WE ALL MUST BE SCREAMERS, SYSTEM OF A DOWN SAYS
Panorama.am
18:12 17/04/2007
The premier of "Screamers", a documentary shot by American Armenian
Carla Karapetyan, will take place today. The film is dedicated to the
genocide. Famous System of a Down rock group is shot in the film. The
group calls to recognize 1915 Armenian Genocide up to day rejected
by Turkey and USA. "I think we all must be screamers," Serzh Tangyan,
member of System of a Down group says at the end of the film.
NATIONAL UNITY SUPPORTS MARXIST LEADER
Panorama.am
18:46 17/04/2007
National Unity (NU) will support Davit Hakobyan, leader of Marxist
Party, in election community 41 on majority list. Hakobyan went to
a meeting with a community in his place of birth with NU. Impressed
by the meeting, the Marxist believes "Geghamian will have one of
the top three posts in the republic." Hakobyan believes Geghamian’s
"star is shining." He said Tavush welcomed them with enthusiasm. The
Marxist promises to form an alliance with NU in case he appears in
the parliament. Otherwise, Hakobyan says he will leave the politics.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMENIAN ATTACKED BY SKINHEADS DIED
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.04.2007 17:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 46-year-old Armenian immigrant Karen Abramian who
was earlier attacked by skinheads in the Russian capita, died in the
hospital. According to law enforcement bodies, on Monday evening three
young men, dressed like skinheads, attacked Abramian. Two suspects
have been arrested in connection with this murder, RFE RL reports
In the Southwestern administrative district of Moscow on Kedrov Street
near the house 22 a group of nationalists attacked K. Abramian. The
city on duty officer received information about the attack at
22.00 local time April 16. Policemen who arrived on the crime scene
discovered a man with knife wounds.
According to the victim, three smooth-headed young men with high
shoes attacked him.
Karen Abramian was sure the cause for attack was his nationality. He
said, while stabbing him the unknown young men shouted nationalistic
slogans.
STILL THERE IS NO DECISION BY ERDOGAN OVER HIS CANDIDATURE FOR PRESIDENTIAL POST
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.04.2007 18:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "In the current circumstances there exist a
certain risk in connection with my candidature for the presidential
post. We will not take the risk," Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan stated. He said, the final decision over nominating his
candidature will be made after consultations with political forces of
Turkey. Erdogan’s decision came after a rally of 300,000 protesters in
Ankara, who protested against country’s islamization that Erdogan and
his "Justice and development" party lead to. Today the Prime Minister
met with leaders of parliamentarian opposition, Turkish media reports.
On April 16 the process of proposing candidature for the presidential
post launched in Turkey. Elections will be hold in the parliament May
22. The time for registration expires April 25 and the Prime Minister
stated he will give his final answer till that period.
Beginning from April 26 within 20 days deputies of Turkish Grand
National Assembly must elect the next president of the country. The
current President Ahmed Necdet Sezer is follower of Kemalism, who
protect principles of secular state.
GEORGE W. BUSH CONGRATULATES ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER
Armenpress
Apr 17 2007
YEREVAN, APRIL 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenian government said U.S. President
George W. Bush has sent a message to new Prime Minister of Armenia
Serzh Sarkisian to congratulate him on taking up his new tenure.
"We share your grief over the untimely death of your good friend and
partner Andranik Margarian,’ the message says.
The message also says that the U.S. government expects authorities
in Yerevan to hold free and just parliamentary elections on May 12
in conformity with international standards. Bush says free elections
would become a serious boost to furthering US-Armenian relations.
TREASURES OF MATENADARAN UNDER THREAT
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily
18/04/200
The agreement signed between the Armenian "Matenadaran" Institute
of Ancient Manuscripts and the USA Saint John Univiersity’s "Hill"
Museum-Library was a shock for the Armenian intellectual public.
Armenian historians and culture scientists declare that the agreement
was signed in secret and is a part of a conspiracy against Armenian
culture and statehood.
According to the agreement all the culture heritage, all the materials
stored at the Matenadaran Institute, is to be photocopied, scanned
and sent to… the United States. Rumors say that all this took only
5-6 million dollars from the Hill museum.
The Armenian scientists are not against scanning the manuscripts and
having their digital versions. To their opinion, having a clone of
Matenadaran in a foreign state is unacceptable.
Their anxiety is explained by the following arguments.
Only 900 of the 14000 manuscripts stored at Matenadaran are thoroughly
studied, and no one knows for sure what treasures can still be found
there. The agreement between Matenadaran and the Hill museum deprives
the Armenian scientists of the opportunity to study the history and
culture of their own nation.
Preserving the manuscripts’ copyright after Matenadaran is ridiculous,
as the mechanisms of copyright law enforcement in the sphere of
e-content are not elaborated yet. "The agreement must be nullified,
as the biggest center of Armenian studies cannot be transported to
the USA," they say.
JUSTICE MINISTER SAYS WESTERN DEMOCRACY RECIPES NOT APPLICABLE IN ARMENIA
AZG Armenian Daily
18/04/2007
On Tuesday, April 17 Armenian Justice Minister David Haroutiunian said
that Armenia has made substantial progress over the last 15 years,
but added that political reforms are lagging behind economic ones.
‘This is why now it is time for us to revaluate the significance
of political reform from the perspective of sustainable economic
advancement," Mr. Haroutiunian said.
Speaking to an international conference about the role of elections
in democratic processes, the Minister said that the priority now is
to take effective measures for building a state of true democracy
and rule of law.
However, Justice Minister Haroutiunian went on to speculate that free
and just elections are not sufficient for strengthening the democracy
in Armenia, arguing that Armenia’s national and regional peculiarities
should not be overlooked.
"A significant portion of Armenian political landscape is not ripe
yet," he said, adding that ‘the Western democracy recipes are not
applicable in Armenia."
To the Minister’s opinion, this does not mean that Armenia is not
prepared for democracy. According to him, passive political parties
must leave the political stage, municipality elections must be
politicized and small parties must merge."
"We have about 70 registered political parties but in the last decade
the majority did not participate in elections,’ he substantiated.
TURKEY’S DEMANDS TO FIX TERMS FOR EU MEMBERSHIP AROUSED PERPLEXITY
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.04.2007 16:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Recep Erdogan’s demand to fix concrete terms for
accepting Turkey in the European Union has aroused perplexity in
Brussels: on a number of issues the sides have not began negotiations
up till now. During the last weekend during his visit to Germany
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded from EU
more concrete perspectives for his country’s membership to the
Union. Particularly he offered German Chancellor Angela Merkel to
work out a "road map" and fix a date for Turkey’s accession to the EU.
Angela Merkel did not react to this demand anyhow.
Instead the European Commission and European Parliament expressed
a rather simple reaction. "No candidates for EU membership will be
given exact dates for accession to the Union," a representative of
the European Commission stated. Still in December of 2006 heads of
EU member-states adopted a decision, according to which henceforth
the concrete date for membership will be discussed only during the
final stage of talks.
In the case with Turkey negotiations are only in the initial stage,
and still not on all subjects. The main obstacle remains the same,
the "Cyprus issue": the sides blame each other for blockading the
negotiation process.
Head of Liberal faction Graham Watson advised Ankara to "keep calm"
and stop pressing on German government, which holds EU presidency
till the end of June 2007.
According to Watson, currently it is necessary to first of all
concentrate on continuation of negotiations, Deutsche Welle reports.
ARMENIANS OF TEXAS PROTEST AGAINST HOLDING CONFERENCE ON "ARMENIAN-TURKISH DIALOG"
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.04.2007 16:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ April 14, 2007 the Armenian community of Texas
rapidly mobilized to a conference on "Turkish-Armenian Dialogue"
slated to take place at Southern Methodist University (SMU). The main
purpose of the planned conference in SMU is denial of the Armenian
Genocide. A similar conference was organized two weeks ago in Austin
entitled "Ottoman Diversity and Multiculturalism," the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA) reports.
With local, regional and national collaboration involving grassroots
activists, the ANCA, ANCA-WR, and the Eastern Diocese of the
Armenian Church joined forces with the Armenian community of Texas to
counter the attempts of genocide denial making inroads at SMU and the
university system of North Texas. These attempts by genocide denialists
coincide with local efforts to build support for the Armenian genocide
resolution, H. Res. 106 which awaits a vote in the U.S. Congress.
The Armenian community of Texas will continue to coordinate efforts
locally and beyond to pursue the truthful, just path of official
recognition of the Armenian genocide through H. Res. 106 and shall
remain vigilant regarding the coordinated efforts of the Turkish
government to fund genocide denial propaganda conferences at
universities and or on Capitol Hill.
BUSH: FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS TO BECOME STIMULUS FOR DEVELOPING USA-ARMENIA RELATIONS
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.04.2007 17:04 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. President George Bush sent a congratulatory
message to Serzh Sargsyan in connection with his appointment
as Prime Minister of Armenia, the RA Government Press
Office reports. Particularly, George Bush in his message says,
"I congratulate You in connection with your appointment as Prime
Minister of Armenia. We share Your grief for late Prime Minister,
Your friend and colleague Andranik Margaryan’s death. We are waiting
for May 12 parliamentarian elections in Armenia and expect You will
make a great contribution to holding a free and fair elections in
accordance to international standards, which will serve as a serious
stimulus for developing relations between the two countries".