Author: Badalian Vardan

ESTONIAN, TURKISH MINISTERS VIEW EU DECISION TO SUSPEND TALKS

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Dec 6 2006

Tallinn, 6 December: "Decision of the EU Commission to partially
suspend talks with Turkey under eight chapter headings is excessive.

Only three of them are related to Customs Union," said Estonian
Foreign Minister Urmas Paet on Wednesday [6 December].

The Turkish state minister and chief negotiator for EU talks,
Ali Babacan, and Estonian Foreign Minister Paet held a joint news
conference following their meeting in Tallinn.

Replying to a question, Paet said Estonia advocated Turkey’s EU
membership bid and indicated that "commission’s decision to link
provisional closing of other negotiating chapters to Cyprus is not
right. This will have a negative impact on relations with Turkey."

Indicating that EU’s enlargement should include Turkey, Paet
underscored that "this will add a cultural richness to us".

On the other hand, Babacan emphasized that Estonia supported Turkey’s
membership to the EU and indicated that Turkey and NATO member Estonia
were allies.

Responding to a question about Cyprus, Babacan said Cyprus question
should not hinder Turkish-EU relations. He said although Turkish
Cypriot party accepted the UN plan, it was again the Turkish Cypriot
party that is punished.

Babacan underscored that the EU did not fulfil its commitment to end
the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot party, adding that unilateral step
would not be taken on resolution of the Cyprus question. He said Turkey
could accept opening of ports in parallel to removal of the blockade.

[Passage omitted]

Asked about the so-called Armenian genocide, Babacan said it was the
duty of the historians to investigate the matter, indicating that
Turkey was ready for any research that would be carried out.

"Turkey has asked Armenian administration to establish a
joint commission to investigate the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations. Researchers that will be assigned by the UN and the EU
could also take place in this research," he noted.

ARMENIA FORMS NATIONAL SECURITY SYSTEM AS CSTO MEMBER

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Dec 5 2006

YEREVAN, December 4. /ARKA/. Armenia is a member of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and forms its national security
system within the CSTO, RA Prime-Minister Andranik Margaryan stated
in his interview to the "Komersant" newspaper.

He pointed out that Armenia considers the relations with NATO an
important component of its policy of European integration.

"Interests of regional security imply cooperation with NATO, and
Armenia will continue implementing joint projects. We intend to
radically improve our cooperation with NATO," Margaryan said.

According to him, Armenia consistently supports the development of
regional cooperation under the "Partnership for peace" program and
NATO’s related steps.

The Individual Partnership Program has played the key role in the
NATO-Armenia relations since 2004. The Program covers all possible
cooperation spheres and is an effective mechanism for further
development of the cooperation, Margaryan said.

As to the possibility of NATO establishing a foothold in the South
Caucasus, Margaryan pointed out that it is up to any sovereign state
to join an international organization. "In the context, we understand
Georgia’s desire to join NATO. It is important to prevent the formation
of new dividing lines in our restless region with quite a number of
unsettled problems," Margaryan said.

AZERI MINISTRY CONDEMNS KARABAKH’S PLAN TO HOLD REFERENDUM

Turan News Agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 2 2006

Baku, 2 December: The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry released today a
statement on the Karabakh separatists’ plan to hold a "constitutional
referendum" in the Armenian-occupied Nagornyy Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan on 10 December.

These actions are violating the Azerbaijani Constitution and
international legal norms and creating obstacles to the peace
process. The so-called "referendum" will have no legal consequences
and its organizers will not be able to mislead the international
community, the document said.

The adoption of any constitutional document about self-determination
of Nagornyy Karabakh region’s population is possible through the
peace process with the full, equal and direct participation of the
region’s Armenian and Azerbaijani populations in it.

Azerbaijan will never recognize such illegal acts based on the wrong
practice of "a fait accompli" which contradicts the efforts to achieve
lasting peace and stability in the region, the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry said in its statement.

IF TURKEY RECOGNISES THE VENDEE GENOCIDE IN FRANCE

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 2 2006

* France Warned Turks Could Scrutinize their History

France, which is preparing to pass a law to penalize those who deny
the alleged Armenian genocide, received a historical warning from its
own public that it should not history like Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s
Germany, and Mao’s China and leave history to historians.

Historian Henri Amouroux, a member of the prestigious Institut de
France spoke out against the political move to penalize the denial
of the alleged Armenian genocide and mentioned the 1792-1794 Vendee
massacres.

In his article in Le Figaro, Amouroux asked what would happen if the
Turks recognized the Vendee genocide. He said that the French would
certainly respond that this was none of their business and they should
first look at their own past.

Stating this would be a "reasonable" decision, the French historian
wrote it was unacceptable for the Turks to attempt to ban a denied
but apologized for historical issue freely discussed in France.

Amouroux later recalled the terrible massacres in Vendee conducted
by the Republican Army and said no law in France bans discussing or
denying the Vendee genocide.

"The task of the politicians is not to impose their own realities,
let us leave history to time," Amouroux said. The French historian
reiterated the historical manipulations in Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s
Germany and Mao’s China and warned French politicians not to make
the same mistake.

Amouroux said he thinks his country’s legislators "do not intend to
imitate the shame of those making up an official history."

The 1792-1794 Vendee incidents are one of the taboo issues of France’s
history.

People working on farms in several regions in Western France revolted
against the Republican government’s practices to defend their freedom,
church, and king.

Angry at the revolt, Paris initiated a terrible massacre in Vendee.

About 380,000 of the 900,000 people living in Vendee were murdered
in the 1790s, General Hoche informed.

The methods of the Republican army, which including strangling,
burning, and drowning, still spark reactions.

Several French historians regard the incidents as genocide whereas
the state rejects it.

0

SOCIETY FAILS TO SOLVE ITS PROBLEMS, SOCIOLOGIST SAYS

Panorama.am
19:18 01/12/06

In the course of the last 10 years Armenia could solve her problems as
a state but not as a society, Ludmila Harutunyan, head of sociology
department at Yerevan State University and leader of Dignity party,
said at the National Press Club. In the words of the expert, the
society failed to put the state under its command and make the state
take it into account.

On the contrary, the society brings victims for the solution of state
problems, Harutunyan said, pointing out to Karabakh conflict."The
society failed to mobilize its member for the solution of important
problems.

Without that a country, cannot be called democratic," Harutunyan
said. In the opinion of the sociologist, the state as well the
electorate and the ideologists are equally to be blamed for
that.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenia’s Joining GUAM Not Even Discussed
01.12.2006 14:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When commenting on the hearsay of
Armenia’s possible joining the GUAM Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian said that Yerevan has no
intention to join the organization. "We do not even
discuss the issue. The GUAM advocates an ideology that
conflicts with Armenia’s policy. The activities of
this organization hamper Armenia’s development," the
RA FM told a news conference in Yerevan today.

When touching upon the Armenian-Russian relations,
specifically of the killing of 6 Armenians in Russia
in 2006 Minister Oskanian said this fact did not tell
on the relations between the two states. "Murders do
not influence on our relations but they pose new
problems," he said.

1dec01,1,5371804.story?coll=3Dla-headlines-busines s-invest

Investor may have dumped GM stake
Kirk Kerkorian sells a second block of shares. Some speculate he has shed
his entire holding.
By John O’Dell
Times Staff Writer

December 1, 2006

Investor Kirk Kerkorian on Thursday appeared to be cashing in his
chips and exiting his high-stakes poker game with General Motors
Corp. after 19 months.

The Beverly Hills billionaire and casino mogul, who at one point this
year owned 9.9% of GM and had his own representative on the
automaker’s board, disclosed Thursday that he had agreed to sell a
second block of 14 million shares, reducing his stake to 4.95% after a
14-million-share sale Nov. 22.

But there was speculation late Thursday that Kerkorian’s investment
company, Tracinda Corp., had dumped the rest of its holding in a
third, unreported sale. A spokeswoman for Tracinda and Kerkorian said
neither the investor nor his company would comment.

Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst John Murphy said a block of 28 million GM
shares, equivalent to Tracinda’s remaining holding, was sold in a
midafternoon transaction managed by Bank of America Corp. The selling
price, Murphy wrote in a note to investors, was $29.25 a share.

If Tracinda was the seller of the stock that traded late Thursday, the
deal would have given the firm a loss of about $10 million on all 56
million shares, not counting any dividends.

But Kerkorian, who paid an average of $30.24 a share for his GM
holdings- almost $1.7 billion in all – would appear to be getting out
with asmall profit if he has sold only half his holding.

The sale of Tracinda’s second block of 14 million shares is set to
close today at $28.75 apiece; the initial block was sold at $33 a
share. Together, the two sales gave Kerkorian a gross profit of $1.27
a share, or $17.78 million.

Tracinda was required to report the first two sales to regulators
because of the size of its stake, but once its holding fell below 5%,
it would not have had to disclose information about any further sales.

On Thursday, GM shares fell 27 cents to $29.23.

The day’s news led some analysts to speculate that Kerkorian has
pulled out completely after GM’s board rebuffed his push for the
company to enter a three-way alliance with French automaker Renault
and its Japanese partner,Nissan Motor Co.

The board’s vote to support Chairman Rick Wagoner’s position that GM
didn’t need such an alliance to return its ailing North American
automotive operations to profitability told Kerkorian "that his
strategy wouldn’t allow him to do what he wanted," said AMR Research
auto analyst Kevin Reale.

Kerkorian advisor Jerome York quit GM’s board in October in a move
triggered by his fellow directors’ decision to end the alliance
talks. That initially led some analysts to wonder whether Kerkorian,
backed by York, might launch a proxy battle to gain control of the
board and fire Wagoner. But since Tracinda started selling shares,
that talk has dwindled.

"He pulled his levers and not much happened. So why stick around?"
asked analyst Ken Elias, an Arizona-based partner at automotive
research firm Maryann Keller & Associates.

"It appears to me he is exiting," said auto analyst Shelly Lombard of
bond research firm Gimme Credit in New York. "Falling below 5%, if he
still hasany stock, certainly reduces his leverage."

Lombard said she believed that by maintaining a large stake, Kerkorian
"helped keep GM’s management on its toes, so I hate to see him go."

But that’s not a universal sentiment. "He was a major distraction,"
Burnham Securities analyst David Healy said. "I hope he’s all the way
out so people can get back to worrying about what’s best for GM and
not what’s best for Kirk Kerkorian."

If the 28 million shares sold late Thursday were not Tracinda’s,
Kerkorian would remain GM’s largest individual shareholder but would
rank fifth overall. When he held his 9.9% stake, Kerkorian was the
second-largest shareholder.

Separately Thursday, GM said it had completed the $14.1-billion sale
of a 51% stake in its profit-making General Motors Acceptance
Corp. finance unit to an investment group led by Cerberus Capital
Management.

The sale provides GM with cash to help pay for job cuts, plant
closings and development of new models on which it is pinning its
turnaround hopes.

The Detroit automaker will receive $7.4 billion in cash from the
purchasers, plus a $2.7-billion distribution from GMAC this year and
$4 billion more in the next three years.

[email protected]

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Dec 1 2006

Russian Prime Minister begins talks with Armenia

Source: Trend
Author: Trend

01.12.2006

(Itar-Tass) – – A visit of Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
will become a milestone in the development of ties between Russia and
Armenia, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said opening talks
with his Armenian counterpart, reports Trend.

`I’m pleased with the opportunity to discuss issues of
Russian-Armenian cooperation,’ Fradkov said. `I know that the chief
aim of your visit is participate in the closing ceremony of the Year
of Armenia in Russia due to held in St. Petersburg. In Moscow, You
also have a saturated programme.’

Fradkov offered to discuss topical problems focussing `first of all
on trade and economic ties.’

For his part, Andranik Margaryan expressed confidence that `the Year
of Armenia has promoted the intensification of the political and
economic dialogue and made it possible to expand bilateral
interaction.’

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Father Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

THE CATHOLICOSATE OF CILICIA PARTICIPATES IN THE 5TH EXHIBITION OF CHRISTIAN
MEDIA

The International Catholic Media Union and the Middle East Council of
Churches (MECC) organized the presentation of a book entitled "Christianity:
A history in the Middle East" in the "Mar Elias" church on November 25. The
event was organized on the occasion of the fifth exhibition of Christian
Media.

Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian (Primate of the Diocese of Tehran), who is one
of the editors of the new book, attended the event on behalf of the
Catholicosate of Cilicia.

The event’s purpose was to present the content of the book to the public and
inform people about the four families of Christianity, the religion’s
origins, history and culture in the Middle East.

Archbishop Sarkissian spoke about the contribution of His Holiness Aram I to
the book with an excellent article of scientific depth.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

ARMENIA RUMINATES OVER NATO MEMBERSHIP
By Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan for IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK
Nov 29 2006

Yerevan seeks to build better relations with Brussels, while not
offending Moscow.

Armenian politicians say that the issue of their country joining NATO
is currently not on the agenda – but they say so far less categorically
than just a few years ago. Relations with the North Atlantic alliance
are deepening and Moscow is no longer Yerevan’s only strategic ally.

Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian told the Rose Roth NATO
parliamentary conference in Yerevan last year that the alliance could
play an important role in providing security in the Caucasus. Defense
minister Serzh Sarkisian was more cautious but said that relations
with the USA and NATO as well as with Russia and Armenia’s membership
of the Collective Security Pact of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) were the basis of its security.

"Basically last year was a breakthrough," Aris Ghazinian, an expert
with the Caucasus analytical centre in Yerevan, told IWPR. "Two
high-ranking officials made statements that from now on Armenia sees
two vectors when it comes to security issues."

Another leading official, the then parliamentary speaker Artur
Baghdasarian, went further in April this year when he told the German
newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, "the future of Armenia is the EU
and NATO" and "Russia should not stand in our way towards Europe."

Two days later, President Robert Kocharian corrected his colleague,
saying that Armenia had no intention to join NATO. Baghdasarian
said that he viewed it as a long-term prospect. Not long afterwards,
he resigned and went into opposition.

Public opinion is also shifting in favor of NATO. An opinion poll
conducted in Armenia in August showed that 42 percent of Armenians
favored joining the alliance and the number of strong opponents was
a mere nine percent.

Last year, Armenia and NATO agreed an Individual Partnership Agreement,
or IPAP, under which they agreed to work together to forge a "Strategy
of National Security and a Military Doctrine." This is the basis for
a program of reform of the armed forces of Armenia up until 2015.

This irritated some politicians in Russia, which was presented with
a finished document, despite regarding itself as Armenia’s chief
military ally – and the only country to have its troops stationed on
Armenian territory.

"Russia’s attitude toward cooperation between Armenia and NATO is
one of jealousy," said Ghazinian. "In NATO, the South Caucasus is
perceived as a single whole, despite an individual approach to each
separate country. And the basic feeling of jealousy is linked to the
fact that NATO perceives the region as a single whole."

Under one of Armenia’s commitments in IPAP, an Information Centre on
NATO opened its doors in Yerevan on 13 November. David Alaverdian,
who initiated the project, said that its aim was not for Armenia to
join NATO, but to inform Armenians about the alliance and the benefits
of cooperation with it.

"It is no secret that very many people in Armenia continue to perceive
NATO through the prism of the Cold War," Alaverdian told IWPR.

Many Armenian experts welcome the IPAP on the grounds that it demands
serious reforms of Armenia’s armed forces.

"The IPAP foresees the forging of closer links between the army and
society and the introduction of a mechanism of public control over the
armed forces," said Tevan Poghosian, executive director of the Armenian
Atlantic Association. "As a result of these reforms, the Armenian army
will grow stronger as the public’s trust in our armed forces grows."

Poghosian also noted that Azerbaijan – with whom Armenia is in dispute
over Nagorny Karabakh – had its own IPAP and reform program.

"Today we could say that a parallel process is taking place in
Armenia and Azerbaijan," he said. "I think that it will be extremely
beneficial for NATO to have a situation in which the armed forces
of Armenia and Azerbaijan become more predictable for the alliance
and will operate on the basis of similar standards. In the future,
it could provide the opportunity for collaboration between the armies
of Armenia and Azerbaijan, for example in dealing with the aftermath
of natural disasters."

However, the Armenian political elite is still treading a fine line
in its public comments over cooperation with NATO.

Last year, defense minister – and leading presidential contender in
2008 – Serzh Sarkisian said that Armenia’s armed forces aspired to
reach "international standards" – a phrase that commentators suggested
was carefully chosen to avoid specific mention of NATO.

Sarkisian went out of his way this week to say that there should be
no contradiction between Armenia’s membership of the Moscow-led CIS
Collective Security Pact and good relations with NATO.

"We should understand that military and political blocs are formed
for the sake of something, not in opposition to something," said
Sarkisian. He went on, "The agreement on the Collective Security
Pact was signed not against NATO, but to protect the security of the
countries that are part of it."

This message was repeated by Kurt Volker, the US principal deputy
assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, in a recent
conversation with Armenian journalists.

Other politicians are worried about the implications of closer
relations with NATO, when Turkey, its historical foe, is a member of
the alliance.

"NATO cannot guarantee the security of Armenia, as long as Turkey is a
member of the alliance, with whom Armenia has no diplomatic relations,"
said former prime minister and defense minister Vazgen Manukian.

In any event, the tone of the conversation about Armenia and NATO
has changed, with NATO no longer being perceived as merely a hostile
bloc and relations with the alliance now being a subject of pragmatic
discussion.

Oskanian told IWPR that future plans with regard to NATO depended to
a large degree on developments in the rest of the Caucasus.

"It is quite possible that Georgia will really join NATO within the
next five or six years," he said. "Azerbaijan is not yet talking
about NATO membership. As for Armenia, processes are underway which
we can’t stop. It’s hard to say what the next step will be. I think
that a lot will depend on the time frame of Georgia joining NATO. In
any case there is still time."