Month: October 2006

ARMENIAN LAW INFORCEMENT AGENCIES DISCLOSED MURDER OF "AVIASERVICE" CJSC SERVICE CHIEF ARTHUR KHALATYAN

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday

The Armenian law-enforcement agencies have disclosed the murder of
"Aviaservice" CJSC service chief Arthur Khalatyan.

The Armenian Police press-service says that as a result of
operative-investigation actions it was found out that an inhabitant
of Byureghavan Robert Sargsyan entered into collusion with his cousin
Henrik Hovnikyan and his friend Tatoul Mirzoyan with the intention
to take possession of the deceased’s flat, cruelly beat and smothered
him. Tatoul Mirzoyan is arrested, Robert Sargsyan and Henrik Hovnikyan
are wanted by the police. Khalatyan’s body was found on September 30
around 11:30 PM. The public prosecutor’s office of Kotayk region has
instituted a criminal case under part 1 of Clause 104 (murder) of the
Armenian Criminal Code. According to the law enforcement agencies,
Sargsyan got acquainted with Khalatyan on September 20, 2006, through
the "PB Realty" Agency to buy his flat for 145 thousand dollars. On
September 30 around 11 AM Sargsyan and Khalatyan met in Yerevan to
clarify some questions about the price and agreed to come to the
agency two hours later. But afterwards it was impossible to get in
touch with Khalatyan, and Sargsyan refused the meeting. The same day
around 4 PM Sargsyan left his car VAZ 2121 at his relative’s in Zar
village and disappeared in an unknown direction.

BASESCU IN ARMENIA: ROMANIANS PAY FOR TRANSITION FROM COMMUNISM TO CAPITALISM

Rompres news agency, Bucharest,
5 Oct 2006

Yerevan, 5 October: The transition from communism to capitalism is a
decision assumed by politicians and taken to effect only if they have
the populations’ support, who pays the costs of this transformation,
said on Thursday 5 October in Yerevan the Romanian President Traian
Basescu in front of the students and professors with the State
University.

The Romanian head of state made a presentation of the transformations
occurred in Romania since the revolution in December 1989. He said that
Romanians had the power and patience to bear the transition period,
for they wanted to join Europe that they had left against their will
50 years before.

"We are aware that the EU accession is a new beginning for Romania.

Our country, as NATO and EU member, regained its dignity by coming
back home and starts the difficult process of the effective EU
integration," said Basescu. The Romanian president stressed that it
would take many years until Romania will be fully integrated into
the European structures.

Traian Basescu said that Romania grew economically and politically
since 2000, the first year when the Romania economy gave signs of
recovery and reported a 1.5 per cent growth of GDP, which proved that
the transition period was over.

The Romanian president received on Thursday the title Doctor Honouris
Causa of the state university in Yerevan, being his second such award
received since he became president. He also received the Diploma of
Honour and Merit of the same university.

ROMANIAN PRESIDENT RETURNS FROM ARMENIA

Rompres news agency, Bucharest,
5 Oct 2006

Bucharest, 5 October: President Traian Basescu arrived back home on
Thursday [5 October] from a two-day official visit to Yerevan paid
at the invitation of Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan.

Basescu told reporters at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International
Airport that the visit had been part of several such visits paid
to the Black Sea states, being aimed at strengthening the bilateral
relations with the Black Sea countries with a view to establishing
a security space conducive to the area’s development.

The talks held in Yerevan had focused on the need to implement the
project on setting up the Black Sea Euro-region, the president said;
the visit was an opportunity to adjust the bilateral Romanian-Armenian
agreements to Romania’s new status of a European Union member,
he added.

During talks with the Armenian president, Basescu said Romanian
backs unreservedly Armenia’s moves to get closer to the European and
Euro-Atlantic structures.

The two leaders also tackled the trade between Romania and Armenia
and discussed a range of projects that might be achieved by the
two countries such as Armenia using the Romanian Black Sea port
of Constanta, the opening of a direct airline between Yerevan and
Bucharest and the establishment of joint chambers of commerce.

Basescu also had talks with the Armenian premier and met the students
and professors of the Yerevan State University, to whom he spoke
about Romania’s transition from communism to capitalism, about the
costs paid by the Romanians on this road and the implications of
Romania’s EU membership, which – he said – is an as long road as the
one of transition.

The Romanian leader was awarded the Doctor Honouris Causa honorary
title by the Yerevan State University and the university’s honorary
diploma and gold medal.

Basescu laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Victims of the Genocide
in Armenia and planted a tree to the memory of nearly 1.5 million
Armenians killed in 1915.

ARMENIAN GEOLOGISTS IMPLEMENT LARGE-SCALE EXPLORATION WORKS AT METAL DEPOSITS

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday

Director of "RAKE" contractor company, hydro-geologist Rouben Arakelyan
told an ArmInfo correspondent that the first results of geological
exploration of metal deposits in the Getik River basin, Gegharkunik
region of Armenia, will be presented at the end of the current year.

To note, the geologists carry out the order of Global Gold Corporation,
which exploits several gold deposits in Armenia. The members of the
geological expedition are making the map of the area, determining
the content of precious and non-ferrous metals in the Getik deposit
that occupies an area of 2,5 thousand ha. All the samples taken from
the deposit are passed to the GGC company which, in its turn, passes
them to Armenian and foreign laboratories.

According to Arakelyan, one can imagine the approximate reserves
of ore containing gold, silver, copper and other volcanic rocks and
sediments only after the results of the laboratory examinations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU/SOUTH CAUCASUS : EU TO DEVELOP CLOSER RELATIONS WITH SOUTH CAUCASUS

European Report
October 5, 2006

The EU is to formally endorse European Neighbourhood Policy Action
Plans with three South Caucasian countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia, in November. The final agreement on the ENP Action Plan texts
was reached by the Ministerial Troika of the EU (External Commissioner
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Finland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Erkki
Tuomioja and Minister of State Gunter Gloser of Germany) during its
visit to the South Caucasus on 2-3 October. The formal adoption of
agreements (each plan is tailor-made to the individual needs of each
country) will take place at the next EU Cooperation Council with
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, to be held on 14 November in Brussels.

The Commission tabled its proposals for the action plans for the three
South Caucasus countries in March 2005 but formal endorsement of the
plans has been postponed several times. Before doing so, the EU and all
three countries had to tackle particular issues which came up during
negotiations. One of them was the Azerbaijani-Cypriot argument over
northern Cyprus. Azerbaijan was refusing to commit itself unequivocally
to respect the policy of isolation followed by the EU with regard to
Northern Cyprus. In response Cyprus was preventing the action plan
from coming into effect unless Azerbaijan clearly renounced links
to Northern Cyprus. Armenia was trying to secure more financial EU
support for the decommissioning of the Medzamor nuclear plant and
alternative energy supplies. Georgia’s diplomatic energy was in turn
focused on securing greater EU involvement in conflict resolution –
something the "action plans" do not encompass beyond a reference to
the EU’s readiness to assist with post-conflict rehabilitation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LISTED WORLD LEADERS IN AD1006

The Guardian (London)
October 5, 2006 Thursday

Ani (Armenia) King Gagik I

Byzantine Empire Basil II Bulgaroktonus

Caliphate Al-Qadir

China Zhenzong, Emperor of Song

Denmark & Norway Sweyn Forkbeard

England Ethelred II

France Robert II the Pious

Ghaznavid Empire Mahmud of Ghaznavid

Holy Roman Empire Henry II

Hungary Stephen I

Ireland High King Brian Boru

Japan Emperor Ichijo

Khmer Empire Jayaviravarman & Suryavarman I

Korea King Mokjong of Goryeo

Poland Boleslaw I the Brave

Tamil Nadu King Rajaraja Chola

Spain Hisham II, Caliph of Cordoba

Sweden Olof the Tax-King

Wales (Gwynedd) Llywelyn ap Seisyll

GHUKASYAN, BRITISH NGO MEMBERS DISCUSS MINE CLEARANCE

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Oct 5 2006

Yerevan, 5 October: The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic
[NKR], Arkadiy Gukasyan, met representatives of Britain’s Halo
Trust mine clearance non-governmental organization in Stepanakert
[Xankandi] today.

The head of the Nagornyy Karabakh branch the British NGO Halo Trust,
Valon Kumnova, and the representative of the British organization
in the Balkans and in the Caucasus, Matthew Conway, told the NKR
president that about 100 sq.km. of territory have been cleared of
land mines and more than 43,000 projectiles have been defused with
the help of the organization, Mediamax reports.

Gukasyan pointed out that thanks to its high quality work to clear
land mines, Halo Trust has been respected and trusted by the people
of Nagornyy Karabakh for a long time. The NKR president expressed his
gratitude to the representatives of the organization and confirmed
that Stepanakert is ready to make every effort to help implement
their programmes in Nagornyy Karabakh.

ARMENIAN, GREEK DMS DISCUSS MILITARY COOPERATION

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Oct 5 2006

Yerevan, 5 October: Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan met Greek
National Defence Minister Evangelos Meimarakis in Athens on 4 October.

The ministers discussed prospects of developing military cooperation
and reached a number of agreements on expanding contacts in military
education and peacekeeping, the press secretary of the Armenian
Defence Ministry, Seyran Shakhsuvaryan, told Mediamax.

Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan attended an opening ceremony
of the Defendory International 2006 arms exhibition on 3 October. The
Armenian defence minister also visited the Military Academy of Land
Forces of Greece, where he met the leadership of the academy and the
Armenian cadets.

The Armenian delegation also visited the military museum of the Greek
Defence Ministry. At the meeting with the curator of the museum an
agreement was reached to organize an exhibition about the history of
the Armenian armed forces in 2007.

ARMENIAN KURDS STAND BY TRUCE IN CONFLICT WITH TURKEY – LEADER

Regnum, Russia
Oct 5 2006

The Union of Organizations of Kurdistan (KKK) [as published: KKK
refers to Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan] takes up a principled
position of proclaiming peace and opposing war, but if necessary it
will not shun an armed struggle for the rights of its people and to
arouse their national hopes. The KKK issued this statement in Yerevan
on 4 October.

The chairman of the Armenian Kurdistan Committee, Charkyaz Mstoyan,
said at a press conference that the Turkish side and certain Turkish
socio-political forces, unlike Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
had reacted in a positive way to the initiative of the leader of the
Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] on a cease-fire. It will be recalled
that the PKK leader Abdulla Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in
a prison on Imraly Island, made a statement through his solicitors
in which he urged the members of the PKK to lay down their arms and
try to resolve the conflict with the Turkish authorities by peaceful
means. According to the Turkish prime minister, "such an agreement
with terrorists is impossible they are the ones who should lay down
their arms".

The Armenian Kurdistan Committee said that because of Turkey’s ongoing
policy of rejection of the Kurds, the unilateral truce declared
by the Kurdish side was terminated on 1 June 2004. During the last
two and a half years the Kurdish-Turkish conflict has been manifest
in various forms. Hostilities have increased with heavy human and
material losses. The international community and Turkish and Kurdish
socio-political circles have expressed serious concern and come out
with a proposal for a further truce. The leader of the Kurdish people,
Abdulla Ocalan, called for a truce on 1 October [2006] on condition
that weapons should never be used.

"However, this is on condition that no attack is made on our side,
otherwise we will use all possible methods to defend ourselves. The
People’s Defence Forces (HPG) organization, apart from necessary
preparations, will not undertake any combat operations. The military
council of the HPG will direct all its efforts and its programme to
comply with the truce. This decision applies to all the forces within
the system of the Union of Organizations of Kurdistan. Nothing must
stand in the way of the implementation of the truce process. Everyone
must contribute towards establishing a stable situation," the
statement notes.

Charkyaz Mstoyan also said that the trilateral international commission
(consisting of representatives of the USA, Iraq and Turkey), which was
created on the initiative of international political structures, has
not yet come out with any statement on the Kurdish problem. According
to Mstoyan, it was expected that Iraq would present a Kurdish
representative, "but for some reason a Sunni Arabian representative
was proposed". "The Kurdish leadership said that this was a Kurdish
problem and the talks must take place with the participation of a
Kurdish representative. However, as yet no information regarding
the activity and proposals of the trilateral commission has been
received. Everything is in the process of discussion," Charkyaz
Mstoyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DUTCH TURKS COULD BOYCOTT ELECTIONS OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ROW

Agence France Presse — English
October 5, 2006 Thursday 1:02 PM GMT

Turkish groups in the Netherlands expressed concern Thursday that
voters of Turkish origin will boycott elections after candidates
for parliament were bumped off the electoral lists after refusing to
acknowledge the Armenian genocide.

Last week the Netherlands’ two biggest political parties, the ruling
Christian Democrat CDA and the opposition PvdA labour party, scrapped
three prospective MP’s of Turkish origin from their list of candidates
for the November 22 elections because they would not recognize the
World War I massacre of Armenians as a genocide.

"We have heard from every side that voters of Turkish origin are
disappointed and do not understand, and we fear this could have
consequences for the participation of the Turkish community in Dutch
politics," said Ahmet Azdural of IOT, an umbrella group representing
some 300 local Turkish organisations in the Netherlands.

"We have called on all organisations and bodies together, with national
and local politicians of Turkish origin, to meet Sunday in Capelle
aan den IJssel (near Rotterdam) to agree on a course of action,"
Azdural told AFP.

"It is very difficult to force candidates of Turkish origin to choose
sides in what is a historic debate. This gives the impression that
there is no freedom of speech in the major political parties,"
Azdural told AFP.

There are 235,000 voters of Turkish origin in the Netherlands,
corresponding in terms of population to some three seats in the 150
seat parliament.

Statistically the Turkish community in the Netherlands votes in higher
numbers than other immigrant communities and they traditionally favour
the PvdA labour party.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 and want the massacres
to be internationally recognized as genocide.

Turkey argues that 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 Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman
Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey.