vacant. This, in Badalyan’s words, means we have a serious problem
of personnel.

It should be noted that there are 7,231 positions of civil servant in
Armenia today, but it is envisaged to also include the rescue service
in the system, as a result of which the number of the positions of
civil service will increase by 284.

TOROSYAN FINDS BAKU’S STANCE ON SOUTH CAUCASUS INTER-PARLIAMENTARY COOPERATION WRONG

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Feb 7 2007

YEREVAN, February 7. /ARKA/. Armenian National Assembly Speaker
Tigran Torosyan finds the stance taken by Baku on South Caucasus
inter-parliamentary cooperation wrong.

Armenian National Assembly’s press office reports that Torosyan
reminded OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Chairman Goran Lennmarker as
met him on Monday in Yerevan that Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani
lawmakers started meeting from 2001 on Links British organization’s
initiative. Torosyan said these meetings laid favorable groundwork for
South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative creation and these countries’
MPs gather twice a year.

However, he said, Azerbaijani parliamentarians are hobbled by Baku’s
uncompromising stance – Azerbaijani leadership remains adamant in
rejecting any cooperation with unless Karabakh problem is solved.

Torosyan pointed out that Azerbaijani authorities keep making bellicose
statements.

The speaker expressed Armenian legislators’ willingness to cooperate
with their colleagues from other South-Caucasian countries.

Lennmarker, in his turn, stressed the importance of inter-parliamentary
contacts saying cooperation on some issues related to seismic
security or water and mining resources should be strengthened through
parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue.

He thanked Armenian parliamentary delegation for participation in
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s work and expressed hope that Armenian
lawmakers would contribute to coming discussion over energy security.

Speaking on European integration, Lennmarker attached importance to
fundamental values.

OSCE PA delegation arrived in Yerevan on Sunday for a four-day visit.

RA NA DELEGATION TO PARTICIPATE IN OSCE PA SESSION TO START ON FEBRUARY 21 IN VIENNA

Noyan Tapan
Feb 07 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian delegation will
also participate in the OSCE PA session to start on February 21
in Vienna. As head of the delegation, RA NA Vice-Speaker Vahan
Hovhannisian informed journalists, issues of energy security and
communication connected with the latter are on the agenda. Touching
upon the information in Azerbaijani press, according to which
the Azerbaijani delegation is going again to raise the question
of Nagorno Karabakh at the Assembly, V.Hovhannisian said that
"they raise this question everywhere," but, in his opinion, "it
will not change anything." In V.Hovhannisian’s words, the report
of Nagorno Karabkh is in circulation at the Assembly. The Armenian
delegation has come up with a proposal to work out a resolution on
the basis of the report. So as the resolution not to be one-sided the
Assembly Chairman and report’s author Goran Lennmarker was proposed
creating a neutral working group including one representative from
Armenia, one from Azerbaijan, as well as representatives of OSCE
member-countries. Experts invited form NKR will also take part in
these activities. In V.Hovhannisian’s words, the proposal is still
in the process of discussion.

THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA TESTIMONY REGARDING GENOCIDE AND THE RULE OF LAW

ArmRadio.am
07.02.2007 16:21

"As we reflect on the continuing problem of genocide, certainly the
20th century stands out as one marred by mass killings on a scale
never before seen in history. From the Armenian Genocide at the turn
of the century, which the world easily forgot but for Adolf Hitler,
who infamously invoked it by saying: "Who, after all, speaks today
of the annihilation of the Armenians?" as he unleashed the horrors of
World War II and the Holocaust – to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia, the atrocities in Rwanda, and now in the 21st century, the
decimation of the population of Darfur, the trail of crimes against
humanity painfully continues," said Executive Director of the Armenian
Assembly of America Bruan Ardouny, speaking in the Human Rights and
the Law Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ardouny noted also that "The absence of international law to hold the
perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide accountable was dishearteningly
evident at the end of World War I. But for a brief series of domestic
trials in Turkey, which were too soon discontinued, the organizers
of the Armenian atrocities avoided responsibility and escaped
judgment. This very lack of accountability to one’s own nation and
to the international community for having committed mass atrocities
propelled a true giant in the defense of human rights, Raphael Lemkin,
to ask why a murderer may be charged for a single crime, while a mass
murderer is excused. It would take one more genocide for mankind to
find the sense of outrage that is now embodied in the U.N. Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of which the
United States is a signatory. The law was silent in 1915 when Armenians
by the hundreds of thousands were sent on death marches, subjected
to massacres, and starved to death in the parched desert. While the
law was silent, leading voices of conscience in the United States
and elsewhere around the world were far more vocal.

Newspapers across America carried chilling accounts under headlines
such as " Armenians Are Sent to Perish in the Desert" and "1,500,000
Armenians Starve" In his speech the Executive Director noted:
"Against the background of overwhelming evidence that would have
been sufficient to prosecute any number of the criminals involved in
the Armenian Genocide, today the Armenian-American community instead
struggles against the unremitting forces of denial that want to bury
the past, distort history, and erase the memory of this crime against
humanity. To quote Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University,
who personally confronted the problem in court, "Denial of genocide
is the final stage of genocide; it is what Elie Wiesel has called ‘a
double killing.’ " It seeks to demonize the victims and rehabilitate
the perpetrators."

"Descendents of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide in their
respective countries of residence have appealed to their governments
to stop this denial and to re-affirm the historic record on its
occurrence. For them, as for us in the Armenian Assembly of America,
the affirmation of history by our lawmaking institutions is the best
hope available to respond to the power of denial with the decency
of the law and the principles that protect and defend basic human
rights. Denial also subverts the essence of the rule of law. It
is a form of violation, a violation of the right to honor the
memory of the victims of genocide without facing the abuses and
indignity of denial. For this very reason the Armenian- American
community with every Congress has urged legislators to re-affirm this
history, and most especially the very honorable American record of
humanitarian response to the Armenian Genocide. Therefore, we remain
deeply concerned that the Department of State, despite the very
evidence in its own archives, has consistently opposed Congressional
resolutions that properly identify the mass killing of the Armenians
as genocide. This policy is not consistent with the American record
on human rights and flies in the face of past and current policy to
expose those who commit atrocities and to bring them to justice. Most
regrettably, Congress and the Department of State need to be reminded
that denial is not a problem of semantics alone. A mere two weeks ago
a terrible crime was committed in Turkey that reminded the world how
high can be the price of fighting denial."

It is extremely unfortunate that one of the most prominent figures of
the Armenian community in Turkey was prosecuted under Article 301. The
Turkish courts dismissed all other cases filed under Article 301 with
the exception of Hrant Dink, one of the most vocal advocates of human
rights and tolerance in Turkey.

In a country of 71 million people, the representative of the Armenian
minority (approximately 60,000) in Turkey, which numbers less that
a tenth of one percent of the population, the remnant of a people
once counted at over 2 million, happens to be the individual meted
punishment and public condemnation for speaking about events in
history that occurred more than 90 years ago," Mr. Ardouny declared.

ARMAN PASHIKIAN BECOMES ARMENIA’S 20TH INTERNATIONAL GRANDMASTER

Armenpress
Feb 06 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS: Arman Pashikian from Yerevan
has become the 20-th Armenian chess player granted the title of
international grandmaster.

The decision of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to grant
the tile to the Armenian player came today. Two other Armenian chess
players-Hrant Melkumian and Avetik Grigorian- were granted the title
of international chess masters and Ashot Nadanian was granted FIDE
coach title.

Armenia has now 20 international grandmasters and 23 international
masters.

ARTHUR AGHABEKYAN WILL SOON OFFICIALLY DECLARE ABOUT HIS RESIGNATION

Panorama.am
17:45 05/02/2007

Deputy minister of defense Arthur Aghabekyan intends to submit his
statement of application in the nearest future. However, in this
respect A. Aghabekyan did not mention the exact date.

To remind, A. Aghabekyan is going to be engaged in politics, for which
he has decided to leave his duties of the deputy minister. During
the forthcoming elections his candidacy will be nominated by the
proportional list of ARFD. A. Aghabekyan has already informed Serzh
Sargsyan about it, but he has not made any official statement yet.

Earlier Aghabekyan told that immediately after the holding of a joint
workshop with the Marshal center he would make an official statement
regarding his resignation. We shall remind that the seminar started
today, but the deputy minister said that he has some more duties,
and only after their fulfillment he will submit the statement of
his resignation.

NOTICE: DPM 2006 YEAR END FINANCIAL RESULTS

CCNMatthews
Feb 05, 2007

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(CCNMatthews – Feb. 5, 2007) – Dundee Precious
Metals Inc.

(TSX:DPM) ("Dundee Precious" or "the Company") will be hosting an
analyst meeting to present its 2006 Year End Financial Results on
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. (EST).

This meeting will be webcast live (audio only) at:
=69218&s=wm&e=1471230)

The corresponding press release and a full set of the financial
statements and MD&A will be issued before the meeting and
posted on the Company’s website at: _www.dundeeprecious.com_
(http://www.dundeepreciou s.com) .

Dundee Precious Metals Inc. is a Canadian based, international mining
company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and
mining of precious metals. It currently owns the Chelopech Mine,
a producing gold/copper mine, and the Krumovgrad Gold Project, a
mining development project, both located in Bulgaria, and is engaged in
mineral exploration activities in Serbia. In addition, Dundee Precious
owns a 100% interest in the Back River gold exploration project in
Nunavut, Canada and an 80% interest in the Kapan Mining Project in
Armenia. The Company also holds a significant and strategic portfolio
of investments in the precious metals and mineral related sector.