Month: November 2006

Freedom of speech regresses in Turkey, rights group says
Agence France Presse — English
November 3, 2006 Friday 5:43 PM GMT
Freedom of speech deteriorated in Turkey, a European Union candidate
nation, in the first nine months of this year compared with 2005,
the country’s main human rights watchdog said Friday.
The assessment came days before the European Commission — the EU’s
executive arm — issues what is expected to be a critical report on
Ankara’s progress towards membership.
“There has been no improvement with respect to basic rights and
liberties in the first nine months of 2006. In fact, there has been
deterioration in some areas such as freedom of expression,” Yusuf
Alatas, chairman of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) told
a news conference here.
An IHD report showed 261 people indicted for expressing their opinions,
up from 192 charged in the whole of last year.
Courts had sentenced 134 people by the end of September this year
while 59 people were convicted in 2005.
Turkey’s obligation to guarantee freedom of expression is expected to
figure high in the European Commission report to be released Wednesday.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has for months called for the
modification or scrapping of Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code to
guarantee freedom of speech.
Dozens of intellectuals, among them 2006 Nobel literature laureate
Orhan Pamuk, have been brought to court under the article mainly for
contesting the official line on the World War I massacres of Armenians
which Ankara rejects as constituting genocide.
Article 301 envisages up to three years in jail “for denigrating
Turkish national identity” and insulting state institutions.
No one has yet been imprisoned under the provision, but the appeals
court in July confirmed the suspended six-month sentence of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist, setting a precedent for pending cases
against some 70 intellectuals.
Thomas Hammerberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for Human
Rights, said here Friday that he had received a pledge from Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that Ankara would take steps very soon
to rectify the situation.
“I was informed at the highest level that mistakes have been made
in the implementation of Article 301 and that these mistakes of
implementation will be corrected,” Hammarberg told a news conference
after three days of talks with Turkish officials.
“I welcome the message I got that this will end soon,” he said.
Hammarberg added that Gul had not specified how the government would
tackle the thorny issue.
The Turkish government has so far refrained from openly committing
itself to making a move on the controversial article, but has said
it was open to proposals to amend it.
The European Commission report is also expected to criticize the
slowing pace of reforms aimed at easing Turkey’s entry to the
25-nation bloc and its failure to honour its obligations to Cyprus
under a customs union agrement.
Turkey began membership talks with the European Union last year amid
warnings that the country still has much to do to prove its full
commitment to democracy and human rights.

Russia’s VimpelCom agrees deal to buy Armenian telecom group
Agence France Presse — English
November 3, 2006 Friday
Russian telecommunications group VimpelCom said Friday it had concluded
a deal to buy 90 percent of Armenian operator Armentel for 341.9
million euros (434.4 million dollars).
The Russian group is to buy the stake in Armentel, which controls
40 percent of the mobile market in Armenia, from semi-public Greek
company Hellenic Telecommunications Organization.
“We are pleased to announce the signing of this agreement that
will enable our entry into Armenia,” said VimpelCom chief executive
Alexander Izosimov.
VimpelCom has mobile phone operations throughout Russia and Kazakhstan
and has recently acquired mobile operators in Ukraine, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, and Georgia.
The group is quoted on the New York and Moscow stock exchanges and
counts Norwegian telecoms group Telenor as its biggest shareholder
with a 29.9-percent holding. Russian holding company Alfa Group owns
24.5 percent.
Armentel has 400,000 mobile phone subscribers and 600,000 fixed
line users.
VimpelCom said it would complete the purchase once “certain conditions”
were fulfilled, including approval by the Armenian government.

Some of the major points of tension between Turkey and the European Union
Associated Press Worldstream
November 3, 2006 Friday 6:01 PM GMT
CYPRUS
EU: Turkey must open its ports and airspace to Greek Cypriot ships
and recognize Cyprus’ customs union with the EU.
Turkey: Before it recognizes the government of Greek Cyprus, the EU
must keep its promise to help lift the international isolation of
the Turkish side of the divided island.
FREE SPEECH:
EU: Turkey must amend or abolish an article in the Turkish penal code
that makes it a crime to “insult Turkishness” and which is frequently
used to try academics and authors, notably Orhan Pamuk, this year’s
Nobel literature laureate.
Turkey: No one has gone to jail for expressing opinions so far,
and the problem is not with the article itself but with its
implementation. More time is needed.
HUMAN RIGHTS:
EU: Turkey is regressing after years of steady improvement.
Turkey: Rights have been strengthened and laws overhauled even
as Turkey deals with resurgent violence by Kurdish separatists,
considered terrorists by the United States and the EU.
WOMEN, MINORITIES:
EU: Expand their rights.
Turkey: It takes time to modernize a largely conservative Islamic
society, and granting greater rights to minorities particularly Kurds
could threaten the unity of the state.
ARMENIANS:
The EU: Turkey must recognize that the killing of as many as 1.5
million of its Armenian minority around the time of World War I
was genocide.
Turkey: Calling it genocide is “an international lie”; they died in
interethnic fighting as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Turkey and the EU drifting apart over membership bid
By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
November 3, 2006 Friday 4:46 PM GMT
The cautious courtship between Turkey and the European Union looks
increasingly like it might be headed for a messy and acrimonious
breakup.
They were a mismatched couple from the beginning: one wealthy, mostly
Christian and liberal, the other far poorer, overwhelmingly Muslim
and largely conservative. Perhaps it’s no surprise that over time the
mood has deteriorated from buoyant optimism to mutual recriminations
and a seemingly hopeless inability to communicate.
The mood is likely to get noticeably worse after next Wednesday,
when the EU releases a progress report that sizes Turkey up. The
Associated Press saw a draft Friday that said Turkey is dragging its
feet on reform and failing to meet minimum human rights standards.
The consequences of further worsening of relations between Turkey and
the EU could be dramatic and far-reaching: At stake is an ambitious
vision of bringing a Muslim nation into the fold of liberal European
society, proving that a “clash of civilizations” between the West
and Islam is not inevitable.
Many analysts say that’s why the two parties are likely to continue
talking for the foreseeable future, never committing to a clean split
which would deliver the message to Muslims everywhere that the West
is not prepared to deal with them on equal footing.
“Of course I support the EU (bid),” said Bayram Kapici, a 38-year-old
security guard. “But the question is, what will our place in the EU
be? I mean, we’re Muslims. Are we barbarians? How will they see us?”
For the moment, enthusiasm toward Turkey’s bid has cooled dramatically
on both sides, and Turkish leaders’ passionate claims that an
“alliance of civilizations” can replace the much-feared “clash”
are starting to ring hollow.
Turkish public support for membership in the EU has fallen to below
50 percent, and many believe that perceived insults from the European
Union in the form of frequent criticism and seemingly endless demands
for reform play directly into the hands of nationalists and Islamists
waiting to tap into a broken and defensive Turkish psyche.
Europeans, meanwhile, have a litany of complaints about Turkey: Its
refusal to look objectively at the past, notably the massacre of
Armenians after World War I that many historians call a genocide;
its intransigence on key diplomatic issues like recognizing the
Greek-speaking part of Cyprus, which has been a full EU member since
2004; its poor record on human rights and treatment of its Kurdish
minority; its intolerance to free speech that runs to the extent that
“insulting Turkishness” is a crime; its outsized admiration for its
military; its unwillingness to abandon some elements of its Islamic
culture, such as hardline attitudes toward adultery and homosexuality.
Many here fault Turkey’s old rivals Greece and Cyprus for the growing
acrimony, claiming they are lobbying the EU to take a hard line over
Turkey’s refusal to extend its customs union with the EU to the Greek
Cypriot part of Cyprus. Turkey does not recognize the Cyprus government
and props up the internationally unrecognized administration in the
north of the island.
On Thursday, a meeting that was supposed to be a last-ditch effort
to settle the Cyprus problem was canceled, leaving the Turks with
very little time to negotiate before the EU’s year-end deadline to
concede or see talks suspended.
What would happen if the talks collapsed?
First, the symbolic value of having a 99 percent Muslim, democratic
nation firmly integrated into the West would be lost. Turkey’s 71
million citizens, educated to look to Europe for inspiration since
the country’s secular tranformation in the 1920s, might look elsewhere
for positive reinforcement.
“Nationalists are benefiting from this, there’s no question about it,”
said pollster and political science professor Hakan Yilmaz.
Islamic countries of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa,
with which Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government has been forging
increasingly close ties, might be natural surrogates for a Turkey
spurned.
But there is a sense on the street that a complete breakup with the
EU is out of the question.
Yilmaz said many EU leaders were just playing to the crowd by publicly
belittling Turkey. “Some in the European Union public love this
humiliation particularly in France,” he said, alluding to a proposed
French law that would make it a crime to say Turks did not commit
genocide against Armenians.
Meanwhile, some leading politicians on both sides are trying to
make the relationship so miserable that Turkey will just walk away
on its own, said Ilter Turan, a political analyst at Istanbul Bilgi
University.
But Turan added that any Turkish government that walked away from
the EU would be excoriated by the Turkish public, despite the current
anti-EU mood.
The key question appears to be how to persuade Turkey to change
without damaging national pride.
“There is one thing where the Turkish public seems to be rather
adamant,” Turan said, getting to the heart of what Turks want in
this relationship. “If there is to be a union, it is to be on equal
grounds.”
Kapici, the security guard, said he didn’t think the EU would ever
take Turkey, but at least it was good for his country to try.
“I’m a Muslim, praise God,” he said. “But I don’t want to be part of
an Arab Union or something. It’s always better for Turkey to be on
the side of Europe.”
Benjamin Harvey has covered Turkey since 2005.

La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest
03 novembre 2006 vendredi
Edition DEUX SEVRES
” Armenie mon amie ” en valeur a Faymoreau
D.M.
L’annee de l’Armenie en France se decline aussi en Vendee, où le
conseil general vient d’engager une cooperation economique et
culturelle avec ce pays ami. Vendredi 27 octobre, la delegation
armenienne, en voyage d’etudes pour une semaine, a participe au
vernissage d’une exposition rare, dans la chapelle des mineurs de
Faymoreau (près de Saint-Laurs) : ” Tresors d’Armenie ” (1). Edward
Nalbandian, ambassadeur d’Armenie, et Gagik Gyurjyan, ministre
adjoint de la Culture et de la Jeunesse, conduisaient la delegation
au côte du president du conseil general de Vendee. Cette expo dans le
petite village ” phare ” du bassin minier de Faymoreau/Saint-Laurs,
en avant-première nationale, prendra ensuite le chemin du Louvre, ou
de ville comme Lyon. Dans la petite chapelle, une soixantaine
d’objets de l’art chretien, pour la plupart dates du V au XVIII
siècle, temoignent de l’anciennete et du raffinement de la culture
armenienne, premier Etat chretien du monde depuis l’an 301. L’expo
est aussi chargee de symboles, comme cette porte de monastère cachee
par les Armeniens lors du genocide dans l’empire ottoman :
” Cette exposition met en valeur tout le spectre de l’identite
armenienne structuree par une spiritualite singulière, a travers les
Khatchkars, veritables professions de foi gravees dans la pierre sans
equivalent ailleurs, les vestiges monastiques, des objets de cultes,
des splendides pièces d’art liturgique armenien ainsi que des
vetements ou tapis “,note Edward Nalbandian. La presence de ces
oeuvres sacrees ou culturelles en la chapelle de Faymoreau, mises en
valeur par la lumière eclatante des dix-neuf grands vitraux, est
exceptionnelle. Ne vous en privez pas !
(1) Entree libre tous les jours jusqu’au dimanche 3 decembre inclus,
de 10 h a 12 h et de 14 h a 18 h. Catalogue explicatif gratuit.
–Boundary_(ID_a4TgibFNL5RkUGrqLMgzXA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IN HOLDING REFORMS IN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION ARMENIA INTENDS TO TAKE
OVER FOREIGN EXPERIENCE
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
Today, Deputy Minister of Science and Education Ara Avetisyan said
at a press- conference that while holding reforms in the spheres of
education and science Armenia gives much importance to the foreign
experience, and the Ministry of Science and Education has also studied
the educational systems of foreign states.
He reminded that on July 24, 2006, on the Armenian President’s
instructions, an interdepartmental commission was established for
realizing scientific reforms. The members of the commission are
representatives of the Armenian governmental and presidential staffs,
the National Academy of Sciences, the Ministries of Finances and
Economy, Trade and Economic Development, Science and Education. 3
working groups were set up, which prepared the draft reforms in the
sphere of science. In the near future, the draft reforms will be put
to public discussion. Ara Avetisyan said that 2 of the working groups
will visit Hungary and Czech Republic, and the third one will visit
Lithuania and Poland. They will study the mechanisms of governing,
as well as the ways and sizes of financing science. He emphasized that
Hungary and Czech Republic have a more Soviet structure of science and
reforms, therefore their experience can help the Armenian scientific
system in many respects.
Ara Avetisyan noted that the Armenian Government has approved the
list and schedule of activities in the sphere of science. The main
tasks of the scientific reforms are to create a united system of
governance, to increase the efficiency of scientific organizations,
to realize infrastructure and a material and technical basis in
the sphere of education, to increase the efficiency of financing,
to integrate science and education.

Liberation , France
3 novembre 2006
La negation, objet legitime du droit;
Il s’agit de distinguer entre la contestation ideologique et
dangereuse et le doute ou le questionnement, propres a toute
recherche scientifique.
par GARIBIAN Sevane; Sevane GARIBIAN juriste, doctorante en droit
public, Paris-X-Nanterre.
Le texte de Jerôme de Hemptinne (Liberation du 25 octobre) pose une
question importante et necessaire, dont la reponse permettrait de
combler un trou creuse par le debat actuel sur la negation saisie par
le droit : comment cette negation est-elle definie en droit ?
Autrement dit, quel est le sens de l’interdit pose par la proposition
de loi recemment adoptee a l’Assemblee nationale visant a penaliser
la negation du genocide des Armeniens, sur le modèle de la loi
Gayssot ?
Tant le langage courant que le langage historiographique ont
longtemps defini le negationnisme comme une doctrine ou une position
ideologique consistant a nier la realite du genocide du peuple juif
et, plus particulièrement, l’existence des chambres a gaz. Depuis
plusieurs annees deja, au regard de la realite et de l’actualite d’un
phenomène qui s’etend, l’usage du mot “negation” est elargi a la
contestation d’autres genocides ; un “assassinat de la memoire”,
comme etape ultime du processus genocidaire, dont tout le monde
s’accorde a dire, a la suite de Pierre Vidal-Naquet, qu’il perpetue
le crime.
La negation devient objet du droit avec l’adoption de la loi Gayssot
en 1990. L’interpretation des juges francais et europeens en la
matière permet de degager les limites qui cadrent l’interdit et
garantissent sa conformite aux libertes fondamentales. La
jurisprudence relative aux affaires de negationnisme est fort
eclairante quant a la signification, restrictive, attribuee a ce
terme : la negation ne tombe sous le coup de la loi que dans la
mesure où elle constitue un “trouble illicite de nature a porter
atteinte a l’ordre public”, dont le droit au respect de la dignite
humaine est une composante. Et les juges ont, par ailleurs, eu
l’occasion de souligner que les interets proteges par l’interdit
comprennent notamment “les fondements d’une societe democratique”.
L’element cle dans la definition juridique de la negation est
l’intention de nuire du contestataire, dont la mauvaise foi, non
presumee, doit etre prouvee par l’accusation. Ce n’est pas l’opinion
en tant que telle qui est punie, mais la diffusion de cette opinion
en tant qu’acte ideologique, de mauvaise foi, exprimant sous couvert
de scientificite une propagande antisemite, raciste ou haineuse,
susceptible de produire des effets indesirables dans une democratie.
L’absence d’une presomption de mauvaise foi en matière de
negationnisme constitue, en outre, une difference fondamentale entre
ce delit et d’autres delits de presse pourtant proches, tels que la
diffamation ou la provocation a la discrimination raciale. Elle vise,
precisement, la preservation du principe de la libre recherche
scientifique, lequel principe, s’il permet de revisiter des faits
historiques, implique, aussi, une responsabilite.
Il s’agit de distinguer la contestation ideologique et dangereuse du
doute ou du questionnement, propres a toute recherche scientifique.
Contrairement a ce que semble craindre Jerôme de Hemptinne, il n’est
pas question de “rester muet”. Mais d’etre responsable lorsque l’on
remet en cause la realite d’un crime de genocide, dont la
specificite, tout comme celle du delit de negationnisme, est
determinee par l’intention qui motive l’acte.
–Boundary_(ID_gIpDhVj5pRpTGLHIOme9kw)–

VimpelCom buys Armenian phone company
United Press International
Nov 3 2006
YEREVAN, Armenia, Nov. 3 (UPI) — Russia’s VimpelCom and Hellenic
Telecommunications Organization are buying a majority stake in
Armenia’s CJSC Armenia Telephone Co.
The $486 million purchase price includes debt assumption, VimpelCom
said Friday in a news release.
CJSC Armenia Telephone is a fixed-line and mobile operator in Armenia
with licenses in the GSM-900 and CDMA standards. Armentel’s subscriber
base includes approximately 600,000 fixed-line subscribers and 400,000
GSM subscribers.
VimpelCom owns cell phone companies in Russia and Kazakhstan and
recently acquired cellular operators in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
and Georgia.

Baptist Press, TN
Nov 3 2006
2 converts in Turkey charged under free speech restrictions
Nov 3, 2006
By Staff
Baptist Press
ISTANBUL, Turkey (BP)–A Turkish prosecutor has filed criminal
charges against two converts to Christianity, accusing them of
“insulting Turkishness,” inciting hatred against Islam and secretly
compiling data on private citizens for a local Bible correspondence
course, according to an Oct. 31 report by Compass Direct news
service.
Hakan Tastan, 37, and Turan Topal, 46, joined the ranks of 97 other
Turkish citizens taken to court in the last 16 months over alleged
violations of the country’s controversial Article 301 restricting
freedom of speech, Compass reported.
The attorney for the two Christians, Haydar Polat, said a state
prosecutor in the Silivri Criminal Court filed a formal indictment
against Tastan and Topal on Oct. 12. If convicted, the accused men
could be sentenced from six months to three years in prison, Compass
reported, noting that the first hearing for the trial is set for Nov.
23 in Silivri, 45 miles west of Istanbul along the Marmara Sea coast.
Polat said the trial could be expected to continue for a year or
more.
Citing articles 301, 216 and 135 of the Turkish penal code, the
indictment accuses the defendants of approaching grade school
children and high school students in Silivri and attempting to
convert them to Christianity, Compass reported.
According to the written charges, the three plaintiffs, identified as
23-year-old Fatih Kose, 16-year-old Alper and Oguz, 17, claimed the
two Christians had called Islam a “primitive and fabricated religion”
and had described Turks as a “cursed people.”
They also accused Tastan and Topal of opposing the Turkish military,
encouraging sexual misconduct and procuring funds from abroad to
entice young people in Silivri to become Christians. Tastan and Topal
deny all charges, Compass reported.
Neither of the men knew they were under investigation until Oct. 11,
when two carloads of gendarme officials appeared with a search
warrant at Tastan’s home at 8 a.m., Compass recounted. The officers
informed Tastan that a complaint had been made against him claiming
he had unlicensed guns and was conducting illegal missionary
activities. While Tastan and his wife and two small children looked
on, the search team spent two hours combing their apartment in
Buyukcekmece, on the western outskirts of Istanbul.
“Now let’s go to your office and find Turan,” the soldiers told
Tastan, instructing him to call Topal and ask him to stay at the
office until he arrived, without explaining why, Compass reported.
Tastan was surprised that they knew his office address and the name
of his office partner; he later learned that a Silivri prosecutor had
given the gendarme written permission to follow, photograph and
secretly tape them for one month.
After searching the small bureau in Istanbul’s Taksim district, the
gendarme confiscated two computers and an array of books and papers,
Compass reported. They then loaded the two Christians into their
vehicles and drove them back to Silvri.
After hours of interrogation by military intelligence officials, the
two men were released for the night and ordered to return the next
morning to complete the investigation, Compass reported. By the end
of Oct. 12, they had recorded their formal statements before the
prosecutor.
Both men said they had categorically denied all the accusations
against them, Compass reported, noting that the charges apparently
are based on three or four trips they had made to Silivri months ago
to meet a teacher and several high school students who had contacted
an Istanbul-based Bible correspondence course requesting a visit.
“It’s all lies,” Topal told Compass. “Someone is trying to make us
look like a Christian tarikat [banned religious sect].” He said one
of the gendarme officials told him he was accused of having weapons,
forming illegal cell groups, evangelizing children and trying to
destroy the secular state of Turkey.
Topal, who became a Christian 17 years ago, said he told the gendarme
interrogators that he was innocent, “but I am doing missionary work.
I am a Christian evangelist and I don’t deny that. So you can put me
in jail for that, if you want. But you know what I’m doing is not
against the law.”
A Christian for 12 years, Tastan said he told the prosecutor, “I am a
Christian and I am a Turk. I will keep on sharing my faith. We are
not ashamed to be Christians and we are not hiding anything.”
Tastan said he worked part-time at a printing house and gave the rest
of his time to Christian ministry, Compass reported.
Just four days after the two were released, the mass-circulation
Hurriyet newspaper gave front-page coverage to the Silivri
investigation under the headline, “Gendarme raid missionary office,”
Compass reported.
Declaring that parents of Silivri students had complained that the
two men were promoting missionary activities among grade school
students, the Oct. 16 article claimed that their office, linked with
the Taksim Protestant Church, had compiled names and detailed private
data on 5,000 citizens in Turkey’s Marmara region.
Topal said the claims are absurd, but news clips based on the
Hurriyet release were broadcast that same day on TGRT television and
the local TV music channel.
The next morning, an article in the Islamic Zaman newspaper linked
the Christians’ arrest and interrogations with a Turkish draft-dodger
who had hijacked a Turkish Airlines plane two weeks before flying
from Albania to Istanbul. Claiming he was a Christian and a
conscientious objector, Izmir-born Hakan had appealed to Pope
Benedict XVI for asylum.
According to Zaman, “… it was confirmed that the hijacker had ties
with Tastan and Topal.” The Oct. 17 article stated that the men had
confessed in their formal statements that they knew Ekinci and that
he had led Protestant missionary activities in the Aegean region of
Turkey.
After examining the legal file against Tastan and Topal, Isa Karatas,
spokesman for the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey,
commented, “There is no legal proof. It only contains verbal
allegations, without any evidence.”
Karatas told Compass he considered it “a violation of democratic
rights” for the gendarme team to raid and search a private home and
office “without a single piece of evidence — and then pass on this
destructive and unsubstantiated information to the media.”
Meanwhile, the European Union has reiterated its demand that Turkey
either amend or scrap Article 301, which prohibits “insulting
Turkishness.”
EU critics complain that the law fails to define “Turkishness,”
allowing prosecutors to issue widely varying legal interpretations in
a rash of cases against journalists, novelists, professors and other
intellectuals. Turkey instituted Article 301 in June 2005 as part of
the country’s package of reform laws to facilitate the overwhelmingly
Muslim nation’s entry into the European Union.
According to Turkish media reports, Rene van der Linden, chair of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, suggested in an Oct.
26 meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that Europe’s
objections to Article 301 could outweigh even the unresolved dispute
over Turkey’s refusal to open its seaports and airports to traffic
from EU member Greek Cyprus.
But the government insists that the issue focuses on “implementation”
of the law, arguing that the courts have yet to send anyone to jail
for alleged speech restriction violations.
Although several prominent defendants have been acquitted, including
this year’s Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, dozens of
trials still are pending in the courts. A number of cases focus on
comments regarding the Turkish state’s denial of what it terms the
“alleged genocide” of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
Another acquittal was handed down in May to two professors who
prepared a controversial report for a parliamentary sub-commission
regarding minority and cultural rights. The report maintained that
non-Muslims in particular were subject to discrimination in Turkey
and sometimes treated as foreigners rather than equal Turkish
citizens.
The report, accused by nationalists of being treasonous, was disowned
by the government and never published, according to Compass Direct.
–30–
Reported by Barbara G. Baker for Compass Direct, a news service based
in Santa Ana, Calif., focusing on Christians worldwide who are
persecuted for their faith. Used by permission.
.asp?ID=24326
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Moscow Nationalists to Rally in spite of Ban
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.11.2006 14:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ November 2 the whole day Moscow officials were
discussing the firm intention of organizers of Russian March to hold
that measure in the Moscow metro in spite of the ban. As a result the
authorities said they will take steps not to admit the nationalist
action. However, neither the organizers, nor the participants of the
future rally were intimidated and kept open discussion on where and
how to gather. Moreover, it appeared that there may be at least two
“nationalist events” in the capital. Worried by the attention of
authorities to the Russian march, fascist and skinhead groupings
decided to do it in a different way.
Tuesday Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov prohibited the holding of the
Russian March in Moscow November 4.
Thus, the organizers – the Movement against Illegal Migration
(MAIM) decided to gather in one of the metro largest stations –
Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya instead of the street, as “the authorities
cannot close it and working on the platform would be difficult to
law-enforcers.” After a certain number of participants arrive, the
organizers intend to announce the destination for holding the march,
stated MAIM leader Alexander Belov.
Owing to the stir a number of nationalist organizations refused from
participation n the event.
Lately members of those groups discussed their plans for November 4 in
Internet forums. Fascists decided not to go to the metro in order not
to appear on tracing cameras. They will probably visit an authorized
meeting of liberals on the Bolotnaya Square. The organizers of “the
alternative measure” urge their brothers-in-arms to go and “explain
to liberals why they are wrong.”
At that long-standing national patriots urged their colleagues to be
careful, as well as to come to the rally not in “organized crowds,”
not to shout slogans and dress in a simple manner to avoid militia
suspicion, reports Vremya Novostey.