Author: Emil Lazarian

PRESS RELEASE February 1, 2007
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected] ;Web:

Embassy of Armenia Celebrates Armenian Army’s 15th Anniversary

On January 31, the Armenian Army Day was celebrated in Washington, D.C.
during a reception at the Embassy of Armenia. This year marked a jubilee,
the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of the Armenian Army.

At the Embassy celebration, Ambassador Tatoul Markarian and Defense Attaché
Col. Armen Sargsyan welcomed high-ranking officials from the Administration,
State Department, Department of Defense and branch services, including
Caucasus Director at the National Security Council, Matthew Palmer, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, and Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense James MacDougal. Also attending were U.S. military officers,
foreign Ambassadors, diplomats, and military attachés accredited in
Washington, as well as representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Armenian-American organizations and the Armenian community.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 31 2007

Mehmet Y.Yilmaz:Why is the Istanbul Chief of Police still on his job?

As the investigation into the murder of journalist Hrant Dink
deepens, more and more information pointing to negligence on the part
of the Istanbul police force is emerging. In February of 2006,
"police informant" Erhan Tuncel, who is currently arrest in
connection with Dink’s murder, told the Trabzon Police Headquarters
that Yasin Hayal was concocting plans to shoot Dink.

And on February 19, 2006, the Trabzon Police Headquarters sent a
written message to the Istanbul Police Headquaters warning about
Tuncel’s statement. Contained in the written message was information
pertaining to the address in Istanbul where Hayal might be found. But
when the Istanbul police weren’t able to obtain any real information
from the address given, they left the written warning from the
Trabzon police somewhere in the whirlwind of the city’s bureaucracy,
forgetting all about it.

What this news does is illuminate two separate and clear cases of
negligence:

1-The Trabzon police did not watch carefully the actions of a person
that they had been given serious warnings about by another person
involved in the McDonald’s bombing. And while ignoring these
warnings, that person, Yasin Hayal, gathered youth from the region
around him, started to train them in weaponry, and then sent one to
Istanbul to kill Hrant Dink.

2- The Istanbul police forces ignored the one warning sent to them by
the Trabzon police, and never offered Hrant Dink the protection he
should have received.

The person who is responsible for the first case of negligence, the
Trabzon Police Chief, was removed from his position. As for the
person responsible for the second case of negligence, the Istanbul
Chief of Police, he is still on the job. Meanwhile, the Interior
Minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, says that the inspectors in this case are
working hard in their ongoing investigation. And so I ask: wouldn’t
the removal of Istanbul’s Chief of Police from his position provide
some salvation for this operation?

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 31 2007

Trabzon police were warned 17 times of plans against Hrant Dink

It has emerged during the investigation into journalist Hrant Dink’s
murder that suspect Erhan Tuncel, who was arrested in a sweep of
mostly Trabzon-based young men thought to have been involved in the
incident, had informed Trabzon police a total of 17 different times
of plans to kill Dink.

Tuncel, who had agreed to become an informer for Trabzon police
following his arrest in 2004 for involvement in the bombing of the
Trabzon McDonald’s, had reportedly warned Trabzon police that "Yasin
Hayal could shoot Hrant Dink." Authorities are currently looking into
why it is that of the 17 times Tuncel warned security forces about
the threat to Dink’s life, only 1 of these warnings made it as far as
Istanbul, where Dink worked and resided. In the 1 warning which
reached Istanbul police, Tuncel said that Yasin Hayal would be
staying at the home of his older brother, Osman Hayal, and that he
would carry out the shooting while staying there. Police reportedly
researched the address provided at the time, but finding nothing,
dropped the case.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Sabah, Turkey
Feb 1 2007

Informant ‘brother’ is also the one who showed the murderer Dink’s
photo

Police informant, Erhan Tuncel, not only informed the police that
Dink may be shot, but he also gave Dink’s photograph to the
triggermen.

Yasin Hayal’s statements, after being arrested for being the
solicitor in the assassination of Dink, revealed the terrible truth.
Referring to Erhan Tuncel, who avoided giving a statement by saying
he is a police informant, Yasin Hayal said: "I wanted Erhan Tuncel to
print pictures of Hrant Dink off the internet. He left the photos in
the neighborhood market. He knew about the assassination."

‘The plan was mine, Erhan found the pictures’

The solicitor of the assassination Yasin Hayal said that the
assassination was his own plan and added: "Erhan Tuncel’s job was to
find the pictures."

Yasin Hayal, who was arrested for soliciting the assassination of
Hrant Dink, has given his statement. It is said that in the
statement, he limited the role of Erhan Tuncel to finding photographs
via the internet and he defended that the idea of the assassination
was his own. It is also stated that he told Tuncel and he was aware
of the plan but he was hesitant and he could not prevent the
assassination as he was afraid of him. Hayal said: "I know that Hrant
Dink was tried due to insulting Turks and he had incurred a penalty
of 6 months which was postponed. Dink made many statements that
humiliated and injured Turks. As he did not apologize through the
media, I believed that he should pay a price."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Daily News, Turkey
Feb 1 2007

What Others Say
Thursday, February 1, 2007

The prosecutor’s job is tough

Ýsmet BERKAN, Radikal

Indeed, one is left speechless on the controversy surrounding the
Hrant Dink Murder. The more I read about the connections involved in
the murder, the angrier I get, for, every piece of information I’ve
read until now clearly shows that this murder could have been
prevented. Imagine, a mole informed the police of the plot in full
detail at least one year before the assassination. The informer is
not an ordinary person. He is someone recruited – and perhaps even
paid – by the police for being close to ultra nationalist circles. So
he gives away the information, but what happens then? The police
literally ignore it. They don’t monitor the activities of Yasin Hayal
[one of the key suspects in the Dink murder], they don’t investigate
his connections and they don’t even pay attention to the things
written on his favorite football club’s Web site [messages praising
Hayal as `the bomber’ were posted on the site]. As Radikal
journalists found out, an entire neighborhood actually knew that Dink
was going to be assassinated and that he was going to be killed by
Ogün Samast. They gathered in coffeehouses and openly talked about
killing Dink, passing around his pictures. They actually went to a
store to watch the news on TV together as a group.

What is the most mind-blowing of all here is that Hayal was never
taken seriously by the police, despite his documented predisposition
to violence. This is not all. Look, governors and police chiefs are
trying to protect those `nationalist’ youths even after Dink’s
murder. It is as if we are faced with a simple crime network formed
for a single action only to be dismantled afterwards. In reality that
is not the case. Nothing can be done unless it is commonly understood
and acknowledged that the murder was terrorism and the culprits are a
large organization with a serious ideological background.
Unfortunately, we have lost Hrant to a terrorist attack that could
have been prevented. Nevertheless, we still do not know how many more
`brothers’ in Turkey there are. We do not know of their future plots
against their next victim. In order to find out, we need to monitor
closely the environments that spread hate directed at potential
victims and prevent the next crime through intelligence and regular
police investigation. Our police, although they want to prevent such
terrorist acts, do not have the ideological and legal background
needed for the struggle. This is why the task of Istanbul chief
prosecutors is so hard. If the crime is only killing Dink, then the
case is pretty much solved already. The prosecutors now need to
deepen the investigation and identify this new terrorist group and
register its name in court decisions. This is why the Dink murder
investigation is not, and cannot be, solely a murder investigation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Vladimir Putin: Government should secure interests of foreigners and Russian
citizens

ArmRadio.am
01.02.2007 15:35

Intensification of nationalists’ activity in Russia is connected with
ideological vacuum that appeared after the collapse of the USSR, a
feeling of being aggrieved by the most numerous ethnic groups, Russian
President Vladimir Putin said at his annual news conference in Moscow
today. According to him, governmental agencies do not always
adequately react to such manifestations. Putin cited as one of the
reasons is open borders between the Russian Federation and former USSR
republics, while labor issues are not always solved to the benefit of
Russian citizens. The government should secure interests of foreigners
and Russians as well, the president said. Unsettled nature of those
issues hurts everyone and results in xenophobia and nationalism,
reprts Regnum.

Hürriyet, Turkey
Feb 1 2007

Reverberations from Hrant Dink murder continue; Pamuk cancels trip abroad

Reverberations from the murder nearly two weeks ago of journalist
Hrant Dink continue: yesterday, Trabzon Chief of Police, Resat Altay,
who was formally dismissed from his post following Dink’s murder as
the investigation began to reveal that a number of the suspects
originated from Trabzon, left this Black Sea city with his wife.

In the meantime, one of the men suspected of having a key role in
Dink’s murder, Trabzon resident Yasin Hayal, told investigators in
Istanbul yesterday that he had chosen 17 year old Ogun Samast to
carry out the murder since he knew he himself was under police
observation, which he had guessed would impede him in an attempt to
kill Dink.

In Ankara meanwhile, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said that
prior to the close of the investigation into the Dink murder, he
would not be commenting on claims that Trabzon police informant Erhan
Tuncel, who is also a suspect in the murder, had warned police a
total of 17 times of the impending attack against Dink. Aksu also
reiterated that there would be no moves to dismiss either Istanbul
Chief of Police Celalettin Cerrah nor the Chief of Intelligence,
Ramazan Akyurek, prior to the close of the Dink investigation.

In a related note, Nobel prize award winning Turkish author Orhan
Pamuk has reportedly cancelled plans to travel to both Belgium and
Berlin, where he was to receive honorary doctorate awards at
universities in those cities. Sources in Germany connected to the
publishing house which publishes Pamuk’s books in German there said
Pamuk had cancelled his trip out of fear over possible attacks from
nationalist Turkish factions.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI SIDE AGAIN DOES NOT LEAD OSCE OBSERVERS TO ITS FRONT
BORDERS

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. On January 31, according to
earlier achieved agreement with the authorities of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a regular monitoring of
the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces contact-line in the
east direction of the settlement of Talish of the NKR Martakert
region.

>From the positions of the NKR Defense Army the monitoring conducted
Coordinator of the OSCE Office Imre Palatinus (Hungary), Field
Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Gunter Folk (Germany) and Miroslav Vimetal
(Czechia).

As Noyan Tapan was informed from NKR Foreign Ministry Press Service,
the monitoring passed in accordance with the planned schedule.
However, the Azerbaijani side at a regular time did not lead the OSCE
observers to its front borders. During the monitoring, no violations
of the cease-fire regime were fixed.

>From the Karabakh party representatives of the NKR Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministry accompanied the OSCE monitoring
mission.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RA STATE LABOR INSPECTION RECEIVES APPLICATION-COMPLAINTS MAINLY FROM
PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS’ EMPLOYEES

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. In 2005-2006, RA State Labor
Inspection held 4816 program checkings and 299 checkings due to
necessity, as a result of which administrative fine of 304 mln 181
thousand 341 drams (nearly 833 thousand USD) was collected and
transferred to the state budget. As Inspection Head Haroutiun
Haroutiunian said at the January 31 press conference, the violations
mainly related to norms of labor legislation and labor contract (45
mln drams). 2300 cases of non-registered employees (administrative
fine is 115 mln drams), 1025 cases of absence of employees’ badges in
the sphere of commerce and service were also registered
(administrative fine is 51 mln 250 thousand drams).

The inspection head said that the number of application-complaints
grows year by year. These application-complaints are mainly received
from employees of private institutions. In his words, nearly 347
application-complaints relating to violation of labor legislation were
received from citizens in 2005-2006.

H.Haroutiunian said that in 2006 the inspection was replenished with
movable technical equipment. In his words, this enables to exercise
control over healthy and safe conditions of work, including control
over dangerous chemical substances, level of radiation, dust, noise,
their correspondence to permissible norm.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

APPEAL COURT RECOGNIZES ELECTION RESULTS AT CRU 17th CONFERENCE AS
INVALID

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. The Appeal Court of the RA on
January 31 satisfied the lawsuit of several members of the Presidium
of the party "Constitutional Right" Union (CRU), recognizing the
elections results at the SRU’s 17th conference on September 16, 2006,
as invalid. The founder of CRU Hrant Khachatrian stated at the press
conference on the same day that the court’s decision was a surprise to
him and his co-partisans. "This positive event was not part of my
personal plans and intentions," he said.

"After this court decision, we come back to the situation on September
16 when the conference was interrupted because of some discrediting
speeches," he noted. In his words, conference participants succumbed
to provocations and believed false information.

To recap, due to disagreements at the conference, the CRU Chairman
Hrant Khachatrian stated that he would resign and stop his political
activity, after which the Vice Chairman Hayk Babukhanian was elected
the party’s chairman. The court of first instance rejected the lawsuit
of Khachatrian’s supporters to recognize these elections illegal.

H. Khachatrian said that after the decision of the Appeal Court he
will try to make the party healthier. "A situation has formed when it
is necessary to put an end to lies, falsehood and violence," he
noted. In his words, a conference to decide the issues of the party’s
leadership and further plans should be convened as soon as
possible. At the same time he expressed the opinion that in the
current situation CRU will hardly be able to run in the parliamentary
elections. He did not exclude the possibilty of a split in the CRU as
a result of disagreements between him and Hayk Babukhanian.