Author: Badalian Vardan

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]:
PRESS RELEASE
26-09-2005
Minister Oskanian Receives the “Grosso d’Oro Veneziano” Award in Veneto,
Italy
The Grosso d’Oro Veneziano award was bestowed on Armenia?s Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian by the Masi Foundation of Italy’s Veneto Region, on
September 24. The prize is a special award on an international level for
individuals who have contributed to the cause of peace and brotherhood among
nations. It was conferred on Minister Oskanian for his contribution to
Armenia?s integration into European structures, to the deepening of
Armenia-Italy ties, and for his active involvement in peace talks.
In the 8th century St. George Cathedral in Verona, before several hundred
Italian intellectuals, artists and businessmen, the Masi Foundation held its
25th awards ceremony.
After receiving the award – a sculpture in silver, decorated with grapes as
well as designs from ancient khachkars, and topped with a gold medal- the
Minister spoke about Armenia’s determination to pursue the path of European
integration. He also spoke about traditional Armenian-Italian ties and the
upcoming Italian-Armenian Days in Yerevan.
During the ceremony, other awards were also given to those who protect and
promote Veneto’s historic legacy and cultural values. The Masi Foundation,
in line with its guiding philosophy and with an original policy for
recognizing subtle changes in the world, awarded prizes for excellence in
education, medicine, theater, fashion, as well as in the area of
vinoculture. The Masi Foundation was created and is run by the descendants
of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
The only other recipient of the Grosso d’Oro Veneziano has been Slovenia’s
former President, Milan Kucan.
Below is the text of the Minister’s remarks:
Honorable members of the Board of Directors of the Fondazione Masi,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am privileged to receive this prestigious award, il Grosso d’Oro
Veneziano. This is a special day for me. And this is, of course, a special
place, a special foundation and a special family with a glorious history of
650 years stretching all the way back to one of the greatest poets of all
times, Dante Alighieri.
Dante’s descendants valued their heritage and helped pass on his legacy.
This legacy clearly manifests itself in modern Italy and the Region of
Veneto.
Italy and Veneto also share a legacy with Armenians. There is much symbolism
in the fact that Armenia’s coming back to Europe is being noted and
celebrated here, in Italy.
Armenian-Italian connections are based on rich and ancient traditions. It
was in Italy in 1512, that Hakob Meghapart published the first book ever in
Armenian. The Urbatagirk (or Book of Days) was followed in 1513 with the
first published Armenian calendar. The renowned Briton, Lord Byron, referred
to the Venetian island of San Lazaro as a fortress of Armenian independence,
since the Armenian monks of the Order of Mekhitar had found refuge there in
the early 1700s. For the last three centuries, that haven has turned into a
scientific and cultural locus.
Today, if you ask the Mekhitarist fathers whether they are Venetian, they
will say yes. If you ask them whether they are Armenian, they will say yes.
One can say that they were pioneers in establishing a common European
identity, about which we speak proudly, yet with some apprehension.
If it used to be religion that bound Europe together a millennium ago, it
certainly isn’t any longer. Nor is it the economic advancement that was
specific to Europe two centuries ago. It isn?t ideology either, which was
both adhesive and encumbrance for decades in the last century.
Europe is more than its common history, more than geography, more than a
club for members. All those who’ve said Europe is an idea are right. It is
the idea of a Europe that is the common, if unattainable ideal.
Even those living outside this space have imagined and desired a Europe
which can be addressed collectively, a partner which can be enlisted
conveniently, a Europe to which they yearn to belong.
Armenia is Europe. This is a fact, it’s not a response to a question.
The collapse of the USSR brought us to a point of economic and political
crisis. I remember our discussions in Armenia, before our entry into the
Council of Europe. There were many questions about the choice of path to
take.
Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who
in a period
of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. I’m happy to say I won’t be going
there
because I was among the loudest advocates of the European path.
The choice was clear. Armenians believe in the values of the European
enlightenment, of European civilization. The moral, ethical and existential
choices that bring individuals and societies to select democracy over other
forms of government, rule of law over rule of man, human rights over
selective rights – those choices have been made.
A people who have lived under subjugation, have seen ethnic cleansing and
genocide even before the terms existed, have lived as a minority without
rights, now belong to a world where warring neighbors have found that they
can accept new borders based on realities on the ground and move on.
Europe?s nation-states have found that they can transcend borders, without
diminishing or ignoring cultural spaces, without expecting historical
identities to vanish.
The European Neighborhood Policy brings Armenia back home since Armenia’s
foreign policy priority is the gradual integration of Armenia into European
institutions.
In his presentation, my good friend, Senator Demetro Volcic described in
ponderous detail my country’s foreign policy priorities. I must admit that
he is well aware of them not as a common bystander, but as a caring and
thoughtful professional, who has proven to be instrumental in helping to
integrate Armenia into the modern European architecture.
The double digit GDP growth, which Armenia achieved each of the last five
years, the successful admission into the WTO, the spirit of the free
enterprise, the changing political system and society are promising signs
that we are on the right track. However, it is too early to say that the
European standard is round the corner. It is not as close yet as Europe
itself, as Venice, as Verona, as the shared cultural and religious values of
the past and present.
To highlight and share those values, we will be launching a two-month long
Days of Italy in Armenia, beginning in early October. This project has
received the blessing and patronage of President Ciampi, President Kocharian
and Governor Galan. The centerpiece of these important events will be an
exhibition of the riches from the Isla Armena.
In light of all this, then, the Fondazione Masi has, in bestowing upon me
this award, put a great stamp of approval on Armenia, its foreign policy
directions, its European orientation, its future.
I thank you.

CEC ANNOUNCES COMMUNITY HEAD ELECTION RESULTS IN TWO YEREVAN DISTRICTS
Armenpress
Sept 26, 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Central Election Commission
(CEC) said the incumbent prefect of Kentron district in Yerevan,
Gagik Beglarian, won community head election in Sunday polls receiving
32,000 votes, his contender Ruzan Khachatrian from the opposition
People’s Party received 4,430 votes. The voter turnout was 43 percent.
In another community head election Hovhanes Shahinian won the polls
in Yerevan Arabkir community. He received 18,215 votes. Out of 97,00
eligible voters in Arabkir district only 28,000 went to the polls.

Regnum, Moscow, in Russian
22 Sep 05
AZERBAIJAN TO BEAT ARMENIA BY 2015 – EXPERTS SAY
“Drastic changes will take place in favour of Azerbaijan in its
military confrontation with Armenia in the next few years,” this is
the result of an expert poll carried out by the Armenian Assembly of
America (AAA). According to the Yerevan newspaper Azg, 24 American
and west European experts, former officials and analysts took part in
the poll.
About 33% of the respondents consider that Azerbaijan will be able to
gain a military victory over Armenia by 2015. Only 4% consider that
Armenia will gain a victory by 2015. At the same time, 42% of the
respondents said that if the war starts in the near future, the
Armenian side will win, 29% predicted that both sides will lose and
others found it difficult to give a clear answer.
As for the status of Karabakh, 62% of the respondents think that
there is no point in expecting the status quo to change in the near
future.
International experts also expressed their pessimism about future
relations between the USA and Russia and Iran. At the same time, they
predict the further strengthening of American influence in the
Caucasus. They predict that Turkey will not join the European Union
earlier than 2020-25. Ankara will not recognize the Armenian genocide
and strengthen relations with Washington, although the USA might
recognize the Armenian genocide in the next five years, some of the
experts believe.
Asked who in the region will have the greatest impact on Armenia
(positive or negative), 45% said Azerbaijan, 16% – Turkey, 11% –
Russia, 9% – Georgia, as well as Iran, Iraq, etc.

The Irish Times
September 24, 2005
Court ruling could harm Turkey’s bid to join EU
Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
TURKEY: In a decision widely seen as an attempt to sabotage Turkey’s
European Union hopes, an Istanbul court yesterday forced a major
state university to suspend a three-day conference on the fate of the
Ottoman Empire’s Armenians, for the second time.
Another university has said it would try to host the event.
Due to start today, the meeting would have been the first in the
country’s history to question official claims that it was
inter-ethnic war, not a deliberate state policy of mass murder, that
led to the deaths of up to one million in 1915.
The conference had been planned for this May, but was postponed after
Turkey’s justice minister accused organisers of “stabbing the country
in the back”. “If only I had not dispensed with my right to take them
to trial,” Cemil Cicek added.
Mr Cicek’s message was not lost on the judges of Istanbul’s 4th
Administrative Court.
Late on Thursday they informed Bosporus University the meeting
represented a potential breach of the peace and gave organisers 30
days to provide details about participants, speeches and funding,
information that has been known for months.
The writ is disingenuous, analysts say, and probably
unconstitutional.
Late on Thursday prime minister Tayyip Erdogan angrily described the
court’s decision as “incompatible with democracy, freedom and
modernity.”
With Turkey looking likely to start EU accession proceedings on
October 3rd, analysts describe the court’s involvement as evidence of
the depth of opposition to democratisation in bureaucratic and
judicial circles.
“It’s a copybook example of Turkey’s old political ideology”, said
political analyst Dogu Ergil. “Rather than accepting that the state
serves citizens, some still think everything citizens do must be
permitted by the state.”
Nowhere is the mentality that national interests supersede individual
freedoms clearer than in attitudes towards history.
Outside the gates of Bosporus University on Friday morning a group
opposed to the conference distributed leaflets describing
participants as “agents of imperialism . . . working to destroy the
country’s unity.”
“Turkey has the maturity and will to discuss 1915 democratically,”
said Bedri Baykam, opposition deputy and leader of the Patriotic
Movement. “Unfortunately, the other side has neither the courage nor
the brains.” Another protester dismisses conference participants as
agents of the Armenian genocide lobby.
It is a claim historian Aykut Kansu fiercely denies. His speech, he
points out, was due to be about Turks who saved Armenians.
“History in Turkey is too often seen as a matter of public policy,
adhering to ideology rather than free debate,” he says. “The taboo on
1915 is just an extreme version of that.” He knows all about the
political pressures on Turkish universities.
In July he was sacked from his history chair at a well-respected
private university for openly questioning near-hagiographical
official accounts of Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The conference decision comes less than a month after another court
charged Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s best-known novelist, with “slandering
Turkey’s name.”
Pamuk could face up to three years in prison for telling a Swiss
newspaper this February that “one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds”
had been killed in Turkey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 23 2005
Dr. Berktay: The Participants In The Conference Do Not Have Biased
View
ISTANBUL – A member of the organizing team for the conference titled
”Ottoman Armenians During the Fall of the Empire,” Dr. Halil
Berktay of Sabanci University has indicated today that the
participants in the conference do not have a biased view. ”They
describe themselves as out of the official ideology,” told Dr.
Berktay.
According to Berktay, the Armenian conference has been organized by
Dr. Selim Deringil, Dr. Edhem Eldem, Dr. Caglar Keyder and Dr. Nukhet
Sirman of Bogazici University, Dr. Murat Belge of Bilgi University
and Dr. Cemil Kocak and Dr. Aksin Somel of Sabanci University. The
organization committee has 15 members.
Dr. Berktay referred to a statement made by Turkish Foreign Minister
and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul that ”no one hurts us more
than we do” and remarked that the suspension of the conference has
received protests from many political leaders in Turkey.
Asked if the participants in the conference only support one view,
Dr. Berktay noted that ”such an allegation is inaccurate. The
participants in the conference have termed themselves as representing
notions out of the official ideology. Representation of only one side
of the matter is not the actual case,” commented Dr. Berktay.
Dr. Berktay added that the thesis that the Turks committed a genocide
in 1915 is only mentioned twice in 60 presentations or speeches.
Conferences may of course represent different views and opinions,
stated Dr. Berktay.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Higher Board of Education (YOK) released a
statement today that said ”the Istanbul court’s decision to suspend
the Armenian conference is an intervention in universities’ rights to
possess scientific autonomy. Yesterday’s court decision is one that
threatens Turkey’s national values.”
According to Bogazici and Sabanci Universities’ rectors, lawyers
representing the universities have filed an official objection today
to Istanbul Administrative Court no. 4’s decision that suspended the
conference yesterday.
-CONFERENCE TO BE HELD AT BILGI UNIVERSITY ON SATURDAY & SUNDAY”-
The Armenian conference will take place at Bilgi University in
Istanbul on Saturday and Sunday. ”Bilgi University will hold the
Armenian conference at its campus for the sake of freedom of thought,
research and expression,” said Rector Dr. Aydin Ugur.

Pan Armenian News
RUSSIA’S EXPERIENCE IN PENSION SYSTEM REFORM USEFUL FOR ARMENIA
23.09.2005 08:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with
Chairman of the Russian Pension Fund Gennady Batanov, who is in Yerevan on
working visit, RA President’s press center reported. During the meeting the
parties discussed the issues referring to the reformation of the pension
system. Gennady Batanov stated that the Russian party is ready for active
cooperation and that the signing of a corresponding agreement will become an
advance. Robert Kocharian welcomed the initiative and noted that Russia’s
experience in pension system reform will be useful for Armenia.

Pan Armenian News
FINLAND FOR LAUNCHING EU-TURKEY TALKS
24.09.2005 04:28
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «If Turkey fulfills all preconditions for starting the
talks, the EU should launch these, though the final decision should be made
by the European Commission,» Finnish President Tarja Halonen stated.
«Finland has expressed its support to EU enlargement. Turkey has expressed
desire to join the EU before Finland, however, Finland has already been part
of the EU for 10 years. Thus, the EU-Turkey relations have a long history,»
she said. Answering a question on the introduction of the issue of opening
the Armenian-Turkish border to the talks agenda and establishment of
diplomatic relations, the Finnish President said, «I would not like to speak
of subjects that may appear during the talks in detail. However, we usually
expect the candidate states to comply with the Copenhagen criteria. At the
same time Turkey has to recognize all EU member states. Finally, we hope the
candidate countries will have good neighborly relations with all adjacent
countries. We tell all candidates about it, however there are two parties in
this case: neighborhood always provides for relations between the two
countries,» reported Mediamax. It should be noted that September 26-28 Tarja
Halonen will pay an official visit to Armenia.

Pan Armenian News
TURKEY NEVER MET EU CRITERIA
23.09.2005 08:16
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Representatives of various European political forces, who
took part in the conference organized by the European Armenian Federation
stressed that Turkey has never met the EU criteria let it be the Cypriot
issue or problems with Armenia. The conference entitled “December 2004 –
October 2005. Has Turkey changed?” was held in Brussels on September 22 on
the initiative of the Christian Democratic Party of Germany and the Hay Dat
European Committee. Over 200 participants from 15 EU member-states took part
in this conference. In his speech Vice Speaker of the Armenian National
Assembly Vahan Hovhannisian emphasized that Turkey’s aggressive policy
jeopardizes stability in the South Caucasus. To note, yesterday the
conference participants called upon the EU leaders to exercise vigilance,
Yerkir Online reports.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 23 2005
Turkish PM disappointed over court’s cancellation of Armenian
genocide conference
12:45 | 23/ 09/ 2005

ANKARA, September 23 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Palariya) – Turkish Prime
Minister Erdogan said Friday he regretted an Istanbul court’s
decision to cancel a planned academic conference on the Armenian
genocide.
“I do not welcome the court’s decision. It goes against democratic
and civilized society,” Erdogan told a news conference.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he saw the decision as an
attempt of some political forces to sabotage Ankara’s integration
with Europe.
The European Commission also said it was disappointed with the
decision.
The Shishi district court of Istanbul ruled to cancel the conference
Thursday on security reasons.
Several hundreds of scholars and intellectuals were expected at the
unprecedented conference due to discuss events of 1915 when up to a
million of Armenians have been killed.
Armenians want the killings classified as genocide, but Turkey
refuses, pointing to casualties on both sides.
It is the second time the conference has been called off.

Pan Armenian News
RULER OF SHARJAH CONGRATULATED ARMENIA ON INDEPENDENCE DAY
21.09.2005 04:53
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Next week another UAE delegartion ex expected to visit
Armenia, Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member
and Ruler of Sharjahsatted during today’s press conference. Assessing his
visit as efficient he expressed hope that the delegation members will make a
contribution to the development of bilateral relations. The Ruler of Sharjah
also congratulated Armenia with the Independence Day and wished all the
problems impeding the development of the country be resolved.