Month: April 2007

SUPPORT GROWS FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION AMONG MEMBERS OF KEY HOUSE COMMITTEES

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 10:03

In letters circulated to Members of the House of Representatives, the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) highlighted the growing
support for the Armenian Genocide Resolution among members serving on
Congressional committees dealing with America’s defense capabilities,
intelligence community, foreign policy, and homeland security.

"We are deeply gratified by the strong, bipartisan support for the
Armenian Genocide Resolution among Members of Congress responsible
for our nation’s defense and foreign policies," said Aram Hamparian,
Executive Director of the ANCA. "Beyond the clear moral issues at
stake in America’s principled stand against all genocides, these
Members realize that Turkey, by coming to terms with this crime,
will lower regional tensions, open the door to improved relations
with Armenia, and ultimately contribute to its own acceptance by the
European family of nations."

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the senior Republican on the House
Armed Services Committee, recently agreed to cosponsor the Armenian
Genocide Resolution, H.Res.106, making him the sixteenth member of
the influential panel to add his name to this human rights measure.

In addition to Ranking Member Hunter, other members of the
Armed Services Committee who support the measure include several
subcommittee chairmen: Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), who heads the Air
and Land Forces Subcommittee; Martin Meehan (D-MA), who chairs the
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and; Ellen Tauscher (D-
CA), who presides over the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.

Other Committee members include Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Dan Boren
(D-OK), Robert Brady (D-PA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Susan Davis (D-CA),
Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Howard McKeon (R-CA), Cathy McMorris Rodgers
(R- WA), Candice Miller (R-MI), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Mark Udall
(D- CO), and Joe Wilson (R-SC).

The Armenian Genocide Resolution also enjoys bipartisan support among
members of the House Intelligence Committee, including Mike Thompson
(D-CA), who chairs the panel’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Human
Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence, and Anna Eshoo (D-CA),
who heads the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management. Other
cosponsors on the Committee include Rush Holt (D-NJ), Darrell Issa
(R-CA), James Langevin (D-RI), Rick Renzi (R- AZ), Mike Rogers (R-MI),
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and John Tierney (D-MA).

Twenty-four members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the
panel with jurisdiction over the measure, have already cosponsored
H.Res.106. This figure includes five of the panel’s seven Subcommittee
Chairmen: Donald Payne (D-NJ), Chairman of the Subcommittee on
Africa and Global Health; William Delahunt (D-MA), Chairman of
the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and
Oversight; Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle
East and South Asia; Brad Sherman (D-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee
on Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Trade, and; Eliot Engel (D-NY),
Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

Nine of the thirteen members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee
with jurisdiction over the State Department have cosponsored the
Armenian Genocide Resolution. Among the supportive members of the
State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee are its Chairwoman, Nita Lowey
(D-NY) and Ranking Republican, Frank Wolf (R-VA). Other cosponsors
on the panel include Steve Israel (D-NY), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL),
Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Barbara Lee (D-CA),
Betty McCollum (D-MN), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), and the resolution’s
author Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Eighteen of the thirty-three members of the House Committee on Homeland
Security are also cosponsors of the Armenian Genocide resolution,
including: Loretta Sanchez, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Border,
Maritime and Global Counterterrorism; James Langevin (D-RI), Chairman
of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science
and Technology; Jane Harman, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on
Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, and;
Sheila Jackson Lee, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Transportation
Security and Infrastructure Protection. Other Congressional cosponsors
on the panel include Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Peter DeFazio (D-OR),
Charles Dent (R-PA), Al Green (D-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Nita Lowey
(D-NY), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Michael McCaul
(R-TX), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Edwin Perlmutter (D-CO), Mike
Rogers (R-MI), Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Mark Souder (R-IN).

OSCE PA DELEGATION TO VISIT ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 10:32

The delegation headed by Tone Tingsgaard, Vice-President of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly, Head of the OSCE PA Observation Missin in
Armenia, will arrive in Yerevan on April 11.

On April 12 in the National Assembly together with members of the PACE
ad hoc commission to monitor the parliamentary elections in Armenia,
members of the OSCE PA delegation will meet with representatives of
parliamentary groups and factions.

The same day the members of the delegation are scheduled to meet with
representatives of "Thriving Armenia" and "Heritage" parties and the
"Alternative" political movement.

On April 13 the delegation headed by Tone Tingsgaard will have
meetings with representatives of the OSCE/ODIHR, NDI, IFES, USAID,
IREX and Counterpart Consortium. The same da the delegation will be
received by RA President Robert Kocharyan, NA Chairman Tigran Torosyan
and President of the Central Electoral Commission Garegin Azaryan.

On April 14 the delegation will leave Armenia.

PACE COMMISSION VISITING ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 10:46

PACE ad hoc Commission on monitoring of the parliamentary elections
is in Armenia. The Commission features Leo Platvoet (Netherlands),
George Colombier (France), Bernard Market (Monaco) and Evald Lindinger
(Austria).

Today the delegation is scheduled to meet with the Special
Representative of the Council of Europe Secretary General, head of the
OSCE/ODIHR observation mission, President of the Central Electoral
Commission. The same day in the Council of Europe Office members of
the delegation will have a meeting with representatives of NGOs and
mass media, Ambassadors of CoE member states.

On April 12 members of the PACE delegation will meet with
representatives of parliamentary factions and groups.

The same day the delegation will be received by Presidents of the
National Commission of TV and Radio and the Council of Public Radio and
Television, Justice Minister David Harutyunyan and Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian, as well as the Chairman of the National Assembly
of Armenia Tigran Torosyan. Members of the delegation will meet with
RA President Robert Kocharyan and President of the Central Electoral
Commission Garegin Azaryan.

On April 13 the meetings of the observation commission will be
concluded with a press conference.

On April 14 the delegation will leave Armenia.

VARTAN OSKANIAN ABOUT THE DELAY OF THE EXHIBITION ON RWANDA GENOCIDE

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 11:22

Regarding the delay of opening of a United Nations exhibit on the
Rwanda Genocide, RA Acting Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said: "It’s
not enough that the Turkish Government considers that it can conceal
the history from its people. The distortion campaign has gone so far
that they have banned the opening of the exhibition on Rwanda Genocide.

The exhibition sponsored by the Aegis Trust NGO telling about the
terrible events in Rwanda, has been delayed because the Turkish mission
specifically registered its objection to a reference in the exhibit
concerning the origin of the word "genocide," and the conclusion of
Raphael Lemkin, the international lawyer and human rights activist
who coined this term, that such large-scale and planned massacre
is genocide.

Raphael Lemkin’s work comprises part of the world history. It is
unacceptable for a UN member state to dare to show such intolerance
towards the United Nations Organization. Armenia cannot allow the
world history, the current sufferings of the peoples of Rwanda and
Darfur and the memories of injustice of Armenians be subjected to
such coldhearted and cynical ignorance.

It is shameful that this postponement that occurred because of Turkish
pressure refers to an event that had the aim to teach how to defend
human rights and prevent genocides. Instead, this is a complete lack
of respect for history and historic memory.

AKCAM LINKS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO TURKISH NATIONALISM AND ETHNIC CLEANSING

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 11:55

Over 300 students, faculty, and community members gathered at Ramapo
College to hear Taner Akcam speak out on the first genocide of the
twentieth century. For over an hour, Akcam linked the Armenian Genocide
of 1915-1917 to Ottoman Turkey’s population policy implemented on
the eve of World War I to maintain Turkish hegemony over a diminished
and endangered empire.

The event was sponsored by Ramapo College’s Center for Holocaust and
Genocide Studies and the Armenian National Committee of New Jersey,
with introductory remarks by Dr. Antranig Kasbarian, Nagorno-Karabakh
Program Director of the New York-based Tufenkian Foundation.

One of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and discuss
openly the Armenian Genocide, Akcam based his talk was on his book
A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish
Responsibility. Acclaimed by Nobel Laureate in Literature Orhan Pamuk
as "…the definitive account of the organized destruction of the
Ottoman Armenians written by a brave Turkish scholar who has devoted
his life to chronicling the events," it was published by Metropolitan
Books last November (ISBN 0805079327).

Making extensive use of Ottoman and other sources previously unused
by historians of any nationality, Akcam placed the genocide within
the context of Turkish nationalism. He showed an empire in a state
of collapse that is plagued by dissension and contradiction. In its
dying breath, as Akcam’s research bears out, it lashed out against
and attempted to constrain its ethnic and religious minorities.

The Turkish government adopted a policy of "ethnic cleansing" Greeks
and Albanians were deported from southwestern Turkey, while Moslem
Kurds, Central Asians and Arabs were moved from their domiciles in
the eastern Turkey and subject to Turkification. The culmination of
this process was the first of the 20th Century’s genocides in which
over a million Armenian men, women and children lost their lives and
livelihoods through organized killing, rape, and deportation.

Professor Akcam made this tragedy come alive by citing from telegrams
and other documents penned by the Ottoman Turkish leadership. They
poignantly depict a situation in the government pursued its policy
of maintaining minority representation in most areas to 5-10%
of the total population against the Armenians with particular
vehemence. Among the Turkish claims and myths that Ackam put to
rest was that the government drafted a policy and put aside funds to
compensate Armenians for confiscations and loss of income incurred
during the expulsions. Document after document unearthed by Ackam
reveal that the authorities erected a deliberate a smokescreen to
hide widespread persecution and expropriation.

Ani Tchaghlasian, Chairwoman of the ANC of NJ commented, "We want
to thank Rampao College for working with the ANC of NJ to help
organize such a successful event. Given the recent rise of threats
towards Turkish scholars who speak out on the Armenian genocide,
following Hrant Dink’s assassination, we would also like to thank
Taner for giving his time to help enlighten the community on this
historical fact."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SERGE SARGSYAN RECEIVED THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF RUSSIA

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 13:57

RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan today received the first Deputy Prime
Minister of Russia Sergey Ivanov. And the delegation headed by him.

Sergey Ivanov first congratulated Serge Sargsyan on his appointment
to this high and responsible position, expressing confidence that
Armenian-Russian relations will continue developing with the same
success.

RA Prime Minister expressed confidence that Sergey Ivanov’s visit to
Armenia will become a new impetus for further deepening of bilateral
cooperation in different spheres.

Turning to the discussion of agenda issues, the parties expressed
appreciation for the activation of multifaceted relations between
Armenia and Russia during the past few years.

Serge Sargsyan underlined that the political and economic relations
between Armenia and Russia are normally developing, while the issue
of transport communication remains a painful one. In this regard he
appreciated the opening of the Kavkaz-Poti ferry way. Serge Sargsyan
also turned to the renovation of Armenian enterprises given to Russia,
noting that the Armenian side is ready to provide all necessary
conditions to settle the question as soon as possible. Sergey Ivanov
emphasized the importance of finding effective solutions from the
commercial point of view.

During the meeting the parties discussed issues related to the
further development of bilateral cooperation in the spheres of energy,
communication, military-technical and other fields.

The meeting was concluded with the joint press conference of RA Prime
Minister Serge Sargsyan and the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
Sergey Ivanov.

PERSPECTIVES OF OPENING A NEW NPP DISCUSSED IN ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
11.04.2007 15:21

"The plan of closing down the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will be
presented to the consideration of the Government in summer of the
current year," RA Deputy Minister of Energy Areg Galstyan declared
in Yerevan today.

Delivering a lecture on the perspectives of development of the energy
sphere in Armenia at the American University of Armenia, he said the
ANPP will; be closed down in two stages.

The first phase that will last 10 years, envisages to create a nuclear
fuel store on the ANPP area. In the next 50-year phase the created
store will be put into commission.

The Deputy Minister said Armenia will close down the Nuclear Power
Plant only in case the republic is provided with an alternative energy
source by 2016.

Areg Galstyan also informed that the perspectives of constructing a
new Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia are under discussion.

The European Union insists on the necessity of closing down the ANPP
and has declared about its willingness to provide $100 million for
this purpose.

ARMENIAN COURT OVERRULES REGISTRATION OF TWO ARMENIAN CANDIDATES

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
10 Apr 07

An Armavir court today ruled to void the decision, according to which
former MP Hakob Rafik Hakobyan and Susanna Harutyunyan, who is not a
member of any party, had been registered as candidates for parliament
in the 19th Echmiatsin constituency. Another candidate from the same
constituency, an assistant to the Arabkir district head, Hakob Varsham
Hakobyan, had filed a suit against the officials. He based the suit
on the fact that former MP Hakob Hakobyan and Susanna Harutyunyan
faked the signatures of those who offered their candidacies [as
heard]. Armenpress [news agency] reported that the court investigation
showed that the signatures were fake.

$4.5 BILLION EXCLUSIVITY CLAUSE WRITTEN INTO LATEST CHRYSLER OFFER
Megan Davies

Irish Times
Published: Apr 11, 2007

US billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s investment firm Tracinda has written an
exclusivity clause into its $4.5 billion (3.35 billion) offer to buy
Chrysler that industry experts call a shrewd move but a potentially
troublesome one for the carmaker’s board.

DaimlerChrysler, which confirmed last week that it was talking with
prospective buyers of the loss-making Chrysler unit, could run into
problems with irate rival bidders and disgruntled shareholders if it
accepts an exclusive arrangement with just one buyer, academics said.

Kerkorian’s bid comes almost 10 years after his failed first attempt to
buy Chrysler and is his second major power play at a US car firm in the
past two years. He previously owned as much as 9.9 per cent of General
Motors but sold that stake last year following its rejection of his
proposed tie-up with Nissan and Renault. Following the US government’s
bail-out of Chrysler in the 1980s, Kerkorian began amassing shares
in Chrysler and ultimately controlled 100 million shares.

After the $40 billion (29.8m) 1998 buyout of Chrysler, Kerkorian
sued DaimlerChrysler, charging that it deceived shareholders by
characterising the deal as a "merger of equals." The suit was later
dismissed.

In a separate letter to DaimlerChrysler chief executive Dieter Zetsche,
former Chrysler executive and current Kerkorian adviser Jerome York
said a long-term approach was needed to solve Chrysler’s problems. York
said it would likely take five to seven years to build Chrysler into a
"robust and lasting, stand-alone entity."

He also noted that a private ownership approach was in the "best
interests of all Chrysler constituencies." York said a substantial
portion of Chrysler equity should be offered to UAW as part of
a solution to rising healthcare costs. UAW spokesman Roger Kerson
declined to comment on Tracinda’s bid. UAW president Ron Gettelfinger
said in Detroit that the union wanted DaimlerChrysler to retain the
US unit.

"This latest offer reinforces our view that the most likely outcome
for Chrysler is a sale to a private equity buyer which promises
a conciliatory approach to labour," Lehman Brothers analyst Brian
Johnson said.

The son of an Armenian immigrant, Kerkorian grew up the youngest of
four children in Fresno, California. After dropping out of school
in the eighth grade, he boxed for a while under the moniker "Rifle
Right", before joining the RAF to fly supply planes from Canada to
Britain during the second World War.

After the war, his love of flying and risks took him to Las Vegas,
where the gambling industry was in its infancy.

He bought surplus war planes to fly gamblers from Los Angeles to Las
Vegas, and made his first fortune when the business, called Trans
International Airlines, went public in 1965. In 1968, he sold it to
Transamerica for more than $100 million (74m) in cash and stock.

The first investments to earn him recognition came in 1970, when he
built the 2,000-room International Hotel in Las Vegas, and became the
largest investor in Hollywood movie studio MGM. Kerkorian expanded his
entertainment empire in 1981, buying another faded Hollywood studio,
United Artists, and merged it with MGM. He sold MGM to Ted Turner in
1986, but months later bought it back, except for 3,300 titles from
its classic film library. He sold MGM again in 1990, but bought it
for a third time in 1996, when French bank Credit Lyonnais put the
studio up for auction.

KURDISH LEADER SAYS HIS STATEMENTS WERE TO COUNTER TURKISH THREATS
Bassem Mroue

AP Worldstream
Published: Apr 10, 2007

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani on Tuesday said remarks he made in a
television interview that drew a heated and threatening retort from
Turkey _ were nearly two months old and had been taken out of their
chronological context.

Barzani, leader of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, said the
interview, aired Saturday by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, had
been recorded on Feb. 26, at a time when Turkey was openly challenging
Iraq’s government to delay a vote on the fate of the northern Iraqi
city of Kirkuk.

Kurds are hoping a constitutionally mandated referendum, which must
be held by year’s end, will allow the Kurds to attach Kirkuk and its
oil riches to the Kurdish semiautonomous region just to the north.

The city had a majority Kurdish population at the time of the last
census in 1957 but since then, during Saddam Hussein’s rule, became
heavily populated by Arabs encouraged to move to the city by the
dictator in a bid force out the Kurdish population. He believed Kurds
disloyal and aligned with neighboring Iran.

Kirkuk also has a sizable Turkmen population in the region. Turkmen
are ethnic Turks for which Ankara feels responsibility and who were
the majority in the city when it was under the Ottoman Empire.

Since Saddam’s ouster by American forces four years ago, tens of
thousands of Kurds have returned to Kirkuk and the central government
just decreed it would enforce a program to voluntarily resettle and
compensate those Arabs who migrated to Kirkuk after 1958.

Barzani’s remarks in the interview struck an extremely sensitive nerve
in Turkey, where more than 37,000 people have been killed in fighting
between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels since 1984, most
of them in the southeastern region bordering Iraq.

Ankara is concerned that Kurdish control over Kirkuk and its oil riches
will further embolden Iraqi Kurds to seek independence and could incite
the estimated 14 million Kurds in Turkey into outright rebellion.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s senior government and military officials discussed
possible political and economic measures against Iraq if the country
fails to move against separatist Kurdish guerrillas fighting Turkey.

A statement issued at the end of a four-hour National Security Council
meeting Tuesday said Turkey will closely watch Iraq’s response to a
Turkish request that it take urgent measures against the guerrillas,
who stage cross-border attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

"My comments were in response to Turkish threats," Barzani explained
in a speech in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil Tuesday.

In the interview that was aired Saturday, Barzani said, "Turkey must
not intervene in the Kirkuk issue, and if it does, we will interfere
in Diyarbakir other cities in Turkey." Diyarbakir is the largest city
in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.

Two days after the interview was broadcast, Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraqi Kurds against meddling in Turkey’s
southeastern regions. He said the "price would be very high."

The Turkish leader further said Barzani was "out of place" and would be
"crushed under his words."

On Tuesday, Barzani shot back that "we heard the Turkish officials
comments and threats and sometimes the use of impolite language. … I
don’t understand how a country allows itself to interfere in the
affairs of others and become upset when others want to interfere in
their affairs."

"We don’t threaten anyone and we don’t accept threats from anyone,"
Barzani said.

Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency reported Monday that Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, called Erdogan to tell he
had been saddened by the rising tensions.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Barzani’s comments in
the Al-Arabiya interview were "unhelpful, and they certainly do not
further the goal of greater Turkish-Iraqi cooperation on issues of
common concern, including fighting the PKK." The PKK is the Kurdistan
Workers Party, the heart of the separatist movement in Turkey.

Besides Sunni and Shiite Arabs and Kurds, Christians, Armenians and
Assyrians live in the ancient city of Kirkuk.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress