Author: Antonian Lara

Paris-Normandie, France
18 janvier 2007 jeudi

Danse Hayastan samedi A EVREUX;
L’art de vivre du ballet arménien Navasart

par CoderckMaryse

Notre volonté est de faire connaître notre pays d’origine et son
esprit festif autrement qu’à travers les événements tragiques que
l’on connaît pour mettre l’accent sur la culture arménienne,
soulignent avec passion les représentants de l’Association normande
de solidarité arménienne (Ansa) organisatrice de l’événement Hayastan
à Evreux. Il s’agit du tout nouveau spectacle du ballet Navasart qui
fte ses 40 ans à l’occasion de l’année de l’Arménie en France. Une
création originale dont la première sera donnée à Paris les 3 et
4mars au Palais des Congrès (avant une tournée en France).

Des artistes bénévoles

Vous aurez la Bourgogne comme terre d’Asile. Depuis ces mots
prononcés par Saint-Loui au XIIIe siècle déjà, beaucoup de familles
victimes des génocides et notamment ceux perpétrés par les Turcs en
1915, se sont installées en France et en Normandie. L’Ensemble
Navasart met en scène l’histoire contrastée de cette nation
arménienne en qute de liberté, d’autonomie culturelle et spirituelle
avec toujours cette foi en la danse et la musique élevées au rang
d’art de vivre.

Composé de trente-cinq artistes bénévoles, danseurs et musiciens au
professionnalisme internationalement reconnu, l’ensemble s’accompagne
de musiciens aux instruments traditionnels restituant toute l’me de
la culture arménienne. Le spectacle est conçu comme une fable
dynamique à l’image de la troupe. Dans un esprit de communauté, ils
sont tous passionnés par l’Arménie, la musique transcendant leur
existence ce qui explique également leur vraie notoriété en Arménie
et ailleurs. C’est un des temps forts de cette année de l’Arménie en
France, souligne le président d’Ansa, Vahram Seraidarian.

Maryse Codec

l A 20 h 30 samedi 20 janvier au Cadran, boulevard de Normandie.
Tarifs : 2 8 et 25Û.Réservations au02.32.29.63.32.

HRAYR KARAPETIAN DOES NOT EXCLUDE THAT ARFD CAN APPEAR IN OPPOSITION
AFTER PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. "ARFD has already worked out its
preelection platform that will be published soon. It includes spheres
of foreign politics, economics, social life, etc." Hrayr Karapetian,
leader of ARFD parliamentary faction, said this at the January 19
press conference. He declared that ARFD attaches great importance to
holding of free elections and is ready to create a united headquarters
on control over the elections together with other political forces,
including the opposition. As H.Karapetian affirmed, ARFD does not
conduct negotiations with any political force on creation of a
preelection bloc, as the party’s general meeting made a decision that
ARFD will run for the parliamentary elections independently. At the
same time, he did not exclude that ARFD can appear in opposition after
the elections. "For us, the most important is the country leadership’s
political line’s coinciding with our political approaches and
tasks. Coming to power is not an end in itself for us," H.Karapetian
declared. In his words, President L.Ter-Petrosian had offered ARFD
much more posts than the party has now, but due to the fact that the
political course of the first President did not coincide with the
approaches of ARFD, the latter preferred to pass to the radical
opposition. As regards the current power, the MP declared that its
political course on main issues coincides with party’s tasks. As
regards "Bargavach Hayastan party’s standing close to the President"
and possibility of political jealousy by ARFD, H.Karapetian assured:
"We are not jealous of any one and especially when the matter concerns
the President. We do not think that country’s future should be
connected with personalities."

The editor of the Armenian newspaper of Istanbul ‘Agos’ Hrant Dink is killed

19.01.2007 18:34

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – A prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist was shot
to death Friday, according to CNN Turk.

He is Hrant Dink, editor of the Armenian-Turkish language weekly Agos
magazine. He was shot dead in front of the Istanbul newspaper as he
was leaving.

Described as a "well-known commentator on Armenian affairs," Dink in
2005 had been "convicted to a six-month suspended sentence on charges
of ‘insult to the Turkish state,’ " according to Pen American Center —
the writers’ group that promotes free expression.

"This is just one of a number of cases brought out against him in
recent months in an apparent campaign of harassment against him.

"Some of the trial hearings have been marred by violent scenes inside
and outside the courtrooms, instigated by nationalist activists
calling for Dink to be punished," a profile on Pen’s Web site said.

Dink was one of the most prominent voices of Turkey’s shrinking
Armenian community.

A 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had gone on
trial numerous times here for speaking out about the mass killings
of Armenians by Turks at the beginning of the 20th century. He had
received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.

Dink was a public figure in Turkey, and as the editor of the bilingual
Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, one of its most prominent Armenian
voices.

In an earlier interview with The Associated Press, Dink had cried
as he talked about some of his fellow countrymen’s hatred for him,
saying he could not stay in a country where he was unwanted.

Private NTV television said police were searching for the suspected
murderer, believed to be a teenager wearing a white hat and a denim
jacket, but the identity and motivation of the shooter were unknown,
AP reported.

Dink’s body could be seen covered with a white sheet in front of the
newspaper’s entrance. NTV said four empty shell casings were found
on the ground and that he was killed by two bullets to the head.

Fehmi Koru, a columnist at the Yeni Safak newspaper, said the murder
was aimed at destabilizing Turkey.

"His loss is the loss of Turkey," Koru said.

TURKEY’S PARLIAMENT REJECTS CENSURE MOTION AGAINST FOREIGN MINISTER

The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune, France
Jan 18 2007

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey’s parliament on Thursday rejected an opposition
motion to censure the foreign minister over accusations of mismanaging
the country’s foreign policy.

Abdullah Gul’s Justice and Development Party easily defeated the
censure motion filed by the opposition center-right Motherland Party.

The party had accused the minister of "making concession to the
European Union," of harming ties with the United States, failing to
pursue farsighted policies over Iraq and Cyprus and of failing to
counter Armenian efforts to push for the recognition as genocide of
mass killings of Armenians at the time of the Ottoman Empire.

The legislators held the vote – which was defeated by a majority show
of hands in the 550-member parliament – before discussing Turkey’s
policy over Iraq.

Opposition parties have called for troops to be sent in to northern
Iraq to wipe out Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there and to prevent
Iraqi Kurds from assuming control over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Turkey is concerned over the spiraling violence in neighboring Iraq,
and has expressed dissatisfaction with U.S. and Iraqi efforts to
contain separatist Turkish Kurdish guerrillas who Ankara says have
been using bases in Iraq to fight for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.

Thursday’s preliminary discussions on Iraq would be followed by wider
and closed-door debates on the issue amid growing calls from the main
opposition Republican People’s Party to allow the military to carry
out a cross-border offensive against Kurdish guerrillas.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns to discuss Iraq and Iran’s
controversial nuclear program.

Also on Thursday, Turkey called on Iraqi and U.S. authorities to
shut down the Makhmur refugee camp in Iraq. The camp houses an
estimated 9,000 Turkish Kurds who fled to Iraq in the early 1990s
during fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels. Turkish
authorities accuse Kurdish guerrillas of indoctrinating children in
the camp to become rebels.

Erdogan on Tuesday warned Iraqi Kurdish groups against trying to seize
control of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, saying Turkey will not
stand by amid growing tensions among ethnic Turkmens, Arabs and Kurds
in Iraq’s oil-rich north.

Iraqi Kurds, who claim the region as their own and hope to eventually
include Kirkuk in a region of self-rule in northern Iraq, accused
Turkey of interfering in Iraqi internal affairs.

Turkey fears Iraq’s Kurds want Kirkuk’s lucrative oil to fund a bid
for independence that could encourage separatist Kurdish guerrillas
in Turkey, who have been fighting since 1984 for autonomy.

Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire,
has a large minority of ethnic Turks as well as Christians, Shiite
and Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, thousands of Kurds pushed
out of the region under Saddam Hussein’s rule have returned.

Kirkuk lies just south of the autonomous Kurdish region stretching
across Iraq’s northeast. Kurdish leaders want to annex the city,
and Iraq’s constitution calls for a referendum on the issue by the
end of next year.

THE JOINT EU-ARMENIA ACTION PLAN BEING IMPLEMENTED

ArmRadio.am
16.01.2007 17:13

Armenia is preparing to accomplish the joint Armenia-EU Action Plan in
the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy, RA Deputy Foreign
Minister Armen Baybourtyan told Armenpress correspondent. According to
the Deputy Minister, on the political level importance was attached
to the defense of human rights, reinforcement of democracy and
legal state. Priority was given to the accomplishment of Armenia’s
national plan. The third priority is the package directed at poverty
reduction. According to the observation of the European Commission,
the main aim of this package is the deepening of reforms in the
education system and accomplishment of a number of steps directed at
social security.

The European Union will allocate 21 million Euros in 2007 for the
implementation of the joint Action Plan.

Armen Baybourtyan did not rule out that during German presidency
the Neighborhood Policy will be strengthened and the programme of
the European Neighborhood Policy will be adopted. It will be come
clear in the firs half of the year. According to him, Bulgaria and
Romania’s joining the European Union will help focus the attention
of the structure on Eastern neighbors, since through the Black Sea
the EU has become the immediate neighbor of the South Caucasus.

NEW BUILDINGS MUST BE CONSTRUCTED INSTEAD OF ONES UNDER OPERATION OF OVER 50 YEARS, YEREVAN DEPUTY MAYOR SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Jan 15 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. In 2006, Yerevan mayor’s office
made an inventory of apartment buildings with the aim of developing a
long-term program on their modernization in the future. Deputy Mayor
of Yerevan Kamo Areyan stated this at the January 15 press conference.

According to him, there are now 4,567 apartment buildings in the city,
20 of which have been operated for 10 years, 665 – for 11-20 years,
1,242 – for 21-30 years, 1,252 – for 31-40 years, 877 – for 41-50
years and 474 apartment buildings – for more than 50 years. In the
words of K. Areyan, it is envisaged to construct new buildings instead
of those operated for more than 50 years.

K. Areyan said that in 2003, studies of accident-prone buildings
in Yerevan were conducted. According to these studies, 86 were
recognized as accident-prone buildings of 3rd degree, and 15 ones –
as accident-prone buildings of 4th degree. The deputy mayor noted that
as of January 2007, 2 million drams (about 5.4 mln USD) was spent to
reinforce 28 third degree accident-prone buildings. Another 8 such
buildings will be reinforced thsi year, for which 620 million drams
has been allocated from the state budget.

It was noted that this year 3 residential buildings will be put into
operation instead of 3 fourth degree accident-prone buildings in
Yerevan’s Ajapniak community.

TURKS STARTED SPEAKING OF 1915 TRAGEDY NOT LONG AGO

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2007 13:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I do not know how many Armenians died in 1915 – half
million, three or five. There is nothing written in Turkish manuals
of history about it," Co-chair of the Turkish-Armenian Business
Development Council (TABDC) Kaan Soyak told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter. According to him, Turks started to speak about the
tragedy of 1915 not long ago. "When Armenian President Robert
Kocharian touched upon the subject in the UN our people started to
speak of it as well. In my opinion, the trouble is that we do not
contact. Armenians should know that Turkey wants to know her own
history," Soyak emphasized.

Tracinda Buys More MGM Shares

Associated Press 01.11.07, 5:16 PM ET

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. said Thursday it
bought 444,466 shares of MGM Mirage tendered in its most recently
completed tender offer. The purchase boosted Tracinda’s beneficial
ownership in MGM from about 55.8 percent, or 158.4 million shares, to
about 55.9 percent, or 158.8 million shares.

MGM Mirage, the world’s second-largest casino company after Harrah’s
Entertainment Inc., owns the MGM Grand, Bellagio and other casinos in
Las Vegas, and gambling properties in other parts of Nevada and in
Atlantic City, N.J. MGM’s shares rose $4.94, or 7.8 percent, to end
at $68.55 on the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier in the session, they
set a new year high of $69.63, topping a previous year high of $64.37.
AP

Armenpress

ARMENIA INDEPENDENCE EXHIBITION OPENS IN SAIN RAFAEL

PARIS, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: An exhibition
titled Armenia: Fifteen Years of Independence, opened
in the French town of San Rafael. It will be on
display until the end of February. The exhibition has
on display around 100 photographs taken by Armenia’s
ten most prominent photographers telling about how
Armenia was being established as an independent and
sovereign state- from the national liberation war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, sever energy crisis to stability and
peaceful development of today.
The exhibition initiated by Armenpress news agency,
was already displayed in Moscow as part of the Year of
Armenia in Russia.
The exhibition is part of a vast range of about 700
events marking the Year of Armenia in France. An
exhibition depicting Armenia’s 12 capital cities
opened last December in Paris. It will run until March
18.
Next month a post stamp symbolizing French-Armenian
friendship will be issued and Louvres will host an
exhibition of Armenian cross stones, old manuscripts
and other artifacts. It is titled Sacred Armenia.

POLITICALLY EXPLOSIVE ARMENIAN BILL COMING TO US CONGRESS NEXT WEEK

Zaman, Turkey
Jan 11 2007

The group of congressmen, consisting of Adam Schiff, George Radanovich,
Frank Pallone and Joe Knollenberg, have sent a letter to other members
of the US House of Representatives, announcing that they would bring
forward the resolution onto the House floor next week and requesting
their support for their initiative, sources said.

A vote on a similar resolution was postponed at the last minute in
2002, when then House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert,
a Republican, shelved it at the intervention of the US administration.

However, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who became the first woman to be
the speaker of the House of Representatives after mid-term elections
in the United States in November, promised her voters before the
elections that she would work for approval of the resolution.

The Democrats now have the majority in the House of Representatives
and a vote on the "genocide" resolution is widely expected to mean its
endorsement. The resolution claims that the Ottoman Empire, between
1915 and 1923, massacred 1,5 million of Armenians in Anatolia in a
genocide campaign.

The US administration is expected to work to persuade the congressmen
not to support the resolution, as it did in the past. Sources say
that the administration would try to put the resolution on ice for at
least a year. The White House is concerned that the passage of this
resolution would undermine dialogue and cooperation with Turkey on
a series of issues, particularly on the sensitive situation in Iraq.

Turkey is trying to prevent the draft resolution

Although the Democrats promised to their Armenian-origin voters during
the pre-election period that they would push for the resolution, Turkey
is still in a struggle to prevent its passage. The Turkish caucus in
the House of Representatives, the Turkish Embassy in Washington and
professional lobbying companies are telling the US Congressmen that
the passage of this resolution would create tensions in relations
with Turkey.

Turkey categorically denies allegations of genocide and says the
killings came when the Ottoman Empire was trying to quell civilian
unrest caused by Armenian revolts in the eastern Anatolia. Egemen
Bagis, an Istanbul deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) and a close aide of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has
contacted notable Congress members, such as Democrat Congressman Robert
Wexler and Republican Iliana Ros-Lehtinen, explaining to them that
passage of the resolution would spell deep damage in Turkish-US ties.

As the Armenian Diaspora in the United States is preparing
to bring up the Armenian genocide allegations in the Congress,
U.S. President George W. Bush once again offered Richard Hoagland as
the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, although he was turned down by the
Senate elected in the end of last year.

Pro-Armenian lobby senators asked Bush to offer another candidate
instead of Hoagland. Armenians fiercely oppose appointment of
Hoagland, who denies calling Armenian claims as "genocide." Former
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans was suspended from the office on
grounds that he countered official policy of the U.S. State Department
by using the expression the "Armenian genocide" during a meeting.

Suspension of Evans caused outrage among Armenians. Hoagland failed
to use the expression "genocide" during his address to the Senate to
get approval. Therefore, Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a supporter of the
Armenian lobby, blocked his appointment and was reported to have sent
a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Democrat Senator
Harry Reid for naming another candidate to the post. U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Nick Burns wrote a response to Menendez and Reid
telling them not to meddle the appointment of Hoagland with politics.