Month: November 2006

TURKEY MAY RELAX LIMITS TO FREE SPEECH
By Dan Bilefsky / International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune, France
Nov 6 2006
ISTANBUL: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled that he is
prepared to amend a law limiting free speech, in an apparent 11th-hour
attempt to prevent a crisis with the European Union.
The surprise move Sunday by Erdogan came just three days before
the European Commission is expected to publish a report criticizing
Turkey for sluggishness on reforms necessary if it wants to join the
25-member bloc.
“The move looks desperate,” said Ilker Domac, a Turkish economist.
“It shows how badly things are going with Turkey’s EU membership
prospects.”
Talks with the EU have reached an impasse that could result in the
suspension of the country’s EU membership talks, some Turks fear.
Such a move would hobble a key European and American ally in an
unstable region and would risk slowing the pace of its political and
economic reforms.
The commission, the EU executive branch, has been particularly
concerned by Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which makes
insulting Turkishness a crime. The law attracted global criticism
earlier this year when the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who was awarded
the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, was put on trial for telling a
Swiss newspaper that more than a million Armenians were massacred by
Ottoman Turks during World War I. The case was later dismissed.
In an apparent attempt to gain favor with the European Union before
the commission’s report is released Wednesday, Erdogan signaled that
his party, Justice and Development, might be willing to amend the law.
“We are studying several options for how we can handle Article 301 in
harmony with the spirit of the reforms,” he said without elaborating.
Turkish analysts said this would likely entail narrowing the legal
definition of what constitutes an insult to Turkishness and amending
the law to make it compatible with the European Court of Human Rights.
Erdogan, who faces strong pressure from nationalists not to change
the law, all but ruled out doing so last week. But Turkish officials
said he had tempered his resistance after furious lobbying by human
rights groups, trade unions and the business community, which fear
that a break in EU membership talks would undermine Turkey’s stability.
EU officials cautiously welcomed the move, but warned that Turkey’s
membership bid still faced enormous obstacles, in particular a
simmering dispute over Cyprus that shows little sign of resolution.
“This is a positive signal, but there are other big hurdles that still
need to be overcome,” said Joost Lagendijk, the chairman of the Turkey
delegation in the European Parliament and a member of the Green group.
Turkey has said it will not open its ports to ships from Cyprus,
an EU member, until the European Union lifts trade restrictions
against Turkish Cypriots in northern Cyprus, which is recognized
internationally by Ankara alone. The Cyprus impasse has proved so
intractable that last week Finland, which holds the Union’s rotating
presidency, canceled talks because the parties refused to be in the
same room.

FRENCH GOVERNMENT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE BILL, POUDADE
Anatolian Times, Turkey
Nov 6 2006
MERSIN – French Ambassador to Ankara Paul Poudade said that the French
government is not supporting the bill criminalizing the denial of
so-called Armenian genocide and qualified it “unnecessary and with
contents of polemic”.
Poudade met today Mersin Governor Huseyin Aksoy in order to thank for
the Turkish public’s hospitality shown to the French people who left
Lebanon during the Israeli attacks, and arrived at Mersin to proceed
to France afterwards.
Upon a question during the visit, Poudade noted that the bill in
question was unnecessary and related to polemic. “I believe that
this bill will not pass through the French senate. We need to leave
this issue to historians. Our government does not support the bill”,
Poudade expressed.
On the other hand, Governor Aksoy said that he did not desire the
bill to be approved in the senate.
“A re-location which happened under the conditions of the day can
not be perceived as a genocide. Moreover, it does not match with the
genocide definition of the United Nations”, Aksoy added.
Governor Aksoy also stressed that they had assisted the transfer of
approximately 10 thousand people from Lebanon, including 1,025 French
men and women. Aksoy added that such an assistance was a social duty
and an item of Turkish tradition.

INDIGNANT HUNGARIANS HALF AS BUTCH AS INDIGENT ARMENIANS
Pestiside, Hungary
Nov 6 2006
An Armenian family of six was apprehended late last week by border
control officials near Hungary’s north-east frontier after they and
a Russian “guide” “white-water rafted” in from Ukraine on what state
newswire MTI (offline) calls a “hazardous” section of the Tisza –
all during the cold snap that has left much of Hungary hunkering
down indoors. Meanwhile, Budapest was not torn apart by riots during
this weekend’s commemoration of the beginning of the end of the 1956
uprising, apparently because of the weather. Not sure exactly what
the message is here, other than that the Hungary government should
probably be happy that its opponents are angry Hungarians, rather
than angry Armenians. On the other hand, they should probably be
really happy they are not angry Azerbaijanis. Either way, brrr.
hungarians_half_as_butch_as_indigent_armenians0028 43.php

SENATE MARSHAL: ARMENIA’S ISOLATION HINDERS IN DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH POLAND
Regnum, Russia
Nov 7 2006
Armenian-Polish economic relations are at lower level than political
ones; Polish Marshal Senate Bogdan Borusewicz is quoted by a REGNUM
correspondent as stating on November 6.
According to him, commodities turnover between Armenia and Poland
totals merely $15mln; the fact may be explained by continuing Armenia’s
blockade. “It is mainly connected with fact that Armenia is isolated
by Turkey, Azerbaijan, as well as, one might say, by Russia because
blocking Georgia Russia has blocked Armenia, too,” he stated stressing
that “it negatively influences upon Armenia.” “Investors invest mainly
in places, from which it is possible to get into other countries,
too. Armenia is isolated in such sense,” Bogdan Borusewicz added.
Meanwhile, as the Polish Senate Marshal stressed, “Armenia and
Armenians has been positively reflected by Polish mass media. Poles
love and respect Armenians.” “Big Armenian community functioned in
frames of Polish state as far back as the 16th century; Armenians
filled rather high posts: they were ambassadors in Turkey and Persia
speaking on behalf of Poland and defending its interests. A big group
of the Poles of Armenian origin there is in Poland, too.
Unfortunately, they do not speak their language; however, their
distinctive surnames remind them of their origin,” Bogdan Borusewicz
said.
It is worth stressing; the Polish delegation headed by Senate Marshal
Bogdan Borusewicz is on its two-day official visit in Yerevan.

‘DISINFORMATION ON ARTICLE 301 IS OF TURKISH ORIGIN’
By Cihan News Agency
Zaman, Turkey
Nov 6 2006
Turkish Minister of Justice Cemil Cicek has said that there was
disinformation in Turkey regarding the “notorious” Article 301 of
the Turkish Penal Code and it was of Turkish origin.
The controversial article has been used to try many journalists and
writers in court under criminal charges for “insulting Turkishness,”
generally for topics related to the ‘Kurdish question’ and an Armenian
genocide.
Cicek was speaking at the Turkish Journalist Federation’s general
assembly meeting in Ankara on Sunday.
He pointed out that most of the issues labeled as “incomplete”
in the EU’s Progress Report on Turkey, which are hindering Turkey,
were reported to the EU by some people in Turkey.

DO THEY BLAME SERGE SARGSYAN?
A1+
[04:42 pm] 06 November, 2006
The RA Government will approve of the deal with “Vympelcom” from
Russia about the sale of the 90% of the shares of “ArmenTel”, Defense
Minister Serge Sargsyan announced today in the NA.
Mr. Sargsyan said that the growth of the Russian capital in the
strategic points of Armenia is not dangerous as Russia has never
abused its ways of economic control.
Asked the question if there has been quarrel and shots in the Armenian
plane which crashed in the Black Sea, Serge Sargsyan answered that
the hypothesis has already been refuted. “Both Russian and French
specialists have participated in the investigation. Do you think if
they would hide it if they found evidence of anything of the kind? Any
gossip must be at least a bit logical”, he said.
President of “Orinats Yerkir” Arthur Baghdasaryan had announced
that the next President of Armenia must be born in Armenia by all
means. How does Serge Sargsyan comment on it? “Of course, the President
of Armenia must not be from Mexico”.
As for the accusations of leader of the New Times party Aram Karapetyan
that the party is blackmailed due to the orders of Serge Sargsyan,
the Minister answered, “People are of too great an opinion about
themselves. Do you think I have nothing else to do?
It’s not only him; everyone and her brother blame me for
something. Anyway, let them speak as much as they want”.

ANOTHER ISSUE OF ARKA NEWS AGENCY’S “ARMENIAN CREDIT ORGANIZATIONS” BULLETIN RELEASED
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
YEREVAN, November 6. /ARKA/. ARKA News Agency has released another
issue of its regular financial-economic bulletin “Armenian Credit
Organizations” for the third quarter of 2006. The bulletin is based
on credit organizations’ reports published in the press.
The bulletin consists of about 25 pages with tables on them
and contains 12 key sections: 1. General description of credit
organizations; 2. Assets; 3. Liabilities; 4. Capital; 5. Profit/Losses;
6. Information about cash flows; 7. Normative indices of credit
organizations’ activities; 8. Capitalization indices; 9. Profitability
indicators; 10. Aggregate indicators of credit organizations’
activities; 11. Aggregate indicators of credit organizations’
effectiveness; 12. Services provided by credit organizations.
The information shows the current state of credit organizations and
contains figures for comparative analysis of their activities.
The product also contains technical and methodological comments on
the tables.
ARKA News Agency started functioning on May 1, 1996. The news agency
focuses on financial, economic and political information. From 1999
ARKA issues quarterly bulletin “Financial Indicators of Armenian
Banks”, from 2005 -quarterly bulletin “Armenian Credit Organizations”
and from May 2006 “Banks’ Financial Indices” based on annual
independent audits.

INTERNATIONAL RATING BB+ ASSIGNED TO ARMENIAN CREDIT ORGANIZATION
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
YEREVAN, November 6. /ARKA/. The international rating BB+ has for the
first time been assigned to the Armenian credit organization “SEF
International Ltd.”. The rating was assigned by the international
agency Microfinanza Rating.
“The credit organization’s rating is higher than Armenia’s sovereign
rating assigned by the international agency Fitch,” SEF International
Ltd. told ARKA.
SEF international is the first credit company that was licensed by
the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) and received an international rating
after licensing.
SEF International Ltd. Was founded in 1998 as a micro-financial credit
organization, which issued credits to private businessmen, small and
medium businesses, as well as to farms. The credit organization was
founded by the World Vision International NGO.
In April 2003, the CBA licensed SEF International as a universal
credit organization. SEF International is carrying out its activities
by means of its head office in Yerevan and two branches in Sisian
and Kapan (Syunik region).
According to the interim reports for the 3rd quarter of 2006, by
September 30, 2006, the organization’s assets had amounted to AMD
1,238mln, total capital AMD 543.5mln, balance profit AMD 112mln. In
January-September 2006, the organization’s profit totaled AMD 33.4mln.
Microfinanza Rating is an independent rating agency forming part of
the Italian consulting firm Microfinanza srl, working with banking
and micro-financial organizations with international shares. The
agency has a large number of clients in Eastern Europe, Balkans,
Mediterranean countries, Latin America, Asia and Central Africa.
Microfinanza Rating is certified by the World Bank and the EU.
In summer 2006, Fitch Ratings assigned Armenia an issuer defaulter
rating in foreign currency “BB”, with a stable forecast, as well as
short-term rating “B” and the “country threshold” rating “BB”.
Also, the international rating agency Moody’s Investors Service
assigned Ba2 sovereign foreign exchange rates to the Armenian
Government.

ANOTHER ROUND OF ARMENIAN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRIES CONSULTATIONS HELD IN BEIJING
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
YEREVAN, November 6. /ARKA/. Another round of consultations of Armenian
and Chinese foreign ministries took place on Thursday in Beijing,
Armenian Foreign Ministry’s press office reports.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Bayburtyan and Armenian
Ambassador to China Vasily Ghazaryan were present at the meeting.
A wide range of issues related to Armenian-Chinese relations was
discussed at the meeting.

TURKS COOL TOWARDS ‘UNFAITHFUL’ EUROPE
By William Horsley
BBC European Affairs analyst
BBC News, UK
Nov 6 2006
Is Europe losing Turkey? New tensions threaten to harm a strategic
bond that has long been seen as vital to the West’s security.
Turkish membership would show the EU was not just a Christian club
Turkey became a member of the Nato alliance before Germany, and
remains a bastion of stability in a region marked by undemocratic
regimes and plagued by conflicts.
But a year-end deadline for Turkey to make important concessions
in its talks on EU membership is casting doubt on the future of the
country’s integration with Europe, which began back in 1963.
Cyprus is the main sticking-point. Turkey’s relations with Europe
may suffer lasting damage unless a solution is found quickly.
Anti-French anger
In a recent opinion poll only one in three Turks said they definitely
want their country to join the EU – about half the figure in similar
polls two years ago.
France’s bill on Armenian ‘genocide’ denial triggered angry protests
Turkey is the only candidate ever to have been obliged to start
accession talks on the basis that it may never be granted full
membership, even if it passes every test.
And last month the French parliament sought to embarrass Turkey over
the nation’s past history, by voting for a bill which would make it
a crime to deny Turkish responsibility for “genocide” against the
Armenians in World War I. That provoked a wave of angry anti-French
demonstrations in Turkey.
In fact, Europe’s reputation for arrogance among the Turks has united
the main political currents there in protest against what they see as
“unfair” treatment.
Consider these recent statements by influential Turkish figures:
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he would rather see
the suspension of the EU membership talks than bow to what he calls
“unreasonable” demands over Cyprus.
Former Turkish president and prime minister Suleyman Demirel says EU
demands for legal rights for Turkey’s Kurdish minority may threaten
the unity of the state, which Turkey “will not accept.”
Onur Oeymen, deputy leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party
and a former ambassador to Nato, accuses the EU of seeking excuses
to delay or block Turkish membership. He complains that Europe’s
present leaders lack “strategic vision”, and fail to understand the
importance of supporting Turkey, as the only secular democracy in
the Muslim world.
Mehmet Ali Birand, a popular TV newscaster, says Turkey has been
faithful to Europe for 45 years, but Europe has not. Now he fears
that Europe is going to “break the dream”.
Marriage hopes
In Europe, the cooling of political attitudes towards Turkey,
fuelled by public fears of immigration and suspicion towards Islam,
has been dramatic.
We will not do it!
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on an EU demand to open ports to
Cypriot shipping Some opinion polls suggest that opponents of Turkish
membership account for two-thirds of the population in France, Greece
and Cyprus. In Austria it is around 80%.
A turning-point was last year’s referendums in France and the
Netherlands, when voters rejected the draft EU constitution.
After that, conservative leaders such as Angela Merkel in Germany and
Nicolas Sarkozy in France spoke out loudly against full EU membership
for Turkey, even in 15 or 20 years time.
Turkey’s Muslim make-up has also become an issue.
Hans-Joerg Kretschmer, the EU’s ambassador in Ankara, says Europe
wants to see “for the first time in the history of mankind whether a
Muslim country is able and willing to embrace the values of Western
civilisation”.
But Turkey’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul says Turkish EU membership
would prove that the EU “does not belong to a single religion”.
He insists his government is fully committed to a long-term political
“marriage” with Europe, and speaks proudly of Turkey’s radical
pro-European reforms as a “silent revolution”.
Promises
The European Commission itself has praised Turkey for abolishing the
death penalty, taking action against police torture and changing the
constitution to rein in the influence of the army.
But now the Commission is focusing again on shortcomings in Turkish
democracy. It has warned of a “train crash” unless Turkey bends to
EU demands over Cyprus and moves to bolster civil rights.
“We will not do it!” was Mr Gul’s terse reply, when asked whether his
government would fulfil the EU’s demand to end its embargo on ships
from Cyprus using Turkish ports.
“The Europeans must first fulfil their promises”, he said, meaning
that the EU should first take steps to facilitate direct trade with
the Turkish Cypriots in northern Cyprus.
In 2004 the Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of an international peace
plan to unite the divided island. The Greek Cypriots, who represent
the only internationally recognised government there, voted against
the plan but were anyway admitted as EU members. Now they, like every
member-state, hold a veto over Turkey’s progress.
Trade and investment
Still, a “train crash” is not inevitable. Turkish leaders now say they
may amend a much-criticised law banning insults against “Turkishness”,
which has been used against authors who have written critically on
Kurdish and Armenian issues.
Britain, Finland and other supporters of Turkey’s case argue that
its progress must not be seriously held back.
It is clear that the EU itself could hardly escape without damage in
case the relationship turned sour.
Turkey is now one of the most attractive partners for European trade
and investment. French car-makers and Austrian banks are among those
profiting from Turkey’s booming economy and liberalising market.
Michael Lake, a former EU envoy to Turkey, warns that to block Turkey’s
EU prospects would harm the EU’s credibility.
And Onur Oeymen says it would be a massive strategic mistake for the
EU to write Turkey out of its future plans – because then, he said,
“you are going to make Turkey your competitor, if not your enemy”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress