Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 12, Issue 2, March 2001, pp 22-24
Cover Story
CELEBRATION OF FAITH The Armenian Church celebrates 1700th Anniversary of its Establishment and Adoption of State Religion in Armenia
By Hratch Tchilingirian
Imagine a giant organization with over 350 offices and branches in some 40 countries, with 500 top executives, thousands of full- and part-time employees, tens of thousands of volunteers, serving millions of people. That's the Armenian Apostolic Church today and, this year, it's celebrating the 1700th anniversary of its founding.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) November 2000 Vol. 11, No. 11
Armenia Joins Europe What Council of Europe Membership will mean for Armenia and Azerbaijan
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers passed a resolution on November 9 accepting Armenia as a full member of the 41-nation pan-European democratic and human rights organization. The Armenian flag will be raised outside the organization's headquarters in Strasbourg in January when the CE Parliamentary Assembly, which had also voted in favor of accession in June (see AIM July 2000) formally ratifies the decision.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) November 2000 Vol. 11, No. 11
Catholicos Visits John Paul II Heads of 'Sister' Churches Renew Ties
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The heads of the Armenian and Roman Catholic Churches met in the Vatican during Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II's official three-day visit to Rome.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 11, No. 10, October 2000, pp. 58-61.
Risking Democracy Much at stake for President and Son in upcoming elections in Azerbaijan
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
Azerbaijanis will go to the polls on November 5 to cast their votes for a new Parliament. However, indirectly, it seems they will be voting for a new president. An ailing President Haidar Aliyev, hospitalized at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio where he had heart surgery just a few years ago, must hang on until the elections, until his son Ilham Aliyev is elected to Parliament. This would make the younger Aliyev eligible for the position of that body’s Speaker, and thus able to assume the duties of the president in the event the head of state is incapacitated or dies.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 11, No. 10, October 2000, pp. 40-44. COVER STORY
Dividing Jerusalem Armenians on the line of confrontation
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem has become one of the most talked about issues in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli negotiations over the final status of the city that is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims. At the Camp David II talks in the US in July [2000], it was proposed that the Old City be divided into two sections: Israeli control over the Jewish and Armenian quarters and Palestinian control over the Christian and Muslim quarters.
... a full member of Council of Europe (CE) when its Committee of Ministers meet in September. Azerbaijan’s bid was also overwhelmingly accepted, with just one vote against. ::/introtext:: ::fulltext::Armenian ...
... law regime. The newspaper was sued just a few months ago for libeling the Prime Minister.
The search, seizure and imprisonment of a journalist provoked widespread protest. Journalists in Azerbaijan even ...
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) February 2000, Volume 11, No. 2, pp. 50-52
Seven Years in Prison “If one suffers, but does not believe, life becomes meaningless.”
Compiled by Hratch Tchilingirian
Father Manuel Yergatian, a 33-year-old priest and citizen of Turkey was arrested in October 1980 while preparing to leave Istanbul en route to Jerusalem. He was charged with anti-Turkish activities in the years when various acts of political violence against Turks by Armenians were reported. His whereabouts were not known and no one was able to contact him. Archbishop Shnork Kalustian, Patriarch of Istanbul, was called to testify before the military court. The Turkish press reported on the trial of the “priest who is Turkey’s enemy.” The US State Department turned down a request to intervene in the case. Amnesty International did investigate the arrest. After his conviction, Yergatian served nearly seven years in Turkish prisons. Since his release, he has remained silent about his ordeal. At this writer's request, Fr. Yergatian, 46, describes for the first time and in great detail, what happened when he was arrested and convicted on charges of inciting terrorism.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) February 2000, Volume 11, No. 2
FOCUS OF THE MONTH
Jubilee in the Holy Land Pilgrimage of the Century Includes Top Government, Religious Leaders
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
early 1000 Armenians from around the world gathered in the Holy Land during the week of January 17-24 to celebrate the bi-millennial jubilee of Christ’s Nativity in Bethlehem. The celebrations were headed by the top leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church with the participation of Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who led a 30-member state delegation to Palestine and Israel for the occasion.
... in Azerbaijan.” But Gasparian did not give up. When in 1996 MSF’s two-year grant ended, he helped continue the program with a few local Karabakh professionals using the modest infrastructure that was in ...
Armenian International Magazine AIM Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 52-53
The Armenian Evangelical Union of the Near East
Coping with the effects of the war
Hratch Tchilingirian
Established in 1924, the Lebanon-based Armenian Evangelical Union of the Near East is one of the oldest among the five Unions that comprise the Armenian Evangelical Church. It is a union of over two dozen churches and congregations in seven countries in the Middle East and one church in Australia, as the origin of the Sydney church is traced back to Lebanon and Syria.
Armenian International Magazine AIM Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 52-53
The Armenian Evangelical School in Anjar
Providing a brighter future
Hratch Tchilingirian
Ara (not his real name) was four years old when a social worker brought him to the Armenian Evangelical boarding school in Anjar, the Armenian village in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The school was already in session and the principal insisted that Ara should come at the beginning of the following year. But the social worker could not take Ara back. “You wouldn’t send him away if I told you where this child comes from,” pleaded the desperate social worker. Ara was very quiet and looked disturbed, says Rev. Nersess Balabanian, 40, who is in charge of the school. “The child’s father is a drug addict, his mother is a prostitute and he lives in a tiny room with two other little siblings,” explains Balabanian, “we couldn’t possibly return this child to that place.” They took him in.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 35-38; 43.
WHEN SMALL IS BIG
Armenian Evangelicals Render a Century and a Half of Service
By Hratch Tchilingirian
Numbering only 50 to 70,000 around the world, Armenian Evangelicals are among the most organized, visible, and active of the world’s eight million-plus Armenians. Despite their small numbers and their periodic conflicts with the Armenian Apostolic Church, the legitimacy, value and mission of the Armenian Evangelical Church has become indisputable over the last century and a half. Just the fact that it is politically incorrect to call them Protestants – they’re Evangelicals – attests to a change of attitude and acceptance; they are no longer seen as “protesters” but as believers genuinely involved in Christian mission and evangelization.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) December 1999 Volume 10, No. 12, pp. 46-48
Integration The Point of No Return
By Hratch Tchilingirian
After the 17-year devastation of the Lebanese civil war, Arthur Nazarian, 48, has been assigned, arguably, the most thankless job in the Lebanese government. The Beirut-born industrialist is both Minister of Tourism and Minister of the Environment.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) December 1999 Volume 10, No. 12, pp. 42-45
The Historical Present Two Scholars See the Present in the Annals of Ancient Times
By Hratch Tchilingirian
Putting together the dismembered body parts of gods — discarded in museum warehouses around the world — is not an easy job. But for archeologist and Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, 51, it is a professional passion. Painstakingly searching, identifying and matching pieces of heads, torsoes and legs of ancient statues has made Sourouzian one of the most sought-after experts of Egyptian art.
... dialogue between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, whose regular contacts have created opportunities to dynamize the process of finding a lasting and comprehensive solution to the problem. We firmly ...
Armenian International Magazine (AIM), November 1999, Vol. 10, No. 11, pp. 24-25
A New Beginning Catholicos Garegin II Faces the Task of Healing and Leading the Church
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The Armenian Apostolic Church elected the 132nd Catholicos of All Armenians on October 27. Archbishop Garegin Nersissian, Vicar of the Ararat Diocese, succeeded Catholicos Karekin I, who passed away in June after serving for only four years as the head of the 1700-year old Church.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM), Volume 10, Number 10, October 1999, pp. 48-51
Back In Karabakh Diocese of Artsakh Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Re-establishment
By Hratch Tchilingirian
The Diocese of Artsakh celebrates the 10th anniversary of its re-establishment in Mountainous Karabakh. Under the most trying circumstances, the Diocese was officially reopened in the spring of 1989 with a special encyclical by Catholicos Vazgen I of All Armenians, and with the appointment of Bishop Barkev Martirossian as Primate. (He became an Archbishop in June 1999).
... Britain, whose sole interests seemed to lie under the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan. But, as one British diplomat in London put it, bilateral trade volume is one of the most important factors of British foreign ...