Month: November 2006

SERZH SARGSYAN: RUSSIA HAS NEVER MISUSED ITS ECONOMIC LEVERS
Regnum, Russia
Nov 6 2006
The Armenian Government will approve the deal between OTE (Greece)
and VympelCom (Russia) for the sale of 90% of the shares of ArmenTel
telecom company, Armenian Defense Minister, National Security
Secretary and Co-chair of the Armenian-Russian Inter-Governmental
Economic Commission Serzh Sargsyan said on Nov 6.
REGNUM reports Sargsyan to say: “We should familiarize ourselves
with the terms of the deal and the sale price.” Commenting on the
wide-spread opinion that the sale of a big number of Armenian strategic
facilities to Russia is dangerous for the country, Sargsyan said that
there is no danger in the growing Russian capital in Armenia as Russia
has never misused its economic levers.
To remind, on Nov 3 VympelCom announced that it had signed a contract
with Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (OTE) on the purchase
of 90% of the shares of ArmenTel, a telecom operator in Armenia. The
cost of the stake is 341.9mln EUR + almost 40mln EUR as ArmenTel’s
net debts and liabilities. The deal will be finalized by the end of
this year.
OTE bought the 90% stake in 1997 for $142.47mln. The remaining 10%
belong to the Armenian Government. This year OTE offered its stake for
tender. 16 companies took part in the tender but only 4 qualified for
the second round: Vympelcom, MTS (both Russia), ETISALAT (Emirates
Telecommunications Corporation/Istithmar ETV/-Emergent Telecom
Ventures) and VTEL Holdings/Knightsbridge Associates.
ArmenTel had enjoyed GSM monopoly till Nov 4 2004, when it renounced it
in exchange for monopoly in IP-telephony. As a result, K-Telecom with
its Viva Cell trade mark became the second GSM operator in Armenia.

MINISTER OSKANIAN’S RESPONSE TO ABDULLAH GUL
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
RA Foreign Minister commented on some remarks of his Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul made in an interview with Radio Liberty.
Minister Oskanian said in particular:
We remain amazed that a letter sent by President Kocharyan to Prime
Minister Erdogan in April 2005 remains ignored, simply because the
Turkish authorities did not like the response contained therein,
and do not wish to broaden the scope of discussion beyond history.
President Kocharyan clearly said to Prime Minister Erdogan that the
“suggestion to address the past cannot be effective if it deflects
from addressing the present and the future. In order to engage in
a useful dialog, we need to create the appropriate and conducive
political environment. It is the responsibility of governments to
develop bilateral relations and we do not have the right to delegate
that responsibility to historians. That is why we have proposed
and propose again that, without pre-conditions, we establish normal
relations between our two countries.”
In that context, President Kocharyan said, “an intergovernmental
commission can meet to discuss any and all outstanding issues between
our two nations, with the aim of resolving them and coming to an
understanding.”
Foreign Minister Gul’s recent comments to Radio Liberty, insisting that
the existence of flights between Armenia and Turkey, and of Armenian
citizens in Turkey, is evidence that ‘the borders are essentially open’
is disingenuous. First, the number of Armenians from Armenia living
and working in Turkey do not approach the numbers he claims. Second,
open borders assume direct contacts between peoples, unobstructed
relations across the border and a functioning transport infrastructure.
We stand by our response, which we consider to be a positive one and
we wonder whether the Turkish insistence on a historical commission
is genuine. After all, we have in fact agreed to discussions on all
issues, in the context of open borders.
Further, so long as Article 301, which criminalizes mere discussion
of the genocide topic, remains on the books in Turkey, an invitation
to open dialogue cannot be taken seriously. Finally, outside Turkey,
scholars – Armenians, Turks and others – have studied these issues
and have reached their own independent conclusions. The most notable
among these is the May 2006 letter to Prime Minister Erdogan by the
International Assn of Genocide Scholars wherein they collectively and
unanimously affirmed the fact of the Genocide and called on the Turkish
government to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government.
In light of these complex realities, we can only repeat our readiness
to enter into dialogue and normal relations with our neighbor.

ONE OF LEADERS OF “ONE JAVAKHK” VAHAGN CHAKHALYAN DISPROVES ALL ACCUSATIONS AGAINST HIM
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
YEREVAN. November 6. /ARKA/. “All the accusations against me do
not correspond to the reality,” one of the leaders of “One Javakhk”
democratic alliance Vahagn Chakhalyan reported at a press conference
Thursday. “The accusations against me are false,” he said.
Chakhalyan pointed out that he has not violated the current Armenian
legislation. However, he has a hard time explaining what induced the
country’s authorities to take him into custody.
Chakhalyan was released from custody on October 31, 2006. Previously,
on October 2006, three Armenian MPs Tatul Manaseryan, Grigor Harutunyan
and Hmayak Hovhannisyan submitted a petition to the court of appeal
for criminal cases for changing the measures against Chakhalyan. They
vouched for Chakhalyan that he will not hide himself from investigating
agencies and impede the prejudicial proceeding.
On October 13, the investigating agency of Armenia brought an
accusation against Vahagn Chakhalyan for crossing the frontier of the
Republic of Armenia without proper documents and permission.

LET THEM SPEAK, SERGE SARGSYAN SAYS
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
Today in the National Assembly RA Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan
responded to a number of questions about some rumors.
The journalists tried to clarify the Minister’s opinion about the
statement of “Orinats Yerkir” President Arthur Baghdasaryan that the
next President of Armenia should be from Armenia. Serge Sargssayn’s
response was as follows: “I repeat once again. The Armenian President
cannot be a Mexican. Of course, he must come from Armenia.”
In response to the question about Aram Karapetyan’s accusations
that Serge Sargsyan orders and organizes a black PR against him,
the Minister said, “Some people have an exaggerated opinion about
themselves. As if I do not have other affairs, other topics of
investigation. Why do I need it? What kind of danger does he
comprise? Everyone considers it his duty to accuse me of something.
Let them speak. It was 7-10 years ago that one’s eye could be plucked
out for speaking. But now, let them speak if they want.”
As for the 2007 budget, of its being pre-election, Minister Sargsyan
said that pre-elective means social, since expenses increase.
Furthermore, the Minister said he would like all the budgets to
be pre-election.
Was there a quarrel in the crashed A-320 jet? Was there fighting and
shooting in the plane? Serge Sargsyan said this information has already
been refuted. Besides, the results of the crash are being investigated
not only by our specialists, but also by Russians and French.
“Specialists form Russia and France are participating in the
investigation. Do you believe they would not tell the whole world if
there was the slightest suspicion of it? There must be at least some
logic in any gossip,” Serge Sargsyan noted.

TURKEY STRUGGLING WITH FREEDOM
by Howard Eissenstat
Mountain Mail Newspaper, CO
Nov 6 2006
At first glance it might seem that the Turkish government under Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan, once so determined to join the European
Union has had a change of heart.
With an overwhelming majority in Parliament, Erdogan’s Justice and
Development Party pushed through a series of liberalizing reforms
early in its administration that went far beyond those contemplated by
previous governments. Taken as a whole, they seemed to promise a new,
more democratic and pluralistic country.
In those heady days in 2003 and 2004, it seemed that Turkey was poised
to achieve its long-term goal of membership in the European Union
and – given Erdogan’s moderate Islamist base – a potential place of
leadership for reforms within the Muslim world, as well.
For the past year or two, however, such hopes have seemed increasingly
Pollyannaish as reforms have stumbled. Most dramatically, a steady
stream of Turkey’s most prominent intellectuals, journalists and
authors have been brought to trial under infamous “Article 301” of
the Criminal Code, which makes it a criminal offense, punishable by
as many as three years in prison, to “denigrate Turkishness.” Should
a citizen be found guilty of doing so while abroad, the time served
may be increased by one-third.
The result has been a serious blow to Turkey’s reputation. The
international stature of many of the accused has ensured widespread
media coverage of the trials and a steady decline in national stature
abroad.
For example, Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most celebrated novelist and
recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, was brought to trial
in 2005 for saying “Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians
were killed in these lands and nobody dares to talk about it.” The
case against Pamuk was eventually dropped, but new cases are brought
up on a regular basis. No intellectual can write confidently on the
wide range of issues that considered “hassas konular,” or “sensitive
issues,” without the fear of possible prosecution. These issues range
from the role of minorities in history and society to the rights
of conscientious objectors. Turkish democratization – and Turkey’s
international reputation – are dying from a thousand small blows.
In fact, this public embarrassment appears to be part of a concerted
effort by members of the old elite within the bureaucracy and military
and their allies to sabotage both the Erdogan government and Turkey’s
European aspirations.
The liberalization promised by the Erdogan government – and demanded
by the EU – placed elements of the old elite in a dilemma. Many in
the bureaucracy – and particularly within the military – believe it
is their right and duty to shepherd Turkey toward modernization.
Elected officials are seen as too corrupt, the populace as too ignorant
and fickle to be trusted with stewardship of the nation.
When legal limitations are insufficient for maintaining control, a
murky system of patronage, strong-arm tactics and outright violence
that the Turks refer to as the “Deep State” can be relied on to keep
both politicians and ordinary citizens in line. The liberalization
demanded by the EU and the reforms implemented early on by the Erdogan
government all seemed to threaten this monopoly on real power.
Thus early reforms went only half way. Though many were courageous,
there were significant concessions to the powerful old guard. Since
then, the enemies of liberalization have been busy, exploiting these
weaknesses. They play on nationalist sentiment, giving ammunition
to enemies of Turkey’s bid to membership in the EU and making the
government look far weaker than its strong majority in Parliament
would suggest.
Article 301 has become a weapon for Turkey’s most retrograde elements:
a weapon against the government, against Turkey’s EU ambitions,
against further reforms and against the burgeoning civil society.
If recent media reports are correct, the Erdogan government is
considering addressing the question of Article 301 again in the near
future. Government officials need to do so quickly. And this time,
they need to avoid the half-measures that have burdened them so far.
This time, they need to cut out, root and branch, the anti-democratic
language that Article 301 represents.
Howard Eissenstat teaches Middle Eastern History at Seton Hall
University in New Jersey and is a Turkey Country Specialist with
Amnesty International USA. Column distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.
m/main.asp?SectionID=7&SubSectionID=7&Arti cleID=9423

ARMENIA EYES INCREASE IN MILITARY AND SOCIAL SPENDING
By Ruzanna Khachatrian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 6 2006
Armenia is set to increase its military spending by almost 39 percent
next year, officials said after closed discussions of the 2007 draft
budget in parliament on Monday.
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian said the allocation of some $285
million to the defense sphere could not be compared to neighboring
Azerbaijan’s $1 billion military spending, but “is enough if managed
well and expended purposefully.”
In an RFE/RL interview First Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance
Pavel Safarian called next year’s budget socially oriented despite
the drastic increase in military spending. “It is not the year-to-year
spending increase in a separate sphere that characterizes the nature
of the budget, but the share this sphere has in the overall budget,”
the deputy minister said.
A total of 198 billion drams (around $555 million) in the $1.48 billion
budget are envisaged for all social spheres, including education,
public health and pensions, against 102 billion drams (around $285
million) to be spent for the Armenian military and law-enforcement
agencies.
According to Safarian, a total of some 20 percent increase is planned
in social spending, with the largest share of this increase to fall
on healthcare.
Last week Freedom House urged the U.S. administration to withhold
promised economic assistance to Armenia which it believes has failed
to meet “reasonable standards” for democracy and civil liberties.
The New York-based leading human rights organization charged that
the Armenian government has been “backsliding on promised reforms”.
The Corporation is set to approve the list of nations eligible for
that aid on Wednesday.
Armenia’s Minister of Economy and Finance Vartan Khachatrian, who on
behalf of the Armenian government signed a $235.6 million MCA compact
with the scheme managing Millennium Challenge Corporation last March,
downplays the impact of the Freedom House findings and hopes the
Corporation will not suspend the program.
“I think we don’t have problems. Freedom House studies only two
indexes in one of the three blocks of questions. The decision to be
made will not be based on Freedom House evaluations only, opinions
of other NGOs will be compared and a final decision will be made,”
the minister told RFE/RL.
The promised U.S. aid would be used for upgrading Armenia’s battered
irrigation networks and rural roads. Officials say the vast majority
of approximately one million Armenians dependent on farming would
directly benefit from that.
Khachatrian says at least $12 million of the expected allocations
have been considered in the 2007 budget expenditure pattern.

EU TRIES TO DEFUSE LOOMING CRISIS WITH TURKEY
By Paul Taylor, European Affairs Editor
Reuters, UK
Nov 6 2006
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union sought on Monday to defuse a
looming crisis with Turkey over Cyprus and lagging reforms, welcoming
a pledge to amend a key law on freedom of expression in line with
EU standards.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced the policy shift on Sunday,
three days before a European Commission report expected to sharply
criticise Turkey, saying he was ready to change a law used to prosecute
writers for “insulting Turkishness”.
“The stated intention by Prime Minister (Tayyip) Erdogan to bring
Turkish legislation on freedom of expression into line with European
standards is a welcome initiative,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn said in a statement.
“It shows that the Turkish prime minister is personally committed to
free speech and EU accession,” Rehn said.
The EU executive is to issue a progress report on Wednesday criticising
a slowdown in reforms in the year since Turkey began EU membership
talks and noting Ankara’s failure to meet a requirement to open its
ports to shipping from Cyprus.
Diplomats say the negative findings could prompt EU leaders to suspend,
at least partially, accession negotiations with Turkey when they hold
a summit on enlargement in mid-December.
But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country
takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in January, warned against
any premature move to break off the talks.
“I would strongly urge that in our interests and in the interests of
Turkey, we not be overly hasty in our conclusions. We ought to leave
scope … for a political compromise between Turkish interests and
the interests of the Cypriots,” he told a conference of the Party of
European Socialists in Berlin.
That appeared to contradict Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said in
an interview with Monday’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily that Turkey’s
EU accession talks would be in serious trouble unless Ankara lifted
trade restrictions against Cyprus.
“CONCRETE DEEDS” SOUGHT
The Commission has repeatedly urged Turkey to amend article 301 of
the penal code used to prosecute journalists and intellectuals such
as Nobel literature prizewinner Orhan Pamuk over comments on the
killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
Only last week, Erdogan appeared to rule out any change, with an eye
on nationalist voters ahead of elections next year.
But in a timely move to show goodwill, he said on Sunday: “We are
ready for proposals to make the article 301 more concrete if there
are problems stemming from it being vague.”
“We are studying several options for how we can handle article 301
in harmony with the spirit of the (EU-oriented) reforms,” he said,
without elaborating.
Rehn sounded a note of caution, saying Brussels wanted to see
practical action.
“We expect this stated intention to be followed by concrete deeds
and we are thus waiting for concrete decisions,” he said.
Rehn said pressure for a change in the penal code also reflected
the growing strength of Turkish civil society, which was a welcome
development.
The Commission is also expected to criticise shortcomings in the
rights of religious and ethnic minorities, civilian control over the
military and persistent instances of torture.
It will praise economic reforms, the training of more judges and the
creation of an ombudsman to probe citizens’ complaints.
Mustafa Alper, general secretary of Turkey’s International Investors’
Association, said financial markets were quite relaxed about the
possibility of a crisis with the EU.
“I do not think the (Commission) report will greatly spoil Turkish
morale … Cyprus will come to the agenda again, but I do not think
the report will create a lot of problems or tensions,” he told Reuters
in an interview in Istanbul.
“I see the likelihood of Turkey’s negotiations being suspended as
rather remote,” Alper said.
(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul and Louis
Charbonneau in Berlin)

WESTERN WATCHDOG FINDS NO CHANGE IN ARMENIA’S CORRUPTION LEVEL
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 6 2006
An international anti-corruption watchdog has ranked Armenia 93rd
among 163 nations by its level of corruption, which is neither progress
nor regress against last year’s study results.
In the rankings released on Monday Transparency International cited
its annual Corruption Perceptions Index study in which Armenia has
the index score of 2.9 along with Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Eritrea, Syria and Tanzania.
The index score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as
seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between zero,
which is highly corrupt, and 10, which is very clean.
Amalia Kostanian, head of the Armenian branch of Transparency
International, says the findings reflect only the opinions of
entrepreneurs and experts.
“Our studies evaluating public opinion depict a grimmer picture. We
have received much more negative data and will publish it soon,”
she told RFE/RL.
Kostanian describes the work of the anti-corruption commission in 2006
as ineffective and says that it met only once in the last ten months.
“Even though Armenia passed several related laws, acceded to different
conventions and has several anti-corruption structures, the fight
against corruption still remains an imitation and bears a formal
nature in the country,” Kostanian charged.
“Not a single senior official has been punished for corruption
practices and, more importantly, authorities do not bear any
responsibility for their failure in the anti-corruption struggle
before elections.”
Transparency International has found that corruption looms large among
political parties and registered an early start of election campaigns,
some six months ahead of its official kickoff.
About a dozen countries, including the United States, have registered
a decline according to their corruption index.
Armenia’s neighbor Turkey, for example, registered an improvement,
like Latvia and Turkmenistan from among former Soviet republics.
Only Moldova is ahead of Armenia among CIS countries. All other CIS
countries, according to the study, have a higher level of corruption,
with Uzbekistan having the worst record (151st).
According to Transparency International, the highest level of
corruption is in Haiti (index score 1.8) and the lowest is in Finland,
Iceland and New Zealand (9.6).

ARMENIA’S MILITARY BUDGET SUFFICIENT FOR ENSURING COUNTRY’S DEFENSE
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
YEREVAN, November 6. /ARKA/. Armenia’s military budget is sufficient
for making the country’s armed forces strong, Armenian Defense
Minister Serge Sargsyan told journalists on Monday after presenting
draft state budget for 2007 to lawmakers.
He said that Azerbaijan’s $1-billion military budget can’t be compared
with Armenian $300 million, but this amount will be enough if spent
reasonably.
The minister also said that greater budget spending is planned for
military purposed, just like for other sector’s needs.
In his words, military expenditures will make 3.5% of GDP every year.
“That’s why the faster economic growth is the greater are expenses
for defense”, Sargsyan said.
He said some 48% of the amount will be earmarked for salaries and
similar expenses. Armenian officers’ salaries are planned to reach
AMD 165 thousand (about $435) in 2007.
Sargsyan also said that Armenia intends to acquire new kinds of
armament and ammunition.
The 2007 state budget envisages AMD 100.4 billion (about $263 million)
for defense.

SERGEY SHAKUROV BROUGHT HIS ARMENIAN WIFE TO AZERBAIJAN
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 6 2006
After their concert in Heydar Aliyev Palace famous Russian actors
Lyudmila Gurchenko and Sergey Shakurov visited Armenia, APA reports
quoting to Arminfo.
During their press conference in Armenia Shakurov said he loves
Armenians and added that his wife Ekaterina Balova is Armenian. She
is a theater producer. “There was no problem in my wife’s coming
to Azerbaijan, as she has a Russian surname. But as my costumier is
Armenian during our visit to Azerbaijan she was not allowed to come
to Azerbaijan. I don’t understand it,” he said.
Expressing his attitude to the question the concert organizer the head
of the “Teatral” company Azer Guliyev said he does not believe this.
“His wife is not Armenian. I don’t believe that Shakurov said so,”
he said.
Culture and Tourism Ministry Press Service Department expressed no
opinion on the problem.