Month: April 2007

CONFERENCE SUR L’ARMENIE.

Le Telegramme, France
9 avril 2007 lundi

Cette annee est celle de l’Armenie en France. De nombreux
liens historiques existent entre l’Armenie et la France et plus
particulièrement avec les Bretons. On y trouve de nombreux dolmens,
menhirs et alignements et l’hermine s’inspire de l’Armenie, du nom
du rat d’Armenie. Cette republique a la meme surface et la meme
population que la Bretagne. Vendredi, a 20 h 30, salle Yves-Nicolas,
une presentation sera faite de la christianisation de ce petit pays, de
l’histoire des premiers chretiens d’Orient et une plongee s’effectuera
dans les profondeurs de l’histoire où se cachent des racines communes.

–Boundary_(ID_5TDv8iz01Kb0bK7uZpKHcg)- –

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NOBEL LAUREATES’ LETTER CALLS FOR TURKISH-ARMENIAN COOPERATION

Newsday, NY
April 9 2007

NEW YORK (AP) _ Fifty-three Nobel laureates called for Turks and
Armenians to open their border, improve official contacts and resolve
differences over the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early
20th century.

In a letter released Monday by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity,
the Nobel laureates urged Turkey to end discrimination against ethnic
and religious minorities and to abolish Article 301 of its penal code,
which makes it a criminal offense to denigrate Turkishness. They said
Armenia should "reverse its own authoritarian course, allow free and
fair elections and respect human rights."

The letter, which was released to the Turkish and Armenian media,
referred to the Jan. 19 slaying of Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist
who had made enemies among nationalist Turks by labeling as genocide
the mass killings of Armenians toward the end of the Ottoman Empire.

The laureates said that the best tribute to Dink would be "through
service to his life’s work safeguarding freedom of expression and
fostering reconciliation between Turks and Armenians."

Besides Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and 1986 winner of the Nobel
peace prize, the signers include J.M. Coetzee, the 2003 winner in
literature; Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams, the 1976
peace prize winners; and Wole Soyinka, the 1986 winner in literature.

"We do feel strongly that Turks and Armenians need to interact with
each other," said David L. Phillips, executive director of the Wiesel
Foundation. "The more they engage and trade personal stories, the
deeper will be their understanding."

Telephone calls by The Associated Press to the Turkish mission
to the United Nations and to the Republic of Armenia’s permanent
representative to the United Nations seeking comment were not
immediately returned Monday.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution in Congress
earlier this year urging the U.S. government to recognize as genocide
the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the end of World War I.

Turkey has denied claims by scholars that its predecessor state,
the Ottoman government, caused the deaths in a genocide. The Turkish
government has said the toll is wildly inflated and Armenians were
killed or displaced in civil unrest during the disarray surrounding
the empire’s collapse.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS STAND FOR RECONCILIATION BETWEEN ARMENIANS AND TURKS
Marlena Hovsepyan

"Radiolur"
09.04.2007 16:55

Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity has issued today the document
signed by 53 Nobel Prize laureates, in which scientists, writers and
public figures call for reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.

The Nobel Prize winners call on the Turkish government to end the
discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities and expel
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which envisages criminal
responsibility for "insulting Turkishness." They also urge the Armenian
and Turkish authorities to open the border.

The address suggests a legal approach for overcoming the divergence
in the perception of the Armenian Genocide by the peoples of the
two countries.

"There is a great divergence between Turks and Armenians in the
perceptions of the Armenian Genocide. To reflect this divergence, we
refer to the ‘legal analysis of the applicability of the UN Convention
on prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide on the events
at the turn of the 20th century,’ which confirms the conclusions of
scholars investigating the genocide," the document says.

It concludes that "abou those events we can say that these included
all elements of genocide as provided for in the Convention." It
concludes also that " the Genocide Convention includes no provision
for its retroactive force."

While the Nobel Prize winners are discussing the reality of the
Armenian Genocide from the perspective of international law, the
American Armenian community hopes that the two laws introduced in
the US Congress will be adopted or at least will be put on vote by
April 24. The active work in this direction continues.

"The resolution introduced in the House of Representatives has already
been signed by 185 Congressmen," Regional Director of the Armenian
Assembly of America Arpi Vardanyan told "Radiolur." She said another 30
votes are necessary to have half of the House Members support the bill.

The American Armenian community also hopes that in his annual address
on April 24 President Bush will use the word "genocide." The state,
propagating human rights and democracy, cannot deny the historic
realities.

SERGE SARGSYAN: WE WANT TO BECOME PART OF THE EUROPEAN FAMILY

ArmRadio.am
09.04.2007 17:24

The newly appointed Prime Minister of Armenia Serge Sargsyan gave an
interview to the popular "Financial Times" today, where he turned to
the economic development and democratization processes in the country
and the geopolitical views of Armenia.

The Financial Times writes that despite double-digit economic growth
in the past few years, a third of the 3m-strong population of the
landlocked Caucasian republic lives below the poverty line. In this
regard Serge Sargsyan noted: "It is hard to talk about democratic and
human rights when you need to solve the social and economic needs of
the population," the prime minister said during a trip to Brussels. "We
would not like to be a state stuck in our transition."

He said the huge Armenian diaspora – estimated at up to three times
the native population – should get more involved in the country. Only
1 per cent of investment came from them, he said, and he was looking
at ways they could be encouraged.

However, Mr. Sargysan said the government in Yerevan would keep pledges
made to international bodies after criticism of its rights record and
he was hopeful that the May 12 parliamentary elections would be the
first to be pronounced free and fair by the Organisation for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European security watchdog.

"We have made commitments to different programmes and we think
compliance is in our interest. We want to become part of the European
family," he said.

Mr. Sargsyan said his top priority was to conclude a peace treaty
with its Muslim neighbor.

The oil-rich state has been rearming recently but Mr. Sargysan said
that was sabre-rattling. Turkey closed its border with Armenia during
the war and the Premier said he would strive to restore relations
and sign a peace deal.

Armenia could grow far faster if rapprochement was reached with its
bigger neighbors, he said.

Mr. Sargysan said that, despite ties to influential exiles in the
US, Yerevan would remain friendly to Moscow and would not support
a US base in the volatile Caucuses. "One can either exploit their
differences between superpowers or work with them. We prefer to work
with them. There are many conflicts in our region."

Mr. Sargysan said Armenia would one day like to join the European
Union but had no desire to join the NATO defense alliance, although
it was working closely with it.

THE NATIONAL UNITY PARTY EXPECTS TO RECEIVE 30% OF VOTES

ArmRadio.am
09.04.2007 17:38

"The "National Unity" Party expects to get 28-30% of the votes at the
parliamentary elections scheduled for May 12," leader of the party
Artashes Geghamyan declared in Yerevan today.

In Geghamyan’s words, "external forces are impatiently waiting for
election frauds to apply sanctions and exert pressure on Armenia in
the process of resolution of the Karabakh conflict." For that very
reason he declared that " conduct of legal and fair elections is the
only and last opportunity of Armenia."

The leader of the "National Unity" presented his anti-crisis program,
which envisages implementation of a number of national programs in
the spheres of economy, education and health.

ORINATS YERKIR PRESENTED THE ELECTION PLATFORM

ArmRadio.am
09.04.2007 17:52

The Rule of Law (Orinats Yerkir) Party presented its election platform
today. The leader of the party Arthur Baghdasaryan said the party will
participate in the May 12 parliamentary elections under the slogan:
"We struggle for dignified life, law and justice."

Arthur Baghdasaryan mentioned that during the election campaign the
Party will emphasize that law and justice should be the "moving forces"
of the country.

In his words, Orinats Yerkir Party intends to make Armenia
a competitive country in the region, solve the educational and
accommodation problems of the youth, create a professional army, raise
the minimal pensions, promote birth rate, work out new legal bases in
the healthcare sphere and reinforce the state health insurance system.

SEMINAR ON MEDIA PROFESSIONALISM DURING ELECTION CAMPAIGNS TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN

ArmRadio.am
09.04.2007 17:59

Seminar on Media Professionalism during Election Campaigns will be
held at Caucasus Media Institute on April 13, 2007. The seminar will
be a practical activity aimed at finding technical solutions for
professional coverage of the forthcoming parliamentary election.

Mr. Aled Eirug, Former Head of News & Current Affairs at BBC Wales,
UK, and Mr. Gie Meeuwis from SPLIT SCREEN Media Consultancy and
Productions, Belgium will work together with local experts and media
actors. The plenary sessions and working groups will deal with the
following topics: how much coverage for which candidate? Media coverage
and the weight of parties in society, how to approach the participation
of candidates in entertainment and other non-political programmes,
and what technical solutions are there for ensuring balanced coverage
on a day-to-day basis?

The project is funded by the Council of Europe as part of its Action
Plan to provide support for Parliamentary elections in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IT IS HARD TO SPEAK ABOUT DEMOCRACY IN ARMENIA WHEN 1/3 OF THE COUNTRY LIVES IN POVERTY

Arminfo
2007-04-09 23:11:00

It is hard to speak about democracy and human rights in Armenia
when it is necessary to satisfy social and economic needs of the
local population, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan says in an
interview to Financial Times.

RL reports Sargsyan to say during his visit to Brussels that despite
two-digit economy growth in the last years 1/3 of Armenia’s population
lives in poverty. He assures that the Armenian Government, who is
criticized for the human rights situation in the country, will keep the
promises given to the international structures. He hopes that the OSCE
will recognize the May 12 parliamentary elections as free and fair.

Concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sargsyan says that he
gives top priority to peace agreement with Azerbaijan. That country
keeps arming itself but this is just rattling the sabre. Turkey has
closed its border with Armenia and Armenia will seek to restore its
relations and to conclude a peace agreement. Armenia will develop much
more quickly if it attains good relations with its neighbors. Armenia
will continue developing friendly relations with Russia and will not
support the idea of US military base deployment in the South Caucasus.

Sargsyan says that Armenia would like to integrate into the EU in the
future but it does not seek to join NATO despite tight cooperation
with the alliance.

ARMENIAN POLICE ANNOUNCES ABOUT "HOT LINE" IN CONNECTION WITH THE FORTHCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION

Arminfo
2007-04-09 17:12:00

"Hot Line" will function in the Armenian police in connection with
the forthcoming parliamentary election on May 12. The first deputy
commander of the police, Gen-Col Ararat Makhtesyan told journalists
today that the "hot line" will function till May 11. Citizens will be
able to apply every day from 10 AM to 10 PM at the telephone 56-13-46
and 53-43-91.

Makhtesyan also added that albeit the police implemented enough work on
removal of slips in the voters’ lists, nevertheless observations and
the election of Armavir town mayor held recently disclosed numerous
errors in the lists. The work on removal of errors will be held in
several directions- disclosing of the "dead hearts", involving of the
people in the lists which were not involved earlier, disclosing of
"extra" names, disclosing of the names of soldiers that are serving
in the army at present. Ararat Makhtesyan called those who still have
the Soviet type passports to get the passport of the Armenian citizen
as soon as possible.

Ararat Makhtesyan also said that the police striving to ensure the
back link with the citizens of the country will inform about the
results of the "hot line" and the number of splits every week.

MORE THAN HALF OF TOURISTS IN ARMENIA ARE REPRESENTATIVES OF ARMENIAN DIASPORA

Arminfo
2007-04-09 15:43:00

More than half of the tourists in Armenia (57,1%) are representatives
of the Armenian Diaspora, the specialists of the "Competitive Armenian
Private Sector" (CAPS) Programme, financed by USAID, concluded. The
polls were conducted among those arriving in and leaving Armenia
in September-December, 2006, the market expert of CAPS, Armine
Yeghizaryan, told journalists during the meeting today. According
to her, these data are intermediate, since the observations will be
completed in August, 2007. The 4-months polling results have shown that
Russia takes the first place by the number of tourists visiting Armenia
– 36% of all the tourists and 47% of the Diaspora representatives.

Russia is followed by the tourists from Georgia, Iran, USA, France and
Germany. Over half of the visitors are men of middle age. Incidentally,
the tourists stay in Armenia for about 22 days and spend $1131 on
average, while the representatives of Diaspora live here for about 26
days and spend $1162,6 on average. The most of tourists (51%) visit
Armenia for rest and pastime. In whole, they are satisfied with the
services rendered, but not with the high prices and the poor state
of infrastructures.