Month: March 2007

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 26 2007

Turkish Army official urges international support in fighting
terrorism

WASHIGTON D.C. (A.A) -26.03.2007 -Turkish Deputy Chief of Turkish
General Staff Ergin Saygun pointed out that although PKK was in the
terrorist organizations list of many countries, the measures taken
against it were weak in practice.

Attending the 26th annual conference of the Turkish American Council
(ATC), Saygun said, "some believe that terrorism started with
September 11th. It’s not like that. Terrorism began a long time ago."
Noting that Turkey had tried to persuade NATO to take measures
against the attacks launched by the Armenian terrorist organization
Asala, Saygun reminded that NATO labelled this issue as a ‘political
problem’ back then and said "this problem does not concern NATO."

Stressing that terror could target a superpower or a poor country
alike, Saygun said the level of technology employed by terrorists was
revealed with the September 11th attacks and underscored that the
uncertainty in when or where terrorists would attack made it all the
more difficult to ‘manoeuvre against’ in the combat against terror.

Saygun said, "the world got these messages from September 11th
(terrorist attacks). Our message is about the PKK," and underlined
that PKK also used religion as a tool in its activities.

Exposing the terrorist organization PKK with pictures, Gen.Saygun
noted PKK was responsible for the killing and wounding of 343 people
just in 2006 and said it also targeted facilities like communication
centres, bridges and the like.

Giving examples of documents adopted by the UN Security Council, NATO
and the EU against terrorism, Saygun said despite these, majority of
the countries only took low level measures against terrorism.

Displaying the photo of a European Parliament meeting also attended
by PKK supporters, Saygun said "you may adopt resolutions against
terror, but what matters is the practice."

Stressing that PKK, along with acts like drug smuggling, human
trafficking and money laundering, was making its propaganda through
European based TV channels like Roj TV, Saygun said the main base of
PKK was Kandil mountain and 3,500 PKK militants were stationed in
Iraq. Saygun underscored that PKK was allowed to take base in the
north of Iraq and its logistic and arms needs were met there.

Saygun reminded the agreement that was signed between Turkey and Iraq
in 1926 and pointed out that Turkey had the right to enter as far as
75 km. inside the Iraqi territory from the Iraqi-Turkish border.

Commenting on the genocide allegations of the Armenians, Saygun
reminded the remarks by Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit
warning that the adoption of the so-called Armenian genocide
resolution would severely harm Turkish-US relations.

-IRAQ-

Saygun pointed out that Kurdish groups in northern Iraq rejected the
Iraqi flag and the Baghdad government.

Stating that the demographic structure of Kirkuk was altered to the
favour of Kurds, Saygun said, "it will not be just to held this
referendum in these circumstances," when commenting on the referendum
that is planned to be held in Kirkuk.

-CYPRUS-

Stating that recently the Greek Cypriot administration accused Turkey
of invading the territory of Cyprus, Saygun reminded that it was not
Turkey who ended "the republic of Cyprus" where the two communities
lived together, but it was ended by a military coup that was
supported by Greece.

Showing pictures exposing the violence committed against the Turkish
population in the island, Saygun said Turkey would not withdraw its
forces from the island until a just solution to the problem was
found.

Saygun underlined that the military expenditures of the Greek Cypriot
adminstration had increased recently especially after its membership
to the EU.

Saygun also said that it was striking that the Greek Cypriot
administration deployed American-made weapons in the island since
1988.

-GIAMBASTIANI-

On the other hand, Edmund Giambastiani, the Vice Chairman of the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff, underlined importance of confidence building.

Stating that the relations between the two countries in the field of
defence produced dynamic and concrete results, Giambastiani said
Turkey and the US worked together against the terrorist organization
PKK.

Expressing his optimism about the termination of problems like the
terrorist organization PKK, Giambastiani said Turkish-US relations
remained strong.

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 26 2007

US-Turkish conference says Armenian bill might damage relations

Washington, DC, 26 March: Participants underlined that the resolution
on so-called Armenian genocide that was submitted to the US Congress
might damage Turkish-American relations during the 26th annual
conference on Turkish-US relations of American-Turkish Council (ATC)
that started in Washington, DC, on Monday [26 March].

Turkish State Minister Ali Babacan and the deputy chief of General
Staff, Gen Ergin Saygun, are among participants of the conference.

Taking the floor in the conference, ATC Board of Directors Chairman
Brent Scowcroft qualified the resolution on so-called Armenian
genocide as "harmful", underlining that the two countries should
focus on common policies and interests.

On the other hand, Turkish-US Business Council (TAIK) Chairman Ferit
Sahenk stated that the mentioned resolution disappointed Turkish
people, warning that this initiative would severely damage relations.

The Irish Times
March 27, 2007 Tuesday

Turkish intellectuals find it hardto laugh at new climate of fear

TURKEY: As the European Union celebrates 50 years of peace and
prosperity, life for dissidents in would-be Europe – Turkey – is
getting more difficult. Nicholas Birch reports from Istanbul

As a foreigner, waving your yellow press card usually opens doors in
Turkey.

It didn’t impress the police officer guarding the entrance to Agos,
the Turkish-Armenian newspaper run by Hrant Dink until a teenage
nationalist murdered him this January as he stepped out of his
office.

"Who are you working for?" he asks suspiciously. "Who do you want to
talk to?"

Like the closed-circuit camera set up last month to survey the patch
of Istanbul street where Dink died, his questions betray the
heightened sense of insecurity facing dissidents in Turkey today.

A well-known columnist who took over as editor of Agos after his
friend’s death, Etyen Mahcupyan has been receiving threats for as
long as he can remember.

"You are so accustomed to [ them] that when the threats go down, you
ask what is happening," he says, "and that’s why the murder was a
real shock. Because you have so many threats every day and nothing
happens."

Hrant Dink’s death was a turning point for Atilla Yayla, too. An
Ankara-based political scientist, his problems started last November
when he publicly described Turkey’s founder Kemal Ataturk as "that
man".

Turkey’s press branded him a traitor. His university removed him from
his teaching position for four months.

Last week, a prosecutor opened a case against him for "insulting the
legacy of Ataturk". He faces up to three years in jail.

"For five days, I couldn’t sleep," Yayla remembers, comparing the
media campaign against him to Stalin’s Moscow trials. "In the end I
collapsed physically."

But it wasn’t until after Dink’s death that he began to take the
death threats he had been receiving seriously. Like more than a dozen
other Turkish dissidents, he now shares his life with a police
bodyguard.

"He is so much a part of me that I’m planning to buy him and his
family presents," Yayla comments wryly.

Other Turkish intellectuals find it much less easy to laugh at the
new climate of fear. One of the most prominent of 50 people taken to
court by ultra-nationalists last year on charges of "insulting
Turkishness", best-selling novelist Elif Safak, now keeps trips
outside her house to a minimum.

Dink "was a close friend and I haven’t got over the shock of his
death", she said in a phone conversation last week. She declined to
talk at length.

Interviewed by daily Hurriyet in February, her husband Eyup Can said
she was so upset that she was no longer able to breast-feed her
six-month-old daughter.

Orhan Pamuk, meanwhile, the novelist who won last year’s Nobel Prize
for literature, left Turkey under police escort on February 1st, days
after the man believed by police to have organised Dink’s murder
threatened him as he was taken into custody.

Turkey’s tourism ministry has since announced it will be using Pamuk
as part of its new campaign to attract tourists to Turkey.

When well over 100,000 people attended Dink’s funeral procession late
in January, many hoped his death might mark the end of what one
columnist called "the ultra-nationalist tsunami" sweeping Turkey
since its European Union bid started.

In fact the protest, and the protesters’ choice of the slogan "we are
all Armenians", stirred nationalists up further.

A key demand made by protesters, that the law criminalising insults
to "Turkishness" should be changed, remains ignored by an
electioneering government afraid of losing nationalist support.
Despite the risks they face, though, Turkish dissidents say they have
no intention of giving up the struggle.

"Such a thing has happened that you cannot be cautious any more,"
says Agos’s new editor Etyen Mahcupyan. "It’s immoral to be
cautious."

Like Mahcupyan, who says you can only tell the real threats from the
false ones after it’s too late, Baskin Oran knows his bodyguard will
not be able to stop a professional assassination attempt.

"This nice person is protecting me from amateur killers, like the one
who killed Hrant," says this political scientist, who co-authored a
2004 government report on minority rights that many see as the first
spark to today’s nationalist surge.

He goes on to quote a Turkish proverb that he who fears birds doesn’t
plant corn. "If you are afraid, you should stop. But how can I look
into the mirror in the morning if I do stop? How can I lecture my
students?"

Today’s threats and restrictions on freedom of movement, he says, are
part of the growing pains of Turkish democracy. "The road to paradise
passes by hell, and we are walking."

PRESS RELEASE
Cafesjian Family Foundation
15 South 5th Street, 900
Minneapolis, MN 55402

USA Contact: Mr. John Waters
612-359-8991
[email protected]

Armenia Contact: Ms. Madlene Minassian
[email protected]

Minneapolis, MN
March 27, 2007

Hope For The City Sends Valuable Airlift of Medical Aid to Armenia
‘Arabkir’ United Children’s Charity Foundation Is the Recipient of Hope
For The City’s Aid

Minneapolis, MN and Yerevan, Armenia – Hope For The City, working in close
collaboration with the United Armenian Fund and the Cafesjian Family
Foundation, delivered essential medical equipment, valued at around
$50,000 USD to the `Arabkir’ United Children’s Charity Foundation in
Yerevan, Armenia. The airlift arrived on March 17, 2007. Transportation
expenses were covered by the United Armenian Fund.

The airlift of medical equipment, including inhalers, is the second aid
sent to the `Arabkir’ United Children’s Charity Foundation by Hope For The
City. The first shipment consisting of medical equipment and supplies
arrived in August of 2006 and has been used for newly addressing both
medical and diagnostic needs.

`The received equipment is very essential for our patients. The inhalers
we used before were quite simple, however now we will be able to provide
better treatment to our patients,’ stated Spartak Ghazaryan, Board Member
of the `Arabkir’ United Children’s Charity Foundation and Director of the
"Arabkir" Joint Medical Centre & Institute of Child and Adolescent Health.
`We are very grateful to Hope For The City for this vital donation. We
thank the United Armenian Fund and The Cafesjian Family Foundation for
their support.’

Dennis and Megan Doyle, founders of Hope For the City and Board Members of
the Cafesjian Family Foundation, first visited Armenia in April of 2005.
Since this initial visit, Hope For The City has shipped over one million
dollars of aid from the United States to Armenia. Hope For The City,
working closely with the Cafesjian Family Foundation provides supplies and
other medical-technical assistance to selected organizations in Armenia.

Hope for the City is a privately funded, 501(c) 3 relief organization that
was established by Dennis and Megan Doyle in 2000 to fight poverty, hunger
and disease by utilizing corporate surplus. The US/Minnesota-based,
non-profit organization collects overstock products from top retailers,
medical companies, and food distributors nationwide and donates the items
to people in need locally, across the country and around the world. Since
its inception, Hope for the City has donated approximately $300 million
USD in wholesale value of goods.

The United Armenian Fund is a collective effort of the Armenian Assembly
of America, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Relief
Society, the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, the Prelacy of the
Armenian Apostolic Church of America, and the Lincy Foundation. Since its
inception in 1989, the United Armenian Fund has sent over $421 million USD
of humanitarian assistance to Armenia on board 136 airlifts and 1,255 sea
containers.

The Cafesjian Family Foundation, Inc., was established in 1996 by Gerard
L. Cafesjian. The US based, non-profit organization supports a variety of
Armenian causes in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the United States. A
primary focus of the Cafesjian Family Foundation is the security of
independent Armenia and the further development of a free, democratic
society through economic development and the strengthening of the
US/Armenia relationship.

PanARMENIAN.Net

RA government resigns over PM’s death
26.03.2007 12:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian government announced
resignation over untimely decease of Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan. New PM will be appointed in 10
days. This is the decision taken March 26 during an
extraordinary cabinet sitting presided by Robert
Kocharian. According to the Constitution, after
resignation or death of the Prime Minister the
government announces resignation. After the President
accepts the resignation the cabinet members proceed
with the office duties until a new government is
formed. The President appoints new Prime Minister
within 10 days after the government’s resignation. The
government is formed within 20 days after the PM’s
appointment, reports IA Regnum.

Andranik Margaryan died from infarction on March 25
afternoon.

PanARMENIAN.Net

RA President expressed condolences to Andranik Margaryan’s family
26.03.2007 12:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian
conveyed condolences to the family of deceased Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan. The statement furnished
by the RA leader’s press office says in part, `I am
deeply saddened by the untimely decease of outstanding
political figure and friend Andranik Margaryan. His
death is an irreparable loss not only for his family
but also for all Armenian people. I express my deepest
condolences and wish you patience and firmness. Our
people will piously revere Andranik Margaryan’s
memory.’

ARMENPRESS

ARAME PICTURE GALLERY TO SHOWCASE TARON MURADIAN’S
WORKS AT ARTEXPO

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS: A private picture
gallery in Yerevan, Arame, will showcase several
paintings of a local artist Taron Muradian at ArtExpo
exhibitions to take place successively in Denmark and
Holland in April.
The gallery director Aram Sarkisian said to
Armenpress that Taron Muradian will have an exhibition
of his works also in summer in Geneva’s Belle Air Fine
Art Gallery. He said a Dutch publisher will also
release this year an illustrated book about Taron
Muradian and his painting.
Sarkisian said private galleries give Armenian
artists a good opportunity not only to exhibit their
works but to also sell them, but be lamented the lack
of attention from the public at large towards
painting.
In Yerevan there are only 9 private galleries, and
no galleries in Armenia’s provinces.
"A European city of Yerevan’s scale has, as a rule,
hundreds of private picture galleries,’ Sarkisian
said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENPRESS

INCUMBENT ARMAVIR MAYOR WINS ELECTION

ARMAVIR, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS: The incumbent mayor
of Armavir, a town south-west of Yerevan and the
administrative center of the same name province,
defeated his rival in March 25 mayoral elections.
The mayor, Robert Khlghatian from the Republican
Party, according to preliminary count of votes, has
garnered 8,322 votes defeating his rival Araik
Aghababian from the Prosperous Armenia party of a
millionaire businessman Gagik Tsarukian.
Local election commission said the voter turnout
was high. Out of 25,884 eligible voters 15,791 went to
the polls on Sunday. Araik Aghababian received 6,844
votes. Election observers say they did not detect
major violations, except minor irregularities.
Many local experts argued that mayoral election in
this town will be indicative in terms of May 12
parliamentary polls, which are expected to see a tough
competition between these two parties.

ARMENPRESS

PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN DECLARES MARCH 28 DAY OF MOURNING
FOR PRIME MINISTER ANDRANIK MARGARIAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS: President Robert
Kocharian has ordered today to declare March 28 a day
of mourning for prime minister Margarian who died of a
heart attack on Sunday.
Kocharian’s press office said all Armenian
government agencies in Armenia and embassies aboard
will lower Armenia’s flag on March 28.
The official Yerevan continues receiving messages
of condolences from foreign leaders and Diaspora
Armenian organizations and prominent individuals on
the occasion of the sudden death of prime minister
Andranik Margarian.
Mike Kharatian, the chairman of the central office
of the Ramkavar Azatakan (Democratic Liberal) party,
sent a message of condolences to president Robert
Kocharian saying they were shocked by prime minister’s
death whose devotion to his country and people was
displayed through his services to his homeland.

ARMENPRESS

PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN DECLARES MARCH 28 DAY OF MOURNING
FOR PRIME MINISTER ANDRANIK MARGARIAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS: President Robert
Kocharian has ordered today to declare March 28 a day
of mourning for prime minister Margarian who died of a
heart attack on Sunday.
Kocharian’s press office said all Armenian
government agencies in Armenia and embassies aboard
will lower Armenia’s flag on March 28.
The official Yerevan continues receiving messages
of condolences from foreign leaders and Diaspora
Armenian organizations and prominent individuals on
the occasion of the sudden death of prime minister
Andranik Margarian.
Mike Kharatian, the chairman of the central office
of the Ramkavar Azatakan (Democratic Liberal) party,
sent a message of condolences to president Robert
Kocharian saying they were shocked by prime minister’s
death whose devotion to his country and people was
displayed through his services to his homeland.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress