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ARMENIAN REPORTER
PO Box 129
Paramus, New Jersey 07652
Tel: 1-201-226-1995
Fax: 1-201-226-1660
Web: http://www.reporter.am
Email: [email protected]
October 6, 2007 -- From the front section
To see the printed version of the newspaper, complete with photographs
and additional content, visit www.reporter.am and download the pdf
files. It's free.
1. Catholicos Karekin II arrives in Eastern Diocese (by Florence Avakian)
2. Armenian Genocide resolution set for October 10 committee vote (by
Emil Sanamyan)
* Full House expected to act by Thanksgiving
3. For the visiting Catholicos, it's meeting the people that counts
(by Arpie Nakashian)
4. A crowded Saint Vartan Cathedral welcomes the Catholicos (by
Florence Avakian)
5. Lawyers for Hrant Dink's family say evidence is being withheld as
the trial of his accused murderers continues (by Talin Suciyan)
6. "We are inching toward resolution" of the Karabakh conflict,
Foreign Minister Oskanian tells the UN General Assembly (by Florence
Avakian)
* "No one should tell us that there is a quota on liberty and security"
7. A "not guilty" verdict may strip a judge of his office (by Armen Hakobyan)
8. Getting around Armenia by public transportation one does not feel
lonely (Essay by Elyssa Karanian)
9. From Armenia, in brief
* Levon Ter-Petrossian meets with ARF leadership
* ArmenTel loses its monopoly in the telecommunications sector in Armenia
* Chair of the European Court of Human Rights in Armenia
* High success rate claimed for heart surgery in Armenia
* Yerevan-Sochi to become sister cities with a view to the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games
* Mass measles and rubella immunization campaign launched
* Bill proposes penalties for selling certain goods to minors
* High Fest kicks off in Yerevan
10. WWF opens Yerevan office (by Vincent Lima)
* Focus on partnership with government, business
11. Profile: Alina Dorian is a professor of public health, mother, and
Armenia Fund Telethon host (by Maral Habeshian)
* Community health expert teaches disaster response
* She wrote Karabakh's National Health Plan
12. Commentary: A priest's eye view of Catholicos Karekin's visit (by
Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian)
13. Editorial: Welcome, Catholicos
14. Editorial: Call the House
******************************************* ********************************
1. Catholicos Karekin II arrives in Eastern Diocese
by Florence Avakian
NEW YORK - More than 150 Armenian faithful enthusiastically greeted
Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II as he landed at New Jersey's
Teterboro Airport, having departed from Los Angeles, on Wednesday
afternoon, October 3.
The arrival marked the beginning of the pontiff's month-long visit
to more than 16 parishes of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian
Church.
The Catholicos, in high spirits, was officially welcomed by
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Eastern Diocese, Fr.
Haigazoun Najarian, Diocesan Vicar, and Oscar Tatosian, chair of the
Diocesan Council.
The Armenian Church leader's eyes lit up as he saw more than 40
young school children from the Hovnanian School and the Holy Martyrs
Armenian Day School, who were dressed in authentic Armenian costumes,
and were carrying the pontifical, U.S., and Armenian flags. As their
voices lifted in song, the Armenian Church leader's exhilaration was
obvious. He then approached the children, and blessed them to their
delight, kissing several on the forehead.
"The Vehapar who has been at the forefront of initiating children's
and young people's programs in Armenia, was so happy to see the
children. It made such a difference to him," said Mr. Tatosian. "This
is a special pastor who is assertive, confident, observant of
everything, and focused on the youth."
Deacon Sebuh Oscherichian, who has been acquainted with the Vehapar
since 1970, noted that the church leader's visit to the smaller
parishes of the Eastern Diocese is an important aspect of his visit.
It gives equal importance to the smaller Armenian communities who are
now excitedly preparing for his arrival.
Following the traditional bread, water, and salt service of
greeting, the Pontifical motorcade made its way to Manhattan.
On Wednesday evening, the Vehapar was the special guest of the Fund
for Armenian Relief (FAR) Board of Directors during a special dinner
cruise around Manhattan Island. Guests included Diocesan Council
members and friends of FAR.
On Thursday, October 4, the Catholicos made a special visit to the
Diocese of the Armenian Church headquarters in Manhattan, where he met
and spoke with the employees, later lunching with them.
Later in the day he attended a photo exhibit at the United Nations
headquarters titled "The Russian Orthodox Church and Interreligious
Dialogue: The Spiritual Revival of Russia," hosted by Russia's mission
to the United Nations.
The Pontifical party includes Archbishop Khajag Barsamian; Primate
of the Western Diocese Archbishop Hovnan Derderian; Diocesan Legate
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian; Primate of Canada Bishop Bagrat
Galstanyan; Primate of the Russian and New Nakhichevan Diocese Bishop
Yezras Nersissyan; Etchmiadzin Chancellor Bishop Arshak Khachatryan;
Etchmiadzin's Foreign Press Secretary Fr. Ktrij Devejian; the
Catholicos's staff-bearer Fr. Hovnan Hakobyan; among others.
***************************************** **********************************
2. Armenian Genocide resolution set for October 10 committee vote
* Full House expected to act by Thanksgiving
by Emil Sanamyan
WASHINGTON - The House Foreign Affairs Committee will consider and
vote on the Armenian Genocide resolution on October 10. A senior
Democratic leader predicted a vote by the full House of
Representatives vote by the end of November.
House Resolution 106 affirms the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide.
It was first introduced in January by Reps. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.),
Frank Pallone, Jr. (D.-N.J.), Brad Sherman (D.-Calif.), George
Radanovich (R.-Calif.), Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) and Thaddeus
McCotter (R.-Mich.). It has the backing of 226 of the 435 members of
the House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer (D.-Md.) have been longtime supporters of affirmation, and have
pledged to bring the measure to a vote. But there has been stiff
opposition to its consideration from Turkey and its Washington
lobbies.
The administration has cited the importance of Turkey to U.S.
interests as a justification for its opposition to congressional
action. Turkey refuses to acknowledge the genocide and has for decades
pressured the international community to refrain from considering the
issue.
Nevertheless, about 20 countries, from Canada to France to Lithuania
have resisted Turkish pressure and formally affirmed the Genocide. The
international affirmation campaign has led to greater awareness of the
genocide and a more open debate on the issue in Turkey.
According to recent polls by the International Republican Institute,
close to 10 percent of Turks now say there was genocide and further 14
to 17 percent acknowledge "mistreatment" of Armenians.
In September 2005, a similar resolution was passed by the House
International Affairs Committee by a vote of 40-7, but the Republican
leadership at the time acquiesced to the administration's position and
did not bring the resolution to a vote in the full House.
This time around the likely committee passage on October 10 is
expected to be followed by a prompt House vote. Congressional aides
told the Associated Press on October 3 that "the committee would not
have taken up the resolution without [Speaker] Pelosi's support." And
Majority Leader Hoyer predicted the resolution will pass the House
before Thanksgiving, the Los Angeles Times reported on October 3.
********************************************** *****************************
3. For the visiting Catholicos, it's meeting the people that counts
by Arpie Nakashian
NEW YORK - The most far-reaching pontifical visit by a Catholicos of
All Armenians to the United States began this week with an intimate
crowd of about 100 Armenian school children and local parishioners
assembled at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport on October 3 to welcome
their pontiff.
And that's just what His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All
Armenians, came for. This 31-day pontifical journey to 18 Eastern
Diocese communities is a first because it specifically targets areas
with smaller pockets of Armenian-Americans, most of which were off the
beaten path of previous visits by catholicoi.
On the itinerary along with major cities that are regular stop for
previous pontifical visits - Chicago, Detroit, New York, Boston and
Washington - are communities that have a rare chance to host an
Armenian pontiff: Charlotte, N.C.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; New Orleans
and Baton Rouge, La.; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio;
Racine, Wis.; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.; and Elberon in central
New Jersey.
"We have never had a pontifical visit that reached every region of
the Eastern Diocese," said Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the
Eastern Diocese.
The importance of the visit, which marks the pinnacle of the
Diocese's Year of Church and Home - One in Spirit, lies in the
connection it offers the Armenian people to their faith and its
origins.
While diplomatic and ecumenical functions are included in the
itinerary, they are not the major objectives in this trip.
"His Holiness is meeting his flock to bring faith home to them,
especially to some of our more remote parishes," the Primate said.
"St. Gregory established the first Christian cathedral - Holy
Etchmiadzin. Vehapar is making this journey from Holy Etchmiadzin to
strengthen parishioners' connection to their spiritual roots," he
added.
Previous pontifical visits to the U.S. by Karekin II, and by his
predecessors Karekin I and Vasken I, centered on large congregations
in major cities. They were marked by major ceremonial events, like the
unforgettable celebration in 2001 of an outdoor Divine Liturgy by
Karekin II before thousands of Armenian faithful in New York's Central
Park. The itinerary this time speaks to the difference between that
2001 visit to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of Armenia's conversion
to Christianity and this one aimed at reaching out and getting to know
his people.
"What surprised me most about His Holiness is that he was very clear
that he wants to hear from Armenians," said Michael O'Hurley-Pitts,
the Diocese's director of Stewardship, Development and Communications.
Describing Karekin II as a prime example of a servant leader,
O'Hurley-Pitts added that since the catholicos' election in 1995, he
has made it known that he wants to help all Armenians. "The Armenian
pontiff is truly concerned about Armenians living in the diaspora; he
wants to know about their pains, their joys, their hopes and their
needs," he said.
The power of this visit lies with the Primate and the Armenian
people who have come together to plan itineraries that are engaging
and informative, according to O'Hurley-Pitts. "It's designed to help
him understand us, and for us to understand him."
* Laying the groundwork
Planning for the visit started over a year ago when the Diocese began
assembling the army of 350 local, regional, and national committee
members who made the trip a reality.
Early in the planning stages, organizers dispensed with commercial
airlines as an option. With tightened airport security that requires
travelers to arrive two hours before flight time, traveling on
commercial flights would have forced Karekin II to spend hours going
through security and waiting in airport terminals, rather than with
the flock he yearns to get to know. And members of that flock rallied
to provide the solution.
"In a landscape that is robust with fundraising for churches,
schools, arts, and Armenia, the Armenian people have come together and
given enough so that the Diocesan resources will not be diminished,"
O'Hurley-Pitts said. "We have been a good steward of the resources the
people have given us to efficiently usher him around by private plane
and transportation," he added.
The diplomatic protection service and the U.S. State Department
evaluated the itinerary and participants and said they had no security
concerns. And the Diocese was pleased with the cooperation by local
law enforcement agencies, which are providing motorcades to speed the
pontiff's trip.
* Diverse destinations
The catholicos' itinerary gives him a broad view of the
Armenian-American landscape while offering opportunities for
interaction with the greatest number of Armenians ever during a
pontifical visit. Along with some dinners and special programs and
presentations that dot the journey, most of the Armenian pontiff's
stops are designed to offer as much personal interaction with his
flock as possible. Plans include youth programs, a church consecration
in St. Petersburg, a visit to the U.S. Capitol and the United Nations,
an Armenian cemetery blessing in Baton Rouge, the blessing of a
baptistery in Minneapolis, and a gala banquet in New York.
But to offer the most opportunity for Karekin II to meet his
faithful, most parishes are hosting a reception following a
traditional hrashapar service to welcome the catholicos.
"Our people will remember this as a touchstone," said Fr. Yeprem
Kelegian, pastor of St. Mesrob Church in Racine. He remembers the
impression it made the first (and last) time a catholicos visited the
Wisconsin community: when Vasken I came to the parish in 1960. For
Karekin II's visit on October 23, the St. Mesrob parish is expecting
400 people, including those from the surrounding Armenian parishes in
Greenfield and South Milwaukee, Wis., to greet their pontiff at a
reception.
In sharp contrast to the predominantly American-born Wisconsin
Armenian community with roots that go back three and four generations,
the St. Sarkis Church community in Charlotte was established just nine
years ago. The church was consecrated in 2005 and parishioners are
predominantly immigrants from Azerbaijan, Baku, Yerevan, and Beirut,
and American-born Armenians who came from more metropolitan areas,
said Diane Gulkasian Tudor, regional chair for the Charlotte leg of
the Armenian pontiff's visit. The community has planned a program of
recitations and performances by children and adults, and a youth
engagement program that features bible stories and a homegrown game of
"Jeopardy" made up of all religious categories.
The stopover in Louisiana, where the 65 Armenian families throughout
the state have one church in the state capital of Baton Rouge to call
their own, is bringing Armenians together, said Vasken Kaltakjian,
regional and parish council chair for the city's St. Garabed Church.
"Vehapar's visit is going to renew our connection to our faith. Our
faith is what kept us going for thousands of years," Kaltakjian said.
After welcoming Karekin II together with ecumenical leaders in Baton
Route, the St. Garabed community will participate as the catholicos
blesses the Armenian cemetery located behind the church.
* Building connections
In several regions, the catholicos will visit Habitat for Humanity
building sites. One such stop will be in New Orleans, where the
catholicos will tour Habitat building sites for victims of Hurricane
Katrina. The organization that builds homes for the disadvantaged
worldwide is especially dear to the pontiff, who in 2006, together
with Habitat for Humanity, established the "His Holiness Karekin II
Building Project" in Armenia. Several Armenian-American communities
participate by sending work crews each year to Armenia and to local
American communities to build housing for the needy.
At Houston's St. Kevork Church anticipation ranks high among the
immigrants that make up 80 percent of the congregation, but especially
for the statewide "Texahye" group of college-aged youth and young
professionals.
"The children and young adults truly believe [Karekin II] ranks
among the world leaders," said David Onanian, regional chair in
Houston. Onanian said the Texahye group was looking forward to
learning from their pontiff what life is for their counterparts in
Armenia, and engaging him in orchestrating a program for Armenian
youth to communicate with their fellow Armenians in America.
"For me personally this has been a great experience, to see everyone
working and pulling together, to make this a memorable event," said
Chacke Yeterian Scallen, co-chair of the leg of the trip in
Minneapolis' St. Sahag Church.
Members of the St. Stepanos Church community in Elberon, N.J., are
eagerly looking forward to Karekin II's historic visit to their parish
as a blessed event that will connect them more closely to their faith
and the Mother Church, said Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian, pastor of St.
Stepanos. "It is a very rare opportunity to receive Vehapar's blessing
at home in your own parish, an opportunity to strengthen your ties to
your faith" said Fr. Mamigon.
For those who can't meet Karekin II in person during this historic
trip, the Diocese announced last week it has broadened its outreach
during this pontifical visit by providing web-casting of the trip,
thanks to a generous gift from the United Armenian Charities.
Beginning with footage from Friday, October 5, regular video
programming can be seen daily on the official Pontifical Visit
website, www.pontificalvisit.org. The full itinerary and detailed
information are also posted on the site.
******************************************* ********************************
4. A crowded Saint Vartan Cathedral welcomes the Catholicos
by Florence Avakian
NEW YORK - To the majestic strains of the soul-stirring hrashapar
hymn, the impressive Pontifical procession entered a Saint Vartan
Armenian Cathedral filled to capacity with parishioners from around
the Eastern Diocese. As Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II entered
the sanctuary - following more than 50 Armenian and ecumenical
clerical leaders and priests - children from several Armenian dance
groups strew rose petals before him.
The Vehapar stopped several times during the procession to bless the
faithful. Officially invited by the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian
Church and its Primate, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, the Catholicos is
on a month-long visit to some 16 parishes of the Diocese.
Voicing the theme of the visit, "Church and Home," the Primate, in
his warm welcome to the "shepherd of our people," related that his
visit is "a sign of Vehapar's love, concern, and sense of
responsibility. He is energetic in extending his care to all his
flock, and he is here to listen to the many voices of our people."
The Primate noted that in the seven years since ascending to the
Throne of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Catholicos Karekin II "has
brought wisdom, energy, and the youth to his cause."
"Our dedication to God is not a garment we put on once a week, but a
permanent symbol of our faith," Abp. Barsamian said.
Abp. Barsmian also drew from the writings of Catholicos Mkrtich
Khrimian, who died 100 years ago. He quoted Khrimian Hayrig's poetic
words: "If a people progresses, it takes its first step from the
family."
Abp. Barsamian concluded by expressing "our affection and
solidarity" to Catholicos Karekin II.
* Miracle of the Armenian faith
As the Catholicos, dressed in a magnificent gold and red velvet robe
and veghar (or monastic cowl) rose to speak, the faithful sprang to
their feet. "I have brought greetings from Etchmiadzin to you. In this
new era of history, decades after the Genocide, you have made a good
and distinguished life in the United States," he stated.
"When Catholicos of All Armenians Vasken I blessed this cathedral,
he called it the miracle of the Armenian faith. Your selfless
sacrifices for your families, the Armenian Church and schools are the
living testimony to this," he declared with emphasis. "You became
successful in all fields while remaining true to the Church. You kept
an admirable image of the Armenian people in this country."
Continuing his eloquent address, the Vehapar reiterated, "Today,
with the same love, you are continuing the legacy of your parents and
grandparents with the rich culture and history of our Armenian people.
You have kept the faith throughout the centuries of trials and
tribulations. And now, with a free Armenia and a liberated Artsakh,
you are keeping the same faith and journeying to a new era. May Christ
comfort your hearts, and may the love of our Lord always be with you."
The Vehapar closed his remarks by extending a warm welcome to the
ecumenical church leaders, and especially to Archbishop Oshagan
Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy, who was representing the
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I. Attending were
representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, Greek Archdiocese, the
Orthodox Church of America, the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church, the
Syrian Orthodox Church, the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese,
and the Coptic Church, among others.
The procession slowly made its way out to the beautiful strains of
the Pontifical hymn, sung by a combined choir from different parishes,
under the direction of St. Vartan Cathdral choirmaster Khoren
Mekanejian. Accompanying on the organ was Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian.
Following the inspiring hrashapar service, a reception for the
public was held in Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium. Catholicos
Karekin II, looking as energetic as ever, blessed the lavishly set
table, then with obvious enthusiasm personally greeted the hundreds of
the faithful who crowded around him to receive his blessing.
*************************************** ************************************
5. Lawyers for Hrant Dink's family say evidence is being withheld as
the trial of his accused murderers continues
by Talin Suciyan
ISTANBUL - Two days before the second hearing, on October 1, in the
trial of 13 suspects in the January 2007 murder of the prominent
Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink, records of a phone call between a
police officer and an accused conspirator in the murder were published
in the Turkish media.
The police officer, identified as M.Z. [Muhittin Zenit -Ed.],
clearly states that he knew how the murder was to have been committed
and what the shooter was to have done after killing Mr. Dink, who was
the editor of the weekly Agos. The murderer "was not going to run.
This one did," the officer said. M.Z. is known to have received a
promotion since the murder.
What follows is the transcript of the phone call, as published in
English translation in the Turkish Daily News.
Erhan Tuncel: There was this boy, Zeynel [Zeynel Abidin Yavuz - the
accused under arrest].... Then came another.... I don't think so ...
because if it is what he said.... This is what I know, I mean what I
can share.... What I mean is, this is how he was going to be shot, the
way to shoot him. If so, then they are connected, but I don't think
so....
M.Z.: What my son, they squeezed it right against his head....
E. T.: He died?
M.Z.: Of course, the only difference is he wasn't going to run but
this one did.
E. T.: But was he caught?
M.Z.: No way.
E.T.: Hmmm.... I don't think it's them, abi [elder brother].
M.Z.: I am not sure.
E. T.: It's not that it.... I mean, we would die for the state, you
know.... We'll share it.... I mean I don't think so....
M.Z.: Brother, that and what we're talking about now. They are
different I mean.
E. T.: What we talked was different all right, but it was everybody's target.
M.Z.: I know that. Now you are being vague with me. F - it, if he
croaked, he croaked. I don't question who killed him. If you doubt my
sincerity in this, that's different.
E. T.: No abi, of course not. If it has to do with us, I'll look and
see. I mean I will bring it to you, too, suitably.
M.Z.: Look man, why bring it? What is the use of bringing it?
E. T.: If it has to do with us.... I was talking on the Internet.
They called me. I stayed on the Internet for three hours, you see? It
is the exams, the finals I mean....
M.Z.: Oh.... Well, all right brother. I wanted to share. To see
what's what....
E. T.: OK abi, God bless you.... It is healthier to go with what you think....
M.Z.: No, no, it's because you sounded.... That's what demoralized
me, partner....
E. T.:.... I haven't talked to your people for a while now. There
was some bitterness. They've called me just now....
M.Z.: All right, OK, we just wanted to evaluate it. Well done, whoever did it.
E. T.: I don't think it has anything to do with us. But well done to
whoever did it.... OK abi, see you.
M.Z.: See you.
After this transcript was published in the newspapers, and sound
bites were heard on radio and television, an investigation was
launched against the outlets that published the transcript, but no
investigation was initiated against police officer M.Z.
Under the shadow of this phone call, the second hearing was held on
Monday in Istanbul. The hearing lasted for 12 hours. Because the
suspected murderer, O.S. [Ogun Samast -Ed.], is only 17, the hearing
was closed.
* Love it or ...
The phone call was not the only news casting a shadow on the trial.
One of the prison buses transporting suspects had a sticker on the
front that read, "Love it or leave it." This is a slogan associated
with ultranationalists. Police put a white band on the sticker to hide
it, leaving only the Turkish flag visible. An investigation has been
initiated against those who put the "Love it or leave it" sticker on
the bus.
To add to the embarrassment, one of the gendarmes guarding O.S. made
an obscene gesture to photojournalists who were taking pictures of the
sticker.
Some 500 demonstrators held vigil outside the court. They held
placards that read, "We all are witnesses. We all want justice" and
"We are all Hrants. We are all Armenians."
In addition to the prosecutors and defense attorneys, another 90
lawyers were at the court house ready to intervene as friends of the
court.
The court has not accepted the request of International Journalists
Without Borders (RSF), International Federation of Human Rights
(FIDH), and Human Rights Association (Turkey) to be heard.
According to news items that appeared in the daily Radikal, O.S.
stated that he committed the murder under the pressure of Yasin Hayal.
Mr. Hayal is among the suspects on trial. He has served time in jail
for the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004.
Radikal reports that Mr. Tuncel's housemate, Tuncay Uzundal, who is
also among those on trial, reportedly said "There are dark powers
behind the murder, but I do not know whether it is the national secret
service (MIT) or the gendarmerie or the police." When Mr. Uzundal
reportedly uttered these words, his lawyer reportedly signaled to him
to discontinue his statement. (Because the hearing was closed, the
Turkish media use terms like "reportedly" to give an account of the
proceedings.)
* Political will
Mr. Tuncel, the suspect whose phone conversation with a police officer
made headlines, was known as a police informer. The Istanbul
prosecutor had requested his file from the General Directorate of
Security as early as January 29. The file was prepared and given to
the prosecutor on February 6 on the precondition that the file could
only be read and then destroyed. It was understood that the original
would be available if needed.
During the first hearing in the trial, in July, Mr. Tuncel's file
and his phone call details were requested by lawyers for the Dink
family. Their request was denied. Dink family attorney Erdal Dogan
said that this was a "judicial scandal."
Fethiye Çetin, another of the lawyers for the Dink family, told
Radikal that evidence is not being given to the attorneys. "Lots of
evidence has been lost," she said. "One of the very important pieces
of evidence are the camera records of Akbank," which is near the
murder site. "The tapes have been given to Istanbul Police Station.
The attorney asked for the tapes, but they could not be found," she
said.
She added, "According to the statements of some of the witnesses,
O.S. talked on the phone on the way to Samsun," where he was arrested
soon after Mr. Dink's murder. "But there was no cell phone and no SIM
card found on him."
Ms. Çetin also said that the government had made a remarkable effort
to arrest the confessed murderer and people closely linked to him. But
the government has not gone beyond that immediate circle. "This case
can be illuminated only if political power wants it to be," she added.
There will be a commission formed in the Turkish parliament to
investigate the Dink murder. The members of the commission will work
in Istanbul and Trabzon and prepare a report of their findings.
*************************************** ************************************
6. "We are inching toward resolution" of the Karabakh conflict,
Foreign Minister Oskanian tells the UN General Assembly
* "No one should tell us that there is a quota on liberty and security"
by Florence Avakian
NEW YORK - Armenia's foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian, addressed the
62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday
morning, October 3. In a wide-ranging speech,
During his 15-minute address, Mr. Oskanian tackled several world
issues including climate change, the war in Iraq, disarmament, arms
control, and the dramatic increase in oil prices. Energy security for
Armenia "is more than a matter of global arithmetic; it's a matter of
life and death," he stated with emphasis.
Mr. Oskanian called on the global big powers "to put aside their own
short-term conflicts, and recognize that their power and influence
does not make them immune to the range of problems that afflict us."
Instead, he stressed, this power and influence should be used for the
good of all humanity.
* Not a frozen conflict
Shifting his focus to regional issues, Mr. Oskanian noted that the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was included on the agenda of the current
General Assembly session "under the topic of protracted conflicts."
"Any resolution that places all conflicts in one pot is necessarily
flawed," he said. "Each of these conflicts is different. The
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict doesn't belong there. This issue should not
be discussed at the UN, because it is being negotiated in the OSCE."
Moreover, Mr. Oskanian said, "The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not
frozen. We continue to negotiate and we are inching toward resolution.
There is a well-developed negotiating document on the table, based not
on wishful thinking, but on the core issue and the consequential
issues. At the core of the process lies the issue of the right of the
people of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine their own future."
Emphasizing every word, he continued: "Indeed, the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh don't want anything that is not theirs. They want a
right to live in peace and security, and to determine their own
future. They want to exercise the right that every people here has
exercised at some point in their history.
Turning to the likely international recognition of Kosovo's
independence, Mr. Oskanian said, "We hear the international community
loud and clear that Kosovo cannot be a precedent for other conflicts.
While we have no intention to use Kosovo as a precedent for our
conflict, since that would contradict our own position that all
conflicts are different. But at the same time, we won't understand or
accept the reverse logic - that if Kosovo is given independence, no
other people can achieve self-determination. No one should tell us
that there is a quota on liberty and security."
During his speech, Mr. Oskanian also listed the accomplishments of
Armenia in the last 16 years. He included "an open, diversified
economy, high growth, strong financial systems, improved elections,
stronger public institutions, and a population increasingly aware of
its rights." He noted that still much needs to be accomplished in
correcting "uneven growth, rural poverty, and low wages," and to
"further empower people and deepen the exercise of democracy."
* Prevent genocide
Referring to the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Mr. Oskanian emphasized:
"Genocide must be prevented, not commemorated. Generation after
generation, we find new names for the places of horror, slaughter,
massacre, indiscriminate killing of all those who have belonged to a
segment, a category, an ethnic group, a race, or a religion. Nearly
100 years ago, for Armenians it was Deir-El-Zor. For the next
generation, it was Auschwitz, then the killing field of the
Cambodians. And most recently, Rwanda."
Mr. Oskanian continued: "If in each of those cases, together with
genocide, these names evoked ignorance, helplessness, wartime cover,
today Darfur is synonymous with expediency, evasion and simple
inconvenience. Darfur is synonymous with shame."
On Thursday, October 4, the Foreign Minister was one of many
speakers addressing the General Assembly in its first-ever high-level
dialogue on interreligious and intercultural understanding.
Representatives making statements urged a sustained international
effort to address the issue through exchanges of information by using
public campaigns as well as the media.
During his three-day stay in New York, the Armenian Foreign Minister
also had face-to-face meetings with the foreign ministers of Iran,
Turkey, and Costa Rica, as well as discussions with the cochairs of
the OSCE Minsk Group. (No details on these meetings were forthcoming
by press time.)
* A question of time?
Also addressing the General Assembly was Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister
Elmar Mamedyarov, who in a bellicose manner said that Armenia is
occupying a sizeable part of Azerbaijan, and that there are "one
million refugees and internally displaced people who were ethnically
cleansed and brutally expelled from their homes of origin in Armenia
and the occupied territories of Azerbaijan."
The one million figure is recognized internationally as including
both Armenian and Azerbaijani refugees.
Calling once again for "restoration of the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," he painted a bleak picture of
the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts since 1992, and accused the current
Armenian leadership of "consolidating the occupation, destroying
everything associated with the Azeri legacy and carrying out illegal
activities."
Mr. Mamedyarov did not offer evidence of the destruction of an
Azerbaijani legacy in Karabakh. Azerbaijan has, however, destroyed
Armenian cemeteries and other Armenian monuments in its territory.
He predicted that the policy of "consolidating the occupation" would
have a "very dangerous, counterproductive and disastrous implication
for the long-term development of Armenia," and in what may have been a
lightly veiled threat of military aggression, he said that Azerbaijan
"will restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is only
a question of time."
More than 80 heads of state and foreign ministers addressed the
world body in its annual ritual, which this year was held between
September 25 and October 3. During the period, Manhattan was in almost
total lockdown, with dozens of streets closed to vehicular traffic so
that the well-guarded dignitaries could be ferried throughout the
city.
*************************************** ************************************
7. A "not guilty" verdict may strip a judge of his office
by Armen Hakobyan
YEREVAN - Armenia's Council of Justice on September 26 held an
unprecedented open-door disciplinary hearing on a sitting judge,
Pargev Ohanian of the Court of First Instance of the Yerevan Center
and Nork-Marash communities. The hearing was open at the defendant's
request.
A verdict is expected on October 12.
Judge Ohanian in July had acquitted the leaders of Royal Armenia
coffee importers of charges of customs fraud. The case had pitted
Armenia's State Customs Service against businesspeople who had
complained of corruption in the service. The owner and the manager of
the company spent nearly two years in pretrial detention before they
were found not guilty by Judge Ohanian. Acquittals are extremely rare
in Armenia's criminal justice system.
The judge is being tried for his conduct in unrelated cases.
However, because disciplinary hearings against judges are rare and
because this hearing is being held so soon after the Royal Armenia
verdict, there is widespread speculation that the verdict led to the
move to try the judge.
In an interview with the Armenian Reporter, Judge Ohanian said, "The
fact that the accusations leading to the hearing are so insignificant
makes me too, it seems, come to the thought that the hearing may be a
result of a judgment that was not as many people wanted it to be."
The September 26 hearing was held in the presence of journalists, a
group of lawyers including members of parliament Zaruhi Postanjian
Larisa Alaverdian. Ms. Alaverdian is Armenia's former human rights
ombudsperson. Except for members of the Council of Justice, no judges
were present at the trial of their colleague.
Cassation Court president Hovhannes Manukian, who presided over the
session, stated at the outset of the disciplinary hearing that the
matter will be decided by the Council of Justice, which will as a
court.
Judge Ohanian's defense attorney is Hayk Alumian, a well-known
member of the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia.
The Council of Justice at present has eleven members. Two members to
be elected by the National Assembly have not yet been chosen.
* Charges
Members of the Council's disciplinary commission Arshak Khachatrian
and Armen Toumanian presented the charges against Judge Ohanian. The
commission had reviewed 16 criminal and four civil cases that had been
presided over by Judge Ohanian. The commission charged that during the
examination of those cases and also in their verdicts, Judge Ohanian
had "flagrantly and obviously" violated the law.
According to the disciplinary commission's charges, in some cases
Judge Ohanian had set heavier and in some cases lighter punishments
than foreseen by law. The commission further charged that the judge
had delayed the process of one of the trials.
The charges cast doubt on legally binding verdicts that had not been
appealed to higher courts. They were based on a study completed by
staff of the Judiciary Department. In their study, staff members
stated what verdict they believed the judge should have handed down.
Defense attorney Alumian and Judge Ohanian himself responded to the
charges first by contesting the authority of Judiciary Department
staff to dispute verdicts that have been handed down by a judge. They
said that in substituting their judgment for the judge's, the
department staff was in violation of the constitution and other laws.
In his speech to the council, Mr. Alumian noted that under a
February 28 decision of the Council of Court Presidents, the Judiciary
Department was authorized to review cases heard in the Court of First
Instance of the Yerevan Center and Nork-Marash communities, but the
review was to start on March 27 and end by April 19.
"Judiciary Department employees indeed carried out examinations in
the specified time period. But in that case the question remains as to
how hearings that Judge Ohanian presided over in the months of May,
June, and July were also examined and presented as evidence." Eight of
the observed cases were heard in those months.
Mr. Alumyan continued by saying, "This obvious discrepancy has a
very simple explanation. Starting March 27 to April 19, 2007, the
Judiciary Department did conduct 'examinations.' ... During those
'examinations' no violations had been discovered in cases presided
over by Judge Ohanian, and a disciplinary proceeding was not filed.
Thereafter, Judge Ohanian, as is well known, dared to pass a 'not
guilty' verdict in the so-called Royal Armenia criminal case.
"Immediately after this, Judiciary Department employees, without any
legal basis and in violation of the specified time and format of the
Council of Court Presidents' abovementioned decision, started once
again 'examining and summarizing' the cases presided over by Judge
Ohanian and this time they discovered violations in twenty of them."
The judge's attorney also said that some charges relate to cases
heard over a year ago, in violation of the law.
The law, he said, allows a review of cases heard only in the last
year during which the judge has presided. Also, it is not clear just
when the Judiciary Department staff reviewed the cases heard by Judge
Ohanian. Mr. Alumian requested that department employees be called as
witnesses and be questioned, but the Council of Justice refused his
request saying that the matter required further investigation.
In Judge Ohanian's final statement, he said that he is a judge and
not a politician. Nor is he in opposition to the government, he said,
adding that he has simply fulfilled his role in making sure justice
was served.
The Council of Justice may decide to ask the president to remove the
judge from office. If it does so, Mr. Alumian said, the judge may
appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.
***************************************** **********************************
8. Getting around Armenia by public transportation one does not feel lonely
Essay by Elyssa Karanian
YEREVAN - The first time I heard the word marshrutga, I instantly
pictured an amusement park ride: "The Rotor," "Matterhorn,"
"Marshrutga." In reality, I suppose, I was not so far off. "Step right
up!! Only 100 dram for the ride of your life! Your choice of the 20,
12, 22, 26... A little wary? Scared of zipping over potholes at an
alarming rate? Ride the 28! Slowest shrut of them all. You'll never
get where you're going on that one! All others, taking you all the way
to Komitas and back. Step right up! (Watch your head!)"
When I first got to Armenia, I missed the security of seatbelts. I
soon realized, though, when you're packed like sardines in a tin can
(I am not exaggerating), you really can't get hurt because there's
nowhere to fall.
The marshrutgas to the villages where I taught are like endless,
sweaty, bouncing games of Twister at a crazy party where people play
holding purses, children and buckets of varunks - cucumbers. Dinner
invitations fly toward me, as do people, as the bus lurches forward
and hands reach out to grab for the nearest shoulder, knee, head, or
other available body part they can find.
At times when I feel cramped or in need of oxygen, I contort my neck
and try to raise my head to catch a hint of breeze or air movement of
any kind. Most of the time, I'm met with the hot exhalation of an
adjacent passenger. I've learned to take what I can get. Even at 100
degrees and counting, somehow the people on these transports are
perfectly happy to keep every window closed. Just this afternoon, I
asked the woman in front of me (in a breathless, raspy hot voice to
convey the level of my discomfort) if she wouldn't mind opening the
window a bit: she nodded and I got three-quarters of an inch.
Three-quarters of an inch is a lot though, especially in terms of
space. For example, just when you think there is no possible way
another soul can fit into the place, the driver stops (my heart sinks)
and three more people get on (my legs cramp) to fill the
one-and-a-half remaining empty laps. (I breathe as many breaths as I
can before the door closes again.) The maze of people is so thick, in
fact, that I can't tell whose breast my head is resting on, whose
child I have in my lap, or whose bag is slung around my arm or
dangling from my pinky finger (in the case of extra-crowded days when
my arm is being used as a seat-belt).
For the first month or so, I found this mode of transportation
devastatingly uncomfortable and the fact that I was forced to use it
for hours at a time, daily, was like the one, cruel reality of life
you want never to face. I found that my body would actually tense up
and begin to ache at the mere mention of the word marshrutga.
As I'm getting into my fourth month here, things are starting to
feel different to me. Some events have occurred, besides the everyday
wonderful amusements and amazements, that have been bringing things
into perspective for me. The other day, for example, an old dadik was
sitting next to me and telling a story to all the passengers on the
shrut (except me, really) and was using my leg to emphasize all her
most important points: smacking and whacking and stroking all in
harmony with the emotion of the story she was telling, that I might
have understood but couldn't quite because of the toothless barbar -
patois - she was using.
Just the other day, my friend Noushig and I were sitting on the
Meghrashen shrut waiting to leave when some of the vendors came up to
the door to (block our air supply and) peddle some random stuff
(termite repellent, socks, plastic bags, rulers, and tape) and one man
kept trying to push this prissy fan on the old, villager woman across
from us. "What do you want me to do with that" she asked, "sit
underneath the cow and fan myself?" An argument broke out and she
began to cry silently. As I watched her wipe her eyes with the old
sock that was her handkerchief I realized how lucky I am to have these
awful bus rides in my life. I ride with the heart and soul of this
country every day.
It's really easy to feel alone in America. In Philadelphia sometimes
it seems like the more people I have around me the lonelier I feel;
the masses just leave me isolated and wanting. It's so different here.
I mean, it's hard to feel isolated at the end of the day when you have
17 different people's sweat on you.
But as I step down at the end of my ride (whack my head) and inhale
my first breath of fresh air, like a baby from the womb - raw and
impressionable - I realize how sincere it all is and how genuinely
amazing it is that I actually like it. I can walk onto these
marshrutgas and be known by 20 people and instantly feel loved. Every
one needs a little some of that in their life. Every day here I can
feel like I'm a part of something, no matter how small or how sweaty.
***************************************** **********************************
9. From Armenia, in brief
* Levon Ter-Petrossian meets with ARF leadership
Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian, who is considering running for
president again, met with Hrant Margarian, representative of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Bureau, and Armen Rustamian,
representative of the ARF Supreme Body in Armenia. The meeting took
place on Saturday, September 29, at the ARF Simon Vratsian center in
Yerevan.
According to the press office of the ARF Supreme Body in Armenia,
the meeting was initiated by Mr. Ter-Petrossian, who was accompanied
by former foreign minister Alexander Arzoumanian. The sides spoke
about the upcoming presidential elections and the current political
situation of the country and "emphasized [the] necessity for political
and ideological dialogue at this stage."
On December 28, 1994, Mr. Ter-Petrossian had banned the ARF. Many of
its members, including Mr. Margarian and Mr. Rustamyan, were arrested.
The party's newspapers were also shut down. The ban on the party's
activity was repealed immediately after the resignation of Levon
Ter-Petrossian.
* ArmenTel loses its monopoly in the telecommunications sector in Armenia
According to a decision by the Public Services Commission (PSC) of the
Republic of Armenia, ArmenTel (a subsidiary of VympelCom) has lost its
monopoly in the telecommunications sector in Armenia.
The commission took the decision to make relevant changes to the
ArmenTel's license on August 24, 2007. The decision took effect on
October 1. This decision means that the telecommunications market in
Armenia is now completely liberalized. The monopoly was given to
ArmenTel at the end of 1997 to be in effect until 2013. The monopoly
included providing services for local, intercity, and international
telecommunication and telephone services, services for leasing of
telephone lines, international transit and satellite services, public
mobile communication, voice data transfer via Internet (IP-telephony),
and video transmission services (broadband).
Oleg Blizniuk, the director general of ArmenTel told reporters that
the company voluntarily withdraws from the monopoly, welcoming healthy
competition. He stressed that it was just as important that the market
not only becomes liberalized but also civilized.
The PSC announced that according to the agreement between ArmenTel
and the government of Armenia, a new third cell operator may appear on
the Armenian market as early as January 1, 2009.
* Chair of the European Court of Human Rights in Armenia
The chair of the European Court of Human Rights, Jan Paul Costa, was
in Armenia to participate in the 12th conference on constitutional
justice, which was held from October 5 to 6. The conference was
conducted by the Armenian Constitutional Court, Armenian Human Rights
Defender, "Democracy through Right" European Commission, and
"Conference of Constitutional Oversight of Young Democratic
Countries."
The president of the European Court underscored the importance of
this conference and said: "Armenia is a country which seeks to improve
its judicial system and has initiated judicial reforms."
* High success rate claimed for heart surgery in Armenia
According to the director general of Nork Marash Hospital, Lidia
Muradian, the success rate of heart operations in Armenia is very
high. In an interview with Armenpress, Ms. Muradian said that the
mortality rate of heart surgery patients is 3.8 per 100 operations.
This ratio is lower than the rates in the U.S. and Europe. She said in
those regions the index is 4.5 percent. She also said that the number
of repeat operations in Armenia are likewise lower.
Since the 1990s some 9,000 heart operations have taken place in
Armenia. Armenian doctors perform all kinds of heart surgery with the
exception of heart translplants. Operations on newborn babies, some as
young as 2-3 days old have also successfully taken place.
* Yerevan-Sochi to become sister cities with a view to the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games
It is expected that in the coming months an agreement will be signed
in Sochi declaring Yerevan and Sochi as sister cities. The 2014 Winter
Olympic Games will be taking place in Sochi and according to the mayor
of Yerevan, Yervand Zakharian, the agreement will help establish
cooperation in construction, cultural, health and economic sectors.
The deputy mayor of Sochi, Irina Badalian, believes that there are
real grounds for cooperation between the two cities.
It is also anticipated that Armenia will participate in the
preparations for the Winter Games. According to Arminfo, Ms. Badalian
said that a preliminary agreement on bringing Armenian architects to
large-scale construction projects for the Olympics was reached between
the Armenian consul in Russia's South Federal district and the mayor
of Sochi.
During a recent meeting between the prime minister's of Armenia and
Russia, an agreement was reached on the delivery of building
materials, including polished natural stones and reinforced concrete
structures by Armenia for the construction of the Olympic buildings.
* Mass measles and rubella immunization campaign launched
On October 1, Armenian health authorities launched a mass measles and
rubella (MR) immunization campaign which will target 1.25 million
people 6-27 years of age in Armenia. According to Armenpress, despite
its routine measles-immunization efforts in recent decades, Armenia
remains in the list of countries susceptible to outbreaks of measles.
This campaign was initiated in close partnership with the Armenian
Children's Vaccine Fund's, UNICEF, the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich
Foundation, WHO, and the Ministry of Health.
Measles, a highly contagious disease strikes between 30 and 40
million children every year and results in some 9 million deaths
worldwide.
* Bill proposes penalties for selling certain goods to minors
Aghvan Vardanian, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs presented a
bill to lawmakers on October 4 proposing changes to the labor code.
The minister is looking to penalize shop owners for selling tobacco
products, alcoholic drinks, psychoactive drugs, and horror or erotic
films to children under the age of 18.
For first-time offenders the penalty would amount to 50 minimum-wage
monthly salaries. Involving someone under the age of 18 in the sale of
these products would cost double that amount.
* High Fest kicks off in Yerevan
The 5th High Fest international performing arts festival kicked off on
October 4 at the Stanislavski Russian theater in Yerevan.
This festival welcomes performing arts companies and artists to
present their productions in all genres of the performing arts
including theater (drama, comedy, mime, movement, circus, street
performances, puppet/marionette, fingers theater, visual), dance
(modern, folk, classic), music (opera, classical, contemporary, jazz,
folk) and other forms of performing arts.
Approximately 350 participants from 33 countries will perform at the
festival. To contribute to the development of cultural policy and arts
management in Armenia, workshops, round tables and discussion will
also be held.
The opening performance of the festival was by the Natalia Kasparova
Dance Company which presented "Songs of Gomidas" - a contemporary
dancing performance.
Arthur Ghukasian, the director of the festival, said that they had a
rigorous selection process and included mainly those which present an
Armenian theme. "We opened the festival with this performance as it
had an interesting idea. The well-known Russian theater chose the
songs of Gomidas and their performance is connected with the Armenian
culture and genocide," Mr. Ghukasian said.
According to Arminfo, the director of Barcelona-Taregaya festival
Mike Ribalta said he is happy to participate in the festival as he
considers it important to support the development of a young festival.
"It is also important for us to participate in other festivals, meet
different people, know what is going on in this sphere in other
countries," he said.
The festival will run until October 14.
********************************************* ******************************
10. WWF opens Yerevan office
* Focus on partnership with government, business
YEREVAN - The World Wildlife Fund launched its Yerevan office on
October 4. The international environmental organization has been
active in Armenia for six years, but operations were centered in a
regional office in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
At the opening ceremony, Georg Schwede, WWF International's director
for Europe and the Middle East, emphasized the fund's commitment to
working with government and business as well as environmental groups
to further its mission "to keep Armenia healthy and beautiful."
And, indeed, Armenia's minister of nature protection, Aram
Harutyunyan, was on hand to welcome "the joyous fact" of the opening
of the fund's Yerevan office. He pledged to "assist" the fund in its
efforts.
Recalling the plan to build a road through the Shikahogh forest
preserve in southern Armenia, Mr. Schwede said that government and
environmental groups were able to come up with a "very, very good
solution, balancing various interests. A good deal was struck to
reroute the highway through less fragile habitat."
On the matter of working with business, Mr. Schwede singled out the
Marriott Armenia, which placed literature about saving the Caucasian
leopard in its rooms for a month, and maintained a box for donations
in the lobby. The WWF is concerned with ecosystem biodiversity as well
as species biodiversity, Mr. Schwede said; but he prefers to focus on
species because an endangered species is a tangible, moving symbol of
the need for environmental action.
Karen Manvelyan, director of WWF Armenia, spoke about several
specific programs the fund is pursuing in Armenia, including protected
areas and campaigns to save the leopard as well as the Armenian
moufflon. He handed out prizes to several journalists for
environmental reporting.
- Vincent Lima
connect:
www.panda.org/armenia
************ ************************************************** *************
11. Profile: Alina Dorian is a professor of public health, mother, and
Armenia Fund Telethon host
* Community health expert teaches disaster response
* She wrote Karabakh's National Health Plan
by Maral Habeshian
WESTWOOD, Calif. - A few days before relinquishing his duties on
September 4, two-term Nagorno-Karabakh president Arkady Ghukassian
awarded Los Angeles resident Dr. Alina Dorian his republic's Medal of
Gratitude.
The news came as a surprise to Dr. Dorian, who teaches
post-disaster community health to graduate students at UCLA. "I was
shocked and humbled. It never crossed my mind," she says.
Dr. Dorian learned of the honor at six in the morning, when
Karabakh's minister of health, Dr. Zoya Lazarian, called to
congratulate her.
"I want to be the first to congratulate you; they just announced on
TV that you were awarded the medal by the president," Ms. Lazarian had
conveyed.
Dr. Dorian was understandably touched. The medal goes to those who
make a considerable impact on the social and economic development of
the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, and in the last group of medals he was
to award, the outgoing president believed Alina deserved that honor.
At UCLA, Dr. Dorian trains her students to act effectively
immediately after disaster hits in order to provide sanitation,
healthcare, food, psychosocial services, and help afflicted
communities become resilient. The key, she explains, is a return to
normalcy.
"We see how hard that is, having experienced Hurricane Katrina," she
says. But Alina's hands-on experience is more in picking up the pieces
after complex emergencies, such as a war. "In those types of
societies, change is slow. Refugees can remain refugees for extended
period of time," she explains.
* The Karabakh relationship
Alina went to Karabakh in 1996 to write Karabakh's first national
health plan. With much data destroyed during the war, and the break-up
of the Soviet Union, Karabakh had nothing to plan from.
"You have to have a road map to know where you need to go, and you
need certain information to guide you. But in postwar Karabakh,
everyone was feeling a different path. A woman in Hadrout had
different needs than a woman serving in the health ministry."
Alina had to begin from scratch if an effective national health plan
were to be developed. She decided to conduct a survey of a thousand
households.
Information gathered would break down the population between male
and female, and include fertility history, birth rates, death rates,
common diseases, what children were suffering from the time of birth
to five years of age, maternal mortality, smoking, and more.
"It included anything you can think of to represent a family,
including what kind of sanitation facilities, cooking and hand washing
rituals, anything and everything," she says.
That 1996 survey allowed Alina and her staff to come up with
baseline numbers and provide a snapshot with which health authorities
were able to monitor, evaluate, and understand the population.
Within a few months of the completion of the survey and the writing
of the national health plan, Alina and her staff vetted that plan
through many government health committees. That process took almost a
year.
"I wanted them to talk through these things because they had never
written a national health plan. We needed to build capacity.
Physicians had suddenly become ministers who had no background in
public health, health policy, and planning."
She took her findings and wrote a separate report in order to lobby
for aid through United States Agency for International Development
(USAID). It was the only health report at that time that talked about
the actual health needs for Karabakh and defined priorities.
* The mission
At one time Alina Dorian thought she would be a "medicine woman."
Studying botany as an undergraduate, she was intrigued by herbal
medicine and the ideal of utilizing the rain forest to help people.
"I went to Costa Rica and did that, then did the same research in
Ecuador. Then I realized I wanted to help people directly and interact
with them." She considered medicine, then settled on public health. In
2000, she received her Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in
international public health; her dissertation was an offshoot of the
work she had been doing in Karabakh.
Her thesis focused on the Karabakh republic's utilization of
healthcare services. She explains that using such services is usually
a choice, except in severe circumstances.
"I wanted to know what drove mothers to use health-care services.
When a child has stomach ailments, for example, what factors drive her
to either seek or reject medical attention?" In the case of preventive
healthcare, for example immunizations, she asked herself what would
influence a mother to take their child to get immunized?
"All this comes into play when you design a healthcare system
because you want people to use your system. What are the cultural
myths; which family members make the decisions? In some cultures, it
is the mother; however, in others it may be the male or even the
mother-in-law."
* That face?
If Dr. Alina Dorian's name sounds familiar, it's because she has
become a familiar face on the yearly Thanksgiving Day Armenia Fund
Telethon - albeit purely by accident.
In 2003, Alina was the project director of a polyclinic being built
in Karabakh by the Armenia Fund. She was asked to deliver two
one-minute segments about the polyclinic, beginning at 8 a.m. on that
year's Telethon broadcast.
She showed up to do her brief stint, but one of the co-hosts for the
Telethon never showed.
Alina was asked to "hang around and do things." Because the telethon
was raising money to provide assistance to Karabakh, she agreed. "So I
ended up talking about Karabakh on TV for several hours, which is what
I love to do, and being the bigmouth that I am, it was okay, I guess."
She and co-host Paul Chaderjian hit it off so well that they have
been dubbed the "dynamic duo" since then. The two will return this
year to host the annual Telethon on Thursday, November 22.
* Armenia Fund
In 1999, when approached by the Armenian Fund about healthcare
projects in Armenia, Alina proposed they build a polyclinic in
Stepanakert.
While the fund had targeted the establishment of a children's
hospital, Alina persuaded them to act differently.
"I said, being the organization that you are, and knowing that you
have the backing of the Armenian public, you need to take on a project
that couldn't be taken on by anyone else. Don't focus on children; we
can readily raise funds for a children's hospital. No one wants to
give to the adults; it's a big undertaking," she explains, and
clarifies that anyone aged 15 and above is considered an adult.
In Karabakh, polyclinics are the only source of outpatient care,
where patients go to see a doctor for any reason - whether
preventative or curative.
Karabakh's capital Stepanakert did have a polyclinic, but it
operated under horrendous conditions. According to Alina, the building
was mostly in ruins, had no running water and intermittent
electricity. "There was one bathtub filled with water that everybody
in the clinic would use: doctors, patients, housekeeping. Whenever
they needed water, they got it from that tub. So obviously, sanitation
and sterilization conditions were out the window."
The one existing restroom that had no flushing water serviced men,
women, children, doctors, nurses, patients, and even neighbors.
Equipment was rare, and there were no pharmaceuticals.
Because of Karabakh's political status as an unrecognized republic,
there was no funding or training assistance provided by the United
Nations, World Health Organization, or any of the major players that
usually come in to assist after a war.
Armenia Fund USA, however, did not shy away from the challenge of
building a state-of-the-art polyclinic in Karabakh. In 2000, all
parties involved decided to move forward with the plan.
Alina became project director to serve as a liaison between U.S.
experts and doctors in Karabakh, and she had final say on all
programming decisions.
She praises Kevork Toroyan, the chairperson of the Armenia Fund at
the time. "He was hugely instrumental and very involved. He's a
meticulous and bright man." Mr. Toroyan not only had extensive
experience in implementing Armenia Fund projects, but also had vast
knowledge and experience in implementing large-scale construction
projects.
She attributes the success of the project to Mr. Toroyan's
persistence and undying interest. And though the project took five
years to complete, the parties involved had agreed the process should
be lengthy and educational, "It took a while to do the planning,
because we wanted a large-scale learning process," Alina stresses.
Eventually, besides the polyclinic, a larger medical complex was
constructed to also house the National Diagnostic Center. This Center
provides ultrasound, x-ray, laboratory, and anything necessary to
provide outpatients as well as in-patients with diagnostic services.
* Out with the old
Soviet culture, however, had left deep-rooted practices that were
barriers to progress. Patients, for example, gathered in front of the
doctor's door, preventing normal doctor-patient discourse. "When the
physician inside would open the door, everyone would try to stomp in.
There is still some of this going on," Alina says.
The solution was to create waiting areas - a novel concept to Soviet
culture. This proved unsuccessful and they moved to a number system,
where patients would get a number and the number would be called.
"I went to the polyclinic unannounced this August, and there were
people actually sitting and waiting, and it was quiet. It was one of
the biggest accomplishments I have ever made, because it gives you
quality service for each individual patient. It was nice that people
were respecting each other's space and the doctor's space," Alina
proudly smiles.
The majority of the center's equipment is new, and personnel get
extensive training to ensure proper understanding and use. There is
also clinical training with physicians, primary care providers, and
specialists. Management training and quality assurance have been added
as new programs to assure quality diagnosis, treatment, and the
management of the facility.
The counseling of patients has also come into play whereas in the
past it was totally nonexistent. The focus has become the patient: in
maintaining more thorough histories, providing health education
through messages and explaining diseases.
"While some of these things were practiced during the Soviet era,
the big shift was to have healthcare focus on patient healthcare. It's
a very Western concept, where the patient is the most important thing
in healthcare," she explains.
Alina's team wanted to take a more holistic approach, where the
doctor would talk to the patient to obtain a history and provide
advice. And in the initial phase, they instituted a simple
administrative policy.
That administrative guidance has resulted in more systematic record
keeping and practices.
"Papers don't get lost like they used to before," Alina assures. She
stresses that anything from this point on is up to the people of
Karabakh. She says administrations and key staffers must continuously
update protocol and practices and keep up with progress in the field
of medicine.
As an offshoot of the polyclinic, Armenia Fund USA took the
initiative to plan the building of the new national adult hospital in
Stepanakert. It would be the only adult hospital that treats patients
aged 15 and up.
The fund is seeking donors to press ahead with planning. Alina
revealed that the plan includes a new emergency/trauma department.
* Today and the future
It has been 15 years since she arrived in Karabakh and over ten years
since the initial survey. Alina says that a new survey is long
overdue. "It's a weight I'm caring on my shoulders in that it is
something that needs to be done. The government agrees."
She believes the Health Ministry is much stronger than ten years ago
in their ability to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
Conducting a large-scale, 2,000-household survey requires an
additional year of work. During the 1996 survey of 1,000 Karabakh
households, Alina had 30 interviewers and 10 staffers to input the
data, then clean up and interpret it. There would be at least 30-40
local and a few foreign experts in biostatistics and epidemiology to
produce the report.
That assessment would serve as the basis to compare and conclude
what has happened in the past ten years in terms of health planning,
monitoring, and impact of the health services. It will also serve to
create the next five-year plan, which would target priorities in
healthcare system for that period.
Alina says this plan mirrors a business plan. It would serve as
their plan on how to address issues and availability of resources.
"You may realize that something is a priority," she says, "but you
don't have the resources to make it happen. Everything is not black
and white."
She cites, for example, that cancer is a major health issue in
Karabakh. The reason is that Karabakh has an aging population that has
endured great stress during the war; people drink and smoke without
considering health consequences. Diets are not exactly healthy and
people do not exercise.
"Then they have the stresses of the breakdown of the Soviet Union
with unemployment. So it's a huge issue," she says.
"Addressing the needs of cancer patients is expensive and
complicated," she says. "You have to have the right diagnoses, the
right equipment, chemotherapy, surgical capacity, and we couldn't
address all of these issues in the 1996 plan. However, for example,
children with diarrhea is a health issue that we could comprehensively
deal with."
Going back to the needs of cancer patients, explains Alina, much
more resources and a more robust healthcare system would be needed.
"You can only plan with the resources that you have," she says. "You
may have other needs like oncology patients, but you can only do as
much your resources allow you to."
She explains that a physician, according to his Hippocratic oath,
will do everything for a patient. "They will expend all resources to
save the life of that person. In public health, you have to think that
you have only a limited amount of resources that need to be allocated
to where it will provide the greatest good. It will help the majority
of people but not everybody," she explains.
About $120,000 is needed for a new, comprehensive health assessment
in Karabakh. The funds will be used to pay 50 people locally for a
year. Assistance would come from graduate students from UCLA and the
American University in Armenia to expand the project.
"Just like it turned into my dissertation, I would hope that it
would turn into something like that for many students," says Dr.
Dorian. "You can build a country, but if you don't have a healthy
population, it's of no use. We need to do some of these things that
unfortunately don't seem exciting to people; it is the essence of
doing anything. The data provides that essence."
********************************** *****************************************
12. Commentary: A priest's eye view of Catholicos Karekin's visit
by Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian
With heartfelt joy and boundless happiness, our community is looking
forward to the arrival of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, who will be visiting the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) throughout
October.
The event is significant not only for our church members but also
for the greater Armenian community in North America, as it will give
us an opportunity to receive His Holiness's blessing from our Biblical
fatherland and the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin - where,
according to the vision of St. Gregory the Illuminator, the Only
Begotten Son descended from heaven with a golden hammer, and striking
the ground commanded: "Here should be built the House of God." The
pontifical blessing of His Holiness will strengthen our faith in Jesus
Christ, and renew our vows to the Armenian Church and Holy
Etchmiadzin.
To fully understand Vehapar's role, we need to grasp the
significance of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in the life of our
people. Holy Etchmiadzin is the spiritual and historic center of the
Armenian Apostolic Church: the "holy of holies" for the Armenian
people. It serves as our strong bond, holding the Armenians together
and contributing to the preservation of our Christian faith and our
national identity. Holy Etchmiadzin is not only the source of our
faith: it was the birth-place of our alphabet, literature, culture,
and our unique tradition.
Armenian history has witnessed many crises and difficulties as Holy
Etchmiadzin has come under foreign oppressors: barbarian, pagan, and
Muslim. But by the Providence of God, she managed to endure, and by
implementing her spiritual authority she inspired our people to
persevere and overcome every hardship. Because of the grave political
situation in Armenia, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin relocated to
different places outside the historical Armenian homeland and
eventually settled in Sis, Cilicia. The downfall of the Kingdom of
Cilicia in 1375 was a great disappointment to all Armenians because
there was no Armenian government left to protect our people from her
enemies. Life became miserable in Cilicia, and the deteriorating
circumstances caused many Armenians to migrate to distant lands or
convert to Islam.
In 1441, our church fathers called a National-Ecclesiastical Council
in which they made a decision to transfer the See of the Catholicate
of All Armenians from Sis to her original site, Holy Etchmiadzin in
Vagharshapat so that the Armenian people might remain in their
historical fatherland and hold fast to their religion. During those
centuries when we were deprived of political independence, it was Holy
Etchmiadzin that undertook the responsibility for our spiritual,
cultural, and national leadership.
* Symbol of unity to the dispersed
Here lies the crucial role of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in
our people's life. It hardly matters whether a Catholicos of All
Armenians is by origin from Istanbul, Tbilisi, Bucharest, Antelias, or
Yerevan; the most important thing is that His Holiness, as the heir to
the throne of our first Catholicos St. Gregory the Illuminator,
combines in himself the above mentioned valuable attributes. In
addition, Vehapar embodies all the attributes of his predecessors. His
Holiness is known as the spiritual father of all Armenians. He is an
ambassador of good will and the guarantor of the unity of our people.
The Catholicate of All Armenians has become the symbol of the
national-ecclesiastical life of our people, particularly for the
Armenians who were dispersed to all parts of the world in consequence
of the Genocide.
Today, more than half of our people and three out of four
hierarchical and historical sees are located outside the boundary of
our fatherland. They include the Catholicate of the Great House of
Cilicia, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and the Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople. Unfortunately, there has been a
separation in the Armenian Apostolic Church for more than 50 years,
which stands out as an obstacle for our Mother Church to continue her
sacred mission. There are other obstacles, too. As a reminder, during
the 1915 Genocide more than 5,000 Armenian clergymen were killed by
the Turks. Now after 92 years, we barely have 400 clergymen in the
entire Armenian Church throughout the world.
Although it is not our purpose to address the complex question of
the church's division, but it is worth mentioning that it was the
outcome of the Cold War, which symbolically ended with the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989. In a manner similar to the Armenian Church, the
Russian Orthodox Church had been split into two factions for 90 years.
But this year, on May 17 - the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord
Jesus Christ - the two sides were reconciled in a ceremony in Moscow.
This joyful reality gives us great hope for achieving the
unification of our church, in the belief that the church is one
through the Holy Gospels and Jesus Christ. The late catholicoi of
blessed memory, Vasken I and Karekin I, did not spare any effort to
make the unification of our church a reality. And nowadays, His
Holiness Karekin II is doing everything in his power to realize that
unification. Holy Etchmiadzin impatiently awaits the return of this
faction of our church to the bosom of the Mother Church. It is about
time that every Armenian organization all over the world, and all our
intellectual authorities, do everything possible to work towards this
worthy and noble cause of the unification of the Armenian Church. Here
it would be appropriate to mention the meaningful and powerful words
of the Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents: "Behold, Armenian people, your
only salvation is in your collective power."
As a priest of the Armenian Church, I wish to call on all the
children of our church to set aside their daily affairs and problems
and make every effort to welcome His Holiness; to attend all the
religious and cultural gatherings presided over by Vehapar; and to
receive His Holiness's blessing. I strongly encourage all Armenians to
bring their participation to meet with Vehapar in order to express
their love and loyalty.
In the meantime, let us pray to Almighty God that the Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin will stand unshakable and united with all our
historic hierarchical sees. Let us also pray to God for the health of
His Holiness, and for the success of all his endeavors.
***
Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian is the pastor of the St. George Armenian Church,
in Hartford, Conn.
******************************************* ********************************
13. Editorial: Welcome, Catholicos
His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, began a
pastoral visit to the United States this week. He stopped in
California to perform some important functions - consecrating a
church, blessing the ground for the new cathedral, meeting with
schoolchildren - before proceeding to the eastern U.S., where he will
spend an entire month.
Visits by the Catholicos of All Armenians are relatively rare
occasions, but they have been a part of Armenian-American community
life for nearly 50 years. In that time we have welcomed three
catholicoi to our shores. While each individual and each visit is
distinctive in its way, there is an overarching importance to the
phenomenon itself: the Catholicos of All Armenians - this unique
national figure - making contact with the people of our communities.
First, and most obviously, the Catholicos carries with him a great
weight of tradition that spans an enormous stretch of Armenian history
- some 85 generations. That is really an astonishing amount of time.
The present catholicos is the 132nd person to hold that title; by way
of comparison, there have been 56 monarchs of England, from Alfred the
Great to Queen Elizabeth II. This expanse of history is something that
inspires us as Armenians, lights pride in our hearts, and places our
struggles, and the struggles of previous generations, in a greater
context. The fact that each of those generations knew a Catholicos of
All Armenians is something that we tangibly share with our
predecessors, and can expect to share with our descendants. Our
generation has the privilege to actually hear the voice of the
Catholicos and seek guidance or consolation from him directly.
Second, the Catholicos holds a truly unique position in our national
life. He is an elected official, elected by a popular mechanism that
gives a voice to Armenians from communities dispersed throughout the
world. The election of the Catholicos is not exactly on the order of a
plebiscite, but it is also far more democratic, more representative,
than the manner of office-taking among his peers in other similar
institutions. We who have been ardent supporters of democracy find
this a source of strength for the occupant of the pontifical office.
It gives him a plausible claim to be a representative of all Armenians
- to speak for Armenians around the world on certain matters of
importance.
It also gives the Catholicos an unusual perspective on Armenian
matters. No other leader draws his constituents from such a broad
spectrum within the worldwide Armenian community. And surely no one
else actually makes contact with as great a base of individuals, from
so many walks of life, and so many places around the world. The
present Catholicos has made it a critical part of his pontificate to
travel to the remotest climes - India, the Far East - as well as
throughout Armenia, the Middle East, and the West. The upshot of this
is that he alone meets Armenians in their home communities, as it
were, and he has a unique opportunity to observe at first hand what
unites Armenians, and to speak on the question of a "greater good" for
all Armenians.
With that perspective comes a profound responsibility. As our
symposium of two weeks ago showed, even amid disagreement on what the
Catholicos should talk about, there was general agreement that the
Catholicos is and should be active, that he has the real and symbolic
power to influence outcomes, and shape life for the better in Armenia
and among our people elsewhere. Even those Armenians who are not part
of the Apostolic Church regard the Catholicos as an important and
influential agent in the ongoing life of the Armenian nation.
Finally, having the Catholicos among us is a reminder of the
enduring values that have allowed the Armenian people to survive, and
will be the best hope for their perpetuation in the future. This paper
has argued forcefully for the promotion of a modern, democratic,
materially productive and economically successful Armenia. At the same
time, material progress must be accompanied by deeper, more enduring
values. Without the blessings of family, the possibility for a just
and wholesome patriotism, the dedication of one's best efforts to a
higher cause than mere material comfort - without these things, the
greatest attainments for our homeland and people would be worthless -
a pyrrhic victory at the end of an astonishing history. The Catholicos
reminds us of these things, too.
In the course of 47 years, meeting the catholicos has become a
feature of community life. The modern world has made such contact more
feasible, and that has made the Catholicos a less remote, more
accessible leader than ever before. Each occupant who has visited
America has brought his special qualities to the role, and over the
past seven years Catholicos Karekin II has shown his deep seriousness,
his love of the people, his willingness to lead. We are proud to offer
a warm welcome to the Catholicos.
************************************* **************************************
14. Editorial: Call the House
House Resolution 106, the Armenian Genocide resolution, is scheduled
for consideration by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday,
October 10. The committee is expected to approve the resolution and
send it on to the full House of Representatives, which is expected to
pass it.
Turkey's well-paid lobby in Washington is making every effort to
scuttle the resolution. A likely tactic is to have members of the
Foreign Relations Committee offer amendments that would undermine the
resolution. For example, they may propose to replace the word genocide
with a word that does not carry the connotation of a crime against
humanity under international law.
Now is the time for everyone to make a special, extra effort, and
reach out to the members of the Foreign Relations Committee. Tell them
to pass the resolution "as introduced." The names and contact
information of members of the committee appear in an ad on page A7 [go
to www.reporter.am or directly to
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/members.asp?com mittee=full]. Every
voice matters. Call, e-mail, or fax today.
****************************************** *********************************
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Email: [email protected]
October 6, 2007 -- From the front section
To see the printed version of the newspaper, complete with photographs
and additional content, visit www.reporter.am and download the pdf
files. It's free.
1. Catholicos Karekin II arrives in Eastern Diocese (by Florence Avakian)
2. Armenian Genocide resolution set for October 10 committee vote (by
Emil Sanamyan)
* Full House expected to act by Thanksgiving
3. For the visiting Catholicos, it's meeting the people that counts
(by Arpie Nakashian)
4. A crowded Saint Vartan Cathedral welcomes the Catholicos (by
Florence Avakian)
5. Lawyers for Hrant Dink's family say evidence is being withheld as
the trial of his accused murderers continues (by Talin Suciyan)
6. "We are inching toward resolution" of the Karabakh conflict,
Foreign Minister Oskanian tells the UN General Assembly (by Florence
Avakian)
* "No one should tell us that there is a quota on liberty and security"
7. A "not guilty" verdict may strip a judge of his office (by Armen Hakobyan)
8. Getting around Armenia by public transportation one does not feel
lonely (Essay by Elyssa Karanian)
9. From Armenia, in brief
* Levon Ter-Petrossian meets with ARF leadership
* ArmenTel loses its monopoly in the telecommunications sector in Armenia
* Chair of the European Court of Human Rights in Armenia
* High success rate claimed for heart surgery in Armenia
* Yerevan-Sochi to become sister cities with a view to the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games
* Mass measles and rubella immunization campaign launched
* Bill proposes penalties for selling certain goods to minors
* High Fest kicks off in Yerevan
10. WWF opens Yerevan office (by Vincent Lima)
* Focus on partnership with government, business
11. Profile: Alina Dorian is a professor of public health, mother, and
Armenia Fund Telethon host (by Maral Habeshian)
* Community health expert teaches disaster response
* She wrote Karabakh's National Health Plan
12. Commentary: A priest's eye view of Catholicos Karekin's visit (by
Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian)
13. Editorial: Welcome, Catholicos
14. Editorial: Call the House
******************************************* ********************************
1. Catholicos Karekin II arrives in Eastern Diocese
by Florence Avakian
NEW YORK - More than 150 Armenian faithful enthusiastically greeted
Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II as he landed at New Jersey's
Teterboro Airport, having departed from Los Angeles, on Wednesday
afternoon, October 3.
The arrival marked the beginning of the pontiff's month-long visit
to more than 16 parishes of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian
Church.
The Catholicos, in high spirits, was officially welcomed by
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Eastern Diocese, Fr.
Haigazoun Najarian, Diocesan Vicar, and Oscar Tatosian, chair of the
Diocesan Council.
The Armenian Church leader's eyes lit up as he saw more than 40
young school children from the Hovnanian School and the Holy Martyrs
Armenian Day School, who were dressed in authentic Armenian costumes,
and were carrying the pontifical, U.S., and Armenian flags. As their
voices lifted in song, the Armenian Church leader's exhilaration was
obvious. He then approached the children, and blessed them to their
delight, kissing several on the forehead.
"The Vehapar who has been at the forefront of initiating children's
and young people's programs in Armenia, was so happy to see the
children. It made such a difference to him," said Mr. Tatosian. "This
is a special pastor who is assertive, confident, observant of
everything, and focused on the youth."
Deacon Sebuh Oscherichian, who has been acquainted with the Vehapar
since 1970, noted that the church leader's visit to the smaller
parishes of the Eastern Diocese is an important aspect of his visit.
It gives equal importance to the smaller Armenian communities who are
now excitedly preparing for his arrival.
Following the traditional bread, water, and salt service of
greeting, the Pontifical motorcade made its way to Manhattan.
On Wednesday evening, the Vehapar was the special guest of the Fund
for Armenian Relief (FAR) Board of Directors during a special dinner
cruise around Manhattan Island. Guests included Diocesan Council
members and friends of FAR.
On Thursday, October 4, the Catholicos made a special visit to the
Diocese of the Armenian Church headquarters in Manhattan, where he met
and spoke with the employees, later lunching with them.
Later in the day he attended a photo exhibit at the United Nations
headquarters titled "The Russian Orthodox Church and Interreligious
Dialogue: The Spiritual Revival of Russia," hosted by Russia's mission
to the United Nations.
The Pontifical party includes Archbishop Khajag Barsamian; Primate
of the Western Diocese Archbishop Hovnan Derderian; Diocesan Legate
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian; Primate of Canada Bishop Bagrat
Galstanyan; Primate of the Russian and New Nakhichevan Diocese Bishop
Yezras Nersissyan; Etchmiadzin Chancellor Bishop Arshak Khachatryan;
Etchmiadzin's Foreign Press Secretary Fr. Ktrij Devejian; the
Catholicos's staff-bearer Fr. Hovnan Hakobyan; among others.
***************************************** **********************************
2. Armenian Genocide resolution set for October 10 committee vote
* Full House expected to act by Thanksgiving
by Emil Sanamyan
WASHINGTON - The House Foreign Affairs Committee will consider and
vote on the Armenian Genocide resolution on October 10. A senior
Democratic leader predicted a vote by the full House of
Representatives vote by the end of November.
House Resolution 106 affirms the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide.
It was first introduced in January by Reps. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.),
Frank Pallone, Jr. (D.-N.J.), Brad Sherman (D.-Calif.), George
Radanovich (R.-Calif.), Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) and Thaddeus
McCotter (R.-Mich.). It has the backing of 226 of the 435 members of
the House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer (D.-Md.) have been longtime supporters of affirmation, and have
pledged to bring the measure to a vote. But there has been stiff
opposition to its consideration from Turkey and its Washington
lobbies.
The administration has cited the importance of Turkey to U.S.
interests as a justification for its opposition to congressional
action. Turkey refuses to acknowledge the genocide and has for decades
pressured the international community to refrain from considering the
issue.
Nevertheless, about 20 countries, from Canada to France to Lithuania
have resisted Turkish pressure and formally affirmed the Genocide. The
international affirmation campaign has led to greater awareness of the
genocide and a more open debate on the issue in Turkey.
According to recent polls by the International Republican Institute,
close to 10 percent of Turks now say there was genocide and further 14
to 17 percent acknowledge "mistreatment" of Armenians.
In September 2005, a similar resolution was passed by the House
International Affairs Committee by a vote of 40-7, but the Republican
leadership at the time acquiesced to the administration's position and
did not bring the resolution to a vote in the full House.
This time around the likely committee passage on October 10 is
expected to be followed by a prompt House vote. Congressional aides
told the Associated Press on October 3 that "the committee would not
have taken up the resolution without [Speaker] Pelosi's support." And
Majority Leader Hoyer predicted the resolution will pass the House
before Thanksgiving, the Los Angeles Times reported on October 3.
********************************************** *****************************
3. For the visiting Catholicos, it's meeting the people that counts
by Arpie Nakashian
NEW YORK - The most far-reaching pontifical visit by a Catholicos of
All Armenians to the United States began this week with an intimate
crowd of about 100 Armenian school children and local parishioners
assembled at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport on October 3 to welcome
their pontiff.
And that's just what His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All
Armenians, came for. This 31-day pontifical journey to 18 Eastern
Diocese communities is a first because it specifically targets areas
with smaller pockets of Armenian-Americans, most of which were off the
beaten path of previous visits by catholicoi.
On the itinerary along with major cities that are regular stop for
previous pontifical visits - Chicago, Detroit, New York, Boston and
Washington - are communities that have a rare chance to host an
Armenian pontiff: Charlotte, N.C.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; New Orleans
and Baton Rouge, La.; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio;
Racine, Wis.; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.; and Elberon in central
New Jersey.
"We have never had a pontifical visit that reached every region of
the Eastern Diocese," said Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the
Eastern Diocese.
The importance of the visit, which marks the pinnacle of the
Diocese's Year of Church and Home - One in Spirit, lies in the
connection it offers the Armenian people to their faith and its
origins.
While diplomatic and ecumenical functions are included in the
itinerary, they are not the major objectives in this trip.
"His Holiness is meeting his flock to bring faith home to them,
especially to some of our more remote parishes," the Primate said.
"St. Gregory established the first Christian cathedral - Holy
Etchmiadzin. Vehapar is making this journey from Holy Etchmiadzin to
strengthen parishioners' connection to their spiritual roots," he
added.
Previous pontifical visits to the U.S. by Karekin II, and by his
predecessors Karekin I and Vasken I, centered on large congregations
in major cities. They were marked by major ceremonial events, like the
unforgettable celebration in 2001 of an outdoor Divine Liturgy by
Karekin II before thousands of Armenian faithful in New York's Central
Park. The itinerary this time speaks to the difference between that
2001 visit to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of Armenia's conversion
to Christianity and this one aimed at reaching out and getting to know
his people.
"What surprised me most about His Holiness is that he was very clear
that he wants to hear from Armenians," said Michael O'Hurley-Pitts,
the Diocese's director of Stewardship, Development and Communications.
Describing Karekin II as a prime example of a servant leader,
O'Hurley-Pitts added that since the catholicos' election in 1995, he
has made it known that he wants to help all Armenians. "The Armenian
pontiff is truly concerned about Armenians living in the diaspora; he
wants to know about their pains, their joys, their hopes and their
needs," he said.
The power of this visit lies with the Primate and the Armenian
people who have come together to plan itineraries that are engaging
and informative, according to O'Hurley-Pitts. "It's designed to help
him understand us, and for us to understand him."
* Laying the groundwork
Planning for the visit started over a year ago when the Diocese began
assembling the army of 350 local, regional, and national committee
members who made the trip a reality.
Early in the planning stages, organizers dispensed with commercial
airlines as an option. With tightened airport security that requires
travelers to arrive two hours before flight time, traveling on
commercial flights would have forced Karekin II to spend hours going
through security and waiting in airport terminals, rather than with
the flock he yearns to get to know. And members of that flock rallied
to provide the solution.
"In a landscape that is robust with fundraising for churches,
schools, arts, and Armenia, the Armenian people have come together and
given enough so that the Diocesan resources will not be diminished,"
O'Hurley-Pitts said. "We have been a good steward of the resources the
people have given us to efficiently usher him around by private plane
and transportation," he added.
The diplomatic protection service and the U.S. State Department
evaluated the itinerary and participants and said they had no security
concerns. And the Diocese was pleased with the cooperation by local
law enforcement agencies, which are providing motorcades to speed the
pontiff's trip.
* Diverse destinations
The catholicos' itinerary gives him a broad view of the
Armenian-American landscape while offering opportunities for
interaction with the greatest number of Armenians ever during a
pontifical visit. Along with some dinners and special programs and
presentations that dot the journey, most of the Armenian pontiff's
stops are designed to offer as much personal interaction with his
flock as possible. Plans include youth programs, a church consecration
in St. Petersburg, a visit to the U.S. Capitol and the United Nations,
an Armenian cemetery blessing in Baton Rouge, the blessing of a
baptistery in Minneapolis, and a gala banquet in New York.
But to offer the most opportunity for Karekin II to meet his
faithful, most parishes are hosting a reception following a
traditional hrashapar service to welcome the catholicos.
"Our people will remember this as a touchstone," said Fr. Yeprem
Kelegian, pastor of St. Mesrob Church in Racine. He remembers the
impression it made the first (and last) time a catholicos visited the
Wisconsin community: when Vasken I came to the parish in 1960. For
Karekin II's visit on October 23, the St. Mesrob parish is expecting
400 people, including those from the surrounding Armenian parishes in
Greenfield and South Milwaukee, Wis., to greet their pontiff at a
reception.
In sharp contrast to the predominantly American-born Wisconsin
Armenian community with roots that go back three and four generations,
the St. Sarkis Church community in Charlotte was established just nine
years ago. The church was consecrated in 2005 and parishioners are
predominantly immigrants from Azerbaijan, Baku, Yerevan, and Beirut,
and American-born Armenians who came from more metropolitan areas,
said Diane Gulkasian Tudor, regional chair for the Charlotte leg of
the Armenian pontiff's visit. The community has planned a program of
recitations and performances by children and adults, and a youth
engagement program that features bible stories and a homegrown game of
"Jeopardy" made up of all religious categories.
The stopover in Louisiana, where the 65 Armenian families throughout
the state have one church in the state capital of Baton Rouge to call
their own, is bringing Armenians together, said Vasken Kaltakjian,
regional and parish council chair for the city's St. Garabed Church.
"Vehapar's visit is going to renew our connection to our faith. Our
faith is what kept us going for thousands of years," Kaltakjian said.
After welcoming Karekin II together with ecumenical leaders in Baton
Route, the St. Garabed community will participate as the catholicos
blesses the Armenian cemetery located behind the church.
* Building connections
In several regions, the catholicos will visit Habitat for Humanity
building sites. One such stop will be in New Orleans, where the
catholicos will tour Habitat building sites for victims of Hurricane
Katrina. The organization that builds homes for the disadvantaged
worldwide is especially dear to the pontiff, who in 2006, together
with Habitat for Humanity, established the "His Holiness Karekin II
Building Project" in Armenia. Several Armenian-American communities
participate by sending work crews each year to Armenia and to local
American communities to build housing for the needy.
At Houston's St. Kevork Church anticipation ranks high among the
immigrants that make up 80 percent of the congregation, but especially
for the statewide "Texahye" group of college-aged youth and young
professionals.
"The children and young adults truly believe [Karekin II] ranks
among the world leaders," said David Onanian, regional chair in
Houston. Onanian said the Texahye group was looking forward to
learning from their pontiff what life is for their counterparts in
Armenia, and engaging him in orchestrating a program for Armenian
youth to communicate with their fellow Armenians in America.
"For me personally this has been a great experience, to see everyone
working and pulling together, to make this a memorable event," said
Chacke Yeterian Scallen, co-chair of the leg of the trip in
Minneapolis' St. Sahag Church.
Members of the St. Stepanos Church community in Elberon, N.J., are
eagerly looking forward to Karekin II's historic visit to their parish
as a blessed event that will connect them more closely to their faith
and the Mother Church, said Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian, pastor of St.
Stepanos. "It is a very rare opportunity to receive Vehapar's blessing
at home in your own parish, an opportunity to strengthen your ties to
your faith" said Fr. Mamigon.
For those who can't meet Karekin II in person during this historic
trip, the Diocese announced last week it has broadened its outreach
during this pontifical visit by providing web-casting of the trip,
thanks to a generous gift from the United Armenian Charities.
Beginning with footage from Friday, October 5, regular video
programming can be seen daily on the official Pontifical Visit
website, www.pontificalvisit.org. The full itinerary and detailed
information are also posted on the site.
******************************************* ********************************
4. A crowded Saint Vartan Cathedral welcomes the Catholicos
by Florence Avakian
NEW YORK - To the majestic strains of the soul-stirring hrashapar
hymn, the impressive Pontifical procession entered a Saint Vartan
Armenian Cathedral filled to capacity with parishioners from around
the Eastern Diocese. As Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II entered
the sanctuary - following more than 50 Armenian and ecumenical
clerical leaders and priests - children from several Armenian dance
groups strew rose petals before him.
The Vehapar stopped several times during the procession to bless the
faithful. Officially invited by the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian
Church and its Primate, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, the Catholicos is
on a month-long visit to some 16 parishes of the Diocese.
Voicing the theme of the visit, "Church and Home," the Primate, in
his warm welcome to the "shepherd of our people," related that his
visit is "a sign of Vehapar's love, concern, and sense of
responsibility. He is energetic in extending his care to all his
flock, and he is here to listen to the many voices of our people."
The Primate noted that in the seven years since ascending to the
Throne of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Catholicos Karekin II "has
brought wisdom, energy, and the youth to his cause."
"Our dedication to God is not a garment we put on once a week, but a
permanent symbol of our faith," Abp. Barsamian said.
Abp. Barsmian also drew from the writings of Catholicos Mkrtich
Khrimian, who died 100 years ago. He quoted Khrimian Hayrig's poetic
words: "If a people progresses, it takes its first step from the
family."
Abp. Barsamian concluded by expressing "our affection and
solidarity" to Catholicos Karekin II.
* Miracle of the Armenian faith
As the Catholicos, dressed in a magnificent gold and red velvet robe
and veghar (or monastic cowl) rose to speak, the faithful sprang to
their feet. "I have brought greetings from Etchmiadzin to you. In this
new era of history, decades after the Genocide, you have made a good
and distinguished life in the United States," he stated.
"When Catholicos of All Armenians Vasken I blessed this cathedral,
he called it the miracle of the Armenian faith. Your selfless
sacrifices for your families, the Armenian Church and schools are the
living testimony to this," he declared with emphasis. "You became
successful in all fields while remaining true to the Church. You kept
an admirable image of the Armenian people in this country."
Continuing his eloquent address, the Vehapar reiterated, "Today,
with the same love, you are continuing the legacy of your parents and
grandparents with the rich culture and history of our Armenian people.
You have kept the faith throughout the centuries of trials and
tribulations. And now, with a free Armenia and a liberated Artsakh,
you are keeping the same faith and journeying to a new era. May Christ
comfort your hearts, and may the love of our Lord always be with you."
The Vehapar closed his remarks by extending a warm welcome to the
ecumenical church leaders, and especially to Archbishop Oshagan
Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy, who was representing the
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I. Attending were
representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, Greek Archdiocese, the
Orthodox Church of America, the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church, the
Syrian Orthodox Church, the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese,
and the Coptic Church, among others.
The procession slowly made its way out to the beautiful strains of
the Pontifical hymn, sung by a combined choir from different parishes,
under the direction of St. Vartan Cathdral choirmaster Khoren
Mekanejian. Accompanying on the organ was Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian.
Following the inspiring hrashapar service, a reception for the
public was held in Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium. Catholicos
Karekin II, looking as energetic as ever, blessed the lavishly set
table, then with obvious enthusiasm personally greeted the hundreds of
the faithful who crowded around him to receive his blessing.
*************************************** ************************************
5. Lawyers for Hrant Dink's family say evidence is being withheld as
the trial of his accused murderers continues
by Talin Suciyan
ISTANBUL - Two days before the second hearing, on October 1, in the
trial of 13 suspects in the January 2007 murder of the prominent
Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink, records of a phone call between a
police officer and an accused conspirator in the murder were published
in the Turkish media.
The police officer, identified as M.Z. [Muhittin Zenit -Ed.],
clearly states that he knew how the murder was to have been committed
and what the shooter was to have done after killing Mr. Dink, who was
the editor of the weekly Agos. The murderer "was not going to run.
This one did," the officer said. M.Z. is known to have received a
promotion since the murder.
What follows is the transcript of the phone call, as published in
English translation in the Turkish Daily News.
Erhan Tuncel: There was this boy, Zeynel [Zeynel Abidin Yavuz - the
accused under arrest].... Then came another.... I don't think so ...
because if it is what he said.... This is what I know, I mean what I
can share.... What I mean is, this is how he was going to be shot, the
way to shoot him. If so, then they are connected, but I don't think
so....
M.Z.: What my son, they squeezed it right against his head....
E. T.: He died?
M.Z.: Of course, the only difference is he wasn't going to run but
this one did.
E. T.: But was he caught?
M.Z.: No way.
E.T.: Hmmm.... I don't think it's them, abi [elder brother].
M.Z.: I am not sure.
E. T.: It's not that it.... I mean, we would die for the state, you
know.... We'll share it.... I mean I don't think so....
M.Z.: Brother, that and what we're talking about now. They are
different I mean.
E. T.: What we talked was different all right, but it was everybody's target.
M.Z.: I know that. Now you are being vague with me. F - it, if he
croaked, he croaked. I don't question who killed him. If you doubt my
sincerity in this, that's different.
E. T.: No abi, of course not. If it has to do with us, I'll look and
see. I mean I will bring it to you, too, suitably.
M.Z.: Look man, why bring it? What is the use of bringing it?
E. T.: If it has to do with us.... I was talking on the Internet.
They called me. I stayed on the Internet for three hours, you see? It
is the exams, the finals I mean....
M.Z.: Oh.... Well, all right brother. I wanted to share. To see
what's what....
E. T.: OK abi, God bless you.... It is healthier to go with what you think....
M.Z.: No, no, it's because you sounded.... That's what demoralized
me, partner....
E. T.:.... I haven't talked to your people for a while now. There
was some bitterness. They've called me just now....
M.Z.: All right, OK, we just wanted to evaluate it. Well done, whoever did it.
E. T.: I don't think it has anything to do with us. But well done to
whoever did it.... OK abi, see you.
M.Z.: See you.
After this transcript was published in the newspapers, and sound
bites were heard on radio and television, an investigation was
launched against the outlets that published the transcript, but no
investigation was initiated against police officer M.Z.
Under the shadow of this phone call, the second hearing was held on
Monday in Istanbul. The hearing lasted for 12 hours. Because the
suspected murderer, O.S. [Ogun Samast -Ed.], is only 17, the hearing
was closed.
* Love it or ...
The phone call was not the only news casting a shadow on the trial.
One of the prison buses transporting suspects had a sticker on the
front that read, "Love it or leave it." This is a slogan associated
with ultranationalists. Police put a white band on the sticker to hide
it, leaving only the Turkish flag visible. An investigation has been
initiated against those who put the "Love it or leave it" sticker on
the bus.
To add to the embarrassment, one of the gendarmes guarding O.S. made
an obscene gesture to photojournalists who were taking pictures of the
sticker.
Some 500 demonstrators held vigil outside the court. They held
placards that read, "We all are witnesses. We all want justice" and
"We are all Hrants. We are all Armenians."
In addition to the prosecutors and defense attorneys, another 90
lawyers were at the court house ready to intervene as friends of the
court.
The court has not accepted the request of International Journalists
Without Borders (RSF), International Federation of Human Rights
(FIDH), and Human Rights Association (Turkey) to be heard.
According to news items that appeared in the daily Radikal, O.S.
stated that he committed the murder under the pressure of Yasin Hayal.
Mr. Hayal is among the suspects on trial. He has served time in jail
for the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004.
Radikal reports that Mr. Tuncel's housemate, Tuncay Uzundal, who is
also among those on trial, reportedly said "There are dark powers
behind the murder, but I do not know whether it is the national secret
service (MIT) or the gendarmerie or the police." When Mr. Uzundal
reportedly uttered these words, his lawyer reportedly signaled to him
to discontinue his statement. (Because the hearing was closed, the
Turkish media use terms like "reportedly" to give an account of the
proceedings.)
* Political will
Mr. Tuncel, the suspect whose phone conversation with a police officer
made headlines, was known as a police informer. The Istanbul
prosecutor had requested his file from the General Directorate of
Security as early as January 29. The file was prepared and given to
the prosecutor on February 6 on the precondition that the file could
only be read and then destroyed. It was understood that the original
would be available if needed.
During the first hearing in the trial, in July, Mr. Tuncel's file
and his phone call details were requested by lawyers for the Dink
family. Their request was denied. Dink family attorney Erdal Dogan
said that this was a "judicial scandal."
Fethiye Çetin, another of the lawyers for the Dink family, told
Radikal that evidence is not being given to the attorneys. "Lots of
evidence has been lost," she said. "One of the very important pieces
of evidence are the camera records of Akbank," which is near the
murder site. "The tapes have been given to Istanbul Police Station.
The attorney asked for the tapes, but they could not be found," she
said.
She added, "According to the statements of some of the witnesses,
O.S. talked on the phone on the way to Samsun," where he was arrested
soon after Mr. Dink's murder. "But there was no cell phone and no SIM
card found on him."
Ms. Çetin also said that the government had made a remarkable effort
to arrest the confessed murderer and people closely linked to him. But
the government has not gone beyond that immediate circle. "This case
can be illuminated only if political power wants it to be," she added.
There will be a commission formed in the Turkish parliament to
investigate the Dink murder. The members of the commission will work
in Istanbul and Trabzon and prepare a report of their findings.
*************************************** ************************************
6. "We are inching toward resolution" of the Karabakh conflict,
Foreign Minister Oskanian tells the UN General Assembly
* "No one should tell us that there is a quota on liberty and security"
by Florence Avakian
NEW YORK - Armenia's foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian, addressed the
62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday
morning, October 3. In a wide-ranging speech,
During his 15-minute address, Mr. Oskanian tackled several world
issues including climate change, the war in Iraq, disarmament, arms
control, and the dramatic increase in oil prices. Energy security for
Armenia "is more than a matter of global arithmetic; it's a matter of
life and death," he stated with emphasis.
Mr. Oskanian called on the global big powers "to put aside their own
short-term conflicts, and recognize that their power and influence
does not make them immune to the range of problems that afflict us."
Instead, he stressed, this power and influence should be used for the
good of all humanity.
* Not a frozen conflict
Shifting his focus to regional issues, Mr. Oskanian noted that the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was included on the agenda of the current
General Assembly session "under the topic of protracted conflicts."
"Any resolution that places all conflicts in one pot is necessarily
flawed," he said. "Each of these conflicts is different. The
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict doesn't belong there. This issue should not
be discussed at the UN, because it is being negotiated in the OSCE."
Moreover, Mr. Oskanian said, "The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not
frozen. We continue to negotiate and we are inching toward resolution.
There is a well-developed negotiating document on the table, based not
on wishful thinking, but on the core issue and the consequential
issues. At the core of the process lies the issue of the right of the
people of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine their own future."
Emphasizing every word, he continued: "Indeed, the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh don't want anything that is not theirs. They want a
right to live in peace and security, and to determine their own
future. They want to exercise the right that every people here has
exercised at some point in their history.
Turning to the likely international recognition of Kosovo's
independence, Mr. Oskanian said, "We hear the international community
loud and clear that Kosovo cannot be a precedent for other conflicts.
While we have no intention to use Kosovo as a precedent for our
conflict, since that would contradict our own position that all
conflicts are different. But at the same time, we won't understand or
accept the reverse logic - that if Kosovo is given independence, no
other people can achieve self-determination. No one should tell us
that there is a quota on liberty and security."
During his speech, Mr. Oskanian also listed the accomplishments of
Armenia in the last 16 years. He included "an open, diversified
economy, high growth, strong financial systems, improved elections,
stronger public institutions, and a population increasingly aware of
its rights." He noted that still much needs to be accomplished in
correcting "uneven growth, rural poverty, and low wages," and to
"further empower people and deepen the exercise of democracy."
* Prevent genocide
Referring to the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Mr. Oskanian emphasized:
"Genocide must be prevented, not commemorated. Generation after
generation, we find new names for the places of horror, slaughter,
massacre, indiscriminate killing of all those who have belonged to a
segment, a category, an ethnic group, a race, or a religion. Nearly
100 years ago, for Armenians it was Deir-El-Zor. For the next
generation, it was Auschwitz, then the killing field of the
Cambodians. And most recently, Rwanda."
Mr. Oskanian continued: "If in each of those cases, together with
genocide, these names evoked ignorance, helplessness, wartime cover,
today Darfur is synonymous with expediency, evasion and simple
inconvenience. Darfur is synonymous with shame."
On Thursday, October 4, the Foreign Minister was one of many
speakers addressing the General Assembly in its first-ever high-level
dialogue on interreligious and intercultural understanding.
Representatives making statements urged a sustained international
effort to address the issue through exchanges of information by using
public campaigns as well as the media.
During his three-day stay in New York, the Armenian Foreign Minister
also had face-to-face meetings with the foreign ministers of Iran,
Turkey, and Costa Rica, as well as discussions with the cochairs of
the OSCE Minsk Group. (No details on these meetings were forthcoming
by press time.)
* A question of time?
Also addressing the General Assembly was Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister
Elmar Mamedyarov, who in a bellicose manner said that Armenia is
occupying a sizeable part of Azerbaijan, and that there are "one
million refugees and internally displaced people who were ethnically
cleansed and brutally expelled from their homes of origin in Armenia
and the occupied territories of Azerbaijan."
The one million figure is recognized internationally as including
both Armenian and Azerbaijani refugees.
Calling once again for "restoration of the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," he painted a bleak picture of
the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts since 1992, and accused the current
Armenian leadership of "consolidating the occupation, destroying
everything associated with the Azeri legacy and carrying out illegal
activities."
Mr. Mamedyarov did not offer evidence of the destruction of an
Azerbaijani legacy in Karabakh. Azerbaijan has, however, destroyed
Armenian cemeteries and other Armenian monuments in its territory.
He predicted that the policy of "consolidating the occupation" would
have a "very dangerous, counterproductive and disastrous implication
for the long-term development of Armenia," and in what may have been a
lightly veiled threat of military aggression, he said that Azerbaijan
"will restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is only
a question of time."
More than 80 heads of state and foreign ministers addressed the
world body in its annual ritual, which this year was held between
September 25 and October 3. During the period, Manhattan was in almost
total lockdown, with dozens of streets closed to vehicular traffic so
that the well-guarded dignitaries could be ferried throughout the
city.
*************************************** ************************************
7. A "not guilty" verdict may strip a judge of his office
by Armen Hakobyan
YEREVAN - Armenia's Council of Justice on September 26 held an
unprecedented open-door disciplinary hearing on a sitting judge,
Pargev Ohanian of the Court of First Instance of the Yerevan Center
and Nork-Marash communities. The hearing was open at the defendant's
request.
A verdict is expected on October 12.
Judge Ohanian in July had acquitted the leaders of Royal Armenia
coffee importers of charges of customs fraud. The case had pitted
Armenia's State Customs Service against businesspeople who had
complained of corruption in the service. The owner and the manager of
the company spent nearly two years in pretrial detention before they
were found not guilty by Judge Ohanian. Acquittals are extremely rare
in Armenia's criminal justice system.
The judge is being tried for his conduct in unrelated cases.
However, because disciplinary hearings against judges are rare and
because this hearing is being held so soon after the Royal Armenia
verdict, there is widespread speculation that the verdict led to the
move to try the judge.
In an interview with the Armenian Reporter, Judge Ohanian said, "The
fact that the accusations leading to the hearing are so insignificant
makes me too, it seems, come to the thought that the hearing may be a
result of a judgment that was not as many people wanted it to be."
The September 26 hearing was held in the presence of journalists, a
group of lawyers including members of parliament Zaruhi Postanjian
Larisa Alaverdian. Ms. Alaverdian is Armenia's former human rights
ombudsperson. Except for members of the Council of Justice, no judges
were present at the trial of their colleague.
Cassation Court president Hovhannes Manukian, who presided over the
session, stated at the outset of the disciplinary hearing that the
matter will be decided by the Council of Justice, which will as a
court.
Judge Ohanian's defense attorney is Hayk Alumian, a well-known
member of the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia.
The Council of Justice at present has eleven members. Two members to
be elected by the National Assembly have not yet been chosen.
* Charges
Members of the Council's disciplinary commission Arshak Khachatrian
and Armen Toumanian presented the charges against Judge Ohanian. The
commission had reviewed 16 criminal and four civil cases that had been
presided over by Judge Ohanian. The commission charged that during the
examination of those cases and also in their verdicts, Judge Ohanian
had "flagrantly and obviously" violated the law.
According to the disciplinary commission's charges, in some cases
Judge Ohanian had set heavier and in some cases lighter punishments
than foreseen by law. The commission further charged that the judge
had delayed the process of one of the trials.
The charges cast doubt on legally binding verdicts that had not been
appealed to higher courts. They were based on a study completed by
staff of the Judiciary Department. In their study, staff members
stated what verdict they believed the judge should have handed down.
Defense attorney Alumian and Judge Ohanian himself responded to the
charges first by contesting the authority of Judiciary Department
staff to dispute verdicts that have been handed down by a judge. They
said that in substituting their judgment for the judge's, the
department staff was in violation of the constitution and other laws.
In his speech to the council, Mr. Alumian noted that under a
February 28 decision of the Council of Court Presidents, the Judiciary
Department was authorized to review cases heard in the Court of First
Instance of the Yerevan Center and Nork-Marash communities, but the
review was to start on March 27 and end by April 19.
"Judiciary Department employees indeed carried out examinations in
the specified time period. But in that case the question remains as to
how hearings that Judge Ohanian presided over in the months of May,
June, and July were also examined and presented as evidence." Eight of
the observed cases were heard in those months.
Mr. Alumyan continued by saying, "This obvious discrepancy has a
very simple explanation. Starting March 27 to April 19, 2007, the
Judiciary Department did conduct 'examinations.' ... During those
'examinations' no violations had been discovered in cases presided
over by Judge Ohanian, and a disciplinary proceeding was not filed.
Thereafter, Judge Ohanian, as is well known, dared to pass a 'not
guilty' verdict in the so-called Royal Armenia criminal case.
"Immediately after this, Judiciary Department employees, without any
legal basis and in violation of the specified time and format of the
Council of Court Presidents' abovementioned decision, started once
again 'examining and summarizing' the cases presided over by Judge
Ohanian and this time they discovered violations in twenty of them."
The judge's attorney also said that some charges relate to cases
heard over a year ago, in violation of the law.
The law, he said, allows a review of cases heard only in the last
year during which the judge has presided. Also, it is not clear just
when the Judiciary Department staff reviewed the cases heard by Judge
Ohanian. Mr. Alumian requested that department employees be called as
witnesses and be questioned, but the Council of Justice refused his
request saying that the matter required further investigation.
In Judge Ohanian's final statement, he said that he is a judge and
not a politician. Nor is he in opposition to the government, he said,
adding that he has simply fulfilled his role in making sure justice
was served.
The Council of Justice may decide to ask the president to remove the
judge from office. If it does so, Mr. Alumian said, the judge may
appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.
***************************************** **********************************
8. Getting around Armenia by public transportation one does not feel lonely
Essay by Elyssa Karanian
YEREVAN - The first time I heard the word marshrutga, I instantly
pictured an amusement park ride: "The Rotor," "Matterhorn,"
"Marshrutga." In reality, I suppose, I was not so far off. "Step right
up!! Only 100 dram for the ride of your life! Your choice of the 20,
12, 22, 26... A little wary? Scared of zipping over potholes at an
alarming rate? Ride the 28! Slowest shrut of them all. You'll never
get where you're going on that one! All others, taking you all the way
to Komitas and back. Step right up! (Watch your head!)"
When I first got to Armenia, I missed the security of seatbelts. I
soon realized, though, when you're packed like sardines in a tin can
(I am not exaggerating), you really can't get hurt because there's
nowhere to fall.
The marshrutgas to the villages where I taught are like endless,
sweaty, bouncing games of Twister at a crazy party where people play
holding purses, children and buckets of varunks - cucumbers. Dinner
invitations fly toward me, as do people, as the bus lurches forward
and hands reach out to grab for the nearest shoulder, knee, head, or
other available body part they can find.
At times when I feel cramped or in need of oxygen, I contort my neck
and try to raise my head to catch a hint of breeze or air movement of
any kind. Most of the time, I'm met with the hot exhalation of an
adjacent passenger. I've learned to take what I can get. Even at 100
degrees and counting, somehow the people on these transports are
perfectly happy to keep every window closed. Just this afternoon, I
asked the woman in front of me (in a breathless, raspy hot voice to
convey the level of my discomfort) if she wouldn't mind opening the
window a bit: she nodded and I got three-quarters of an inch.
Three-quarters of an inch is a lot though, especially in terms of
space. For example, just when you think there is no possible way
another soul can fit into the place, the driver stops (my heart sinks)
and three more people get on (my legs cramp) to fill the
one-and-a-half remaining empty laps. (I breathe as many breaths as I
can before the door closes again.) The maze of people is so thick, in
fact, that I can't tell whose breast my head is resting on, whose
child I have in my lap, or whose bag is slung around my arm or
dangling from my pinky finger (in the case of extra-crowded days when
my arm is being used as a seat-belt).
For the first month or so, I found this mode of transportation
devastatingly uncomfortable and the fact that I was forced to use it
for hours at a time, daily, was like the one, cruel reality of life
you want never to face. I found that my body would actually tense up
and begin to ache at the mere mention of the word marshrutga.
As I'm getting into my fourth month here, things are starting to
feel different to me. Some events have occurred, besides the everyday
wonderful amusements and amazements, that have been bringing things
into perspective for me. The other day, for example, an old dadik was
sitting next to me and telling a story to all the passengers on the
shrut (except me, really) and was using my leg to emphasize all her
most important points: smacking and whacking and stroking all in
harmony with the emotion of the story she was telling, that I might
have understood but couldn't quite because of the toothless barbar -
patois - she was using.
Just the other day, my friend Noushig and I were sitting on the
Meghrashen shrut waiting to leave when some of the vendors came up to
the door to (block our air supply and) peddle some random stuff
(termite repellent, socks, plastic bags, rulers, and tape) and one man
kept trying to push this prissy fan on the old, villager woman across
from us. "What do you want me to do with that" she asked, "sit
underneath the cow and fan myself?" An argument broke out and she
began to cry silently. As I watched her wipe her eyes with the old
sock that was her handkerchief I realized how lucky I am to have these
awful bus rides in my life. I ride with the heart and soul of this
country every day.
It's really easy to feel alone in America. In Philadelphia sometimes
it seems like the more people I have around me the lonelier I feel;
the masses just leave me isolated and wanting. It's so different here.
I mean, it's hard to feel isolated at the end of the day when you have
17 different people's sweat on you.
But as I step down at the end of my ride (whack my head) and inhale
my first breath of fresh air, like a baby from the womb - raw and
impressionable - I realize how sincere it all is and how genuinely
amazing it is that I actually like it. I can walk onto these
marshrutgas and be known by 20 people and instantly feel loved. Every
one needs a little some of that in their life. Every day here I can
feel like I'm a part of something, no matter how small or how sweaty.
***************************************** **********************************
9. From Armenia, in brief
* Levon Ter-Petrossian meets with ARF leadership
Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian, who is considering running for
president again, met with Hrant Margarian, representative of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Bureau, and Armen Rustamian,
representative of the ARF Supreme Body in Armenia. The meeting took
place on Saturday, September 29, at the ARF Simon Vratsian center in
Yerevan.
According to the press office of the ARF Supreme Body in Armenia,
the meeting was initiated by Mr. Ter-Petrossian, who was accompanied
by former foreign minister Alexander Arzoumanian. The sides spoke
about the upcoming presidential elections and the current political
situation of the country and "emphasized [the] necessity for political
and ideological dialogue at this stage."
On December 28, 1994, Mr. Ter-Petrossian had banned the ARF. Many of
its members, including Mr. Margarian and Mr. Rustamyan, were arrested.
The party's newspapers were also shut down. The ban on the party's
activity was repealed immediately after the resignation of Levon
Ter-Petrossian.
* ArmenTel loses its monopoly in the telecommunications sector in Armenia
According to a decision by the Public Services Commission (PSC) of the
Republic of Armenia, ArmenTel (a subsidiary of VympelCom) has lost its
monopoly in the telecommunications sector in Armenia.
The commission took the decision to make relevant changes to the
ArmenTel's license on August 24, 2007. The decision took effect on
October 1. This decision means that the telecommunications market in
Armenia is now completely liberalized. The monopoly was given to
ArmenTel at the end of 1997 to be in effect until 2013. The monopoly
included providing services for local, intercity, and international
telecommunication and telephone services, services for leasing of
telephone lines, international transit and satellite services, public
mobile communication, voice data transfer via Internet (IP-telephony),
and video transmission services (broadband).
Oleg Blizniuk, the director general of ArmenTel told reporters that
the company voluntarily withdraws from the monopoly, welcoming healthy
competition. He stressed that it was just as important that the market
not only becomes liberalized but also civilized.
The PSC announced that according to the agreement between ArmenTel
and the government of Armenia, a new third cell operator may appear on
the Armenian market as early as January 1, 2009.
* Chair of the European Court of Human Rights in Armenia
The chair of the European Court of Human Rights, Jan Paul Costa, was
in Armenia to participate in the 12th conference on constitutional
justice, which was held from October 5 to 6. The conference was
conducted by the Armenian Constitutional Court, Armenian Human Rights
Defender, "Democracy through Right" European Commission, and
"Conference of Constitutional Oversight of Young Democratic
Countries."
The president of the European Court underscored the importance of
this conference and said: "Armenia is a country which seeks to improve
its judicial system and has initiated judicial reforms."
* High success rate claimed for heart surgery in Armenia
According to the director general of Nork Marash Hospital, Lidia
Muradian, the success rate of heart operations in Armenia is very
high. In an interview with Armenpress, Ms. Muradian said that the
mortality rate of heart surgery patients is 3.8 per 100 operations.
This ratio is lower than the rates in the U.S. and Europe. She said in
those regions the index is 4.5 percent. She also said that the number
of repeat operations in Armenia are likewise lower.
Since the 1990s some 9,000 heart operations have taken place in
Armenia. Armenian doctors perform all kinds of heart surgery with the
exception of heart translplants. Operations on newborn babies, some as
young as 2-3 days old have also successfully taken place.
* Yerevan-Sochi to become sister cities with a view to the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games
It is expected that in the coming months an agreement will be signed
in Sochi declaring Yerevan and Sochi as sister cities. The 2014 Winter
Olympic Games will be taking place in Sochi and according to the mayor
of Yerevan, Yervand Zakharian, the agreement will help establish
cooperation in construction, cultural, health and economic sectors.
The deputy mayor of Sochi, Irina Badalian, believes that there are
real grounds for cooperation between the two cities.
It is also anticipated that Armenia will participate in the
preparations for the Winter Games. According to Arminfo, Ms. Badalian
said that a preliminary agreement on bringing Armenian architects to
large-scale construction projects for the Olympics was reached between
the Armenian consul in Russia's South Federal district and the mayor
of Sochi.
During a recent meeting between the prime minister's of Armenia and
Russia, an agreement was reached on the delivery of building
materials, including polished natural stones and reinforced concrete
structures by Armenia for the construction of the Olympic buildings.
* Mass measles and rubella immunization campaign launched
On October 1, Armenian health authorities launched a mass measles and
rubella (MR) immunization campaign which will target 1.25 million
people 6-27 years of age in Armenia. According to Armenpress, despite
its routine measles-immunization efforts in recent decades, Armenia
remains in the list of countries susceptible to outbreaks of measles.
This campaign was initiated in close partnership with the Armenian
Children's Vaccine Fund's, UNICEF, the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich
Foundation, WHO, and the Ministry of Health.
Measles, a highly contagious disease strikes between 30 and 40
million children every year and results in some 9 million deaths
worldwide.
* Bill proposes penalties for selling certain goods to minors
Aghvan Vardanian, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs presented a
bill to lawmakers on October 4 proposing changes to the labor code.
The minister is looking to penalize shop owners for selling tobacco
products, alcoholic drinks, psychoactive drugs, and horror or erotic
films to children under the age of 18.
For first-time offenders the penalty would amount to 50 minimum-wage
monthly salaries. Involving someone under the age of 18 in the sale of
these products would cost double that amount.
* High Fest kicks off in Yerevan
The 5th High Fest international performing arts festival kicked off on
October 4 at the Stanislavski Russian theater in Yerevan.
This festival welcomes performing arts companies and artists to
present their productions in all genres of the performing arts
including theater (drama, comedy, mime, movement, circus, street
performances, puppet/marionette, fingers theater, visual), dance
(modern, folk, classic), music (opera, classical, contemporary, jazz,
folk) and other forms of performing arts.
Approximately 350 participants from 33 countries will perform at the
festival. To contribute to the development of cultural policy and arts
management in Armenia, workshops, round tables and discussion will
also be held.
The opening performance of the festival was by the Natalia Kasparova
Dance Company which presented "Songs of Gomidas" - a contemporary
dancing performance.
Arthur Ghukasian, the director of the festival, said that they had a
rigorous selection process and included mainly those which present an
Armenian theme. "We opened the festival with this performance as it
had an interesting idea. The well-known Russian theater chose the
songs of Gomidas and their performance is connected with the Armenian
culture and genocide," Mr. Ghukasian said.
According to Arminfo, the director of Barcelona-Taregaya festival
Mike Ribalta said he is happy to participate in the festival as he
considers it important to support the development of a young festival.
"It is also important for us to participate in other festivals, meet
different people, know what is going on in this sphere in other
countries," he said.
The festival will run until October 14.
********************************************* ******************************
10. WWF opens Yerevan office
* Focus on partnership with government, business
YEREVAN - The World Wildlife Fund launched its Yerevan office on
October 4. The international environmental organization has been
active in Armenia for six years, but operations were centered in a
regional office in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
At the opening ceremony, Georg Schwede, WWF International's director
for Europe and the Middle East, emphasized the fund's commitment to
working with government and business as well as environmental groups
to further its mission "to keep Armenia healthy and beautiful."
And, indeed, Armenia's minister of nature protection, Aram
Harutyunyan, was on hand to welcome "the joyous fact" of the opening
of the fund's Yerevan office. He pledged to "assist" the fund in its
efforts.
Recalling the plan to build a road through the Shikahogh forest
preserve in southern Armenia, Mr. Schwede said that government and
environmental groups were able to come up with a "very, very good
solution, balancing various interests. A good deal was struck to
reroute the highway through less fragile habitat."
On the matter of working with business, Mr. Schwede singled out the
Marriott Armenia, which placed literature about saving the Caucasian
leopard in its rooms for a month, and maintained a box for donations
in the lobby. The WWF is concerned with ecosystem biodiversity as well
as species biodiversity, Mr. Schwede said; but he prefers to focus on
species because an endangered species is a tangible, moving symbol of
the need for environmental action.
Karen Manvelyan, director of WWF Armenia, spoke about several
specific programs the fund is pursuing in Armenia, including protected
areas and campaigns to save the leopard as well as the Armenian
moufflon. He handed out prizes to several journalists for
environmental reporting.
- Vincent Lima
connect:
www.panda.org/armenia
************ ************************************************** *************
11. Profile: Alina Dorian is a professor of public health, mother, and
Armenia Fund Telethon host
* Community health expert teaches disaster response
* She wrote Karabakh's National Health Plan
by Maral Habeshian
WESTWOOD, Calif. - A few days before relinquishing his duties on
September 4, two-term Nagorno-Karabakh president Arkady Ghukassian
awarded Los Angeles resident Dr. Alina Dorian his republic's Medal of
Gratitude.
The news came as a surprise to Dr. Dorian, who teaches
post-disaster community health to graduate students at UCLA. "I was
shocked and humbled. It never crossed my mind," she says.
Dr. Dorian learned of the honor at six in the morning, when
Karabakh's minister of health, Dr. Zoya Lazarian, called to
congratulate her.
"I want to be the first to congratulate you; they just announced on
TV that you were awarded the medal by the president," Ms. Lazarian had
conveyed.
Dr. Dorian was understandably touched. The medal goes to those who
make a considerable impact on the social and economic development of
the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, and in the last group of medals he was
to award, the outgoing president believed Alina deserved that honor.
At UCLA, Dr. Dorian trains her students to act effectively
immediately after disaster hits in order to provide sanitation,
healthcare, food, psychosocial services, and help afflicted
communities become resilient. The key, she explains, is a return to
normalcy.
"We see how hard that is, having experienced Hurricane Katrina," she
says. But Alina's hands-on experience is more in picking up the pieces
after complex emergencies, such as a war. "In those types of
societies, change is slow. Refugees can remain refugees for extended
period of time," she explains.
* The Karabakh relationship
Alina went to Karabakh in 1996 to write Karabakh's first national
health plan. With much data destroyed during the war, and the break-up
of the Soviet Union, Karabakh had nothing to plan from.
"You have to have a road map to know where you need to go, and you
need certain information to guide you. But in postwar Karabakh,
everyone was feeling a different path. A woman in Hadrout had
different needs than a woman serving in the health ministry."
Alina had to begin from scratch if an effective national health plan
were to be developed. She decided to conduct a survey of a thousand
households.
Information gathered would break down the population between male
and female, and include fertility history, birth rates, death rates,
common diseases, what children were suffering from the time of birth
to five years of age, maternal mortality, smoking, and more.
"It included anything you can think of to represent a family,
including what kind of sanitation facilities, cooking and hand washing
rituals, anything and everything," she says.
That 1996 survey allowed Alina and her staff to come up with
baseline numbers and provide a snapshot with which health authorities
were able to monitor, evaluate, and understand the population.
Within a few months of the completion of the survey and the writing
of the national health plan, Alina and her staff vetted that plan
through many government health committees. That process took almost a
year.
"I wanted them to talk through these things because they had never
written a national health plan. We needed to build capacity.
Physicians had suddenly become ministers who had no background in
public health, health policy, and planning."
She took her findings and wrote a separate report in order to lobby
for aid through United States Agency for International Development
(USAID). It was the only health report at that time that talked about
the actual health needs for Karabakh and defined priorities.
* The mission
At one time Alina Dorian thought she would be a "medicine woman."
Studying botany as an undergraduate, she was intrigued by herbal
medicine and the ideal of utilizing the rain forest to help people.
"I went to Costa Rica and did that, then did the same research in
Ecuador. Then I realized I wanted to help people directly and interact
with them." She considered medicine, then settled on public health. In
2000, she received her Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in
international public health; her dissertation was an offshoot of the
work she had been doing in Karabakh.
Her thesis focused on the Karabakh republic's utilization of
healthcare services. She explains that using such services is usually
a choice, except in severe circumstances.
"I wanted to know what drove mothers to use health-care services.
When a child has stomach ailments, for example, what factors drive her
to either seek or reject medical attention?" In the case of preventive
healthcare, for example immunizations, she asked herself what would
influence a mother to take their child to get immunized?
"All this comes into play when you design a healthcare system
because you want people to use your system. What are the cultural
myths; which family members make the decisions? In some cultures, it
is the mother; however, in others it may be the male or even the
mother-in-law."
* That face?
If Dr. Alina Dorian's name sounds familiar, it's because she has
become a familiar face on the yearly Thanksgiving Day Armenia Fund
Telethon - albeit purely by accident.
In 2003, Alina was the project director of a polyclinic being built
in Karabakh by the Armenia Fund. She was asked to deliver two
one-minute segments about the polyclinic, beginning at 8 a.m. on that
year's Telethon broadcast.
She showed up to do her brief stint, but one of the co-hosts for the
Telethon never showed.
Alina was asked to "hang around and do things." Because the telethon
was raising money to provide assistance to Karabakh, she agreed. "So I
ended up talking about Karabakh on TV for several hours, which is what
I love to do, and being the bigmouth that I am, it was okay, I guess."
She and co-host Paul Chaderjian hit it off so well that they have
been dubbed the "dynamic duo" since then. The two will return this
year to host the annual Telethon on Thursday, November 22.
* Armenia Fund
In 1999, when approached by the Armenian Fund about healthcare
projects in Armenia, Alina proposed they build a polyclinic in
Stepanakert.
While the fund had targeted the establishment of a children's
hospital, Alina persuaded them to act differently.
"I said, being the organization that you are, and knowing that you
have the backing of the Armenian public, you need to take on a project
that couldn't be taken on by anyone else. Don't focus on children; we
can readily raise funds for a children's hospital. No one wants to
give to the adults; it's a big undertaking," she explains, and
clarifies that anyone aged 15 and above is considered an adult.
In Karabakh, polyclinics are the only source of outpatient care,
where patients go to see a doctor for any reason - whether
preventative or curative.
Karabakh's capital Stepanakert did have a polyclinic, but it
operated under horrendous conditions. According to Alina, the building
was mostly in ruins, had no running water and intermittent
electricity. "There was one bathtub filled with water that everybody
in the clinic would use: doctors, patients, housekeeping. Whenever
they needed water, they got it from that tub. So obviously, sanitation
and sterilization conditions were out the window."
The one existing restroom that had no flushing water serviced men,
women, children, doctors, nurses, patients, and even neighbors.
Equipment was rare, and there were no pharmaceuticals.
Because of Karabakh's political status as an unrecognized republic,
there was no funding or training assistance provided by the United
Nations, World Health Organization, or any of the major players that
usually come in to assist after a war.
Armenia Fund USA, however, did not shy away from the challenge of
building a state-of-the-art polyclinic in Karabakh. In 2000, all
parties involved decided to move forward with the plan.
Alina became project director to serve as a liaison between U.S.
experts and doctors in Karabakh, and she had final say on all
programming decisions.
She praises Kevork Toroyan, the chairperson of the Armenia Fund at
the time. "He was hugely instrumental and very involved. He's a
meticulous and bright man." Mr. Toroyan not only had extensive
experience in implementing Armenia Fund projects, but also had vast
knowledge and experience in implementing large-scale construction
projects.
She attributes the success of the project to Mr. Toroyan's
persistence and undying interest. And though the project took five
years to complete, the parties involved had agreed the process should
be lengthy and educational, "It took a while to do the planning,
because we wanted a large-scale learning process," Alina stresses.
Eventually, besides the polyclinic, a larger medical complex was
constructed to also house the National Diagnostic Center. This Center
provides ultrasound, x-ray, laboratory, and anything necessary to
provide outpatients as well as in-patients with diagnostic services.
* Out with the old
Soviet culture, however, had left deep-rooted practices that were
barriers to progress. Patients, for example, gathered in front of the
doctor's door, preventing normal doctor-patient discourse. "When the
physician inside would open the door, everyone would try to stomp in.
There is still some of this going on," Alina says.
The solution was to create waiting areas - a novel concept to Soviet
culture. This proved unsuccessful and they moved to a number system,
where patients would get a number and the number would be called.
"I went to the polyclinic unannounced this August, and there were
people actually sitting and waiting, and it was quiet. It was one of
the biggest accomplishments I have ever made, because it gives you
quality service for each individual patient. It was nice that people
were respecting each other's space and the doctor's space," Alina
proudly smiles.
The majority of the center's equipment is new, and personnel get
extensive training to ensure proper understanding and use. There is
also clinical training with physicians, primary care providers, and
specialists. Management training and quality assurance have been added
as new programs to assure quality diagnosis, treatment, and the
management of the facility.
The counseling of patients has also come into play whereas in the
past it was totally nonexistent. The focus has become the patient: in
maintaining more thorough histories, providing health education
through messages and explaining diseases.
"While some of these things were practiced during the Soviet era,
the big shift was to have healthcare focus on patient healthcare. It's
a very Western concept, where the patient is the most important thing
in healthcare," she explains.
Alina's team wanted to take a more holistic approach, where the
doctor would talk to the patient to obtain a history and provide
advice. And in the initial phase, they instituted a simple
administrative policy.
That administrative guidance has resulted in more systematic record
keeping and practices.
"Papers don't get lost like they used to before," Alina assures. She
stresses that anything from this point on is up to the people of
Karabakh. She says administrations and key staffers must continuously
update protocol and practices and keep up with progress in the field
of medicine.
As an offshoot of the polyclinic, Armenia Fund USA took the
initiative to plan the building of the new national adult hospital in
Stepanakert. It would be the only adult hospital that treats patients
aged 15 and up.
The fund is seeking donors to press ahead with planning. Alina
revealed that the plan includes a new emergency/trauma department.
* Today and the future
It has been 15 years since she arrived in Karabakh and over ten years
since the initial survey. Alina says that a new survey is long
overdue. "It's a weight I'm caring on my shoulders in that it is
something that needs to be done. The government agrees."
She believes the Health Ministry is much stronger than ten years ago
in their ability to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
Conducting a large-scale, 2,000-household survey requires an
additional year of work. During the 1996 survey of 1,000 Karabakh
households, Alina had 30 interviewers and 10 staffers to input the
data, then clean up and interpret it. There would be at least 30-40
local and a few foreign experts in biostatistics and epidemiology to
produce the report.
That assessment would serve as the basis to compare and conclude
what has happened in the past ten years in terms of health planning,
monitoring, and impact of the health services. It will also serve to
create the next five-year plan, which would target priorities in
healthcare system for that period.
Alina says this plan mirrors a business plan. It would serve as
their plan on how to address issues and availability of resources.
"You may realize that something is a priority," she says, "but you
don't have the resources to make it happen. Everything is not black
and white."
She cites, for example, that cancer is a major health issue in
Karabakh. The reason is that Karabakh has an aging population that has
endured great stress during the war; people drink and smoke without
considering health consequences. Diets are not exactly healthy and
people do not exercise.
"Then they have the stresses of the breakdown of the Soviet Union
with unemployment. So it's a huge issue," she says.
"Addressing the needs of cancer patients is expensive and
complicated," she says. "You have to have the right diagnoses, the
right equipment, chemotherapy, surgical capacity, and we couldn't
address all of these issues in the 1996 plan. However, for example,
children with diarrhea is a health issue that we could comprehensively
deal with."
Going back to the needs of cancer patients, explains Alina, much
more resources and a more robust healthcare system would be needed.
"You can only plan with the resources that you have," she says. "You
may have other needs like oncology patients, but you can only do as
much your resources allow you to."
She explains that a physician, according to his Hippocratic oath,
will do everything for a patient. "They will expend all resources to
save the life of that person. In public health, you have to think that
you have only a limited amount of resources that need to be allocated
to where it will provide the greatest good. It will help the majority
of people but not everybody," she explains.
About $120,000 is needed for a new, comprehensive health assessment
in Karabakh. The funds will be used to pay 50 people locally for a
year. Assistance would come from graduate students from UCLA and the
American University in Armenia to expand the project.
"Just like it turned into my dissertation, I would hope that it
would turn into something like that for many students," says Dr.
Dorian. "You can build a country, but if you don't have a healthy
population, it's of no use. We need to do some of these things that
unfortunately don't seem exciting to people; it is the essence of
doing anything. The data provides that essence."
********************************** *****************************************
12. Commentary: A priest's eye view of Catholicos Karekin's visit
by Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian
With heartfelt joy and boundless happiness, our community is looking
forward to the arrival of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, who will be visiting the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) throughout
October.
The event is significant not only for our church members but also
for the greater Armenian community in North America, as it will give
us an opportunity to receive His Holiness's blessing from our Biblical
fatherland and the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin - where,
according to the vision of St. Gregory the Illuminator, the Only
Begotten Son descended from heaven with a golden hammer, and striking
the ground commanded: "Here should be built the House of God." The
pontifical blessing of His Holiness will strengthen our faith in Jesus
Christ, and renew our vows to the Armenian Church and Holy
Etchmiadzin.
To fully understand Vehapar's role, we need to grasp the
significance of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in the life of our
people. Holy Etchmiadzin is the spiritual and historic center of the
Armenian Apostolic Church: the "holy of holies" for the Armenian
people. It serves as our strong bond, holding the Armenians together
and contributing to the preservation of our Christian faith and our
national identity. Holy Etchmiadzin is not only the source of our
faith: it was the birth-place of our alphabet, literature, culture,
and our unique tradition.
Armenian history has witnessed many crises and difficulties as Holy
Etchmiadzin has come under foreign oppressors: barbarian, pagan, and
Muslim. But by the Providence of God, she managed to endure, and by
implementing her spiritual authority she inspired our people to
persevere and overcome every hardship. Because of the grave political
situation in Armenia, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin relocated to
different places outside the historical Armenian homeland and
eventually settled in Sis, Cilicia. The downfall of the Kingdom of
Cilicia in 1375 was a great disappointment to all Armenians because
there was no Armenian government left to protect our people from her
enemies. Life became miserable in Cilicia, and the deteriorating
circumstances caused many Armenians to migrate to distant lands or
convert to Islam.
In 1441, our church fathers called a National-Ecclesiastical Council
in which they made a decision to transfer the See of the Catholicate
of All Armenians from Sis to her original site, Holy Etchmiadzin in
Vagharshapat so that the Armenian people might remain in their
historical fatherland and hold fast to their religion. During those
centuries when we were deprived of political independence, it was Holy
Etchmiadzin that undertook the responsibility for our spiritual,
cultural, and national leadership.
* Symbol of unity to the dispersed
Here lies the crucial role of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in
our people's life. It hardly matters whether a Catholicos of All
Armenians is by origin from Istanbul, Tbilisi, Bucharest, Antelias, or
Yerevan; the most important thing is that His Holiness, as the heir to
the throne of our first Catholicos St. Gregory the Illuminator,
combines in himself the above mentioned valuable attributes. In
addition, Vehapar embodies all the attributes of his predecessors. His
Holiness is known as the spiritual father of all Armenians. He is an
ambassador of good will and the guarantor of the unity of our people.
The Catholicate of All Armenians has become the symbol of the
national-ecclesiastical life of our people, particularly for the
Armenians who were dispersed to all parts of the world in consequence
of the Genocide.
Today, more than half of our people and three out of four
hierarchical and historical sees are located outside the boundary of
our fatherland. They include the Catholicate of the Great House of
Cilicia, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and the Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople. Unfortunately, there has been a
separation in the Armenian Apostolic Church for more than 50 years,
which stands out as an obstacle for our Mother Church to continue her
sacred mission. There are other obstacles, too. As a reminder, during
the 1915 Genocide more than 5,000 Armenian clergymen were killed by
the Turks. Now after 92 years, we barely have 400 clergymen in the
entire Armenian Church throughout the world.
Although it is not our purpose to address the complex question of
the church's division, but it is worth mentioning that it was the
outcome of the Cold War, which symbolically ended with the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989. In a manner similar to the Armenian Church, the
Russian Orthodox Church had been split into two factions for 90 years.
But this year, on May 17 - the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord
Jesus Christ - the two sides were reconciled in a ceremony in Moscow.
This joyful reality gives us great hope for achieving the
unification of our church, in the belief that the church is one
through the Holy Gospels and Jesus Christ. The late catholicoi of
blessed memory, Vasken I and Karekin I, did not spare any effort to
make the unification of our church a reality. And nowadays, His
Holiness Karekin II is doing everything in his power to realize that
unification. Holy Etchmiadzin impatiently awaits the return of this
faction of our church to the bosom of the Mother Church. It is about
time that every Armenian organization all over the world, and all our
intellectual authorities, do everything possible to work towards this
worthy and noble cause of the unification of the Armenian Church. Here
it would be appropriate to mention the meaningful and powerful words
of the Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents: "Behold, Armenian people, your
only salvation is in your collective power."
As a priest of the Armenian Church, I wish to call on all the
children of our church to set aside their daily affairs and problems
and make every effort to welcome His Holiness; to attend all the
religious and cultural gatherings presided over by Vehapar; and to
receive His Holiness's blessing. I strongly encourage all Armenians to
bring their participation to meet with Vehapar in order to express
their love and loyalty.
In the meantime, let us pray to Almighty God that the Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin will stand unshakable and united with all our
historic hierarchical sees. Let us also pray to God for the health of
His Holiness, and for the success of all his endeavors.
***
Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian is the pastor of the St. George Armenian Church,
in Hartford, Conn.
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13. Editorial: Welcome, Catholicos
His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, began a
pastoral visit to the United States this week. He stopped in
California to perform some important functions - consecrating a
church, blessing the ground for the new cathedral, meeting with
schoolchildren - before proceeding to the eastern U.S., where he will
spend an entire month.
Visits by the Catholicos of All Armenians are relatively rare
occasions, but they have been a part of Armenian-American community
life for nearly 50 years. In that time we have welcomed three
catholicoi to our shores. While each individual and each visit is
distinctive in its way, there is an overarching importance to the
phenomenon itself: the Catholicos of All Armenians - this unique
national figure - making contact with the people of our communities.
First, and most obviously, the Catholicos carries with him a great
weight of tradition that spans an enormous stretch of Armenian history
- some 85 generations. That is really an astonishing amount of time.
The present catholicos is the 132nd person to hold that title; by way
of comparison, there have been 56 monarchs of England, from Alfred the
Great to Queen Elizabeth II. This expanse of history is something that
inspires us as Armenians, lights pride in our hearts, and places our
struggles, and the struggles of previous generations, in a greater
context. The fact that each of those generations knew a Catholicos of
All Armenians is something that we tangibly share with our
predecessors, and can expect to share with our descendants. Our
generation has the privilege to actually hear the voice of the
Catholicos and seek guidance or consolation from him directly.
Second, the Catholicos holds a truly unique position in our national
life. He is an elected official, elected by a popular mechanism that
gives a voice to Armenians from communities dispersed throughout the
world. The election of the Catholicos is not exactly on the order of a
plebiscite, but it is also far more democratic, more representative,
than the manner of office-taking among his peers in other similar
institutions. We who have been ardent supporters of democracy find
this a source of strength for the occupant of the pontifical office.
It gives him a plausible claim to be a representative of all Armenians
- to speak for Armenians around the world on certain matters of
importance.
It also gives the Catholicos an unusual perspective on Armenian
matters. No other leader draws his constituents from such a broad
spectrum within the worldwide Armenian community. And surely no one
else actually makes contact with as great a base of individuals, from
so many walks of life, and so many places around the world. The
present Catholicos has made it a critical part of his pontificate to
travel to the remotest climes - India, the Far East - as well as
throughout Armenia, the Middle East, and the West. The upshot of this
is that he alone meets Armenians in their home communities, as it
were, and he has a unique opportunity to observe at first hand what
unites Armenians, and to speak on the question of a "greater good" for
all Armenians.
With that perspective comes a profound responsibility. As our
symposium of two weeks ago showed, even amid disagreement on what the
Catholicos should talk about, there was general agreement that the
Catholicos is and should be active, that he has the real and symbolic
power to influence outcomes, and shape life for the better in Armenia
and among our people elsewhere. Even those Armenians who are not part
of the Apostolic Church regard the Catholicos as an important and
influential agent in the ongoing life of the Armenian nation.
Finally, having the Catholicos among us is a reminder of the
enduring values that have allowed the Armenian people to survive, and
will be the best hope for their perpetuation in the future. This paper
has argued forcefully for the promotion of a modern, democratic,
materially productive and economically successful Armenia. At the same
time, material progress must be accompanied by deeper, more enduring
values. Without the blessings of family, the possibility for a just
and wholesome patriotism, the dedication of one's best efforts to a
higher cause than mere material comfort - without these things, the
greatest attainments for our homeland and people would be worthless -
a pyrrhic victory at the end of an astonishing history. The Catholicos
reminds us of these things, too.
In the course of 47 years, meeting the catholicos has become a
feature of community life. The modern world has made such contact more
feasible, and that has made the Catholicos a less remote, more
accessible leader than ever before. Each occupant who has visited
America has brought his special qualities to the role, and over the
past seven years Catholicos Karekin II has shown his deep seriousness,
his love of the people, his willingness to lead. We are proud to offer
a warm welcome to the Catholicos.
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14. Editorial: Call the House
House Resolution 106, the Armenian Genocide resolution, is scheduled
for consideration by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday,
October 10. The committee is expected to approve the resolution and
send it on to the full House of Representatives, which is expected to
pass it.
Turkey's well-paid lobby in Washington is making every effort to
scuttle the resolution. A likely tactic is to have members of the
Foreign Relations Committee offer amendments that would undermine the
resolution. For example, they may propose to replace the word genocide
with a word that does not carry the connotation of a crime against
humanity under international law.
Now is the time for everyone to make a special, extra effort, and
reach out to the members of the Foreign Relations Committee. Tell them
to pass the resolution "as introduced." The names and contact
information of members of the committee appear in an ad on page A7 [go
to www.reporter.am or directly to
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/members.asp?com mittee=full]. Every
voice matters. Call, e-mail, or fax today.
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