Month: April 2007

CHIEF EU NEGOTIATOR ALI BABACAN LIKELY TO BE NEXT TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.04.2007 19:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Chief EU Negotiator and State Minister Ali Babacan
is likely to be the next Turkish Foreign Minister.

"With Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul now the official candidate
for the Turkish presidency, and thus, barring any extraordinary
circumstances, the future president, the empty spot at the helm
of the Turkish Foreign Ministry looks likely to be filled by Ali
Babacan. Babacan’s EU experience and foreign language skills make
him the most likely candidate for the position among high ranked
AKP officials. It is also thought that Abdullatif Sener will then be
brought in to take over some of Babacan’s current responsibilities,"
an AKP representative thinks, Hyuriet reported.

PROTESTERS DETAINED IN BAKU WHO PARTICIPATED IN RALLY AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.04.2007 19:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On April 24 a group of members of the Liberal
Youth Association of Azerbaijan held protest in "Sahir" Park of Baku
in connection with the 92nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire. The demonstration was held under the slogan
"Armenian Genocide is a soap bubble". During the protest some young
men blew soap bubbles. However after 15 minutes riot police dispersed
the demonstration, four activists were arrested and taken to the 39th
police department of Sabail district, Turan agency reported.

FRENCH MASONIC ORGANIZATION PRESSES TURKISH PEERS TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ARMENPRESS
Apr 25 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS: Claude Gedan, who led an official
delegation of representatives of top " Grand Orient de France (French-
Masonic organization ) that has arrived in Yerevan for the first
time to share personally the pain of Armenians scattered all-over
the world and address their sympathy to the memory of 1.500.000
victims of the 1915 Genocide, said the Grand Orient de France not
only recognizes the Armenian genocide, but will also fight for its
international acknowledgment, with a focus on pressing Turkey to
acknowledge that crime.

He said the organization’s head met last February in Turkey with
Turkish organization’s top members demanding that they also recognize
the Armenian genocide, saying otherwise the French organization would
break all ties with them.

"We accept that some Masons were involved in plotting the Armenian
genocide, but none was from the Grand Orient of France. We condemn what
they did and we find that a Mason that chooses the path of violence
and nationalism is no longer a Mason. A glaring example of that was
Taleat Pasha," he said.

The Grand Orient de France is one of the biggest French Masonic
organizations with 50,000 members.

ARMENIAN POP STARS ANNOUNCE SUPPORT TO REPUBLICAN PARTY

Armenpress
Apr 25 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS; A group of Armenian pop stars have
announced today their support to the governing Republican Party.

Shushan Petrosian, Aramo, Suzan Margarian, Sirusho, Zaruhi Babayan,
Arame, Arsen, Arminka, Alla Levonian (she was, by the way, appointed
last week UNICEF Armenia Good Will Ambassador) and some others said
they will be touring across the country to sing for voters and urge
them to vote for the Republican Party.

Announcing their support at a news conference the singers explained
they agreed to back the party because they share its ideology.

"The Republican Party is our friend and it has always been by our side
helping many singers organize their concerts," Shushan Petrosian said.

Suzan Margarian also praised the party for its support to Armenian
pop stars saying now the time has come for them to pay back.

COMMEMORATION SERVICES IN FRANKFURT OF MINE, KOLN, BERLIN
By Anahit Hovsepian, Germany

AZG Armenian Daily
26/04/2007

On April 24, at 16:00 o’clock in Paulskirshe (St. Paul Church) took
place a commemoration annual ceremony devoted to the victims of
the Armenian Genocide, organized by the Armenian Central Committee
and Primacy of Germany. Other commemorations took place in French
Fridrichshaft Church, Berlin and Great St. Martin Church, Koln. Many
political figures, representatives of culture and science took part in
commemoration ceremony of Frankfurt of Mine. Some of them made a speech
on the Armenian Genocide, i.e. president of the Bundestag-Alliance
90 Greens union Frits Kuhn, president of the Cultural Scientific
Institute of Essen, historian Yorn Ryusen, in Berlin – the Ambassador
of Armenia in Germany Karine Ghazinian and the leader of the Armenian
Committee of Germany Shavarsh Hovasapian.

Arch episcope Garegin Bekgian concluded the commemoration service
with his prayer.

The main speakers of the commemoration in Berlin were the speaker
of Bundestag Norbert Lamert, professor of Hamburg social research
institute Dr.

Yan Phillip Reemtsmann, representative of the Armenian community
Vardges Aylakian, Yurgen Kayzer from Fridrichshaft Church, the
Ambassador of Armenia in Germany Karine Ghazinian. Berlin choir of
the Armenian community gave a performance during the ceremony. After
the commemoration service the Armenian painters Avo Arakelian, Anahit
Mkrtchian, Armine Petrosian, Shavarsh Khachatrian, Hrant Kostanian
exhibited their paintings devoted to the Armenian Genocide. In Great
St. Martin Church the representative of the Armenian community of
Koln Madlen Vardanian and then the Governor of Koln Jozef Muller
greeted the guests. The main speakers were the representative of the
speaker of North Hrenos Westfalia Landtag, deputy Tomas Schtrenberg
and writer, publicist Henrik M. Broder. In the concert part "Arcos"
string quartet made performances, Yurg Leov and Suzanne Bart read
poems of Daniel Varujan, Vahan Tekeyan translated into German. A
guard was organized on April 24, in the center of Frankfurt by the
"Against Genocide" union and other Turkish organizations in memory
of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian victims of Genocide.

Commemorations were held in Stuttgard and Gyoppingen on April 24 and
will be held on April 28. Tesa Hofmann will make her speech in the
Armenian House.

HAKOB KYUNTSLER – THE SWISS FATHER OF ARMENIANS

AZG Armenian Daily
26/04/2007

Armenian Genocide’s Witness

"The nation in slaughterhouse" – it’s the title of Ralf Hug’s article
published in Swiss "Tagblatt" that is about the witness of the
Armenian Genocide, Swiss Hakob Kyuntsler (1871-1949), who was born
in Apentsel, Switzerland. He is a witness of slaughters committed
in South Anatolia. He raised his voice about this in Switzerland,
but there was no response.

In 1914 Kyuntsler was in Baghdad when he heard the speech of the leader
Nefis Bey. ‘We, Turkish people, must either annihilate or make to
emigrate the Armenians without exception. It’s inadmissible to live
in the same country together with them". It became true in summer
and autumn of 1915, when thousands of Armenians, women, children,
old people, were killed in the deserts of Syria. ‘According to the
historians the number of victims is over one million and it’s the
first genocide of 20th century’, the article says. At that time,
Hakob Kyuntsler worked as a doctor in the hospital of Urfa. Urfa
was a town, where different nations lived: Turkish, Armenian, Greek,
Syrian, Kurdish. In 1895 two thousand Armenians were fired with petrol.

In 1915 he wrote in his notes: ‘Turkish people of the town threatened
Armenians every day. What is the reason? They suspect that Armenians
cooperate with Russians. On May, 1915 the first Armenian families were
sent to prison, tortured, fired. Hakob Kyuntsler raised the alarm to
the international diplomats, but the world was busy with the World
War I.

Genocide was committed under the shadow of World War I. The way of
expelled Armenians crossed Urfa, and Kyuntsler could see the lines
of hundred thousands of Armenians, sometimes even stark naked, who
were driven away to the deserts and killed. It was a ‘concentration
camp of emigrants’.

Kyuntsler was sure that the whole nation was slaughtered according
to a plan.

His notes were first published in 1921, titled ‘In the country of blood
and tear’. The book (‘In the country of blood and tear. Experiences
of World War I in Mesopotamia) was republished in 1999 as a tool
against the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH ARMENIANS’ PATRIARCH CONDEMNS ASSAULT ON TURKISH EMBASSY IN RUSSIA

AZG Armenian Daily
26/04/2007

Armenia-Turkey Relations

On April 25 "Lraber", the official newspaper of the Armenian Patriarchy
of Constantinople, reported that Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafian condemned
the assault on the Turkish Embassy in Moscow, Russia. "I have said
that the Armenian and the Turkish people must have respect for each
other’s national and religious symbols, so as to prevent those symbols
of becoming the target of radical protest actions and to contribute
the process of establishment of friendship between those nations,"
"Lraber" reports his words. He said such actions as tearing apart the
flag of Turkey and the portrait of Ataturk, which are the national
symbols of the Republic of Turkey, cannot be of any use and can only
serve to the escalation of enmity between Armenia and Turkey.

ARMENIA TO BECOME AN EXPORTER OF URANIUM
By A. Martirosian

AZG Armenian Daily
26/04/2007

Economy. Russia-Armenia Relations

An agreement between Armenia and Russia about research and exploitation
of uranium deposits in Armenia shall radically change the status
of Armenia worldwide, stated yesterday Nature Protection Minister
Vardan Ayvazian and head of Nuclear Energy Department of the Russian
Federation Sergey Kiriyenko.

Mr. Kiriyenko said that his optimism is based upon the agreement
between the Armenian and Russian Presidents in Sochi. He also
informed that a major part of the research works on the Armenian
Uranium deposits has already been done. According to the research
of USSR experts, about 30 thousand tons of Uranium are stored in
the deposits of Armenia. Mr. Kiriyenko assured that more intensive
research may reveal 150-200% of Uranium previously detected.

The expertise is to be finished by the end of 2007. After that a joint
Russian-Armenian enterprise shall be established so as to start the
exploitation of the deposits. Armenia most probably will join the new
Nuclear Energy Center, founded by Russia and Kazakhstan. This will
give Armenia opportunity of becoming a producer of nuclear energy
and an exporter of Uranium.

Referring to the issue of the Armenian Atomic Power Plant, the head of
the Russian Nuclear Energy Department said that it can work properly
until the appointed date – 2016. As 2016 is already drawing near,
Armenia should think about constructing a new Atomic Power Plant,
he said. On behalf of the Russian Government he suggested Armenia to
undertake teh construction of the new power plant with output equal
to that of the present one.

Nature Protection Minister of Armenia Vardan Ayvazian said that
the excavation and processing of Uranium in Armenia will surely
encourage the Government about the construction of a new power
plant. Mr. Kiriyenko noted that even Russia, possessing large resources
of oil and gas, is still enhancing its nuclear power system, therefore
Armenia, being deprived of oil, should to the best to start its own
nuclear power program.

SAMVEL BAGRATYAN STRUGGLES BY DEMOCRATIC METHODS

A1+
[07:24 pm] 25 April, 2007

more images "The candidates and parties are not given equal
opportunities in Vayots Dzor Marz," Sergey Bagratyan, a member of
the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), running for the parliament in
constituency 39, announced at the "Friday Club" today.

He informed the presentees that his rival Samvel Sargsyan, the marzpet
(regional head) of Vayots Dzor and a member of the Republican Party
of Armenia (RPA), has made numerous violations, starting from the
usage of the RoA flag in the campaign posters, which is forbidden
under the acting Electoral Code, to the abuse of marzpet’s livers.

Sergey Bagratyan assesses his chances to be elected 100 per cent. On
the whole, Sergey Bagratyan’s press conference was rather cheerful. He
didn’t deny the fact that PAP and RPA are distributing flour in Vayots
Dzor. In his opinion, the act pursues charity purpose; no votes are
expected in return, though it might affect the voters’ choice.

Mr Bagratyan didn’t refute the fact that his proponents had beaten
the co-workers of the tax department who were preaching in favour of
the acting marzpet.

Then he addressed the audience, "What were they to do if a state
official broke the law?" and immediately gave the answer, "surely,
they were to combat by democratic methods."

Sergey Bagratyan seemed content with the work of the police forces,
National Security Service and Prosecutor’s Office who have impartial
approach to the incident.

FORMER CAPTAIN OF THE ARMENIAN FOOTBALL TEAM IN CUSTODY

A1+
[03:03 pm] 25 April, 2007

The Swiss police have detained Harutyun Vardanyan, the former captain
of the Armenian Football Team. According to the Swiss police, Vardanyan
is engaged in some financial deception.

Reminder; Vardanyan currently plays in the Swiss leading team "Bil".

Khofshteter, the President of the club, voices hope that Vardanyan
will be released soon as he hasn’t breached any law.

One of Vardanyan’s relatives, who didn’t want to divulge his name,
says the arrest is an error. "Harut is an honest person. He has always
avoided swindling. Either someone wanted to harm him or there was
some inaccuracy."

One of Vardan’s friends claims that Harutyun is a generous man. "During
one of the team meetings Harut was awarded with $1000 and he equally
distributed the sum among the team players. He didn’t forget his
friends and did his utmost to help us even from Switzerland."

Reminder; Harutyun Vardanyan played in the Armenian Football Team
for ten years and participated in 63 meetings.