Author: Emil Lazarian

‘HUMAN RIGHTS AND MILITARY SERVICE: PROSPECT OF CONTRACT SERVICE IN ARMENIA’ ROUND TABLE HELD IN YEREVAN
AZG Armenian Daily
17/11/2006
“Human Rights and Military Service: Prospects of Contract Service in
Armenia” round table-discussion on this is currently being held in
Yerevan. The discussion is initiated by the OSCE Yerevan Office and a
non-governmental organization “Hakastver” (“Anti- shadow”). Various
officials of relevant state departments, including representatives
of the Defense Ministry, Prosecutor General’s Office, Court of
Appeal and some non- governmental organizations participate in the
discussion. Lieutenant Colonel Harutiun Mukhsi- Hoveyan, Head of
the Department of Personnel Management Integration of RA DM, touched
upon the current integration rules in the Armenian Army on a contract
basis. RA deputy Judge Advocate, Armen Haroutiunyan, has represented
the National Legislation clauses, which envisage punishments for the
crimes.The Head of OSCE Yerevan Office, Vladimir Pryakhin, welcomed
the event participants, as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITALY AWARDS FILMMAKER KAREN SHAHNAZAROV
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily
17/11/2006
Movies of Russian-Armenian filmmaker Karen Shahnazarov have been shown
in Rome, Piza and Carrara since October. During the 20 years of work
he shot 20 feature films but is mostly renowned for “We Are From Jazz”
musical, winner of a number of international awards.
As it transpired yesterday, Karen Shahnazarov was awarded Italy’s
Gastone Predieri award for his contribution to the art of filmmaking
and for developing Russian-Italian cultural relations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“DOES THE EXPRESSION “STATE NEEDS” COINCIDE WITH ELITE BUILDINGS?”
A1+
[03:48 pm] 16 November, 2006
Today the residents of alienated zones organised a rally of protest
and assembled opposite the RA government building. They shouted,
“Go away, thieves!”
“Shame on you, prime minister!” “We demand resignation from the post,”
etc. The veterans of the Artsakh war also joined them.
This time the rally participants displayed civil disobedience against
the adoption of the draft bill on “Alienation of Property for State
and Public Needs.”
None of the government representatives received the strikers. The
residents become indignant at the fact that they were neglected
by the authorities. “They ignore us and our demands. If we live in
a democratic country, they ought to respect our rights. This is an
apparent violation of the citizens’ rights”, claims Sonya Barseghyan,
one of the residents.
The strikers continued to shout and warn that the “illegal law”
refers to each citizen of the Republic of Armenia. They claimed that
they had been paid lower than the current prices at the market.
By the way, the strikers are going to organise the next rally of
protest opposite the President’s residence. They will call on Robert
Kocharyan to negotiate with them tete-a-tete.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE PARTIES TOUCHED UPON THE ISSUES OF THE CO-CHAIRS’ VISIT
A1+
The NKR MFA Press-Service
[04:07 pm] 16 November, 2006
On November 15, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic Masis Mayilian received a group of members of the office of
the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative (CiO PR).
In the course of the meeting office employee Gunter Volk (Germany)
introduced to Masis Mayilian newly appointed Field Assistant of the
OSCE CiO PR, Kazakh diplomat Jaslan Nourtazin.
The participants of the talk touched upon issues concerning the coming
regular monitoring of the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed
forces contact-line, as well as the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to the region planned for
the last decade of December.
Masis Mayilian answered the questions in which the newly appointed
Field Assistant of the OSCE CiO PR was interested in.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN ARMS IMPORTED TO ARMENIA
A1+
[07:28 pm] 16 November, 2006
Today the arms of the Russian military base located in Tbilisi were
being taken out of the city. The first train left for Gyumri.
Another train loaded with Russian arms will arrive in Armenia by the
turn of the year.
The Russian Defense Ministry has decided to remove the arms and
transport them to Armenia prior to the fixed deadline. The decision was
determined by the recent worsening of the Georgian-Russian relations.
Over 350-ton stores, ammunition and 390 servicemen will be taken out
of Tbilisi.

NOW MONEY TRANSFERS FROM RUSSIA TO ARMENIA CAN BE MADE IN NATIONAL CURRENCY
Regnum, Russia
Nov 18 2006
For the first time, it has become possible to transfer money from
Russia to Armenia in the Armenian national currency – dram (AMD),
the chairman of the Council of the Unibank, the president of the
Uniastrum bank (Moscow) Gagik Zakaryan said during a press-conference
in Yerevan Nov 17.
A REGNUM correspondent reports Zakaryan to say that, from now on,
people in Russia will be able to transfer money to Armenia in AMD
via the UNIStream system – with 0% commission. “We are planning to
get profit not from commission but from the conversion of foreign
currency and RUR into AMD,” Zakaryan said. He noted that this project
is a novelty for Russia too. It will make it much easier for people
to transfer money, while the recipients will know beforehand how much
they will get in AMD. “We are planning to start transferring money
to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, but this time we will already
charge commission because the money will be transferred to partner
banks who have their own interests,” Zakaryan said.
The chairman of the Board of the Unibank Vardan Atayan said that the
system was introduced quite recently and has transferred 6.5mln AMD
($17,500), so far. The system can transfer not only AMD, but also
RUR, USD and some other currencies. According to the forecasts, the
UNIStream system will transfer a total of $400mln-$420mln to Armenia,
including $100mln-$120mln in Nov-Dec.
The president of the Central Bank of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan said that
the introduction of the system of AMD transfers will allow people to
reduce their losses as presently they have to convert their transfers
twice: first, in Russia from RUR into USD and, then, in Armenia from
USD into AMD. The system of AMD transfers will also allow to make
the Armenian economy less dollarized.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RIGHTS OF MILITARY SERVANTS NOT STIPULATED IN LAW
Panorama.am
14:55 16/11/06
“Military service and human rights are contradicting at
the first glance but there is an option under which they are
compatible.” Vaga Amirkhanyan, head of “Hakastver” NGO (Against
shadow), said. Amirkhanyan talks about contract service. Harutiun
Mukhsi -Hoveyan, personnel department head at the ministry of defense,
said there are a lot of contract military servants in the army but
he declined to unveil their number.
Speaking about prospects of contract service, Mukhsi-Hoveyan said,
“Time will show.” He also said contract service will run together
with compulsory military service.
“Contract service is a base for democracy in the army which will
respect the right of military servants,” Vladimir Priakhin, OSCE
Yerevan Office head, said.
“After constitutional changes, there is a need to make amendments in
a number of laws, including relating to military,” Serjik Avetisyan,
judge of military and criminal affairs appeal court, said. He said
there are laws in Russia will enable a military servant to complain
against the orders of his commanders as well as defense minister and
chief headquarter commander which are not available in Armenia. He
said Armenian laws enable to complain against higher rank orders only
through supervisors.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANKARA GèLE SES RELATIONS MILITAIRES AVEC LA FRANCE
Laurent Zecchini
Le Monde, France
18 novembre 2006 samedi
LA FRANCE s’est efforcee, jeudi 16 novembre, de minimiser la
decision de geler les relations militaires franco-turques, annoncee
la veille par le general Ilker Basbug, chef d’etat-major de l’armee
de terre. A l’occasion d’une reception marquant le 23e anniversaire
de la Republique (autoproclamee) de Chypre du Nord, le ” numero deux
” des forces armees turques avait indique : ” Les relations dans le
domaine militaire avec la France ont ete suspendues. ”
Si elle se confirmait (ni le Quai d’Orsay, ni le ministère de la
defense n’ont recu d’avis officiel), cette decision constituerait la
première mesure de represailles contre la France après l’adoption,
le 12 octobre, par l’Assemblee nationale, d’une proposition de loi
reprimant la negation du genocide armenien de 1915.
Mehmet Dulger (AKP), president de la commission des affaires etrangères
du Parlement turc, a explique que la Turquie n’avait pas d’autre
choix, le vote de l’Assemblee nationale etant considere comme ”
un acte d’hostilite contre la Turquie “. ” Nous devions agir, on ne
s’attend pas a un tel geste de la part d’un ami “, a-t-il ajoute,
dans une declaration rapportee par l’International Herald Tribune.
Les diplomates francais ont rappele a leurs homologues turcs que
le vote d’une proposition de loi (d’initiative parlementaire) ne se
traduit pas forcement par une loi, le Senat n’ayant d’ailleurs pas
inscrit ce texte a son ordre du jour.
” Les Turcs ont voulu marquer le coup sur le plan interieur. Après le
vote de 2001 – la loi reconnaissant le genocide armenien – , il y avait
eu une periode de refroidissement, pendant dix-huit mois, puis tout
est rentre dans l’ordre “, assure-t-on au ministère de la defense,
où l’on confirme cependant qu’une reunion franco-turque destinee a
adopter un ” plan de cooperation ” militaire, prevue en decembre,
a ete annulee par Ankara.
Cette decision pourrait cependant avoir des consequences, dans la
mesure où la France et la Turquie ont d’etroits liens militaires
(notamment via l’OTAN), au travers d’operations exterieures
(Afghanistan, Bosnie, Kosovo, Liban et Centrafrique).
Eurocopter est, d’autre part, en competition pour un marche d’environ
1,5 milliard d’euros portant sur la vente de quelque 52 helicoptères
Cougar et NH90 a l’armee turque.
–Boundary_(ID_iXqCWbi3XdgvAm4jyrdLhw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE ECONOMIST: FRANCE’S ARMENIAN BILL RESTRICTS FREE SPEECH
Journal of Turksih Weekly, Turkey
Nov 17 2006
London-based The Economist reported that the main reason of the
Armenian bill in France was growing hostility towards Turkey and its
EU membership. ‘Free speech under threat’ titled article says that
the Armenian bill restricts freedom of speech in France.
The Economist reports:
“The most vivid example of the creeping extension of Holocaust-denial
laws has come in the French National Assembly, which last week voted
for a bill to make denial of the genocide of Armenians in Turkey during
the first world war a criminal offence. The political context for
this was not just vociferous lobbying by Armenians in France but also
growing hostility among voters to the idea of Turkish membership of
the European Union. To appeal to such voters, the assembly proved ready
to place restrictions on one of the most fundamental of all freedoms,
that of speech (though in fact the bill is unlikely to become law).”
“This is a perfectly logical extension of a slew of laws imposing
free-speech restrictions to suppress racial, ethnic and religious
hatred. Indeed, it may be an offence to deny the Armenian genocide
in France already, because its Holocaust-denial law was extended in
1990 to cover all crimes against humanity. Bernard Lewis, an American
historian, was condemned by a French court in 1995 under this law.
Britain also has laws against incitement to racial hatred; last January
it tried but failed to extend them to religious hatred. On the face
of it, then, it does not seem outlandish for Muslims to demand that
Islam be equally “protected” under speech-restricting laws.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KAZAKHSTAN RECOGNIZES AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY, NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
Kazakhstan recognizes territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev said today at the eighth Summit of
the Heads of Turkish-speaking States in Antalya, Turkey.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be peacefully solved in
accordance with international norms. We will further continue our
cooperation with Azerbaijan within international organizations”.
Mr. Nazarbayev also added his country condemns all terrorist acts
in various regions of the world, and is against the international
terrorism and separatism.