ASBAREZ Online [05-15-2006]

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05/15/2006
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM 1) Orinats Yerkir Members Follow Baghdasarian Out of Government 2) Turkey Threatens French with Sanctions over Armenian Genocide Law 3) US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nominee Affirms Commitment to Peaceful Resolution of Karabagh Conflict 4) Repatriation Efforts in Georgia to Negatively Affect Georgian Armenians 1) Orinats Yerkir Members Follow Baghdasarian Out of Government YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)The Orinats Yerkir party of outgoing Parliament Speaker Artur Baghdasarian, lost yet another Parliament member to the ruling coalition on Monday. However, several senior government officials affiliated with the party remained loyal to the Baghdasarian, heeding his calls to resign. Baghdasarian cited growing policy disagreements with Kocharian, and the two other parties in the ruling coalition, the Republican Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, as he officially announced his resignation and Orinats Yerkir's withdrawal from the Armenian government on Friday. Baghdasarian stopped short of blaming Kocharian for this month's defection of a dozen Orinats Yerkir parliamentarians, which precipitated the party's exit. According to Prime Minister and Republican Party member Andranik Markarian, Orinats Yerkir's withdrawal from the coalition was inevitable because of Baghdasarian's disagreements with the socioeconomic and foreign policies pursued by Armenia's leadership. He noted in particular that its repeated demands for providing large-scale compensation to Armenians who lost their Soviet-era bank savings during the early 1990s "ran counter to the economic policy of our state." He also rejected Baghdasarian's recent calls for Armenia's eventual membership in NATO as "unacceptable".  Orinats Yerkir's faction in the 131-seat legislature was reduced to just nine members after another defection Monday. The latest defector, Mekhak Mkhitarian, issued no explanations, just like the nine other lawmakers that have left Orinats Yerkir since May 5. So far, all three Armenian ministers that have represented Orinats Yerkir have ignored Baghdasarian's demands to resign, choosing instead to remain in the government. One of them, Education Minister Sergo Yeritsian, was the party's deputy chairman until last Friday. Two other prominent Orinats Yerkir figures, Mher Shahgeldian and Gagik Mkheyan, who head the parliament committees on defense and social affairs, announced that they will formally quit with Baghdasarian at the end of this month. Orinats Yerkir has also had five deputy ministers in the coalition cabinet of President Robert Kocharian. Three of them said on Monday that they remain loyal to Baghdasarian and will comply with his orders. "On Friday, after Artur Baghdasarian's news conference, I handed the minister [of labor] a letter to the prime minister asking him to relieve me of my duties," said Artsruni Aghajanian, deputy minister of labor and social affairs. "I am one of those individuals who participated in the party's creation and don't find it moral to even consider staying [in the government]." "I have abandoned the post of deputy minister to stay with my party," said Ara Grigorian, deputy minister of trade and economic development. "I tendered my resignation on Friday." Similar decisions are understood to have been made by Gagik Aslanian, another Baghdasarian loyalist who has served as deputy minister for local government, as well as at least two regional vice-governors representing Orinats Yerkir. Party sources claimed that "numerous" other, lower-level Orinats Yerkir officials will follow suit after Baghdasarian formally ceases to be Parliament Speaker. Parliament is expected to accept his resignation without a debate on May 27. It is still unclear who will replace Baghdasarian as Parliament Speaker. Deputy Speaker Tigran Torosian said Monday that it is early to speak about candidates for the job, adding that the Armenian Parliament still has its speaker who is carrying out his duties. 2) Turkey Threatens French with Sanctions over Armenian Genocide Law ANKARA (AFP)--Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France with trade sanctions if it adopts a bill making it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide, a Turkish newspaper said Sunday. "Patience has its limits. We do not have hatred (towards France) but we will impose our sanctions," the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted Erdogan as saying at a summit of Muslim countries on the Indonesian island of Bali. French lawmakers are due to consider this Thursday a bill from the opposition Socialist Party (PS) which would make anyone denying the Armenian genocide liable to a five-year jail term and a 45,000 Euro (57,000 Dollar) fine. French members of parliament should be "particularly sensitive" to the issue of possible sanctions since France is the number one investor in Turkey, Erdogan said. "There will possibly be problems," he added. France has angered Ankara in the past over the Armenian genocide. In 2001 it adopted a law officially recognizing the massacres that took place starting in 1915 as genocide. Several French businesses were excluded from invitations to conduct business in Turkey amid calls for a boycott of French products following the 2001 law. French exports to Turkey in 2001 law plunged by 3.53 billion dollars, according to Turkish figures. But analysts predict the latest law could have a far greater impact on trade between the two countries than the 2001 bill. Turkey has reached record rates of growth in the past five years and bilateral trade between the countries in 2005 was worth at least 9.6 billion dollars. The 430-member Turkish chamber of commerce has intensified appeals to French leaders including a letter to President Jacques Chirac, urging them to abandon Thursday's vote. 3) US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nominee Affirms Commitment to Peaceful Resolution of Karabagh Conflict YEREVAN (Yerkir)--During her Senate confirmation hearing Monday, Ambassador-designate Anne Derse reiterated US policy for a peaceful, mutually acceptable resolution to the Karabagh conflict, stating that "a return to violence would be a tragedy." Ambassador-designate Anne Derse responded that if confirmed, she will work toward expanding and strengthening US-Azerbaijan security cooperation and help promote democracy and governance. She said a peaceful settlement to the Karabagh conflict is critical to achieving this goal and expressed hope that President of Armenia Robert Kocharian and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will work together on this issue. She further stated that as Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the US will also urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain engaged in the process and demonstrate political courage. On the issue of democracy, Derse stressed the importance of a genuine effort by Azerbaijan to respect human rights in order to pursue democratic reform and ensure long-term political stability. 4) Repatriation Efforts in Georgia to Negatively Affect Georgian Armenians (Combined Sources)Zaza Imedashvili, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Housing and Refugees in Tbilisi, said that Georgia's budget this year has allocated 1,227,000 Lari (around 500,000 US Dollars), to resettle thousands of Ajarian Georgians displaced by landslides and other natural disasters. Close to 5,000 families, around 30,000 people all together, are expecting resettlement any day now under a new government program, which is still at a very early stage. The program aims to resettle the ethnic Georgians in areas such as Tsalka and Akhalkalaki, which have predominantly Armenian or Greek populations.  "Everyone understands this policy here," said Sevak Yeranosyan, an Armenian resident of Ninotsminda district in the southern region of Javakheti. "They [the Ajarians] will be resettled to Armenian villages so that there will be a larger Georgian population here." "Their program is to populate our region with Georgians and Ajarians," he said. The Georgian Government insists that the Ajarians are being moved to these regions because of the cheaper housing that is available there. The Georgian Government has also pledged to resettle Meskheti Turks in Georgia by the year 2011, also in the predominantly Armenian populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. 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