Author: Basmajian Ani

IRANIAN PRESIDENT FOR PEACEABLE RESOLUTION OF ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI CONFLICT OVER NAGORNO-KARARBAKH (VIDEO)
corr Trend P.Kesamanki

Trend News Agency
Aug 22 2007
Azerbaijan

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejat is all for a peaceful
resolution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict within the frame of
the law. The Iranian President made this statement at a news conference
in Baku on 22 August for Azerbaijani and Iranian journalists

"Our position on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was
stated openly and yesterday [21 August] I said this to the Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev," Ahmedinejat stressed.

Iran thinks that talks on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict on the Nagorno-Karabakh contributes to its resolution and
provides a basis for the development of cooperation within the frame
of the law.

"We want to see peaceful solution to a conflict between our two
neighbors," the Iranian President said.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia
has occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region
and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories
have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994,
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time
active hostilities ended. The o-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (
Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

LET THE PRIME MINISTER WORK
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.Am
24-08-2007 11:59:07

The Republican Party, more exactly the ruling coalition, has prepared
an excellent gift for Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan, who returns
from holiday.

While the prime minister was resting, the coalition was restless. And
Serge Sargsyan has to find out the reason for this disquiet, otherwise
it may end up in a war inside the coalition, which witnesses said the
guards of the coalition partners Republican Ashot Aghababyan and Gagik
Tsarukyan, Bargavach Hayastan, involved in a street incident threatened
to wage. Many thought they had white fever and Vardan Mamikonyan would
arrive with his horsemen right away. Meanwhile, the clash happened in
reality, and the prime minister must find out the role of Aghababyan
and Tsarukyan, the masters of the bodyguards, in organizing, planning
and launching their fight. Serge Sargsyan also needs to find out why
the bodyguards of the head of the Center community Gagik Beglaryan
beat Ashot Aghababyan and his bodyguards a few days ago, according to
a report of the Haykakan Zhamanak. For instance, were Aghababyan’s
bodyguards beaten because they wanted to protect their boss or was
the boss beaten because he tried to protect his bodyguards? For it
is possible that the incident involving Beglaryan and Aghababyan
caused the incident involving Tsarukyan and Aghababyan. Tsarukyan’s
bodyguards might have thought they could treat Aghababyan and his team
the way they wanted. The reason why they tend to think so might be
found in 2006 when Serge Sargsyan crushed the intra-Republican clan
of Aghababyan and Sahakyan, not permitting Ashot Aghababyan’s nephew
Arman Sahakyan to become the head of Ajapniak community. In addition,
Serge Sargsyan did it demonstratively: first he let him resign from
the post of deputy mayor self-confidently, then state likelihood to
run in the local election, then he did not let him be nominated.

In other words, Serge Sargsyan first "beat" Aghababyan and his petty
clan inside the Republican Party. But since the political party is not
a pack of wolves, like the prime minister had stated with regard to
Sahakyan’s candidacy, it should be made clear whether the "beating"
by the leader of the party signals green light for the others, or
the leader has the right to "beat", meanwhile the others only after
getting the "written" permission of the leader. They beat Aghababyan
or his bodyguards, but the reputation of the Republican Party and
its leader suffers. If Serge Sargsyan is unable to maintain law and
order in the Republican Party and in the relations among the members
of the ruling coalition, how is he going to rule Armenia in such
a complicated region? In other words, the ruling clans ruin Serge
Sargsyan’s political future, creating additional complications for
him. The prime minister either has to settle this problem by punishing
the participants of these scandals and their bosses publicly or he
must show to the public that he knew everything beforehand. In this
case, however, the prime minister’s reputation is endangered as well
because it will not be clear to the public what a political team Serge
Sargsyan is setting up who is the likely presidential candidate. What
a team is it if its members are beating one another? What will they
be doing when in 2008 they will have solved the problem of the right
to beat for the next ten years? In other words, it turns out that
the citizens of the Republic of Armenia have more reasons to worry
than Serge Sargsyan. Serge Sargsyan has only one important problem:
he wants to be president and he does not care that they beat one
another. Therefore, it is probable that after his holiday the prime
minister will not voice his stance on these scandals but he will raise
some major issues, saying that the country is facing major problems
which he deals with while the public troubles him with some secondary
incidents involving oligarchs. Therefore, the public had better leave
the prime minister alone and let him work. Let the public think only.

PROGRAMS ENVISAGED FOR 2007 WILL BE FULLY IMPLEMENTED, HEAD OF TAX SERVICE SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Aug 22, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 22, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to the process of
executing the 2007 state budget and to mechanisms of improving the
tax administration were discussed at the August 22 working meeting
of the Armenian president Robert Kocharian and the head of the State
Tax Service Vahram Barseghian.

The interlocutors also spoke about the tax legislative package
(aimed at continuing the budget growth rates next year as well)
to be submitted to the government and the National Assembly.

The head of the tax service assured the president that the programs
envisaged for 2007 will be fully implemented.

According to a press release submitted to NT by the RA president’s
press service, Robert Kocharian gave instructions concerning the
issues discussed.

ELECTION RESULTS PREDICTABLE

Hayots Ashkharh Daily Newspaper
21 Aug 2007
Armenia

What situation is expected in case Dashnaktsutyun stands for the
Presidential elections with a united candidate?

"I have deep respect for Dashnaktsutyun and approach the statements
of the party leaders with utmost seriousness. They have announced
that they will run for election with a united candidate and I have
no grounds to assume that they have changed their decision.

However, I don’t rule out that certain pre-election developments will
occur in the near future and such developments may introduce certain
corrections in the ARFD tactics.

However, regardless Dashnaktsutyun’s final attitude, the Republican
Party’s ‘reserve’ and our candidate’s investment in the process make
the election results quite predictable for us.

Moreover, in case of any arrangement of powers, the elections will
end in a single stage," GAGIK MINASYAN is convinced.

SOLDIER WHO CROSSED BORDER WILL BE EXCHANGED AND TRIED

KarabakhOpen
21-08-2007 16:15:21

In a news conference today Movses Hakobyan, the NKR minister
of defense, said in answer to the question of the reporter of
karabakh-open.com the soldier who had crossed the border to the
Azerbaijani side will be exchanged and tried. According to him, the
soldier who crossed the border had tried to avoid military service
for several times, and it was an attempt to desert the army.

DEPUTY MINISTER OF JUSTICE NOT TO GO TO EUROPEAN COURT

Panorama.am
16:07 21/08/2007

The authorizations of Alvina Giulumyan, the judge from Armenia in
the European Court of Human Rights, will expire this October. At that
time, the authorities of Armenia must nominate three candidates for
a position of a judge whose candidacies will be discussed at the
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). PACE will select
one judge from each country.

Recently information was disseminated in the media that Deputy Minister
of Justice Gevorg Kostanyan, one of the candidates of Armenia, will
leave for interview to the European Court instead of Alvina Giulumyan.

Kostanyan refuted the information in a conversation with Panorama.am
correspondent. Asked if he considers himself a possible candidate,
Kostanyan said: "No, taking into consideration Alvina Giulumyan’s
authority and preparedness in practice. Besides, she did not make
rough mistakes. It is worth that she continues."

MOSUL CHRISTIANS FIND FAITH TESTED: TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS FOR THE PIOUS
By Sahar Al-Haideri

Boston Herald, MA
Aug 20 2007

MOSUL, Iraq – They have been threatened because of their religious
faith, their distinctive clothing and their success in business. They
have been killed because of a Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet
Mohammad.

Many have sought safety by fleeing to the countryside, north to
Kurdish-controlled territory or abroad to Syria.

They have seen their churches bombed, their clergy murdered and
community members threatened with kidnappings.

The Christians of Mosul, once a substantial and predominantly
middle-class community, have suffered the same fate as most Iraqis.

Christians are hardly the only religious minority under attack, as
witnessed by this week’s coordinating bombings against members of
the Yazidis community, which left more than 250 dead.

But their religious faith has made them especially vulnerable in
a city where the rule of law is non-existent and Islamic militants
intimidate and kill with impunity.

"Life has become difficult in Mosul," said Ilham Sabah, a Christian
attorney who conceals her faith by wearing a veil. "The militants
threaten Christian women; they set them on fire or kill them if they
refuse to wear Islamic dress as Muslim women do.

"We only have one choice, and that is to flee Mosul and the hell
created by the militants," she said.

Mosul has been home to Christians of the Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian
and Catholic churches for more than millennium. Now they are being
driven out.

Christians "are the weakest of the weak," said Joseph Kassab,
executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America, a nonprofit
organization based in Detroit. "The extremists there are highly active
. . . they want to empty Mosul of Iraqi Christians."

There were thought to be between 800,000 and 1 million Christians in
Iraq in 2003. A U.N. report in 2005 found that most lived in Mosul
and surrounding Nineveh province, although many also lived in Baghdad.

By last year, the U.N. reported that 24 percent of Iraqi refugees
living in Syria were Christians.

"Life was better under Saddam," said a 35-year-old Christian
businessman in Mosul who asked not to be identified. "I used to go out
socially and was well respected, but not anymore. In the past, there
was law and order, but now nothing stops the extremists or criminals."

Christian religious services in this city that once boasted 23 churches
have all but stopped. Those intent on continuing to practice their
faith do so in secret.

Many Muslims here say they are outraged by the disappearance of the
city’s long history of religious and ethnic tolerance.

"I and many of my friends and colleagues hurt just as much when
a Christian is murdered as when a Muslim is killed," said Salim
Abdul-Wahad, a Muslim teacher.

Kassab, of the Chaldean Federation, said the lawlessness in Mosul
today makes it hard to know who is responsible for the violence and
even whether Christians are being specifically targeted.

Since the overthrow of Saddam in 2003, the Nineveh Plains, where Mosul
is located, has become something of a refuge for many minorities
fleeing the violence in other parts of the country, including
Assyrians, Turkomen and Shabaks, in addition to Christians and Yazidis.

"The Nineveh Plain is a bit of an oasis in terms of safety, and the
main reason is because the communities really do know each other,"
said Michael Youash, project director for the Washington-based Iraq
Sustainable Democracy Project, an organization that advocates on
behalf of religious minorities in Iraq.

Some fear that the latest U.S. offensive, intended to provide security
in Baghdad and other provinces near the capital, has only served to
drive insurgents, including members of al-Qaeda of Iraq, into more
remote areas, such as those surrounding Mosul.

Unless security can be provided for everyone, many fear the Christians
of Mosul will disappear entirely.

"Most of us have fled abroad, and this is a serious concern,"
said Mosul resident Afram Abdul-Ahad, a Christian who was forced to
shut down his small restaurant. "We’re worried about the future of
Christians in Iraq."

Watertown remembers what the ADL chooses to forget

By Joe Fitzgerald
Boston Herald Columnist
Monday, August 20, 2007 – Updated: 12:16 AM EST

If ever there was an organization unworthy of its heritage, it has
to be the Anti-Defamation League, founded more than 90 years ago to
root out the kind of blind hatred that eventually led to the
Holocaust.

If any governing body has become an embarrassment to its
forebears, it has to be those ADL grand pooh-bahs to whom the deaths
of 1.5 million Armenians is not that big a deal, at least not big
enough to be regarded by them as one of history’s most infamous acts
of genocide.

The cruel irony is inescapable. If any group ought to be sensitive to
the trauma inflicted by revisionists who’d deny the legitimacy of
someone else’s horror, you would think it would be the descendants of
those whose dying plea was, `Never forget!’

Yet the ADL will not acknowledge a genocide took place, which is
why the town fathers of Watertown, home to 8,000 Armenians, chose not
to be honored as one of its No Place For Hate communities. Who can
blame them? As the adage puts it, the friend of my enemy is my enemy.

Faithful Armenians, not unlike faithful Jews, feel an inherent
responsibility to be keepers of a flame, living reminders of real
events and of lives extinguished during the course of those events.

When asked why he relentlessly pursued Nazi war criminals into his
90s, Simon Wiesenthal, who lost 89 relatives to the evils of the Third
Reich, replied, `It’s a debt we, the living, owe to the dead; if we
forget, it will be as if they died again.’

How can the ADL not understand that, especially when personal
testimonies abound?

`I can still see my mother crying,’ Medford’s John Baronian
recalled here two years ago on the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.

`She would try to hide it, but we’d catch her crying all the time,
and whenever she’d try to talk about it she’d break down and cry
again, unable to continue. She could still hear the voices of those
little kids, the sisters and brother I never knew, pleading for
something to eat or drink as they died in her arms out there in the
desert.’

She and John’s father lived in Turkey in a place called Harput.

`He was a farmer,’ Baronian recalled. `Armenians had lived there
for centuries. When the genocide began, the Turks were immediately
brutal. Women were beaten and raped by Turkish soldiers while men
were hanged in the square or shot in the woods, just for being
Armenians. That was all the reason the Turks needed.

`Then came the death march. That’s what we call it, though the
Turks called it a relocation march, which was ridiculous because
thousands were forced into the Der El Zor desert with no food, no
water, no nothing.

`My mother was among them with my sisters, Helen and Azadouhi, and
my brother, Sirak, all under 5. All around her, decent people were
dying needlessly while her own children kept crying from hunger and
thirst until they died, too. My poor mother would hear those cries
every day for the rest of her life.’

By Wiesenthal’s reasoning, the ADL would have them die again,
which is almost unfathomable, given its mission to combat hatred,
particularly anti-Semitism.

`Just before he began slaughtering Jews, Hitler asked, `Who
remembers what happened to the Armenians?’ ‘ Baronian said. `In other
words, people will eventually forget whatever you do. What a
devastating comment. I can assure you, all around the world Armenians
have never forgotten.

`And that’s why I tell the story. God forbid anyone forgets.’

The people of Watertown obviously haven’t forgotten.

Good for them.

Source: ticleid=3D1018030

New Anatolian, Turkey
Aug 18 2007

ABDULLAH GUL : A devout Muslim with a western mind

The New Anatolian / Ankara

18 August 2007

Abdullah Gül (born October 29, 1950) is the deputy prime minister,
foreign minister of Turkey, and presidential candidate.

Born in Kayseri to Ahmet Hamdi, an imam, and Adviye, Gül was brought
up in a conservative family environment. His great-grandfather was an
Arab who immigrated from Siirt to Develi around 1915. Gül was also
called with the name Cumhur by his family.

Gül studied economics at the University of Istanbul and wrote his
dissertation there. During his graduate education, he studied for two
years in London and Exeter. He pursued an academic career after that
and worked at the higher education facilities in Adapazari,
collaborating in the establishment of a department for industrial
engineering and teaching management courses of future Sakarya
University. Between 1983 and 1991, he worked at the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB). In 1991, Gül became a lecturer in
international management.

Gül became acquainted with right-wing politics early during his high
school years. During his university education, he became a member of
Islamist-nationalist Millî Türk Talebe Birligi or National Turkish
Student’s Union in the line of Necip Fazil’s Büyük Dogu (Grand
Orient) current. He was elected a member of the Turkish parliament
for Refah Partisi (RP, "the Welfare Party") from Kayseri in 1991 and
1995.

He was named state minister in the Erbakan government in 1996 but the
government was forced out of office by the military in 1997. The
supreme court closed down the Welfare Party claiming it was Islamic
fundamentalist.

In 1999, he kept his seat as a member of Fazilet Partisi (FP, "the
Virtue Party"), successor to Welfare Party. He felt the Welfare Party
as well as the FP were both archaic and that such conservative
parties needed serious reformation. So along with Recep Tayyip
Erdogan he led the reformation movement within the FP. He challenged
the leadership and at a convention became candidate for chairman. He
lost with a few votes and his challenge shook the foundations of the
Islamic movement. When the FP was closed down by the constitutional
court he and his colleagues founded the Justice and Development (AK)
Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi). The founders of the AK Party
accepted that they came from religious roots but vehemently opposed
their party having a religious agenda. They said the party members
were devout Muslims but the party distanced itself from political
Islam.

Gul was elected again to represent Kayseri, in 2002, and in November
2002 was appointed Prime Minister.

Gül’s first challenge came as prime minister when he had to be
involved in sensitive negotiations with the United States surrounding
any Turkish participation in the Iraq war. A parliamentary motion
allowing U.S. to use Turkish soil against Saddam Hussein and sending
Turkish troops to Iraq was defeated. This was regarded as a major
setback for Gul.

However, after becoming foreign minister in March 2003 he rapidly
found his feet in his new role, becoming the key player not only in
Turkey’s attempts to receive an accession date for the European
Union, but also in its attempts to improve relations with Syria and
maintain its special relationship with the Turkic-speaking countries
of Central Asia and the Caucasus. He also played a key role in
shaping more moderate policies on Cyprus.

On February 6, 2007, Gül flew to the United States to meet with
Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush in order to dissuade a
law from reaching the floor of the US House of Representatives that
would recognize the deaths of Armenians in 1915 as the Armenian
Genocide

Prime Minister Erdogan announced on April 24, 2007 that Gül will be
the Justice and Development Party candidate in the 2007 presidential
election. Previously, there had been speculation that Erdogan himself
would be the party’s candidate, which had provoked substantial
opposition from secularists. Mass rallies were held by the
secularists.

The opposition groups in Parliament effectively blocked Gul’s
election and then cancelled the ballots at the supreme court. Gül
stepped down from candidacy on May 6, 2007. Early elections for July
22 were scheduled.

A few days later, on 11 May when inquired after the amendments to the
Turkish constitution which now allowed the people to elect the
president directly rather than a parliamentary vote, Gül announced
that his candidacy was ongoing despite stating that he had pulled his
candidacy on 6 May.

The amendments did not go into force because President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer wanted a referendum on the issue. The referendum is scheduled
for October 21 so the newly elected Parliament was charged to elect
the new president. If the amendment are approved by the referendum
then the next president will be elected by the people.

The AK Party said it had been denied the right to elect Gul as
president and played this effectively through out the elections
campaign as a gross injustice. The party won a massive landslide in
the elections gaining 46.6 percent of the votes. The party and its
leadership said the nation had not only given it a mandate to run the
country for another five years but also wanted to see Gul as
president.

The party has now decided to officially name Gul as its candidate for
president.

On August 21, 1980, Abdullah Gül married Hayrünnisa Özyurt (b. 1965),
and the couple has three children, two sons named Mehmet Emre and
Ahmet Münir and a daughter named Kübra. He is a dedicated fan of the
football club Besiktas.

VISIT OF GEORGIAN MINISTER OF EDUCATION TO ARMENIA SCHEDULED FOR AUTUMN

Noyan Tapan
Aug 17, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, NOYAN TAPAN. A visit of the Georgian minister of
education to Armenia is scheduled for the autumn, the RA minister
of education and science Levon Mkrtchian stated at the August 17
press conference. According to him, in particular, the issue of
getting permission to use the guidebooks and the whole preparatory
educational package of the RA ministry of education and science in
Armenian schools of Javakhk will be discuused during this visit.

In the minister’s words, the issue of opening an Armenian-Georgian
university in Jaavakhk will also be addressed. He said that at the
time a proposal was made to open a branch of one of the Armenian
universities in Javakhk but the response of the Georgian authorities
was not positive. L. Mkrtchian expressed a hope that this time the
Georgian side has no grounds for rejecting the friendly proposal to
open an Armenian-Georgian university.