La Stampa, Italia
01/19/2005

UNA STATUA IN VATICANO San Gregorio simbolo d’Armenia

Tosatti Marco

Marco Tosatti LO sguardo di Papa Wojtyla nell’inverno del suo
pontificato e’ sempre piu’ rivolto a Oriente, verso le “”chiese
sorelle””, in uno sforzo supremo di ricerca dell’unita’. Dopo il
“”regalo”” dell’Icona di Kazan al Patriarcato di Mosca, dopo il dono
delle reliquie dei santi Gregorio Nazianzeno e Giovanni Crisostomo al
Patriarca ecumenico Bartolomeo di Costantinopoli, oggi si compie in
Vaticano un altro gesto di grande significato, questa volta nei
confronti della chiesa armena, e piu’ in generale, del popolo armeno.

In una nicchia della basilica di San Pietro verra’ collocata una
statua gigantesca – e’ alta piu’ di cinque metri e mezzo – di san
Gregorio Illuminatore (Lusavoritch, in armeno), la prima statua di un
santo “”orientale”” ospitata nel cuore della cattolicita’. Poco
importa che “”questo”” san Gregorio non sia un totale sconosciuto per
la tradizione italiana: non e’ altri che il “”san Gregorio armeno””
venerato in tutta l’Italia meridionale, da Nardo’ fino a Napoli, dove
la strada a lui dedicata e’ un appuntamento irrinunciabile, sotto
Natale, per gli amanti dei presepi.

E’ un omaggio dalle molte sfaccettature, quello che il Papa rivolge
oggi a san Gregorio Illuminatore, benedicendo la statua posta nella
nicchia del Cortilone. Intanto, la cerimonia sigilla la conclusione
delle celebrazioni del grande giubileo indetto per festeggiare i 1700
anni della conversione del popolo armeno alla fede cristiana. Per
l’occasione, nel 2001, il Vaticano, in collaborazione con il
Patriarcato Armeno Cattolico, lancio’ un concorso internazionale per
il progetto di questa statua. Vinse il concorso uno scultore armeno
di origine libanese, Khatchik Kazandjian, che parti’ per Carrara per
scegliere il marmo statuario, quello stesso utilizzato da
Michelangelo per scolpire “”la Pieta'””. I lavori sono durati quasi
due anni e il costo e’ stato di quasi 250.000 Euro.

In secondo luogo c’e’ la mano tesa a una chiesa, quella apostolica
armena, che da un punto di vista teologico e’ vicinissima a Roma; in
realta’ si puo’ dire che piu’ che per ogni altra “”confessione
sorella”” a oriente di Venezia i motivi di divisione, o di non
comunione, attingono alla storia, piu’ che alla dottrina. Alla
cerimonia di oggi, e alla messa all’altare della Cattedra, in San
Pietro, Sua Beatitudine Nerses Bedros XIX Catholicos Patriarca di
Cilicia degli Armeni e l’Arciprete della basilica di San Pietro, il
cardinale Francesco Marchisano hanno invitato i due Catholicos della
Chiesa armena apostolica, di Etchmiadzin (Armenia), e di Antelias
(Libano), e il capo della chiesa armena evangelica. Ma, soprattutto,
in un momento in cui le popolazioni cristiane in Oriente sono vittima
di discriminazioni e aggressioni di ogni tipo, l’omaggio a San
Gregorio armeno e’ anche, per il Papa, l’omaggio a un popolo martire
come pochi altri per la sua fede.

PanArmenian News
Jan 20 2005

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO PAY OFFICIAL CALL TO ITALY

20.01.2005 17:56

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian today received
Italian Ambassador to Yerevan Marco Clemente. As reported by the
president’s Press Service, in the course of the meeting details of R.
Kocharian’s coming official visit to Italy were discussed. In the
course of the conversation the Armenian leader emphasized that
traditional friendly relations are established with Italy. In his
words, there are good prospects in economic cooperation, specifically
in medium and small enterprise. It should be reminded that as earlier
stated by Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, the visited is
expected to take place in late January.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News
Jan 20 2005

RALLY AGAINST US ASSISTANT STATE SECRETARY STATEMENTS ON KARABAKH
HELD IN ARMENIA

20.01.2005 17:04

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday in Yerevan representatives of a range of
youth and student organizations held a rally procession towards the
building of the US Embassy in Armenia. The action, in which over 200
took part, aimed at expressing protest against the statement of US
Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones that “establishment of
stability in Pridnestrovye, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno
Karabakh proceeds from interests of Russia and corruption should be
ended and ruling criminal separatists taken away there.” In the words
of action participants, their goal was to demonstrate to the
civilized world and Elizabeth Jones that Nagorno Karabakh people and
authorities cannot be considered separatists, as Nagorno Karabakh has
never been and will never be part of Azerbaijan. The action
participants also reminded that Karabakh Armenians are guided by the
principle of self-determination. “The conflict in Nagorno Karabakh is
not a small change for political games between the US and Russia,”
Chairman of the Student Council of Yerevan State University Mihran
Hakobian stated. It should be noted that the action participants
conveyed a respective statement to the Embassy.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Jan 20 2005

Cost of tickets for transit flights of Austrian Airlines from Armenia
thru Vienna decreased by $27

4th national exhibition `Our Home’ will take place on Feb 25-27 in
Yerevan

January 23 will be celebrated in all Armenian churches as
commemoration of victims of tragic events in Baku in 1990

Constituent congress of Armenia-Our Home newly established party of
NKR held in Stepanakert

RA President meets with Ambassador of Italy to Armenia

Public organizations of Armenia sign memorandum on cooperation on
fight against traficking and illegal migration

6 criminals wanted by police CIS countries are on the territory of
Armenia

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COST OF TICKETS FOR TRANSIT FLIGHTS OF AUSTRIAN AIRLINES FROM ARMENIA
THRU VIENNA DECREASED BY $27

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. Cost of tickets for transit flights of
Austrian Airlines from Armenia thru Vienna decreased by $27, Austrian
Airlines told ARKA. It became possible in account of provision of
benefits by the company for transit flights thru Vienna. Since Jan
17, 2005 AA compensate more than 50% of the cost of the transit thru
Vienna, if earlier the amount of transit payments was 14.17 Euros,
now it makes 8 Euros. Besides the company also decreased all
additional payment for fuel.
According to General Commercial Director of Austrian Airlines Joseph
Burger, transit flights thru Vienna are the key ones in world network
of air flights.
Austrian Airlines was founded in 1957. Authorized capital of the
company makes 3.4 billion Austrian shillings (about $226 million).
The owners are Austrian Privatization Agency (39.7% of shares), Free
Flow (30.6%), Austrian Syndicate (18.2%), SairLines (10%) and Air
France (1.5%). Air park of the company makes 90 planes. AA office in
Yerevan opened in Jan 2001 and first flight in Vienna was made on
March 26, 2001. L.D. –0 –

*********************************************************************

4TH NATIONAL EXHIBITION `OUR HOME’ WILL TAKE PLACE ON FEB 25-27 IN
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. 4th national exhibition `Our Home’ will
take place on Feb 25-27 in Yerevan, Expomedia Center told ARKA. The
exhibition covers more than 1000 square meters of area. According to
marketing research, about 60% of companies are regular participants
of the exhibition `Our Home’. The goal of the exhibition is to gather
together the companies occupied in project-construction, repairs
works, interior-exterior, design of dwelling and office areas. After
the end of the exhibition all participants will receive official
diplomas and the winners will receive prizes.
The exhibition will take place in support of Yerevan City
Administration, RA Ministry of Urban Development and Trade-Industrial
Chamber. L.D. -0 –

*********************************************************************

JANUARY 23 WILL BE CELEBRATED IN ALL ARMENIAN CHURCHES AS
COMMEMORATION OF VICTIMS OF TRAGIC EVENTS IN BAKU IN 1990

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. January 23 will be celebrated in all
Armenian churches as commemoration of victims of tragic events in
Baku in 1990, St. Echmiadzin press service told ARKA.
In Jan 1990 Armenian massacre in Baku received organized and mass
character. Concrete number of murdered is still not defined. L.D. -0 –

*********************************************************************

CONSTITUENT CONGRESS OF ARMENIA-OUR HOME NEWLY ESTABLISHED PARTY OF
NKR HELD IN STEPANAKERT

STEPANAKERT, January 20. /ÀÐÊÀ/. The constituent congress of
`Armenia-Our Home’ newly established party of NKR was held in
Stepanakert. According to Ararat Petrosyan, the member of the
initiative group, upon the development and implementation of the
scheduled objectives and tasks, the new party follows a number of
basic principles, in particular, the unity of Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh, with consideration of all-human values and ideas, Armenian
national and state interests, etc. The objectives of the new party
are the political recognition of NKR as a subject of international
law, historically, judicially and politically justified renaming of
the country to Armenian state of Artsakh, economic, language and
cultural re-development of the territories liberated during the
Karabakh war, establishment of a social and legal state, constant
strengthening of Armenian Armed Forces and improvement of NKR
population’s welfare. L.V.-0–

*********************************************************************

RA PRESIDENT MEETS WITH AMBASSADOR OF ITALY TO ARMENIA

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. The RA President Robert Kocharian met
today with Marco Clementi, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Ambassador of Italy to Armenia. As the Press Service of RA President
told ARKA agency, the parties discussed the details of the
forthcoming visit of Robert Kocharian to Italy. The President
emphasized the traditional friendship of Italy and Armenia and the
promising perspectives for economic cooperation, in particular, in
SME area. The visit of Kocharian to Italy is scheduled for the end of
January, 2005. L.V.-0 –

*********************************************************************

PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS OF ARMENIA SIGN MEMORANDUM ON COOPERATION ON
FIGHT AGAINST TRAFICKING AND ILLEGAL MIGRATION

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. Public organizations of Armenia signed
memorandum on cooperation on fight against traficking and illegal
migration, Coordinator of UNDP Program on Fight Against Traficking
Rafael Gyulnazarian stated today. According to him, special accent
will be made on conduction of preventive activities: organizations
will cooperate in the sphere of assistance to development of policy
and legislation, awareness of society on traficking problems,
provision of assistnace to victims of traficking, development of
mechanisms on their return and reintegration. He added that the plan
of activities for the next year is already created.
Memorandum signed by such organizations as Fund for Human Rights
Protection after Sakharov, Fund of Maternity, Armenian Sociological
Association, Armenian Red Cross, Armenian Caritas, Center for Women
Rights. L.D. -0 –

*********************************************************************

6 CRIMINALS WANTED BY POLICE CIS COUNTRIES ARE ON THE TERRITORY OF
ARMENIA

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. Currently, 6 criminals wanted by the
police of CIS countries are on the territory of Armenia, according to
the Deputy General Prosecutor Mnatsakan Sargsyan. He noted that
preventive punishment in the form of arrest was applied in relation
to them. `We have sent a corresponding inquiry with the information
that they were revealed and are currently in Armenia ‘, said
Sargsyan. He also noted that four of the wanted are Armenian citizens
and Armenia would not extradite them to Russia. Their criminal cases
have already been requested by Armenian law enforcement bodies. The
cases of other two arrested criminals are currently being discussed.
One of them illegally obtained Ukrainian citizenship and the other
committed a murder in Kazakhstan. Sargsyan mentioned that the basic
cooperation in this area is carried out with Russia, as majority of
Armenians live there. He assured that in other CIS countries, in
particular, in Belarus, Armenian citizens do not have any problems
with law enforcement bodies. L.V..-0 –

Agence France Presse — English
January 20, 2005 Thursday 4:59 AM GMT

Rivals Azerbaijan and Armenia join to fight for US favor in Iraq

by Simon Ostrovsky

BAKU

At home, the armies of Azerbaijan and Armenia only see each other
through gun sights pointed across one of the world’s deadliest
cease-fire lines. But today in Iraq, the two are fighting on the same
side for a common cause: American friendship.

This week, a group of 46 Armenian soldiers joined the US-led
coalition in Iraq which since 2004 has included a contingent of 100
peacekeepers from Armenia’s longtime foe Azerbaijan.

And although the stated aims of both nation’s troop deployments are
to help stabilize the situation in Iraq and protect holy sites there,
observers say the bitter rivals are really on a mission to outdo each
other in front of Uncle Sam.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have much to gain from favorable
relations with the United States, but each also has much to lose in
their rival quests to pull international opinion over the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region in their favor.

The two republics waged a bloody war over Karabakh — an ethnic
Armenian enclave internationally recognized to be within Azerbaijan
— in the early 1990s that began prior to the breakup of the Soviet
Union and continued after both acquired national independence.

The war ended in 1994 with Armenia in control of the territory and
seven surrounding regions, 30,000 people dead, some two million
people displaced and Karabakh’s status still unsettled.

Since then it has been a war of words between the two nations as they
navigate the choppy diplomatic waters between their former overlord
Russia and the United States, which in the last two years has gained
greater influence in parts of the former Soviet Union.

“Armenia sent its troops into Iraq because America told them ‘you’re
either with us or you’re a Yanukovich,” Azerbaijan’s former foreign
minister Tofik Zulfuqarov told AFP, referring to the pro-Russia
candidate who lost Ukraine’s presidential election to a pro-Western
liberal last month.

After leaders without Moscow’s support took power in Georgia’s
breakaway region Abkhazia this month, Ukraine in December and Georgia
itself a year earlier, observers say Armenia’s President Robert
Kocharyan has begun to shift allegiances westwards from Moscow in an
effort to keep power.

“The (Iraq) issue has become a dividing line: Either we continue with
pro-Russian policies or we get out from under that zone of
influence,” Agasi Enkoyan, a political analyst in Yerevan told AFP.

As for Azerbaijan, “we are enemies… but that doesn’t preclude our
fighting from the same side of the front line in a third country,”
Enkoyan said.

A military analyst in Baku said both nations’ armed forces can
benefit from the experience they get as peacekeepers in Iraq if a
settlement is ever reached over Karabakh.

“One day they will have to understand the difference between a front
line and a national border. Today the military does not have that
understanding,” said Azad Isazade.

But Armenians and Azeris so far have not had a very good track record
of post-war cooperation Isazade warned, saying he fears high-emotions
could lead to new Azeri-Armenian violence even in faraway Iraq.

Both countries are members of NATO’s partnership for peace program
but war games that were planned to be held in Azerbaijan last year
had to be canceled when the Azeri public protested against the
participation of Armenian officers.

In Hungary, an Azeri officer is on trial for the 2004 hotel room
axe-murder of an Armenian officer at a NATO language-training course
in Budapest.

“In that situation they didn’t have guns, in Iraq they will,” said
Isazade. “These aren’t ecologists at a seminar, these are military
people.”

“I BELIEVE THAT JUSTICE WILL WIN”

Azg/arm
21 Jan 05

About 250.000 Armenians living in Baku had to flee from the Azeri
capital as a result of the massacres in Baku. The Armenians that
greatly contributed to the construction of Baku were deprived of the
right to live there and were left homeless. 311.000 of 500.000
refugees from Azerbaijan still live in Armenia. Most of them live in
the hostels, very often in hardship. Dozens of people fled from Baku
live in the hostel of the second block of Nor Norq.

Yevgenia Tsaturovna, 84, fled from Baku with her daughter and two
grandchildren on January 18, 1990. Before that, she was hiding in her
flat,but her neighbors warned her about the intrusion of the
Azeris. “The Azeris were telling us to open the door, otherwise they
would break it. I couldn’t even take my clothes. They began beating
and pushing us and threw out into the street,” Yevgenia Tsaturovna
remembers. The family thrown into the cold of the wintry and cold
January street found shelter at the police department. Afterwards,
they left for Armenia. When Yevgenia Tsaturovna settled down in
Armenia her misfortunes didn’t stop. Her daughter died of cancer when
she was only 43. One of her grandchildren left for Russia.

At present, Mrs. Yevgenia receives pension amounting to 3900 AMD and
humanitarian aid from Paros benevolent organization. “They say they
are going to deprive me of the aid from Paros. I don’t know what I
will do then,” she says. The old woman is very ill, she can’t even
move. Lydia Amiriants, her neighbor, takes care of her. Lydia was also
born in Baku and became a refugee. “We left Baku in 1988. My brother
was a colonel and, seeing that the situation is becoming unbearable,
helped me and my son leave the capital of the Azeris. They even didn’t
sell bread to us, knowing that we are Armenians,” Lydia Amiriants
says, adding that even after such an attitude and the massacres in
Sumgait most of the people didn’t believe that the Azeris will
organize massacres in the capital, too. She said that already in 1988
the Azeris ruined her house. “Itook the photo of its ruins and
represented it to various instances. But they all just laughed at my
efforts,” she said, adding: “The justice hasn’t won its victory yet,
but I believe that otherwise, the life would lose its meaning.”

By Arevik Badalian

“WHO SEEKS FOR ARMED SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT?”

Azg/arm
21 Jan 05

Kazimirov Believes Armenian Forces Can Leave Karabakh Only with Local
Armenian Residents

Vladimir Kazimirov, former mediator at the Nagorno Karabakh settlement
process, has published an article in which he pointed out all the
cases of breaking the ceasefire during the war one after another. In
the course of 1992-94, Russia or the OSCE Minsk group tried to stop
the military actions for many times, but each time one of the sides
would break the ceasefire.

The Azeri authorities (both in the times of Elchibey and Aliyev)
counted on the armed settlement of the conflict, instead of the
negotiations. Baku wasthe first to break the four formulae of the UN
Security Council for many times. Baku never carried out any of the
commitments envisaged in the UN formulae adopted in the course of the
military actions in April-November of 1993.

“The Armenians were either smart or constructive. They have broken the
mutual agreements only twice, in July, 1992 and April, 1994,”
Kazimirov writes and adds that the ceasefire signed in the July of
1992 was caused by the Azeris misfortune in the military actions. “The
main reasons of the Azeris misfortune were their maximalism (peculiar
to the Armenians, as well). The Azeris obviously overestimated their
diplomatic and political capacities, notwithstanding a number of weak
points in their actions. Baku would stop their military actions only
for gaining some time to relocate their forces,” he writes and reminds
that Baku once more stopped the military actions to hold presidential
elections on October 3, 1993.

Kazimirov writes that if the sides really seek for peaceful
settlement, it is high time to stop yelling, “Nagorno Karabakh is
mine. It is mine”. “They (Baku and Yerevan) have to begin sober
negotiations and accept calmly Nagorno Karabakh both as an object and
as a subject for dispute. In fact, the wholeworld admits that
already. They accept it, but not the sides in conflict. That (if the
sides accepted Karabakh as a side in conflict) would be the first step
directed to the civilized settlement of the issue.”

Kazimirov emphasizes that the withdrawal of the Armenian forces from
Karabakh is possible only in case the native Armenian residents of the
region leave it too, i.e. without the presence of the Armenian forces
the native Armenian population of Karabakh will be evicted. Kazimirov
emphasizes the importanceof Karabakh’s participation in the
negotiation process by another viewpoint, too. When the Armenian
forces begin to leave the Azeri regions, it is obvious that they will
not be able to retreat up to the former borders of NKAR. “They will
have to clear out where the border line is, to find a new one and this
can’t be done without Stepanakert’s participation,” he writes.

In the appendix to the article, Kazimirov represents the chronological
list of the cases when the ceasefire was broken in the course of the
military actions in 1992-1994. It shows that Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh broke the ceasefire preliminarily achieved by the mediation
of Russia and the OSCE Minsk group only twice. In the rest of the
cases, Azerbaijan resumed the military actions for about 20
times. Let’s bring some examples:

On March 1, 1993, the Russian and the Turkish foreign ministers
decided to visit the hotbed and achieve the ceasefire at the
spot. But, having visited Baku, the Turkish foreign minister said that
he will visit the hotbed, if the Armenians leave Shushi and Lachin. In
almost a month after that, the Karabakh forces “conquered Qelbajar.”

On July 2, 1993, as a result of Russia’s efforts, the Karabakh
sideagreed to stop the military actions in Aghdam and Martakert, as
well as in Fizuli and Hadruth, but Azeris didn’t send any response to
Moscow. After the mid July the military actions resumed, while on July
23, the Karabakh forces took the control over Aghdam.

As in his previous article, this time too, Kazimirov draws attention
to the period laid between October and December in 1993, when Baku
unfolded wide spread military actions and was bitterly beaten, losing
the “South-Western parts” of the republic one after another.

By Tatoul Hakobian

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 20, 2005 Thursday 4:27 AM Eastern Time

Burgas-Alexandroupolis-optimum way of pumping Russia oil to West

By Sergei Latyshev

ATHENS

A Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, plans of whose construction
came to the fore in the recent past, is the cheapest and safest way
of transporting Russian oil to the West, bypassing the Bosporus
Strait, said here on Wednesday evening Greek Deputy Foreign Minister
Evripidis Stilianidis.

He spoke before members of the country’s business and academic
communities with information on aims of the country’s chairmanship in
the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation. “The
Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline is the cheapest and safest
version of transporting oil to the West, bypassing the Bosporus
Strait, and plans of its construction received a new impetus in the
recent past,” the deputy minister emphasized. Greece actively strives
for the implementation of this tripartite project whose participants
also involve Russia and Bulgaria.

The high-ranking diplomat noted that the main aim of Greece’s
presidency in the Black Sea organization is to ensure rapprochement
between Black Sea countries and European structures as well as the
European Union. Greece gives much attention to its presidency in the
Black Sea organization, ending next April. “I can say that we regard
it as important as the presidency in the EU,” he stressed.

Members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation include
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova,
Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Turkey.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 20, 2005 Thursday 3:59 AM Eastern Time

Belarus, Uzbekistan sign deal on visa-free trips

By Andrei Fomin

MINSK, January 20

Belarus and Uzbekistan have signed an agreement on visa-free trips
for their citizens, sources from the Belarussian Foreign Ministry
reported on Thursday.

The document was signed in Tashkent by Belarussian Deputy Foreign
Minister Alexander Gerasimenko. The agreement will replace
multi-lateral Bishkek agreements of October 9, 1992 on visa-free
trips for CIS citizens.

According to the Belarussian Foreign Ministry, the signing of that
document was “necessitated by a need to replace multi-lateral
agreements with bilateral, as it is easier to control their
implementation, while amendments can be introduced more efficiently”.

Belarus has already signed similar agreements with Armenia, Moldova
and Ukraine.

Athens News Agency
January 19, 2005

ARMENIAN-GREEK SCHOOL OF TOURISM TO BE SET UP IN ARMENIA

Greece will assit Armenia in setting up a Tourism Professions School,
the first such school in the country aimed to significant boost the
Armenia’s efforts to develop its tourism sector

Armenian authorities have recommended that the school be named
Armenia-Greek School of Tourism Professions and to include a lesson
on Greek language as well

The issue was discussed during a visit by a delegation of the Greek
tourism ministry in Armenia. The programme includes an action plan
for the creation and operation of the school, its integration to the
country’s educational system, supplying basic laboratory equipment
and a vocational training programme.