MosJan

SIX ATHLETES TO REPRESENT ARMENIA AT PARA-OLYMPICS YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS: Armenian parliament speaker Armen Khachatrian pledged today to step up efforts to design and enact a legislation that would ease the conditions of tens of thousands of the disabled. Khachatrian and chairman of the committee on social, health and nature protection issues Gagik Tadevosian met today with Armenian disabled sportsmen from the Pyunic Union who are getting ready to travel to Salt lake City to compete in the Para-Olympics Games from March 6 to 17. The Union's chairman Hakob Abrahamian said Armenia will be represented by six athletes.

SOME 1,000 FOREIGNERS STUDY AT ARMENIAN UNIVERSITIES YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS: Some 1,000 foreign students, who are not Armenians by descent study in Yerevan's higher educational institutions, Armenian education and science ministry said. Virtually half of them are from India, 300 are from Iran and another 180 are from Arab countries. Minister Levon Mkrtchian, back from a trip to United Arab Emirates, said on Thursday the inflow of foreign students would definitely rise in case of improving housing conditions in several hostels in the capital, set for foreign students and the regulation of the issue of reciprocal acknowledgement of diplomas with several countries. The minister said the regulation of the last issue will help promotion of "regulated export' of professors. He claimed that many Armenian professors and University lecturers will be able to provide high level tuition in English in the United Arab Emirates and compete with invited professors from other countries.

AZERIS FAIL TO ATTEND ARMENIAN'S CONCERT YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS: Karo Vardanian, an advisor to Armenian culture minister, who was accompanying a children dance ensemble Garoon from Armenia to Georgia's capital Tbilisi, where a UNESCO sponsored festival of children dance ensembles from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan took place last week, said Azeri children and officials had not been present at the concert hall when Armenians were showing their art. Instead Armenian children and the heads of the delegation were all in the hall when Azeri children were dancing. The last move was also, according to Vardanian, welcomed by the organizers of the festival.

WELL-KNOWN ARMENIAN CONDUCTOR TO FEATURE FRENCH MUSIC IN MOSCOW FEBRUARY 25. Well-known French conductor of Armenian origin Ohan Duryan is to give a series of concerts in Moscow featuring composers like Moris Ravel, Clode Debussy and Camil Sent-Sans. According to Russia media, the concerts are organized by the Center of Stas Namin. Duryan is a very experienced conductor. He has conducted over than 100 orchestras worldwide. His debut was highly evaluated by Herbert von Karayan himself.

MICROSOFT RESEARCH EMPLOYEE OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN TOPS LIST OF RUSSIAN I.T. VIPs FEBRUARY 25.T Igor Aghamirzyan, the head of Microsoft Research's department for relations with East European research institutions, has topped the list of 100 IT VIPs of Russia. Another Armenian Boris Babayan, chairing the board of directors of Elbrus Technologies, occupied the 7th place. The list was made by the Kommersant publishing house, the TranceLite Promotion company and the Association of Managers of Russia together with coprorative IT companies, participants of Russia's IT market and their clients.

ARMENIANS OF NETHERLANDS AND NETHERLANDS FOREIGN MINISTER TO DISCUSS PERSPECTIVES OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION 25.02.2002 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today the representatives of Armenian community of the Netherlands will meet with the foreign minister of the Netherlands Jozias Van Aartsen to discuss the perspectives of recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide by official Copenhagen. Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"

POLAND JEWISH COMMUNITY LEADER CRITICIZES OFFICIAL TEL AVIV'S REFUSAL TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 25.02.2002 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Leader of Jewish community of Poland, famous journalist and political commentator Konstantin Gebert has criticized severely the position of official Tel Aviv, which refuses to recognize the fact of Armenian Genocide. As "Arminfo" agency reports, in his article «Player with Memory», Gebert calls shameful the statements of the Israel's foreign ministry regarding this and cites the famous statement of Adolph Hittler that Armenian genocide is forgotten by the history. «Hittler is right regarding Turkey even today », writes the author, noting that all the Jews have to remember «the value the world paid for the lack of memory». At the same time Konstantin Gebert adds that Israel literally fights for its survival in the Middle East. And Turkey is the most serious if not the only ally of Tel Aviv. Nevertheless, no difficulties could give the diplomat the right to make false statements, the journalists notes, commenting the statement of Israeli ambassador regarding the inadmissibility of drawing parallels between the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust. «Official Tel Aviv has no right to accept Turkish version of history. All the crimes against the mankind have their moral consequences», the leader of Polish Jews concludes. Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT INTENDS TO FORCE TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE FACT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 25.02.2002 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ February 28 the voting on the resolution proclaiming the recognition of the Armenian genocide one of the indispensable conditions for Turkey's joining the European Union will take place in the European Parliament. Secretary of the Forum of Armenian associations of Europe Toros Sakerian has reported it today to «Arminfo» agency. According to him, the Forum considers impossible the establishment of any relations between Armenia and Turkey until official Ankara recognizes the fact of Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. Sakerian noted that the recognition of the Armenian genocide by the world community and first of all by Turkey is one of the priority-driven directions of the works of the Forum. Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"

"Tshvar Pandukht, Poor Migrant" isk hishum es te es mek@ ov er grel, hnaravora bare@ liovin chhishem, Hayreniqes Heratsel em Xerch Panduxt em Tun chunem Aziz Mormes Heratsel em Gisher tserek qun chunem. inhc inch patjarov indz misht el tvatsela vor shater@s panduxtner enq... tesnes klni mi or vor menq HAyer@s es pandxtutyan tsup@ tsats dnenq, kortsnenq, morannanq... MOvses

Letter -- Vahan Aladadi Come out of the closet and speak your mind It has taken me many years, and lots of self-control, to not respond to the false allegations thrown at anyone living in the Glendale-La Crescenta--La Canada area who has the audacity to question the self-appointed Armenian leadership. The dissenters to their ideology have been labeled as "Odars" (others), bigots, anti-Armenian and racist. Anti-Semite and homophobe are two new labels added to their attack jargon. Armenians living in our area do not sing the same song. The majority of Armenians are Grigorians. There are also Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, atheists, Greek Orthodox, agnostics, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Socialists, Progressives and many other religious and political beliefs and persuasions. The self-appointed Armenian leadership has systematically suppressed any dissent in the Armenian community by calling them anti-Armenian. The majority of Armenians living in our area are immigrants from Iran, Lebanon and the ex-Soviet Republic of Armenia. The lack of genuine civic society and democracy in their home countries has created a sense of fear and self-censorship. The so-called Armenian leadership, taking advantage of these fears, has suppressed open and free public discourse by labeling and in some cases using physical intimidation. I would like to ask all the Armenians living in our area to come out of the self-censorship closet and free themselves from the fears of intimidation. Remember the words of Franklin Roosevelt, who said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Some of the victims should consider libel actions, to remind those people that we live in a democracy. Shame on all those who use intimidation and name-calling to suppress all those who dare to be different. VAHAN ALADADI Glendale If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.

GLENDALE Armenian chamber to hold mixer By Karen S. Kim SOUTHEAST GLENDALE -- The Armenian American Chamber of Commerce will hold a mixer Sunday at the Brandview Collection. The group will discuss business development opportunities in Armenia with the help of two guest speakers -- including Vahagn Movslsyan, executive director of the Armenia Development Agency for World Bank, and Artavazd Ghazaryan, chief executive officer of the enterprise support fund of World Bank. The event kicks off at 2:30 p.m. and costs $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. The Brandview Collection is at 109 E. Harvard St. For more information, call 247-0196.

US CONGRESS TO CONSIDER ISSUE ON FINANCING HUMANITARIAN PROGRAMS IN NKR 23.02.2002 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday in Stepanakert the meeting of NKR President Arkady Ghukasian and secretary of the US Senate Committee for foreign operations Paul Grouv who is in Artsax in order to get to know the situation and the course of the realization of the humanitarian programs took place. As NKR President's press service reports, Arkady Gukasian acquainted Paul Grouv with the current situation in social, educational and cultural spheres noting that the non-recognition of the republic prevents the republic from getting international credits. The Congress representative promised to introduce the projects of humanitarian programs that would be financed by the US government before American legislators. Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO TAKE PLACE IN NKR IN SUMMER 23.02.2002 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Presidential elections will take place in Nagorno-Artsax Republic in 2002, summer. According to NKR Central election committee chairman Sergey Davidian, according to the acting legislation the elections must take place August 11. The decision regarding the date of the elections must be passed by the parliament of the republic 85 days before the elections. As «Arminfo» agency reports, after the decision is passed by the parliament, the central election committee will start developing of the plan of the events for organization and holding of the elections at the highest level. Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"

Karapetyan jan Welcome to HyeForum BArov es yekel MOvses

yes VAhan jan I'm referring to the > Hanukah < I do not know if that's the correct name for it or not. a year a go i was in Armenia and this is the pictures that i have taken, I have asked my friend "what the hell is this Jewish think doing next to Sevaks Grave " he told me that it's not Jewish that i was mistaking. will i just opened the newspaper and her was this article By Gorge Abelyan in NorHAyastan - Issue #26 and he just like me has visited the grave side in 2001, he had asked the employees, and they told him that Sevak had a Jewish "Girlfriend" many years a go, and shi is the one who has placed the Hanukah at the memorial side. apparently this is not the first time that she has pleased Hanukah on Sevaks Graveside, it has been removed from their many times, but soon some one brings a new one. Gorge was saying that " haw many Armenia Crosses have you seen in jewsh semetoryis, many of our Armenian Boys have had Jewish Girlfriends, MANY- do any of them have crosses on them???? or let me ask you this, we place a cross on a Jewish grave, lets see haw many days it will stay on it. Iy Iy Iy iy

http://www.mksduduks.com/Gallery/ParuyrSevak/MVC-198F.JPG http://www.mksduduks.com/Gallery/ParuyrSevak/MVC-199F.JPG Do any of you see something abnormal in this picture. something that should not be in this picture. [ February 22, 2002: Message edited by: PandukhT ]

LEGION OF HONOR TO FRENCH-ARMENIAN By the recent decree of the French president Jacques Chirac Paris-Armenian economist Michael Bazumian was awarded the Legion of Honor- the highest award of France. Michael Bazumian visited Armenia frequently during the last decade and trained students of Yerevan’s management school in marketing subject. He also rendered some financial support together with his friend Daniel Eremian to residents of Gyumri and Nagorno-Karabagh. Bazumian was born in Paris in 1949, participated in foundation of a number of economic organizations. At present Bazumian contributes to the French branch of ‘Hayastam’ Pan-Armenian Fund. © Copyright AZG

FIVE FAMILIES MOVED TO KARABAGH THIS YEAR Within the framework of 'Return to Artsax' program, five families have already moved to Shahumian region in Nagorno Artsax this year. The program is funded by the Artsax state budget, which is able to cover expenses for settlement of 200-250 families annually. According to the head of the government affiliated migration and refugees department Samvel Harutyunian, the government of Nagorno Artsax spends from $5,000 to $8,000 on resettlement of each family. It should be mentioned that the program has been implemented since 1994, Armenia started to take part in it since 2000. © Copyright AZG

FOR THE SAKE OF NATIONAL UNITY Open letter of poet Levon Mirijanian to Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian Esteemed Mr. Vartan Oskanian Couple of days ago we watched Your speech on the TV on the Armenia-Diaspora Second Conference to be held in May. It is very delighting to hear that the event aimed at boosting our nations’ unity, moral and economic values is paid serious attention to and will be organized on a higher level than the previous one. We are sure that the second conference, where a lot more representatives of Armenian Diaspora and homeland will participate, will possess principles securing the practicality and usefulness of the initiative. In this respect, esteemed Mr. Oskanian, we found necessary to present to your assessment a reservation concerning the organization of the second Armenia-Diaspora conference. We realize and agree that withdrawing of formal speeches (like greeting speeches of delegations, etc) from the agenda of the sessions of the second conference will save some time which will be used for discussing more serious and useful issues, bearing in mind that this time there are much more urgent problems to be discussed. But a question occurs here: how expedient it is to withdraw reports of common interest from the agenda of plenary sessions and put them into separate programs’ agenda. There are issues that refer to all the participants of the conference and should be heard and considered by all. For example, there are many issues in the culture sphere which directly refer to Armenian businessmen and to their guardianship activity. Let’s not forget that the first conference stated the ‘One nation- one culture’ slogan- bringing it from theory into practice. So it is worth reviewing whether withdrawing reports on cultural relations from the plenary sessions of the seond conference is expedient or not. We think that it is necessary to hear such reports at one of the plenary sessions, and afterwards discuss them in detail in the corresponding sections. Sincerely Levon Mirijanian, poet, chairman of ‘Armenian Educational Association’, 11 February, 2002 © Copyright AZG

TURKS HAVE NOT CHANGED IN THE RECENT 70 YEARS It is a rare thing in the world of movie-industry that a film, not yet finished, has been making clamor and causing delight and discontent simultaneously. The word is about a Canadian Armenian movie director Atom Egoyan's picture, called Ararat, Armenpress news agency reported. Not only Armenian, but also leading French newspapers, such as Le Figaro and Le Monde have devoted stories to it, stressing that its main theme is the Armenian genocide of 1915. The dailies also report about how the film's release is being opposed by Turkey. According to RFE/EL, another film was similarly opposed by Turkish authorities back in 1931 in France. A Paris-based Haraj Armenian language weekly's editor Arpi Totoyan has found from old newspapers and French archives that a prototype of Ararat was released in 1930. The film, called Song of Armenia, was directed and shot by Korganian, and was starred by Mrs. Knarik (presumably the mother of world famous French singer of Armenian descent Charles Aznavour) and Shahan Saryan. Archival materials disclose that an active correspondence was going on at that time between the Turkish embassy in Paris and France's foreign ministry. Press reports about the film were in Haraj issues in late 1930 and early 1931. They said that several scenes in the film had caused the anger of the Turkish embassy, that sent a note of protest to French foreign ministry demanding that demonstration of the film be banned. A document from the archives of French foreign ministry says that the second part of this Armenian propaganda film displays scenes of pogroms of Armenians and plunder in Smirna (Izmir) in 1922 and the pledge of Armenians to hoist Armenian flag on top of Ararat Mount." The French foreign ministry ordered to censorship the film and it was later banned from demonstration. The documents from the Turkish embassy are full of gratefulness to French authorities. The film was on in Paris Cinema Palace from December 26, 1930 to January 1, 1931. The Haraj editor writes that nothing has changed "on the foreheads of Turks" since 1930. © Copyright AZG

ISRAELIS RESPOND TO GENOCIDE SPECULATIONS In its February 18 issue the daily Azg presented the details of ‘Diplomatic Incident’ article concerning Israel’s position towards Armenian Genocide issued in Jewish Ynet web site. Surprisingly many Jews responded to the article and sent e-mails to the site. Thirty-two Jews wrote letters to Ynet, and only five out of them agreed with the official position of Israel- i.e. considered Armenian Genocide a mere tragedy but not a genocide. They said Turks never had the alleged hostile attitude towards Armenian nation, and consider the Jewish Holocaust as the only genocide. Several respondents criticized those who draw parallels between Armenian genocide and the Holocaust- grounding it by the large number of victims Holocaust resulted in. Several Jews just laughed and mocked at those who speculate the tragedies of any nation for political purposes, and 22 Israelis condemned Israeli government and foreign minister Shimon Peres for rejecting the Armenian genocide. One of the letter writers says the following: ‘The ambassador (meaning Rivka Kohen, Israeli ambassador to Armenia) represents the Israeli government, consequently she had to say stupid things. All the Israeli ministers say nonsense and make shameful steps, whereas you expect to see a decent ambassador?’ The dominant opinion among the responses was the following: ‘Israel rejects genocide of any other nation, for it wants to secure ‘monopoly’ on genocide - considering Holocaust a unique phenomenon and using it as a weapon’. The rejection of genocide is condemnable, no matter whether it was planned or not. Another letter asks the following question: ‘How would we (Jews) feel if the allies of Germany’s suddenly announced that there was no Holocaust’. Also a question was raised whether Turks support Israel with the same zeal or not, and was pointed out that in Israeli-Palestinian conflict Turkey defends the interests of Palestinians. In general, though, it is clear that Israelis are not well informed about the details of Armenian Genocide and realize the crime committed against Armenians in the beginning of 20-th century very dimly. Israelis should also understand that nobody wants to draw any parallels between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Both tragedies are horrible and they must be recognized by the entire mankind and the victims must be remembered. But delighting is the fact that the new Israeli generation is getting rid of complex of ‘uniqueness’ (of the Holocaust) and places the honor and morality of the state above cold diplomatic relations. Those who want to read the above-mentioned letters can visit the web site at the following address: http://www.Ynet.co.il By Rouzan Poghosian © Copyright AZG

QUAKE HITS ARMENIA An earthquake took place in Armenia at 5:04 am local time on February 20. As Armenian Seismic Defense National Service informed the epicenter of the earthquake was 30 kilometers northwest off Amasia town and had a magnitude of 3 on Richter scale. © Copyright AZG

ARAM KHACHATRIAN FUND FOUNDED IN MOSCOW UNESCO declares 2003 year of Aram Khachatrian Aram Khachatrian Fund was founded in Moscow recently. The fund is established by the initiative of the head of culture department of Armenian embassy in Moscow Gagik Gabrielian and Rouzan Sahakian, the wife of the Armenian ambassador to Russia. The fund is going to conduct charitable activity and render financial support to young and talented musicians. The foundation of the fund was welcomed by Russian culture minister Michael Shvidko, deputy mayor of Moscow L. Shvetsova, Armenian culture minister Roland Sharoyan, Armenian ambassador to Russia S. Sahakian, Russian ambassador to Armenia Anatoliy Dryukov, chairmen of Armenian and Russian Composers’ Unions R. Amirkhanian and V. Kazyonin and chairman of Russian Cultural Fund Nikita Mikhalkov. The foundation of the fund is right on time, for on June 6, 2003, the 100-th birthday anniversary of the late Armenian composer and director Aram Khachatrian will be marked. Aram Khachatrian was buried in Yerevan after his death, which went counter to the wish of then a member of Communist party’s political bureau Suslov. In result they started to stress the fact of Khachatrian being an ‘Armenian composer’, although it is obvious that the talented Armenian musician became a ‘property’ of the whole mankind and his tunes are equally loved all over the world. Also UNESCO declared 2003 a year of Aram Khachatrian, aiming to commemorate the famous Armenian composer and director. © Copyright AZG

© Copyright AZG ISRAEL SHOULD STOP PLEASING TURKEY Our readers already know about the notorious announcement made by Israeli ambassador Rivka Kohen concerning Armenian Genocide, and also are aware of the counteraction and anger that it rose among Armenians. In this respect it should be once again noted that the international recognition of Armenian Genocide has been put on the agenda of Armenia’s foreign policy since the current president of Armenia Robert Kocharian took over presidency. Kocharian announced about the urgency and strategic for Armenia character of the issue at the UN summits in 1998 and 2000, as well as at the OSCE meeting held in Istanbul in 1999. The concern of Armenian nation over the genocide recognition received positive response in many countries of the world, and the Armenian Genocide was recognized on high levels in Uruguay, France, Italy, Vatican and a number of other countries. The countries that officially recognized Armenian Genocide actually neglected the counteraction of Turkey, from which it became clear that Turkey is short of counter steps. Thus, the desire of Israeli officials to please Turkey by rejecting the genocide can not hinder Armenian authorities from pursuing the international recognition of Armenian Genocide. So Israel should review its stance towards the Armenian Genocide and when persuading the international society that the Holocaust is a ‘unique’ phenomenon in the history of mankind, should not condition the efficiency of the persuasion by rejecting or demeaning the facts of Armenian Genocide. © Copyright AZG

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATORS SUGGEST INCLUSION OF TESTIMONY OF GENOCIDE SURVIVORS IN TRAINING COURSE FOR TEACHER 21.02.2002 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ A bill recommending the inclusion of the testimony of the 1915 Armenian genocide survivors in the training course of teachers was introduced to the legislative body of California American State. The introduced bill will be an addendum to the law acting in California State that stipulates the Model Curriculum for "human rights and genocide" for public schools taught in 7-12 grades. Two days ago in Sacramento a press conference where arguments in favor of the introduced bill were introduced was held. Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"