Month: October 2006

ARMENIAN DM: EFFICIENT ARMY IS NOT ONLY BIG FINANCING

ARMINFO News Agency
October 10, 2006 Tuesday

Efficient army is not only big financing, Armenian Defense Minister
Serzh Sargsyan says in an interview to REGNUM (Russia) and El Pais
(Spain).

Asked for how long the "neither peace nor war" situation may go on in
Nagorno-Karabakh now that Azerbaijan is quite actively strengthening
its economy, Sargsyan says that the Azeri economy is really developing,
but in 2005 Armenia had bigger economic growth.

This year, due to growing oil revenues, Azerbaijan is developing a
bit more actively, but it would be wrong to say that the economic
growth in Azerbaijan may force the Armenian side to capitulate. On
the contrary, it may urge it to work better and to seek improvement
not only in the economy but in other sectors – to become a developed
state with a modern highly efficient army. "Only this will allow us
to effectively oppose Azerbaijan in case of new war," says Sargsyan.

He notes that Azerbaijan does not have an overwhelming economic
advantage over Armenia. It will take Azerbaijan several decades
to attain the advantages it had in the early 1990s. And even then,
despite its big advantages, the Azeri side lost the war. "So, I would
like to advise all those relying on money to come to their senses and
to consider the lessons of the war Azerbaijan has once unleashed and
lost," says Sargsyan."

He says that in 2007 Armenia plans to spend 3.5% of its GDP on defense
– some $270-280 mln. This may be much for Armenia but compared with
some other countries this is not enough for building a modern efficient
army. Everything is relative, says Sargsyan.

Asked if the Nagorno-Karabakh problem can be solved by peace, Sargsyan
says: "Of course, it can. Any peace agreement implies agreement of
the sides. This is like marriage. There is no marriage without mutual
agreement. So, if we seek to solve the problem and Azerbaijan not, we
can’t help it. We believe that this problem must be solved peacefully
on the basis of mutual compromise," says Sargsyan.

Asked about the possibility of return of refugees, Sargsyan says
that now that the problem is yet unresolved, that people have not
yet healed the wounds they got during the war, the return of refugees
is impossible.

The compromise is not about this. The people who left Nagorno-Karabakh
14-15 years ago have long settled down in new environments and are
hardly prepared to leave everything they have there and to come back
to Nagorno-Karabakh. The compromise is about Azerbaijan’s recognizing
the right of the Karabakh people to live independently, so they can
feel themselves secure and no longer rely on the security zone. There
are other important components. The compromise must concern security –
only then it will lead to stable peace, says Sargsyan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJAN WILL NOT MEET IN MINSK OCT 17

ARMINFO News Agency
October 10, 2006 Tuesday

The Armenian and Azeri presidents will not meet in Minsk Oct 17,
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan says in an interview to
Hayastani Hanrapetoutyun daily.

The point is that the CIS Summit in Minsk Oct 17 has been postponed for
a month at least. Only the CIS FMs will meet in Minsk but the Armenian
and Azeri FMs will not meet tete-a-tete as they will have little time
and it is more expedient for them to meet Oct 24, says Oskanyan.

To remind, during their last meeting in Moscow Oct 6 the Armenian
and Azeri FMs agreed to meet in Paris Oct 24.

Commenting on the results of the meeting, Oskanayn says that the
co-chairs did not make new proposals but offered some new ideas
concerning the moot questions. Oskanyan says that the ideas are quite
interesting and should be seriously considered. Oct 24 the FMs will
consider them in general and during the next meeting in detail. Only
then will they be able to see if these ideas are leading them in the
right direction and if there is a necessity for a presidential meeting.

Oskanyan refuses to specify the moot questions but advises to
attentively follow the statements of the OSCE MG co-chairs and the
Armenian and Azeri FMs.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH PM SAYS FRENCH REASON IN ‘ECLIPSE’ OVER GENOCIDE BILL

Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired a broadside at
France Tuesday in a mounting row over a draft law on the massacres
of Armenians under Ottoman rule, calling the bill the product of "an
eclipse of reason" and urging Paris to rethink its own colonial past.

"We expect Paris to avoid this blunder, this political accident that
will harm Turkish-French relations," Erdogan told the parliamentary
group of his Justice and Development Party in a speech interrupted
by applause.

"The EU must absolutely take a stand against this eclipse of reason
in France," he said.

Erdogan rejected suggestions by some Turkish lawmakers for Ankara
to retaliate, if the bill is voted, with a similar law making it a
crime to deny that the killings of tens of thousands of Algerians
under French colonial rule amounted to genocide.

"No, we will not retaliate in kind — we do not clean filth with
filth," he said, but he urged the bill’s backers to closely examine
their own past.

"Those vehicles of of slander and lies should look at their own
past… Let them look at what happened in Algeria between 1954 and
1962," he said.

The French bill, to be debated and voted at the National Assembly
on Thursday, calls for one year in prison and a 45,000-euro
(57,000-dollar) fine for denying that Armenians were the victims of
genocide during World War I.

Erdogan said the bill will prevent free debate on a historical subject
and violate freedom of expression, a basic EU norm that Turkey itself
is under pressure to respect.

But he said the bill would not discourage Turkey from pursuing its
bid to join the European Union.

"Minor snags will not deter us from pursuing our major goals… Work
on our EU (membership) process continues unabated," he said.

Ankara has warned France that it will be barred from potentially
lucrative economic projects in Turkey, including a planned nuclear
power plant, if the bill is adopted.

In a 2001 resolution, France recognized the Armenian massacres as
genocide, prompting Ankara to sideline French companies from public
tenders and cancel several projects awarded to French firms.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians seeking
independence in eastern Anatolia sided with invading Russian troops
as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

GEORGIAN AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS CONCERNED OVER REPATRIATION OF MESKHETIAN TURKS TO SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI

ARMINFO News Agency
October 10, 2006 Tuesday

Georgian and international human rights activists are concerned over
the inadequate actions of the Georgian authorities to repatriate
Meskhetian Turks to Georgia’s mostly-Armenian Samtskhe-Javakheti
region. They say that this may aggravate the complicated ethnic
situation in the country.

During the working session of the 11th OSCE Human Dimension
Implementation meeting in Warsaw, Deputy Director of the Humanitarian
Cooperation and Human Rights Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry
S. Tolkalin invited the attention of the OSCE to the violation of the
rights of ethnic minorities, particularly, Armenians and Azeris, in
Georgia. He said that those two communities are constantly complaining
of their deteriorating state.

The press service of the Russian Embassy in Yerevan reports Tolkanlin
to say: "We know well how the OSCE and its member states react to
such events and we are expecting the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, ODIHR,
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and High Commissioner for
National Minorities to give an appropriate assessment of the human
rights situation in Georgia."

CRISIS LOOMS IN TURKISH-FRENCH TIES OVER GENOCIDE BILL
by Hande Culpan

Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday

Ankara launched a scathing attack against Paris on Tuesday, accusing
it of losing its reason over a draft law on the World War I massacres
of Armenians and warning that bilateral ties will suffer if the bill
is enacted.

The draft, scheduled for debate and a vote before the French National
Assembly on Thursday, calls for one year in prison and a 45,000 euro
(57,000 dollar) fine for anyone who denies that Armenians were the
victims of a genocide under the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern Turkey.

"We expect Paris to avoid this blunder, this political accident
that will harm Turkish-French relations," Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the parliamentary group of his Justice and
Development Party in a speech interrupted by applause.

"The EU must absolutely take a stand against this eclipse of reason
in France," he said, charging that the bill would violate freedom
of expression, a basic EU norm that Turkey itself is under pressure
to respect.

Drawn up by the Socialist opposition, the bill was first submitted
in May, but the debate ran out of time after filibustering from the
ruling UMP party bloc.

Turkish officials believe it stands a good chance of being voted
Thursday — as a gesture to France’s large Armenian community ahead
of legislative elections next year — as many lawmakers opposed to
the bill will be away in their constituencies.

Ankara has warned that French firms will be barred from major tenders,
including one for the planned construction of the country’s first
nuclear power plant, if the bill is accepted.

"The French will lose Turkey," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned
on Sunday.

The Ankara Chamber of Commerce, which groups some 3,200 businesses,
and the Consumers’ Union, a non-governmental consumer rights group,
have threatend to boycott French goods.

In 2001, Turkey sidelined French companies from public tenders and
cancelled projects awarded to French firms when parliament adopted
a resolution recognising the massacres as genocide.

At stake now is a flourishing trade between the two countries that
totalled 8.2 billion euros (10 billion dolars) in 2005.

About 250 French firms are active in Turkey, providing employment
for about 65,000 people.

France also plays a leading role in foreign direct investment in
Turkey with 2.1 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros) last year and 328
million dollars (260 million euros) in the first seven months of 2006.

But some commentators have warned that suspending economic ties with
France would have a bruising affect on Turkey, for which foreign
investment is vital as it recovers from two severe financial crises.

Turkey could also retaliate politically, keeping bilateral contacts at
a minimum and at the lowest diplomatic level and possibly cancelling
bilateral visits.

One senior lawmaker warned the Turkish parliament could retaliate with
a law proclaiming the killing of Algerians under French colonial rule
as genocide and its denial a jailable offense, but Erdogan rejected
the suggestion.

"No," he said, "we will not retaliate in kind — we do not clean
filth with filth."

The Armenian massacres are one of most controversial episodes in
Turkish history and open debate on the issue has only recently begun
in Turkey, often sending nationalist sentiment into frenzy.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, arguing that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians rose for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ALIYEV SAYS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT POSSIBLE ONLY ON LEGAL BASIS
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva and Viktor Shulman

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday

The resolution of the Karabakh conflict "can only be possible on a
legal basis", Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference after top-level talks with Romania,
Aliyev said the conflict was "the biggest source of threat to regional
stability and security."

"Azerbaijan recognises the territorial integrity of all states of the
world and demands that its territorial integrity be recognised too,"
the president said.

He stressed that his country had become a U.N. member with
Nagorno-Karabakh as its part.

In his words, "different measures may be taken" to ensure the
security of the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh, including
"the provision of a high status of autonomy" to this region.

"But separating Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan, creating a second
Armenian state in its territory or incorporating it into Armenia
cannot be a subject of talks," Aliyev said.

He thanked the Romanian leadership for the support of this position
stated in a joint declaration signed by the presidents of the two
countries in Baku.

Aliyev believes that all conflicts should be resolved on the basis
of unified approaches. "If a settlement is based not on international
law but on some other principles, this will have negative consequences
for the whole region," he warned.

The president of Romania called for cooperation with Azerbaijan in
resolving "frozen conflicts", including the Nagorno-Karabakh one.

RUSSIA RAILWAYS TO MULL PARTICIPATION IN ARMENIA RAILWAYS TENDER

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday

The Russian Railways joint-stock company will consider the issue of
participation in a tender for the concession of Armenian Railways,
the public relations department of Russian Railways reported with
reference to the company president Vladimir Yakunin.

According to the department, Russian and Armenian railwaymen have
always been united by fruitful cooperation and Russian Railways
continues to fulfil all obligations it assumed on the provision and
development of railway connection. "We undoubtedly will consider the
issue of Russian Railways’ participation in the international tender,"
Yakunin pointed out, Prime-Tass reports.

Armenian Transport and Communications Minister Andranik Manukyan
announced on Wednesday at the opening of the 44th meeting of the
Council of Railway Transport of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) that concession of Armenian Railways will be leased to
a foreign investor or railway administration for 40 years. "We would
like major rail companies to take concession of the Armenian Railways,"
the minister said.

Armenia’s railway was built by the Russian empire government in the
second half of the nineteenth century. At present, the total length of
Armenia’s railways is 1,500 kilometres. Out of its 75 stations four are
junction points linking Armenia with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The carrying capacity of the Armenian railway is three million
tonnes of cargoes and five million passengers a year. According to
forecasts made by experts of the transport sphere, volumes of railway
transportation in Armenia will double by 2010.

The Armenian railway is fully electrified and equipped with a modern
automatic block systems and communication equipment.

After restructuring Armenian Railways got the status of a closed
joint-stock company owned by the state. Within the framework of the
country’s economic reforms the Armenian government follows the path
of raising the efficiency of this kind of transport.

According to international law, concession is a form of the attraction
of foreign capital when the state leases the enterprise to foreign
firms of individuals for exploitation for a specified term and for
value. The state has the right to terminate the concession after the
agreement term expires.

CIS, BALTIC RZD COUNCIL FOCUSES ON PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION
by Tigran Liloyan and Roman Romishevsky

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday

Prospects for cooperation in international passenger service and
railway haulage and norms of the railway timetable in 2007-2008 are
central of the 44th session of the CIS and Baltic Railway Council.

In his greetings message on Wednesday, Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan said the implementation of problems to be raised at the
session "will facilitate integration of transport systems of CIS
states and the development of international and regional cooperation
as a whole." "Nothing may bring closer peoples as free international
trade based on free movement of people and goods," he stressed.

Chairman of the Council, Russian Railways (RZD) head Vladimir Yakunin
said in the eight months a total of 1.4 billion tonnes of cargoes,
including ferrous and non-ferrous metals, cement, coal, oil and oil
products, were transported (4.5 percent more than in the same period
of the year 2005).

In his words, one of the pressing issues is rolling stock. Every
year "we should acquire 70,000-80,000 railroad cars to renovate our
rolling stock because only 62 percent of freight cars responds to
our requirements," Yakunin said.

The Council’s commercial director, David Dzhindzholiya, told
journalists, "I hope that Russian railway personnel will lift its
ban on passenger service between the two countries."

The session involves heads of railways of Russia, Armenia, Belarus,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, as well as
Bulgaria and Finland.

The CIS and Baltic Railway Council was set up on the basis of the
February 14, 1992 inter-governmental agreement to coordinate the work
of CIS railways. Its major task is to coordinate rail transport at
the intergovernmental level and to work out consistent principles
for its operations.

NATO REPRESENTATIVE TO DISCUSS PARTNERSHIP PLAN IN ARMENIA
by Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday

A high-ranking NATO official will discuss in Yerevan the current
stage of cooperation, in particular the progress of an individual
partnership plan.

The NATO secretary-general’s representative for Caucasus and Central
Asia Robert Simmons arrives in the Armenia capital on Wednesday on
his tour of the region, an Armenian Foreign Ministry official told
ITAR-TASS.

Simmons will meet Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, Defence Minister
Serzh Sarkisyan and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan.

He will inform about his trip ambassadors of NATO countries in Yerevan.

Simmons will unveil a NATO information centre in Armenia, the setting
up of which is a part of the country’s individual partnership with
the Western alliance that began in last year’s December.

Armenia "is going to activate practical and political cooperation with
NATO with the aim of coming closer with the alliance," the individual
partnership plan published in August says.

Armenia’s obligations under the plan confirm the determination to
implement a security accord signed with NATO.

Yerevan "will continue the formation of one peacekeeping battalion
meeting the NATO criteria with a view of its further transformation
into a peacekeeping brigade".

TURKEY’S ARMENIANS DISTRUST FRENCH GENOCIDE BILL
by Nicolas Cheviron

Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday 3:42 PM GMT

Turkey’s Armenians have raised their voice against a French bill that
makes it a jailable offense to deny their ancestors were the victim
of genocide under Ottoman rule.

They fear it will antagonize the Turkish majority and further strain
an already tense debate.

The draft law, to be debated and voted in the French parliament
Thursday, calls for one year in prison and a hefty 45,000-euro
(57,000 dollar) fine for anyone who denies that the World War I
massacres constituted genocide.

Among the first to condemn the bill was journalist Hrant Dink, who is
among a handful of taboo-breaking intellectuals in Turkey who have
openly argued that the massacres were genocide, drawing nationalist
ire and landing himself in court.

"This is idiocy," the Turkish-Armenian Dink said in remarks to the
liberal daily Radikal. "It only shows that those who restrict freedom
of expression in Turkey and those who try to restrict it in France
are of the same mentality."

Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly Agos, received
a six-month suspended sentence last year for "insulting Turkishness"
in an article about the 1915-1917 massacres.

He is scheduled to go on trial again under the same provision, this
time for saying the killings were genocide.

Dink said he was ready to defend freedom of expression even if it
means running the risk of imprisonment in France.

"I am standing trial in Turkey for saying it was genocide. If this
bill is adopted, I will go to France and, in spite of my conviction,
I will say it was not genocide," he said in a television interview.

"The two countries can then compete to see who throws me in jail
first."

Another Armenian journalist, Etyen Mahcupyan, said Turks see the
proposed law as an imposition on them to accept the genocide and
feared the French move could scupper a fledgling, timid debate in
Turkey to question its past.

"Initiatives like the one in the French parliament are awkward,"
he told AFP. "They push the Turks closer to the state and make them
more vulnerable to manipulation."

Discussing the massacres was a near-taboo in Turkey until recently
and an open debate on the issue — one of the most controversial in
Turkish history — still sends nationalist sentiment into frenzy.

Mahcupyan, a columnist for the conservative daily Zaman, called on
European countries to back efforts to improve democracy in Turkey,
which he said was the only way to ensure free debate and challenge
Ankara’s official line.

The Armenian Patriarchate said the French bill only created obstacles
to frank dialogue between Armenians and Turks.

"All initiatives creating obstacles to freedom of expression endanger
the process of dialogue between the Turkish and Armenian societies,
and reinforce nationalist and racist tendancies on both sides,"
the head of the Armenian Church said in a statement.

Ara Kocunyan, editor of the small Armenian-language daily Jamanak,
criticized what he called the feeling of "self-victimization" with
which the Armenian diaspora in the West is pursuing its campaign to
have the massacres internationally recognized as genocide.

He urged instead increased efforts to combat the dire economic
situation in Armenia, to which Turkey has contributed by sealing
its border.

"If we stick to the current priorities, I fear those weeping today
for a father killed 90 years ago will find themselves weeping for
little Armenia in 50 years’ time," Kocunyan said.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, saying 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.