Author: Chakrian Hovsep

36 ARMENIAN CITIES TO HAVE 13-HOUR WATER SUPPLY A DAY IN LATE 2008
Author: Tonoyan Susanna

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 8 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. By late 2008, 36 Armenian cities,
including Sevan, Dilijan, Ashtarak, Charentsavan, Tsakhkadzor, Aparan
and Gavar will have a 13-hour water supply a day.

The director of Armwatercanal company Patrick Loren said at the
October 8 press conference that Saur company (France) – the manager
of Armwatercanal has assumed this obligation. According to him,
these cities will be provided with 24-hour water supply no earlier
than in 2013.

P. Loren said that water supply improvement work is now underway in
the indicated cities. Particularly, the 2-hour water supply will be
increased to 8-10 hours in Sevan by the end of this year, and two
water treatment stations will be put into operation in Dilijan.

Measures against illegal water connections are being taken in parallel.

In the words of P. Loren, the World Bank provided a 25 million-dollar
credit for improvement of the system, 15 million dollars of which
is considered as an investment, while the remaining sum has been
allocated for administrative expenditures. The Asian Bank intends to
provide another 40 million dollars. The French manager has allocated
only small sums from its own resources: last year, small programs
of 150 million drams (about 44 thousand dollars) were implemented,
and programs of 200 million drams have been implemented this year.

P. Loren noted that in addition to the indicated cities, 286 villages
(where commercal losses make up 80%) are serviced by their company.

According to him, the current tariff of 140 drams is quite low. The
company has already submitted a bid for raising the tariff by 30%
to the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission and the bid has been
rejected. Nevertheless, in his words, the company will insist on
its proposal.

It was pointed out that the payment collection level has increased
and now makes 70% or 200 million drams a month. The company has no
debts but its bills receivable amount to about 10 billion drams.

ISRAELI PRESIDENT PERES RECEIVES TURKISH FM BABACAN

Turkish Press
Oct 8 2007

JERUSALEM – Israeli President Shimon Peres received Turkish Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Babacan is currently in Israel within the scope of his Middle East
tour.

Minister Babacan invited Peres to Turkey on behalf of Turkish President
Abdullah Gul.

Babacan said that he is hoping to find an explanation for the operation
of Israeli warplanes within Syrian airspace on September 6th.

Upon a question about Turkey`s role in Israeli-Syrian peace,
Babacan said that Turkey has a close relationship with Israel and
other regional countries. He noted that dialogue and development of
relations will serve for peace.

When asked what Turkey expects from Israel over Anti Defamation
League`s (ADL) change of stance and its statements regarding Armenian
allegations on 1915 incidents, Babacan said, "Turkey opened its
archives for researchers to reveal the tragedy happened during the
World War I. However, Armenian side has not done the same thing yet."

"Turkey wants this issue to be solved through historians not votes
of parliamentarians. A joint commission shall work on it; and then
we are ready to accept the outcome of its research," Babacan stressed.

Noting that the statements of ADL created a very risky situation,
Babacan warned that these statements and its outcomes may deteriorate
Turkey`s relations with the United States as well as Israel.

On the same question, Peres said that ADL is an independent
institution. He added that Israel supports the view that the issue
should be solved through historians not politicians. He said that
Israel`s views did not change.

Babacan will meet Israeli Parliament Speaker Dalia Itzik and Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni today.

INSULT TO HISTORY, FREE SPEECH

San Antonio Express-News
October 6, 2007 Saturday

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is taking a wise, if preliminary,
step in seeking to amend Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.

The article, aptly criticized as a hindrance to free speech, makes
it illegal to "insult Turkishness."

Often, that perceived insult comes in the form of mentioning one
of the country’s most sensitive historical moments: the 1915 mass
killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces that many consider the first
systematic genocide in modern times.

Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk, novelist Elif Shafak and
newspaper editor Hrant Dink were all charged or tried under the code
for talking or writing — sometimes fictionally — about the highly
controversial historic episode.

Dink, an Armenian Turk, was shot to death in January outside the
offices of Agos, the bilingual newspaper he ran.

Turkey has been struggling to overcome a sorry record of human rights
abuses as it seeks to gain entry into the European Union.

Although Gul, elected in August, cannot change policy on his own,
his widely reported support for addressing Article 301 is a step in
the right direction for Turkey.

ARMENIANS LOVE BOB MENENDEZ
By Herb Jackson

NorthJersey.com, NJ
Oct 7 2007

The Democratic senator from New Jersey was honored last weekend as
"Man of the Year" by the Armenian National Committee of America at
a dinner in Los Angeles.

The honor comes after Menendez put a "hold" on Senate consideration
of the Bush administration’s nominee to be ambassador to Armenia
last year. Under questioning from Menendez at a committee hearing,
the nominee, Richard Hoagland, would not say whether Armenians had
been the targets of genocide early in the 20th century. Bush withdrew
Hoagland’s nomination in August.

PanARMENIAN.Net

H.Res.106 passage will make Jewish population target of criticism in Turkey
06.10.2007 15:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in
the U.S. Congress will irreparably damage the image of the United
States and make the Jewish population a target of criticism in Turkey,
Foreign Minister and Chief EU Negotiator Ali Babacan has said.

"If it is passed, relations with the United States will undoubtedly be
affected very negatively," Babacan said while en route to Turkey from
a visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) on Thursday
evening. "It will further damage the U.S. image in Turkey. We, as the
government, can’t prevent it no matter what we do."

`Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against Turks,’ he said. `We
have told them that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a
road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the
Jewish people out of this.’

Babacan said there was a `problem of empathy’ that prevents Western
countries from understanding why the issue is a sensitive matter for
Turkey. `They do not understand that this is execution without
trial. They do not understand that 1915 is not a very old date and
that they accuse the grandfathers of dozens of people in Turkey,’ he
said, Zaman reports.

MORE THAN 7 THOUSAND SUBMIT COMPLAINT LETTERS TO MINISTRY OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Panorama.am
14:41 04/10/2007

Ministry of employment and social issues has received 7062 letters
from citizens as of October 1, 2007. The ministry informs that 7037
of them are application-complaints, 25- suggestions. Some 1285 of
them were on pensions, 840- health and 212- finance.

In the course of ten years, the ministry has received 61 applications
on legislative matters, 145 on employment and salary and 3841 on
social assistance.

Some 678 applications have been on different topics.

According to the same source, 136 application-complaints are under
supervision.

Major role play issues on the process of paying the allowances, on
compensations against deposits made in Soviet banks and on requests
for financial assistance.

TER-PETROSIAN SAID TO HOLD RALLIES
By Astghik Bedevian and Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 4 2007

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian will hold one and possibly
more rallies in Yerevan before finally deciding whether to stand
in next year’s presidential election, a former comrade-in-arms said
on Thursday.

"Not one but two or probably three rallies are planned," said Rafael
Ghazarian, an elderly academic who was, along with Ter-Petrosian, one
of the members of the Karabakh Committee that led the 1988 movement
for Nagorno-Karabakh’s unification with Armenia.

"Until he meets and addresses the masses and hears their reaction,
he won’t make a decision. He will try to talk to the popular masses.

Unfortunately, the only means [of struggle] is rallies because they
won’t let him talk on any TV channel," he told RFE/RL, adding that
the rallies will be held in late October or early November.

Ghazarian said Ter-Petrosian made while paying a surprise visit to his
Yerevan home the previous night. It was the first face-to-face meeting
between the two prominent men in many years. Like several other members
of the Karabakh Committee, Ghazarian fell out with Ter-Petrosian and
became a vocal opponent of Armenia’s former leadership in the early
1990s, accusing it of reversing democratic reforms and tolerating
government corruption.

Ghazarian, who is now seriously ill, was clearly moved by
Ter-Petrosian’s visit. "I am pleased with that," he said. "The country
is in a critical situation. We must forget mutual offenses, mutual
accusations. In that sense, Levon is in a more difficult position
because I have for years been his bitter critic."

"He had to forgive and get over that. And this is what I think he did,"
added Ghazarian.

Ending his nearly decade-long silence with a speech on September 21,
Ter-Petrosian condemned Armenia’s current leadership in unusually
strong terms and called for its ouster. He accused the authorities
of rigging elections, breaking laws, restricting civil liberties and
extorting bribes from businessmen.

President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian have
rejected the accusations. Former Ter-Petrosian associates like
Ghazarian have also scoffed at the high-profile speech, arguing that
he ex-president was dogged by similar accusations during his 1990-1998
rule and showed no remorse for his administration’s mistakes.

"I think that he does not deny there were such mistakes," said
Ghazarian. Asked whether Ter-Petrosian is ready to publicly acknowledge
them, he replied, "As far as I understood, he is going to do that."

Ter-Petrosian similarly took many observers and politicians by surprise
when he met last Saturday top leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a pro-Kocharian party which he had banned
in 1994. The talks were construed as a further indication that he is
leaning towards a presidential run.

Ter-Petrosian aides insisted on Thursday that he has still not made a
decision. Aleksandr Arzumanian, who had served as foreign minister in
the Ter-Petrosian administration, argued that he has yet to complete
his consultations with various political groups and nationwide meetings
with supporters. The 62-year-old ex-president visited the eastern
Gegharkunik region over the weekend and is due in the southeastern
Syunik province later this week.

"His concern is to change this situation," Arzumanian told RFE/RL.

"As he said, we need a single [opposition presidential] candidate to
be able to confront this regime."

Arzumanian also ruled out the possibility of Ter-Petrosian meeting
Kocharian or Sarkisian. "No discussions are possible with those
responsible for this situation," he said.

IRAN-ARMENIA KEEN ON STRONG TIES

Press TV, Iran
Oct 4 2007

Iran’s Foreign Minister has held talks with his Armenian counterpart
on the sidelines of the 62nd United Nations General Assembly Summit.

Manouchehr Mottaki and Vartan Oskanian discussed the expansion of
bilateral ties, the recent developments in the south Caucasus Region,
and the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline project.

The two countries’ presidents launched the 141-kilometer-long pipeline
project in March. The Iranian section runs from Tabriz to Iran-Armenia
border and the Armenian section runs from Meghri region to Sardarian.

The preliminary estimates shows that between USD 90m to USD100m has
been allocated to the construction work in Armenia and about USD120m
has been allocated to the pipeline construction activities in Iran.

DRAFT LAW ON SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BE BROUGHT TO A VOTE IN COMMITTEE OF US CONGRESS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 3 2007

Draft law on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide will
be brought to a vote in foreign affairs committee of House of
Representatives on October 10, APA’s US bureau reports.

Draft law is supported by Congressmen Adam Schiff, George Radanovich
and others and if it is asserted it will be submitted to House of
Representatives. 226 members of lower chamber of the Congress stated
that they will support draft law on the so-called Armenian genocide.

IN NEW YORK, BABACAN AND CANADIAN FM TALK TURKEY’S EU BID AND BILATERAL TIES

Turkish Press
Turkiye
Oct 2 2007

In the US to attend the UN General Assembly in New York, Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan over the weekend met with his Canadian
counterpart Maxime Bernier. The two discussed a number of topics,
including Turkey’s European Union membership bid and relations between
the two countries. During their meeting, Babacan said that Ankara
was uncomfortable with Canada’s stance on the so-called Armenian
genocide. In related news, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
is due to arrive in Ankara on Friday to pay an official visit.