Month: December 2008

PRIME MINISTER OF ARMENIA PLANS TO VISIT GEORGIA

The Messenger
Dec 9 2008
Georgia

Akhali Taoba reports that Tigran Sarkisian, the Prime Minister of
Armenia, plans a ten-day visit to Georgia on December 9. According
to Armenian information agencies the Prime Minister will take part in
the International Governmental Commission discussing the perspective
of the highway from Armenia to Batumi.

According to the Armenian side the new line will be 30% shorter than
the existing one, meaning it will require less time and energy to
get from one end to the other.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JOINT VISIT OF CAUCASIAN MPS TO GERMANY

The Messenger
Dec 9 2008
Georgia

Georgian, Armenian and Azeri MPs undertook a 5 day visit to Germany
on November 9-14. This informational visit was held as part of the
German Technical Cooperation project "Legal and Justice Reforms in the
South Caucasus" at the invitation of the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development. The Chairman of the Parliamentary
Committee on European Integration David Darchiashvili and the Vice
Chairman of the Legal Committee Akaki Minashvili participated in the
visit from the Georgian side. The Chairmen of the Armenian and Azeri
Parliamentary Legal Committees, David Harutyunyan and Ali Huseynov,
represented Armenia and Azerbaijan in Germany.

The aim of the visit was to inform MPs of the experience of the
German Parliament and share views on the important issues of legal and
judicial reforms in the South Caucasus. The principles of working of
the Bundesrat and Bundestag and the role of the Federal President’s
administration in the lawmaking process were discussed, among
other things, during the meetings held in the Federal Presidential
Administration, the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

At a meeting of the German-South Caucasus Parliamentary group in the
Bundestag the participants spoke about the relations of the German
Federation with the South Caucasus countries. At the round table
meeting held at the Berlin representation of GTZ, the participants
of the visit together with the Chairman of the German Judges’ Union
and the Head of the Berlin Advocates’ Union talked about the practice
of involving interest groups in the lawmaking process in Germany and
the South Caucasus countries. During the same sorts of meetings the
delegation members discussed the demands of the European Neighbourhood
Policy with representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The participants also met the Deputy Minister for Economic Cooperation
and Development Erich Stather. The parties spoke about cooperation
between the Federal Government and the South Caucasus Countries
on the issue of promoting the rule of law and also discussed joint
plans for the future. During the visit the participants expressed a
willingness to deepen their cooperation in a regional format. Most of
all this referred to the composition of explanatory notes on draft
laws, the practice of publishing draft laws and sharing experience
in the involvement of interest groups in the lawmaking process.

The German Technical Cooperation project "Legal and Justice Reforms
in the South Caucasus" has been operating in the region since 2002 as
part of the Caucasus initiative of the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development, which aims to create economic
and democratic stabilization in the Caucasus. Joint informational
visits, seminars and round tables are held within framework of
this project, which spreads throughout the whole South Caucasus
region. Important judicial issues are being discussed at these
meetings with representatives of all three countries of the South
Caucasus. One of the most important objectives of the project is to
promote professional dialogue and raise the legal knowledge of the
population in the region.

As an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development
with worldwide operations, the federally-owned Deutsche Gesellschaft
fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH supports the German Government
in achieving its development policy objectives. It provides viable,
forward-looking solutions for political, economic, ecological and
social development in a globalised world. Working under difficult
conditions, GTZ promotes complex reforms and change processes. Its
corporate objective is to improve people’s living conditions on a
sustainable basis.

UW FB: SARKISIAN WENT AFTER HUSKY JOB ‘FULL FLEDGED’
By John Boyle

HeraldNet
20081209/SPORTS/712099914/1093/SPORTS06
Dec 9 2008
WA

SEATTLE — Had Steve Sarkisian been more adept at hitting a slider,
Washington almost certainly would have introduced a different football
coach Monday.

Sarkisian, who Monday was announced as Tyrone Willingham’s successor
at Washington, first went to college at USC as a baseball player
after graduating from Southern California’s West Torrance High School.

But as a freshman at USC, Sarkisian quickly discovered that hitting
college pitching was a little more difficult that it was at the high
school level.

"They didn’t throw [sliders] in high school," he said. "I was a pretty
good hitter in high school."

Sarkisian transferred to El Camino Junior College where he played
baseball for a season and football for two years, and eventually
ended up as the quarterback at Brigham Young University. That set
Sarkisian down a path that eventually led to becoming a football
coach, and being introduced to Husky fans as the next head coach at
Washington while his wife, Stephanie, and their three kids looked on.

After BYU, Sarkisian and Stephanie, who met through mutual friends
as seniors in high school — she went to rival Torrance High — were
married right before he began his three-year career in the Canadian
Football league. Stephanie Sarkisian said she likes to tell people
they went on a five-month honeymoon to Saskatchewan.

Sarkisian spent time working as a substitute teacher during his CFL
offseasons, then decided to look into coaching when his playing career
ended. He ended up getting his first coaching job back at El Camino
coaching quarterbacks in 2000, and the following year was able to
get a job at USC as a graduate assistant.

"I was a little bit into the dotcom world for a little bit and coaching
junior college football, and I knew right then that I wanted to be a
football coach," he said. "(Pete Carroll’s) first year (at USC), I got
an opportunity to be a graduate assistant, and bit the bullet a little
bit financially to do it, and from that moment I’ve never looked back."

Sarkisian continued coaching at USC under Carroll until he joined
the Raiders for a season as the team’s quarterbacks coach. Sarkisian
returned to USC in 2005, then was a candidate for the Raiders’ head
coaching job two seasons ago before he turned Oakland down. Given a
chance to pursue the Washington job, however, Sarkisian wasn’t going
to back away from another head coaching opportunity.

"When I was growing up, this was Rose Bowls, this was conference
championships, this was national championships, and that’s all I ever
knew it as," said Sarkisian, the youngest of seven children born to
an Armenian father and an Irish Catholic mother. "Where this program
was the last few years, I knew it was capable of much more than that,
so when this opportunity arose, I knew it was something I wanted to
get on as quickly as possible. . . It was a no brainer to me. I did
everything in my power to try to go get this job. I went after this
thing full fledged. I wanted to be here more so than anywhere else
in the world. Fortunately for me, it worked out."

Based on first impressions anyway, Washington’s new head coach will
be a lot different than his predecessor. Sarkisian won over the fans
quickly during Monday’s press conference — though his 3-year-old son
Brady, who wore a purple No. 10 jersey, and 6-year-old daughter Ashley,
who wore a UW cheerleading outfit, nearly stole the spotlight from
dad as they played on stage next to the podium — in part because he
mentioned his desire to open practices to fans, boosters and media, a
drastically different approach than the one taken by Tyrone Willingham.

An open, more relaxed program would be in line with what Sarkisian
knows from his time coaching at USC. And While Sarkisian has learned
a lot under Carroll and will draw obvious comparisons to his former
boss, he stressed that he is a different coach than Carroll.

"There’s obviously a lot I learned, his style, and there’s other things
I took from other people, but I am my own person," Sarkisian said. "I’m
not going to be Pete Carroll. I’m going to be Steve Sarkisian to the
best of my ability, and hopefully that’s good enough to get it back
to where we need to be."

And where Sarkisian thinks the Huskies need to be is back at the top
of the Pac-10, even if that means going through his former team to
get there.

"I owe him dearly," Sarkisian said of Carroll. "But that doesn’t mean
I don’t want to go out and beat him in our third game next season."

If he can succeed in that, Husky fans will certainly be glad that
Sarkisian couldn’t hit a slider 16 years ago.

UN HONORS GENOCIDE CONVENTION RATIFICATION
By Michael Brasky, [email protected]

Evening Bulletin
Dec 9 2008
PA

U.N. Headquarters was closed to the public yesterday, honoring the
ratification of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) 60 years ago.

The CPPCG was ratified in the wake of horrifying excesses in violence
that the 20th century bared witness to. The Convention is underscored
by the belief that nations must never again stand idle while human
beings are murdered in such massive numbers.

The CPPCG defines genocide as any act perpetrated with the intention
of destroying a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Article 2
of the Convention articulates the actions that fall under the purview
of genocide: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily
or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on
the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent
births within the group, and forcibly transferring children of the
group to another group.

Genocide, thanks of the ratification of the Convention, is now
considered a crime under international law. The CPPCG was the
culmination of a campaign that sought to build an international
mechanism that would forever deter the deliberate mass murder of a
people, such as that which occurred during the Holocaust.

A particular distinction for this achievement must be reserved for
Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin was a prominent Polish lawyer whose publication
Axis Rule in Occupied Europe coined the term genocide. Though he
escaped the Nazi onslaught, arriving in America in 1941, 49 of his
relatives were slain during the occupation of Eastern Europe.

For Lemkin however, his experience with the Nazis did not comprise the
sole prism through which he developed the concept of genocide. In one
his earlier works, an essay titled the "Crime of Barbarity," Lemkin
dissected the 1933 Simele Massacre in Iraq and the Armenian Genocide,
in the process laying out the components of genocide without referring
to it as such. Presenting his work to the League of Nations in 1933,
he argued that such acts were a crime and should be punished under
international law.

While Lemkin’s ideas are commonplace today, they were an innovation
for his time and provided the ideological and legal justifications
for the Nuremberg trials. It was Lemkin’s draft that was ultimately
approved in 1948, leading to the CPPCG.

Despite its ratification, the Convention did not go into effect
until 1951, requiring at least 20 signatories to take on the force of
international law. Some nations refused to sign and ratify without
certain provisos protecting them from prosecution. The original
content of the draft was altered to appease the U.S.S.R. in 1954,
precluding political murder from being considered as genocide.

The United States failed to ratify the Convention until
1986. Sen. William Proxmire, of Wisconsin, is known for giving 3,211
speeches about genocide beginning in 1967. He vowed to harangue the
Senate with his oratory until the convention was ratified, often
shaming his colleagues for their inaction.

Mr. Proxmire drew attention to many humanitarian catastrophes in this
period: the suffering of Nigerians in the Biafran War; the murder of
Bengalis in Pakistan; the excesses of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the
slaughter of Hutus in Burundi. When the determined senator finally
got his government to capitulate, the United States became the 98th
nation to ratify the CPPCG. It should come as little surprise that
Mr. Proxmire considered Raphael Lemkin one of his heroes.

Parties that are signatories to the Convention have a legal and
moral obligation to prevent and punish acts of genocide. Yet as the
U.N. struggles to prevent violence in the eastern Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), the world is forced to confront the unfortunately
legacy of the failure to fulfill the Convention’s promises.

The conflict in eastern DRC is very much a spillover from the genocide
in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. There, U.N. forces had knowledge of
Hutu weapons caches and intentions to exterminate Tutsis. Despite
receiving advance warning, U.N. forces in the area failed to act,
enabling the murder of 800,000 civilians.

The following year in Bosnia, U.N. peacekeeping forces failed to
intervene as Serbian separatists murdered civilians en masse in
Srebrenica, an area designated as a safe-haven by the Security Council
a little over two years earlier.

Today, skeptics are still concerned by the U.N.’s seeming impotence
in the face of such acts, and frequently criticize the failure of
peacekeeping forces in Darfur and DRC to prevent the slaughter of
innocent civilians.

Among those critics are the endangered civilians themselves. In
October, angry mobs rioted in front of the U.N. compound in Goma, a
city in the eastern DRC. The mob, consisting of civilians fearful of a
rebel attack, was outraged by the lack of protection from peacekeepers.

While yesterday served as due commemoration for a great achievement,
the day also offered an opportunity to reflect on the major gap that
must be closed in fulfilling the promise of that achievement.

TURKISH WRITERS PUBLISH GENOCIDE APOLOGY

Legalbrief
Dec 9 2008
South Africa

Academics and writers in Turkey have risked a fierce official backlash
by issuing a public apology for the alleged genocide suffered by
Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces during the World War I.

The Guardian reports that, breaking one of Turkish society’s biggest
taboos, the apology comes in an open letter that invites Turks to
sign an online petition supporting its sentiments. The contents
exposes its authors – three scholars, Ahmet Insel, Baskin Oran and
Cengiz Aktar, and a journalist, Ali Bayramoglu – to the wrath of
the Turkish state, which has prosecuted writers, including the Nobel
prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, for supporting Armenian genocide
claims. Turkey rejects the assertion of many historians and Armenia’s
government that up to 1.5m Armenians died in a wave of expulsions
that amounted to state-sanctioned genocide. The letter has triggered
a furious response from ultranationalists, who have labelled it a
‘betrayal’ and an ‘insult to the Turkish nation’.

BLACKWATER MERCS INDICTED IN BAGHDAD ATROCITY

World War 4 Report
Dec 9 2008
NY

Here’s a case study in what Iraq’s besieged secular left calls the "two
poles of terrorism." The news reports now are not recalling it, but we
noted at the time of the attacks last year that the victims in this
atrocity were Armenian Christians–and Iraq’s indigenous Christians
have also been massively targeted for "sectarian cleansing" by the
jihadis (or, to use the too-flattering media term, "insurgents"). From
the Washington Post, Dec. 6:

WASHINGTON — Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been
charged in a September 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians
dead and raised questions about the U.S. government’s use of security
contractors in combat zones, according to two sources familiar with
the case.

The guards, all former U.S. military personnel, worked as
security contractors for the State Department, assigned to protect
U.S. diplomats and other non-military officials in Iraq.

Federal prosecutors obtained the indictment Thursday, and it was
sealed.

Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in
the District of Columbia, declined to comment. The exact nature of
the charges could not be determined. The five security guards are
expected to surrender to authorities on Monday, the sources said.

Authorities have not publicly identified the guards.

The indictment caps a yearlong probe into the Sept. 16, 2007, shooting
as the guards’ convoy arrived in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square.

An Iraqi government investigation concluded that the security
contractors opened fire without provocation. And the U.S. military
and initial findings by the FBI found Blackwater guards were the only
ones who fired weapons that day. Blackwater has said its guards were
fired on and acted in self-defense.

A federal grand jury in Washington has heard testimony from dozens
of witnesses, including some Iraqis, the sources said.

Blackwater is not a target of the investigation but has been paying the
guards’ legal bills, sources said. Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman,
said "it would be inappropriate to comment on anything under seal."

But she added: "Based on the information available to us, however,
we do not believe criminal violations occurred."

"If it is determined that an individual acted improperly," she said,
"Blackwater would support holding that person accountable."

TURKISH PRES. PLANS TO VISIT NEXT MONTH
By Zvi Bar’el

Ha’aretz
Dec 9 2008
Israel

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is planning to visit Israel in early
January. This will be his first visit as president, though he came
here three times in his previous role as foreign minister.

A senior Turkish official told Haaretz that Gul will meet with
President Shimon Peres, and that they will discuss advancing the
indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria. They will also discuss
the Iranian nuclear threat, an issue on which they disagreed sharply
when Peres visited Ankara last year. Advertisement

At that time, Gul said that Turkey believes every country is entitled
to nuclear energy, and it therefore has no problem with Tehran’s
nuclear program.

Asked whether January, a month before Israel’s elections, is a good
time for the three-day visit, the official answered: "Relations between
Turkey and Israel are important at every level, so regardless of the
elections, we think this visit must take place."

Another issue on Gul’s agenda will be Ankara’s efforts to prevent
the Turkish slaughter of Armenians in 1915 from being recognized as
genocide. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama expressed willingness to
recognize the killings as genocide during his campaign, and Gul is
expected to ask Israel to use its influence in Washington to try to
prevent this.

BAKO SAHAKYAN: NKR CONSTITUTION CLEARLY STATES THAT ARTSAKH INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY HAVE NO ALTERNATIVES

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.12.2008 18:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In connection with the anniversary of the NKR State
Independence Referendum and the Constitution Day NKR President Bako
Sahakyan issued a congratulatory address to the citizens of the
republic, central information department of the office of the NKR
President told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The address reads as follows:

"Respected citizens of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Dear compatriots,

The tenth of December is one of the most memorable days for our
people. On very day in 1991 our people officially sealed their will to
form free, independent and sovereign state. And it was not a coincident
that 15 years later on this very day of 2006 the people of Artsakh
once again expressed their resoluteness to further strengthen and
develop independent statehood and on a nation-wide referendum adopted
the basic of the country – the NKR Constitution. It has marked the
irreversibility of our state policy to build democratic country,
our commitment to the follow international norms and integrate with
the civilized world.

The basic law of the country is among the attributes of independent
statehood. It guarantees rights and freedoms of people and citizens,
regulates internal life of the state and its relations with the
world. It is a specific bridge between the past, the present and the
future of the country and its people. The Constitution clearly states
that independence and secure existence of Artsakh have no alternatives.

Dear friends, I congratulate all our people once again on this
very important holiday and cordially wish you peace, good health
and happiness."

On December 10, 1991, 108 thousand 736 Karabakh people took part in
the national referendum. 99,89% said ‘yes" to NKR independence.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY IN EUROPE, IS IT THE END?

EuropeNews
Dec 9 2008
Denmark

The draft report presented Tuesday in the European Parliament seems
to definitely abandon the prospect of Turkey’s progress as well as
its accession perspective.

– December 2009 set as a deadline date

The Member of the European Parliament Ria Oomen-Ruijten (European
Popular Party, Conservative, Netherlands) presented on Tuesday the
draft version of her 2008 report on Turkey in the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the European Parliament. Significantly, this presentation
occurred late in front of a sparse assembly of Turkey’s supportive
MEPs and of Anatolian journalists.

>From a general perspective, the draft resolution impresses through
the resigned dissatisfaction it expresses: "concerns" and "regrets"
are the main message delivered to Ankara while accession prospect is
even no more mentioned, but to recall that it is subordinated to the
"full compliance with all the Copenhagen criteria and EU integration
capacity".

On the other hand, the report recalls its "concern to see in Turkey,
for the third consecutive year, a continuous slowdown of the reform
process" despite the strong mandate of the AKP government. It regrets
too that the EC-Turkey Association Agreement and the Additional
Protocol – which would be considered by Brussels as an implicit
recognition of Cyprus by Turkey – "have not yet been implemented fully
by the Turkish government" and it recalls that the non-fulfilment
by Ankara of its commitment "by December 2009 will further seriously
affect the process of negotiations".

"We are pleased to note the new tone of this report, compared to the
previous year, which is now pointing out Turkey’s shortcomings rather
than excusing them. Facing the countless failed pledges of Ankara, this
report gives ground to the credibility of the EU political approach"
stated Laurent Leylekian, executive director of the European Armenian
Federation.

About Human Rights and freedom of speech issues, the report regrets
that "freedom of expression and freedom of the press are still not
fully protected in Turkey", that the amendment to Article 301 of the
Penal Code was not sufficient, as people continue to be prosecuted"
and it is now calling for the repeal of this article. It regrets also
"the frequent website bans, the extent of which draws Turkey away
from standards of a democratic, pluralistic society".

About minorities, the draft report expresses its concerns "about
continuing hostility and violence" that they endure and about the fact
that "Turkey has made no progress on ensuring cultural diversity and
promoting respect for, and protection of, minorities"

"These actual facts are very important to remind us, especially
now, as Turkey is currently threatening even Europeans in Europe,
especially those who dare to mention the Kurdish issue or the Armenian
genocide – for instance columnists Alberto Rosselli, Dogan Ozguden
or professor Ronald Mönsch" commented the director of the European
Armenian Federation.

About the various aspects of the Armenian issue, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten
report "Welcomes the visit of President Gul to Armenia in September
2008 following an invitation from President Sarkisian, and hopes that
it will indeed foster a climate favourable to the normalisation of
relations between their countries".

The paragraph also "calls on the Turkish government to re-open
its border with Armenia and to restore full economic and political
relations with Armenia". Lastly, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten restates her motto,
calling "once again on the Turkish and Armenian governments to start
a process of reconciliation, in respect of the present and the past,
allowing for a frank and open discussion of past events; and calls
on the Commission to facilitate this reconciliation process".

"This time again, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten keeps on to equalise victims and
their butchers while genocide is an imprescriptible crime against
Humanity that cannot be reduced to bilateral relations between two
States" declared Laurent Leylekian.

"We regret this outmoded attitude through which Turkey is encouraged
to keep on its denial policy and through which she put in jeopardy
Turkish intellectuals who are now less afraid to talk about the
Armenian Genocide as such than some MEPs" he concluded.

–Boundary_(ID_ljQVogftoAzSoeE4+gclkA) —

EXCLUSIVE: BOAZ, SIRUSHO, JELENA AND THE PRESIDENT

esctoday.com
ws/read/12660
Dec 9 2008
Netherlands

As reported yesteray, the three 2008 Eurovision Song Contest
representatives, Boaz Mauda from Israel, Sirusho from Armenia and
Jelena Tomasovic from Serbia will record their song for peace in
Israel. today, esctoday.com can exclusively reveal that the song
is written by the three artists with a special guess lyricist, it
is none other than Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Shimon Peres.

President Peres welcomed the singers at his official residence and
declared his hope that the trio would be the beginning of a new era of
cultural exchange. He has contributed his own lyrics to the song and
they will be recorded by the three artists, all of whom reached the
top 10 of the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade earlier this year.

Tomorrow, the trio will be in Southern Israel to shoot their video,
with the Hotel Orchid in Eilat as the central location. They will be
joined by star Israeli dancer, Rona-Lee on set.

The song will feature on Boaz Mauda’s debut album due for release in
January. Boaz told esctoday.com: "with my two friends here, sirusho
and jelena, I truly beilve that we can make a change with our music
and art. The meeting with President Shimon Peres was very exciting,
he greeted us and granted us with best wishes. I hope we can make a
change with this song. It is an example of how the young people can
make the difference and influence others with their hopes and dreams".