Author: Badalian Vardan

VISIT OF RA PRIME MINISTER TO U.S. ENDS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On the last day of the visit to
U.S., on October 23, RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsian had a meeting
with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Ruben Jeffrey. Issues relating
to the current and future Armenian-American economic cooperation were
discussed during the meeting.

Immediately after the meeting, Serge Sargsian and Ruben Jeffrey
took part in the opening of the Armenian-American task force’s
sitting. In his speech the Deputy Secretary of State attached
importance to the fact of stability of Armenia’s economy and the
reduction tendencies of the rural poverty. He mentioned that the
activity of the Armenian-American task force gradually receives more
importance and includes wider range of spheres. In his response
speech S. Sargsian said that the authorities of Armenia pay great
attention to development and poverty reduction of rural areas and
do not set great hopes only on assistance of foreign states. They
undertake certain steps in that direction always keeping the rural
problems in the focus of their attention.

After the sitting of the task force, Vardan Khachatrian, the RA
Minister of Finance and Economy, and Thomas Adams, the Coordinator
of U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, signed an agreement on
cooperation in the sphere of civil aviation, in particular, in the
sphere of safe and joint operation of civil aviation.

In the midday, the RA Prime Minister gave an interview to a
correspondent of the Reuters news agency. Amswering the question about
the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, S. Sargsian
said that this issue is painful and important for each Armenian, and
before leaving for the U.S. he had promised to the Armenian people
to personally congratulate all people, who had their contribution
in adoption of Resolution 106 at the Committee on Foreign Affairs of
U.S. House of Representatives. Making use of the occasion, through the
Reuters agency, the Prime Minister thanked all Congressmen, who voted
for the Resolution, as well as those who were against the adoption
of that decision at that moment, but admit the fact of the Genocide.

Then S. Sargsian met with U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice. A
wide range of issues was touched upon at the meeting. Touching upon
the process of democratic and economic reforms being implemented
in Armenia, S. Sargsian presented the permanent efforts of the RA
authorities in that direction. He, in particular, mentioned that after
the last parliamentary elections good bases have been created for
continuing initiatives of perfection of electoral processes in Armenia.

C. Rice on behalf of the U.S. government expressed readiness to support
Armenia if necessary to solve the technical problems emerging in the
process of organization of the 2008 presidential elections.

The parties also discussed the current process of the Nagorno Karabakh
peaceful settlement, stating the importance of possible acceleration
of that process. S. Sargsian said that Azerbaijan’s growing bellicose
statements of the recent period do not promote that process at all.

In the second half of the day Prime Minister Serge Sargsian met with
members of the Board of the Armenian Assembly of America, headed by
Hrayr Hovnanian.

Issues related to organization’s activity and further programs were
discussed, thoughts on the challenges faced by Armenia today were
exchanged.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA government Information and
Public Relations Department, the visit to the U.S. finished by a
reception organized in honor of the RA Prime Minister in the evening
at the RA Embassy in the U.S. High-ranking officials of the U.S. State
Department, Defence and other Ministries, high-ranking leadership of
WB and IMF took part in the reception. Heads of American Armenian
political organizations, representatives of the Armenian community
were also present.

THE NEW ISLAMISTS
By Daniel Johnson

New York Sun, NY
Oct 25 2007

History never quite repeats itself, but – like a bad remake of a great
movie – the news sometimes feels very old. That sense of deja vu is
hard to escape in Europe and the Middle East, because these are regions
with long recorded histories, where almost anything that happens has
some kind of precedent. It is easy to dismiss the significance of
events with a weary shrug of the shoulders: "We’ve been here before."

Easy, but wrong. So, for example, it would be easy to underestimate
the importance of the Israeli airstrike against Syria on September 6.

But what little evidence that has emerged so far suggests that this
was in fact a hugely significant action by Israel. The operation not
only nipped in the bud a nuclear threat to regional security, but also
challenged America and other western countries not to shy away from
the measures that would be necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear program
in its tracks. For a second time – the first was its destruction of
Iraq’s nuclear facilities in 1981 – Israel has done a huge favour,
not only for the West but for the world. The silence of Israel’s most
vociferous critics denotes tacit consent.

It is even easier to ignore Turkey’s threat to invade the Kurdish
provinces of Iraq. When Saddam ruled Iraq, there were many reprisals
by the Turkish military against Kurdish cross-border raids and
terrorist attacks. So what is new about the present crisis? The
answer is that Iraq is now a democracy, and Turkey is now ruled by
an Islamist government. Democracies don’t go to war with each other.

When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited London this
week, his British counterpart Gordon Brown tried to reassure him that
Turkey was still on track to join the European Union. But Mr. Erdogan
knows that this is eyewash. Islamist Turks are not prepared to make
concessions on any of the ethnic problems bequeathed from the Ottoman
era. Their hysterical reaction to a purely symbolic resolution on
the Armenian genocide which Congress hasn’t even passed yet is proof
that, nearly a century later, the massacre of 1.5 million Christians
by their Muslim compatriots is still unmentionable.

The new Islamists, indeed, are even more intolerant than the old
Ottomans, whose observance of sharia law was lax and whose oppression
of their numerous Christian and Jewish subjects was mitigated by
incompetence. Turkey is now almost 100% Muslim and increasingly
influenced by more militant, anti-Western forms of Islam. Turks
may want access to the European economy but they do not want to be
integrated into European culture. Threatening the fledgling Iraqi
democracy with invasion is reminiscent of Hitler’s bullying of
Czechoslovakia – and the response from the West has been the same:
appeasement. Sometimes, what appears to be "historic" reveals itself
to be nothing of the kind. Such a case is the recent letter from
138 Islamic scholars to the Pope and other Christian leaders. This
was presented in the media as an appeal for peace and mutual respect,
emphasizing what the "peoples of the book" have in common. This is the
line also being promoted in a major advertising campaign in London,
the slogan of which is: "Islam is peace." The only trouble with this
campaign is that it is funded by Islamists who support terrorism
against Israel and America.

In the case of the letter, what appears to be a peace offering turns
out, under scrutiny, to be an implied threat. The letter demands that
Christians accept the identity of the teaching of the Koran and the
Bible on the oneness of God and the love of neighbour. Leaving aside
the profound problem of the Trinitarian conception of the Christian
God, there is a theological gulf between Muslim and Christian doctrines
on the relationship of faith and reason – as Pope Benedict made clear
in his Regensburg lecture last year. But the ulema – the Islamic
religious authorities – have always been the main barrier to any
attempt to reconcile rationality with the literal interpretation of
the Koran.

It was they who crushed Islam’s contribution to science and philosophy
nearly a millennium ago. It is they who justify the present jihad
against the West and the persecutions of tens of millions of Christians
and others across the Muslim world.

Now these same scholars make no mention of the many passages in the
Koran that denounce Jews and Christians – or, indeed, the entire
doctrine of jihad. Their olive branch comes with the proviso that
Christians, not Muslims, are the aggressors: "As Muslims, we say to
Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against
them – so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of
their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes."

For Christians to accept this document as the basis for negotiation
would be tantamount to accepting the monstrous lie that Muslims are
everywhere under attack from the West.

Fortunately Benedict XVI is too good a theologian to be bamboozled by
such rhetoric. He has consistently said that relations with Islam must
be based on reciprocity. Without an honest acknowledgement that Islam
is not suffering persecution, that on the contrary its adherents are
everywhere persecuting other faiths with the full support of their
religious leaders, there can be no serious dialogue.

So the ulema’s offer of reconciliation proves to be an ultimatum –
the same one that Mohammed himself uttered in 632: "I was ordered
to fight all men until they say: ‘There is no god but Allah.’" The
clerics who claim leadership over Islam behave as if their faith had
stood still since the 7th century. Those who defy history are doomed
to become history.

US EAGER TO SEE S. CAUCASUS STABLE AND PEACEFUL REGION -AMBASSADOR

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. Ê.Ramazanova / The US eager to see the
South Caucasus as the stable and peaceful region, Anne E. Derse, the US
Ambassador to Azerbaijan, said in talks with journalists on 24 October.

"US wants peaceful solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh," the US Ambassador said.

According to the Ambassador, the United State, which has joined the
OSCE Minsk Group, renders assistance in holding peace negotiations
and takes every effort to establish stability in the region.

"We will continue our efforts in this direction, as we understand their
importance for Azerbaijan and the whole region," the Ambassador said.

The United States does not backs or recognize the so-called ‘
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’.

–Boundary_(ID_GULtSyC66enAVgByhgOmCg) —

PRICES WENT UP IN A NIGHT

A1+
[04:38 pm] 22 October, 2007

Today morning Yerevan resident Armine was caught unawares in "Armenia"
shop as the price of sugar had gone up from AMD 250 to AMD 400 within
a night.

I am really astonished at the speed of rise in prices, she said.

During our short tour through Yerevan shops we came to know that sugar
price differs from 300 to 400 drams in shops. Some shops didn’t sell
sugar at all.

Shop-assistants were also surprised at the rise in prices.

"Yesterday they brought in the sacks and forbade us to open. Today
they raised the prices quite unexpectedly," a saleswoman said.

Many explain the rise in prices with the upcoming elections.

"They shouldn’t treat people so severely. Rice in prices has become
an ordinary phenomenon. People cannot stay without sugar especially
in winter.

Obviously, they test our nerves," said Arusiak Gevorgian, a resident
of Yerevan.

According to Gevorg Danielian the rise in prices is the recurring
vandalism towards the Armenian people.

"I expect the least from these authorities. They seem to have forgotten
that they ought to serve the people and not the vise versa."

"They speak of high revenues, economic growth but forget about people’s
assiduous work and sweat. They utilize our money, and make everything
unattainable for us. It is impossible to live in this country,"
said Arsham Manukian.

To note, the price of cereals has gone up from 50-100 drams per a kilo.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL TEAM DRAWS GAME WITH LITHUANIAN FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 22, 2007

KAUNAS, OCTOBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The elimination tour group tournament
of Europe Championship of Football Players aged 19 and below started
on October 20 in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. The Armenian national
team drew the game with the Lithuanian team with the score of 2 to 2.

On October 22 the Armenian football players will compete with the
team of San Marino and on October 25 of Poland.

Glasgow Daily Record, Scotland, UK
Oct 20 2007

Legacy of Scot Murdered By The Nazis
Oct 20 2007 By Annie Brown

Exclusive Jane Haining’s School Continues To Reach Out To Those
Children Most In Need

SHE was one of Scotland’s most courageous women and Jane Haining left
behind a legacy that lives on across the globe.

The Scots missionary was murdered by the Nazis, but her compassion
had a profound impact on the Jewish children she protected from
fascism. Long after her death in Auschwitz, she inspired one of the
most important human rights drives in US Government history.

Her former pupil Annette Lantos formed the Congressional Human Rights
Caucus and she placed at its heart the principles of her teacher.

The Nazis killed Jane on August 16, 1944 and she became the only Scot
to die in Auschwitz. But the spirit of the Scottish Missionary School
she ran in Budapest will never die.

Jane’s school became a sanctuary for Jewish girls like Annette as the
spectre of fascism loomed.

Annette is in no doubt that the three years she spent at the school
shaped the woman she was to become.

She said: "To go there where we were all accepted and treated with
respect changed our attitude at an age when that was fundamental and
important.

"I owe Jane Haining and her Scottish school so much. My childhood was
lived under the shadow of a terrible war and she gave me the best
experience. That wonderful Scottish school gave me my happiest
memories of those years."

Annette, the first cousin of movie star Zsa Zsa Gabor, is married to
US congressman Tom Lantos, the sole member of the House who survived
the Holocaust during World War Two.

Democrat Lantos chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who are
currently at the centre of an international row after it passed a
bill officially labelling the killings of Armenians by Turkish forces
in 1915, "genocide."

The bill, opposed by President Bush, could spark a backlash from
Turkey, which is used as a staging area and transport route for
supplies that are sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Annette and Tom have been married 57 years and have worked together
for more than 20.

Annette is Executive Director of the Human Rights Caucus, one of the
most influential caucuses in Congress.

Tom Lantos discussed the Armenian issue extensively with his wife who
travels the globe with him.

He describes them "like a bicycle built for two" and tongue slightly
in cheek, maintains: "She leads, I merely follow."

He also said: "My wife’s passionate commitment to human rights stems
from the values she absorbed in that wonderful Scottish school.

"I can see in my wife’s life what an enduring and profoundly humane
education she received."

The Armenian issue, he said, was "one example of standing up for the
right thing even when it is not popular".

Jane Haining died for that same principle. She born in Dunscone near
Dumfries in 1897. She worked for 10 years in a thread maker’s in
Paisley, but at ameeting in Glasgow about the Jewish Mission, she
knew instantly: "I have found my life-work."

She was sent to the Church of Scotland mission to the Jews in
Budapest in 1932 and became head of its girls’ school.

Asthe war rumbled on, the majority of girls who went there were
Jewish, some orphaned and destitute, while others, like wealthy
jeweller’s daughter Annette, were sent there to be educated.

In the 1920s, Hungary became the first country in Europe to place a
quota on the number of Jewish pupils at its schools and even those
given a place were treated with contempt.

Of approximately 825,000 Jews living in Hungary in 1941, about 63,000
died or were killed prior to the German occupation of March 1944.

But Jane swam against the tide of hatred and in her school, each girl
was as precious as the next.

Annette said: "In other schools people who were Jewish were not
allowed to mix.

I spent a year in a Lutheran school and felt very excluded from the
social life.

Even the teachers made a distinction.

"But in the Scottish school there was a sense of acceptance. It was
democratic and so egalitarian. There was no snobbery or cliques. The
priority was education.

"It enabled us to shed the great resentment we felt against all
authority, living in this oppressive regime where we met so much
discrimination."

It was not easy for Jewish families to send their children to a
Christian school but though they sang hymns and read the bible, it
was no longer Jane’s priority to convert them.

Instead she created a sanctuary and within its walls the girls found
love, kindness and above all, normality.

Annette was there for three and a half years from the age of 10.

"We all felt that those were the best years of our young lives," she
said. "Jane Haining created a little haven for us.

"The classroom was friendly. Most of the teachers were Hungarian but
the principles were Scottish and the framework under which the
teachers operated was Scottish."

By March 1944, the Germans were on Hungary’s doorstep.

Annette’s was first cousin of the Gabor sisters and her father
Sebastian Tilemann had the largest jewellers in Budapest, placing
them on the Nazis top 10 wanted list.

On March 18th Annette fled with her mother Mary to the Portuguese
embassy and then to Switzerland.

JANE remained at the school despite requests from the church that she
return to Scotland for her own safety.

She told them: "If these children need me in days of sunshine, how
much more do they need me in days of darkness?"

But the darkness of the Nazis invaded her school. They ordered Jane
to sew yellow Stars of David to the clothes of the little girls in
her care. Tears streamed down her face with every stitch.

She incurred further wrath when she disciplined the son-in-law of the
school cook, who was a member of the Nazi party, for eating the
girls’ food.

In May she was arrested by the Gestapo, taken to Fo-utca prison,
where she was charged with working among Jews. Within two weeks she
was transported to Auschwitz with the children who had been in her
care.

She was prisoner 79467 and one of the 12,000 a day who were gassed in
the death chambers. She was only 47.

It was not until the Eighties at a reunion of alumni that Annette
discovered Jane’s fate.

She said: "I was deeply moved. I wasn’t surprised that she acted that
way. She was a woman of deep conscience and commitment to her values
and to the children in her care.

"I don’t think she could understand the extent of the inhumanity and
cruelty."

Annette is now 76, she has two daughters, 18 grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren. She lost her father, her grandparents and most
of her close relatives in the Holocaust.

In 1997, Israel awarded Jane a medal and her place with The Righteous
Among the Nations – the same honour given to Schindler. Her name is
inscribed at Yad Vashem alongside his.

Last year Annette successfully fought to have the school kept open
after it was threatened with closure. It is now a school for disabled
children run by the Hungarian Government.

Annette said: "It is a wonderful place that carries on the legacy of
the Scottish school. There is a spirit that remains."

When Annette organised the caucus in 1983, human rights was still
considered a "flaky issue" in congress.

"It was not considered a serious issue so it was difficult to
convince members to join," she said.

The Human Rights Caucus is active in highlighting abuses in countries
such as Sudan and China.

In 1987, Annette was instrumental in getting the Dalai Lama to visit
the US and in the Nineties, she travelled to Budapest for a memorial
service for Jane and laid a wreath at the school.

Annette said: "It is important that we not only remember the
atrocities, violence, murder and terror of that time, but that we
also consider the sparks of humanity that glowed in the midst of the
darkest of nights."

‘If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they
need me in days of darkness?’

/real-life-stories/2007/10/20/legacy-of-scot-murde red-by-the-nazis-86908-19980979/

The Washington Times
Undermining U.S. abroad

October 20, 2007

Victor Davis Hanson – The president establishes American foreign
policy and is commander in chief. At least that’s what the
Constitution states. Then Congress oversees the president’s policies
by either granting or withholding money to carry them out – in
addition to approving treaties and authorizing war.

Apparently, the Founding Fathers were worried about dozens of renegade
congressional leaders and committees speaking on behalf of the United
States and opportunistically freelancing with foreign leaders.

In our past, self-appointed moralists – from Charles Lindbergh and Joe
Kennedy to Jimmy Carter and Jesse Jackson – have, from time to time,
tried to engage in diplomacy directly contrary to the president’s.

But usually Americans agree to let one elected president and his
secretary of state speak for the United States abroad. Then if they’re
displeased with the results, they can show it at the ballot box every
two years in national or midterm elections.

But recently hundreds in Congress have decided they’re better suited
to handle international affairs than the State Department.

The U.S. Senate late last month passed a resolution urging the de
facto breakup of wartime Iraq into federal enclaves along sectarian
lines – even though this is not the official policy of the Bush
administration, much less the wish of a sovereign elected government
in Baghdad.

That Senate vote only makes it tougher for 160,000 American soldiers
to stabilize a unitary Iraq. And Iraqis I spoke with during my recent
trip to Iraq are confused over why the U.S. Congress would preach to
them how to split apart their own country.

Then, last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a
resolution condemning Turkey for genocide against the Armenian people,
atrocities committed nearly a century ago during the waning years of
the Ottoman Empire.

If the entire House approves the resolution, the enraged Ankara
government could do everything from invade Iraqi Kurdistan – in hot
pursuit of suspected Kurdish guerrillas – to curtail U.S. overflight
privileges and restrict use of American military bases in Turkey.

This new falling-out could interfere with supplying our soldiers in
Iraq. And it complicates myriad issues, from the NATO alliance to
Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

The speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, earlier this year took another
hot-button foreign-policy matter into her own hands when she made a
special trip to reach out to Syria’s strongman, Bashar Assad.

That visit to Damascus was played up in the government-run Syrian
press as proof that ordinary Americans don’t feel Syria is a state
sponsor of terrorism. Never mind that the Assad dictatorship helps
terrorists get into Iraq to kill American soldiers, is suspected of
involvement with the assassinations of journalists and democratic
leaders in Lebanon, and recently had been bombed by the Israelis a
facility reported to contain a partially built Syrian nuclear reactor.

What are we to make of a Congress that now wants to establish rather
than just oversee U.S. foreign policy? Can it act as a foil to the
president and so give our diplomats leverage abroad with wayward
nations: "We suggest you do X, before our volatile Congress demands we
do Y?"

Maybe – but any good is vastly outweighed by the bad. Partisan
politics often drive these anti-administration foreign policies, aimed
at making the president look weak abroad and embarrassed at home.

House representatives too often preach their own district politics,
less so the American people’s interest as a whole. What might ensure
their re-election or win local campaign funds isn’t necessarily good
for the United States and its allies.

And too often we see frustrated senators posture in debate during
televised hearings, trying out for the role of chief executive or
commander in chief. Most could never get elected president – many have
tried – but they seem to enjoy the notion that their own
under-appreciated brilliance and insight should supersede the
collective efforts of the State Department.

So they travel abroad, pass resolutions and pontificate a lot, but
rarely have to clean up the ensuing mess of their own freelancing of
American foreign policy.

Congress should stick to its constitutional mandate and quit the
publicity gestures. If it is unhappy with the ongoing effort to
stabilize a unified Iraq, it should act seriously and vote to cut off
all funds and bring the troops home.

If the House wants to punish Turkey for denying its Ottoman
forefathers engaged in a horrific genocide, then let congressional
members likewise deny funds for our military to stay among such a
genocide-denying amoral host.

If Mrs. Pelosi believes Syria is not a terrorist entity but a country
worth re-engaging diplomatically, let her in mature fashion introduce
legislation that would resume full American financial relations with
our new partner Damascus.

Otherwise, it’s all talk – and dangerous talk at that.

Victor Davis Hanson is a nationally syndicated columnist, a classicist
and a historian at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is
author of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought
the Peloponnesian War."

Source: le?AID=/20071020/COMMENTARY/110200005/home.html&am p;template=nextpage

Reporters without borders (press release), France
Oct 19 2007

Nakhchivan authorities harass opposition journalist’s family

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the constant harassment of
journalist Hakim Eldostu Mehdiyev’s family by local authorities in
the autonomous republic of Nakhchivan since his detention for five
days last month. Mehdiyev is regional correspondent for the
Baku-based opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat.

`Mehdiyev’s relatives have been threatened with reprisals and have
been subjected to repeated intimidation by the security forces,’ the
press freedom organisation said. `We support his appeal to President
Ilham Aliev for guarantees for his and his family’s safety.’

Since his arrest on 23 September, his brother’s tea room has been
demolished and family members has been warned they could be beaten or
kidnapped if they complained to international organisations. Mehdiyev
is meanwhile now banned from leaving Nakhchivan, which is separated
from the rest of Azerbaijan by a strip of Armenian territory.

Exasperated by all the harassment, Mehdiyev has written to President
Aliev and to Nakhchivan’s leaders saying he will be forced to leave
the country and request political asylum abroad if he and his family
are not given guarantees of security.

Mehdiyev’s ordeal began on 22 September, when he was forced into a
car by national security ministry agents and was held all day in a
ministry building where, according to Reporters Without Borders’
sources, he was beaten because of his reports about gas and
electricity problems in the region.

After his release, he only had a few hours to warn his family and try
unsuccessfully to see a doctor about his injuries before a court had
him arrested the next day and sentenced him to 15 days in prison for
`resisting the police at the time of his arrest.’

Mehdiyev was released on 27 September after several international
organisations including Reporters Without Borders interceded on his
behalf. He currently needs treatment for his injuries and is unable
to work.

24076

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
October 19, 2007 Friday

The world still hangs on every U.S. word;

Here’s the question for Americans: Since when is it wrong to speak
out against genocide?

by IRSHAD MANJI
Pg. A23

Now playing on Capitol Hill: a political drama over whether Turkey
deserves denunciation for its mass deportation and slaughter of
Armenians starting in 1915, otherwise known as genocide.

Initiated by the House foreign-affairs committee, this symbolic vote
has sparked more than symbolic anger from the White House – and from
the Turkish government itself. The Bush administration insists that
now is not the time to be offending Turkey, which borders Iraq and
provides the United States with key access routes in its war on
terror.

The timing of this resolution should raise questions, all the more so
because of who initiated it: Democrats. They are the gang for whom
success in today’s Iraq, not slaughter in yesterday’s Turkey, is the
signal issue in America. HBO’s Bill Maher nailed that point when he
quipped, "This is why the voters gave control of the House to the
Democrats. To send a stern message to the Ottoman Empire."

Still, there is at least one key reason to recognize the Armenian
genocide now, and it relates directly to America’s implosion in Iraq:
Democracy has been redefined not just in the Middle East but also in
the United States. These days, American politicians must pay
attention to "voters" who live well beyond their shores.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put it, "Some of what harms our
troops relate to values – Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, torture. Our troops
are well served when we declare who we are as a country, and we
declare it to the rest of the world."

Hers is a subtle argument about the need for the United States to
reclaim the moral high ground on human rights. It might be too subtle
for most Americans, who, let’s face it, have little concern for what
may or may not have happened countless miles away more than three
generations ago.

But Ms. Pelosi’s argument is not meant for Americans. It is intended
for an international audience.

America remains the only country in the world with a universal
constituency. Its domestic politics often has a profound effect in
every corner of the Earth, from determining immigration flows and
investment patterns to handing leaders and their heirs the excuses
they crave to blur the lines between God and government.

The same cannot be said of domestic politics in modern, multicultural
entrepôts such as India, Britain or China. Nor do domestic politics
in feisty, fiery states such as Iran and Israel set precedents for
the rest of us. Not yet anyway.

No wonder so much of the world seethes that only Americans can vote
for the next president of the United States. I hear it from young
Muslims whenever I travel to Europe. And it is not just Muslims who
express a sense of disenfranchisement. Last week in this newspaper,
columnist Jeffrey Simpson suggested that Al Gore would be president
if people outside the United States could cast ballots.

How many countries enjoy a reach so long and far that non-citizens
would care enough to want a say in its leader – or journalists would
care enough to speculate how the rest of the world would vote?

America’s universal constituency is what House Democrats are
acknowledging through a resolution to condemn the Armenian genocide.

Doubtless, I am about to be accused of naiveté. Left-wing critics
will sniff that this condemnation is a pretext to milk campaign
contributions from Jewish Holocaust survivors who, like the Armenian
genocide survivors, are dying off.

Right-wing detractors will sneer that this move is meant to undermine
the war on terror by alienating a crucial ally. Indeed, many House
Democrats have begun wavering on the anti-genocide measure because of
Turkey’s threat to block its borders to U.S. war planners if the vote
passes. By yesterday, it seemed unlikely the vote would happen at
all.

The question for Americans ought to be: Since when is it wrong to
speak out against genocide, however many years have elapsed? People
of good conscience continue raising their voices against slavery in
the United States well after abolition. Are they reckless or sinister
for offending many Americans? Is offence a reason to stop
remembering?

Here is the question for Turks: Why should your history be immune to
America’s judgment when, according to surveys of global attitudes
about the U.S., you as a nation are among the most anti-American
(read: judgmental) in all of the Muslim world?

Irshad Manji, author of
The Trouble with Islam Today and senior fellow with the
European Foundation for
Democracy, is writing a book
about the need for moral courage in an age of self-censorship.

Panorama.am

15:36 19/10/2007

NEW COOPERATION BETWEEN YEREVAN AND MARSEILLES

Today Mayor of Marseilles and Senator Jan-Clod Goden
met with Yerevan Mayor Yervand Zakharyan. The two
signed agreements on bilateral cooperation and
cooperation between Yerevan and other sister cities of
France.
`There is friendship between our cities. This is one
of those exceptional cases when the relations between
our republics have been bright and promising
throughout history,’ Yervand Zakharyan said in his
speech. He also underscored the role of the Armenian
community in Marseilles in the promising relations.

`Our countries are closely cooperating and we have
recognized the Armenian genocide without hesitation.
We are against the entry of Turkey into European
Union. Our countries have always cooperated in
different field and we are sure it will continue like
that,’ mayor of Marseilles said.
The agreements signed envisage cooperation in culture,
sports, health, education, city economy, trade and
some other fields.

Source: Panorama.am