Author: Chalian Meline

PROTEST ACTION IN TBILISI MAY TURN INDEFINITE

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.11.2007 18:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The duration of the rally organized by the Georgian
unified opposition may be indefinite, if the authorities refuse to
open dialogue, the opposition staff said. "We will wait till 6 p.m. We
drew over 100 thousand people into the street and this is the best
proof that the nation doesn’t agree with the leadership’s policy,"
said Giorgi Khaindrava, one of the opposition leaders.

Shota Rustaveli Avenue is crowded. It’s impossible to estimate the
exact number of protesters, as people continue to come. The main
demand of the opposition is pre-term parliamentary elections.

Georgian parliament speaker, Nino Burjanadze is holding consultations
with parliamentary majority.

Givi Targamadze, chairman of the committee on defense and security,
said if the situation in Georgia was like that in Ukraine, President
Saakashvili would make a similar decision. "President should know
better. But the opinions of the President and opposition differ,"
he said.

Georgian ex-President Eduard Shevarnadze called on the authorities to
seek for compromise. "Compromise should be found anyway. Bloodshed
is inadmissible. It can provoke a civil war. The government should
demonstrate patience and flexibility," he said, Novosti Georgia
reports.

Eduard Shevarnadze sent in his resignation as result of the Rose
Revolution in 2003.

LOGGING IS PROHIBITED IN NKR

KarabakhOpen
02-11-2007 10:33:07

Yesterday Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan held a meeting of government
on forestry. The government decided to reorganize Artsakh Forest
CJSC into a non-profit organization, which will deal with forest
preservation and engineering. The organization will not do economic
activities any more. The government also affirmed the new order of
issuing forest logging license.

The prime minister voiced concern about illegal logging and instructed
the relevant agencies to make pro-active efforts for the prevention
of illegal logging. Logging will be prohibited, especially in forest
situated close to settlements. Wrongdoers will be punished severely,
the department of information and public relations of the NKR
Government reports.

IT IS UNPREDICTABLE THEREFORE WE NEED TO BE READY FOR ANYTHING

KarabakhOpen
31-10-2007 19:21:19

I think the escalation of tensions around our region has geopolitical
reasons, said Gagik Petrosyan, member of the Board of the Azat Hayrenik
Party, in an interview with Karabakh-Open.com.

"First and foremost, it is control over regions of carbohydrates and
the routes of transportation of carbohydrates. Secondly, the nuclear
program of Iran which I think should be aimed at peaceful development
of atom. Thirdly, it is the wish to keep the U.S. troops in the region
and increase the contingent. Fourthly, it is an effort to create
a Kurdish state in the territories of Iran, Turkey and Syria which
will close the issue of the Armenian and Turkish border forever and
will become a precondition for Iran’s involvement in war. Finally,
it is shift of the focus and concentration of world powers from other
regions to this," Gagik Petrosyan says.

"Unfortunately, I have to note that the activity about the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. House, the support of the Jewish
organizations of the U.S. relate to the developments in the region.

In this context I do not rule out a war, an unfair resolution of the
issue, deployment of the NATO troops in Azerbaijan, a flow of refugees
from Iran.

It is unpredictable therefore we need to be ready for anything,"
Gagik Petrosyan says.

TER-PETROSIAN: IS ARMENIA READY FOR A COMEBACK?
Marianna Grigoryan

EurasiaNet, NY
Oct 30 2007

Both in public and in private, one question has dominated conversations
in Armenia over the past month: Will Levon Ter-Petrosian’s return to
politics prove a true comeback?

While Ter-Petrosian’s chances for success in next year’s presidential
elections remain uncertain, an upsurge of popular interest in the
62-year-old ex-president and support for his reelection campaign
suggest that Armenia’s political field is changing fast.

"He is the most pivotal statesman and politician in Armenia’s political
life and has no competitors in this sense," argued political analyst
Suren Sureniants, a member of the political council of the opposition
Republic (Hanrapetutiun) Party.

Charisma, intellect and hands-on experience are the attributes used to
tout Ter-Petrosian, yet no opinion polls have been taken on how voters
compare these attributes with those of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian,
the government’s projected presidential candidate. Aharon Adibekian,
the head of the independent polling center Sociometer, said that a
survey run in January 2007 gave the former president a "rather low"
assessment, but added that "everything is still ahead and we cannot
draw a conclusion yet." Polls on the question are expected "in the
near future," he said.

For now, though, the lack of hard data to back up their hopes for
a Ter-Petrosian win does not disturb the opposition. Reactions to
Ter-Petrosian’s candidacy may vary, commented Sureniants, but, for
the opposition, the ex-president’s return to politics "is perhaps an
exclusive chance to get noticed."

The October 26 demonstration at which Ter-Petrosian announced his
candidacy arguably marked the beginning of a new period for the
opposition, elaborated one rank-and-file supporter. "I think that was
an historical moment," translator Hakob Mkrtchian said. "We have waited
long for him to return to politics. I think his statement opened a new
page in Armenia’s dull political life." Sixty-year-old doctor Laura
Harutiunian agreed. With a candidate that has "the respect of many
intellectuals," she said, voters can "finally make a choice." [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"I think that a new opposition movement has been formed and
consolidated around Levon Ter-Petrosian and, if it takes more actions
in the future, it will convince many to follow," said pro-opposition
columnist Tigran Paskevichian.

A first step should be deciding on a response to what the opposition
terms a "news blockade" by public television and other television
stations against stories about Ter-Petrosian’s campaign and the
October 26 rally, Paskevichian said.

Many supporters agree. A report by public television about the
demonstration showed the square in downtown Yerevan where thousands had
gathered to hear Ter-Petrosian speak as "half-empty," related teacher
Narine Hakobian, who attended the rally. "The report alternated with
black-and-white footage showing ‘what terrible years we had’ under the
first president. What is being done by the authorities is not honest,
I think."

One public television employee has dismissed the criticism. "And
why should public TV show what you want? Our camera showed what was
taking place," asserted Haroutiun Haroutiunian, director of Armenian
Public Television’s Haylur news program.

Political analyst Alexander Iskandarian, however, contends that
a television blockade will have little effect on Ter-Petrosian’s
campaign.

"If the authorities try their chances with television broadcasts,
which is not ruled out, then the struggle will pass to the streets.

…. The field of struggle will be through public rallies," he said.

"And in that field, Ter-Petrosian feels quite confident, as he is an
experienced public figure. "

However, political analyst Aris Ghazinian argues that other images
could well tarnish that of Ter-Petrosian as the crowd-pleasing leader
of Armenia’s Soviet-era nationalist movement.

"Ter-Petrosian’s tactic was like the tactic followed by the leader
of Soviet Armenia, Karen Demirchian. He also stayed in voluntary
retirement for 10 years and it was during that period that his image
became legendary and he turned into an epic national hero," Ghazinian
said. "But, unlike Demirchian, Ter-Petrosian does not have the same
resource of nostalgia, the memories of the secure … peaceful and
satisfied Soviet past."

For many voters, other analysts agree, Ter-Petrosian’s rule from 1991
to 1998 is identified with the simultaneous crises of war, economic
depression and electricity shortages — a combination that brought
the newly independent state to the brink of collapse. Pro-government
media has been touting roughly the same line for the past month, with
regular television programs and pro-government newspaper commentaries
reexamining the difficulties of the early post-Soviet period.

"Why do I need Ter-Petrosian’s return [to power]?" asked Yerevan taxi
driver Artush Mkrtchian. "Are we so satisfied with our life today
that we want to return to the dark and cold years?"

Attacking the government will do little to change that impression,
argues parliamentarian Armen Ashotian of the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia. "We don’t see Levon Ter-Petrosian as a new fresh force and,
in fact, there is nothing new in what he says."

As have other pro-government lawmakers, Ashotian expressed "full
confidence" in Prime Minister Sarkisian’s ability to prevail at
the polls.

To political analyst Iskandarian, though, Sarkisian and Ter-Petrosian
are evenly matched. "The struggle will be not only between the
two ideologies, between the two figures, but between two methods of
struggle," he said. "What is important is which of the two the public
will believe."

Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan is a deputy editor for the
independent ArmeniaNow weekly in Yerevan.

ALIYEV, SARKOZY TO DISCUSS KARABAKH ISSUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.10.2007 16:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ By invitation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will pay a formal visit to France
in mid-November.

The heads of state are expected to discuss energy issues, the Karabakh
peaceful process and EU-South Caucasus cooperation, Day.az reports.

It will be Aliyev’s first visit to France after Sarkozy was elected
President.

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN: REVEALING OCTOBER 27 CASE IS THE IMPORTANT DUTY OF FUTURE PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 27 2007

The monolithic pyramid of the criminal corrupt regime of Armenia
would not be built without the murder of Karen Demirchyan and Vazgen
Sargsyan on October 27, stated the first president of Armenia Levon
Ter-Petrosyan during the rally on the eve of the eighth anniversary
of October 27. According to him, this "petrifying event" has not
been exposed fully. Levon Ter-Petrosyan told about October 27 and
the events that followed. According to him, high-ranking officials of
the army had phoned him on October 28 and invited to a consultation
of the army leadership and political forces. "I refused and told
my interlocutors the army should not interfere with politics and
the internal affairs of the country, your mission is different, the
security of the borders of Armenia and prevention of threats to the
country," Levon Ter-Petrosyan says. He says afterwards he appealed
to the society to come together around President Robert Kocharyan.

"After that Robert Kocharyan phoned me and thanked me. If was my
first and last talk with Kocharyan after the change of government. My
concern at that moment was not to support the president but to prevent
chaos and aggressive aims of Azerbaijan. It is not a secret that
the success of the Armenian side in the war was greatly thanks to
chaos and anarchism in the periods when power passed from Mutalibov
to Elchibay, and from Elchibay to Aliyev. So, Azerbaijan might have
considered using this situation in Armenia," Levon Ter-Petrosyan says.

Afterwards he presented the process that followed October 27. Levon
Ter-Petrosyan mentioned the beginning of the investigation, when
Robert Kocharyan interfered with the investigation and removed
prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan, and did not allow him to report to the
National Assembly, dismissed Prosecutor General Boris Nazaryan and
Prime Minister Aram Sargsyan. "Everywhere, in case of such crimes, the
public opinion usually suspects the government. Hence, the president
should have been interested in removing suspicions from him. If he
had no other motivation, he should have given absolute freedom to the
judicial and investigation bodies and guarantee the transparency of
the trial. However, the opposite happened," Levon Ter-Petrosyan says.

According to him, October 27 will remain the disgrace of the Armenian
state which will be partly washed away in case of revelation of the
case. "Therefore, the resolution of this problem will become one of the
main duties of the future president of Armenia," Levon Ter-Petrosyan
says, adding that if Serge Sargsyan is elected president, "the case
will be dead".

ARMENIAN GROUPS SLAM UNIVERSITY FOR HONORING AHMADINEJAD
Ben Harris

JTA Wire Service
Baltimore Jewish Times, MD
Oct 29 2007

Armenian Americans slammed the decision by a university in the Armenian
capital of Yerevan to honor Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad during a state visit to Armenia last week was presented
with a gold medal and an honorary doctorate Monday from Yerevan
State University.

An editorial in the Armenian weekly, the house organ of the Armenian
National Committee of America, condemned the university, noting that
Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier who has disregarded historical
research.

"The university’s decision to bestow an honorary doctorate is simply
unacceptable," the editorial said. "We are surprised that as the
officials in charge of the alma mater of a nation that rose from
the ashes of another genocide, they did not take this fact into
consideration before deciding to award the honorary degree."

Ahmadinejad’s visit came as Armenian Americans and their supporters
continued to press for a resolution in Congress recognizing the World
War I-era killings of Armenians by Turkey as genocide.

Part of their campaign has focused on the Anti-Defamation League,
which initially refused to use the word genocide to describe the
killings but backtracked amid opposition from its leadership in the
Boston area — home to one of the highest concentrations of Armenians
in the country. The ADL called the massacre of Armenians "tantamount
to genocide."

Despite the shift the ADL, along with other major U.S. Jewish groups,
continue to oppose a congressional resolution out of concern for its
impact on Turkish ties with Israel and the United States.

Consequently, the Armenian activists’ campaign against the ADL has
not eased.

A Web site, No Place For Denial, continues to accuse the ADL of
genocide denial, alleging that its statements on the subject have
been ambiguous, a charge the ADL denies. The continuing momentum has
led several communities in the Boston area to end their partnerships
with a highly regarded anti-bigotry program sponsored by the ADL.

Dikran Kaligian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of
America’s Eastern Region, rejected the suggestion to mount a similar
campaign against Yerevan State University, asserting that such a
comparison was "apples and oranges."

The proper analogue to the ADL, Kaligian said, is not Yerevan State
but ANCA, which is the largest Armenian grass-roots organization in
the United States. The organization is an affiliate of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, an international political party founded
in 1890.

Kaligian said ANCA has never taken an ambiguous position on the
Holocaust. The ADL, by contrast, has endorsed a proposal for Armenia
and Turkey to form a joint commission to arrive at a resolution of
the issue, a step Armenians adamantly reject.

"The ANCA has never called for further study of the Holocaust,"
Kaligian said. "That’s the analogy you have to make, and I think
we’ve been very clear on it."

Both Kaligian and Sevag Arzoumanian, who runs No Place for Denial,
agree that it was appropriate for Ahmadinejad to be invited to Armenia,
a landlocked country that depends on good relations with its neighbors
for trade and energy. But they said bestowing an academic honor was
one step too far.

In an e-mail to JTA, Arzoumanian wrote, "How can Yerevan State
University give an academic degree, however symbolic, to someone
who takes the intellectually dishonest position that there needs
to be further research and academic conferences to determine if the
Holocaust occurred? What were they thinking? I think the YSU made a
terrible error of judgment, both academically and morally."

16.stm

TODAY PRIME MINISTER TO MEET NIKOLA SARKOZI IN PARIS

Panorama.am
17:54 26/10/2007

Today Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan will meet with French President
Nikola Sarkozi. As government information and public relations
department informs, the prime minister started his second day of the
official visit to France with a meeting with Serzh Churuk, chairman
of the administrative board of "Alcatel" company.

The two discussed the company’s work in Armenia. The sides shared
the same opinion that the company can have larger place in different
spheres of the Armenian economy. Serzh Churuk has expressed readiness
to be more goal-oriented in investments in Armenia and to come up
with new initiatives and programs.

On the same day, mid day, on October 25, the prime minister met with
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. The French prime minister
praised the Armenian-French friendly relations assessing them as
"bright" especially in political, cultural and local self-government
levels.

The prime ministers of both countries spoke also about Caucasian
regional stability, NKR conflict settlement within the framework of
OSCE Minsk Group. They also talked about the presidential elections
in Armenia and other issues of mutual interest. During the meeting,
the Armenian prime minister invited his French counterpart to visit
Armenia, which Francois Fillon accepted with delight.

TURKS’ ANTI-TERROR PROTESTS TURN VIOLENT IN BELGIUM

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Oct 26 2007

100 detained Belgian police have detained more than 100 youths
after clashes between Turkish protesters and the authorities left 10
policemen injured. Fighting broke out in several neighborhoods of the
capital on Wednesday after police tried to contain a demonstration
protesting recent attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) in Turkey. "More than 100 people were detained and some of them
were arrested for serious infractions," police spokesman David Yansenne
told the RTBF network. "Ten policemen were injured," he said. It was
unclear how many protesters were hurt in the clashes. Police used water
cannons and batons to confront hundreds of youths. The violence was
linked to the situation in Turkey. Leaders there Wednesday discussed
a possible military operation into neighboring Iraq following attacks
by the PKK terrorists operating from Iraq. Community leaders also said
tensions rose after a US congressional committee passed a resolution
that backed Armenian allegations of genocide. "This has been fomenting
for a few days, and the situation in Turkey is linked to that,"
said Beatrice Meulemans, an alderwoman in the heavily immigrant
municipality of St. Josse.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION SPONSORS ANNOUNCE REVISED TIMETABLE FOR HOUSE CONSIDERATION OF H.RES.106

armradio.am
26.10.2007 10:23

The four leading Democratic sponsors of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution (H.Res.106) have called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to
adopt a revised schedule for the consideration of this human rights
legislation by the House of Representatives, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

In a letter sent to Speaker Pelosi, lead author Adam Schiff (D-CA),
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and
Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) stressed
that, in asking for this delay, "we believe that a large majority of
our colleagues want to support a resolution recognizing the genocide
on the House floor and that they will do so, provided the timing is
more favorable."

The letter goes on to note that they will continue to work with Speaker
Pelosi’s staff and the House Foreign Affairs Committee staff to bring
up the resolution "sometime later this year or in 2008."