Month: November 2006

More grounds to grant ex-Soviet regions independence than Kosovo – Kokoity
Interfax, Russia
Nov 17 2006
MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) – The breakaway regions in three former
Soviet republics have better reasons to seek independence than Kosovo,
President of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity
said at Friday news conference at the Interfax central office in
Moscow.
“We have better political and legal reasons for recognition than
Kosovo,” he said, before accusing “the international community of a
policy of double standards toward all four republics.”
He was referring to South Ossetia, Abkhazia (both de jure part of
Georgia), Transdniestria (Moldova), and the Armenian-speaking enclave
of Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan).

Zaman, Turkey
Nov 17 2006
France not Invited to 2007 Defense Industry Fair
By Cihan News Agency
Friday, November 17, 2006
zaman.com
France has not been officially invited for the 8th International
Defense Industry Fair 2007 (IDEF ’07), which will be held in Turkey.
Following a statement from the Turkish Land Forces commander saying
that military ties with France had been suspended, a second concrete
reaction to the French parliament’s passage of a controversial draft
bill on Armenian genocide claims came from the Turkish government.
France has not been officially invited for the fair, Turkish National
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told press members on Thursday at a
meeting for the introduction of IDEF’07, which is set to be held in
May 2007.
This move is seen as an apparent reaction to the French National
Assembly’s adoption of a draft bill making it a crime to deny that
Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I.
Gonul remarked that, however, an announcement was made for French
companies, adding that the participation of French companies in the
fair was something different.
French Military Attache Jean Claude Gea left the meeting immediately
after Gonul’s statement.
On Wednesday, Turkish Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug said
that Turkey had suspended military relations with France, adding that
currently “There are no high-level [military] visits between the two
countries,” he added.

Robert Kocharyan: Formula for Kosovo conflict settlement can be applied to Nagorno Karabakh
Azeri Press Agency, Azeraijan
Nov 17 2006
[ 17 Nov. 2006 16:58 ]
“An aspirant to the EU, Turkey should pursue a more positive policy
in the region.
We have many times proposed to establish diplomatic relations but
have not received a reply do far. We suppose that neighbor states
should build relationships without preconditions and moreover without
advancing the demand of a third state,” Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan said when addressing the Bertelsmann Fund in Berlin,
APA reports.
Touching on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Robert Kocharyan said that
Karabakh gained its independence after USSR collapse.
“The independence of Nagorno Karabakh was obtained after the collapse
of the Soviet Union. Nagorno Karabakh has never been a part of
independent Azerbaijan. Successfully building its state system the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic has probed its right to existence. If Kosovo
conflict is solved, the elements of this formula can be applied to
the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict,” he claimed.
/APA/

27th Plenary Session of Interparliamentary Assembly of Commonwealth
of Independent States in Saint Petersburg
National Assembly, Armenia
Nov 17 2006
On November 16 the 17th plenary session of CIS IPA began its work in
Tavricheskiy Palace in Saint Petersburg. Mr. Sergey Mironov, Chairman
of IPA CIS Council delivered a welcoming speech and assured that the
cooperation has proved its efficiency in free trade, fight against
organized crimes, drug business and terrorism and in development of
different forms of humanitarian cooperation. He also noted, that the
main theme of the 27th plenary session is the 15th anniversary of CIS,
the results of interparliamentary cooperation and the perspectives.
For the first time the Speaker of the Parliament of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan Mr. Mohammad Yunus Qanooni was participating
in the IPA CIS session. From the name of PABSEC, Mr. Mustafa Bash
made a welcoming speech and wished success.
The President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Mr.
Tigran Torosyan noted in his speech, that after the collapse of the
USSR the countries turned out to be in a difficult situation and were
forced to create new state and inter-state systems, economic relations,
develop democracy and resolve problems, each of those being a serious
complication for any country. The CIS has been useful in the resolution
of these problems and has helped to work efficiently in creating
legislation and solving the problems caused by the collapse of the
USSR. Now one can record that the CIS is a real operating organization,
which has great achievements. The Presidents of CIS countries work
on reforms of CIS, and necessarily the Interparliamentary Assembly
also has to work on these reforms because new time brings about new
problems. The IPA CIS has been so strengthened, that it can become an
arena for the debate of different issues, and for which new mechanisms
and opportunities have to be created. During these years the countries
have gained a rather big experience, which can be used in the CIS. In
that context there is much work to do, because there are rather high
results in economy, and a new situation is created, which requires
new solutions, so the CIS would work due to time demands. In that
context Mr. Torosyan emphasized the role of IPA CIS, which is of great
significance in the life of CIS and in the establishment of national
legislations, settlement of conflicts and establishment of regional
peace. The President of the National Assembly wished success to the
works and future activity of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly.
Other Presidents of Parliament of member countries also had speeches
at the IPA CIS plenary session.
After the debate of the theme “Fifteenth Anniversary of CIS: Results
of Inter-parliamentary Cooperation and Perspectives” the participants
of the plenary session discussed issues concerning the adaptation of
national legislation in the sphere of security. The participants of
the session were presented recommendations on “Ensuring Legislative
Regulation of Migration Processes in CIS member nations,” on Model
Environmental Code, Water and Education Codes and other issues. These
and other draft laws were approved at the IPA CIS session and will
be used in elaborating national legislations.
The works of the 27th plenary session of IPA CIS were summed up at
a joint press conference.
The President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan had a
tete-e-tete talk with the Chairman of the Federation Council of the
Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Mironov, during
which they touched upon the works of IPA CIS, the meeting of four
Caucasian countries and the forthcoming official visit of the President
of the National Assembly to the Russian Federation and other issues.
On the same day the meeting of four Caucasian countries took place,
with the participation of the Presidents of Parliament of Armenia,
Russian Federation, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Fresnan had farming in his blood
By Jim Steinberg / The Fresno Bee11/17/06 04:43:29
Fresno Bee, CA
Nov 17 2006
More informationKeith Harry Avedisian
Born: June 18, 1949
Died: Nov. 13
Occupation: raisin grower
Survivors: wife Linda; daughters Stacy and Laurie Avedisian; son
Michael Avedisian; mother Eleanor Avedisian
Keith Harry Avedisian of Fresno carried on the raisin-growing tradition
that his family planted in the rich soil near Fowler after escaping
Ottoman massacres of Armenians early in the last century.
Mr. Avedisian died Monday of cancer after what his family called an
inspiring effort to survive. He was 57.
He was diagnosed in September 2005, when he was told to expect only a
few months of life. More than 100 people – family and friends – joined
recently to help celebrate his full year of life after his diagnosis.
Mr. Avedisian was born in Fresno to Harry and Eleanor Avedisian.
Harry Avedisian’s father, George, had fled Armenia for the San
Joaquin Valley. He began farming, as his ancestors had done in the
old country. Mr. Avedisian carried the family name and farmed the
family land.
“It is very important to old-time Armenians,” daughter Stacy Avedisian
said. “The one with the name gets the farm. He had a brother who wasn’t
interested at all. My father loved everything about farming. He took
high school agriculture classes, pruning classes. I think it was just
something in his blood.”
Mr. Avedisian had worked earlier for a bridge construction company
but knew his heart remained in working the soil, Stacy Avedisian
said. He married his wife, Linda, in 1977 and quit his construction
job the next year.
The Avedisians lived in the first home built in their area of Selma,
but the construction of more homes left Mr. Avedisian feeling too
urban.
“He felt cramped,” his daughter said. “He didn’t like city life”
in Selma.
“He needed to be on the farm. He loved that. He was not one to lie
out on the beach. He could lie out in his field.”
Mr. Avedisian’s aunt Ruby Abajian said the family came first to
Lonestar, then to Fowler, where they farmed from 1910 on.
Mr. Avedisian had a great-uncle who farmed near Lonestar.
“They had done farming in Armenia,” Abajian said. “It was familiar,
and they picked it up in the United States.
“When our family started out, we had no tractors. We used horses. It
was primitive. Years went by, and we put in wells. They used to dig
wells by hand, just one fellow with a shovel and a pipe of some kind.
It was hard, but they made it.”
Mr. Avedisian’s brother Darrell, an Ivanhoe pharmacist, died in July
2005. Their father died on July 30.
“I’ve had my share of crying,” Abajian said. “I’m just trying to
be strong.”
A service will begin at 10 a.m. Friday in Immanuel Lutheran Church
in Easton.
The family requests that any remembrance be sent to the church,
5955 S. Elm Ave., Fresno, CA 93706, or to a favorite charity.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
Antalya Summit starts today
[ 17 Nov. 2006 15:39 ]
Antalya Summit of the Turkish Speaking Countries has started today.
The summit is attended by Turkey’s President Ahmed Nejdet Sezer,
Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev,
Kyrgyzstan’s Kurmanbek Bakiev.
Turkmenistan is participating in the summit at embassy level, however
Uzbekistan has no representative.
Turkish President Ahmed Nejdet Sezer opened the summit, saying this
event is the start of a new era.
“We see global changes in the world. Cooperation between Turkish
states has become inevitable. Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway
will be a bridge joining Turkish countries,” he said.
Ahmed Nejdet Sezer said Turkey has always been together with Azerbaijan
in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude to his
Turkish counterpart for the high-level summit.
This kind of events paves the way for new cooperation levels among
Turkish countries. We have left all difficulties behind, we have
defended our independence,” he said.
He said the Turkish states are developing very rapidly at present.
“Azerbaijan’s economy growth rate is the leading one in the world.
The economy growth rate hit 26 percent in 2005, but we forecast that
the growth will reach 34 percent this year. The stronger economy we
have, the quicker solution we can find to the problems,” he stated.
Touching upon the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan and
displacement of over one million people from their native lands
by Armenians, Mr. Aliyev said Azerbaijan can also lay many claims
against Armenia.
“Irevan (Yerevan) khanate was the territory of Azerbaijan. But, we
don’t lay such claims. We want our lands to be liberated in a peaceful
way, however our hopes is running out. Nagorno Karabakh- a criminal
regime- has remained far from international control. They are making
various illicit drugs there, they are preparing for terrorisitc acts
there. The world countries, in particular Turkish ones should pay
attention to this problem. UN Security Council’s four resolutions
on unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azeri lands
remain unimplemented. CE resolutions haven’t yet been implemented
either. Armenia’s aggressive policy has created undesirable situation
in the region,” he said.
Mr. Aliyev also said Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway line will
be a direct bridge between Azerbaijan and Turkey and Kazakhstan’s
joining the project is very estimable.
He also expressed his satisfaction with the activities of TURKSOY.
Ilham Aliyev expressed his support for Turkey’s accession to the EU.
“Azerbaijan is very concerned over pressures Turkey faces in the
accession process.” He stated.
Kazakhstan’s President spoke of the importance of the union of Turkish
Speaking Countries, suggesting that Higher Council of the Turkish
States should be established and Turkish 9th president Suleyman
Demirel should be the Council President.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev said that economic, political and
cultural cooperation between the Turkish countries should be deepened.
Antalya Declaration will be adopted at the end of the Summit. /APA/

Turkish ultra-nationalist organizations hold one more action of
protest against the Armenian Genocide
Regnum, Russia
Nov 17 2006
The Labor Party of Turkey and a number of other Turkish organizations
have held an action of protest in front of the building of the
Consulate General of France in Istanbul with slogans “The Armenian
Genocide is an Imperialistic Lie!” and “No to French Products!”
reports Trend news agency.
The secretary general of the LPT Dogu Perincek said that “the so-called
Armenian Genocide is a fable invented by the imperialist forces,
who are trying to use it in their occupant plans.”
He said that on Nov 21 the leadership of the party is going to hold a
mass action of protest in Paris in order to urge France “not to become
a puppet in the US’ Middle East plans.” Perincek urged the leaders of
all political parties of Turkey to take part in it and also to hold
a joint press conference in Paris on Nov 21. Perincek said that the
fact that Orhan Pamuk was awarded Nobel Prize shows that Turkey is on
the threshold of dangerous events. “The Nobel Prize was a reward to
Pamuk for betrayal of Turkey’s national interests,” said Perincek. He
urged the ralliers to continue their action “until France revokes
the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.”
As REGNUM reported earlier, the Labor Party of Turkey is known for
its ultra-nationalist and Kemalist position. In the Turkish Diaspora
it closely cooperates with the Nationalist Movement Party against the
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Cyprian issue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARKADY GHOUKASSIAN MET WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF ARMENIAN DIASPORA OF U. S. WESTERN COAST
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Nov 17 2006
As it has already been reported, Arkady Ghoukassian is in the U. S.
in connection with the TV marathon targeted at fund raising for the
NKR’s further development to be held in Los Angeles November 23.
According to the information DE FACTO got at the Main Department of
Information under the NKR President, Arkady Ghoukassian met with the
representatives of the Armenian Diaspora of the U. S. Western coast.
A reception was organized in honor of the NKR President. RA Consul
General in Los Angeles Armen Liloyan also participated in the event.
Arkady Ghoukassian met with a famous philanthropist Albert Boyajian,
an active participant of the TV marathons held in the U. S Arkady
Avanesian, Americans for Artsakh Organization’s President Zaven
Khanjian and the U. S. Western coast Armenian Jewelers Association
Chair Levon Shant Khaytaian. In the course of the talks the
interlocutors considered the issues referring to the perspectives of
the implementation of various projects in the sphere of economy,
education and culture in Artsakh.

Chicago Maroon, IL
Nov 17 2006
Atom Egoyan introduces jarring and strikingly personal new film at
Doc
By Rob Weisenberger
Friday, November 17th, 2006
Atom Egoyan really is having trouble with the auto focus. The Academy
Award-nominated director, whose film, Citadel, held its American
premier on campus last Thursday as part of the Chicago Presidential
Fellows in the Arts Series, is still “working things out” with his new
handheld camera. But it’s worth bearing with him as he documents his
wife’s first return to Lebanon since the civil war 28 years ago in a
travel journal addressed to his then 10-year-old son. “This trip was
full of events and details you’ll never remember when you’re old enough
to watch this,” Egoyan explains in his voice-over; this trip “would
change our lives… and have an effect on yours.” This highly personal
journal-at times playful and didactic-is, as a gift from father to
son, a remembrance of one journey and a guide to every future one. We,
the viewers packing Max Palevsky Cinema last Thursday, had the rare
privilege of seeing a film never intended to be shown publicly in the
company of Egoyan and the film’s star, his award-winning actress-wife,
Arsinee Khanjian. We were simply along for the ride.
And the ride was often a bumpy one: The film’s opening shot is framed
by the windshield of a car careening around the suburbs of Beirut.
The land is lush and bathed in light. The soundtrack is woven from the
soothing strains of Lebanese folk music and the incessant chatter
of Egoyan’s animated wife, while the camera aimed on her face.
Arsinee’s memories of her childhood before the war come flooding
back: Some things have changed, others remain “exactly the same.” The
Cairo-born, Canadian-raised director of Armenian descent tries to
commit his wife’s ebullient homecoming to home video.
The crucial dynamics of the couple-husband and wife, artist and
subject-are as touching as they are comedic. Egoyan, as a bystander
in the film points out, must “love [Arsinee] very much, because he is
always filming her.” In what will prove to be an essential admission,
he concedes early in the film: “It’s possible that the extraordinary
detail of stories and memories you’re encountering are a result of the
peculiar alchemy that exists between your mother and I. After all,
I’ve got the camera and she’s the subject.” Egoyan’s constant and
loving pokes at his wife’s little idiosyncrasies add comic relief and
only boost the director’s ethos. When Arsinee’s endless ruminations
lapse into inanity, he quips: “You’re a very deep thinker.” At another
moment, when she forgets the Arab word for “democracy,” he prods her
mercilessly, reflecting at length in his voice-over on whether the
incident displays a failing in Arsinee’s long-unused Arabic vocabulary
or one in Lebanon’s pseudo-democratic system. Egoyan favors the second
explanation, launching into a criticism of Lebanon’s inflexible and
anachronistic system of representation.
It is Egoyan’s paternal instinct that inspires these sorts of
explanations. Besides confessing a father’s occasional difficulty at
answering his son’s innocent but incisive questions, Egoyan tries to
contextualize everything for his son’s benefit. Whenever he prefaces an
observation with “what you need to know is …” or when he frequently
admonishes his son to “think about this,” either a concrete lesson
on Lebanese culture or a sweeping, cosmological reflection is about
to follow. One of the more lurid history lessons that his son “needs
to know” is on the massacre of alleged Palestinian sympathizers by
Christians during the Lebanese civil war. Despite the perpetrators’
background in humanism and the Bible, Egoyan explains, these ghastly
acts were made possible because the victims weren’t seen as human.
Egoyan is a helpful, and perhaps even too helpful, guide: Where a
viewer might normally need to draw his own inferences, he pronounces
truths at every turn. “Boundaries are taken seriously in Lebanon,”
he states portentously, and “things in this city are never what they
seem.” Egoyan’s voice is, however, remarkably personal and ingenuous.
He speaks “as someone from the West,” and filters and augments his
impressions through juxtaposition with the poetry of Keats and Shelley,
as well as his own childhood experience, when his father read him
the work of the Lebanese artist and writer Khalil Gibran, who advised
parents that their children “came from,” but did not belong to them,
and needed to have thoughts of their own. This sentiment guides
Egoyan’s labor of love as a sort of paternal primer before his son
sets off into the world.
Egoyan, a relentlessly self-conscious narrator and guide (he films
himself in a mirror early on), ruminates endlessly on his own role
in the project (“maybe that’s all I am-a poacher making a souvenir”)
offers some useful insight on his role as a filmmaker. Calvino,
as Egoyan explains, wrote, “The person who considers everything
not photographed lost as if it never existed. Therefore in order
to ever really live, you must photograph as much as you can. And
to photograph as much as you can, you must either live in the most
photographable way possible or consider photographable every moment
of your life. The first course leads to stupidity, and the second
course leads to madness.”
Yet it is at this point that Egoyan’s film changes drastically:
Nothing we had seen thus far would prepare us for what was about to
happen next. With the same heavy-handed build-up of suspense I used to
transition from the last sentence to this one, Egoyan also build’s to
the film’s climax: the Citadel, “where everything would change; from
where things would never be the same.” Here a spoiler warning should
be issued. For the sake of space, we can say in essence that Egoyan,
the loving father and ingenuous narrator who had brought us this far,
now pulls the wool over our eyes.
On a tour of the ancient ruins of the Citadel, Egoyan demonizes his
tour guide by his camerawork and commentary. “Why did your mother
trust him?” he asks. “I had a strange feeling about him from the
moment we met.” By fabricating a story based loosely on reality,
Egoyan paints his benign young guide as a ruthless accomplice to
a repressive regime. We feel slightly duped after having swallowed
Egoyan’s ploy whole.
“That’s what’s absurd,” Egoyan admits after revealing this fabricated
plot turn, added to an otherwise mostly truthful film. “That I could
take these images of our guide, a completely innocent man, and make
you believe that he’s a monster, and that something terrible is about
to happen.” What’s more, though, Egoyan and his wife had no plans to
give the film this twist at the outset; the two began spontaneously,
when given the opportunity, to improvise and dramatize the scenario,
creating suspense and drama where there hadn’t really been any.
The lesson to Egoyan’s son about his parents that follows is as
instructive on this evening, when we meet the filmmaker and his
wife, as the film’s broader lesson. First, we learn that Egoyan and
Arsinee do reside “between stupidity and madness,” in a world where
everything is to be made photographable. “You have to remember who
your parents are,” Egoyan reminds his son. “I make images; your mother
acts in them.”
The second, broader lesson of a touching film, heightened rather than
marred by Egoyan’s stunt, speaks to how contingent an image can be.
“There are hundreds of stories in this street,” Egoyan concludes, “and
this is the only one you happen to be watching.” Yet if photography
is only a matter of “capturing” rather than “creating” images, as
he considers, then how we present these images, how we show them,
and how they are seen is also crucial. It means no less than how we
see and treat others.
There were, of course, hundreds of other stories residing in that
one Lebanese street, but it would be hard to believe that there were
many ones much better than what we just “happened to be watching”
on Thursday. And it wasn’t even intended for us.

Turkish Daily News, Turkey
Nov 17 2006
Turkey to light Greek Aegean islands
Friday, November 17, 2006
Greece wants to buy electricity from Turkey because of a supply
shortage on some of its Aegean islands. Turkey will also resume its
importation of Bulgarian electricity, which was halted in 2003
BEGUM GURSOY
ANKARA
Turkey is preparing to export electricity to some Greek islands and
also to resume importing electricity from Bulgaria after a stoppage
lasting almost three years.
Despite the disagreement on the Cyprus issue, Turkey has already
started negotiations for trade in electricity with Greece. The Greek
side is reported to have informed Turkey that there was a supply
shortage in the Greek islands located close to the Turkish coast.
Greece has told Turkey that this need could be met by importing
electricity from the Turkish mainland.
The bilateral talks indicate that the island of Rhodes will have
priority and that other Greek islands lying close to the Turkish
coast will be provided with electricity transmitted from Turkey.
Turkey will become a full member of the Union for the Coordination of
Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) in 2007 and thus will standardize
its electric system with Europe and start trading electricity with
other countries.
Bulgarian electricity to arrive in 2007:
State-owned Turkish Electricity Trading Company (TETAŞ), operating
under the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, will manage the
resumption of electricity imports from Bulgaria.
Turkey imported 4 billion kilowatts of electricity from Bulgaria
between 2000 and 2003 after an intergovernmental agreement signed in
1998. While Turkey was paying 3.7 cents per kilowatt, Turkey halted
the imports on April 21, 2003 on the basis that the Bulgarian side
was not honoring its contractual obligations.
According to the energy deal, the Bulgarian side was to select
Turkish contractors to build its hydroelectric power plant and highway
projects. However, Turkey asserted that the Bulgarian side was not
complying with this commitment.
Top officials from both countries have been reviewing the issue and
trying to find a compromise. The agreement under negotiation calls for
resuming imports of Bulgarian electricity in 2007, yet the two sides
continue to debate the price, with TETAŞ reported to oppose any
wholesale price above 5.7 cents per kilowatt.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s expected membership in UCTE will give it more
options for electricity trading with other countries as Turkey will
be connected to the European electricity transmission system through
Bulgaria and Greece.
Turkey’s electric grid will become harmonized with the European one
so that a supply shortage in Turkey can be met by transmissions from
the European system’s back-up power supply.
UCTE membership will also provide advantages to the private sector,
enabling power generators here to find customers in Europe once the
harmonization is finalized.
Regional electricity trade to develop:
Turkey now has interconnected lines with Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Bulgaria, Romania, Iran, Iraq and Syria. On the other hand, UCTE is
a coordinating body for developing and managing the European electric
transmission system.
This organization now has 23 communication companies as members.
Member countries are Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark,
Spain, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and the Slovak
Republic.
Apart from these, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia have been connected to
the European system through Gibraltar. Electricity trade with these
countries is expected to develop after Turkey finalizes its technical
harmonization to the UCTE system.