Author: Chilingarian Babken

RA FOREIGN MINISTER ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO FREE AND JUST HOLDING OF
COMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

AMSTERDAM, FEBRUARY 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues relating to the bilateral
relations, programs being implemented in Armenia by Netherlands, the
process of preparation of elections to take place in Armenia and to
regional elections were discussed during the January 31 meeting of RA
Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian being on a working visit
in Netherlands and of members of the Foreign Relations Committee of
the Parliament of Netherlands.

V.Oskanian presented the reforms being implemented in Armenia after
the constitutional amendments, attaching special importance to free
and just holding of the coming parliamentary elections. The intention
to invite international observation missions to Armenia during the
coming days was mentioned in that sense.

RA foreign policy priorities, programs of cooperation with European
and Euro-Atlantic structures: implementation of the obligations
undertaken in front of the EC, the implementation process of the
actions plans signed with the EU and NATO, were also touched upon.

Expressing gratitude for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by
the Parliament of Netherlands in 2004, V.Oskanian presented the
present state of the Armenian-Turkish relations. He attached
importance to assistance of interested and friendly states in the
issue of promoting a dialogue and opening the borders.

The sides touched upon the present state of the Armenian-Iranian,
Armenian-Russian relations as well.

According to the information submitted to Noyan Tapan by the RA
Foreign Ministry’s Press and Information Department, the Minister
visited on the second half of the day the Klingendael Royal Institute
of International Relations where he made a speech entitled "Diplomacy
of Small States."

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan,
30 Jan 2007

ARMENIAN SECURITY SERVICE DENIES LINKS WITH SPY JAILED IN AZERBAIJAN

[Presenter] The Armenian National Security Service has called a cheap
fiction the news published by Azerbaijani sources that Ariz Jamal
oglu Khalilov, a resident of the Georgian village of Sadakhlo, had
cooperated with the Armenian special services. He was arrested and
sentenced after he was charged with espionage and conspiracy to
commit terrorist acts within a group.

The National Security Service has told Armenpress news agency that
the Azerbaijani authorities seem to be seriously worried about the
statement made on 20 December last year that another Azerbaijani
agent was discovered and sentenced. Because they are worried, they
have decided to fabricate a similar move in Azerbaijan.

IranMania News, Iran
Jan 31 2007

Iran, Armenia gas pipeline operational by spring

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 – ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, January 31 (IranMania) – A natural gas pipeline linking Iran
and Armenia will become operational this coming spring, a spokesman
for the Armenian president said.

The construction of the 141-kilometer (90-mile) pipeline from Iran
began in 2004. It has a price tag of about $210-220 mln, including
$120 mln for the Armenian section, RIA Novosti reported.

`The gas pipeline will be commissioned this spring. Only then will it
be possible to say whether it will be a transit system. In any case,
Yerevan has always been guided by considerations of economic
expediency. Economic projects that had a political subtext have
always been rejected by the Armenian authorities,` Viktor Sogomonyan
said.

Under the current agreement, Iran is to deliver 36 bln cubic meters
of natural gas to Armenia over the next 20 years, subject to a
possible five-year extension and an increase in deliveries to 47 bln
cubic meters.

Armenia plans to use all of the gas to produce electricity for
subsequent export to Iran, as well as for domestic consumption.

Sogomonyan also confirmed that Russian energy giant Gazprom was
considering a project to build an oil refinery in southern Armenia
near the Iranian border.

`I can confirm that Russia’s Gazprom is considering the possibility
of building an oil refinery in Armenia,` Sogomonyan said, adding that
negotiations were in the initial stage.

He said Armenian President Robert Kocharyan had discussed the project
during his visit to Russia last week. Russian President Vladimir
Putin said after the talks that Russian mobile operator VimpelCom,
aluminum company RusAl and Gazprom would double their investment in
the Armenian economy to $1.5 bln.

4th CONGRESS OF OYP YOUTH UNION HELD

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. The Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law)
Party has always struggled against despair in Armenian public and new
approaches, new programs should be offered to the people and in
particular, to the youth, for this purpose." OYP Chairman Artur
Baghdasarian declared this at the January 31 account-electoral 4th
conference of the party’s Youth Union.

In his words, according to the National Youth Report published two
months ago, 70% of 16-30-year-old young people see their future
outside of Armenia. This index, in OYP leader’s words, gives rise to
a serous anxiety. As A.Baghdasarian affirmed, "even in conditions of
triumphal march of money" young men should themselves struggle for
living a deserved life.

Chairman of OYP Youth Union, Samvel Farmanian emphasized in his speech
that today the union as a political structure is more organized than
at the previous conference held in 2005. He said that among the main
directions of Union’s activity are: revelation of problems the youth
is faced by and mentioning the ways of their solution. S.Farmanian
reminded that in the period under review the Union organized signature
collection, through which 20 thousand young people demanded from
country’s authorities allocating 8 bln drams (nearly 21.6 mln USD)
from 2007 state budget for construction of apartments for young newly
formed families. "Unfortunately, the authorities responded with purely
formal letters not presenting any meaningful proposal," S.Farmanian
said.

MCA-ARMENIA ENVISAGES TO RECEIVE 12 MILLION DOLLARS THIS YEAR

YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The companies Glocoms Inc. (US) and
Ameria (Armenia), which made a consortium, have been selected as the
fiscal agent of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)-Armenia
SNCO. These companies have already set up the fiscal agent office in
Armenia. Office Director John Berlin said at the January 30 press
conference that the office will bear full financial responsibility
during the program’s implementation. It will do accounting functions,
compile documents on purchases, etc.

By the way, although John Berlin assured those present that the main
goal of the office is to ensure transparency of the program, he
nevertheless declined to state the amount of his salary.

According to Ameria’s Director Andrey Mkrtchian, the office of this
type has been established in Armenia for the first time, which is due
to the high cost of the program.

General Executive Director of MCA-Armenia Ara Hovsepian said that it
is envisaged to receive 2 mln 201 thousand USD in the first quarter of
this year and up to 12 mln USD – in the whole 2007 from the Millennium
Challenge Corporation (MCC). The largest disbursement of about 75 mln
USD is envisaged in 2009. He noted that 700 thousand out of the 1 mln
389 thousand USD allocated last year has already been spent. The main
function of the office in 2007 is to hold tenders.

It was mentioned that out of the total program cost of 235 mln USD, 5
million USD will be allocated for salaries and maintenance
expenditures.

Jerusalem Post
Jan 30 2007

Resolution on Armenian genocide to be introduced
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON

Democratic and Republican lawmakers are introducing a resolution
Tuesday calling for US recognition of the World War I-era killings of
Armenians as genocide. The move will likely anger Turkey and is
expected to be opposed by President George W. Bush.

The lead sponsors in the House of Representatives say they have
commitments from more than 150 other members, who want to add their
names as co-sponsors after the bill is introduced, a strong show of
support in the 435-member body.

The sponsors, who held a new conference Tuesday attended by two
Armenian survivors of the killings, say that the move to Democratic
control in Congress increases chances that the bill will reach the
House floor for a vote. Similar resolutions have been introduced in
the past, but were kept from a full vote by congressional leaders.

The bill, which will recognize the deaths of the 1.5 million
Armenians almost a century ago is likely to touch raw nerves in
Turkey. The Bush administration has warned that even congressional
debate on the genocide question could damage relations with a key
Muslim ally and NATO-member.

Christian Science Monitor, MA
Jan 30 2007

A family confronts a time of madness
An Armenian author re-creates memories of the ordeal of her people.

By Yvonne Zipp

Say the word "genocide," and anybody not currently running Iran will
immediately think of the Jewish Holocaust. Cambodia, Rwanda, and
Bosnia might also come to mind. But say Armenia and in the United
States even highly educated people may draw a blank.

Antonia Arslan has taken steps to rectify that situation. Those who
read her unsparing debut novel, Skylark Farm, will never forget the
events of 1914-1918, when more than 1 million Armenians living in
what is now Turkey were massacred in what is widely regarded by the
international community as a genocide.

Arslan’s family was among that number. Her book is classified as
fiction because she uses the structure of a novel to re-create events
that occurred before she was born, but not because she is inventing
them. In "Skylark," the Italian professor of literature has woven her
family’s "obscure memories" together with research, including
interviews with survivors and her own imagination to tell the story
of how three young nieces and one nephew escaped the genocide and
made it safely to their uncle in Italy.

The Arslans were a prosperous family living in the hills of Anatolia.
In 1914, family patriarch Sempad awaits the return of his older
brother, Yerwant, who had gone to Italy as a teenager to study. Both
men engage in elaborate preparations: Yerwant buys a red Isotta
Fraschinni with a silver monogram, so that he can travel in style,
loading it with gold and silver trinkets for everyone in the family.
Sempad, meanwhile, renovates Skylark Farm, the family’s country
house. He orders a stained-glass window from Great Britain, lawn
furniture from Austria, and has the ground dug for a tennis lawn.

But instead of the long-cherished family reunion, World War I begins.
A few weeks before Yerwant and his family are to leave for Anatolia,
Italy closes its borders. Yerwant desperately tries to get
information about his family, not knowing that a campaign to destroy
the Armenian minority had begun in April, and that by May, Sempad’s
tennis lawn had become a mass grave.

In the first part of the novel, Arslan introduces all the members of
the family, laying out who will survive and who will not. The
language in Part 1 can, understandably enough, veer into the
overwrought, and Arslan indulges in a few too many prophetic dreams.
The human warnings that Sempad and his family ignore are
heartbreaking enough, without throwing in green angels and deathbed
prophecies. Also understandably, Arslan tends to have Turkish
characters spout overripe dialogue rather than engage in a precise
examination of the banality of evil. One exception: in a chilling
scene, the Interior Minister Talat Pasha, in a secret meeting, orders
the roundup of Armenian males and then goes off to play backgammon
with Armenian poet Krikor Zohrab. "He’s always right on time, a real
gentleman," Pasha remarks to his aide.

But once the massacre at Skylark Farm occurs – in a powerfully
unflinching scene – the narrative takes hold and Arslan’s writing
surges to meet her material. All the Armenian women, children, and
the elderly are rounded up and forcibly evacuated from the city. They
leave in loaded carriages, but are set on by Kurdish bandits
operating on orders from the Turkish zeptiahs. Those who survive are
forced to march, starving, all the way to Aleppo, where they will be
deported to the desert. No one is allowed to give them food; there is
a law that makes helping any Armenian punishable by death. (Arslan is
careful to mention the brave people, such as the holy leader of
Konya, who defied that order.)

At this point, the race to save the surviving Arslan children takes
on an inexorable momentum. Their unlikely saviors include a Turkish
beggar, a Greek wailer (a professional mourner) and the wife of a
French consul. As they march, Shushanig, the mother, and Azniv, her
second-oldest daughter, do everything to keep the children alive.
(Shushanig only has one son left, her toddler, Nubar. All the men and
boys in their city were murdered. Someone put little Nubar in a dress
as a joke that saved his life.) Azniv’s heroism is all the more
poignant because she could have fled to Paris with a Turkish soldier
who was in love with her.

The strength of the tale is striking: By page 23 readers know what
the outcome will be and yet it’s impossible to stop reading. "Skylark
Farm" operates like "Schindler’s List"; it’s a story of hope that
makes it easier for us to confront the horror of what happens when
evil is allowed to run unchecked.

– Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor.

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The New Anatolian
via ABHaber, Belgium
Jan 30 2007

Political scientist Oran: We already see 301’s effects in atmosphere
praising violence

A controversial academic, apparently out of favor with state
institutions since he advocated further rights for non-Muslim
minorities in a state-ordered report, yesterday said no good can come
from Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Article 301.

"The article should be completely annulled because the problem isn’t
the article itself but its implementation," said Ankara University
political scientist Baskin Oran, using the words of those defending
the article, but reaching an opposite conclusion.

Apart from several politicians arguing that the article sets up a
wall against insults aimed at the Turkish state and its institutions,
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek laid the blame on the judiciary, saying
that judges should adopt new insights into the article’s
interpretation and implementation.

Cicek on Sunday also responded to accusations that the government
lacks the will to change the article, but is mentioning it to satisfy
the European Union, which has been pushing Turkey to annul or at
least change the article to achieve a fair and transparent penal
code.

Cicek said that the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party
government has made changes to the article twice and added that if
another change is necessary the government will not shrink from its
responsibility.

He also reiterated his view that several EU member countries also
have similar articles. "Society has split in three over the article,"
said Cicek, adding, "One group says the article should be annulled
altogether, one says it should be kept with a couple of changes, and
the other even goes as far as saying that the penalties should be
increased."

He said he received 12 advisory offers for change so far, adding that
the government has no bias on the change.

However Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a press conference
prior to his departure for Sudan on Sunday, said that there is no way
that the article can be annulled, but that the government is open to
any suggestions for change.

"I call upon the academics who want to see the article annulled to
reconsider their views, their suggestions are not viable. There are
several countries with articles similar to our 301," said Erdogan.

He also criticized civil groups for the current wide disagreements
between them. "I personally held meetings with several civil groups
over the article but I saw that they even cannot come to terms with
each other," the premier said.

Baskin applies to prosecutor over threats

Oran, after applying to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office
regarding a threatening letter, said that he has been receiving such
letters since his report about minority groups’ rights, which sparked
tense debates.

"There’s no need to wait to see the implementation of the article
under such an atmosphere praising violence. We are experiencing its
practices on a daily basis," Oran added. He also stood trial on
charges of spreading discriminatory propaganda and provoking hatred
along with another academic, but the charges were dropped.

Oran, accompanied by officials and members of several human rights
groups, told reporters that he applied to the prosecutor’s office
late in 2004 over two threats but his complaint was dropped.

He also handed out copies of letters he was sent. He said that he
asked Public Prosecutor Hasan Dursun to prosecute the senders of the
letters and emails but added that the prosecutor had asked if he
could reach a compromise with those threatening him.

Oran is the third public figure to apply to the prosecutor over
threats or make public threatening messages after Armenian-origin
Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was killed.

Dink was gunned down by a teenager who reportedly wanted to punish
the journalist for his views.

Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author, said he has also
been receiving threats. He was given state protection after Dink’s
murder. Both stood trial under Article 301 on charges of "insulting
Turkishness."

Day.az , Azerbaijan
Jan 29 2007

AZERI HACKER CLAIMS SUCCESS IN WAR ON ARMENIAN WEBSITES

29 January: An Azerbaijani hacker has destroyed four Armenian
websites. The hacker posted a statement to the leadership of
Armenia’s special services on the front pages of the websites.

The Armenian news websites , ,
and were destroyed by the
Azerbaijani hacker Bacioglu [Nephew].

The statement to the leadership of Armenian special services posted
on the front pages of the websites reads:

"You can never stop me. I am an Azerbaijani hacker. I will fight you
and all the Armenians on the Earth as long as I am alive."

The author states that Nagornyy Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s historical
land, and that Ilham Aliyev is the only leader who could fight back
the occupied territories.

Armenian hackers destroyed the website of Azerbaijan’s public
television last week.

Armenpress

GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP BEGINS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, ARMENPRESS: Over 100 athletes
will be competing for medals of Armenia’s Greco-Roman
Wrestling championship, which kicked off today.
Levon Vardanian, the secretary of the Armenian
Wrestling Federation, said to Armenpress the
competition will allow coaches to outline the national
team for 2008 Olympic Games.