Month: June 2009

RA PROSECUTOR GENERAL ORDERS INVESTIGATION INTO MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS VIOLATIONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.06.2009 23:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Taking into account numerous media reports on
violations during May 31 municipal elections, Armenian Prosecutor
General Aghvan Hovsepyan has ordered to recount votes at 8 polling
stations and to report data to his office.

He also ordered to initiate a criminal case over beating of journalists
at 9/1 polling station

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TIGRAN SARGSYAN: UPBRINGING OF CITIZEN BEGINS FROM SCHOOL

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 10:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA prime minister Tigran Sargsyan visited today
the republican exhibition "I am a citizen of a law-based state",
organized in the National Aesthetics Centre.

The exhibition was preceded by the republican competition for students
of 5 to 11 grades from all Armenian regions. They tried to reflect
their perceptions of operation of cash registers, and how our citizens
should assert their rights. Two works have been acknowledged the best,
another 5 have been awarded prizes, press office of the government
reports.

"Upbringing of a citizen of the Republic of Armenia is a very
responsible work, and it begins from school first of all, when
children start realizing them to be citizens of their country, start
learning how the state is functioning, how creates its incomes,"
Tigran Sargsyan said.

CSTO NSC SECRETARIES TO GATHER IN MINSK

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 11:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ CSTO Secretaries of National Security Councils will
gather in Minsk on June 5 to discuss trends of military and political
situation in members states and neighboring regions.

They will also consider the results of operative and preventive
campaign and the package of normative legal acts on RRF formation.

Migration issues, action plans for stabilization of Afghanistan and
counterbalance to current threats and cooperation within international
organizations will also be in focus, CSTO press office reported.

TURKEY HIGHLY ESTIMATES U.S. SUPPORT IN NAGORNO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 11:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Solution of problems between Turkey and Armenia is
of interest not only the two countries, but the whole South Caucasus,
defense minister of Turkey Vezhdi Genul said at the 28-th annual
sitting of American-Turkish Council in Washington.

According to him, Armenian-Turkish reconciliation continues since
2007 and the sides reached an agreement over the ‘road map’. Genul
stressed the necessity of intensifying the U.S. efforts aimed at quick
settlement of problems between Armenia and Azerbaijan, adding that,
he highly estimates the U.S. support in Nagorno Karabakh settlement.

Turkish minister also stressed, that if the U.S. congressmen supporting
the Armenian Genocide resolution reach 125, it could hurt the process
of reconciliation between two countries, Anatolian News Agency reports.

LEVON ZURABIAN: AUTHORITIES HELD REGULAR CRIMINAL ELECTIONS

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian National Congress Coordinator
Levon Zurabian stated in his interview to journalists late in
the evening of May 31 that the Armenian authorities held regular
"criminal elections."

According to him, this election is characterized by universal voter
buying.

According to PPA representative Grigor Haroutiunian, Yerevan
Council of Elders elections are like all previous elections held in
Armenia. "During the elections it was unequivocally felt that the
"lawful master" in our town, in our country is the criminal element."

According to Radio Liberty, at another press conference held late
in the evening the same day Zharangutiun party Board Chairwoman
Anahit Bakhshian classed the elections as "to the highest degree
undisciplined." "Starting the Central Electoral Commission, members
and chairmen of neither district nor polling station commissions feel
responsible to this important state event," she said.

Armen Martirosian, the head of the Zharangutiun parliamentary faction,
assessed the elections very negatively. First of all, according to
him, forced voting took place from the start to the end, which had
nothing in common with voting. Second, many cases of violence were
recorded. "I think the Police worked just disgracefully. Besides,
voter buying, stuffing of ballot boxes with ballot papers took place,
especially in the evening in Davitashen, Malatia. "It shows that this
time also the authorities did not fail to control the elections, did
not display neglect in their duties, but deliberately organized the
violations that became the basis of this whole systematized mechanism
of violations," A. Martirosian said.

RA OMBUDSMAN’S INSTITUTION RECEIVES MORE THAN TEN ORAL APPLICATION-COMPLAINTS ON ELECTORAL VIOLATIONS

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Ombudsman’s institution received more
than ten oral application-complaints in the May 31 Yerevan Council
of Elders elections that mainly regarded the following issues:

– citizens were transported to polling stations by microbuses for
the purpose of voting and were persuaded to vote for this or that
candidate,

– citizens were moved to Yerevan polling stations by microbuses from
Gyumri, Vanadzor, and other towns for the purpose of voting,

– the principle of voting secrecy was violated at a number of polling
stations due to voting cabins’ improper location,

– reports on hindering journalists’ activity were received, as well
as cases of violence to journalists were recorded.

According to the RA Ombudsman Office Information and Public
Relations Department, the RA Ombudsman is ready to discuss any
application-complaint on electoral violations within its jurisdiction
and calls competent state bodies for carrying out proper checkings
on all violations.

The RA Ombudsman condemns infringements on journalists that became
a regularity in each election. The attack on 168 Zham newspaper’s
correspondent Armine Avetian and Transperency International NGO
observer Sona Ayvazian on May 31 in Malatia-Sebastia community took
place in the presence of the polling station commission chairman and
policemen being at the polling station. The RA Ombudsman calls proper
bodies for undertaking necessary measures to disclose those guilty.

ACCORDING TO COUNCIL OF EUROPE MONITORING MISSION, YEREVAN COUNCIL OF ELDERS ELECTIONS WERE HELD AT SATISFACTORY LEVEL, BUT WITH SOME SHORTCOMINGS

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The monitoring mission of Council of
Europe Congress of Local and Territorial Authorities states that the
general organization level of Yerevan Council of Elders elections
corresponded to European standards. As monitoring group head Nigel
Mermagen stated at the June 1 press conference, their mission welcomes
the Yerevan Council of Elders first elections that were held at a
satisfactory level, but with some shortcomings. N. Mermagen added
that a progress was recorded in the May 31 elections as compared with
the 2008 presidential elections. "However, democracy is not only
limited to elections: there should be an electoral culture in the
country. Elections should be simple and pure outside polling stations,
as well," he said.

Though journalists asked for several times concretely what shortcomings
and omissions the European observers had recorded, N. Mermagen did not
mention them. According to him, those shortcomings will be presented
in their final report to be published in October.

In response to the questions of why observers disregard the fact of
beating many journalists on the day of elections and why when visiting
polling stations observers only spoke with power representatives
N. Mermagen said that he was sorry that journalists formed such
an impression.

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: EXISTENCE OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS IN ARMENIA IS SERIOUSLY ENDANGERED

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the National Press Club
June 1 statement, Yerevan Council of Elders elections were accompanied
by violence to representatives of various media.

Recording that the wave of violence to journalists is increasing,

taking into consideration the emphasized indifference of law enforcers
to disclosure of acts of violence and lack of prospect to apply to
them again, emphasizing that the May 31 elections are evidence that
basic human rights and freedoms are constantly violated in Armenia
under the passive position of international structures,

The National Press Club declares that existence of democratic
institutions is seriously endangered in the Republic of Armenia.

SERZH SARGSYAN: INTEREST OF ONE OR SEVERAL PERSONS CANNOT BE HIGHER THAN STATE INTEREST

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Serzh Sargsyan congratulated
the Republican Party of Armenia, Bargavach Hayastan party, and the
Armenian National Congress on the occasion of succeeding in Yerevan
Council of Elders elections and wished them fruitful work in the
staff of Council of Elders.

According to S. Sargsyan, the foundation of a new government system
is laid with the elections, which is a serious progress in the
direction of strengthening democratic mechanisms in Armenia. In
his congratulatory address he mentioned that the May 31 elections
and the whole preelection stage showed that "we managed to solve the
considerable part of problems existing in electoral processes and moved
forward in the direction of solving the others." As a result, according
to S. Sargsyan, this election was indeed a serious step forward.

The President presented his position in connection with violations
recorded at some polling stations: "The interest of one or several
persons cannot be higher than the state interest, and fair elections
are state’s absolute interest. They require not only exclusion of
violations, but also consistency in the issue of disclosure and
liquidation of violations.

Therefore all of us demand that each case of violation be disclosed
and everybody guilty be punished and called for liability with the
whole strictness of the law."

"TURKEY MUST APOLOGISE TO RELATIVES OF DISAPPEARED"

BIA Magazine
June 1 2009
Turkey

A Justice Tribunal called for the trial of politicians and army
members at a War Crimes Court, as well as an apology from the state.

Two weeks of activities protesting against the many disappearances in
police or gendarmerie custody in Turkey ended with a Justice Tribunal,
organised by the International Committee against Disappearances (ICAD).

Held at Istanbul’s Bilgi University Dolapdere campus on 31 May, the
tribunal called for an apology by the state for all disappearances,
as well as the trial of generals, police officers and politicians on
duty during the period of most intensive fighting with the PKK.

Å~^ahin Tumuklu, a member of the tribunal, called for the following
in a statement:

* The one-sided understanding of massacre and loss in history books,
which has been identified with the Armenian forced migration,
should change.

* An independent delegation should be formed to identify the number
of disappeared people and their stories. Ottoman and Turish archives
should be opened, and mass graves and graveyards of the poor should
be found and opened.

* Forensic Medical Institutes should open their records, and the
DNA test applications of relatives of disappeared people should be
accepted. Military and police records should also be published,
and a War Crimes Tribunal should be formed in order to try those
responsible for the disappearances.

* Relatives of missing persons should be compensated for their material
and psychological loss. Those who attacked and burned down villages
and those who ordered these attacks should be identified and punished.

* The fate of people who disappeared in detention or were buried in
mass graves needs to become known. Those ordering and carrying out
murders must be punished.

* Disclosures from the Ergenekon file have brought to light several
"state secrets", i.e. crimes. They must become court cases.

* The state of the Turkish Republic must apologise to families.

* The state must accept the Statement on the Protection against
Enforced Disappearances, accepted by the United Nations’ general
assembly on 18 December 1992, as domestic law.

* Police custody should be abolished; rather, people taken in by the
police should be brought to a judge directly.

The statement further called for the lifting of immunity for anyone
responsible and for the politicians of the period between 1991 and
1996 to be tried. The list of people they accuse includes:

Veli Kucuk (known as the founder of the clandestine gendarmerie
intelligence unit JITEM, said to be responsible for hundreds of
murders), Arif Dogan and Levent Ersöz (also from JITEM), Chiefs of
Staff Dogan GureÅ~_, Huseyin Kıvrıkoglu, Hakkı Karadayı, Hilmi
Ozkök, YaÅ~_ar Buyukanıt, Presidents Kenan Evren, Turgut Ozal
(deceased) and Suleyman Demirel, Prime Ministers Mesut Yılmaz,
Tansu Ciller and Recep Tayyıp Erdogan, former Deputy PM Murat
Karayalcın, Ministers of the Interior Abdulkadir Aksu, İsmet Sezgin,
Mehmet Agar and Meral AkÅ~_ener, Governor of the Emergency Law Region
(OHAL) Hayri Kozakcıoglu, Generals Hasan Kundakcı, Ä°lker BaÅ~_bug,
Hikmet Köksal, Å~^ener Eruygur, HurÅ~_it Tolon, Mete Sayar, Korkut
Eken and İsmet Deliyıldız.