Month: June 2005

The New Anatolian, Turkey
June 18 2005
Turkey questions Germany’s ‘friendship’
The New Anatolian / Ankara
The German Parliament’s decision urging Ankara to examine its role
in the so-called Armenian genocide has united all sectors of Turkish
society. While Prime Minister Erdogan accuses the German Parliament
of ‘sacrificing’ this serious issue to ‘mere lobbyists,’ Turkish
Parliament Speaker Arinc writes a letter to his German counterpart
denouncing the decision
On the ‘opposition front’ the situation is no different. CHP
parliamentary group head Anadol blames the German Parliament for
taking decisions without ‘understanding the realities.’ DYP leader
Agar holds a press conference to denounce the decision and asks:
‘Has Germany forgotten our longtime friendship?’
Besides politicians, Turkish nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
also show their outrage with a protest in front of the German Embassy
in Ankara. A black wreath is placed in front of the embassy by the
Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen). Police efforts to remove the
wreath cause an uproar

PESSIMISM OR REALISM?
A1plus
| 13:16:15 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
“The reformation of the Electoral Code should be carried out in
three directions – the presence of balanced election commissions,
proper public control and equality between the candidates”, candidate
of juridical sciences Hrayr Tovmasyan considers. In his opinion no
positive changes can be observes as regards the formation of the
election commissions. H. Tovmasyan noted however certain progress
referring to the public control and expansion of the rights of the
observers and empowered persons. No one has the right to drive out
an empowered person from the polling station, excluding arrests. As
for securing equal rights for all the candidates, Tovmasyan does not
see any progress.
He gave a positive estimate to the fact that henceforth the rolls
will be compiled not by the local self-government bodies but by
the appropriate police departments. Nevertheless there is certain
vagueness, which is to become clear at practice. Hrayr Tovmasyan is
also concerned over the fact that the rolls in military units and
colonies cannot be published. Thus, public control is ruled out while
the military vote. The second problem is connected with the appeal
of the decision of the election commission. The order established
can create deadlock situations and exclude efficient protection
mechanisms. According to the amendments all the complaints are
considered on common ground. “It means that the complaints will be
considered during a month and the terms of contesting the outcomes
of the elections will be expired by the time”, he says.
H. Tovmasyan said it would be naïve to bind justice of the upcoming
elections with the amendments to the Electoral Code . “This law is
a part of political and legislative system of the country and the
protection mechanisms depend the independence of the juridical system
and the way the authorities defend the rights of the citizens. Taking
into account the nature of the above mentioned bodies it is easy to
say that proper atmosphere for fair elections has not been created
in Armenia yet.
Victoria Abrahamyan
–Boundary_(ID_E5h2R+lpV9aZzJjODnP/kw)–

ELECTION COMMISSION FORMATION CONFLICTS WITH CONSTITUTION
A1plus
| 12:32:59 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
The amendments to the Electoral Code did not solve the principal
problem – providing of balance in the election commissions.
“In Armenia the outcome of the election is determined by the
composition of the election commission, since the lion’s share of
the falsifications was committed with the immediate participation of
the election commissions”, chairman of Democracy public organization
Vardan Poghosyan says. In his opinion, with the absence of impartial
and independent election commission it is useless to speak of fair
elections. “The fact that the European structures assisted the Armenian
authorities causes concern. Earlier three members appointed by the
President. Henceforth, according to the amendments one member will
appointed by the President, one – by the Court of Cassations and one –
by People’s deputy faction”, he notes.
The Venice Commission and OSCE Bureau on Human Rights and
Democracy rated the clause according to which judges take part in
the formation of the election commissions as progressive. Vardan
Poghosyan reminded that in 2004 in its intermediate report on the
constitutional amendments the Venice Commission noted, “The fixation of
constitutional guarantees for establishment and activity of independent
and impartial juridical system in Armenia is one of the key problems
of constitutional reform in Armenia.” In V. Poghosyan’s opinion,
it means that that Armenia still lacks independent and impartial
juridical system
According to him, current balance of forces (6+3) remains
unchanged. “When assessing the Azerbaijani Electoral Code the
Venice Commission and the OSCE Bureau on Human Rights and Democracy
pointed out to two circumstances – the commission should be formed
without giving advantage to the power-oriented political forces;
the decisions of the election commissions should be taken by 2/3
votes”, he noted. Contrary to Azerbaijan no demands of the kind
were made for Armenia. In its conclusion the Venice Commission
gave a negative estimate to the amendment according to which the
President of the republic forms all the election commissions. “The
amended Electoral Code does not state clearly whether the President
can decline the appointment of a candidate nominated by apposition
political party. Only this fact is enough not to consider the new
Code to be progressive”, Vardan Poghosyan resumed.
Victoria Abrahamyan

ABSURD, IMITATION BUT NOT REFORM
A1plus
| 11:48:24 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
Members of extra parliamentary parties are disappointed in the amended
Electoral Code.
“As a matter of fact there are no principal differences between the
acting and amended Electoral Code. There are no obvious changes as
regards the suffrage and electoral system”, second secretary of the
Communist party Frunze Kharatyan says. Powerful Fatherland party is
as well discontent. In their opinion no reformation took place and
today’s Electoral Code conflicts with the Constitution, as the latter
formulates the authorities of the juridical system.
Chairman of Powerful Fatherland party Vardan Vardapetyan hints at the
new order of formation of the election commissions. “We have 170 judges
and actually 90 of them should participate in the work of the election
commissions. Thus, it turns out that the judge should abandon his work
and joint the election commission. There are plenty of violations fixed
in each commission and the judge from the polling station should sit
into the judge’s chair and take a decision. It’s absurd”, he says.
The Communist party considers that the situations has become more
complicated. “What do the courts have to do with the election
commissions. Actually, at present the juridical bodies take more
active part in the election process than the parties and states bodies
do”, Frunze Kharatyan says.
By the way, all the extra parliamentary forces note the importance
of the formation of the election commissions, since in Armenia
the final outcome of the elections is still decided in these
commissions. The political forces not presented in the parliament
hold the opinion that in order to preserve balance the commission
should involve representatives of all the parties participating in
the elections. “Otherwise, the whole process is a mere imitation”,
they say.
Lena Badeyan

A1plus
| 11:17:53 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
NO POLITICAL WILL
June 20 the amendments to the Electoral Code will come into force
“Let the authorities not to connect the conduction of fair and
transparent elections with the clauses of the Electoral Code. They just
want to secure a basis for further lawless actions”, secretary of the
National Unity faction Alexan Karapetyan says. He considers that the
new Electoral Code showed regress as compared to the previous one. In
his opinion, taking into account the circumstance that the election
process will be controlled by the powers with rich experience of
falsifying the outcomes, the next elections will be much more worse.
Among the shortcomings of the EC Alexan Karapetyan marked the order
of formation of the election commissions. “Judges are included
in the commissions. How is the juridical power connected with the
conduction of elections?” he says. He also noted one more omission:
the Electoral Code does not regulate the issue of the participation
or non-participation of judges serving on the election commission
in the court proceedings. Alexan Karapetyan is convinced that the
amendments have not changed anything, since de facto judges are
appointed by the President.
Justice faction secretary Victor Dallakyan who is a co-author of
the previous Electoral Code, noted, “As a matter of fact the Code
was not improved. It can be proved by two ordinary examples – first,
the process of formation of the commissions offers the authorities the
possibility of large-scale falsifications and second, though there is
some progress as regards the empowered persons, the Central Election
Committee have exceed power of regulating the rights of the empowered
persons and observers.
Reminding that the Electoral Code is an essential but sufficient
condition for the conduction of democratic elections People’s Deputy
faction member Mkrtich Minasyan noted, “The new Electoral Code is not
perfect, however it contains some advantages.” For example, its authors
tried to settle the problems such as the expansion of authority of the
observers and empowered persons, responsibility for filing the rolls as
well as prolongation of the election campaign period. Diana Markosyan

ARMENIAN NATIONAL SECURITY ARRESTS TURKISH STUDENT ON CHARGES OF SMUGGLING
Armenpress
YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenian national security officers
arrested a Turkish student who they said was trying to smuggle out
of Armenia tens of books “of historical and cultural value” dating
back to 17 and 20 centuries.
A statement by the national security service said Ektan Turkilmaz,
33, a Turkish citizen from Istanbul and a student of a US-based Duke
University, in North Carolina, was arrested aboard a plane bound from
Yerevan to Istanbul. It said the books were about Armenian religious
rites, history and culture, Armenian traditional parties.
Turkyilmaz, who speaks Armenian, was the first and so far the only
Turkish scholar given access to Armenia~Rs state archives. He was
taught the language by an Armenian teacher in Istanbul, and arrived in
Armenia to work on his doctoral thesis that focuses on the creation
and activities of Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian parties during the
final decades of the Ottoman Empire. The national security service
said a criminal case was opened to investigate how the student was
able to take hold of these books.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DIPLOMAS TO THE DOCTORS
A1plus
| 19:33:02 | 17-06-2005 | Social |
The doctors are entrusted with the most important thing – the human
life. Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan reminded us of it to day
congratulating the workers of the sphere on the professional holiday.
“You do your work properly in any conditions, be it war, earthquake
or peace. Today there are many difficulties too, but they are not
like others. Our economy gives us the possibility to improve the
medical service field and conditions”, said the mayor.
Today the Yerevan municipality had organized reception. The Yerevan
mayor received the experienced workers of the medical field, and gave
diplomas to 25 doctors for highly professional work.
The rector of the Yerevan State Medical University Vilen Hakobyan
also made speech. He praised the ex-students of the University who,
according to the rector, do their duty wonderfully. Vilen Hakobyan
also thanked the mayor for attention, “We understand how busy you are,
but you do not forget doctors and I think it is the right thing to do”.

RESULTS OF CARELESSNESS
A1plus
19:13:15 | 17-06-2005 | Regions |
Because of financial problems this year in Gyumri no reconstruction
work has been done. By now in Gyumri 32 buildings in danger of
falling down have been reconstructed with the help of the Linse
Fund. In the city there are 37 more buildings which need to be
reconstructed. Artashes Sargsyan, head of the Shirak region urban
development administration, has told the TV Company “Tsayg” that
especially 6 buildings need urgent reconstruction.
These buildings are included into the state program of the buildings
subject to reconstruction every year but the Government does not allot
money for their reconstruction. And time does not wait for anyone,
and from time to time a building collapses.
According to Mr. Sargsyan, the situation in Gyumri has been created
not so much because of the earthquake but because of the state
carelessness and non-realization of reconstructions works in the
post-earthquake period.

NEW ELECTORAL CODE NOT PERFECT
A1plus
| 15:14:27 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
Choice is yours public organization worked out an interesting variant
of the reformed Electoral Code, all the pages of which are painted
either red or greed. The correlation of colors is almost equal, with
slight prevalence of red. Members of the organization, who participated
in the elections as observers tried to mark the positive and negative
aspects of the process. To note, negative ones are marked with red.
The organization members stressed the items referring to the rights
of the empowered persons and observers. However, there is an item
in the new Electoral Code that nullifies all the reforms. “Very
often the NA Speaker and the CEC members says how many proposals
by the Venice Commission they have adopted. However they had better
re-consider the order of the formation of the election commissions”,
organization chairman Khachatur Voskanyan says.
“If you examine the Constitution carefully you will see that such
functions are not offered to the courts. If we take into account
the current situation, when the Justice Council and the juridical
system are dependent, nothing will change”, he adds. In his opinion
the judge, who is appointed member of the election commission should
for some time suspend his activities as a judge.
The new Electoral Code says that the list of the candidates for
the post of the commission members should be presented to the
President. Only after that the composition of the commission is
established. To note, if the Court of Cassations and the NA group do
not manage to present their candidates within the terms fixed, the
posts will be occupied by the candidates appointed by the President
of the republic.
Lena Badeyan

LAW REFORMED, ATTITUDE UNCHANGED
A1plus
| 14:24:55 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
All the proposals by the Venice Commission with the exception of
one were included in the amended Electoral Code. “During the meeting
with the Venice Commission members I said that if fingers are inked
I will not participate in the elections”, Central Election Committee
chairman Garegin Azaryan said. He considers that such a condition
is humiliating not only for the voter but also for the election
commission members.
While working out the amendments to the Electoral Code the CEC chairman
has considered a great number of proposals. Some of them were adopted,
some weren’t. G. Azaryan is content that his proposals on roll filing,
appeal order, creation of computer network, exclusion of “Against all”
column from the voting paper were included in the amended Electoral
Code. His suggestion that the outcomes of the election should not
be summed up at the polling station was as well adopted. As the
CEC chairman Garegin Azaryan should fulfill the requirements of
the Electoral Code. However as an ordinary citizen and specialist
he considers the order of formation of the election commissions to
be inadmissible.
“Let us not forget that our Electoral Code does not determine the
criteria for the members of the election commissions. However I would
be glad if the commissions consisted of professionals. At that parties
and candidates can have the consultative vote. It is a classic variant
functioning in a number of European states”, he added.
Garegin Azaryan views that fact that henceforth the juridical power
will have the right to appoint its representatives to the election
commissions as positive. To remind, in Armenia the President is the
head of the Justice Council, who is empowered to appoint judges.
As for the rights of the empowered persons and observers, Garegin
Azaryan considers that pre-conditions for the conduction of free
and fair elections have been created. “The real shortcomings of
the Electoral Code will be revealed at practice only, since it is
impossible to apply even the best law without appropriate attitude
of the society”, he resumed.
Lena Badeyan