Author: Varosian Antranik

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY IN TURKEY ANXIOUS ABOUT UPCOMING VISIT OF ARMENIAN CATHOLICS TO TURKEY: ZAMAN REPORTS

Yerevan, June 14. ArmInfo. The Turkish special services are concerned
over the probable actions of protest against the upcoming visit
of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II to Turkey, the Turkish
newspaper Zaman reports.

The report prepared by the special services in connection with the
forthcoming visit focuses on the deep concern of the Armenian community
of Istanbul and Patriarch Mesrop Mutafyan. The report says the local
Armenian community takes a view that "Catholicos of All Armenians is
unaware of what and where he speaks about." The newspaper says the
Catholicos was invited to Turkey on June 19-25 by the Greek Patriarch
of Turkey Bartholomew.

TEYMOURIAN STANDS OUT FOR IRAN

Globe and Mail, Canada
June 14 2006

Friedrichshafen, Germany – Many soccer players have a habit of
routinely crossing themselves as they emerge onto the field for a
World Cup match.

But Anderanik Teymourian is different.

His simple gesture has amazed television viewers around the world
because Teymourian plays on the national team of Iran, one of most
thoroughly Islamic nations in the world.

Teymourian is a member of Iran’s tiny Armenian minority, part of
an Orthodox Christian presence dating back to biblical times. About
200,000 Armenians currently live in Iran, mostly in Tehran and other
towns of the northwest.

Although Iran is an Islamic theocratic state, Christianity and other
non-Muslim religions are not banned as in other strictly fundamentalist
states such as Saudi Arabia.

"I’m the first Christian Iranian player in the World Cup since 1978,"
Teymourian said.

The last non-Muslim player on the national team was defender Andranik
Eskandarian in 1978. He now lives in the United States.

The gangly, 22-year old midfielder, who is seen as one of the great
hopes of Iranian soccer, plays for the Aboo Muslim club from Tehran.

He also has played for Iran at every youth level so far before being
drafted to the national squad by coach Branko Ivankovic.

"He is a wonderful player. Very serious, very committed, I can rely
on him to fulfil any task," Ivankovic said. "He will definitely play
a big role on the national team for many years to come."

Teymourian says he gets along very well with his teammates, and that
religious differences don’t affect their relations on the field or
on a personal level.

"I am very happy that as a Christian I am playing for a Muslim team,"
he said. "I will put all my abilities at the disposal of the nation
and the team."

He said that normally he regularly attends church in Tehran.

"But it’s been impossible to get out of the camp in Germany because
of security, so I haven’t been able to do so here."

AZERI MEDIA CONTINUE DISSEMINATING FALSE INFORMATION

ArmRadio.am
13.06.2006 15:52

NKR Ministry of Defense resolutely rejected the reports of the Azeri
APA Agency on cease-fire violation in the direction of Aghdam on the
night of June the 12th.

“It is a false report and the recurrent disinformation,” Press
Secretary of the NR Ministry of Defense Senor Hasratyan told “Arminfo”
correspondent.

In his words, no cases of cease-fire violation have been registered
recently.

To note, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan did not confirm the
report of the APA.

A HANDFUL OF SUN FOR ARMENIAN CHILDREN OF TBILISI
By Gohar Gevorgian

AZG Armenian Daily
14/06/2006

“The years that followed the 1990 were very difficult for the Armenians
of Tbilisi, and as teachers we were concerned with our children’s
future. We were particularly concerned that our children do not speak
Armenian, and wanted to familiarize them with our history, culture
and religion,” Inga Akhekian, teacher from Georgia, tells at the Azg
Daily publishing house.

Together with her colleagues, Emma Akhtian and Aida Barseghian, she
founded “Arevik” charity foundation in Tbilisi in 2002. Headquartered
in the house of Prof.

Emma Akhtian, the foundation helps the Armenian children. Staring
from 2003, the foundation publishes “Arevik” newspaper that is made
from the articles written by children from Javakhk, Ajaria and the
Armenian Diaspora. The paper has a circulation of 2000 and most copies
are being distributed free of charge.

In Inga Akhekian’s words, the funds of the organization are spent to
take care of the young Armenians of Tbilisi. Mrs. Akhekian says they
organize different arrangements such as essay contests, meetings with
Armenian painters of Georgia, namely Gayane Khachatrian, Meruzhan
Shahumian, Alik Barseghian, Alik Utmazian, Zuleyka, daughter of
Bazhbeuk Melikov, miniaturist Meruzhan Abovian and others. Thanks
to Henrik Bakhchian, head of the Museum of Literature and Art, the
foundation’s library constantly enriches with new books. Manuk Adamian,
grandchildren of Siamanto’s sister, also helped the children of the
foundation from Paris.

Mrs. Akhekian says that Arevik has representatives in Javakhk, Tsalka
and Armenia. The founders intend to bring a group of Tbilisi Armenians
to Armenia to acquaint them with the Armenian art and history for
closer ties with their fatherland.

OSKANIAN-MAMEDIAROV MEETING IN PARIS

AZG Armenian Daily
13/06/2006

Today, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers will meet in Paris
in presence of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. According Armenian FM
Vartan Oskanian, at present there is an agreement over some principles
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Oskanian will discuss the issue of
the next meeting between presidents Kocharian and Aliyev.

On June 14, Armenian foreign minister will leave for Brussels to
join defense minister Serge Sargsian for a meeting the North-Atlantic
Council and Armenia (26+1 format) to discuss the Armenia’s Individual
Partnership Action Plan. On June 19, Vartan Oskanian will head for
Kiev to meet president and foreign minister of Ukraine. On June 20-21,
the foreign minister will take part in opening session of the UN
Human Rights Council. One June 27-28, a visit of Vartan Oskanian to
Georgia is expected.

GEORGIAN-ARMENIAN POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS HELD IN ARMENIA

The Messenger, Georgia
June 12 2006

On June 9 in Yerevan consultations between Foreign Ministries of
Armenia and Georgia were held.

The Foreign Ministry of Georgia announced that the Georgian party
was represented by Valeri Chechelashvili, the first deputy Foreign
Minister of Georgia, Armenian party – by Gegam Garibjanyan, the deputy
Foreign Minister.

The parties discussed perspectives of cooperation in political,
economic, humanitarian, cultural spheres and issues of regional
cooperation.

In the framework of the visit Georgian delegation met with Vardan
Oskanyan, the Foreign Minister of Armenia.

The parties coordinated terms of the visit of the head of the foreign
political department to Tbilisi. The working visit of Vardan Oskanyan
will be held on June 27-28, 2006.

National Post (Canada)
June 10, 2006 Saturday
National Edition

Turkey’s war on dissent

by Robert Fulford, National Post

Those of us who know only a little about politics in Turkey would
expect to see the Turks trying hard, in this delicate period, to
prove their devotion to civil liberties. It was only last autumn that
Turkey was finally allowed to begin the official talks that precede
joining the European Union, a preliminary move celebrated with
grandiose dawn-of-a-new-era speeches.

For four decades, Turkey has been trying to get this process under
way. Opinion polls report that two-thirds of its citizens want to
join the EU. Britain welcomes the idea but Austria, among others, has
been reluctant. Recent events have made France and the Netherlands
suspicious of Turkey’s Islamic majority. Germans, as Hugh Eakin wrote
last winter in Slate magazine, see Turkey “as a society of
headscarves and honor killings,” definitely unEuropean. They fear
that admitting Turkey could encourage Muslims in Germany to form an
uncontrollable “parallel society.” That must infuriate moderate
Muslims in the Turkish government, who mostly favour the EU.

Since the acceptance process takes years, those opinions can change.
Meanwhile, the EU will be watching.

Inner conflicts and contradictions have always defined modern Turkey,
and it appears that elements in the judiciary, the army and the
government have chosen this of all times to harass journalists,
novelists and publishers. The authorities have exhibited amazingly
sensitive nationalist feelings. They are infuriated when anyone talks
about the Armenian genocide or sees imperfections in their democracy.
Courts are ruling that it’s still illegal to publish unpleasant
remarks about the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk
(1881-1938).

Even a novel can outrage national pride. A best-seller by Elif Safak,
Father and Bastard, concerning a Turkish family and an Armenian
family over nine decades, has been charged because the dialogue
includes “I am the grandchild of a family whose children were
slaughtered by the Turkish butchers” and “I was brought up having to
deny my roots and say that genocide did not exist.”

A court will decide if those fictional remarks violate Article 301 of
the penal code, now the key to many prosecutions. It makes “insulting
Turkishness” a crime and provides prison terms up to three years for
anyone who explicitly insults the Republic, the national assembly, or
“being a Turk.” This peculiarly wide-ranging section is one reason
that British PEN has been monitoring 60 Turkish cases this year.

The army, always powerful in Turkey, is another reason. The General
Staff objected to a recent magazine article, “Conscientious Objection
is a Human Right,” in which Perihan Magden, a columnist and novelist
with an international reputation, argued for alternatives to national
military service. She expressed sympathy for a man who was sentenced
to four years in army prison for refusing to fight (against Kurds,
probably), though he was willing to serve in any other way. For that
article, the army demanded that Magden be charged with “alienating
the people against military service.” If found guilty she could get
three years.

Hers was only one of six freedom-of-expression cases before the
Turkish courts this week, but it was the one that attracted the
attention of Hansjorg Kretschmer, the German who serves as EU
ambassador to Turkey. He asked, “If you think there should be a right
to conscientious objection in Turkey, why can’t you say it? Why is
this a ground for prosecution?” He also said Turkey has many cases
that are similarly “unacceptable from a European point of view.”

Last winter, the government withdrew a charge against Orhan Pamuk,
Turkey’s most admired novelist, for denigrating Turkishness. But
other writers, less famous, continue to be prosecuted. Pamuk asked,
“What is the logic behind a state that complains that its enemies
spread false reports about the Ottoman legacy all over the globe
while it prosecutes and imprisons one writer after another, thus
propagating the image of the Terrible Turk world-wide?”

The answer lies somewhere in the labyrinthine politics of Turkey.
There are nationalist forces that have no enthusiasm for the EU. They
tend to be secular rather than Islamic and belong to what Turks call
the “deep state,” dominated by bureaucrats and the military
establishment. They know a new Turkey is slowly being born, and they
aren’t at all sure they want it to imitate Europe. In their fight
with the government for control of Turkish identity, they don’t at
all mind if the courts displease Eurocrats like Kretschmer and create
barriers to acceptance. Official Turkey is fighting a war of opinion
in its own ranks, with authors, journalists and publishers as
collateral victims.

[email protected]

Langley Times, Canada
June 9 2006

Globe drops warfare for soccer Three-quarters of population will
watch World Cup

By johngordon
Jun 09 2006

As you read this column, the World Cup host nation Germany will have
made schnitzel of underdogs Costa Rica. In the other opening game,
Poland will have polished off Ecuador in the first round.

>From villagers in Kenya huddling around a single TV set, to farmers
in Iran, executives in Japan and fishermen in Peru, the World Cup
audience is a truly global one. How global?

In 1978, I found myself in Istanbul, Turkey. Arriving in the city
centre from the international airport, I found the streets completely
deserted. There was a very eerie silence. Suddenly, a huge roar
erupted from a nearby restaurant.

Inside fanatical Turk and Armenian soccer fans were watching a game
on a 12-inch black and white TV set. At the time, Armenians and Turks
seldom socialized, unless of course there was a soccer game to be
watched.

Starting today (June 9) through to July 9, the top 32 teams from
around the world will compete for arguably the world’s greatest
sporting prize, the Federation International de Football Association
(FIFA) World Cup.

An estimated three-quarters of the earth’s population will tune in to
one or more of the 64 games being played. More astounding though, is
that the interest in the games will halt, for at least the duration
of the tournament, a number of simmering civil wars and tribal
in-fighting, something that the United Nations has been unable to do.

One of this year’s World Cup contestants in Germany is the Ivory
Coast. At present the country is calm, anticipating their team’s
first game against Argentina on Saturday morning.

In the years leading up to the World Cup, civil war has been rampant,
taking needless lives as tribal hostilities fester. Sadly, after the
World Cup is over, the civil war will most probably break out again
and even more lives will be needlessly lost.

For Canadians, whose national team failed to make this year’s
tournament, all 64 games will televised live on Sportsnet,TSN and
CTV.

Canada did go to the World Cup once, in 1986, bowing out in the first
round without scoring a goal. Despite our lack of national team
representation, Canada’s unique mosaic or `Culture of Cultures’ will
ensure a World Cup party that will be both colourful and exciting.

As Canadians, we can all enjoy the World Cup, using the occasion to
bond and perhaps forget for a short time at least the simmering
maelstrom that unfolded with the arrest of 17 terrorists in Toronto
last week.

And how about the World Cup trophy itself?

Prior to England’s win in the 1966 tournament, the diminutive Jules
Rime trophy, barely 12 inches high, was stolen. It was found just
prior to the tournament’s opening.

The thief, perhaps finding it impossible to sell, threw it over a
wall into a suburban garden where the owner’s dog found it wrapped in
newspaper. Meanwhile, the English FA had a replica made just in case
the original was never found. It is rumoured that the cup presented
to eventual winners, England, was switched for the facsimile right
after the presentation.

RA GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES 117 U.S. DRAMS FOR HOLDING “ONE NATION, ONE
CULTURE” SECOND ALL ARMENIAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The “One Nation, One
Culture” (“Mek Azg, Mek Mshakuyt”) second all-Armenian cultural
festival will be held in Armenia on June 23-30 for strengthening and
deepening the Armenia-Diaspora cultural ties as well as for presenting
the Armenia culture jointly. More than 2000 artists from Armenia,
Artsakh, France, Austria, Great Britain, Switzerland, U.S., Syria,
Lebanon, Iran, Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan will participate in the
festival.

As Vigen Sargsian, the RA President’s Assistant informed at the June 7
press-conference, the festival held in 2004 for the first time became
a national celebration and strengthened “consciousness and sense of
being one nation.” According to V.Sargsian, if mainly amateurish
collectives were presented at the previous festival from Diaspora,
professionals are involved in the festival this year.

Tamar Poghosian, the Executive Director of the “One Nation, One
Culture” fund informed that the RA Government allocated 117 mln drams
(about 275 thousand U.S. dollars) for holding the
festival. T.Poghosian mentioned that the Government also undertook the
issue of providing conditions for Javakhk and Artsakh representatives.

The solemn opening ceremony of the festival will take place on June 23
at the Karen Demirchian Sports and Concert Complex. On the next day,
June 24, participants of the festival will visit Tsitsernakabert, then
will meet with Armenian cinematographers, and in the eventing, at
19:30, they will participate in the theatrical event to take place at
the Gabriel Sundukian National Academic Theater. June 25 will be
dedicated to literature: the participants will visit the Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin, then an exhibition-fair of book will open on the
Charles Aznavour square. Events dedicated to fine arts will be
organized on the same day. Concerts dedicated to people’s, classic and
estrada music as well as a dancing march festival will be held in
concert halls of Yerevan on June 27-28.

Concerts will be organized within the framework of the festival not
only in Yerevan, but in different marzes of Armenia and in Nagorno
Karabakh as well.

The solemn opening ceremony of the festival will take place on June
30.

To recap, “Nare and Narek”, the symbol of the “One Nation, One
Culture” festival has been kept.

Armenian Assembly meets with Massachussets Legislators and Staff

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 12:46

In a major push to further educate Massachusetts legislators about the
Armenian Genocide, Armenian Assembly representatives met with nearly
200 State lawmakers or their assistants at the historic Massachusetts
State House. During those meetings, the Assembly distributed Peter
Balakian’s bestseller The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and
America’s Response, as well as a DVD on the subject of the Armenian
Genocide.

The Armenian Assembly and its affiliate organization, the KNOW
GENOCIDE Coalition, have been at the forefront of generating awareness
on the Armenian Genocide and combating genocide denial in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond. These efforts have proven
critical given the recent attempts by the Assembly of Turkish American
Associations (ATAA) to deny and rewrite history with respect to the
genocide. Last year the ATAA along with two Massachusetts high school
teachers and a student brought a lawsuit in US District Court against
the Massachusetts Board of Education and its Commissioner, David P.
Driscoll, to insert materials in the State Curriculum Guide that deny
the Armenian Genocide.

The Burning Tigris, a New York Times bestseller published by
HarperCollins, explores America’s attempts to save Armenians from
extinction by the Ottoman Turks. Balakian, using eyewitness accounts,
survivor narratives and documents from the U.S. State Department,
chronicles how Americans responded to the first modern genocide of the
20th Century.

The DVD, entitled 1915 Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, was launched
this year by the Genocide Archive Project and its Executive Producer
David Davidian, specifically to educate students, teachers, and
lawmakers. It contains a powerful documentary segment on the genocide
as well as important survivor testimonies that forcefully document the
tragedy that befell the Armenian nation beginning in 1915.

The materials will allow State Representatives and Senators to better
understand and identify with this great tragedy that befell humanity
nearly a century ago.