Month: December 2008

‘DEEP STATE’ SUSPECT OFFERS SHALLOW DEFENSE

Kuwait Times
Dec 16 2008
Kuwait

ISTANBUL – A key suspect in the Ergenekon investigation testified in
court yesterday, blaming the state itself and accusing it of conspiring
against him.

Retired Maj. Gen. Veli Kucuk, cited by some as the main organizer
of crimes blamed on the "deep state," the term used to describe all
illegal activities committed by state organs.

The Ergenekon case began after the discovery of hand grenades
in 2007 in a shanty house in Istanbul that belonged to a retired
noncommissioned officer. The grenades were found to be the same as
those used in attacks on the Cumhuriyet daily’s Istanbul offices
in 2006.

The findings led to scores of detentions and to more than
100 journalists, writers, gang leaders and politicians being
interrogated. It turned into a terror investigation that aimed to
crack down on an alleged ultra-nationalist gang named Ergenekon,
that sought to topple the government by staging a coup in 2009,
initially by spreading chaos and mayhem. Ergenekon is a pre-Islamic
Turkish saga that tells of the Turks’ emergence from an earlier defeat
by tricking their enemies under the guidance of a gray wolf.

Earlier bombings of daily Cumhuriyet, the murder of Hrant Dink, the
murder of a top judge of the Council of State and alleged plans for
the assassination of high-profile figures in Turkish politics have
been associated with the case.

Police also raided the homes of 11 people on March 21 in an earlier
wave of detentions, including Cumhuriyet’s chief columnist and
licensee, Ä°lhan Selcuk, 83, Workers’ Party, or Ä°P, leader Dogu
Perincek and Istanbul University’s former rector.

The list of detainees includes retired generals Å~^ener Eruygur and
HurÅ~_id Tolon and retired Kucuk. Many detainees are retired officials
who gathered in associations linked to the ultra-nationalist Kuvayi
Milliye (National Forces), a reference to irregular forces that led
the Turkish independence war back in early the 1920s.

In the session yesterday, Kucuk told the court he had done nothing
wrong during his military career and said his name was being used
to attack the standing of the military. He described the accusations
made against him as "tragic and comical."

"I said the eastern problem was not a Kurdish problem, but an Armenian
problem. Some people did not like that and that is why I am here,"
said Kucuk.

He dismissed the existence of the Gendarmerie Intelligence Services,
or JÄ°TEM, by saying, "The indictment against me keeps referring to
JÄ°TEM, which does not exist."

Kucuk also denied any involvement in the Susurluk Scandal.

Susurluk scandal

On Nov. 3, 1996 a car had rear-ended a truck driven by Hasan
Gökce. Reports stated Mehmet Ozbay, Police Chief Huseyin Kocadag and
model Gonca Us died in the accident, and a True Path Party, or DYP,
deputy from Å~^anlıurfa, Sedat Edip Bucak, was seriously injured. It
was later noted Ozbay was an alias used by right-wing militant Abdullah
Catlı, the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for the killing
of seven left-wing students. The media interpreted the accident as
proof there were illicit links between politicians, police and the
mafia. Most of the trials linked to the Susurluk Scandal ended with
verdicts of not guilty. Kucuk said yesterday, "There are claims I am
at the center of the Susurluk Scandal," and added he had followed the
story in the media. He said again that the scandal was a ploy to harm
the standing of the military.

–Boundary_(ID_MezxrwxeM4LCEqOnsVCwow)- –

TURKEY MAKES LITTLE PROGRESS TOWARDS EU DREAM
By Christopher Wade

Kuwait Times
sid=NDk1NDk3MDM4
Dec 16 2008
Kuwait

As political distractions go, the court case to close down Turkey’s
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was up there with the
biggest. Ever since the Constitutional Court, in a case called by the
party’s political opponents, decided in July not to close down the AKP,
momentum toward joining the EU seems to have stalled. In September,
the EU issued its progress report on Turkey’s membership bid. For
supporters of Turkish membership it was depressing reading.

The report lists in detail the areas where Turkey has failed to move:
no progress on lifting immunity of parliamentarians; no progress on
strengthening parliamentary oversight over public expenditure; limited
progress in the area of anti-corruption; no progress on ensuring
cultural diversity; and failure to adequately monitor legal changes
designed to stop torture. "Despite its strong political mandate,
the government did not put forward a consistent and comprehensive
program of political reforms," the rep ort said.

The failures have led to a loss in support from liberal circles,
who believed that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had
abandoned his party’s roots in Islamic politics and was truly committed
to pursuing Turkey’s bid to join the EU. Whilst the court case was
cited by pro-government circles as a major reason why reforms had
slowed down, one hint that the government was ready to junk major
reforms came separately, when the ruling administration abandoned
plans to overhaul the 1982 military- impose d constitution to focus
on legislation allowing women to wear Islamic-style headscarves
at universities.

With the help of a far-right party, which vehemently opposed a new
constitution, the AKP managed to make constitutional changes to allow
the headscarf to be worn at tertiary institutions. These changes were
later thrown out by the Constitutional Court, which said they were
against the principles of secular state. Some point out that the
government has made reforms to some of the most notorious articles
of the criminal code, in particular Article 301, which makes it a
crime to "insult Turkishness or state i nstitutions.

The article is often used to silence writers. But the reforms
have merely been window dressing, according to many commentators
and EU politicians. "They changed Article 301, but then opened 47
cases," European parliamentarian Joost Lagendijk said in Ankara in
November. Lagendijk was referring to the fact that it is now up to
the Justice Minister to personally approve any prosecutions. "The
prior authorization requirement opens up the possibility that the
article will become subject to political considerati on," the EU
progress report said.

In one case, authorization has been given for charges to be laid
against a Turkish writer who said that the massacres of Armenians
during the First World War constituted genocide. For some the
government’s lack of progress shows that the AKP has never really
believed in Turkey joining the European Union. "The (AKP) duck behind
the European Union negotiations so that no one can accuse them of
having Islamist tendencies," said Hasan Unal, a professor at Gazi
University in Ankaar, who argues that the AKP itse lf does not believe
in European values and culture.

They don’t believe in the European process, but they have to keep
it going." Local elections are coming up in March and the AKP
has high hopes of wrestling victories in some big municipalities
across Turkey. With polls showing a drop in the public’s support
for Turkey’s EU bid, it is doubtful the government will make any big
moves soon. That does not sit well with Europeans who would like to
see bolder moves out of Ankara. "The Turkish government does not have
the luxury of delaying reforms by using the l ocal elections as an
excuse," said Lagendijk.

Then there is the world financial crisis that may result in the
government going slow on reform. "The crisis couldn’t have come to
Turkey at any time worse than this for the AKP," Unal said. One issue
that has not been debated much in Turkey is the refusal of Turkey
to recognize EU member Cyprus, nor to allow Cypriot shipping to use
Turkish ports. The issue has resulted in the EU suspending accession
talks in eight policy areas and hampers Turkey’s efforts to push
membership talks further.

There is no prospect of the government budging on the issue until a
solution is found to the Cyprus problem. Unal says that the government
would be committing "political suicide" if it allowed Greek Cypriot
ships into Turkish ports. To use a phrase that was used over and over
again in the EU’s Sepember report, "little progress has been made." The
question now is whether the government, now seven years old and showing
increasing signs of tiredness, is ready for a new push in 2009. – dpa

TIME FOR EU-TURKEY ‘URGENCY’
By Hugh Pope

Wall Street Journal
10108233.html
Dec 16 2008

An abrupt and unusual word buried in a European Union declaration
on Dec. 8 showed the mounting risks of a breakdown in Turkey’s EU
membership talks. Ankara’s need to solve its problems with Cyprus,
foreign ministers warned, has become "urgent." Thanks also to Turkey’s
failure to meet EU reform benchmarks since the negotiations started
in 2005, a showdown looks inevitable over the next year.

David KleinFailure to reform and deep political polarization have led
to a sense of lost direction in Turkey. Nationalism and human-rights
violations are on the rise again. As the adoption of EU norms look more
distant, ethnic tensions between Turks and Kurds have occasionally
spilled over into neighborhood violence and attacks on shops even
in major western cities. The great progress made in a golden era of
reform from 2000 to 2004 is at risk.

The EU accession process was the principal anchor of Turkey’s economic
miracle this decade. This new prestige has led some policy makers
in Ankara to declare that the country could be a self-standing
regional hub that doesn’t need the EU. But such thinking stood on
shaky ground even before the global financial crisis exposed Turkey’s
vulnerability. The Balkan countries to Turkey’s west are mostly in
the EU already or moving toward that goal, and even countries such
as Ukraine and Georgia are more interested in EU accession than in
any special partnership with Turkey.

For Europe, the costs of losing Turkey are substantial as well. No
doubt, European access to one of the biggest and fastest-growing
nearby markets would become more difficult if the membership talks
broke down. France’s opposition to Turkey’s EU membership in the last
two years has cost it a great deal of business: French MP Pierre
Lellouche earlier this year estimated the value of contracts lost
at â~B¬5 billion. French diplomats say they’ve had to close their
military sales office in their Ankara embassy due to the lack of
Turkish interest, and the Turks also blocked Gaz de France from
joining the Nabucco natural-gas pipeline project.

In fact, the souring EU relationship has been an impediment to
progress on Nabucco altogether. Designed to bring Caspian or Middle
Eastern reserves across Turkey and eventually to a hub in Austria,
Nabucco is the EU’s first formal effort to strengthen energy security
by diversifying away from Russian gas supplies. What’s more, an EU
that proves unable to work on an equal basis with Turkey will deepen
a belief in the Islamic world that the West rejects Muslims.

There are many reasons for this damaging EU-Turkey divergence. EU
populations and politicians are cooler to enlargement than ever
before. Sound arguments about Turkey’s long-term contribution to
the EU are losing ground to nostalgia for an idealized vision of a
homogenous European past, along with fears about radical Islam and
the potential loss of jobs to Turkish immigrants.

In Turkey, disillusionment began with the EU’s 2004 admission of
Cyprus as a divided state. The EU move rewarded the all-Greek Cypriot
government, even though in 2004 it was the Turkish Cypriots who
accepted, and the Greek Cypriots who rejected, the EU-backed United
Nations peace plan. The EU then reneged on its promise to open direct
trade with Turkish Cypriots.

French and German opposition to Ankara’s right to join the EU further
demotivated Turkish leaders, who slowed the adoption of EU law to
a crawl. Additionally, half of the 33 negotiating chapters are now
frozen for political reasons by the Greek Cypriots, who want Turkey
to change positions in the Cyprus dispute, and Paris, which says
it wants to block talks with Turkey on any issue applicable to full
EU membership. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily dressed
down EU diplomats at an Ankara dinner in September, telling them:
"Forget about drawing water from this well. [The EU has] got the
bucket so stuck in the bottom of the well, it’ll be a miracle to get
it out at all."

In such an atmosphere, Turkey-skeptic EU states, perhaps in tandem
with Turkish politicians angry with Europe, may try to suspend the
negotiations altogether. One pretext could be Turkey’s promise, made
in order to win the opening of negotiations in 2005, to normalize
relations with Cyprus and to open its seaports and airports to Greek
Cypriot traffic. When Turkey had failed to do so by December 2006,
the EU said it would study the issue "in particular in 2007, 2008 and
2009." Brussels’ new warning that the issue is "urgent" implies that
this ambivalent wording is now seen as a deadline. Absent any good
news on EU-minded reforms by Turkey, diplomats even in pro-Turkey EU
capitals warn that a suspension of negotiations is possible.

Paradoxically, this cooling of relations comes just as Turkey
is showing how much it can do to complement EU goals. Ankara has
played key roles in representing the EU point of view over Iran’s
nuclear policy and nudging Lebanese factions toward compromise on
a new president — actions which Brussels acknowledged in its 2008
Turkey progress report. This year it has mediated talks between Syria
and Israel, and opened up dialogue with both the Iraqi Kurds and
even an old enemy, Armenia. In recognition of Turkey’s responsible
foreign policy, the country was elected to a two-year seat on the
U.N. Security Council.

EU politicians must do their share to avoid a crisis. They should
recognize their past mistakes on Cyprus, engage even-handedly in
support of the promising new Cypriot talks in progress since September,
and publicly commit funds to a future Cyprus settlement. The dangers
of failure were highlighted last month when the Turkish and Greek
navies and Greek Cypriot-chartered oil-prospecting ships sparred over
territorial rights in the Mediterranean.

Since 1963 the EU has repeatedly promised Turkey full membership
once it meets all criteria. Now would be a good time to reaffirm this
promise. Also, the EU would win by following the call of Sweden and
other pro-Turkey EU states to deepen strategic dialogue with Ankara.

Unfortunately for Ankara, EU politicians care more about the
anti-enlargement mood at home than about Turkey’s geostrategic
role. Turkey’s government and opposition will have to overcome their
mutual hostility, implement the long-delayed reform program, and
relaunch work on a new, more democratic constitution. Only a full
adoption of European norms can prove that Turkey truly wishes to be
part of the EU family.

Mr. Pope is Turkey/Cyprus project director for the International Crisis
Group and author of "Sons of the Conquerors: the Rise of the Turkic
World" (Overlook Duckworth, 2005). Crisis Group yesterday published
its new policy report "Turkey and Europe: the Decisive Year Ahead."

–Boundary_(ID_uGpZQR+jPMiGwxVGBnnKh A)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WRITERS BEAT TABOO WITH APOLOGY FOR MASSACRES
Thomas Seibert

The National
Dec 16 2008
United Arab Emirates

In an unprecedented move, a group of Turkish intellectuals yesterday
started an online campaign to express publicly their apology over the
Turkish massacres against the Armenians during the First World War,
an issue still considered a taboo by many of their fellow Turks.

"My conscience does not allow me to accept that the ‘Great
Catastrophe’, which the Ottoman Armenians were exposed to in 1915, is
met with a lack of sensitivity and is denied. I reject this injustice,
and I, for my part, share the feelings and the pain of my Armenian
brothers, and I apologise to them," reads the intellectuals’ short
message on the website "Ozor diliyoruz" means
"We apologise" in Turkish.

The message is to stay online for one year, and participants hope to
gather as many signatures as possible within that time.

Until Monday evening, more than 2,000 people had signed the petition,
among them many prominent academics, journalists and human rights
activists. The Turkish-born co-chairman of the German Green Party,
Cem Ozdemir, also signed.

Although the text does not mention the term genocide, the group’s
initiative attracted criticism even before it went public. In a
country that sees itself as the successor of the Ottoman Empire and
where public talk of Turkish massacres directed against the

Armenians can result in a jail sentence even today, a public and joint
apology of this sort is ground-breaking. The group’s statement implies
that something went very wrong in Turkish history, a notion that is
rejected by many Turks and that has provoked the ire of nationalists.

Armenia and several countries around the world as well as many
international experts agree that the Ottoman Armenians became the
victims of genocide in 1915 and that up to 1.5 million members of that
Christian minority were killed in massacres and death marches. Turkey
rejects the term genocide and says the deaths were the result of a
relocation initiative under wartime conditions and that many Muslim
Turks were killed by Armenian militias.

Supporters of the apology say that it is time to ask what really
happened in 1915. Cengiz Aktar, a political scientist of Istanbul’s
Bahcesehir University and one of the leading members of the group,
said it was the aim of the initiative to address "the silence that
envelopes this question". According to Mr Aktar, some of the reactions
that started to flow in since the group announced their project two
weeks ago showed that the initiative has hit a nerve. "We got plenty
of messages of gratefulness." He compared the initiative to efforts
in Germany after 1945 to face up to the Nazi era.

Some observers think the very fact the group has been able to publish
its apology is a sign of Turkey’s growing democratic maturity. "In the
old Turkey that we knew, an effort like this would have been banned,
the leading people would have been threatened and someone would have
tried to open investigations against them,"

Mensur Akgun, a columnist in the daily Referans, wrote yesterday. "At
the moment at least, the situation is different in today’s
Turkey. There have been no credible threats."

Still, nationalists have begun to criticise the group. "There is
no crime for which we should be ashamed of and for which we should
apologise," Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the right-wing opposition
Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, told a party meeting this month.

"First of all let us say that just like no one has the right to
apologise on behalf of the Turkish nation, an initiative like this
that smells like provocation will not benefit anyone," Yigit Bulut, a
columnist, wrote in the daily Vatan. Mr Bulut accused the intellectuals
of doing the bidding of George Soros, a wealthy businessman whose
Open Society Institute is seen by Turkish nationalists as a tool to
undermine the Turkish state.

The Armenian initiative follows a period of an increased and at times
violent debate surrounding the events of 1915 that started when Orhan
Pamuk, a writer and later Nobel laureate, was put on trial in 2005
for saying that one million Armenians were killed by Turks. In Jan
2007, radical nationalists killed the Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, who had called on Turks to face up to their past. Only
last month, Mehmet Ali Sahin, the justice minister, gave permission
to put another writer, Temel Demirer, on trial for publicly speaking
of an "Armenian genocide". He could not allow the state to be called
a killer, the minister said.

With their apology, the intellectuals are trying to move the discussion
away from the word ‘genocide’ and towards a broader level of coming
to terms with the past.

"Something was done" in 1915, the sociologist Ferhat Kentel, who also
signed the text, told Vatan. "There were one million Armenians in this
country. Today, 60,000 Armenians are left. That means [the Armenians]
are no longer there. We Turks are here. So are the Kurds."

He added: "Call it genocide if you like, call it something else. One
million people were destroyed, were relocated, were killed, were sent
to the deserts, this is a truth."

AFTERMATH OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL MEETING: TURKEY – EU RELATIONS

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Dec 16 2008
Turkey

The European Council meeting was held on 11-12 December in
Brussels. Nicholas Sarkozy who is in preparation to pass the Council
Presidency on the Czech Republic in January, presided the meeting. The
European Council conclusions were critically important for both the
future of the European Union and the relations between the EU and
Turkey in forthcoming year.

The official document released by the External Relations Council on 8
December provides the latest remarks of the EU about the negotiation
process over the year just passed with the two candidate countries,
Turkey and Croatia. It draws the general framework of the enlargement
strategy and reiterates its commitment to the basic values of the
Union which are accompanying the enlargement process.

With respect to the Turkey, the Council welcomes the government’s
commitment to advance the necessary reforms. However, it also expresses
its disappointment about the limited progress in political reforms
during the previous year. It especially points out the slowing pace
of reforms in the fields of the judicial reform, anti-corruption
strategy, protection of citizen’s rights, zero tolerance of torture
and ill treatment, freedom of expression and religion in law and in
practice, property rights, protection of minorities, strengthening of
cultural rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, trade union rights
and the civilian supervision over the military. Besides, it promotes
the decision of the government to complete the South Eastern Anatolia
economic development plan. The Council stresses on the need for action
to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions in the region.

Furthermore, the Council welcomes the decision of the Constitutional
Court which forestalled a serious political crisis. However, it refers
to a necessary revision of the constitutional rules, especially the
ones about the functioning of political parties. The political parties
are invited to establish a political dialogue based on compromise to
resolve their differences.

One of the striking points that the Council stresses on is the
current relations between Turkey and the two EU countries Greece and
Cyprus. The Council, as in its previous declarations, expects Turkey
to normalize the relations with Cyprus, to fulfill its obligations
under the Additional Protocol to the Association Agreement and abstain
from any kind of threat or action to harm the relations with its
neighbors. It reiterates its conclusions of 11 December 2006 and
awaits progress on the issues covered by the declaration of the
European Community and its member states of 21 September 2005.

The enlargement conclusions also consist of "welcomes" on the issues
related to the latest attempts of Turkey in its external relations. The
Council applauds Turkey’s constructive and compromising role in the
region which is based on delicate balances. It encourages the newly
emerging diplomatic dialogue between Turkey and Armenia. At this point,
Turkey’s strategic importance is once more emphasized.

To summarize the overall Presidency Conclusions, The Council, alike
the Commission, has a more critical stance towards Turkey’s current
position in the negotiation process. In the Commission’s Progress
Report on Turkey, the emphasis was much more on the limited progress in
the political reforms rather than the Cyprus issue. It can be said the
reactions from the Greek Cypriots worked out and the Cyprus problem was
put forward for the determination of the pace of the negotiations. 2009
will constitute one of the headstones in the Turkey-EU relations. A
comprehensive solution on the island and the intention to carry the
reforms forward will determine the future of the negotiations.

NATO BACKS PEACE SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT, SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL

Trend
Dec 16 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.16 /Trend News, R.Novruzov/ NATO supports
peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"We support settling of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict through
peaceful negotiations," NATO Deputy Secretary General Claudio
Bisogniero told journalists in Baku on Dec. 16.

NATO stands for solving the conflict and believes it will be good
for the entire region, he said.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group (Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.

NATO believes that OSCE Minsk Group (MG) copes with its task. NATO
will support MG’s efforts in every way, said Deputy Secretary General.

Relations between NATO and Azerbaijan were established in 1992 after
accession of Azerbaijan to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council
(renamed in 1997 into Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council – EAPC). The
cooperation was steadily developing, following the Azerbaijan’s
accession to the Partnership for Peace Program in 1994. In addition
to supporting the reforms, one of the key goals of NATO-Azerbaijan
cooperation is to develop the ability of the country’s armed forces
to interact with the NATO forces in peacekeeping operations and crisis
response. Since 1999, Azerbaijani troops have been providing support to
NATO peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and since 2002 – in Afghanistan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MORE THAN 5,000 TURKS SIGN UP TO APOLOGIZE TO ARMENIA

Monsters and Critics.com
Dec 16 2008

Ankara – More than 5,000 Turks have signed up to apologize for the
‘great catastrophe’ during the First World War when hundreds of
thousands of Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

The petition on the website , initiated by
Turkish journalists and academics, is headed by the simple phrase
‘I apologize.’

‘I cannot accept the denial of the great catastrophe of 1915 that
Ottoman Armenians were subjected to. I condemn this injustice and
acting on my own behalf I share the feelings of pain of my Armenian
brothers,’ the petition says, followed by the names of the more than
300 people who started the campaign.

The website showed that by Tuesday afternoon, a day after the site
was launched, more than 5,300 people had signed up to the petition.

The campaign is in direct contrast to official state policy that
refuses to admit that the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians in
the last days of the Ottoman Empire actually constitute a genocide.

Turkey says that while there were massacres of ethnic Armenians the
events were the result of a civil uprising during the war. A group of
former Turkish ambassadors have issued a counter statement declaring
the petition as against Turkey’s national interests.

Neighbouring Turkey and Armenia do not have any diplomatic relations
and the land border between the two countries was closed by Turkey
in 1993 in protest at the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A thawing in relations has begun in recent months with Turkish
President Abdullah Gul in September becoming the first Turkish head
of state to visit the Armenian capital Yerevan.

INTRACOM WINS ARMENIAN NETWORK CONTRACT

Cellular-News
Dec 16 2008
UK

Intracom Telecom, a part of Sitronics has signed a US$24 million
contract with VivaCell-MTS (K-Telecom), Armenia’s leading mobile
operator for the expansion of its GSM network. Under the terms
of the contract, Intracom Telecom will provide Infrastructure
works, Installation and Integration services, in cooperation with
Alcatel-Lucent who will be the main equipment vendor.

This project aims at enabling VivaCell-MTS (K-Telecom) to expand the
access capacity of its GSM/GPRS network and achieve its business goals
by offering the most advanced high-quality services to the Armenian
end-users. The project is estimated to be completed by the end of
the 1st Quarter of 2009.

Mr. Alexandros Manos, Managing Director of Intracom Telecom, commented:
"This new project is another reward for our over-a-decade commitment
to deliver state of the art solutions and professional services
in Armenia. We are pleased to further enhance our long established
cooperation with VivaCell-MTS (K-Telecom) and are confident that we
will successfully meet the network development requirements of the
Operator that today serves 74% of the country’s mobile subscribers."

"Our previous successful cooperation with Intracom Armenia played
a key role during our partner selection process for this project,"
stated Mr. Ralph Yirikian, VivaCell-MTS General Manager and continued,
"It is important for us to cooperate with a local based company which
provides integrated and cost-effective solutions. VivaCell-MTS strives
at all times to join hands with the world’s top notch suppliers to
be able to provide the best services to the Armenian Society."

TURKISH PRES DEFENDS APOLOGY CAMPAIGN TO ARMENIANS

Hurriyet
lish/domestic/10582943.asp?scr=1
Dec 16 2008
Turkey

Everyone can express their opinions freely, Turkish President Abdullah
Gul said Tuesday referring to a recent internet campaign launched to
issue a public apology to Armenians regarding the 1915 incidents.

The efforts of around 200 Turkish academics, writers and journalists to
issue an apology to the Armenians drew fierce reaction in the country.

Retired diplomats and ambassadors issued on Monday a response to the
attempt, saying the campaign is "unfair, wrong and unfavorable for
the national interests".

Gul’s remarks came during a joint press conference with his Bulgarian
counterpart Georgi Parvanov. The two leaders discussed regional and
international issues and opportunities for cooperation in relevant
fields.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915.Turkey
rejects the claims saying that 300,000 Armenians, along with at least
as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took
up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet in accepting
Turkey’s proposal of forming a commission to investigate the claims.

FIRST FRUIT AND VEGETABLE MARKET INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPS IN ARMENIA

FreshPlaza
_detail.asp?id=35179
Dec 16 2008
Netherlands

The first market information system in Armenia, funded by Water
to Market (WtM) Activity of the Millennium Challenge Account –
Armenia, will be launched on December 17, 2008. The international
best practices of the system, its need for Armenia and the use of the
system will be presented during the launch. States officials, farmers,
representatives of agricultural associations, banks, producers and
processing companies, local and international organizations will be
present at the launch event.

Mr. Ara Hovsepyan, the Executive Director of the Millennium Challenge
Account – Armenia and Mr. Richard Hurelbrink, Country Director of
ACDI/VOCA and Team Leader of WtM Activity will make welcoming speeches.

"The objective of the market information system is to provide market
prices of fruit and vegetables to farmers, representatives of all
segments of production and marketing chain. Well-analyzed market
information enables farmers to make planting decisions, including
those related to new crops," says Mr. Hurelbrink. The system will be
disseminating information through its web site and SMS (short message
service). It will enable farmers to negotiate with traders from a
position of greater strength. The system will be useful not only for
the farmers but also for representatives of various industry sectors
such as processors, wholesalers, retailers, hotels and restaurants,
and all others who are interested in receiving accurate information and
market dynamics. The system may also provide information on quality,
postharvest technologies and industry innovations through its website.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress