Author: Chilingarian Babken

VILLAGE HOSPITALS WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH

KarabakhOpen
21-10-2007 18:55:45

Soon the village hospitals will be transferred to the ministry of
health, Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan informed in a consultation on
October 19.

So far the village hospitals have been sustained by the municipalities
which never have money because the relations between the government
and the municipalities are not regulated.

However, Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan says the ambulances will
remain at the villages. Moreover, the prime minister prohibited the
use of these cars by the heads of communities for other purposes. "We
will be controlling the use of these cars for transporting patients,"
Ara Harutiunyan said.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Georgia to join Iran-Russia-Armenia joint electricity supply network
19.10.2007 17:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgia intends to join the Iran-Russia-Armenia
united electricity supply network. The agreement was achieved during
a regular session of the Armenian-Georgian intergovernmental
commission for economic cooperation held in Yerevan.

According to Georgian Deputy Energy Minister Archil Nikolaishvili, it
will allow his country to satisfy electricity needs.

`However, it will be a hard process. We lack the essential
equipment to conduct works simultaneously with Armenia. At best, it
will become possible by the end of 2008. But I am hopeful that
formation of a transit energy network will become a reality,’ he
said, ANS TV reports.

TURKS ARE AFRAID OF ARMENIAN CAPITAL

AZG Armenian Daily
19/10/2007

The results of the privatization tender of 51 % of controlling
stake of Turkish state petrochemicals producer Petkim Petrokimya
Holding ("Petkim") were cancelled. Kazakhstan-based TransCentralAsia
Petrochemical Holding Joint-Venture Group offering the highest bid,
at $2.050 billion, for 51% of Petkim won July 5 tender. The owner
of the holding is a citizen of Kazakhstan, leader of the Eurasian
Jews Federation Aleksander Matskevich, who at present controls 25%
of Kazakhstan’s economy. He is involved in the list of "The richest
people of the world" by "Forbs" magazine.

Aleksander Matskevich acquired "Petkim with the help of Russian
investment bank Troika Dialog Group, owned by an Armenian Ruben
Vardanian.

The deal set up a clamour in Turkey. Turkish press mentions that
"the adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution 106 by US House of
Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee" had a serious influence"
on it.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM DEFEATED BY BELGIAN TEAM IN BRUSSELS WITH SCORE OF 0 TO 3

Noyan Tapan
Oct 18 2007

BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The Belgian national football
team received the Armenian team on October 17 in Brussels under the
Euro-2008 program. The Belgian team defeated the Armenian one with the
score of 3 to 0. The following results were registered in the other
games of group A: Kazakhstan-Portugal 1 to 2 and Azerbaijan-Serbia 1
to 6. The Polish national team is at the top of the tournament table
with 24 points. It is followed by Portugal with 23 points, Finland
and Serbia with 20 points each, Belgium 15 points, Armenia 9 points,
Kazakhstan 7 points, and Azerbaijan 5 points.

TWO U.S. LAWMAKERS CALL FOR NO VOTE ON ARMENIA RESOLUTION

People’s Daily Online, China
Oct 17 2007

Two U.S. lawmakers of the Democratic Party on Tuesday urged House
of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to vote on a resolution
branding the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and
1917 a "genocide."

Alcee Hastings, chairman of the House Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, and John Tanner, chairman of the House NATO
Parliamentary Assembly, made the appeal in a letter to Pelosi.

Passing the resolution by the full House of Representatives "would
have serious consequences for the United States’ important relationship
with modern-day Turkey, a strong NATO ally," they said in the letter.

U.S. media reports have reported that a full House of Representatives
vote on the resolution is expected next month.

The Bush administration has urged the Democrats-controlled House
of Representatives not to vote on the resolution, which was already
passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Turkey has condemned the "genocide" bill and recalled its ambassador
to Washington back to Turkey for consultation over the matter, a sign
of exasperated U.S.-Turkey tension over the issue.

Armenians claim that more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed
in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World
War I, before modern Turkey was born in 1923. But Turkey insists the
Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown
as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in they ears before 1923.

THE LONG SHADOW OVER TURKEY

The Japan Times
October 16, 2007, Tuesday

Domestic politics once again threatens to roil U.S. relations with a
key ally. This time the offended nation is Turkey, which is angered
and insulted by a U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee vote to label as genocide the deaths of Armenians killed
in Turkey nearly a century ago. More troubling still, however, is
the prospect of Ankara venting its anger by attacking rebel Kurds in
northern Iraq and unleashing yet more violence on an already strained
and unstable region.

About 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around
the time of World War I. This horrific event remains shrouded in
controversy, not least because the Turkish government insists that
no such mass killing occurred.

Rather, it claims the deaths were the result of chaos that accompanied
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and that the violence claimed the
lives of many Turks as well. Armenians are not convinced by the Turkish
claim and the issue has hung over relations between the two countries.

Within the United States, the Armenian lobby has pushed for years for
recognition of this injustice as well. Those hopes were frustrated
by recognition that such a move would complicate, if not damage,
Washington’s relations with Ankara, a key ally in the Muslim world and
one in a critical geostrategic location. However, relations between
this White House and Congress have deteriorated to the point where
legislators – especially those in the Democratic Party – are no longer
inclined to afford President George W. Bush much deference.

Neither a presidential statement that noted "We all deeply regret
the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915"
– but omitted the word "genocide"- nor a warning by Mr. Bush that
passage of the nonbinding resolution "would do great harm to our
relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror"
deterred lawmakers. The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21
to label the deaths of Armenians a century ago as genocide. The
White House is still pressing to put off a vote by the full House,
but that effort is unlikely to succeed.

Turkey reacted as predicted. The country’s ambassador to the
U.S. was recalled, although the move is likely to be temporary. The
U.S. ambassador to Turkey was told by the Foreign Ministry of Turkish
"unease" over the resolution. Turkey’s president, Mr. Abdullah Gul,
criticized the decision to move toward a vote by the full House. The
head of Turkey’s navy canceled a trip to the U.S.

Those reactions were just for starters. U.S. officials are now
worried about two additional moves that could cause considerably
more trouble. The first would be a decision to suspend or scale back
cooperation with the U.S. in Iraq. Currently, about 70 percent of
all air cargo sent to Iraq transits Turkey and its airspace, as does
about one-third of all fuel used by the U.S. military. Much of the
new equipment used by U.S. forces goes through Turkey, and U.S. bases
get water and other supplies by land via Turkish truckers.

While a decision to end that cooperation would squeeze U.S. forces –
and make it more difficult for the coalition to help stabilize Iraq –
a second decision could actively contribute to instability. Turkey
has for three decades fought Kurdish rebels who have protested
discrimination against their people. Those rebels seek to create an
ethnic homeland for Kurds, and an estimated 30,000 lives have been
lost in the fight. Kurds are spread across the Middle East, but there
is a concentration in northern Iraq, where they have established a
quasi-autonomous zone that they govern and which has been a relatively
peaceful area during the disintegration of the rest of Iraq.

Ankara claims the zone is also a safe haven for an estimated 3,000
members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting to
set up a Kurdish homeland. Those rebels have become increasingly
aggressive. Recently, they have launched several attacks against
Turkish targets, killing 15 Turkish soldiers. Earlier, the PKK
had attacked a civilian bus with automatic weapons fire, killing 13
civilians, including a child. Turkey concluded an agreement last month
with the Baghdad government to halt the attacks, but plainly that has
failed. Now, the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
is prepared to take matters into its own hands. It will present
a resolution to Parliament shortly that will authorize assaults
into Iraq against the guerrillas. Fighting in northern Iraq could
destabilize the one region that has been relatively peaceful.

The House vote adds fuel to the Turkish fire, increasing anger and
feelings of neglect by an ally. It certainly diminishes U.S. influence
over decision making in Ankara. Such is the price to pay for trying
to recognize a horrible tragedy of a century ago.

USA ALWAYS HAS AN OPTION, TURKEY ALMOST DOESN’T

PanARMENIAN.Net
Analytical Department
13.10.2007 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Moreover, the Pentagon has already started to look
for an alternative to Incirlik Air Base, and seems it has already
found one. After "the storm in the desert" the USA left its bases in
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan reserved in case of a new war. Now
these bases may be used for goods transportation to Iraq. True though,
Turkey continues blackmailing America with the Kurdish issue. "The only
way to correct the mistake is the cooperation in the fight against
the Kurdistan Workers Party. I don’t know any other alternative,
which could help the 72 million Turks overcome the mental damage this
mistake caused," announced Egemen Bagis, deputy of Turkish Parliament
and advisor on foreign policy issues to the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan. It’s worth mentioning here, that on the hearings preceding the
voting of the bill on the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. House Committee
on Foreign Affairs, the Republican Dana Rohrabacher (California)
condemned "the impudence that some Turks have to threaten to close
the ways of the U.S. Army maintenance supply…

Perhaps they are not as good friends as they try to seem," he
emphasized.

The State Department in its turn reminded Turkey about the agreement
with Iraq achieved by the end of September, according to which Ankara
has committed itself to refrain from military operations on the
territory of Iraq. Washington fairly fears that the Turkish military
invasion will cause destabilization in Kurdistan, which is the only
more or less quiet region in comparison with Shiite and Sunni parts
of Iraq. It shouldn’t be forgotten that on September 26 of 2007 the
US Senate with the majority of votes approved the Resolution which
anticipates that Iraq is suggested to be conditionally divided into
three parts – Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish. On October 8 this idea was
supported by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish). So Turkey
shouldn’t "put too much pressure" on the USA, in alliance with who
it is interested much more than the US with Turkey. America always
has an option, Turkey almost doesn’t.

Azerbaijan’s position in this issue leads to confusion. It is
understandable that Turkey is an alley, "an elder brother". But here
Baku has definitely overdone it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Azerbaijan made an announcement regarding the Resolution 106 about
the Armenian Genocide approved by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign
Affairs. The announcement particularly said; "The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Azerbaijan condemns this decision and qualifies it as
mistaken and subjective and believes that the given Resolution will
have a negative impact on the regional as well as global processes
in the world."

But Akber Hasanov’s concern was the biggest. He was shocked with the
passivity of the people of Azerbaijan and nearly calls upon breaking
the windows of the U.S. Embassy in Baku. "There was nothing unusual
and everything was quite calm in front of the U.S. Embassy. People
hurried to their daily activities," he writes. We will not quote
and will leave aside all the insinuations about Armenians, who have
"territorial claims towards Turkey and Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia
and Ukraine." But what Armenians want from Ukraine or Russia and all
the other mentioned countries, the author didn’t specify.

Another interesting quote from Hasanov is; "The significance of the
present moment for Azerbaijan is beyond doubt. It will be enough to
remind that among the USA, whose congressmen recognized the Armenian
Genocide, France, whose Senate’s Lower House also recognized the
Armenian Genocide and Russia, who openly calls Armenia its outpost
in the Caucasus, are among the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for
regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. Does anybody really think
that after all this the very OSCE Minsk Group will strive to reach
a fair decision in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict resolution?! Is it
hard to understand that Armenia, which dared to throw a challenge to
a big and powerful country like Turkey, will so easily give away the
occupied territories of our country? It is time for us to realize,
that Turkey is our only and loyal alley in the fight for having
back the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. For both Turkey and
Azerbaijan have one historical enemy – Armenia. Any challenge to
Turkey must be regarded as a challenge to Azerbaijan." Everything is
clear with this quotation, things are called by their proper names,
in particular -Armenia is enemy number one. But another astonishing
thing was to call Turkey "big and powerful". Maybe for Baku it is
"big and powerful", but for the World Community Turkey is only a
country with $200 billiard external debt, problems in the field of
human rights and national minorities and distinguished intolerance
towards interpretation of the history other than its own. In the
European countries Turkey, like a century ago, is considered "the
sick man of Europe", who has no treatment at all.

By the way, "the sick man of Europe" was called Abdul Hamid II, who was
the first to start annihilation of the Armenian people already in 1896.

–Boundary_(ID_qs7kG8IwU9/vrVzuSLxISw)–

IRANIAN SUICIDE BOMBERS PLOTTING ATTEMPT ON PUTIN’S LIFE?

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.10.2007 16:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran
this week despite a warning by his secret service that an alleged
plot to assassinate him has been in the works. "There are no changes
in the schedule. Preparations for the visit are underway," a Russian
delegation representative said.

Earlier, the Interfax news agency cited unnamed Russian security
service sources as saying suicide bombers were plotting to kill Mr
Putin in Tehran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the reports as "completely baseless".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the reports were
"part of a psychological war waged by enemies to disrupt relations
between Iran and Russia".

"Such erroneous reports will have no effect on the program already
decided upon for Mr Putin’s visit to Tehran," he said, BBC reports.

The federal security service refrains from comments on plotted
assassination.

Putin’s visit to Iran is scheduled for October 15-16.

The Russian President is expected to attend Tuesday’s summit of Caspian
Sea nations (Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan).

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 11 2007

PEOPLE CONSIDER THE ISSUE SETTLED

According to Larisa Alaverdyan,’ From the first days of the fight
for freedom when Azerbaijanis were threatening to annihilate Armenian
population in Karabakh, and Artsakh, some people were trying to
inspire the feeling of hopelessness, but the whole nation stood
against Azerbaijan.
At that time some people were saying ` Are you mad? How can you
even think about protecting our lands by force? Don’t you see that
Azerbaijanis exceed in number and are much more powerful and better
armed?
But if in the beginning of 90-ies similar manifestations could be
justified somehow, today when the situation has noticeably changed
and Karabakh as an accomplished state can defend its borders, I don’t
think any candidate can be a success in the political arena with such
stereotypes.
Some people, based on certain sociological surveys are trying to
state that Karabakh is a secondary issue for our people. In don’t
agree.
Our people are far not indifferent towards this issue and they
will never agree to return the liberated territories. The thing is,
our people consider this issue already settled, this is the reason
why it is not a primary issue for them.’

ar.1758642.0.0.php

Scotland
Sunday Herald
October 13, 2007
By Trevor Royle, Diplomatic Editor

Killer blow could fuel Turkish war

Can history play any useful role in helping us deal with the problems
of today? It’s an old teaser and the answer to it depends on many
variables. Sometimes a knowledge of what happened in the past can be
useful, especially if the lessons have been learned and digested,
although that seems not to have been the case when the decision was
taken to invade Iraq. Did anyone in Whitehall or the White House
consider the ramifications of British and French meddling in the
Middle East in 1917 or was any consideration given to the reasons for
the bloodbath in Iraq in 1921? Probably not.

But there are times when the past can impinge on the present in an
unhelpful way. If age-old enmities influenced current policies Britain
would have nothing to do with France: since 1066 there have been 35
wars between the two countries and we’ve won most of them. (All right,
the majority were fought by the English and Scotland was often on the
losing French side, but the argument still stands.) That’s why the
issue of the Armenian genocide is such a vexed one and that’s why such
a big question mark hangs over last week’s decision by a US
Congressional committee to give it that status.

Nobody doubts that massacres on a huge scale took place between 1915
and 1917 when Ottoman forces systematically destroyed Turkish Armenia
and killed an estimated 1.5 million (the exact figure is hotly
debated). The orgy of destruction arose from a belief that the
Armenians had been helping Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman government
ordered the deportation of the entire Armenian population from the
northeast provinces to locations outside Anatolia in the Syrian
desert. Hundreds of thousands were killed or died as they made their
way through the inhospitable environment and even the Turks’ main
allies, the Germans, were shocked by the high attrition rate.

On that score at least the incident fits the UN definition of
genocide, which is described as any operation "intended to destroy in
whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". In
vain do Turkish apologists claim that the massacres were exaggerated
by propagandists and there were sound military reasons for punishing a
group of people who stood accused of lending assistance to the enemy.
In an age when mass slaughter or attempted mass slaughter is regarded
as a massive crime against humanity the Armenian genocide deserves its
appellation.

So, there should be little fuss about what happened in Washington last
week. Except that it was not just about correcting an historical
wrong. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw it is an opportunity to
embarrass President George W Bush, who has already said that he will
fight any attempt to put the matter to a full Congressional vote. He
doesn’t want to upset a major US ally at a time when the US is
dependent on Turkey to support operations in Iraq. He has good reason
to be concerned, as Turkey has already withdrawn its ambassador from
Washington and is making threats to deny the US further use of the
strategic air force base at Incirlik.

And this is where things get really murky. At stake are issues which
go beyond the historical bickering over what happened 90 years ago.
Today it’s about dealing with a country which could quite easily
destabilise the whole geo-strategic region. In what could be seen as a
reprise of past events the Turkish military is making ominous noises
about engaging guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) who have
been attacking their forces in southeast Turkey. Forces have been
moved up in preparation for a cross-border strike and Turkish
commanders are said to be in a dangerous mood, anxious to give the PKK
a bloody nose.

If that were to happen it could be disastrous for Iraq, where the
Kurds already enjoy considerable autonomy. With the Turks anxious to
prevent any further expansion of Kurdish hegemony and the Kurds
equally eager to reinforce their independence, there could be a
showdown and the West would be powerless to intervene. The last thing
needed by Iraq is a breakaway Kurdistan getting into a new
confrontation with its touchy neighbours.

Turkey is now in that dangerous position where it feels threatened and
boxed into a corner. Such a situation will only give comfort to the
emergent nationalists who already believe their country has conceded
too much ground to the West for nothing in return. First they were
given short shrift in their application to join the European Union and
now they stand accused of a genocide which happened in their great-
grandfathers’ generation. Historical insults have a nasty habit of
breeding violence of mind: hitting back at the Kurds could just salve
that wounded pride.