Author: Chavushian

DEPUTIES’ STATEMENTS EMBELISHED WITH PROSE AND SWEARING

Noyan Tapan
May 24 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 24, NOYAN TAPAN. Deputies’ statements scheduled for the
end of the NA May 23 sitting were mainly turned into mutual injuries
and swearings between the “Orinats Yerkir” (Country of Law) and
“Azgayin Miabanutiun” (National Unity) factions, and it is impossible
to make them public arising of norms of ethics.

OYK representative Mher Shahgeldian mentioned that after the decision
on party’s leaving the coalition, “Azgayin Miabanutiun” and its head
Artashes Geghamian started a whole process of aspersions, having a
goal to throw mud to the address of the “Orinats Yerkir” party. He
stated that “Azgayin Miabanutiun” “leading its policy by the means
of intrigues” attempts to pull “Orinats Yerkir” into a foul play.

According to “OYK” faction Secretary Heghine Bisharian, “People like
Geghamian, instead of being glad, that the opposition rows have been
completed, were buckled down to carry out the authorities’ order to
pick on the OYK.”

“OYK” faction head Samvel Balasanian, emphasizing that nobody from
the ruling brach said anything in address of the party, mentioned that
nobody privatized the opposing field, and it is not anybody’s monopoly.

“Azgayin Miabanutiun” representative Koryun Arakelian called on
the OYK to define whose opposition the OYK becomes: “of Kocharian’s
authorities or by his imposing, of “Azgayin Miabanutiun.”

And a member of the same party Gagik Kostandian stated that information
of the OYK about the issue that the “Azgayin Miabanutiun” party
is financed by Defence Minister Serge Sargsian and that he is the
supplier of the same ministry “are false and old.”

“Azgayin Miabanutiun” deputies’ statements were accompanied by reading
parts from prose-writer Hrachya Matevosian’s open letter addressed
to President Robert Kocharian.

WHY DID EUROPEANS CHOOSE THE “MONSTERS”?

Panorama.am
14:35 23/05/06

The Armenian Apostolic church representatives are concerned with the
victory of Finnish group Lordi at Eurovision 2006. In a discussion
held at Ararat diocese, priest Tovma Andrasyan said that the victory
of the “monsters” indicates that Europe is undergoing a phase of
decline of moral values. The priest also quoted statistics saying
the higher the standard of living in European countries, the more
mentally ill they have. “The churches in Scandinavia are empty,”
he said, adding that there is no greater sin than indifference.

Michael Hambartsumyan, psychologist did not agree with him. In his
words, the choice of the Europeans reflected everything that the
youth does not agree now.

The psychologist suggests taking the performance only as a show
and not as moral degradation. “The Finn needed the first place and
they reached their aim – serious marketing was conducted beforehand
on audience preferences. They understood that there is a need for
rock music since Eurovision has long been taken as a contest of pop
music. I do not think we have to look for religious origins here,”
Hambartsumyan said.

“GRAND” INSURANCE COMPANY STARTED RECEPTION OF DOCUMENTS

ArmRadio.am
24.05.2006 15:00

Today the “Grand” insurance company has started reception of documents
for paying the insurance sums to the families of the victims of
the A-320 plane crash. Director of the Company Artak Antonyan told
“Radiolur” that documents of 30 people have been already submitted. The
reimbursement sum has not been determined so far, but the company
will pay up to US$20 000 for every victim.

Payment of the sums will start from June 18.

To note, planes of “Armavia” Company crashed in the Black Sea and
burnt at Brussels airport were also insured at “Grand” Company. Artak
Antonyan did not inform about the volume and terms of paying these
insurance sums.

For receiving the insurance sums, families of the air crash victims
can call 51-28-24 or 093 40 09 14 (cell).

SONG HOLIDAY IN VANADZOR TO BE HELD IN NEW PLACE THIS YEAR

Noyan Tapan
May 23 2006

VANADZOR, MAY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The 35th city song holiday will be held
on May 28 at “Bolor Kar” (name of a place) of Vanadzor. Construction
works are done at present, the road towards the festive place is being
asphalted, trade pavillions are being placed, stages for orchestras
and spectators are being built. The song holiday was celebrated in
Armenia for the first time in Kirovakan (at present in Vanadzor)
on September 18, 1955. The place of holding has been for a long
time the picturesque park of pine-trees in the south-western part of
Vanadzor. All groups and individual performers of songs and dances
in the city participate in the fete that lasts for 3 hours. It has
become the inseparable part of the cultural life of the city.

VISIT OF PACE MISSION TO STUDY CULTURAL LEGACY POSTPONED

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.05.2006 17:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The visit of head of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mission for Study of Cultural
Legacy, British MP Edward O’Hara to the region, scheduled May
28, is postponed. The exact date of the visit is not determined
yet. Nevertheless, the British MP will visit the region without fail,
Trend reports. The goal of the visit of the PACE mission is to study
the cultural heritage of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

“YELLOW BIRD” APACHE DANCE GROUP TO GIVE CONCERTS IN ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 12:03

At the invitation of the US Embassy in Armenia, “Yellow bird” Apache
dance group will arrive in Armenia. The group will give concerts in
Ararat (May 26), Yerevan (May 27) and Gyumri (May 29).

The “Yellow bird” dance group has the fame of carrier of ancient
cultural traditions. They present the culture and art of American
settlers to contemporary and future generations.

Driver Plows Into Crowd at Mich. Carnival

Associated Press May 21, 2006

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — A van driver plowed into an inflatable “Moon
Walk” attraction at a church carnival, injuring at least eight people,
according to police and news reports.

The man drove his van into a crowd of people in the parking lot of
Alex Manoogian School in the suburban Detroit town of Southfield at
about 2 p.m., police said. The lot was the site of a fair put on by
St. John’s Armenian Church.

“We tried our best to stop him,” said Josep Torossian, principal of
the high school division at the charter school. “He wouldn’t listen to
me.”

The man fled, but police traced the van to a home in Troy, where he
was arrested. He was to be arraigned Monday in Southfield, police said
in a news release.

At least six children and two adults were treated at nearby Providence
Hospital, the Detroit News reported.

ld/nation/wire/sns-ap-church-carnival-crash,1,2425 236.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

AYATOLLAH KASHANI CALLS ON INT’L BODIES NOT TO GIVE IN TO US, ZIONISTS DEMANDS

Fars News Agency, Iran
May 19 2006

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Tehran’s interim Friday prayers leader,
Ayatollah Emami Kashani, called on the International organizations
not to lose their reputation by giving in to the illegitimate demands
of the US and the Zionist regime.

Addressing worshippers in Tehran University campus on Friday, Ayatollah
Kashani condemned the terrorist attack in Iran’s southern city of Bam,
in which 12 defenseless citizens were martyred, adding, “The US, the
Zionist regime and their mercenaries can not do anything whatsoever,
even by causing insecurity along Iranian borders.”

He also stressed that the enemies of Islam attempt at sowing the seed
of sedition between Shiites and Sunnis by causing insecurity along
Iran’s borders.

Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader pointed that Iran is a country
that even Christians and Armenians have MPs at the Parliament, saying,
“The ignorant enemies have not understood the common culture between
the Shiites and the Sunnites in the path towards maintaining Islam
and the Holy Quran, and that all Iranians are united in defending
their soil against enemies, no matter what religion they have.”

Ayatollah Kashani reiterated that Iran’s peaceful nuclear program
does not seek military purposes, adding, “Once again we announce that
Tehran is ready to defend its nuclear achievements and would by no
means forgo even an iota of its legitimate rights to gain access to
peaceful nuclear technology.”

Ayatollah Kashani stressed that all of Iran’s nuclear activities
follow peaceful purposes and have been under the supervision of IAEA
inspectors. He concluded, “International organizations should not
lose their reputation by giving in to the illegitimate demands of
the US and the Zionist regime.”

SAAKASHVILI CONVENES COMMISSION ON CONSEQUENCES OF WITHDRAWING FROM CIS
By Zaal Anjaparidze

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
May 18 2006

One consideration that may influence Georgia’s planned departure from
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is whether Tbilisi will
find itself alone and vulnerable to retaliation by an angry Russia.

So far, the Georgian government seems confident of its future
prospects.

Following the recent Russian embargo on Georgian agricultural
products (see EDM, April 20), President Mikheil Saakashvili created
a governmental commission to explore the possible consequences of
Georgia’s withdrawal from the CIS. This commission convened for its
first meeting on May 13 and is expected to submit its final report in
two months. This schedule coincides with the Georgian parliament’s
plans to discuss the continued deployment of Russian peacekeeping
troops operating under CIS mandate in the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

However, after the commission’s first session, Georgian Foreign
Minister Gela Bezhuashvili stated that, although the political decision
about Georgia’s departure from the CIS is “clear,” discussions
are underway “about when and how to do this” (Civil Georgia, TV
Rustavi-2, May 13). This tactful statement suggests that Tbilisi may
use its declared intention to leave the CIS as a tool to bargain with
Russia. In any case, Georgia’s official exit from the CIS evidently
will not take place overnight; most estimates predict it will take
closer to one year to be completed.

But so far, the Georgian government has left little room for doubt.

On January 25, Georgia quit the CIS Council of Defense Ministers,
saying it was a natural development considering the new political
leadership’s stance in favor of integration into Euro-Atlantic
structures. The decision to leave the Russia-dominated CIS is largely
perceived to be a component of this policy, although Saakashvili
regularly reiterates that Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO and to
maintain friendly relations with Russia do not and must not contradict
each other. These days Saakashvili has attempted to smooth Moscow’s
irritation with conciliatory statements such as, “We want to be
part of NATO. But still the closest friend we have is Russia, for
many natural reasons” (Financial Times, May 15; TV-Imedi, May 9;
Rossiiskaya gazeta, May 10). But it seems that Moscow no longer
takes seriously such statements when they are not accompanied by
proof and when they conflict with other statements by Saakashvili
and his associates. The attempt to mobilize the Western community
to counteract Russia’s resurrected expansionism in the post-Soviet
space was easily seen in Saakashvili’s address to the “Common Vision
for a Common Neighborhood” conference in Vilnius on May 3-4.

The Russian government has already warned Georgia that it will be
deprived of preferences within the CIS if it leaves. Other punitive
measures, including the deportation of Georgian illegal labor migrants
likely, are not far off. Citing Komsomolskaya pravda, Kavkaz Press
reports that Russian authorities might refuse to recognize diplomas
from Georgia universities if Georgia quits CIS. The move, if actually
taken, would automatically deprive many Georgians of the opportunity
to work in Russia (Kavkaz Press, May 17).

The harshest of the potential punitive measures would be the abolition
of multilateral free-trade agreements. Such agreements allow member
states to avoid double taxation and facilitate the free movement of
goods within the CIS without any customs duties. Pundits, however, say
that Georgia could compensate for these economic losses by concluding
bilateral agreements among individual CIS members.

Similar agreements already exist with Russia, Ukraine, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Some Georgian politicians and pundits criticize the government for
challenging Russia and argue that the costs of leaving the CIS are not
the “price of freedom,” as Saakashvili’s government argues. They say
that Georgia’s impulsive departure from the CIS without a blessing
from the West or Russia would achieve only a symbolic victory, and
Saakashvili’s government might incur numerous problems, including
public disorder. The significant increase in consumer tariffs on
electricity and natural gas in May and last winter’s price hike on
imported Russian natural gas have already triggered sharp discontent
among socially vulnerable groups. “I doubt that the Georgians can
rub through for a long time,” said analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze. The
opposition sees the hand of Russia-leaning interest groups in this move
(Akhali Taoba, May 6, 13; TV-Rustavi-2, TV-Imedi, May 11-12).

Meanwhile, as anti-Russian and anti-CIS rhetoric increases, several
strategic Georgian economic entities, including energy units, are
smoothly transferring to control of CIS-based companies reportedly
backed by Russia. On May 12, the Kazakh bank TuranAlem won the tender
for Georgia’s largest telephone operator — United Telecommunication
Company of Georgia (UTCG) — beating the U.S. Metromedia International
Group, which already possesses 30% of UTCG’s shares.

The Kazakh state-run company KazTransGaz won a tender on the
Tbilisi-based gas distribution company Tbilgazi, and Greenoak Group
— reportedly tied to Russian political and business groups — won
a tender to privatize the Batumi seaport in Ajaria (Civil Georgia,
May 12; Resonansi, May 13, 15).

Whether the expected Russian pressure on Georgia brings results
desirable for Moscow will depend on the adequacy of Tbilisi’s
countermeasures and the degree of support Georgia receives from its
traditional allies in the CIS and the West. It will also depend on
the political and civic awareness of the Georgian establishment and
domestic economic performance. The already tense relations between
Saakashvili’s government and local businesses, the continued stagnation
of the Georgian economy, the falling support for the ruling National
Movement party, and the growing internal opposition to Saakashvili’s
policies all weaken Tbilisi’s stance against Moscow.

During a meeting with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on May
7-8, Saakashvili confidently noted that Georgia would not be left
face-to-face with Russia again (TV Imedi, May 8). Growing tension
between the United States and Russia and repeated statements by
high-ranking U.S. officials about Washington’s “legitimate interests
and relationships” with former Soviet republics will encourage the
pro-Western line of Saakashvili’s team, which naturally must rule
out strengthening the highly politicized Russian economic foothold
in Georgia.

Therefore, Tbilisi must pursue careful policies with all stakeholders
in order to emerge from the current confrontation with Russia with
minimal losses.

TURKISH-REFORM FATIGUE TROUBLES EU
By Peter Ford and Yigal Schleifer
Christian Science Monitor

Deseret News, Utah
May 17 2006

PARIS AND ISTANBUL, Turkey – Barely six months after the European
Union ended years of indecision by starting talks aimed at allowing
Turkey to join the club, doubts about the wisdom of that move are
coming to the fore on both sides of the table.

A series of well-publicized court cases, including one Tuesday,
against Turkish writers has made Europeans wonder anew whether Ankara
really shares their understanding of freedom of speech. Many Turks,
meanwhile, see a double standard over head scarf bans and a proposed
French law that would ban any suggestion that the Armenians did not
suffer genocide in 1915.

The dubious mood clouding the “talks about talks” that Turkish
and EU officials have been holding since the beginning of the year
indicates just how long and bumpy the process of turning Turkey into
a full-fledged European nation will be, say observers on both sides
of the Bosphorus.

“There is a sense that the political will in Ankara is not as strong
as it was, if there’s any left at all, to invest in this process
with Europe,” says one EU diplomat in the Turkish capital, who asked
to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue. “The
commitment . . . that they are still professing is less convincing
because it is not being reflected by their actions on the ground.”

Especially worrying to the Europeans is the way prosecutors have used
a controversial article of Turkey’s revised penal code against writers
accused of insulting state institutions or Turkish identity. A number
of these cases, such as the one against author Orhan Pamuk, have been
dropped after sharp EU criticism. But Tuesday, the trial began of an
Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor who is charged with “attempting to
influence the judiciary” against the penal code. The editor, Hrant
Dink, was met with shouts of “traitor” as he entered the courtroom.

Rights activists also fear that a planned anti-terror bill,
which would allow the imprisonment of journalists found guilty of
“propagating terrorism,” might be used against anyone expressing
support for Kurdish separatists. A recent upsurge in violence in
the majority-Kurdish southeast of Turkey, meanwhile, could lead the
military to reassert itself in domestic affairs.

The EU last month urged the Turkish authorities “to make sure that
the security forces show the necessary restraint” in the wake of
street clashes that left 16 people dead and 36 children in jail,
some facing 24 years in prison.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has brushed aside charges of
“reform fatigue,” insisting recently that “our reform efforts aimed
at raising standards and practices in all areas of life to the highest
contemporary standards will resolutely continue.”

But the approach of elections next year, coupled with a drop in public
support for EU membership to 50 percent from 80 percent two years ago,
means that leaders of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)
“don’t want to take risks,” says Mensur Akgun with the Turkish Economic
and Social Studies Foundation, a think tank in Istanbul.

The government “is focusing on elections and on the mood in the
country, and that mood is very inward-looking,” says the European
diplomat. “Instead of showing the way and leadership, the government
is listening much more to these ghosts that have been haunting Turkey
for decades.”

“There is a rising nationalism in the country,” adds Akgun, and the AKP
“has a constituency that is rather conservative in a nationalist sense,
and they have to reciprocate to their feelings.”

That nationalism has been fed by two rebuffs from the EU.

Ankara is galled that the Turkish-populated half of the divided
Mediterranean island of Cyprus remains under economic embargo even
though Turkish Cypriots accepted a UN plan to reunite the two sides.

Late last year, religious Turks were upset when a European Court
of Human Rights ruling upheld Turkey’s head scarf ban in public
universities.

Turks have also been angered by a vote next Thursday in the French
Parliament on a bill that would criminalize any statement casting doubt
on the Armenians’ claim that they suffered genocide at Turkish hands in
1915. The bill would impose jail sentences and a fine on historians,
journalists or others who challenge Armenians’ version of events, in
the same way French law punished revisionists who deny the Holocaust.

The bill is unlikely to pass, but it reflects longstanding mistrust of
Turkey in Europe. That mistrust is fed by freedom-of-expression cases
being brought against writers, says Joost Lagendijk, who heads the
European Parliament delegation to the joint EU-Turkey parliamentary
committee.

“The mood in Europe is that nothing has happened in Turkey since
October except setbacks,” warns Mr. Lagendijk. Quietly, Turkish and
EU civil servants have been reviewing the 35 “chapters” of Turkish
legislation that will have to be brought into line with EU law,
and have agreed on negotiating points for 19 of them, officials
say. Substantive negotiations on education and science are due to
begin next month.

Nobody expects Turkey to join the EU until 2015, even if things go
well. That, says Lagendijk, is a good thing, since EU citizens are
displaying doubts about the union’s future and purpose.

“We have some time ourselves to solve our own problems before we have
to deal with Turkey,” he says. “In the meantime, the negotiations
will continue behind the scenes.”

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