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06/28/2005
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Pavel Manukian Released, No Details on Criminal Case 2) Germany Turkish Intellectuals to Picket Embassy on Genocide Recognition 3) Russian Convicted of Spying for Azerbaijan 4) Sarkozy Calls for Hold on EU enlargement 5) Kocharian Congratulates Iran's New President 6) Design Team for Glendale~Rs Armenian Genocide Monument Announced 7) International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking Marked In Armenia 1) Pavel Manukian Released, No Details on Criminal Case YEREVAN--Haykakan Zhamanag reports that Pavel Manukian, who sustained injuries from a beating he received in the offices of Mountainous Karabagh Republic's (MKR) Defense Ministry early last week, has been released from the Armenia Medical Center in Yerevan. He was transferred to Armenia after receiving initial care in a MKR military hospital. It is unclear whether any suspects have been named, or whether MKR Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian has been questioned. The military court reviewing the criminal proceeding into the incident has declined to comment about the case. 2) Germany Turkish Intellectuals to Picket Embassy on Genocide Recognition A group of Turks living in Berlin will be picketing the Turkish Embassy there in protest of Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide. Turkish intellectuals living in Germany have organized the June 29 demonstration. The same group has consistently fought for recognition of the Armenian genocide and against Turkey's official policy on the issue. Turkey vehemently denies the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman government at the turn of the twentieth century, during which 1.5 million Armenian perished. The group also participated in a press conference and debate on May 3, in the German city of Koln, organized by Armenians in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. 3) Russian Convicted of Spying for Azerbaijan YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--A Russian-born citizen of Armenia was sentenced on Tuesday to twelve years in prison on charges of spying for Azerbaijan and helping its security services plot an attempt on President Robert Kocharian's life. A Yerevan court convicted Andrey Maziev of high treason and terrorism, supporting prosecutors' claims that the aviation engineer secretly collaborated with the Azeri intelligence for the past five years. Maziev pleaded guilty to the charges both during the pre-trial investigation and the court proceedings. "Maziev committed a particularly severe crime against the security of our country by helping to organize an attempt on the president's life," Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian, who personally represented the prosecution in the court, told reporters. "He was, therefore, given a deserved punishment." The prosecutors claim that the 44-year-old ethnic Russian who worked at Yerevan's Zvartnots international airport was recruited by officers of the Azeri Ministry of National Security in December 1999 and regularly met them until his arrest last February. They say he briefed them on the political situation in Armenia and was paid a total of $2,500 for that. More importantly, Maziev is alleged to have provided the Azeris with information about the regular movements and location of Kocharian's aircraft, as well as details of security arrangements made during his departure from and arrival in Armenia. Armenian law-enforcement authorities say the information was needed for an assassination bid against Kocharian. Maziev said during the trial that Azeri officers never explicitly told him that they want to assassinate the Armenian leader. The Armenian prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for one of those officers identified as Faik Shamilev. Hovsepian said that Azerbaijan must arrest and hand over Shamilev to the Armenian investigators under "international conventions." Azeri officials have already shrugged off Yerevan's demands. Maziev's imprisonment is the second espionage case involving Armenian nationals reported in less than two years. In January 2004, four ethnic Russian residents of the southeastern town of Yeghegnadzor were given lengthy prison sentences on similar charges which they strongly denied. 4) Sarkozy Calls for Hold on EU enlargement PARIS (AFP)--France's ruling party chief and presidential hopeful Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called for EU enlargement to be put on hold to give time for its internal institutions to be "renovated." "Enlargement must be suspended at least as long as the institutions have not been renovated. Europe must have borders. What I am saying does not cover Romania and Bulgaria where the process is too far advanced to be stopped. But all the others," Sarkozy said. "Not all countries have a vocation to be in Europe," he said. The minister was talking at the start of consultations between Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and leaders of political parties on the fall-out of last month's rejection of the European Union constitution in referendums in France and the Netherlands. Any freeze on enlargement would affect Turkey--with which accession talks are supposed to begin later this year under Britain's EU presidency--and Croatia, which is also an official candidate country. Romania and Bulgaria are poised for membership in 2007. In Warsaw, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy dismissed Sarkozy's call, saying it was up to the French president to decide the matter. "There is only one voice, that of the president of the republic" Jacques Chirac said in response to a question at a news conference, after meeting his German and Polish counterparts to discuss the crisis in the EU. The 51 year-old president of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) has in the past put himself at odds with Chirac by speaking out against Turkish membership of the EU. Instead, he favors a "privileged partnership" with Ankara. The EU's massive expansion in 2003 to take in 10 new members from central and eastern Europe is widely seen as one of the reasons for the defeat of the constitution in France, where many fear the end of a bloc traditionally dominated by the Franco-German axis. Though officially the process of further enlargement remains on course despite the current difficulties, many in France believe a moratorium is now necessary to give the EU time to adapt. Sarkozy also said the concept of a Franco-German alliance leading Europe was outdated. "We have got to ask questions about the motor that drives Europe...I believe that the six big countries of Europe must get together to become a powerful motor for the new Europe. My feeling is that the Franco-German axis is essential, but the motor will be the six," he said. In a sign of growing competition for influence among the new member states, Britain's European Affairs Minister Douglas Alexander was also in Warsaw--alongside the French, German and Polish ministers--to outline British plans for its six-month presidency. Douste-Blazy once again called on Britain to "assume its responsibilities" by agreeing to negotiate its 4.6 billion euro (5.6 billion dollar) annual rebate as part of the EU's budgetary package. "Europe's spirit, Europe's ambition, Europe's vocation is solidarity," he said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised to put the rebate on the table but only if France agrees to cuts in the EU's mammoth system of farm subsidies. 5) Kocharian Congratulates Iran's New President YEREVAN (Combined Sources)--President Robert Kocharian welcomed the election of Iran's President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's and expressed hope that the ties between the two countries would strengthen. "Armenia attaches great attention to its relations with Iran. I am hopeful that during your presidency our relationships will continue to develop and will mark new achievements for the welfare of our nations," the message read. A former Revolutionary Guard commander, Ahmadinejad is unabashedly conservative. As mayor of Tehran, he introduced separate elevators for men and women in municipal buildings. He is also a loyal supporter of Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is his allegiance to the conservative ruling clerics that is thought to have led Tehran's city council to ask him to serve as mayor in 2003 when he was the governor of Ardabil province. During the presidential campaign, he indicated he could not imagine restoring relations with the United States--a point of difference with his chief rival, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who campaigned on a platform of better relations with the West. Ahmadinejad has called for Iran to reclaim the values of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many young people see this as a threat to return to the prohibitions on "un-Islamic" dress, music, male and female mixing and the other restrictions championed in the heyday of the revolution. One of seven children, Ahmadinejad was born to a middle-class family in Garmsar, a neighborhood southeast of Tehran. As a student, he joined an ultraconservative faction of the Office for Strengthening Unity, the radical student group spawned by the 1979 Islamic Revolution that staged the capture of the US Embassy. According to reports, Ahmadinejad attended meetings that planned the storming of the US Embassy. He graduated in civil engineering from Iran University of Science & Technology. When Iraq invaded Iran, Ahmadinejad volunteered for military service, joined the Revolutionary Guards and was considered a daring soldier, participating in several military operations deep within Iraq, according to information posted on his Web site. With the war behind him, Ahmadinejad went into politics. He was first appointed governor of Maku in northwestern Iran, and later governor of the newly created province of Ardabil. 6) Design Team for Glendale~Rs Armenian Genocide Monument Announced The Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale (AGMCG) has awarded the design team of Sevak Petrosian from Glendale and Araik Avetyan from Armenia as the first place winners of the Armenian genocide monument design competition. A panel of 11 judges reviewed the 29 entries to the competition and made its decision of winners. The second place winner was Alex Zarifian and Philip Ra with the third place winners being Ardem Galoustian from Glendale and Varoujan Karoghlanian from Lebanon. On June 25, the AGMCG committee members awarded the first place winners a check for $10,000 at the sight of the proposed monument and special certificates of recognition to the second and third place winners. The jury panel comprised of: Aram Alajajian, Gio Aliano, Yuri Gevorkyan, Siroon Yeretzian, Shoghig Yepremian, Fe Huang, George Chapjian, Sarkis Balmanoukian, Aram Bassenian, Richard Dekmejian, Diran Depanian. The Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale is an organization dedicated to enhancing cross cultural understanding amongst the different cultural and ethnic groups in the City of Glendale by promoting respect for past historical events and the recognition thereof through continuous education, specifically that of the Armenian genocide. Building a commemorative memorial in the City of Glendale dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of the 20th Century, will serve as a befitting venue to begin the educational process of honoring the memory of those who perished and acknowledging the memories of the heroic deeds and acts of the Americans whose actions helped save thousands of helpless Armenian men, women and children from the rage of the Genocide. For additional information regarding the AGMCG, please visit the website at 7) International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking Marked In Armenia YEREVAN, June 28 (Armenpress)--An art exhibit on drugs, as perceived by 7 to 18 year-old children, opened at the UN House in Yerevan, marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking. The exhibition by the South Caucasus Anti-Drug Program (SCAD), is funded by the European Union and implemented by UN Development Program (UNDP). International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking commemorates the signature of the declaration adopted at the International Conference against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking on June 26, 1987. Each year a theme is chosen to draw public attention to, and the theme for 2005 is "Value yourself... make healthy choices." At the exhibition, Armenian children presented paintings and ceramic crafts, individually expressing their attitude towards drug phenomenon as "Evil." Grigor Malintsyan, SCAD program coordinator, and Alla Bakunts, UNDP democratic governance portfolio coordinator, opened the ceremony with short speeches. This year's anti-drug campaign intends to send out a message of self-respect to young people around the world. It calls on youth to consider the health-related reasons why they should stay away from drugs or stop using them. "Healthy choices" is not only about saying "no" to drugs but also about choosing healthy lifestyles: sports, music, theater, civil service, and other positive activities. Malintsyan noted in his speech: "Leading a healthy lifestyle requires making choices that are respectful of body and mind. To make these choices, young people need guidance from parents, teachers, and other role models who should not only persuade them to stay away from illegal drugs, but also encourage them to engage in healthy activities. Thus, participation of children in our event is a vivid example of their choice for a 'healthy lifestyle.'" At the event, the National Focal Point on Drugs presented the second National Annual Drug Report 2004, prepared by the joint efforts of national and international experts. The event participants were awarded special gifts and certificates. T-shirts and baseball caps covering the day's theme and logo, as well as EU and UNDP logos, were distributed. About SCAD Program: The SCAD program was launched in Armenia in 2001. It aims at harmonizing drug law enforcement tactics and operational techniques in the participating countries while fostering cooperation at the regional level. The overall objective of the program is to reduce drug trafficking from and through the three South Caucasian countries towards EU member states. For this purpose, the program has provided assistance to the Police, Ministry of Justice, State Customs Committee, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia, many NGOs dealing with drug and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and to other relevant agencies. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. 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