Author: Basmajian Ani

ARMENIAN BANKS ARE ENGAGED IN ROBBERY, MP FROM RPA STATES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 18 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. A number of amendments to the law
"On Youth" were discussed at the last four-day session of National
Assembly.

Their main goal is to provide financial assistance to young
people in issues of promotion of their getting married and rise
of birthrate. Reporting this at the October 18 press conference,
Hamlet Haroutiunian, a member of the NA RPA faction, said that various
proposals and observations were voiced during the discussions, it was
decided to delay adoption of the law by 60 days, for the purpose of
perfecting it.

H. Haroutiunian said that RPA will strive for introducing a clause
into that law, which will permit young, newly formed families to take
mortgage credits at discounted interest rates. Thus, the banks give
apartment credits to ordinary Armenian citizens at 12-14% interest
rate, while they will be given to young people at 6-8% interest
rate. "As early as last year I said in my speeches that Armenian
banks are engaged in robbery," H. Haroutiunian said mentioning that
in Germany, for instance, mortgage interest rate only amounts to 4%,
while Armenian banks have grown this index to tens and "have made
people be dependent on them like slaves."

SPEAKER OF THE US CONGRESS’S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOICES UNCERTAINTY REGARDING ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING SO-CALLED ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 18 2007

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US Congress’s House of Representatives,
voiced her uncertainty in connection with the adoption of the
resolution on recognition of the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’. She
made this statement in 17 October following the refusal of several
member of Congress to support the resolution with threats of
deterioration of the US-Turkish relations, ITAR-TASS reports.

"It is not important if the resolution will be adopted or not and
what measures will be taken, – the future will show how all these
will come to the end," Pelosi said. Earlier, despite George Bush’s
objection, Pelosi highlighted Congress’s support to the resolution
and personally supported its approval. According to Pelosi, passing
the resolution should not bring harms to the relations between the
USA and Turkey because it assesses the actions of Ottoman Empire,
but not the current Turkish Government. Last week the resolution was
approved by the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the US Congress’s
House of Representatives.

In the opposite, the White House considers that this legislative
initiative might essentially damage bilateral relations and harm US
interests in Europe and in the Near East. Earlier Bush Administration
highlighted its intentions to take steps to prevent the anti-Turkish
resolution.

ADVISER TO TURKISH PRIME MINISTER PROPOSES SANCTIONS ON ARMENIA

Lragir
Oct 16 2007
Armenia

Egemen Baghish, adviser to the Turkish prime minister, proposed
applying sanctions on Armenia for supporting the passage of the
resolution by the U.S. House recognizing the Armenian Genocide in
the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey should apply sanctions against Armenia, CNN Turk cited the
adviser to the Turkish prime minister on foreign policies.

TURKEY AND THE U.S DISAGREE ON HISTORY

Malaysia Sun, Malaysia
Oct 16 2007

Turkey has warned Washington of weakened ties if the U.S Congress
approves a resolution that brands as genocide the 1915 killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The resolution has already been passed in the U.S committee and will
possibly be accepted by the assembly of the House of Representatives.

Ankara is a crucial military ally for Washington, which relies on
Turkey as a logistical base for the war in Iraq.

Some analysts believe the vote could weaken Washington’s influence
over Turkey and increase the likelihood of the Turkish army moving
on Kurds in northern Iraq.

Kurdish separatist rebels often use Iraqi territory to stage attacks
into Turkey.

Ankara recalled its ambassador from the U.S last week for
consultations, after the U.S congressional vote, which was condemned
in Turkey.

The non-binding Armenian bill now goes to the floor of the House,
where Democrat leaders say there will be a vote next month.

53.cg5j9c9x&show_article=1

US works on alternative to Turkey supply route to Iraq

Oct 16 02:06 PM US/Eastern

The US military is looking for a second route to supply troops in Iraq
in case Turkey shuts its borders in reprisal for possible adoption of
a resolution on genocide in Armenia, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

"There is planning going on," a Pentagon official said privately.
"It’s just looking at what other options are available because there
are serious operational impacts" if the Turks deny passage of US
military supplies bound for Iraq.

The White House Monday urged Turkey to show "restraint" as Ankara
moved closer to a possible incursion against Kurdish rebels sheltering
in northern Iraq that could further complicate the Iraq war.

Under strong public pressure for the Iraq War, the White House is
concerned a Turkish incursion might upset one of the few areas in Iraq
enjoying relative stability and spread to nearby countries home to
ethnic Kurds.

Ankara’s saber rattling also comes at a time of tense US-Turkish
relations over a pending vote in the House of Representatives for a
resolution calling World War I mass killings of Armenians by Turkey’s
Ottoman Empire a genocide.

Flatly refusing the term and strongly opposed to the US resolution,
Turkey has threatened to withdraw its logistical support for the Iraq
War if US lawmakers approve the measure.

Fearing the loss of Turkey’s Incirclik airbase, which provides a
crucial staging ground for US supplies headed to Iraq and Afghanistan,
the White House has urged House speaker Nancy Pelosi not to bring the
resolution to a vote.

Copyright AFP 2007

FOR MILLER, TURKEY’S VALUE AS ALLY COMES FIRST
Barbara Barrett, Ryan Teague Beckwith and Rob Christensen, Staff Writers

News & Observer, NC
tml
Oct 15 2007

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller voted against the genocide resolution.

Miller is the only member of North Carolina’s congressional delegation
on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which voted last week to
declare the Ottoman-Turkish killings of Armenians in 1915, in which
as many as 1.5 million people died, a "genocide."

Sitting near three survivors of the event, all of them women in their
90s, Miller said he doesn’t think the U.S. has the international
standing to offend an important ally such as Turkey.

Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, told Dome he didn’t think the resolution
would accomplish much.

"I wish we had the standing in the world that if we pass that
resolution, Turkey would stop and examine the history of what happened
and decide whether they should do something to come to terms with
it," Miller said. "But the reality is, in Turkey and the Muslim world
generally, they will simply see the resolution as an insult and will
be angry about it."

After the committee’s vote, Turkey recalled its ambassador for
consultations.

"There is a genocide going on now in Darfur. We need the support
of Turkey and other Muslim countries to try to bring it to an end,"
Miller said.

In the days leading up to the vote, Miller spoke with the Turkish
ambassador and a deputy U.S. secretary of state. He also heard from
members of North Carolina’s Turkish-American community.

Miller said he thinks that Holocaust denial is morally repugnant,
that he was glad Congress apologized for the internment of
Japanese-Americans in World War II and that he voted for a resolution
encouraging Japan to apologize for its treatment of "comfort women"
in the same war.

Still, he said, it’s difficult to know which points in history deserve
modern action.

"Over the course of human history, there’s been remarkable evil,"
he said. "And trying to sort through it all, to acknowledge it all,
I think requires the wisdom of a theologian, not just a politician."

$100,000 into the coffers

State Sen. Janet Cowell says she raised close to $100,000 last week
for her campaign for state treasurer.

The fundraiser was held at the home of Susan and Perry Safran of
Raleigh. Among those attending were former Attorney General Rufus
Edmisten and Jim Goodmon, the chief executive of WRAL-TV.

Cowell is one of several people seeking the Democratic nomination
for treasurer.

The incumbent, Richard Moore, is running for governor.

Competing in a big world

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr warned last week that shifting demographics
could hurt North Carolina business.

At an executive breakfast in Raleigh on Friday, the Winston-Salem
Republican said North Carolina will need to build new roads and
schools and expand its colleges and universities to compete with
China and India.

He noted that California’s decision to cap the number of students in
state-run colleges helped North Carolina’s booming biotech industry
because startup companies couldn’t find the workforce there.

Speaking at the Breakfast Club of the Triangle meeting at the Brier
Creek Country Club, Burr said he didn’t have much to say about the
current political situation in Washington.

"I could sum it up in one word: Nothing," he said.

He said the level of "political divisiveness" is higher than he thought
it could ever be, and he referred to a series of Johnson Automotive
ads that the group watched in which a car salesman, played by a puppet
badger named Grady, harasses customers.

"Now is when you need to badger us," he said.

OVERHEARD

‘I have been to numerous NASCAR races, and the folks who attend
these events certainly do not pose any health hazard to congressional
staffers or anyone else.’

– U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Concord Republican questioning a
recommendation that congressional aides get vaccinations before going
on a fact-finding trip to a NASCAR event in Concord

MCW News, Canada
Oct 13 2007

Turkey, US & Israel Genocide Commission
Editorial

By Gideon Polya
Translation

Carlos Latuff/ MWC NEWS

Ninety years late, the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee voted 27-21 to recognise "the systematic and deliberate
annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide", despite intense
lobbying by Bush, Dr. Rice, the Zionist Lobby, the Turkish
Government. (see: ).

The bipartisan-backed Armenian Genocide resolution calls upon the
President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues
related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in
the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide.

The hope is that this bi-partisan Resolution will pass the House of
Representatives despite the opposition by Bush, Turkish governments
and their supporters.

George Bush and Dr. Rice (aka Dr. Death) are concerned over US-Turkey
relations and because Turkey is a major strategic partner in the Iraq
War. Turkey has denied the Armenian Genocide for 90 years – for a
scholarly condemnation of this denial see the opinion of one of the
World’s top expert on genocide, Australia’s Professor Colin Tatz .

Apartheid Israel also refuse to describe the Armenian Holocaust as an
Armenian Genocide out of concern to not offend Turkey, the only
Middle Eastern country with which it has close, cordial, strategic
relations. Genocidal birds of a feather flock together.

Denial of the Jewish Holocaust (6 million victims) is punishable by
10 years’ imprisonment in Austria and by lengthy prison terms in some
other Western European countries and Israel. France and Belgium have
recently extended holocaust denial criminalization to include denial
of the Armenian Genocide. Indeed Germany has proposed that the EU
criminalize denial and minimization of any recent genocides and
holocausts.

Some people are concerned with possible constraints on free speech
and scholarly research – however I have proposed "no-penalty
criminalization" of genocide denial i.e. the punishment would simply
be the public ignominy from public judicial conviction for the
repugnant crime of genocide denial (see MWC News:
).

Malaysia’s outstanding humanitarian and former prime minister, Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, adopted a similar approach to war crimes and
genocide commission by Bush, Blair and their confrères (such as
Australia’s Bush-ite PM John Howard) at the Kuala Lumpur Initiative
to Criminalise War, organised by the Perdana Global Peace
Organisation and which advocated setting up a War Crimes Tribunal
recognized by and on behalf of the Victims (see: here):

"We should not hang Blair if the tribunal finds him guilty but he
should always carry the label as a war criminal, killer of children,
liar. And so should Bush and the pocket Bush of the bushland of
Australia [referring to Australian PM John Howard]… they should be
literally hounded.

They should have full frontal and profile pictures put up everywhere
as war criminals. And historians should always refer to them as war
criminals in history books… the media is owned and controlled by
warmongers…

We have to build a base for spreading the word, the idea that wars
are crimes against humanity, that those who resort to wars in
furtherance of their ideology or agenda are common criminals and must
be labelled as such and punished …

We are seeing today examples of the form of punishment that can be
meted out. Bush and Blair are now totally reviled and condemned by
the world and by their own people … The tribunal that we set up can
conduct a proper trial even if the accused is not present. A
respectable and totally impartial tribunal applying recognised laws
will surely find its findings respected by the world just as the
world respects the Nobel laureates, for example."

The holocaust committers, genocide committers, and child killers must
be exposed, tried in absentia if necessary and punished, at the very
least by public exposure of their crimes.

It is notable that Bush administration, Turkish and Israeli
Governments are involved in not only Genocide Denial in relation to
the Armenian Genocide but also are involved in the current ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians and Iraqis.

Genocide is defined very precisely by the UN Genocide Convention as
follows,

Article I. The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether
committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under
international law which they undertake to prevent and punish.

Article II. In the present Convention, genocide means any of the
following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing
members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to
another group.

Article III. The following acts shall be punished: a) Genocide; b)
Conspiracy to commit genocide; c) Direct and public incitement to
commit genocide; d) Attempt to commit genocide; e) Complicity in
genocide.

Article IV. Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts
enumerated in Article III shall be punished, whether they are
constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private
individuals.

The US is involved with its allies (notably Turkey, UK, and
Australia) in the violent occupation of Iraq. The post-invasion
excess deaths in Occupied Iraq now total 2.0 million but the overall
excess death toll from 1990-2007 is 3.9 million and there are 4
million Iraqi refugees.

Turkey has been involved in genocidal violence and discrimination
against its Kurdish minority, is party to the US Iraqi Genocide and
is now threatening to bring the carnage of war to relatively peaceful
Northern Iraq.

Israel supports the US "war on terror" that is in horrible reality a
War on Asian Women and Children: the excess deaths in the Bush I and
Bush II Asian Holocaust totals 8 million (see "United State Terror. 8
millions Deaths & Media Holocaust denial" MWC News:
). Israel’s slow
Palestinian Genocide has involved 50,000 Palestinian violent deaths,
post-1967excess deaths total 0.3 million and there are 7 million
refugees. (see "Zionism, Occupation, Palestinian Genocide. "Jerusalem
Madonna". Mother & Child" on MWC News:
).

Armenian Genocide-denying Bush administration, Turkey and Apartheid
Israel are involved in ongoing Genocide. History ignored yields
history repeated. Genocide ignored yields genocide repeated.

Decent folk are obliged to inform everyone they can of atrocities
against humanity and to have no avoidable dealings with those
complicit in the awful crimes of genocide commission and genocide
denial.

Dr Gideon Polya, MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130
works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge
pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant
Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London,
2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality —

;Itemid= 1

Karabakh Open
Oct 13 2007

Karabakh is a major political force for Armenia

The visit of the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan comes
as evidence that Karabakh is not just an important factor for Armenia
but is also becoming a political force. After the meeting with one of
his likely opponents and supporters Vazgen Manukyan Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, one of the likely Armenian presidential candidates,
headed for Stepanakert.

Nobody learned about what the presidents of Armenia and Karabakh had
talked. Most probably, however, they talked not only about the
settlement of Karabakh but also Karabakh’s support for Levon
Ter-Petrosyan in the upcoming Armenian presidential election.
Although the people of Karabakh do not vote in Armenia, their
disposition is important.

No doubt, the Karabakh issue has been discussed. It is obvious that
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s resignation is related to his stance on the
Karabakh issue. The ex-president has not spelled out his stance on
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict in the new geopolitical
setting but it obviously has not changed much since 1996. Levon
Ter-Petrosyan thinks Armenia will not be able to resist to the world
and reach total victory over the Karabakh issue without any
concession. His stance is perhaps closer to that of the international
mediators who point to self-determination of Karabakh within its
pre-war borders, return of refugees and territories around the former
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.

However, despite being realistic, Levon Ter-Petrosyan realizes that
this stance cannot be perceived by the Armenian society, moreover by
Karabakh for which every detail of the Karabakh settlement is a
matter of life and death. Therefore, the ex-president needed to talk
to the president of Karabakh to synchronize their stances.
Unfortunately, it did not become known to public whether they
succeeded or failed.

Karabakh is a major political factor in the sense that the president
and the prime minister of Armenia who is aspiring to presidency come
from Karabakh. They continue to have an important role in the
political life of Karabakh. Moreover, the outcome of elections in
Karabakh also depends on the stance of the Armenian government,
therefore the Karabakh government owes to their Armenian counterparts
in parts.

Over the past decade, the `rule of Karabakhis’ in Armenia has
regularly sparked anti-Karabakh backlash in Armenia. A person who
wants who will be running in the election race with the `Karabakhi’
candidate has two ways – to play on the anti-Karabakh moods of people
or to try to set the Karabakh government against the Armenian
government. It is not known which of these ways Levon Ter-Petrosyan
has chosen, but obviously the factor of Karabakh will be essential in
the upcoming election.

Interestingly, on October 13 another likely presidential candidate,
the Armenian prime minister Serge Sargsyan arrives in Karabakh.

Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2007 Thursday

Armenia hails US lawmakers’ backing of ‘genocide’ bill

by Mariam Harutunian

Armenia on Thursday hailed a controversial vote by a US House of
Representatives committee branding the Ottoman Empire’s World War I
massacre of Armenians as "genocide."

Armenian President Robert Kocharian said: "There is no doubt anywhere
in the world about the events that took place in Turkey in 1915 and
there is a consensual attitude towards those events.

"The fact that Turkey has adopted a position of denial of genocide
does not mean that it can bind other states to deny the historic
truth as well," he said, speaking in Brussels.

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee defied
warnings from President George W. Bush and Turkey, voting Wednesday
in favour of the resolution by 27 votes to 21.

The Turkish government condemned the action and warned against any
move to take it to a full House vote. To do so, it added, would
jeopardise a strategic partnership with an ally and friend, and would
be an "irresponsible attitude."

The resolution says the "genocide" should be acknowledged fully in US
foreign policy towards Turkey, along with "the consequences of the
failure to realise a just resolution."

"We hope that this process will lead to full recognition by the
United States of America of the effect of the Armenian genocide,"
Kocharian said.

He said his country’s relations with Turkey could not be further
worsened by the US vote and he invited Ankara to launch a dialogue.

"We are ready for diplomatic relations without any preconditions and
we are ready to start a very wide dialogue with Turkish partners on
all possible issues of Turkish-Armenia relations," he added.

In Yerevan, parliament speaker Tigran Torosian opened a session
Thursday to warm applause as he thanked the US lawmakers.

"I want, on behalf of all Armenian members of parliament, to express
our gratitude to our American colleagues, who have shown high moral
standards and did not succumb to pressure (from Turkey)," he said.

Arpi Vardanian, a descendant of survivors and the head of the Yerevan
office of the Armenian Assembly of America, called the vote "a major
diplomatic victory."

"Today is a happy day for Armenians all around the world," he said.
"This victory is especially important in view of the unprecedented
pressure and even threats made by Turkey to the American lawmakers."

According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed
from 1915 to 1923 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and
murder.

Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.

The dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between Turkey and
Armenia, which have no diplomatic ties and whose border has remained
closed for more than decade.

Winning international recognition of the killings as genocide has
been a major foreign policy goal of Armenia since gaining its
independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

More than 20 countries have officially recognized the killings as
genocide, including Belgium, Canada, Poland, Russia and Switzerland,
as well as the European parliament.

Armenia’s arch-foe Azerbaijan, a Turkic Muslim country with close
ties to Ankara, echoed Turkey’s condemnation of the vote and also
called on the House to reject the resolution.

"This is very unfortunate and regretful," Azerbaijani foreign
ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim told AFP. "The decision was based
on very narrow domestic political considerations rather than US
national interests and historic facts. … We can only hope the full
House will be more responsible."

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a territorial dispute over the
ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorny Karabakh, which broke away from
Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s.

TURKEY RECALLS AMBASSADOR OVER ARMENIA GENOCIDE DISPUTE

EUX.TV, Netherlands
Oct 12 2007

Eds: Recasts with ambassador’s recall

Istanbul/Washington (dpa) – Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington
Thursday to return home in response to a US congressional resolution
that condemned the World War I-era slaughter of more than 1 million
Armenians as "genocide."

The ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, was being brought back for consultations,
Turkish media reports said, following the vote Wednesday by the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on a non-binding resolution labelling
the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as
genocide. The Turkish embassy in Washington refused to comment on
the reports.

US President George W Bush strongly opposed the measure over worries
it would sour relations with a NATO ally whose friendship is vital
to American foreign policy in the Middle East and the war in Iraq.

Turkey has warned the resolution’s passage would disrupt relations,
and US diplomats were scrambling to contain the fallout. US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice planned phone calls to Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, the State
Department said.

"I expect the secretary to convey in her calls to Turkish authorities
… the regret that the administration has over the passage of this
resolution," spokesman Tom Casey said.

Casey said the recall of Sensoy will not affect the ability of US
officials to convey the Bush administration’s views on the resolution
but that the decision made by Ankara did not come as a surprise.

"The Turkish government has telegraphed for some time, been very vocal
and very public about its concerns about this and has said that they
did intend to react in a fairly forceful way," he said.

Turkey lobbied unsuccessfully against the bill that passed the
committee with a 27 to 21 tally and will now go to the full House
for a final vote, although no date has been scheduled. Bush urged
Congress to abandon the measure hours before it was approved.

Gul said in a statement posted on the embassy’s website that Congress
was using the measure to score political points with constituents at
the cost of good relations with Turkey.

"It’s a pity that some politicians in the United States closed their
ears to calls of common sense," he said.

Rice and other top US officials will continue meeting with members of
Congress to urge them to "defeat this resolution" in the final vote,
Casey said.

"We’re going to do everything we can to ensure that it does not receive
approval by the full House," he said. White House spokeswoman Dana
Perino said the president does not want to see the measure even come
up for a final vote.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned that the genocide
resolution could prompt Turkey to limit its use as a transit point
for US military equipment and supplies into Iraq.

Several members on the committee acknowledged that the resolution
could put the Bush administration in a difficult position with Turkey
but insisted it was essential for the United States to speak out
accurately about acts against humanity.

Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House
who intends bring the measure up for the full vote, rejected the
administration’s argument that the United States cannot afford to
offend Turkey.

"The US and Turkey have a very strong relationship. It is based
on mutual interest," she said. "This isn’t about … the Erdogan
government. This is about the Ottoman Empire."

Bush called the killings one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th
century but said it was up to historical scholarship to determine
whether genocide is the appropriate term, echoing Turkey’s official
position.

Turkey denies that a systematic slaughter of Armenians took place,
saying Armenians and Turks alike were killed in ethnic clashes after
Armenian groups sided with Russia in World War I.

Towards the end of the 19th century, 2.5 Armenians lived within the
Ottoman Empire. During the forced expulsions in 1915 and 1916 alone,
1.5 million Armenians died, according to the Wiesbaden, Germany-based
Centre against forced Expulsions.

Turkey today says only 200,000 Armenians were killed. Journalist
Hrant Dink was assassinated earlier this year for writing that the
mass killings amounted to genocide. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has
encountered legal problems for doing the same.

To date, more than a dozen countries have condemned the killings as
genocide, including France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Turkey
suspended military relations with France at the time and cancelled
some arms deals with France.