Month: March 2007

REPUBLIC PARTY SAYS BOYCOTTING NA SESSION A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE

Panorama.am
18:27 07/03/2007

Suren Sureniants, political board member of Republic party, said the
party failed to meet the expectations of its voters. This means that
"the constitutional order is not recovered in the country and Robert
Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan continue to rule."

Sureniants said his co-fellows demonstrated the highest principles
by boycotting the activities of the National Assembly. In his words,
Aram Z.

Sargsyan, has even refused taking his deputy salary.

If the upcoming elections are faked, the party will take a decision
to participate on not in the NA sessions. Sureniants believes that
the public will put trust in them because of boycotting.

ACCORDING TO MONITORING RESULTS, ARMENIAN TELEVISION COMPANIES ALMOST DO NOT COVER ACTIVITIES OF THREE OPPOSITION PARTIES

Noyan Tapan
Mar 08 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian television companies
almost do not cover activities of the three opposition political
forces – "Republic", "Heritage" and "New Times" parties. Chairman of
the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian stated this at the March 7
press conference. Presenting results of the monitoring of political
programmes broadcast by 7 television companies of Armenia in the
months preceding the official propaganda of parliamenatry elections,
he at the same time noted that juding from the data of February 2007,
statements of most of the opposition parties about inaccessibility
of TV time are not fully grounded. According to B. Navasardian, the
pre-election political situation was most actively covered by Kentron
TV company which provided the greatest amount of TV time to various
parties. Kentron and Yerkir Media television companies invited the
greatest number of political figures for interviews and broadcast a
considerable number of social-political programmes.

Armenia TV is the company paying least attention to politics – since
early 2007, it has not demonstrated a number of social-political
programmes. Exception was made only for the RA defence minister,
chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Board Serge
Sargsian. 85.5% of ALM company’s TV time was allocated for coverage
of the activities and position of the telecompany director Tigran
Karapetian and the People’s Party headed by him. The TV companies paid
most attention to two parties of the ruling coalition – ARF and RPA,
as well as to the "Prosperous Armenia" Party which is also close to the
authorities. H-1 television company covered most widely the activities
of RPA, "Orinats Yerkir" party, ARF, People’s Party of Armenia and
"National Unity" Party. B. Navasardian said that the purpose of the
monitoring was not to register legislative violations as laws do not
regulate clearly coverage of politocal forces’a activities before
the start of official propaganda campaign. Responding to questions
of reporters, B. Navasardian noted that on the whole, requirements
of the legislation on activities of broadcasting media are almost
not fulfilled. Particularly, there are numerous violations in terms
of advertizing, programmed policy, and changes in programs presented
for accreditation. In his words, the work of National Commission of
Television and Radio, which supervises fulfilment of law requirements
by broadcasting companies, can be called inefficient.

OYP DEPRIVED OF OFFICE ONCE AGAIN BY COURT DECISION

Noyan Tapan
Mar 08 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 8, NOYAN TAPAN. "As a result of the illegal decision
made by the RA Economic Court, the "Orinats Yerkir" Party has been
deprived of an office once again," the OYP press release reads. "Under
pressure of the authorities’ minion Valery Mezhlumian, ingnoring
all legal petitions and demands presented by OYP, the economic court
decided to abolish the party’s right to rent its office at 14 Koryun
Street which is valid until 2010," is said in the press release. It is
noted that before the court procedure, representatives of V. Mezhlumian
said that they have "permission" of the authorities and the outcome of
court examination is predetermined. The OYP political board condemns
these infringements, in which the judicial system also participates,"
the document says.

ARMENIAN MAJOR OPPOSITION PARTY ACCUSED OF COLLABORATING WITH AUTHORITIES

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
6 Mar 07, p 3

Heads of several local organizations of the People’s Party of
Armenia (PPA) have resigned alleging that the party’s leadership
is collaborating with the Armenian authorities. PPA council member
Ruzan Khachatryan has brushed away the allegations, saying they are
fabricated by the authorities to weaken the party’s positions. The
following is the text of report by Lusine Barseghyan in Armenian
newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak on 6 March headlined "Dissolved one
after another":

Resignations continue in the Peoples Party of Armenia [PPA]. In
addition to the resignations announced by the secretaries of the
local organizations of Garni, Jrvezh, Kamaris, Goghtn, Abovyan, the
secretaries of the local organizations of Hatis, Kaputan, Geghashen,
Kotayk, Nor Gyughi, Mayakovski, Katnaghbyur and Akunk announced their
resignations on Sunday [4 March]. The latter, as we learned yesterday
[5 March] from our sources in the PPA, have also dissolved their
offices. The PPA ranks complain about the position of their leader.

The series of resignations began after PPA Abovyan organization
secretary Smbat Yeghiazaryan’s resignation, who accused [PPA leader
Stepan] Demirchyan of collaborating with the authorities and playing
fake opposition. Yeghiazaryan, who resigned on 1 March, has been
dismissed from the party for gross conduct and disseminating false
accusations. However, the former fanatical PPA member is not in
a hurry to make public facts, he had promised he would. Following
the 1 March scandalous meeting of the Abovyan local organization,
Yeghiazaryan said that Demirchyan has been collaborating with the
authorities since September.

"If he [Yeghiazaryan] is saying that [Demirchyan] had been
collaborating [with the authorities] since September, what year is it
now and what month? Why was he silent for so long? If he has facts,
let him present them," PPA council member Ruzan Khachatryan said
yesterday. "This hullabaloo is inexplicable, and we don’t know where
it is coming from.

The party’s leadership tried to explain to the regular members of the
party at its council meeting yesterday that there is no collaboration
with the authorities, and that the PPA is not collapsing, and new
assessments were voiced, according to which, authorities are attempting
to "rip off" the party. This is what such assessments are based on:
in one of his TV interviews, [Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan
implied that if Demirchyan does not bring "tails" with him – meaning if
he does not form blocs with opposition parties – he will easily ensure
PPA’s entry to the National Assembly [parliament]. As it is known,
no opposing bloc was formed, and Demirchyan personally contributed
to it, no matter how hard he tries to deny it.

Now that Kocharyan’s scenario is becoming a reality and the PPA is to
get what it was promised, the authorities are pushing this game ahead
so that the PPA gets as few seats in parliament as possible. The
PPA bodies are dissolved, the ranks get weaker, and the trust in
the PPA is lost because of the accusations voiced against the party’s
leadership. It is easy to deal with the weakened PPA. If adding similar
statements made by the opposition, like the one that New Times Party
leader Aram Karapetyan made last weekend, then it is apparent that the
PPA is becoming more fragile. Karapetyan had promised to give the names
of the opposition parties that are collaborating with the authorities,
and the context of the statement indicated that Karapetyan’s remarks
applied to Demirchyan as well.

Ruzan Khachatryan says that this entire hullabaloo proves one thing:
everything is coming from one centre and is directed against the
PPA. Instead, Khachatryan says, we have to think how to coordinate
the opposition’s struggle.

"But some opposition members have launched false accusations, and it
seems very suspicious to us," she says.

P.S. The case of the PPA’s local organization of Garni comes to
prove that something is going on inside the party. Last Friday [2
March], the organization’s secretary, Vahe Babayan, told us that
he had resigned, and that he had called a meeting of the council,
during which, the office was dissolved and the facility was given to
the village authorities. "They only remember us once in four years,
ahead of elections. Fifty-one of our members were detained following
the April [2004] events, but they [the PPA leaders] did not come to
see how we were doing," Babayan said last Friday. However, Babayan said
yesterday that what he had said was an internal issue of the party. "I
had problems with the Abovyan organization. We will stay and fight."

It is quite possible that the Goghtn organization secretary too may
surrender to the party leadership today.

NUMBER OF CANDIDATES TO RUN IN ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION FINALIZED

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
6 Mar 07, p 1

Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak
on 6 March headlined "Candidates"

The nominations under the proportional representation and
first-past-the-post systems for the 12 May parliamentary election
was over at 1800 [1400 gmt] on 3 March, and the Central Electoral
Commission stopped accepting applications.

Twenty-seven political parties and one bloc with 1,497 candidates
have been nominated under the proportional representation system,
344 of them are women.

Accordingly, 173 candidates, of whom nine are women, will compete
under the first-past-the-post system. More than 100 candidates will
compete in both the first-past-the-post and proportional representation
systems.

AZERI OFFICIAL REJECTS US CRITICISM OF RIGHTS SITUATION

ANS TV, Baku
7 Mar 07

[Presenter] The US Department of State has published its regular report
on human rights in world countries. The report says that the situation
in Azerbaijan in this field is not quite encouraging. The Baku
government does not agree with the criticism of the report. Government
officials doubt the impartiality of the report.

Despite all this, the position of the State Department on Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity is more straightforward than ever. For instance,
the report mentions the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories
three times. The US report on Armenia also mentions this fact. Here
is Azada Balayeva on the department’s report regarding Azerbaijan.

[Correspondent] Following the recent report of ombudsman Elmira
Suleymanova on the human rights situation in the country delivered to
MPs, there was an impression that the situation was not that bad. But
the US State Department report does not give us grounds to think so.

[Passage omitted: correspondent quotes from the report]

Azerbaijani rights activists and representatives of NGOs are divided
on the report.

[Rights activist Sahib Mammadov, captioned] I believe that the part of
the report on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is impartial,
and this is undeniable. But at the same time, it also speaks about
the unbearable situation in prisons. I think that very serious and
positive reforms are under way in the penitentiary system and while
there are serious problems, there are positive changes both in the
conditions inmates are held in and in the treatment by the wardens.

[Azay Quliyev, president of the National NGO Forum, captioned] Reports
like this should have diverse sources. Prepared reports come from
one source only which has a known attitude and is known for special
political activity. It is natural that it looks at the situation
from only one angle. For instance, this report says that people are
persecuted for their political beliefs in Azerbaijan. But I believe
that this has been significantly exaggerated. I think that today
in Azerbaijan no-one is persecuted for their political affiliation
or beliefs.

[Correspondent] The head of the public and political department at
the presidential administration, Ali Hasanov, does not agree with
the criticism in the report either. The official has said that the
majority of the issues mentioned in the report are problems of the
past which have already been resolved.

Hasanov believes that the report is biased concerning some issues,
for instance, regarding freedom of speech. The official said that the
situation in this field in Azerbaijan is not as bad as described in
the report. Journalists in the country are neither pressurized nor
persecuted. On the contrary, freedom of speech has been developing
in Azerbaijan, and journalists are working freely.

Ali Hasanov does not agree with the assertion that the opposition’s
right to freedom of assembly is violated. He said that there are no
restrictions on rallies staged by any organization in line with law.

IN US, ARMENIAN FM LOBBIES FOR PASSAGE OF ‘GENOCIDE’ RESOLUTION

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 7 2007

Armenia’s foreign minister Monday voiced worries about a high-level
Turkish push against a proposed congressional resolution to recognize a
"genocide" of Armenians alleged to have happened at the end of World
War I.

Vartan Oskanian, in Washington on Monday for meetings with Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and members of Congress on wide-ranging
topics that included the proposed "genocide" resolution, said in
an interview that Armenia feels compelled to discuss the resolution
because of public warnings by Turkey against its passage.

"Governments should stay away from meddling in these matters," Oskanian
told The Associated Press. "But when topics of interest for Armenia
are being discussed, we cannot remain as a government indifferent,
particularly in light of Turkish lobbying at a government level."

The comments follow recent visits to Washington by top Turkish
officials including Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who warned last
month that the resolution, if passed, would harm Turkish-American
relations.

The measure, which claims that 1.5 million Armenians were killed almost
a century ago in what it describes as "genocide," is likely to draw
protests from Turkey. The Bush administration has warned that even
congressional debate on the genocide question could damage relations
with a vital Muslim ally and member of NATO.

In Washington, Armenian-American groups have been pressing for years
for a resolution on the genocide issue. The House of Representatives’
International Relations Committee last year endorsed two resolutions
classifying the killings as genocide. But the House leadership,
controlled by Bush’s Republican Party, prevented a vote by the full
chamber.

The genocide claim was the key issue as the Senate considered the
ambassadorial nomination of Hoagland to replace John Evans, who
reportedly had his tour of duty cut short because, in a social setting,
he referred to the killings as genocide. Senator Robert Menendez, a
New Jersey Democrat, blocked the nomination over Hoagland’s refusal
to use the word genocide at his confirmation hearing in June. With
Democrats taking over the Senate, it will be even more difficult now
for the Bush administration to circumvent Menendez’s objections.

Turkey strongly opposes the claims that its predecessor state, the
Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide.

The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that
Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the empire’s
collapse and conditions of World War I. Ankara’s proposal to Yerevan
to set up a joint commission of historians to study the disputed
events is still awaiting a positive response from the Armenian side.

After French lawmakers voted last October to make it a crime to deny
that the claims were a genocide, Turkey said it would suspend military
relations with France.

Turkey provides vital support to U.S. military operations. Incirlik
Air Force Base, a major base in southern Turkey, has been used by
the U.S. to launch operations into Iraq and Afghanistan and was a
center for U.S. fighters that enforced the "no-fly zones" which kept
the Iraqi air force bottled up after the 1991 Gulf War.

Oskanian said that the Turkish warnings were an attempt to silence
critics of Turkey’s position on genocide abroad as it has domestically
through its penal code.

"Now Turks are traveling to punish the United States if the
U.S. Congress dares to speak out about the genocide," he said.

Oskanian said he discussed the resolution with Rice in Monday’s
meeting; which also focused on broader relations with Turkey,
negotiations with Azerbaijan to settle their dispute over the territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh, and preparations for Armenia’s parliamentary
elections in May.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TUZMEN SEEKS ISRAEL’S SUPPORT AGAINST ‘GENOCIDE’ RESOLUTION
Oznur Cevik

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 7 2007

Turkish State Minister responsible for Foreign Trade Kursad Tuzmen
yesterday sought the support of Israeli businessmen against an Armenian
"genocide" resolution now facing the U.S. House of representatives.

In a speech at a seminar on "Turkish-Israeli Economic and Commercial
Cooperation", Tuzman said that the peoples of Turkey and Israel have
lived together in harmony and friendship.

"We now expect your support for Turkey on the Armenian matter,"
he added.

Tuzmen stressed that relations between Turkey and Israel do not merely
stem from historical roots.

"Turkey is the country that receives the second-highest number of
Israeli tourists. Only the U.S. receives more Israeli tourists than
Turkey," said Tuzmen.

Tuzmen underlined that with the realization of an energy pipeline
between the Black Sea and Red Sea, the region will become more
prominent globally.

Turkish diplomatic sources told The New Anatolian yesterday that
Israel is planning to construct a high technology park in Erzurum.

Israel and Turkey did $2.1 billion worth of trade last year, with
Israel exporting $838 million worth of products. Israeli companies
mainly exported chemicals and electronic equipment, consisting mostly
of cell phone accessories. The communications market in Turkey,
however, is vast, worth approximately $12 billion, and is expected
to grow over the coming years.

Turkey exported $1.27 billion worth of products to Israel last year
and is similarly looking to expand its presence in the Israeli
market. Chief among Turkish exports to Israel were textiles and
building materials and supplies.

Israel’s minister of industry, trade and labor and Tuzmen will sign
an agreement by which products shipped between the two countries will
be standardized as well as expedite the shipping process.

With the agreement, proceeds from imports and exports are expected
to rise, and time taken in process of shipment will be reduced.

IRAQI’S REFUGEE CLAIM DENIED
Marina Jimenez

Globe and Mail, Canada
March 7 2007

Family stunned that 71-year-old widow’s application rejected —
after six years

An elderly Iraqi widow who dreams of reuniting with her four siblings
in Canada waited six years for her immigration application to be
processed, only to be rejected after a visa officer decided her
dependency on family members was invented for immigration purposes.

Arakse Nalbandian and her siblings are devastated by the decision,
and say Citizenship and Immigration Canada made a mistake when it
rejected her application to come to Canada for humanitarian reasons.

"When I was born, my mother was paralyzed and Arakse looked after me.
She was like a mother," says Murad Nalbandian, Arakse’s younger
brother and a Toronto chartered accountant, who has supported his
sister financially for years. "Now I don’t want her to be alone and
have to die somewhere strange."

Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees,
says that of all displaced people in the world, "you would have
thought Iraqis would have a strong case."

The refugee council is releasing a report today profiling people
already in Canada whose humanitarian applications were rejected after
waiting as long as five years for them to be processed. (These cases
are usually processed in two to three years, a CIC spokesperson said,
although applications made outside the country are unusual, and may
take longer depending on the complexity.)

Ms. Nalbandian, now 71, fled Iraq in 1991 and went to neighbouring
Jordan with her daughter and son. They could not get legal status
there, and had to pay a fine every three months for overstaying their
visitors’ visas. Ms. Nalbandian visited her siblings in 1993 and then
returned to Jordan.

Seven years later, with her existence in Jordan still precarious and
afraid to face the violence in Iraq, she applied to come to Canada.

Her three brothers and sister, who were by then all running prosperous
businesses, agreed to sponsor her financially.

Ms. Nalbandian waited three years for her June, 2003, interview with a
visa officer at the Canadian mission in Damascus. Notes from her file,
obtained under Access to Information, show that the officer felt a
"case can be made for her [to come to Canada] on humanitarian and
compassionate grounds."

But the case went nowhere — even though Ms. Nalbandian was told
to expect a decision imminently. The family made several written
inquiries trying to determine the status of the case. Two Toronto
MPs tried to intervene.

An undated hand-scrawled note from an immigration officer, also
obtained by the family under access to information legislation,
notes that the department was aware of the delay: "Should we not have
interviewed her by now?"

A CIC spokesperson could not explain the delay in the case, nor give
a comment, citing privacy concerns.

In 2006, Ms. Nalbandian was reinterviewed. Much to her family’s
surprise, her case was rejected. Her lawyer, Randy Hahn, successfully
appealed the case.

Mr. Justice F. E. Gibson of Federal Court ruled that Ms. Nalbandian’s
dependency on her siblings was bona fide and "not created for
immigration purposes."

"Refugee’s level of dependency, both economically and emotionally, was
extremely high. . . . Stability of the relationship between refugee and
siblings was well established," he wrote in a Sept. 20, 2006, judgment,
ordering that the case be reheard. "Other alternatives, outside of
continued physical isolation of refugee, appear to be non-existent."

However, a second visa officer at the Damascus embassy rejected her
case in January, 2007.

The officer wondered why Ms. Nalbandian’s children, refugee claimants
in Holland, couldn’t afford to sponsor her. The officer didn’t believe
Ms. Nalbandian’s claims that the ties between her and her children
had been severed. "I am concerned you are creating dependency [on
your siblings] for immigration purposes," concluded Saad Zia, the
embassy’s second secretary.

Murad Nalbandian asserts that the familial bonds between his sister
and her extended family, including her 13 nieces and nephews, are
very strong. "Our sister is more bonded to us than to her kids," he
said. A letter signed by 17 members of the family notes that "Arakse
would be enveloped in a close family environment . . . and should be
able to reap the benefits of a large and warm extended family."

Instead, Ms. Nalbandian is destined to spend her final years alone
and vulnerable. Recently, she was the victim of two purse snatchings
in Jordan, and this year, relocated to Armenia. She still hopes a
second appeal will win her the right to come here.

"There is something wrong with a system where a woman can submit an
application that is lost/ignored for six years, rejected, and then
after the court says the decision is unreasonable, rejected again,"
Mr. Hahn said. "It seems mean spirited."

COURT OF JUSTICE AND GENOCIDE LAW (I)
Gunduz Aktan

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 7 2007

The International Court of Justice at the Hague late last month
concluded a case filed in 1993 by Bosnia against Serbia.

In the war that broke out in early 1992, Bosnian Serbs, with personnel
and weapons provided by the Serbian Army, carried out an appalling
"ethnic cleansing" against Bosnians and Croats. Since there was an
arms embargo on Yugoslavia, arming Bosnians was impossible.

The United Nations "peace" force UNPROFOR either failed to protect
the Bosnians or did not want to do so.

Under these circumstances, Turkey in December 1992 asked the Human
Rights Commission to convene an extraordinary meeting and secured
the insertion of the term "genocide" into the resolution adopted
by the commission. Turkey’s aim was to put pressure on Serbia and,
if necessary, push the international community toward an armed
intervention in Bosnia under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention
(1948) which makes it a state responsibility to prevent genocide.

This resolution later led to the establishment of the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by the UN Security
Council and the prosecution of perpetrators on charges of genocide
and other crimes.

Turkey also encouraged Bosnia to initiate court proceedings against
the Republic of Yugoslav Federation of the time in the framework
of Article 9 of the Genocide Convention. This is the case that was
finalized last month.

At that time some argued that Turkey’s pursuing an active role
over genocide would cause counter-claims due to the so-called
Armenian genocide claims. We dismissed them. The tragedy in Bosnia,
however serious it was, was outside of the genocide definition of
the convention. Should the court remain within the limits of law,
it would not broaden the definition of genocide to include Armenian
relocation, which had nothing to do with genocide. The judgment of
the court proved Turkey’s position to be right.

The court’s ruling says the terrible atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina
were not genocide. The only exception was the Srebrenica massacre
of June 12-13, 1995. The ICTY ruled that this massacre amounted to
genocide in the cases of Krstic and Blagojevich. Had there been no
decision of the ICTY, probably the court would not have characterized
the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

When the court’s judgment is analyzed, the legal reasons underlying
the court’s attitude, which at first sight provokes resentment,
are understood. The court said the first three acts out of five
proscribed under Article 2 of the convention are relevant to this
case. Regarding the first act, i.e. killing members of the group,
the court admitted that grave massacres were committed in Bosnia.

Regarding the second, i.e. serious bodily and mental harm to the
members of the group, it agreed that incidences of mass torture
and rapes occurred. And concerning the third act, i.e. deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction, the court said this crime was committed,
particularly in detention camps where inhuman conditions prevailed.

However, the court also ruled that the commission of these criminal
acts as defined in the genocide convention doesn’t necessarily
amount to genocide, inasmuch as the Serbians didn’t have the intent
to destroy the Bosnians in committing these acts. That is to say,
the court rules that massacres, mass torture and rape, and the
extermination of thousands of people as a result of the inhuman
conditions of detention camps, do not amount to genocide, unless
there is special intent to destroy the group.

The court underlines that the acts of crime committed with the aim
of homogenizing the population of a region per se may not be deemed
genocide. It stipulates that in addition to displacing a group,
there should be the intent to destroy it as well. In other words, it
says that "ethnic cleansing" carried out in Bosnia is not necessarily
genocide.

To prove the "intent" to destroy a people, the claims that "the Blue
Book says so," "Right Hon. Henry Morgenthau or Vicar Priest Johannes
Lepsius testify this," "world historians and sociologists already
made up their mind," or "20 parliaments have recognized the genocide
anyway" are no more than rumors.

The court’s verdict is not an extraordinary development to reinforce
Turkey’s stance vis-a-vis Armenian genocide allegations. But it proves
how valid our legal attitude is. There has been no legal thesis of
the Armenians anyway. This decision explains the reasons why not.

Ara Sarafian, who must have predicted the verdict, is late in his
proposal. The problem cannot be reduced to a particular region of
Turkey, namely Harput. On the other hand, neither intellectuals nor
historians can pass judgment on it.

>From now on, legal settlement is the only way.