Author: Vardanian Garo

Armenian opposition say over 250 arrested, “junta in its death throes”

Mediamax news agency
12 Apr 04

YEREVAN

MP Viktor Dallakyan, member of the opposition Justice bloc, said in
Yerevan today that “the Armenian authorities are deliberately
heightening tension in the country. It will be them who will bear the
responsibility for a possible negative outcome.”

Speaking at a briefing at the headquarters of the People’s Party
today, Dallakyan said that some 250 people had been “unlawfully
detained” over a sit-in and protests on Freedom Square.

Dallakyan said that Tatul Manaseryan and Vardan Lazarian, MPs of the
Armenia’s National Assembly from the Justice faction, were taken to
police station today. The two intend to get in touch with the speaker
of the National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, and demand that measures
be taken to free them, Dallakyan said.

“Such acts by the authorities testify to the fact that the junta is in
its death throes,” he said. The leaders of the Justice bloc have sent
a letter to Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer, and
to the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe, Peter Schieder.

The letter mentions “illegal acts by the authorities against peaceful
demonstrators”.

Another member of the Justice faction, Shavarsh Kocharyan, today
accused the Armenian authorities of carrying out “the policy of state
terror against their own people”. He said that the authorities have
consistently ignored the constitution which entitles its citizens to
stage peaceful rallies and marches.

The speakers told the briefing that the opposition’s decision to stage
a rally and march to the presidential residence today at 1600 [0900
gmt] remains unchanged.

The ethos of Islam
By MORDECHAI NISAN

Jerusalem Post
Apr. 12, 2004 22:46

In 1992, the socialist government in Madrid promoted legislation that
recognized Islam’s ancient tradition in the country, considering
Spanish identity harmoniously interwoven with the Koranic religion.

But the Muslim interpretation of Islam in Spain, beginning with
conquest in 711 and ending in 1492, had a more militant twist. Scholar
M. Amir Ali commented that Spain had actually been liberated by Muslim
forces and its tyrants removed. Reflecting on March 11, as Muslim
terrorism killed 200 and wounded1,400 in Madrid, one wonders whether
one day this event will also not be commemorated as a liberating
moment.

Central to the attitude in the West concerning Islam is the fear to
define global terrorism as Muslim terrorism. US President George
W. Bush’s reticence, a combination of caution and error, has been
representative of all Western leaders.

Islam’s conceptual lexicon and emotional code are radically different
from that conventionally understood and practiced in the West. Yasser
Arafat and Ahmed Yassin, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Hassan
Nasrallah, and Osama bin Laden, register as dramatic personae who
relentlessly link religion with war against Jews and Christians,
devoid of any remorse or shame.

The mind-set of Islam was etched into theological axioms with the
appearance of the Koran in the seventh century. This book is its
explicit and enduring guide.

The Koran is, among other things, a war tract calling upon “the
believers”- there are only Muslim believers – “to fight for the cause
of Allah”(4:74-76). This is a war for truth; God is One and Muhammad
his true prophet and messenger. The infidels must be punished
(16:126-8) for their haughtiness and stubbornness in rejecting
Muhammad (6:158), and will burn in the fire of Hell (4:55).

The Muslims must fight the infidels, primarily Jews and Christians,
with “the sword of Muhammad.” The religion of Muhammad will triumph
because the Muslims love death, accepting any individual sacrifice,
while the enemy loves life.

At Qadisiyya in 637, Arabs seeking paradise defeated Persians longing
for the earth below.

Yet more than the Muslim shahid (martyr) is willing to die, the Muslim
mujahid (fighter) has a passion to kill. This is his religious mission
and life’s purpose. There is no reason to pity the infidel or feel
culpable for his demise. The Koran commands the believer not to trust
or befriend the humiliated dhimmis, those Jewish and Christian
scriptuaries, who must suffer timorously the heavenly sanctioned rule
of Islam.

Islam’s supersessionary religious doctrine catalyzed relentless
destruction, oppression, and abuse of Christians in eastern
lands. While there were moments of laxity and civility in applying the
robust strictures of domination, Islam did not recoil from razing
churches in ancient Damascus and slaughtering Christians in
Mesopotamia, inflicting atrocities in Aleppo and exterminating
Armenians in their homeland.

Arab colonization of the Middle East and the Islamization of its
peoples were acts of conquest and conversions that define the region
until today.

The 14th-century Muslim theologian Ibn Taimiyya explained the root of
this sweeping campaign. “Infidels,” he wrote, “forfeit their persons
and their belongings which they do not use in Allah’s service to the
faithful believers who serve Allah and unto whom Allah restitutes what
is theirs; thus is restoredto a man [Muslim] the inheritance of which
he was deprived, even if he had never before gained possession.”

THE MUSLIM dehumanization of non-Muslims profoundly colors the
problematic relationship wherever the two sides meet.

People who innocently take a train in Madrid, a plane in Washington, a
bus in Jerusalem, or go to the theater in Moscow, can be wantonly
murdered with no Muslim afterthought.

The Koranic precept “to slay them [infidels] wherever you find them”
(2:191) is the religious gunpowder filling mosque sermons in Mecca,
Cairo, and Gaza. The believers call upon Allah to help the warriors
of Islam in Kashmir and Chechnya, Palestine and Kosovo.

The believer is fortified by the belief that any martyrdom operation
against haughty Jews and misguided Christians pleases Allah. It is
that act which brings honor to the martyr’s family.

This religious delirium, with the Muslim’s mental universe pining for
the heavenly whorehouse of 72 virgins awaiting him in paradise, cannot
be apprised through conventional categories of Western humanism.

The Muslim mosque, for prayer in Bradford, Rennes, and Granada,
potentially transforms faith into a closed herd mentality, and
spirituality into formulae for ineluctable conquest.

The socio-religious processes of demographic growth and conversion,
with more than 15 million Muslims inhabiting Western Europe today,
constitute alternative and non-violent modes for the Islamic
proliferation in Europe. In two generations, half of Holland will be
Muslim and a third of Denmark; more than a tenth of France already is.

During the history of Muslim takeover of the Christian lands in the
ancient Middle East – which is now being repeated in the Christian
lands ofEurope – public space was to be cleansed of infidel
presumption, if not presence.

This is a process whose signs are emerging in Western countries, as
police protect shoppers and travelers, as strategic targets are
endangered. Muslims and their sites are free of menace.

IT FOLLOWS, then, that mourning in Madrid and panic in Paris
constitute a thoroughly proper state of affairs. The infidel “domain
of war,” to use an Islamic legalism for non-Muslim lands, must
inevitably fall to Islam.

Sheikh Jamal Shakir, in a mosque harangue in Amman on March 5, said:
“O God destroy your enemies, the Jews and Crusader enemies of Islam.”

While Israel has fought tenaciously against Islamic terrorism, Europe
has adopted escapist routes: blaming Israel and its war with the
Palestinians as responsible for Muslim terror, and bowing submissively
as dhimmis must to Muslim violence, threats, and ultimatums. Witness
appropriate European cowardice and venality, with the rise of
anti-Semitism and the shameful Spanish election results.

Exhausted by two 20th-century continental wars and the long Cold War,
now confronting a multifaceted Islamic War, Europe is deluded and
divided.

That the Muslims take their religion seriously and literally appears
beyond the grasp of European comprehension. The Americans understand
better, and Israel smack in the eye of the storm hits back without
remorse or shame.

The writer teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His latest
book is Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and
Self-Expression.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918 Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

April 7, 2004

Contact: Ardashes Kassakhian
Telephone: 818.500.1918

ANCA-WR WELCOMES NEW GOVERMENT RELATIONS DIRECTOR

ANC Activist Armen Carapetian Brings Experience and Knowledge to
Organization’s Advocacy Work

GLENDALE, CA’The Armenian National Committee of America ` Western
Region (ANCA-WR) announced this week that Armen Carapetian has joined
the organization to serve as its Government Relations Director.
Carapetian will be working with ANCA-WR Executive Director Ardashes
Kassakhian.

As Government Relations Director, Carapetian will represent the
ANCA-WR before federal, state and local officials. He will be
responsible for educating public officials on a range of issues
important to Armenian-Americans living in the Western United
States. Carapetian will work closely with local ANC chapters to
promote issues of concern to Armenian-Americans.

Carapetian, a longtime ANC activist, most recently led the successful
effort to pass an Armenian Genocide resolution in the Maryland State
Legislature in the face of vigorous opposition by U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell, the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC and a number
of major defense companies. In addition to his efforts on various
local projects, Carapetian, an alumnus of the ANCA Leo Sarkisian
Summer Internship Program in Washington, DC, has helped advance ANCA
initiatives on the Congressional front.

`I am proud to add another talented individual to our staff,’ remarked
ANCA-WR Chairman Raffi Hamparian. `Having known Armen for many years,
I look forward to working with him again in advancing the Armenian
Cause. With the dedicated combination of ANCA-WR Executive Director
Ardashes Kassakhian and Armen Carapetian, the ANC will become a
stronger, more effective advocate for the Armenian-American
community,’ added Hamparian.

Prior to joining the ANCA-WR staff, Carapetian worked for the
Burlington Free Press, which is Vermont’s largest daily newspaper.
Before moving to Burlington, he lived in the Republic of Armenia,
where he worked for the International Executive Service Corps and for
Arlex International, a highly regarded legal and business consulting
firm established by noted Armenian American attorney Tom Samuelian.
Carapetian, who holds a Master’s degree in Economics, also served as
an energy analyst at Pace Global Services of Fairfax, Virginia from
1999 to 2001.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the
concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.

Editor’s Note: Photo attached with caption – ANCA-WR Executive
Director Ardashes Kassakhian welcomes new Government Relations
Director Armen Carapetian on board.
#####

A1 Plus | 15:03:48 | 07-04-2004 | Official |

STATEMENT OF NGOs and JOURNALISTS PARTICIPATING IN CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE
CONTEXT OF DEMOCRATIC REFORMS IN ARMENIA WORKSHOP

Adopted on the initiative of Yerevan Press Club

On April 5, 2004 prior to the Yerevan meeting of “National Unity” party
leaders with the voters, the police impeded journalists’ activity on the
highways connecting the regions with the capital. During the rally,
authorities obviously connived at the violence applied: the journalists were
exposed to beating, photo and video cameras were broken, films and tapes
were confiscated and destroyed. Both hampering journalists’ work and
violence towards them fall under criminal offence.

Overt bias of certain media, even those who fell victim to the incident, in
covering the events is also to be blamed.

We, participants of the workshop, organized by “Partnership for Open
Society” initiative, strongly condemn one more instance of regular violation
of the rights for receiving and disseminating information, as well as
freedom of expression. We call upon law and order bodies to punish the
instigators and perpetrators.

We declare that if in this case as well the culprits, several of them being
known, are not punished and the damage to the media is not compensated, we
will have to state that Armenian authorities are not interested in
consolidating the basic democratic values in the country: the rights for
freedom of expression, press, travel, conducting meetings and rallies,
exchanging opinions and the right of the society for getting objective
information.

We call on all the media, irrespective of their political preferences, to
demonstrate professional unity and to rise against the cases of violation of
freedom of expression through joint efforts.

—

Agence France Presse
April 6, 2004 Tuesday

Italian-born Sonia Gandhi a tough sell despite years in Indian
politics

by ELIZABETH ROCHE

NEW DELHI

Since her entry into politics in 1998, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi has
transformed herself into the heir of India’s first family and oldest
political party, but although she speaks Hindi and wears a sari she
remains a tough sell.

As she, on Tuesday, completes six years in active politics and files
her nomination papers to contest for parliamentary elections starting
April 20, Gandhi is facing a tough test as chief of the 119-year-old
Congress party.

Falling to her is the task of reviving a declining Congress and
leading it to victory in the ballots — an impossible task according
to dozens of opinion polls conducted in the past few months which all
point to a clear win for India’s ruling Hindu nationalist BJP-led
coalition government.

The 57-year-old Gandhi is pitted against 79-year-old Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee, a wily and seasoned politician with five
decades of experience of public life behind him.

In the face-off, Gandhi, widow of assassinated prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi, trails way behind due to her relative lack of experience and
an ongoing row over her Italian origins.

Giving further ammunition to the BJP is the fact that Gandhi, born
into a middle-class building contractor’s family in Orbassano,
northern Italy, only took Indian citizenship in the early 1980s —
more than a decade after her marriage.

It is not as if she has not worked hard to dispel her “foreigner”
tag.

Long ago she stopped wearing the chic skirts and blouses that were
her trademark attire in the early years of marriage to Rajiv. The
western clothing has been replaced by beautiful cotton or silk saris
and the salwar kameez — a long-sleeved tunic and crisply cut
pyjamas.

Gone are any visible symbols of her Catholic faith, while a
distinctive red Hindu sacred thread now adorns her wrist.

Never a regular churchgoer, Gandhi soon after her entry into politics
in 1998, however, visited the famous Tirupati temple in the southern
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to seek the deity’s blessings.

She has since visited a number of temples and even took a dip in the
holy Ganges river in 2001 during a “Kumbh Mela”, or Nectar Pot fair,
in a bid to silence her critics, notes journalist Rasheed Kidwai in
his biography of Gandhi.

If anything betrays her foreign origins, however, it is her accent,
whether she is speaking English or Hindi.

Kidwai, in his book, says the only one thing that Gandhi’s husband
and mother-in-law insisted she do immediately after marriage in 1968
was to learn Hindi so that she could speak the language at the dinner
table.

Her Hindi classes started immediately thereafter, contrary to claims
by her political opponents that she only began mastering the language
after her entry into politics.

“(Today) she speaks Hindi more fluently than many Indians who
criticise her foreign origins,” said Malvika Singh, columnist and
publisher of Seminar magazine. “She is as Indian as any one of us.”

A survey by an English weekly in February found that 28 of Congress’s
40 top and mid-level leaders said Gandhi’s foreign birth was a
“liability” for the party.

But 39 of the 40 said she was the only person who could keep the
party together.

Some question why India, with its billion-plus population, could not
produce an opposition leader — and prime ministerial candidate —
who is not “foreign born”.

“These people forget that Congress has had foreigners heading it
before — Annie Beseant and C.F Andrews — just to mention two,” said
a senior Congress leader who did not wish to be named.

He was referring to two Britons who headed the Congress soon after it
was founded in 1885 and before it led India to freedom from British
rule in 1947.

Some point out that France, Canada and Belgium all have had “foreign
origin” persons occupying top posts.

Eduard Balladur, who was France’s prime minister in the mid-1990s, is
of Armenian origin; John Turner, who was Canada’s prime minister in
1984, was born in Richmond, England; while Jean-Luc Deheane, who
until recently was premier of Belgium, was born in Montpellier,
France.

Dilip Cherian, who heads Perfect Relations, the firm which has been
hired by the Congress to help its campaign, says he and his team are
“focussing on the party’s ideology rather than on Sonia Gandhi”.

“It is a party with more than 100 years of history behind it. We are
saying that it is still a party which has relevance in today’s
context, it has a message for the young, old and all sections of
society.”

Political analyst Yashwant Deshmukh says there are “some sections who
are bothered about her foreign origins but by and large most people
are not”.

“The problem is she is pitted against Vajpayee — who with his years
in public life — comes off as a superior product. People don’t so
much care about her foreigner tag as much, I think, as her lack of
experience,” he said.

The Globe and Mail, Canada
April 2 2004

Soprano soars with passion, panache

TSO program features a miscellany of good things and ends with a zinger

By KEN WINTERS
Special to The Globe and Mail

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor/pianist
At Roy Thomson Hall
In Toronto on Wednesday

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s concert Wednesday at Roy Thomson
Hall was very much a “this, that, these, them and those” affair,
musically verging on the miscellaneous, though full of good things,
including the services of the trimmed down and remodelled conductor
laureate Sir Andrew Davis and the superb, gorgeously gowned young
Canadian-Armenian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian.

The “those” (of my opening conceit) were the Symphonies of Wind
Instruments by Igor Stravinsky, which began the concert and which
would have been another of the good things in another context. These
tiny, severely elegant pieces are not symphonies in the 19th-century,
symphonic-hall sense of the word. In them, Stravinsky returned to the
original meaning of the word symphony: “a sounding together of
instruments.”

To achieve the very particular “soundings-together” he had in mind,
he used only 21 wind instruments to create what he called “an austere
ritual . . . unfolded in terms of short litanies between different
groups of homogeneous instruments.”

In other words, a large but not very large chamber piece, almost by
definition out of place in Roy Thomson Hall, however neatly done by
Sir Andrew and the Toronto Symphony winds.

The “this” was Mozart’s Concert-Rondo in A, K. 386, a beguiling
little movement for piano solo, two oboes, two horns and strings,
which Mozart had left only partially orchestrated.

Sir Andrew had completed the orchestration, and in Wednesday’s
performance he both conducted and played the solo, the latter
stylishly if not impeccably. (He was fine in the lyric bits but he
fudged the pyrotechnics.) But the Rondo was nicely placed between the
“these,” a brace of arias from the young Mozart’s opera Il Re
pastore, K. 208, and the great concert aria with obbligato piano Non
temer amato bene, K.505, which the mature Mozart composed for himself
as pianist and the English soprano Nancy Storace (who had been his
Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro) to perform at her farewell Vienna
concert.

Isabel Bayrakdarian sang all three arias exquisitely, her radiant
soprano calmed for the first aria, brilliant for the second and
impassioned for the concert piece, with Sir Andrew graduating from
the Rondo to Mozart’s own role in the last, again playing very well
except in the fancy bits.

The “them” were two Rossini arias, the one Miss Bayrakdarian did sing
after intermission and the one she didn’t but might have sung as well
if the Stravinsky had been replaced by something more in keeping with
the rest of the occasion.

The one she sang, with stunning panache, was En proie à la tristesse
from Le Comte Ory. The contrasting one she didn’t sing, alas, might
have been the beautiful Willow Song from Rossini’s Otello (less
famous but more lovely even than Verdi’s), or possibly the melting
Sombre forêt from the same composer’s dramatic masterpiece Guillaume
Tell.

But all musical errors and omissions were redeemed by the splendid
“that” which ended the program: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony, in a
zinger of a performance, with Sir Andrew and the orchestra at their
sonic and rhythmic best, which is saying quite a lot.

Azer News, Azerbaijan
April 1 2004

Aliyev, Armitage reaffirm development of Azeri-U.S. relations

One of last week’s most important political events was the official
visit by first US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Armitage to
Baku. The visit was part of a regional tour which included Ukraine
and Armenia. According to

Elizabeth Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia,
the goal of Armitage’s visit to Azerbaijan was to “study priority
directions of the Azeri President and his government’s activity”.
“Armitage has been preparing for this visit for a long time. The goal
of the visit is to discuss with the top officials ways to develop
relations between the three countries,” Jones underlined.
Particularly, cooperation in fighting terrorism, economic reforms,
energy, and the situation in the region were in focus during the Baku
talks.

`It is the first time U.S. officials have had such a high level
meeting in Azerbaijan since Ilham Aliyev’s election as President of
Azerbaijan. From this standpoint, the United States is interested in
studying the priority directions of the new President and his
government’s activity. The relations between Richard Armitage and
Ilham Aliyev set good groundwork for talks. Armitage is also expected
to meet leaders of the opposition and NGO structures,’ she stated.
Armitage, who arrived in Baku Friday evening after visiting Yerevan,
left Azerbaijan Saturday afternoon. While in Baku, he had meetings
with President Aliyev, leaders of two opposition parties and
pro-government and independent political figures at the US Embassy in
Baku. He also briefed journalists at the airport before his
departure. Armitage also had a closed-door meeting with President
Aliyev on Saturday. Afterwards, the meeting was opened to other
participants. Noting that bilateral cooperation is developing rapidly
in all spheres, President Aliyev said large scale energy projects
were being implemented in Azerbaijan with support from the United
States. Underlining that the U.S. government has assisted Azerbaijan
in carrying out economic reforms in the country, Aliyev voiced his
hope for the US’s support for the implementation of the
socio-economic development program in the future. Aliyev said, `We
are confident that this cooperation will strengthen in the future.
Azerbaijan is in alliance with the United States to combat terrorism.
We are allies and this policy will continue. All this shows that our
countries’ successful cooperation will deepen in the future.’ Stating
that the Upper Garabagh conflict presents great difficulties to
regional security, the Azerbaijani President underscored that peace
would be established in the region soon. `We hope that the OSCE Minsk
Group plays an active role in the settlement of the conflict and
Azerbaijani lands are liberated from the Armenian occupation within
international legal norms.

`No plans for military bases’ – Armitage
I appreciate your visit to Azerbaijan and I am sure that the
relations between us and our countries will develop after this
visit,’ Aliyev stressed. Armitage, in his turn, thanked President
Aliyev and the Azerbaijani people for supporting the United States in
fighting terrorism. `Azerbaijan is in coalition with us and takes
part in joint operations. I would like to particularly mention the
courageous service of the Azerbaijani military personnel who are
assisting us in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, our aim is to reach a
higher level in bilateral economic, political, military and social
cooperation.’ Touching upon the conflict over Upper Garabagh, the
U.S. official said that his country wanted the conflict to be settled
peacefully. `We believe that the Caucasus may become a very good
partner of the West in the future. However, above all, the existing
problems in the Caucasus should be solved. Therefore, I have great
confidence in talks with you.’

`No plans for military bases’
Talking to a Saturday news conference for local and foreign media at
Bina Airport prior to departure, Richard Armitage said that the
stationing of U.S. military bases in Azerbaijan was not discussed
with President Aliyev and his country didn’t have such a plan.
Armitage said he was satisfied with the results of his Baku visit. He
extended his gratitude to President Aliyev for the participation of
the Azerbaijani military in peacekeeping operations in Iraq. Stating
that the issue of freedom of press in Azerbaijan was also discussed
during the meeting, Armitage said President Aliyev pledged that
public television would become independent. He added that, “Ilham
Aliyev is promoting the development of the open-minded and
progressive individual”. Underlining that the status of human rights
in Azerbaijan remains unsatisfactory, Armitage said, “The situation
in this field could be better”. Touching upon the settlement of the
Upper Garabagh conflict, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State said that
the OSCE Minsk Group was only a mediator on this matter. He also
expressed his hope that the conflicting sides would reach agreement.
Stating that it would be good if borders between Turkey and Armenia
opened, Armitage said that during the meeting President Aliyev
stressed that opening the Turkish-Armenian borders would negatively
affect the resolution of the conflict. In reply to a question about
the stationing the U.S. military bases in Azerbaijan, Armitage said
that this issue was not discussed with President Aliyev and his
country didn’t have any plans to do so. It is also indicative that
besides Gambar and Karimli, the meeting was also attended by Garayev
and Imanov, who are often referred to as possible leaders of the new
opposition. Furthermore, the pro-government wing was represented by
S.Sayidov and A.Mammadkhanov, who are deemed in the West as the
“young reformers” of President Aliyev’s team. The Chairman of the
Party of National Independence of Azerbaijan (PNIA) Etibar Mammadov,
who often takes part in such meetings, was not present. This could be
explained by the fact that Mammadov has not made many public
appearances since the presidential elections. Asked of the US
military assistance to Azerbaijan, Armitage said that Azerbaijan
supported military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, which put a heavy
burden on Baku. It is for this reason that Baku is receiving greater
military assistance from Washington than Armenia. Also, Azerbaijan is
supplying fuel for US aircraft en route to Iraq, which also promotes
increased US financial assistance to Azerbaijan. However, the volume
of US economic aid to Armenia is greater than that to Azerbaijan and
other countries in the region, Armitage added.

A1 Plus | 14:06:22 | 31-03-2004 | Politics |

ALL THE RALLIES WILL SOON BE FORBIDDEN

Armenian Authorities took the first step to hamper the chances for holding
meetings, rallies and marches in the republic.

Parliament approved the bill on “Order for Holding Meetings, Rallies and
Marches” at the first reading. It was passed by 76 pros, 1 con and 0
abstaining.

Though Justice Minister promised that the bill wouldn’t be approved quickly
the procedure of discussing laws in Parliament proves that after passing a
bill at the first stage the rest 2 readings are held urgently as a rule.

So it can be supposed that the parliamentary coalition will manage to pass
the above restricted bill before rallies held for power change become
large-scale.

—

A1 Plus | 19:51:59 | 31-03-2004 | Politics |

REPUBLIC PARTY VOICING SUPPORT TO “A1+”

“My party and I express support to “A1+” creative staff and all those who
have initiated the rally and the march on April 2 for free speech and press
freedom”, the statement released by “Republic” Party leader Aram Sargssyan
says.

The statement voices belief that all the citizens and political powers
concerned about democracy and the fate of our homeland irrespective of
ideological or political stances or discord will actively partake in the
rally and the march on April 2 for the defense of freedom of speech.

—

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
March 31 2004

LIVENING UP THE SPIRITUAL AND SECULAR LIFE

The Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church intends opening
chair of theology at Artsakh State University. This was announced by
the head of the Diocese of Artsakh, Parghev archbishop Martirossian.
Yerevan State University has a faculty of theology already, and it is
time to think for this in Artsakh. The Diocese also intends founding
the Student’s Union of Churchgoers headed by ArSU. Similar
organizations already operate in Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora,
greatly contributing to both spiritual and secular life. Archbishop
Martirossian added that his cherished dream is introduce at schools
the subject old Armenian language, at least starting with the 3rd or
4th grades. “Every Armenian teenager should be aware of his original
language, the Armenian language that was the language of Noah, which
also has a theological origin. If we fulfill this, it will be a great
achievement, said the archbishop of Artsakh.”

LAURA GRIGORIAN