Author: Emil Lazarian

WE WILL NOT HAVE OFFICIAL ANTHEM FOR SEVERAL DAYS

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 7 2006

How will the problem of the national anthem be solved? After 24:00
December 6 we will not have an official anthem?

You are right to raise this question. Unfortunately, we did not
manage the second and third readings at the National Assembly. For a
few days, officially, legally, we will not have an anthem but these
few days will not affect the activities of the state. We will try to
hold an extraordinary meeting to solve this problem.

What was the reason not to do it in time? Was it a complicated problem?

You must remember the debates. I think, the National Assembly did
not have enough time, and we could not speed up the solution of the
problem. There were shortcomings, both at the National Assembly and
the government.

The Orinats Yerkir Party retired from the coalition, and now the
controversies you had are being exposed. Is it good that you broke
relations with Orinats Yerkir?

Let us not try to assess the past. Over those three years we have
done everything together. If there were controversies, these did not
obstruct the implementation of the government policy. The Orinats
Yerkir Party found that these controversies were too many and
cooperation was impossible, so it withdrew.

Aram Sargsyan has invited you and the defense minister to run in the
election from the same constituency with him, for he believes that
you will never let him commit electoral fraud to win.

There are a number of offers. Aram’s offer is just one of them. I
have to think whose offer to accept.

Will you remain prime minister if you win the parliamentary election
in 2007?

I suggest you ask me this question after the election, as soon as it
becomes known how many votes the political parties will have got.

Garnik Isagulyan, adviser to Robert Kocharyan has stated that Serge
Sargsyan is the preferable presidential candidate.

We have stated for a number of times that the Republican Party is not
considering a presidential candidate yet, and we will speak about it
at a more convenient time. And the convenient time is the parliamentary
election 2007.

The opposition is initiating different movements. What is your
attitude?

I think it is good. There has been enough talking. It is time to work,
to be in movement. The problem is how may movements there will be,
who will participate.

Why was the business forum cancelled during your visit to Moscow?

The purpose of my visit to Moscow was the official closing of
the Armenian year in Russia. We were not holding a meeting of the
intergovernmental commission. The Russian party wanted to hold it as
well but then they changed their mind. We are ready to hold business
forums at the Armenian expo hall at any time.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EASTERN ANATOLIAN CHURCHES TURKISH, NOT GEORGIAN OR ARMENIAN – STUDY

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Dec 7 2006

["RESEARCH REVEALS MANY OF CHURCHES IN EASTERN TURKEY BELONG TO TURKS" – AA headline]

ERZURUM (A.A) -07.12.2006 -A research carried out by Ass.Prof. Dr
Tahsin Parlak, head of the Traditional Craftsman Department at Ataturk
University, has revealed that many of the churches in eastern Anatolia
belonged to Kipchack Turks.

Speaking to A.A correspondent on Thursday, Parlak said they compared
the motifs, designs and manuscripts crafted on the Menzil Churches
which were constructed in eastern Anatolia, (which was under the
rule of Cildir Principality) between the 12th and 14th centuries with
those of motifs and designs from Central Asian Turks and Gokturk and
Uyghur epitaphs.

Noting that they have came across traces of Turkic origin in Aksik-a,
Banak, Parin-ak, Hov-ak, Ak-Pisor, Ak-Cur, Ovsan-Ak, Bibi Meryem Ana,
Haluli and Ishan churches Parlak said, "We have found motifs of "the
sun" and "two headed eagle" motifs and letters belonging to Uyghur
and Gokturk alphabets in the mentioned churches. These motives have
been used by Turks of the Central Asia for thousands of years. It is
possible to come across these motifs in all Turkic works of art.

These churches were thought to be of Georgian and Armenian origin as
no research had been done.

However, these motifs designs and letters reveal unequivocally that
these churches are the work of Kipchack Turks"

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FOUR ARMENIANS FROM YEZID MINORITY SET FIRE TO THEMSELVES

Agence France Presse — English
December 7, 2006 Thursday 3:18 PM GMT

Three teenage boys and their grandmother set fire to themselves
Thursday outside the president’s residence during a protest by members
of Armenia’s Yezid minority, the head of the community, Aziz Tamoyan,
told AFP.

The four, who were rushed to hospital in a critical condition, were
protesting along with other residents from their village over the
murder of the teenagers’ father on November 6.

Villagers have accused the police and judicial authorities of bias
after releasing the head of a neighbouring village, who they claim
was one of seven men who beat to death the 42-year-old man from
their village.

Some 42,000 Yezid people live in Armenia, or around one percent of
the population.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NOBEL-WINNER PAMUK FINDS INSPIRATION IN LONELINESS, SELF-DOUBT AND ANGER
By Karl Ritter, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
December 7, 2006 Thursday 7:22 PM GMT

Nobel literature winner Orhan Pamuk said on Thursday the secret to
good writing is stubbornness and patience and that inspiration hits
an author in moments of utter solitude and self-doubt.

The Turkish author also revealed he is driven by passion, curiosity
and even rage.

"I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone," he said
in a Nobel Prize lecture dedicated in large part to his late father. "I
write because I never managed to be happy. I write to be happy."

Pamuk, 54, is to collect his 10 million kronor (euro1.1 million; US$1.4
million) award in a ceremony on Sunday. By tradition, the literature
prize winner delivers a lecture to the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

Unlike last year’s winner Harold Pinter, Pamuk did not use his lecture
for political commentary, but focused on the sometimes agonizing
craft of writing.

"The writer’s secret is not inspiration for it is never clear where
it comes from it is his stubbornness, his patience," Pamuk said.

"The angel of inspiration … favors the hopeful and the confident"
and appears "when a writer feels mostly lonely, when he feels most
doubtful about his efforts, his dreams, and the value of his writing."

Pamuk’s life and works illustrate the struggle to find a balance
between East and West, a topic he touched on several times during his
lecture by referring to his father’s library, with Western literature
at one end and Turkish books at the other.

"I felt that my father had read novels to escape his life and flee
to the West just as I would do later. Or it seemed to me that books
in those days were things we picked up to escape our own culture,
which we found so lacking," Pamuk said.

"What I feel now is the opposite of what I felt as a child and a
young man: for me the center of the world is Istanbul."

In pronouncing the Istanbul-born writer the winner of its prestigious
prize in October, the Swedish Academy said Pamuk "in the quest for
the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols
for the clash and interlacing of cultures."

The announcement was met a mixed reaction in his homeland, where
nationalists professed shame at the selection of a man who speaks of
the oppression of Armenians and Kurds, while many writers called it
a historic moment for their rich literary tradition.

"What literature needs most to tell and investigate today are
humanity’s basic fears," Pamuk said, adding they include the fear
of being left outside, of feeling worthless and vulnerable "and the
nationalist boasts and inflations that are their next of kind."

"We have often witnessed peoples, societies and nations outside the
Western world and I can identify with them easily succumbing to fears
that sometimes lead them to commit stupidities, all because of their
fears of humiliation and their sensitivities," he said.

"I also know that in the West a world with which I can identify
with the same ease nations and peoples taking an excessive pride in
their wealth, and in their having brought us the Renaissance, the
Enlightenment, and Modernism, have, from time to time, succumbed to
a self-satisfaction that is almost as stupid."

Concluding his lecture, titled "My Father’s Suitcase," Pamuk recalled
that his father, who died in 2002, was so impressed by his first
novel that he predicted the then 22-year-old Pamuk would go on to
receive the highest accolade in literature.

"He told me that one day I would win the prize that I am here to
receive with such great happiness," Pamuk said.

EU-TURKEY TALKS MAY BE POSTPONED FOR AT LEAST A YEAR

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.12.2006 16:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ German Chancellor Angela Merkel offers to toughen
conditions for Turkey’s EU bid. She refrained from presenting ultimatum
to Turkey but adheres to a tough line on the state. The European Union
urges Turkey to recognize the Greek Republic of Cyprus and tries to
find instuments of influence on Ankara.

The proposal, which had been mooted at the recent NATO summit in
Riga, was discussed by Merkel and Chirac when they met in Mettlach in
western Germany on Tuesday. Merkel and Chirac met for their customary
bi-monthly informal talks, which were followed by a three-way summit
with Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

EU foreign ministers are expected to agree on the freeze when they
meet in Brussels on Dec. 11. The measure will see that eight of the
35 policy chapters, which all candidate nations must complete, remain
closed. A deadline for resuming full talks does not form part of the
proposal so far but officials have told the press that both France
and Germany believe it is necessary to maintain pressure on Ankara.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

300 KARABAKH CITIZENS REGISTERED IN ARMENIA FOR DECEMBER 10 REFERENDUM

Armenpress
Dec 07 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS: Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh
refrained from setting up a polling station in Russian Moscow for
its citizens who will be asked on December 10 to go to the polling
stations to cast ballots in a constitutional referendum.

A deputy foreign minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, Mayis Mailian, cited
instances of fierce Azeri protests over cultural events organized by
Karabakh authorities in Moscow lately. "Just imagine what Azeris in
Moscow would do should we try to set up a polling stations there,"
he said to Armenpress.

He said the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh citizens outside their
country are in Russia and in Armenia.

Raya Nazarian, the press secretary of the Central Election Commission
of Nagorno-Karabakh, said a polling station will open at the permanent
representation of Karabakh in Yerevan. She said 300 Karabakh citizens
have already registered there.

Seven international organizations and nine local ones have registered
with CEC to watch the December 10 referendum which will be covered
by 55 Armenian and foreign journalists.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOCHARIAN REVIEWS THE DISASTER AREA

Armenpress
Dec 07 2006

GYUMRI, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS: President Kocharian who traveled
today to the town of Gyumri, the capital of northwestern province of
Shirak, to commemorate victims of the destructive 1988 earthquake,
met with city officials to review the problems of the city that had
been nearly razed to ground 18 years ago and what had been done to
overcome these problems.

Hray Karapetian, head of the urban department of the municipality,
said the priority was to provide still thousands of homeless families
with apartments.

According to local authorities, 4,000 families are homeless and almost
half of them still live in what are called domiks (shacks).

Karapetian said in recent years 17,000 domiks were removed from the
town after their inhabitants received new apartments. Some 875 million
drams were released by the government to promote a housing certificate
program which enables homeless families to buy apartments in the
town. The government has earmarked 163 million drams to help homeless
families of the province living in rural areas next year. Overall the
province will receive next year about 1.8 billion drams for various
urban projects.

President Kocharian also went to see the town’s swimming pool that
was built on Hayastan Fund’s money.

Before the quake the town had two pools.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CRIMINAL CASE INITIATED IN CONNECTION WITH THE CASE OF SELF-ARSON

A1+
[08:08 pm] 07 December, 2006

RA Public Prosecutor’s office has made a statement according to which
the Public Prosecutor has met the relatives of the people who carried
out an act of self-arson opposite the President’s Residence today.

By the way, the victims have second- and third-degree burns. The
statement informs that a criminal case has been initiated in connection
with the case.

As for the reason of the case, the murder of Qyaram Avdalyan,
the Prosecutor’s office informs, "The flock of sheep belonging to
RA citizen Qyaram Avdalyan pastured in the gardens of the village
of Lchashen which caused an argument between Q. Avdalyan and the
owners of the garden on November 6, at about 04:00 p.m. Q. Avdalyan
hit Avetiq Margaryan who in his turn hit him back. Q. Avdalyan ran
away. About two hours later he died of internal bleeding. A criminal
case has been initiated. Avetiq Margaryan (b. 1956) has been arrested
and charged with murder."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DASHNAK LEADER WANTS CAUTIOUS LINE ON NATO
By Ruben Meloyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 8 2006

Armenia should exercise caution in forging closer links with NATO
because of its strained relationship with alliance member Turkey,
a leader of the governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) said on Friday.

Deputy parliament speaker Vahan Hovannisian claimed that Ankara has
long been acting against "Armenian national and state interests"
and may use NATO for that purpose.

"We have many unresolved issues with Turkey," he told an international
conference in Yerevan. "We must not let Turkey put those unresolved
problems on NATO’s shoulders. We don’t need that. We have a problem
with Turkey, not NATO."

Hovannisian and his nationalist party, a member of Armenia’s governing
coalition, regards Turkey as a grave threat to Armenia’s national
security. Dashnaktsutyun also takes the view that Turkish recognition
of the 1915 Armenian genocide must be the main prerequisite for
normalizing relations between the two nations.

President Robert Kocharian and his administration as a whole favor
a softer line, saying that Ankara should establish diplomatic
relations with Yerevan and open the Turkish-Armenian border without
any preconditions. But they share Dashnaktsutyun’s position, reaffirmed
by Hovannisian, that membership of NATO should not be on the Armenian
foreign policy agenda in the near future, despite growing public
support for it.

Yerevan is instead trying to step up cooperation with the U.S.-led
alliance under an "individual partnership action plan," or IPAP,
launched earlier this year. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian discussed
the implementation of Armenia’s IPAP with NATO’s Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Yerevan conference, Oskanian’s deputy Arman Kirakosian
said closer ties with NATO will not only strengthen Armenia’s security
but also facilitate its "European integration."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI SOLDIER TAKEN A PRISONER

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 8 2006

Azerbaijani soldier Vusal Garachayev, 18, was taken a prisoner by
Armenian Armed Forces in the contact line in Aghdam, APA reports
quoting to Panarmenian agency.

State Committee on Work with Prisoners and Loss People investigates the
reasons. The missions of OSCE and International Red Cross Organization
are informed about it.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Press Service Chief Ramiz Maliakov said
he was unaware of it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress