Author: Chmshkian Vicken

PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC OF FRANCE ARRIVING IN ARMENIA TODAY
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily #185
29/09/2006
At the invitation of president Robert Kocharian, president Jacques
Chirac of France is arriving in Yerevan 29 Sept evening. According
to RA President’s Press Office, the French delegation will include
Philippe Douste-Blazy, foreign minister, Dominique Perben, minister
for transport, infrastructure, tourism and the sea, Christian Jacob,
minister for the civil service, and Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres,
minister for culture and communications. Jacques Chirac will also
be accompanied by businessmen, representatives of science, culture,
education and sport, members of the French-Armenian community and
journalists.
During the two-day official visit, the French delegation will visit
the Memorial of Armenian Genocide. His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos
of All Armenians will also receive the French president.
Tomorrow morning the Armenian and French presidents will take part
in the opening of the French Square downtown Yerevan. Later that day
world famous Charles Aznavour and his friends will perform a concert
at the Republic Square. The legendary singer arrived in Yerevan on
Sept 27. “Even if I am worn out, I will come to the Republic Square in
a cheerful mood because it’s a present for my people,” Aznavour said
at the airport. “My visit is also important as Armenia is celebrating
15th anniversary of independence. The independence of my country is
the same for me as it is for every Armenian.”
This will be the beginning of the Year of Armenia in France that
bears the title “Armenia, My Friend.”

SERGEY IVANOV: GANGSTERISM IN GEORGIA ACQUIRED STATE COLORING
PanARMENIAN.Net
29.09.2006 13:07 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Gangsterism in Georgia has acquired a state coloring,
said Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov. “We have warned the
military and their families not to go leave homes if it’s not extremely
necessary,” he added.
The Russian Defense Minister accused “some new NATO member states of
selling to Georgia the armament that they purchased from the USSR with
a veto on re-export.” “This is a grave violation of the agreement on
the control of armament and nothing else but piracy,” said Ivanov,
who will take part in the Russia-NATO Council sitting in Slovenia.
As it was reported earlier, since September 27 evening the
Georgian police have detained 6 Russian military on accusation
of espionage. Presently officers Alexander Sava, Dmitry Kazantsev,
Alexander Barantsev, Alexander Zavgotodtsev and first sergeant Ruslan
Skrylnikov are kept in custody. The Georgian side asserts that another
serviceman Konstantin Pichugin is hiding in the Russian Embassy,
reports RIA Novosti.

GEORGIAN AUTHORITIES” ACTIONS CAN LEAD TO WAR, SERGEY MIRONOV SAYS
PanARMENIAN.Net
29.09.2006 13:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The actions of the Georgian authorities can lead to
war, said Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Sergey Mironov. In
his words, in history similar attacks of espionage-mania have served
as a start for launching military operations. Meanwhile, according to
the latest data, Georgia produced formal accusation to four Russian
military, who were detained earlier, reports Lenta.ru.
To remind, on September 27 evening in Tbilisi and Batumi four Russian
military were detained. Two other officers were arrested later. One
of them, first sergeant Ruslan Skrylnikov was released on September
29 night. According to Shota Khizanishvili, the administration
head at the Georgian Ministry of Interior, Skrylnikov is a Georgian
citizen. Another prisoner, Amir Aslanyan, is a Georgian citizen too and
“he is not ranked among the detained Russian officers.” Khizanashvili
confirmed that lieutenant colonel Alexander Sava, lieutenant colonel
Dmitry Kazantsev, lieutenant colonel Alexander Baranov and captain
Alexander Zavgorodnev have been accused of espionage. Besides,
similar accusations were brought against 11 Georgian citizens,
who are Armenians, said Chief of the RA Armed Forces General Staff
Mikael Harutyunyan.

OSCE MG MAY VISIT REGION IN NEAR FUTURE
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.09.2006 15:07 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement may pay a visit to the region in
the near future, RA MFA Acting Spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told a
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, Vartan Oskanian did not rule
out such a possibility in New York.
As PanARMENIAN.Net came to know from the Russian MFA Group on Nagorno
Karabakh, the mediators are in Helsinki at the moment.
To note, Finland presides in the European Union and the mediators
arrived in Helsinki to report on the process of talks in the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement.

EU PARLIAMENT ENDORSES CRITICISM ON PACE OF TURKISH REFORMS
AKI, Italy
Sept 27 2006
Strasbourg, 27 Sept. (AKI) – Members of the European Parliament on
Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a report levelling stern criticism
at European Union candidate country Turkey over its recent progress in
implementing reforms, especially in the areas of freedom of expression,
rights of religious minorities and the issue of its recognition of
Cyprus. MEPs voted 429 in favour of the report, with 71 against and
125 abstentions.
MEPs nevertheless welcomed some recent steps by the Turkish government
in the fields of combating torture, fighting corruption and extending
women’s rights. They also rejected a controversial provision in
the report that would have made Turkey’s recognition as ‘genocide’
of the killing of over one million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during
and after World War I a precondition for EU membership.
MEPs called on the Turkish government to recognise the Republic of
Cyprus (an EU member state) and to withdraw its forces from the island
and lift its embargo on Cypriot vessels and aircraft. The report –
prepared by Conservative Dutch MEP Camiel Eurlings – reminds Turkey
that a lack of progress in normalising relations with Cypus “will
have serious implications for the negotiation process and could even
bring it to a halt.” It also urges Greece and Turkey “to refrain from
tension-prone military activities.”
The parliament called on the Turkish authorities to facilitate the
work of researchers, intellectuals and academics studying the Armenian
mass killings by ensuring them access to the historical archives and
all the relevant documents. MEPs urged Turkey to establish diplomatic
and good neighbourly relations with Armenia, to withdraw the economic
blockade and open the land border at an early date.
On the Kurdish question, MEPs noted the continued intimidation of
non-governmental organisations in southeast Turkey, while welcoming the
start of broadcasts in Kurdish. Eurlings’ report “strongly condemns the
resurgence of terrorist violence on the part of the banned separatist
Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK)” but also urges a democratic solution
to the issue of a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
Despite the recent acquittal of leading novelist Elif Shafak on
charges of “insulting Turkishness,” MEPs said they remained troubled by
persisting barriers to freedom of expression in Turkey. They called for
the abolition or amendment of those provisions of Turkey’s penal code
which threaten freedom of speech, notably Article 301, which foresees
punishment for ‘denigrating Turkishness’. Charges were brought against
Shafak and, previously, another leading Turkish writer, Orhan Pamuk
under Article 301.
Ahead of a debate of his report by the parliament on Wednesday,
Eurlings described it as “tough but fair.” He said it regretted above
all a slowdown in implementing reforms on the role of the security
forces in public life, trade union rights, torture and ill-treatment
of prisoners, as well as individual freedoms.
The European Commission is due to release its annual report on Turkey’s
progress on 8 November. It began membership talks with Turkey on 3
October last year and Turkey is not expected to join the EU until
2015 at earliest.

AZNAVOUR ET L’ARMENIE, 82 ANS D’HISTOIRE COMMUNE
Agence France Presse
26 septembre 2006 mardi 4:26 PM GMT
Monument de la culture francaise, meme s’il n’aime pas ce
qualificatif, Charles Aznavour est aussi l’une des plus celèbres
vedettes internationales originaires d’Armenie, le pays de ses parents,
avec lequel il a entretenu des liens etroits tout au long de sa vie.
Aznavour, 82 ans, donnera un concert a Erevan, la capitale de
l’Armenie, samedi, sous les yeux de Jacques Chirac, qui s’y rend
en visite de vendredi a dimanche. Il se produira en outre a l’Opera
Garnier a Paris le 17 fevrier prochain, dans le cadre de l’annee de
l’Armenie en France.
La manifestation la plus tangible des liens entre Aznavour et l’Armenie
date de decembre 1988, après le tremblement de terre qui devaste le
nord du pays.
Le chanteur, dont le vrai nom est Aznavourian, fonde alors le comite
“Aznavour pour l’Armenie” pour collecter des fonds. Avant de se
rendre sur place, il ecrit le texte de la chanson humanitaire “Pour
toi Armenie”. Elle est enregistree debut 1989 avec 90 artistes (dont
Gilbert Becaud, Johnny Hallyday ou Renaud) et se vendra a plus d’un
million d’exemplaires.
Après cela, Charles Aznavour sera nomme ambassadeur permanent en
Armenie par l’Unesco.
“Jusqu’ici, je disais toujours: +Je suis francais d’origine
armenienne+. Après le choc, je me suis rendu compte que j’etais
vraiment d’origine armenienne”, avait-il declare a Paris-Match en
decembre 1988.
En avril 1975, il avait cree a la salle Pleyel a Paris la chanson
“Ils sont tombes”, pour le 60e anniversaire du genocide armenien (“La
mort les a frappes sans demander leur âge/Puisqu’ils etaient fautifs
d’etre enfants d’Armenie”, dit le texte). La musique etait signee par
son beau-frère Georges Garvarentz (fils du poète Kevork Garvarentz,
auteur de l’hymne national revolutionnaire armenien).
Pour ses 80 ans, Aznavour a ete nomme en 2004 “heros national” de
l’Armenie par le president Robert Kotcharian. En 2001, une place
d’Erevan a ete baptisee a son nom, avec une statue a son effigie. Et
en 2002, il tenait le rôle d’un cineaste tournant un film sur le
genocide de 1915 dans “Ararat”, film du Canadien Atom Egoyan, lui
aussi d’origine armenienne.
Le chanteur n’est pourtant pas ne en Armenie mais a Paris, le 22 mai
1924, où ses parents s’etaient etablis après avoir quitte leur pays.
“Charles Aznavour ou le destin apprivoise”, biographie de reference
parue en juin, relève qu’Aznavour aurait dû porter le prenom armenien
de Shahnourh, finalement francise en Charles par la sage-femme.
Cet ouvrage, auquel Aznavour a porte son concours pour la première
fois, revèle en outre les liens d’amitie etroits qui existaient
dans les annees 30 entre la famille Aznavourian et un autre Armenien
d’origine, entre depuis dans l’Histoire de France: Missak Manouchian,
chef du groupe FTP (Francs-tireurs partisans) de “L’affiche rouge”,
execute en fevrier 1944 par les nazis avec 22 autres resistants.
Manouchian qui, en 1940, avait ecrit cette phrase premonitoire a la
mère d’Aznavour: “Charles sera l’honneur du peuple armenien, et une
gloire pour la France”.
–Boundary_(ID_Hs/rdCOZlV0LNkgY+yMN pg)–

RUSSELL JOHNSTON TO MEET WITH HEADS OF ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI DELEGATIONS
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 25 2006
President of PACE Subcommittee on Nagorno Karabakh Russell Johnston
will have e meeting with Heads of Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations,
Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan in the European Parliament
Aghshin Mehtiev told “Trend” agency. He noted that during the fall
session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to
be held October 2-6, Russell Johnston will discuss the question of
the visit of members of PACE Subcommittee on Nagorno Karabakh to
the region.

TURKISH COURT JUSTIFIES FEMALE WRITER WHO TOUCHED UPON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
AZG Armenian Daily
26/09/2006
Turkish court has justified writer Elif Safaq charged with having
“insulted Turkish dignity.” Reuters reports that Mrs. Safaq appeared
on the dock as the characters of her novel “Istanbul’s Illegitimate
Son” comment on the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. Elif
Safaq gave birth to a child last week and is currently in hospital,
Reuters reports.

EU TRIO DELEGATION TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 2
Pablic Radio of Armenia
Sept 23 2006
EU Trio delegation headed by the Foreign Minister of Finland Erkki
Tuomioja will arrive in Armenia on October 2. Acting Press Secretary of
RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Karapetyan told “Armenpress”
that during the visit the EU Presidency and the Armenian side will
declare about the completion of the text of Armenia’s Actions Plan
in the framework of the “Enlarged Europe: New Neighbors” Policy.
The Trio delegation comprises also EU Commissioner for Foreign
Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferero-Waldner,
EU Special Envoy for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby and Ambassadors.

WILL OSKANYAN BE PRESIDENT?
A1+
[08:07 pm] 22 September, 2006
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan did not exclude the possibility
of his participation in the 2008 Presidential elections.
Answering the questions about his possible participation in the 2008
Presidential elections by magazine “Nouvelles d’Armenie” which is
published in France, the Foreign Minister said, “It is still too
early to speak about it”.
“I know that I still have much to do in this country, and I would
like to continue my work. As for how, time will show”, Oskanyan said.
The Armenian press has supposed many times that Oskanyan can be
the possible successor of Kocharyan and be supported by “Prosperous
Armenia” created by Gagik Tsaroukyan.
According to the legislation, Vardan Oskanyan who left California
for Armenia in 1992 and got citizenship in 1998 will have the right
to participate in the 2008 Presidential elections, Radio station
“Azatutyun” reports.