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1. SALUTE TO A RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER WHO GAVE GENOCIDE ITS NAME
2. Azeri Speaker slams Russian counterpart's "abnormal" remarks on Karabakh
3. Karabakh Armenian, Azeri media representatives meet in Tbilisi 9 June 2001
4. Turkey: Joint ASALA-PKK meeting reported in northern Iraq
5. Defrocked Archbishop Continues to Challenge Karekin II, Calls for Law and Order Within the Armenian Church
SALUTE TO A RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER WHO GAVE GENOCIDE ITS NAME
UNITED NATIONS, June 12 -- One hundred years after his birth, a
largely forgotten immigrant from Poland who coined the word
genocide and pushed a convention outlawing it through the General
Assembly is being honored here, thanks to a small human rights
institute in New York campaigning to keep his story alive.
The immigrant, Raphael Lemkin, a legal expert and linguist who died
in 1959 at 58, had fought since 1933 to make genocide, which he
first labeled a "crime of barbarity," a recognized and punishable
international offense. The convention, adopted in December 1948,
came into force in 1951. The United States did not ratify it until
1988, in the waning days of the second Reagan administration.
Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Center for the
Advancement of Human Rights, the organization honoring Mr. Lemkin,
said that although 132 countries had now ratified the convention,
and genocide is regarded universally as the worst of offenses, a
number of countries where mass crimes against ethnic or religious
groups have been committed in recent decades have not adhered to
the agreement. Among them are Indonesia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and
Sudan. Overall, most African countries and more than half a dozen
Latin American and Caribbean nations have not ratified the
convention.
On Wednesday at the United Nations, the Clinton administration's
ambassador for war crimes, David Scheffer, and Secretary General
Kofi Annan's wife, Nane Annan, are to speak at the event focusing
on Mr. Lemkin's legacy. (Mr. Annan left Monday night for the
Middle East.) Mr. Scheffer was the chief American negotiator in
the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which will
give a legal home for prosecution of genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
The treaty establishing the court was signed by Mr. Scheffer on
behalf of the United States on Dec. 31, but the Clinton White
House did not try to fight for its adoption in a hostile Congress
and against the strong objections of the Pentagon, which wants a
guarantee that no American will ever be tried.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said here after a meeting with
Mr. Annan earlier this year that the Bush administration would
never support the court. United Nations officials say the
administration has quietly asked the United Nations whether it can
rescind Washington's signature.
Mr. Lemkin first took up the cause of endangered minorities as a
child in Poland, where he read "Quo Vadis" and became obsessed with
images of early Christians being torn to death by lions in Rome as
the crowds cheered, according to a new biography by William Korey,
a writer on human rights topics. Dr. Korey is on the board of the
Blaustein institute, part of the American Jewish Committee, which
paid for Mr. Lemkin's burial in Queens, where he died after a
heart attack.
By 1933, before the world's attention - and Mr. Lemkin's - turned
to Nazi Germany, he was known internationally for his battle as a
Polish prosecutor to codify crimes against humanity and against
cultural and artistic works of ethnic groups, among them the
Armenians who were the victims of the Ottoman Turks. He fled
Poland for Sweden in 1939 after the German invasion. His parents
died in the Holocaust nearly a decade later, though he did not know
their fate for several years.
By the end of World War II, and with the establishment of the
United Nations, Mr. Lemkin moved to New York to begin his campaign
for a genocide convention.
Writing and teaching law intermittently at Duke University and
Yale, he lobbied endlessly and often annoyingly, according to Dr.
Korey, until the Genocide Convention won a place on the United
Nations' agenda.
"Genocide" first appeared in 1944, the Oxford English Dictionary
says, in a book by Mr. Lemkin, "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe,"
which was published in the United States by the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace. He told his contemporaries that he had
stumbled on the idea while reading Plato, who used the Greek word
genos to describe a clan or ethnic group.
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Azeri Speaker slams Russian counterpart's "abnormal" remarks on Karabakh
Azerbaijani news agency Turan
12 June 2001
Baku
The statements by Gennadiy Seleznev, Speaker of the Russian State
Duma, recently made in Yerevan, "do not do credit to the Russian
parliament and state", Milli Maclis [Azerbaijani parliament]
Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov said today, commenting on Seleznev's
well-known remarks, according to which he was ready to discuss the
issue of Nagornyy Karabakh's joining the Russia-Belarus union
together with Armenia.
Murtuz Alasgarov said that he was surprised at the "abnormal
statement" by such a prominent and high-ranking politician and by
the lack of "common sense" in it.
Alasgarov also pointed out that Seleznev's remarks did not reflect
the position of the Russian state. Alasgarov thinks that the
Speaker of the Russian State Duma had no right to discuss issues
related to Azerbaijan's sovereign rights and to debate them with
his Armenian friends.
Alasgarov also said that he would send a protest letter to the
State Duma.
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Karabakh Armenian, Azeri media representatives meet in Tbilisi
9 June 2001
A meeting of representatives of mass media and non-government
organizations of Azerbaijan and Nagornyy Karabakh was held in early
June in Tbilisi at the initiative of the Helsinki Citizens'
Assembly. It decided to promote and intensify the role of
journalists and non-government structures in light of talks between
the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Karabakh
settlement. Karen Ogandzhanyan, coordinator of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Committee of the Helsinki Initiative-92 and the winner of
the peace and human rights award of the inter-church council, said
this to a Snark correspondent.
According to him, the meeting drew up joint projects for the
development of media and civil structures. The participants said
that they intend to organize similar meetings in the near future in
Baku and Stepanakert with the aim of arranging an intensive
dialogue between representatives of media and non-government
organizations of both republics.
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Turkey: Joint ASALA-PKK meeting reported in northern Iraq
Turkish news agency Anatolia reports on 12 June that "The terrorist organizations PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]
and ASALA [Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia] have
held a meeting in northern Iraq.
ASALA was represented at the meeting by ASALA leader Simon
Zakarian, Vazken Petrosyan who is responsible for the
organization's "political wing" and by three other officials. The
PKK was represented by Nizamettin Tas, Murat Karayilan and Duran
Kalkan who are members of the so-called Chairmanship Council, and
by seven other officials. Terrorist Osman Ocalan did not attend
the meeting under the pretext of his illness.
The meeting was held at the Makhmur camp which is used as a base by
the PKK. ASALA leader Zakarian reportedly said at the meeting:
"Nobody in Turkey pays any attention to the PKK now that it has
ended its armed actions in a bid to prevent the execution of [PKK
leader] Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK is considered finished. If the
PKK continues with its current stand, it will not have the right to
ask for Armenia's or anybody else's help."
To ASALA's criticism, the PKK reportedly replied that "it is not
moving away from its aims and that it feels a great need for
Armenia's help and friendship".
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Newly Blessed Holy Muron Will be Distributed
to all Eastern Prelacy Churches on June 16
NEW YORK, NY-Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern
Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, announced that
the newly consecrated Holy Muron (Chrism) will be distributed to
all Prelacy parishes on June 16 which marks the anniversary of St.
Gregory the Illuminator's deliverance from the pit (Khor Virab).
The Prelate returned recently from Lebanon where he participated in
the Muron blessing ceremony.
On Sunday, June 17, all parishes will conduct a "Blessing of Water"
ceremony with the new Muron and share the holy water with all of
the Faithful.
The blessing of the Holy Oil took place in Antelias, Lebanon, in
the courtyard before the Cathedral of St. Gregory on May 26 amidst
the attendance of clergy and pilgrims from all over the world in a
traditional ceremony filled with pageantry. The blessing of the
Muron was planned to coincide with this historic year of 2001, when
Armenians worldwide are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the
establishment of the Armenian Church. The Holy See of Cilicia has
been marking this anniversary with many activities which include
pilgrimages, symposiums, exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and
publications.
The Blessing of Muron ceremony took on an ecumenical tone and a
true spirit of unity with the presence and participation of
representatives from the Holy See of Etchmiadzin and the
Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the presence of His Beatitude
Archbishop Mesrob Mutafian, the Patriarch of Constantinople, as
well as the Patriarch of the Coptic Church, His Holiness Pope
Shenouda; His Holiness Iwaz Zacca, Patriarch of the Syrian Church;
and His Holiness Phillipos, Patriarch of Eritrea.
The Holy Muron, symbol of the grace of the Holy Spirit is
traditionally blessed every seven years (or sooner if necessary),
and only the Catholicos has the right to consecrate the oil. The
oil consists of 48 different aromas and flowers which are mixed in
a special vessel where it remains for forty days prior to its
consecration. With church bells ringing and the chanting of
special hymns the large heavy cauldron is carried in a procession
to the altar where the cauldron is opened by the Catholicos and the
new oil to be blessed is poured into the cauldron together with
some of the old Muron, thus linking the oil to centuries past. The
Muron is then mixed with the relic of the right hand of St.
Gregory the Illuminator. The cauldron is then closed and veiled.
The new Muron is distributed to every diocese under the
jurisdiction of the Holy See of Cilicia.
"We have all been baptized into the Armenian Church with the same
Muron which is the seal of our identity," said Archbishop Oshagan.
"It is the unifying factor for all Armenians. May the new Muron be
a source for our greater dedication to God and to humanity."
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Defrocked Archbishop Continues to Challenge Karekin II, Calls for Law and Order Within the Armenian Church
NEW YORK, NY - Archbishop Diran Gureghian, the defrocked priest who is openly challenging His Holiness Karekin II for defrocking him, in a telephone interview to "Armenian Reporter" weekly, said that he continues to serve the Armenian Church in Moscow and that efforts to remove him will not succeed. He said that people favoring Etchmiadzin’s decision have tried to do this by going to the local authorities but have failed, as they were told that the “Moscow Union of the Armenian Church” is a legally created entity that is acting within Russian law.
Archbishop Gureghian, the former Primate of the Diocese of Russia and New Nakhitchevan, said he would gladly and readily relinquish his position within the Armenian Church if the National Ecclesiastical Assembly or the College of Bishops were to find him guilty of any subordination to Catholicos Karekin II. The Archbishop disclosed that his church association would issue a four-point statement next week about the “Moscow Affair.” He explained that the statement will shed light on recent developments and emphasize that whatever is happening in Moscow cannot be characterized as a new split in the Armenian Church. The statement will also emphasize that the Catholicos of All Armenians does not have the right to dismiss or defrock an archbishop of the church, who has not done anything wrong in the area of creed or faith, and that the Catholicos cannot run the church by ignoring all bylaws.
Abp. Gureghian further stated that, for months, letters to Etchmiadzin had remained unanswered and were followed by a decree defrocking him. “I will be glad to leave the church if the National Ecclesiastical Assembly or the College of Bishops takes up his case and rules that I have done wrong,” explained the ousted Archbishop. He then dwelled on his activities as Primate of Russia and New Nakhitchevan. To his credit go the establishment of 25 new parishes within the territory under his jurisdiction and the opening of as many as 8 churches. On a recent Sunday, police were called to the Armenian Church in Moscow, after a group of Armenian clergymen from Etchmiadzin stormed the church when church services had come to an end to announce that Archbishop Diran was no longer the head of the church, having been defrocked by the catholicos. This announcement triggered a scuffle when supporters of the archbishop started to engage in a verbal diatribe with representatives and supporter!
s of the Mother See. Abp. Diran has repeatedly maintained that he accepts the decision of His Holiness to replace him as Primate of the Diocese with his brother, Very Rev. Ezras Nersissian. What he vehemently objects to is his removal as the parish priest of Holy Ascension Armenian Church of Moscow. “I am elected by my parish and can be removed only by those who elected me.” He claimed that his parishioners support him one hundred percent.
Abp. Diran also took credit for the construction of the new Armenian Cathedral in Moscow, which is partially completed and will cost as much as $23 million US dollars. The Cathedral will have an 850-seat auditorium and conference halls. He conceded that construction of the edifice fell behind the original schedule as a result of the turmoil within the parish. He said that, presently, a wealthy Moscow Armenian, Vitaly Krikorian, has taken it upon himself to fund the rest of the construction. Mr. Krikorian has pledged $7 million for the construction of the church and already has paid out one and a half million. Abp. Gureghian conceded that the Moscow City Hall has temporarily withheld $16 million that was to have been paid for the Cathedral project. This sum was to have been collected as tax-exempt contributions by local Armenians through a fund opened by the City of Moscow. Abp. Gureghian’s principal complaint against the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is that it has yet to a!
dopt a set of bylaws by which the activities of the See shall be governed. No one knows what the statutes of the College of Bishops or the Supreme Spiritual Council are. “You cannot run such a big operation by relying on a cellular phone.” This remark was directed against the Catholicos and his brother, who talk on cellular phones to solve issues and problems. The absence of such bylaws has also disturbed both the Patriarchs of Istanbul and Jerusalem. They are both boycotting the sessions of the Supreme Spiritual Council of the Mother See in their capacity as Co-chairmen. They have objected to the new composition of that body, which should have been created through elections rather than by appointment by the Catholicos. Both Patriarchs have chosen not to attend the Council’s sessions as an indication of their displeasure.
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