Author: Boshkezenian Garik

PanARMENIAN.Net

Hrant Dink Had Presentiment about His Death?
19.01.2007 19:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The first that comes to mind is my
conversations with Hrant Dink. He used to say he is in
danger. One should have big courage to speak in the
Turkish public of topics Dink dared to speak,’
Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the
RA Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan told a
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, Dink’s
assassination has become a logical and tragic result
of the current situation in Turkey. `The wide-scale
Armenian Genocide denial campaign launched by the
Turkish authorities has created an atmosphere of
anti-Armenian psychosis. Hrant Dink fell the first
victim to this policy,’ Safrastayn underscored.

YOU HAD BETTER PRESENT GILDED CELLAR PHONES

A1+
[12:18 pm] 18 January, 2007

Nowadays, gold jewellery is changing its shape and utilization. Today,
water pipes, lavatory pans, door handles and even mobile phones can
be made of gold.

The adherents of the "fashion" assume that their belongings should
not completely be made of gold as it will require with great sums
and will be extra luxury.

They merely have their things gilded to make a deep impression on
their surrounding.

Quite frequently they overlay their water pipes with high-quality
gold – with "tchervonets".

This "art" doesn’t seem to be innovation in Armenia as there are
already services offering gilding. They claim that they have already
had enough customers and have never spoiled their belongings.

They also maintain that via their services they prolong the durability
of the product.

Customers are to pay 60 thousand AMD in case they want their gilded
cellar phone to serve for two years and have a one-year guarantee.

It turns out that the gold plated phones have their advantages as
well; they serve the owner longer as the antennas of the gilded phones
begin working better.

What factors is this phenomenon determined by? Nobody can answer for
sure. Maybe the glided phones deem themselves elitist like the owners?

BECAUSE OF INCONSEQUENT POLICY, ARMENIA IS GRADUALLY TURNED INTO MARSHLAND, CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT UNION CHAIRMAN STATES

Noyan Tapan
Jan 18 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Because of inconsequent policy of the
RA authorities, Armenia is gradually being turned into a marshland,
remained out of the geopolitical developments. Hayk Babukhanian,
the Chairman of the Constitutional Right Union party expressed such
a confidence at the January 18 meeting with journalists.

In his words, neighboring Azerbaijan gradually gets bigger role and
weight in the international policy, and Armenia is just "obliged to
reply Baku-Jeyhan," the one that Azerbaijan became for the West the
main player in the region.

In H.Babukhanian’s words, the CRU worked out a program in the basis of
which the new, Iran-Armenia-Russia, way of transfer of power-generating
materials is put. He expressed a hope that the program will allow
Armenia to get serious geopolitical weight. H.Babukhanian stated that
according to another initiative of the CRU, the problem of opening of
roads must be solved. In his words, until Georgia decides to open or
not the Abkhazian part of the railway, Armenia can undertake opening
of the Astrakhan-Iran-Armenia road with its strategic partner Russia.

In H.Babukhanian’s words, the authorities of Armenia do not do
enough work in the direction of the Karabakh conflict settlement as
well. According to his observation, the Armenian yeilds in the sense
of both propaganda and lobbying being implemented abroad.

DOMESTIC PROBLEMS SOLUTION TO HAVE GREATER IMPACT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH THAN ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER OPENING

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Jan 15 2007

YEREVAN, January 15. /ARKA/. Domestic problems solution will have
greater impact on economic growth than Armenian-Turkish border opening,
Kiro Manoyan, director ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s Hay Dat, said Saturday
in Yerevan at a two-day conference focused on economic and social
consequences of possible Armenian-Turkish border opening.

"Corruption elimination and shadow economy reduction will be rather
effective for economic growth than Armenian-Turkish border opening",
he said.

Manoyan said that Armenia has sufficient capacity to ensure economic
achievements. That is why he finds it wrong to put great emphasis on
border opening.

Besides, he said, there is no need to persuade Armenia to open the
border. "It seems the conference organizers aimed to convince Armenia
of the use of solving this problem. Turkey, not Armenia should be
persuaded", he said.

The conference was organized by Armenian International Policy Research
Group – AIPRG – and sponsored by USAID, Eurasia Foundation and British
Embassy in Armenia.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993.

RETURN OF ARMENIANS TO BAKU IMPOSSIBLE

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2007 18:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Suggestions that Armenian refugees should return to
Baku are criminal, rector of the Yerevan State Linguistic University
Suren Zolyan told a news conference in Yerevan. In his words, those
who make such calls are criminals. "Return of Armenians to Baku is
impossible. This subject is beyond discussion," he said.

As for the return of Azeri refugees, Suren Zolyan laid the blame
on the Azeri authorities noting that "this republic forced innocent
people abandon their homes."

"Armenian refugees did not receive from the Azeri authorities any
compensation for the lost property.

However, the Armenian government has fulfilled all property commitments
to the Azeri refugees," Zolyan said, reports newsarmenia.ru.

According to the data furnished by public organizations, presently
the number of refugees from Azerbaijan makes 235 thousand.

PanARMENIAN.Net

EU not Ready to Accept Turkey as Full Member
11.01.2007 15:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Joseph Daul, whose group has 277 seats in the
732-seat EU assembly, said he is against Turkey’s membership, further
undermining Ankara’s bid to join the 27-nation bloc. Joseph Daul, a
French farmer-turned-politician, was narrowly elected chairman of the
conservative European People’s Party on Tuesday, replacing German
lawmaker Hans-Gert Poettering, who becomes president of the European
Parliament next week.

Joseph Daul said Turkey is not ready to join the EU, and the European
Union itself is not ready to accept Turkey. "I’m in favor of a
privileged partnership on a very high level. If this, in the future,
leads to full membership, why not, but at present I’m against Turkey
in the European Union," Daul told reporters.

Panorama.am

19:50 11/01/2007

OPPOSITION IS ONLY DREAMING, HHK THINKS

`Any political force may become an opposition. We
should not speak about the opposition with disgust,’
Galust Sahakyan, Armenian Republican Party (HHK)
parliamentary block leader, said.

In his words, both the opposition and authorities have
great role in any country but here the opposition is
only dreaming without engaging in political activity,
he said.

He also said all he had heard from the opposition were
calls to oust the government and come to power. He is
sure no single opposition force can gather masses on
its own efforts alone.

Sahakyan wished the opposition were a balanced force
whereas he thinks Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnakcutiun) is, in fact, balanced.

Source: Panorama.am

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
Email: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE
January 12, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
(202) 775-1918

REPRESENTATIVES PALLONE AND WEINER SPEAK OUT
AGAINST THE HOAGLAND NOMINATION

— Oppose Sending an Armenian Genocide Denier
as the Next U.S. Ambassador to Armenia

WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
and New York Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) today sharply
criticized the White House’s decision to resubmit the nomination of
Richard Hoagland as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, in the face of
bipartisan Congressional opposition and Armenian American outrage
over his denial of the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

Congressman Pallone’s remarks on the House floor and Congressman
Weiner’s letter to President Bush come a day after Senator Bob
Menendez (D-NJ) announced that he has, once again, placed a "hold"
blocking the Hoagland nomination’s approval by the U.S. Senate.
Last year, concerns regarding the Hoagland nomination and the
firing of former Ambassador John Evans over his public recognition
of the Armenian Genocide were raised by more than half of the
members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and over sixty
U.S. Representatives.

In a January 11th letter, Congressman Weiner wrote to the President
that he was "deeply disappointed that you chose to re-nominate
Richard Hoagland this week to serve as United States Ambassador to
Armenia, despite the fact that 97 percent of Armenian Americans
oppose the Hoagland nomination. His denial of the Armenian
Genocide makes him unfit to represent American interests in
Yerevan."

The Empire State legislator, a leading advocate of Armenian
American issues, added that, "your Administration has repeatedly
failed to recognize the Genocide. Ambassador-designate Hoagland
has taken a step back even from your regrettable policy by actively
denying the Genocide. In a July 14, 2006 [response] to Senator
Barbara Boxer, Mr. Hoagland indicated that the Armenian Genocide
does not meet the State Department’s definition because the Ottoman
Turks did not express a ‘specific intent to destroy, in whole or in
substantial part, the group as such.’"

Commenting on the Hoagland re-nomination coming on the heels of the
controversial recall of the former Ambassador to Armenia, John
Evans, Congressman Weiner noted that this action "raises serious
questions about this Administration’s support of the Armenian
community. Ambassador Evans’ only offense was correctly referring
to the Genocide as ‘the first genocide of the 20th Century.’ This
is an admirable admission of the painfully obvious, not a firing
offense. Replacing Ambassador Evans with a Genocide denier would
do serious harm, especially after many Members of the House and
Senate opposed Mr. Hoagland’s original nomination last August. It
is due time that the Administration reverse its policy and
recognize the Armenian Genocide."

In a January 12th speech delivered on the floor of the House of
Representatives, Congressman Pallone voiced his opposition to the
Hoagland nomination and expressed his thanks to his New Jersey
colleague, Senator Bob Menendez, for blocking Hoagland’s approval
by the Senate.

The New Jersey Congressman noted his surprise that the President
had resubmitted Hoagland as a candidate for this post, after the
Senate blocked his initial nomination last year during the recently
concluded 109th Congress. He noted that, "there is no way, in my
opinion, that Mr. Hoagland is going to be confirmed because of his
policy, and because of the fact that he continues to articulate a
policy of denial… It would make no sense to send an Ambassador
from this country to Armenia who cannot articulate the genocide.
So I simply ask that this nomination be opposed again in the Senate
and that the Bush Administration withdraw the nomination."

In remarks addressed to his House colleagues and the C-SPAN
audience, Congressman Pallone stressed that, "the Bush
Administration continues to play word games by not calling evil by
its proper name in this case. Instead they refer to the mass
killings of 1.5 million Armenians as tragic events. That term
should not be substituted for genocide. The two words are simply
not synonymous. There are historical documents that show that the
genocide cannot be refuted but somehow the Bush Administration
continues to ignore the truth in fear of offending the Turkish
government." He added that, "I don’t think that our nation’s
response to genocide should be denigrated to a level acceptable to
the Turkish government and it’s about time that this Administration
started dictating a policy for Americans, not for a foreign
government like Turkey. This lack of honesty, in my opinion, by
the Bush Administration is simply not acceptable. The American
people and this Congress deserve a full and truthful account of the
role of the Turkish government in denying the Armenian genocide."

TWO BILLS ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT US CONGRESS AND NORTH DAKOTA
By Aghavni Haroutiunian

AZG Armenian Daily
11/01/2007

The bill on Recognition of the Armenian Genocide of April 24 will
be submitted to the consideration of the legis;ative bodies of the
North Dakota, USA. In particular, the draft law stated that in 1915,
the Turkish authorities were not only killing the Armenians, but also
destroying the Armenian churches, schools, libraries, pieces of art,
cultural monuments, i.e. they tried to destroy a civilization that
lasted for over three tousand years. In case, the legislative bodies
of the North Dakota recognize the Armenian Genocide, the number of
states that did so will amount to over 40.

At the same time, Adam Schiff, member of the Commission for Armenian
Issues at the US Congress, is going to submit a formula on the Armenian
Genocide issue to the Congress. The formula will be submitted to the
House of Representatives.

M. BRYZA: CONNECTION BETWEEN TURKEY AND GEORGIA MORE EXPEDIENT THROUGH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.01.2007 13:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ I am against the perception, that the United States
opposes to the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway project after
president George Bush signed the law, which bans to finance that
project," stated Matthew Bryza , the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State and OSCE MG American Co-Chair. In his words, the United States
has always supported projects aimed at strengthening transportation
ties.

"We are trying to develop projects, I am repeating, all the projects,
which include all the states along East-West corridor. Of course,
we would like the railway, which connects Turkey with Baku, to pass
through Armenia, since it reflects our policy. Second, from economic
point of view it is more expedient to connect Turkey and Georgia
through Armenian territory.

But we cannot make decisions on that issue. Investors themselves
push forward investment plans, which are more profitable for them. If
Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia want to construct a railway, of course,
we cannot object. But we do not particularly support that project. We
hope that in near future we will see such a transportation scheme,
which includes all the countries of the region," said Bryza, APA
reports.