Author: Chatinian Lara

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DISMISSES LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S APPLICATION

Noyan Tapan
Feb 12, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Constitutional Court refused
to sustain presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian’s claim to
recognize the difficulties faced by him as insuperable obstacles. CC
made such a decision on February 11.

According to the presidential candidate’s application, the obstacles
that emerged independent on his will make impossible his further
participation in the electoral processes established by the RA
electoral legislation. As a reason it is mentioned that Public
Television through the Haylur program with gross violations of the
provisions of the law On Television and Radio three months running
broadcast anti-agitation programs against RA presidential candidate
Levon Ter-Petrosian and the time given to the candidates for the
election agitation, which is very inconvenient for TV viewers, gives
no possibility to even mitigate Haylur’s anti-agitation.

The court considered that there are not insuperable obstacles for
the candidate, but an argument connected with ensuring legality of
preelection agitation is put forward, which in the order established
by the law has been already submitted to the bodies empowered to
evaluate and solve them at this stage of the elections, the Central
Electoral Commission, the National Commission of Television and Radio,
the Administrative Court.

According to CC’s decision, the constitutional-legal content of the
notion "insuperable obstacle" supposes that in the period from the
moment of being registered a RA presidential candidate to the 8th
day preceding the election day independent on the candidate’s will
a condition has been created, which is impossible to overcome and
which practically has deprived him of the possibility of further
participation in the electoral process. That is interpreted as
impossibility of personally his further participation in the electoral
process conditioned by the concrete state of one of the presidential
candidates.

The Constitutional Court registers that it is the state that ensures
implementation of free electoral agitation of citizens. The law’s
requirement is also that the electoral agitation should be implemented
on equal bases, equal conditions are guaranteed to the candidates for
using media. The Electoral Code establishes that Public Television and
Public Radio are obliged to create equal conditions for all candidates
for presidency, are obliged to broadcast unbiassed information without
any evaluations, by keeping fair and equal conditions.

"HAYPOST" CONCLUDED THE DELIVERY OF ELECTION NOTIFICATIONS IN THE WHOLE TERRITORY OF ARMENIA

Mediamax
February 12, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. "HayPost" concluded the delivery of election
notifications in the whole territory of Armenia, General Director of
"HayPost" CJSC Hans Boon stated today.

Mediamax reports that, speaking in Yerevan during the meeting with
the employees of "HayPost", Hans Boon informed that all the electors
of the country received notifications on the date of the elections
and on the local polling station, in which they are going to vote.

JFAV PAYS TRIBUTE TO REP. TOM LANTOS,(D-CA), 80

Bay Area Indymedia
Feb 11 2008
CA

Los Angeles – The Justice for Filipino American Veterans(JFAV) pays
tribute to Rep. Tom Lantos of California who passed away.

JFAV learned that Lantos, 80, passed away at the Bethesda Naval
Medical Center in suburban Maryland.

Lantos, a Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
disclosed last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the
esophagus. He has supported the veterans equity bill .

He served his constituency which has large Filipino population at
Northern California district, which takes in the southwest portion
of San Francisco and suburbs to the south including Lantos’ home of
San Mateo.

Lantos had assumed his committee chairmanship just a year earlier,
when Democrats retook control of Congress. He conducted house hearings
on human rights violations in the Philippines last year.

In the senate and house hearings, the US Congress found the Philippine
government responsible for the spate of political killings in the
Philippines and tied US military aid to the human rights situation
in the country.

Lantos, who was elected to the House in 1980, founded the Congressional
Human Rights Caucus in 1983. In October 2007, as Foreign Affairs
chairman, Lantos defied administration opposition by moving through
his committee a measure that would have recognized the World War I-era
killings of Armenians as a genocide, something strongly opposed by
Turkey. The bill has not passed the House.

JFAV offers the sincerest condolence with Lantos’ family and friend
and considered him a true friend and an ally of the Filipino people.

NEW APARTMENTS FOR 68 SOLDIERS

Panorama.am
15:19 11/02/2008

Recently the Minister of Defence Michael Harutyunyan made a small
trip around the North-Eastern boarders of Armenia. According to the
press secretary of the defence ministry Seyran Shahsuvaryan, the
minister took part in the apartment opening ceremony in Noyemberyan
and Idjevan regions.

The minister went to a military unit in Tavush region and visited
the new constructed military building, checked their works done,
and discussed several furnishing questions with the responsible of
the military unit.

M. Harutyunyan met with the soldiers. He talked about their health
conditions, and service problems. That day 40 servicemen got their
apartments and the minister handed them their certificates. The
minister also met with the relatives of the dead servicemen and talked
about their problems also.

28 servicemen from Idjevan also got apartments and received their
certificates. The minister maintained that the apartments were equipped
with necessary conveniences; they have local heating system and gas
in the apartments.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Feb 8 2008

Armenia’s citizens complain about election bribes, Ombudsman says

YEREVAN, February 8. /ARKA/. Armenia’s citizens often complain about
election bribes, said RA Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan.

He pointed out that the complaints are mostly ungrounded. The
Ombudsman did not specify the exact number of complaints.

He condemned any violation of the voting rights and expressed hope
that the presidential race will meet democratic standards.
Harutyunyan believes the future president’s ideas and goals must be
acceptable for Armenians.

Presidential election in Armenia is scheduled for February 19, 2008.
Nine candidates have been nominated by the RA Central Electoral
Commission. The deadline for the election campaign is February 17.
-0–

PanARMENIAN.Net

Oskanian to participate in 44th Munich Conference on
Security Policy
08.02.2008 18:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Foreign Ministers Vartan
Oskanian will participate in the 44th Munich
Conference on Security Policy, the RA MFA press office
reported.

The conference will be attended by Georgia’s President
Mikheil Saakashvii, Moldovan President Vladimir
Voronin, NATO Sec. Gen. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and
other top officials.

February 13-14, Vartan Oskanian will take part in the
meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Kyev.

Panorama.am

19:29 08/02/2008

MOSCOW: VARDAN KOJOYAN LEADING

Armenian chess master Vardan Kojoyan who is competing
in Group B in Moscow Open 2008 has collected 6 points
and is solely leading the tournament list. He is the
only participant that has won all 6 games.

In the first group Karen Asryan, champion of Armenia,
has 4 points and is behind the leader of the
tournament by 1 point. Armenian chess masters Vladimir
Hakobyan, Artashes Minasyan, Zaven Andriasyan, Robert
Hovanisyan have 3 and half points each and are in the
mid position.

In the women tournament Elina Danielyan has 4,5 points
and is in the third position.

Moscow Open 2008 kicked off on February 2 and will
continue until February 10. Some 1000 participants
take part in the tournament.

Source: Panorama.am

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 9 2008

Supreme Court of Appeals elects new president with mixed record

The Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday voted in its new president,
Hasan Gerçeker, who is known for his secular, Kemalist leanings and
who is seen as having a mixed record on issues pertinent to democracy
and freedom.

The new president has for five years led panels of judges that have
issued some democratic rulings as well as some anti-free speech
decisions.
Gerçeker is also a founding member of the first and largest civil
society organization of judges and prosecutors, YAR-SAV, which was
founded despite opposition from the Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) government.

Gerçeker has been the president of the 9th Chamber of the Supreme
Court of Appeals since 2002 and a member of the top court since 1995.
In the past five years since he has been its president, the chamber
has issued some controversial decisions, in addition to some
decisions widely regarded as promoting the cause of freedom, in some
of Turkey’s most historically significant cases. The 9th chamber
hears cases on armed organized crime, including crimes that fall
under the scope of anti-terror legislation, crimes against state
security and state secrets, and violations of the constitution.

Under Gerçeker’s leadership, the panel of judges approved a court
decision that charged Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink with
violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which
criminalizes "insulting Turkishness." However, the same panel of
judges ruled against Kemal Kerinçsiz, a neo-nationalist lawyer whose
links with a deep-state gang were revealed only very recently, who
had requested to take part in the trial against Dink, and in another
301-related trial against Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, as
a co-plaintiff lawyer. The court also issued a decision that led to
the dropping of charges against Pamuk.

It was also under his presidency of the 9th chamber that the chamber
overruled a decision sentencing two noncommissioned officers and a
former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) member-turned-informant to 39
years in jail for bombing a bookstore in the Southeast. The case was
seen as a test of democracy for Turkey as it had revealed links
between the military and certain crimes previously attributed to
terrorists. High-ranking members of the military had appeared
publicly to defend the suspects during their initial trial at a civil
court in Van. The 9th court overturned the sentences and referred the
three suspects to a military court for a retrial from scratch.

09.02.2008

Interfax, Russia
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 8, 2008 Friday 10:35 PM MSK

Armenian presidential candidate Ter-Petrosian’s supporters beaten up
in Yerevan

YEREVAN Feb 8

Three campaign staff of Armenian presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian have been beaten violently, Ter-Petrosian’s campaign
told Interfax on Friday.

Police confirmed to Interfax the fact of the attack without giving
details of the incident, which happened in one of Yerevan’s bedroom
communities on Thursday evening.

"Three young people from Ter-Petrosian’s territorial campaign staff
were posting leaflets announcing the presidential candidate’s rally
scheduled for February 9 on Freedom Square when a car pulled up, four
men got out and started beating the young men," the campaign staff
said.

Among the assailants was "a member of the Nor-Nork [Yerevan district]
office of the Republican Party presidential candidate’s campaign
staff," it said.

Interfax could not immediately obtain confirmation of the report from
other sources.

The young men were taken to the hospital, one of them, Ovanes
Grigorian, 19, in serious condition.

Meanwhile, Mkrtych Minasian, a member of the Republican Party’s
parliamentary faction, said at a press conference in parliament that
"the Republican Party of Armenia condemns the attack on supporters of
first President Levon Ter-Petrosian, which happened in that community
yesterday."

"It has been assumed that the mater involves the chief of one of the
offices [of the Republican Party’s campaign staff]. In any case, I
believe beating and disorderly conduct are not political categories,
and whoever caused this, they need to be brought to justice,"
Minasian said.

A criminal case has been opened into the incident.

The police press service told Interfax that the victims will be
invited to police on Saturday to confront and identify the suspected
attackers.

Ekho, Azerbaijan
Feb 8 2008

Kosovo cannot be precedent for Karabakh – Azeri deputy speaker

A deputy speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament has said that Kosovo’s
possible secession from Serbia cannot set a precedent for other
breakaway regions, including Nagornyy Karabakh, the Azerbaijani
newspaper Ekho has reported.

"We believe that issues like [Kosovo] should be resolved within the
framework of the territorial integrity of states," Bahar Muradova
said in an interview with Ekho. "However, even if this principle is
not observed in the resolution of the Kosovo issue, if others methods
are used, this should not serve as a precedent for other problems,"
she said.

Nagornyy Karabakh, which is home to nearly 100,000 ethnic Armenians,
broke away from Azerbaijan following a separatist war in the early
1990s. The war claimed over 30,000 lives and displaced more than a
million people.

The region’s political status remains unresolved as international
efforts to mediate a peaceful settlement of the conflict have yielded
no tangible results.