Month: October 2006

NAGORNO-KARABAKH LEADER DENIES RUMORS ABOUT HIS INTENTION TO SEEK A THIRD TERM

Armenpress
Oct 12 2006

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 12, ARMENPRESS: Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arkady
Ghukasian denied flatly Armenian media speculations about his intention
to seek a third consecutive term in the office.

"I do not have any intention to seek a third term in office,"
Ghukasian said to a special news briefing yesterday in Stepanakert
which he called to dispel these rumors, which he said were damaging
the democratic image of Nagorno- Karabakh.

Some media reports argued the constitution Nagorno-Karabakh is going to
adopt in December would actually mean a new countdown of presidential
terms and the plot is to pass it before next regular presidential
election to give Ghukasian a legal ground to rerun for presidency.

By Ghukasian said yesterday he would not seek a new term even if the
constitution gave him that chance.

"Moral rules are as important to me as legal norms. As a man and
a president I have done as much as I could to make the process of
democracy here irreversible," he said.

"I would never react to such insinuations except for two reasons:
the image of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic as a democratic state and
the fundamental importance of a constitution for the survival of our
state," he commented.

He stressed his priority was and has always been attaining
international recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the
strengthening of its statehood.

FRANCE CONDEMNS THE NEGATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

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[04:30 pm] 12 October, 2006

The French Parliament voted, today October 12, 2006, in favour of the
bill penalizing the negation of the Armenian genocide. After 3h30 of
debates to the platform of the national assembly, the deputies voted
"YES" in majority (127 against 19) for the law condemning the negation
of the Armenian genocide.

The amendment of former minister Patrick Devedjian, authorizing the
debate of the historians on the history of the Genocide was rejected
by the deputies.

In an atmosphere of great emotion the whole of the members of
Parliament present in the French hemicycle, affirmed with strength
their determination to defend the inalienable right of the Armenians.

"It is with the heart that UDF group will vote on the bill" said
Andre Santini, great friend of the Armenian community of France.This
law condemns the contraveners to a maximum sorrow of 45000 euros fine
and one year of prison.

ARMENIA INTENDS TO REALISE REFORMS IN 2007

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[03:34 pm] 12 October, 2006

Today, the 27th conference of European Ministers of Justice titled
"Victims: Place, Rights and Assistance" was convened in Yerevan. RA
Justice Minister David Haroutyunyan received his counterparts from
the CoE member countries at the entrance of the government premises.

"God chose Armenia as a country of Paradise, and we chose it as a
site for the conference," said Gay de Vail, head of the CoE legal
issues department in his opening speech. He reminded the participants
of the conference about the importance of rendering assistance and
compensation to the victims.

Europe adopted the Convention on Compensation of Victims Suffering
Violence in 1983. The Conventions on Actions against Trafficking in
Human Beings and on the Prevention of Terrorism combat were ratified
in 2005.

By the way, today Armenia ratified the European Convention on
Cybercrime and the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime
concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic
nature committed through computer system.

"At present we are working out the normative acts of gudicial system
amendments and we intend to realise the reforms in 2007," said Andranik
Margaryan, RA Prime Minister during the conference.

He also added that Armenia finishes the CoE commitments within the
framework of CoE integration and will undertake new commitments.

It is noteworthy that the Prime Minister’s speech wasn’t included in
the agenda of the 27th conference.

Instead, President Robert Kocharyan was to make a speech in the
conference but the latter didn’t come.

By the way, Armen Roustamyan, member of the Armenian delegation
was present at the Conference of European Ministers of Justice who
maintains that Armenia must be guided by the international practice
and use it in our country so that we could have perfect mechanisms,
and complete systems.

He claims that Armenian legal field will fully comply with the European
standards and the judicial system will become more independent and
transparent within two year’s time. He is convinced that "it will
contribute to the better protection of human rights in Armenia."

By the way, the representatives from Andora, Iceland, Cyprus and
Sweden were not present at the conference.

As soon as the conference started the journalists were denied entry.

"WHAT IS TURKEY’S PLACE IN EUROPE?"

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[01:36 pm] 12 October, 2006

His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia of the
Armenian Apostolic Church released a welcoming letter to the President
Jacque Shirak.

In his letter His Holiness Catholicos Aram I warmly welcomes the
French President’s attitude in connection with the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide.

"France is faithful to human values, law and principles of
justice. With this very example, France will be a good guide for all
the countries that still neglect the Armenian Genocide. Europe is
neither a merely geographical territory, nor a political unity.

Europe is a cultural and moral community based on human rights. That’s
why I would like to know, "What is the place of Turkey in Europe?" says
the letter.

"Mr. President your attitude towards the Armenian Genocide and its
recognition is characteristic of France, the country’s principles
and its unique role in protection of human rights."

AN ASSAULT ON THE JAVAKHQ RESIDENTS

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[12:52 pm] 12 October, 2006

According to the data of "United Javakhq" Democratic Union, on October
10 a group of criminals initiated an attack on Vahagn Chakhalyan,
member of the Union, members of his family and his friend Gourgen
Shirinyan.

Being preliminary informed about the time of their arrival, the group
met them on Ashtarak-Yerevan highway, then watched them in their cars
and finally stopped them in the city outskirts. The criminals came up
to Vahagn Chakhalyan from the back and hit him on the head with a metal
object. Then they stabbed Vahagn’s father and friend with a knife the
moment they were trying to protect Vahagn. Gourgen Shirinyan was taken
to hospital with serious bodily injuries where he was operated on.

"The violence followed the democratic measures to review the results of
the elections of the local self-government bodies which were fabricated
with frauds. It is noteworthy, that the mass media and TV Stations in
Yerevan made defaming announcements on "United Javakhq." This fact
gives ground to assume that the stooges of the Georgian authorities
(who realize the policy of displacing the Javakhq Armenians) try to
distort the general political picture of the territory and disorientate
the Armenian community.

"United Javakhq" Democratic Union condemns the attempts to solve
the interior problems of the Javakhq Armenians through inefficient
criminal attacks. The Union calls on the political forces concerned
with the stability and well-being of Javakhq, to take joint measures
to combat this phenomenon," says the announcement issued by the Union.

DEVECIYAN’S HOPE IS THE MADAME

Sabah, Turkey
Oct 12 2006

The most heated defender of the Armenian genocide denial, Deveciyan
said: "There is no risk of this bill not passing as the meeting will
be governed by the cabinet’s socialist vice-president, Mignon."

Patrick Deveciyan pointed out that the voting today on the Armenian
genocide denial bill, should go well, by saying: "The meeting is
managed by the cabinet’s socialist vice-president. There is no risk
of it not passing."

Strong supporter of the Armenian bill says: "There is no risk this
time."

A strong supporter of the legal draft considering the denial of
the Armenian genocide to be a crime, Deveciyan, said that there
is no risk this time for the bill which was prevented last time
around. The meeting will be managed by the socialist vice president
of the cabinet, Mignon.

If the prospective president candidate, Sarkozy, the Minister of
Internal Affairs, supports the denial bill, despite opposition in
his party; and if he offers conditions to the Prime Minister Erdoðan
to withdraw the bill, the most significant reason for this would
be Patrick Deveciyan. The famous advocate of Asala action, Patrick
Deveciyan, whose grandfather was a high level bureaucrat in the Ottoman
Empire is the most influential and active name connected to the bill.

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WHERE’S VOLTAIRE WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
Denis MacShane

The Guardian, UK
Oct 12 2006

Legislating to make denying the Armenians suffered genocide at the
hands of the Turks illegal deserves the scorn of France’s greatest
exponent of French speech.

Where is Voltaire when you need him? The decision of the French
politicians in the national assembly in Paris to legislate on the
writing of the history of the Armenian massacres of 1915-1916 deserves
the wit, the scorn, the satire and the derision of France’s greatest
exponent of free speech. I cannot believe that the nation of Voltaire,
Hugo, Zola and Sartre has decided to try and control what is written
about history.

But alas, Voltaire is dead and his spirit is slowly being extinguished
as freedom of speech is being replaced by freedom from being insulted
or hurt. The Turkish politicians who also want to dictate how the
Armenian massacres are reported must be opening champagne that they
now have fellow politicians who think they can control history.

Let us be clear. What happened to a million or more Armenians in the
dying days of the Ottoman empire as seismic changes took place in the
political landscape of the region was an atrocious crime. It joins the
other atrocious crimes of the 20th century from Stalin’s extermination
of the Ukrainian Kulaks, Mao’s murder through calculated starvation
of millions of Chinese in the 1950s, or, whisper it quietly in France,
the killing of scores of thousands of people in Madagascar or Algeria
by French soldiers. And more and more can be added.

Was it genocide? The word has become devalued as almost every event in
which innocent people are killed now seems automatically to get the tag
"genocide". Milosevic’s brutalities in the Balkans, the Palestinians
killed by Israelis, the horrific ethnic-tribal-religious wars in
Africa all get given the description "genocide" as if by using this
awesome term the deaths of the innocent are elevated.

What neither the Armenian tragedy nor any of the other mass
killings constitute is the equivalent of the Shoah – the 4-year long,
industrially organised, professionally executed transportation of Jews
from many countries in Europe to face a scientific, hi-tech, engineered
process of extermination. To deny the Holocaust is a deliberate ploy
by today’s Jew-haters to begin the process of returning Europe to a
past that begins with anti-semitic jokes and ends in gas chambers.

It little matters whether the disaster that befell the Armenians is
called genocide or not. It is not for states or parliament to award
descriptions to what happened in the past. That is for historians
and for a sense of deep cultural understanding.

The Turks are as foolish as the French in pretending that politicians
of today can define the events of yesterday. Last year I was attacked
by ultra-nationalists in Turkey when I attended the trial of Orhan
Pamuk, the new Nobel Laureate, who said that the Armenian massacres
should be discussed openly. Turkish law allows private and public
prosecutions against writers and journalists who want to examine
Turkey’s past without any limits on what can or might be said.

Now the French parliament have passed their own version of this
kind of legislation. I appear regularly on French radio and TV. If
I now say I do not believe that the deaths in 1915 merit the term
"genocide", will a gendarme arrive to arrest me? When the British
writer and Labour MP, Michael Foot, was in Paris in 1958 he wrote an
article criticising the behaviour of the then president, Rene Coty.

He was expelled from France for the crime of being rude about a
French president.

Five decades later France is now declaring that any European citizen
who decides to state that "genocide" is not the right term to use for
the Armenian massacres will face punishment under French law. How
has Europe come to behave like its own worst enemy? The Muslim
intellectual, Tariq Ramadam, first came to fame in his native Geneva
when he tried to stop the staging of a play by Voltaire in 1992, the
bicentenary of Voltaire’s death. Like the fatwa on Salman Rushdie this
was the beginning of the long assault against intellectual and artistic
freedom that Europe has had to defend itself against in recent years.

It is not a tragedy that the French parliament has now joined the
enemies of freedom with this attempt to control history. It is a farce,
which need to be laughed away with scorn. At a time when Europe should
defend freedom of expression it is hard to believe that European
politicians should be seeking to make thought a crime. We live in
strange times.

MARSAUD SAYS: "IT IS AGAINST FUNDAMENTAL LAW"

Sabah, Turkey
Oct 12 2006

Regarding the legal draft voted on today regarding the denial of
the Armenian genocide, which anticipates imprisonment and monetary
penalty, the chairman of the parliament’s law committee Marsaud said:
"It is against the freedom of opinion and fundamental law."

France recognized the Armenian genocide four years ago. Today, the
French parliament will vote on the legal draft deeming the "denial of
the Armenian genocide as a crime" which was prepared by the socialist
party. Regarding the legal draft which has caused debates for months,
the chairman of the parliament’s law committee Marsaud said: "It is
against the freedom of opinion and fundamental law."

ARMENIA BREAKS DOWN UNDER SERBIAN PRESSURE
by Damir Jovanovic

JadranSport.org, Serbia and Montenegro
Oct 12 2006

Serbs bag another three points as Armenia suffers a 3:0 defeat
in Belgrade

Serbia has won their second international duel this October by
defeating Armenia 3:0 on Wednesday and earned the right to remain at
the top place of the Euro 08 qualifying Group A. The Serbian national
team now has ten points from four games and stands first, leaving
Finland in the chase with eight while Belgium & Portugal have seven.

The scorers for Serbia in this match were Dejan Stankovic, Danko
Lazovic and "of course" Nikola Zigic.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR PAMUK GETS MIXED REVIEWS IN TURKEY
By Vincent Boland in Ankara

Financial Times, UK
Oct 12 2006

Turkey reacted with a mixture of pride and cynicism on Thursday to
the awarding of the Nobel prize for literature to Orhan Pamuk, the
country’s most controversial novelist.

In literary and academic circles the announcement that Mr Pamuk had
become the first Turkish person ever to win a Nobel prize was greeted
with joy. "He is a representative of modern Turkey," said Cengiz Aktar,
an academic in Istanbul. "He will probably now become the conscience
of modern Turkey."

But nationalists who have accused Mr Pamuk of being unpatriotic
said the award was a political gesture by the Swedish Academy. Kemal
Kerincsiz, leader of a group of ultra-nationalist lawyers that brought
charges against Mr Pamuk, said he was ashamed at the award.

"The prize that was given was not a source of pride. As a Turkish
citizen I am ashamed," he said.

Less than a year ago Mr Pamuk, whose elegantly descriptive yet
melancholic books partly focus on how modern Turkey deals with
its past, was on trial in Istanbul for "insulting Turkishness". At
issue were remarks he made about the need for Turkey to confront
its historical role in the massacres of Armenians and Kurds in the
last century.

The comments enraged a section of hardline nationalist opinion and
led to a chaotic trial that caused violent scenes on the streets and
was eventually abandoned. Importantly, he was not acquitted and for
many of critics he is still on trial.

Adding to the political significance of the award to a Turk, and
to Turkish sensitivities about Armenian claims of genocide during
the collapse of the Ottoman empire, the Nobel prize was given to Mr
Pamuk on the day the lower house of the French parliament voted to
make denial of the genocide claim a crime. The vote has infuriated
many Turks, who blame Mr Pamuk, among others, for stoking the debate
against Turkey abroad.

Other writers have been prosecuted in Turkey this year under a clause
in the penal code that is aimed at stifling criticism of the state
and its institutions. The European Union, which Turkey wants to join,
is urging Ankara to amend or abolish the law, a move that is made
more unlikely by the French parliamentary vote.

Mr Pamuk said he was honoured by the Nobel award, given by the Swedish
Academy and worth SKr10m ($1.35m) ([email protected]) (£730,000).

Writers’ clubs in Turkey said it would raise the profile of Turkish
literature.

Mr Pamuk is feted as his country’s most widely read writer, read
as much abroad as at home. He is also something of a celebrity in
literature circles in Europe and the US.

Erda Gocnar, assistant professor at Duke University, said the court
case against Mr Pamuk became an international cause celèbre because
"it was really about a struggle over Turkey’s political identity as
an EU and Muslim country".

Others, however, questioned the political dimension of awarding the
prize to Mr Pamuk within months of his trial. Suat Kiniklioglu, head
of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the US, said:
"A lot of people in Turkey, including me, will think it was awarded
not for his artistic merits but because of his remarks about Armenia,
which did great damage to the perception of Turkey."

As well as looking at how Turkey’s past is mirrored in the present,
Mr Pamuk’s books, including Snow and My Name is Red, address the
clash between east and west inside the country. He has won numerous
other awards, both in Turkey and abroad.

The Swedish Academy said it had given Mr Pamuk the award because "in
the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city [Istanbul], he
has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures".

Horace Engdahl, the academy’s head, said Mr Pamuk understood the
reasons why he won the award. "I believe this will be met with delight
by all readers and lovers of novels," Mr Engdahl said.

"But it can naturally give rise to a certain amount of political
turbulence. That is not what we are interested in."

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