Author: Emil Lazarian

GOVERNMENT DID NOT ORGANIZE OCTOBER 27
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
An amazing tendency is observed among the Armenian opposition. The
people who balanced a considerable part of their political career on
the accusations against the government for October 27 are now denying
that they ever accused this government of organizing it. The first
was Aram Z. Sargsyan, Vazgen Sargsyan’s brother, who announced that
he had accused the government of failing to prevent and reveal, not
of organizing. And only a week later another similar statement was
heard November 4 from the opposition camp. This time it came from the
camp of Karen Demirchyan’s followers. The secretary of the People’s
Party Stepan Zakaryan stated November 4 that they never accused the
government of organizing but accused of failure to reveal the case.
And like Galust Sahakyan, Stepan Zakaryan thinks that it was organized
by forces from the outside. He declines to say which outside namely,
saying that there are no definite facts. He says that it is the
“outside”, which would like Armenia to lose independence, adding that
it might be favorable for all the outside forces. And the Armenian
government carried out the instruction from the outside and did
everything to hinder the revelation of the case, thinks the secretary
of the People’s Party. And since the rephrased accusations of the
opposition are already heard more frequently, the week-old observation
by Garnik Isagulyan, adviser to president becomes rather interesting
that when the government is accused of failure to prevent October 27,
first it is necessary to find out who power belonged to before that
date. Isagulyan hints that according to the statements of the same
opposition Karen Demirchyan and Vazgen Sargsyan made decisions in the
country until October 27. In other words, Isagulyan swiftly redirects
accountability for failure to prevent October 27 at the victims.
In this connection Stepan Zakaryan says that the memory of the
opposition is not bad. “Let’s remember who was in charge of security,
who the minister of security was. The minister of home affairs resigned
because he felt he was accountable,” says Stepan Zakaryan.
According to him, it was necessary to see who was in charge of what.
Besides, Stepan Sakaryan advises Garnik Isagulyan the adviser, “The
security adviser should advise Robert Kocharyan that in the current
state of security when Azerbaijan’s military budget exceeds ten
times that of Armenia, the defense minister had better do his job,”
says Stepan Zakaryan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OPEN BORDERS ASSUMES DIRECT CONTACTS BETWEEN PEOPLES
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
Minister Oskanian Comments on Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s
Recent Remarks
We remain amazed that a letter sent by President Kocharian to Prime
Minister Erdogan in April 2005 remains ignored, simply because the
Turkish authorities did not like the response contained therein,
and do not wish to broaden the scope of discussion beyond history.
President Kocharian clearly said to Prime Minister Erdogan that the
“suggestion to address the past cannot be effective if it deflects
from addressing the present and the future. In order to engage in
a useful dialog, we need to create the appropriate and conducive
political environment. It is the responsibility of governments to
develop bilateral relations and we do not have the right to delegate
that responsibility to historians. That is why we have proposed
and propose again that, without pre-conditions, we establish normal
relations between our two countries.”
In that context, President Kocharian said, “an intergovernmental
commission can meet to discuss any and all outstanding issues between
our two nations, with the aim of resolving them and coming to an
understanding.”
Foreign Minister Gul’s recent comments to RadioLiberty, insisting that
the existence of flights between Armenia and Turkey, and of Armenian
citizens in Turkey, is evidence that ‘the borders are essentially open’
is disingenuous. First, the number of Armenians from Armenia living
and working in Turkey do not approach the numbers he claims. Second,
open borders assumes direct contacts between peoples, unobstructed
relations across the border and a functioning transport infrastructure.
We stand by our response which we consider to be a positive one and
we wonder whether the Turkish insistence on a historical commission
is genuine. After all, we have in fact agreed to discussions on all
issues, in the context of open borders.
Further, so long as Article 301 which criminalizes mere discussion
of the genocide topic remains on the books in Turkey, an invitation
to open dialogue cannot be taken seriously. Finally, outside Turkey,
scholars – Armenians, Turks and others – have studied these issues
and have reached their own independent conclusions. The most notable
among these is the May 2006 letter to Prime Minister Erdogan by the
International Assn of Genocide Scholars wherein they collectively and
unanimously affirmed the fact of the Genocide and called on the Turkish
government to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government.
In light of these complex realities, we can only repeat our readiness
to enter into dialogue and normal relations with our neighbor.

EX-PRIME MINISTER OF ARMENIA WELCOMES TRANSACTION ON SALE OF 90PCT STAKE IN ARMENTEL TO RUSSIAN VIMPELCOM
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
“I welcome this transaction and I am very glad that just a Russian
company has become the owner of the telecommunication operator of
Armenia,” said Armen Darbinyan, the ex-prime minister of Armenia,
Rector of Russian Armenian (Slavonic) University, commenting on sale
of 90pct stake in ArmenTel to Russian VimpelCom.
“I know that VimpelCom is a serious company introducing modern
principles of management. I wish it success in the Armenian market,”
A. Darbinyan said. He expressed regret that in 1998 when Armenia set
ArmenTel for sale, there were no Russian companies to apply for it.
It was probably because the process of initial accumulation of capital
and “distribution” of Russian assets was not over then, A. Darbinyan
supposed. “Approximately in 2001, leading Russian companies started
an active search of additional investment projects, first of all,
in CIS. Of course, the price of this stake was not the same as in
2001, however, Russian companies are ready to pay for expansion,
which is pleasant.”
To recap, the Greek OTE announced about an agreement on sale of 90pct
stake in Armenia to the Russian Vimpel Communications for $381.9
million, including about $40 million financial debts and liabilities
of the company. VimpelCom Vice President for International Investment
Ties Valery Goldin said the company intends to make investments in
improvement of the subscribers net and communication level in Armenia
to meet the Russian standards. High quality standard of the net is
the prior task of the company, he said. The given task applies to
the quality of the technical net, expansion of the service zone to
meet the demand of consumers, development of distribution net and the
payment system, V. Goldin said. Speaking of possible difficulties of
the Greek company in the work in the Armenian market, V. Goldin said
the specifics of the work in the post-Soviet countries is identical.
While, VimpelCom has got relevant experience in the Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. “It seems to us that we’ll
not have big problems in the Armenian market,” he said with optimism.

POLAND IS READY TO RENDER ASSISTANCE IN ESTABLISHING ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS: MARSHAL OF POLISH SENATE
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
Poland is ready to render its assistance in establishing
Armenian-Turkish relations, said Marshal of the Polish Senate Bogdan
Borusevich at a meeting of Armenian and Polish MPs, Monday.
He said that for this purpose the Polish Foreign Ministry offered
the Armenian Foreign Ministry to present its approaches of Armenia’s
interests in Turkey and Turkey’s interests in Armenia, which would
contribute to establishing relations between the two states and
achieving mutual understanding. The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament
Tigran Torosyan thanked Poland for recognizing the Armenian Genocide
in Ottoman Turkey, 1915, and pointed out that Poland’s offer is very
interesting, but hardly practicable if official Ankara’s position
is taken into account. In this matter, Armenia’s position is known,
said Torosyan and added that official Yerevan is willing to begin a
dialogue with Ankara without any preliminary conditions. Torosyan
considers the Armenian blockade from the side of Turkey, which is
taking steps to join the EU, unacceptable.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S MILITARY BUDGET SUFFICIENT FOR ENSURING COUNTRY’S DEFENSE
TREND, Azerbaijan
Nov 7 2006
(ARKA) Armenia’s military budget is sufficient for making the country’s
armed forces strong, Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan told
journalists on Monday after presenting draft state budget for 2007
to lawmakers.
He said that Azerbaijan’s $1-billion military budget can’t be compared
with Armenian $300 million, but this amount will be enough if spent
reasonably.
The minister also said that greater budget spending is planned for
military purposed, just like for other sector’s needs, reports Trend.
In his words, military expenditures will make 3.5% of GDP every year.
“That’s why the faster economic growth is the greater are expenses
for defense”, Sargsyan said.
He said some 48% of the amount will be earmarked for salaries and
similar expenses. Armenian officers’ salaries are planned to reach
AMD 165 thousand (about $435) in 2007.
Sargsyan also said that Armenia intends to acquire new kinds of
armament and ammunition.
The 2007 state budget envisages AMD 100.4 billion (about $263 million)
for defense.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BEAT OFFICIAL SNOOPERS THE EASY WAY – JUST LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH
by Rod Liddle
Sunday Times (London)
November 5, 2006, Sunday
You are being watched, right now. I don’t mean by your spouse,
either. She, or he, through the complex transactions of love, has
acquired the right to be privy to your most private and repulsive
moments, for which good luck. I mean by shadowy others, people who
will not have your best interests at heart, who will not give you
the benefit of the doubt. By which I don’t mean the neighbours.
We are the most spied on people in the western world, apparently.
According to the watchdog Privacy International, among the few that
suffer worse intrusion in their lives are the Russians and the Chinese
and -one might argue cruelly -they’re used to it.
Three hundred CCTV cameras, on average, were witness to whatever
dark, dubious stuff you were up to yesterday, for example. They
caught that moment you picked your nose in the traffic jam and swore
under your breath at the driver of the BMW who cut you up at the
intersection. Cross your fingers he wasn’t a black bloke.
They noticed you gazing longingly at that young Polish cleaner emerging
from an office block at 7.30am. They got it all down.
According to Richard Thomas, the UK information commissioner, we are
“waking up to a surveillance society”. (Why, incidentally, do we have
a UK information commissioner? What’s the point of that? And when
was the job advertised?) Our authorities -be they the government,
local councils with their weird gizmos in our waste bins to make sure
we’ve put the right stuff in the right bag, the filth, the taxman,
the credit card companies, our employers and our banks have become
drunk on the idea of complete control. The notion that they will
be able to make important judgments about us without our conscious
involvement, without caveat, is hugely agreeable to them. They have
our lives mapped out before them.
As the appalling Howard Kirk had it in Malcolm Bradbury’s The History
Man, privacy is a redundant, bourgeois concept.
The only recourse left is subtle civil disobedience. It’s no use
torching speed cameras because you’ll invariably be caught doing so
by another, better hidden, camera nearby. Far better that we organise
a mass campaign of lying.
The next time you are asked for superfluous, private, information
on some official form, lie through your teeth. When you break your
arm punching a council official and attend the outpatient department
of your local hospital, put down on the ludicrous “nationalities”
form that you’re an Armenian. Unless you’re Armenian – in which case,
swallow your pride and tell them you’re Azerbaijani.
When the census forms arrive, insist you are the worshipper of a new
cult based around David Miliband. Give them the wrong address, tell
them you’re gay, or transgendered, or dead. Tell them you speak only
Swahili or Gaelic. Lie to them all, the banks, building societies,
your employers if they inquire whether or not you smoke, or how fat
you are. Lie always and for ever.
Refuse to shop in malls festooned with CCTV, or wear a Stone Island
hoodie. Undo their machinations with a surfeit of wholly false
information, the more baroque in its imagining the better. Let them
know that there is one private area to which they do not have access,
or domain.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CULTURE – STATE OF DENIAL
Weekend Australian
All-round Country Edition
November 4, 2006 Saturday
A FRENCH law adopted last month that makes it a crime to deny
an Armenian genocide took place in Turkey during World War I has
been criticised by freedom-of-speech supporters in Europe. The law,
which still has to pass the Senate, has also been linked to Turkey’s
application to join the European Union. According to the Financial
Times Deutschland, a report due out next week is expected to give
Turkey low marks for democratic reforms and delay EU accession.
That the law was similar to Turkey’s repression of recognition of
the genocide was not lost on the Turkish media. The daily Hurriyet
headlined its story on the law “Liberte, egalite, stupidite”.
“Wonder of wonders, France, the celebrated land of Liberte, having
such a massive hiccup over its Fraternite with the Armenians as
to be ready to discard one of the cardinal pillars of the French
Revolution,” complained Karamatullah Ghori in the Turkish Daily
News. Even Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, viewed as a traitor by many
Turks for his recognition of the Armenian genocide, pointed out that
“freedom of expression is a French invention. This law is contrary
to this culture of liberty.”
According to Philip Gordon and Omer Taspinar in The New Republic,
the French law was a dangerous step on a slippery slope. “Indeed, the
new French legislation is just the latest illiberal policy in Europe
masquerading as liberalism … Do we really want the Government to
start deciding that some historical views are acceptable but others
merit prison sentences?”
In French weekly Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy mounted an argument in
favour of the law, saying that “a little dose of political correctness”
was sometimes necessary. He also took issue with the polemic of British
historian Timothy Garton Ash, who wrote in The Guardian that even
Holocaust denial must be allowed in the name of freedom of opinion
and freedom of scientific research.
According to Gwynne Dyer in Arab News the point of the law was never
to get it on the books, as President Jacques Chirac could veto it.
“It was to alienate Turkish public opinion and curry favour with the
half-million French citizens of Armenian descent.” The action would
also “provoke a nationalist backlash in Turkey, further damaging the
country’s already fragile relationship with the EU”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VARTAN OSKANIAN RECEIVED IOM REPRESENTATIVE MRS. THOMAS WEISS
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
October 6 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received Mrs. Thomas
Weiss, Representative of the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) to Scandinavian, Baltic and EU New Neighbors Policy participant
countries.
During the meeting the parties discussed issues related to the
migration sphere in the light of the high-level dialogue in the UN
in September 2006. Reference was made to the cooperation between the
IOM and the Republic of Armenia on important issues in the migration
field, particularly fighting labor migration and trafficking.
Mrs. Weiss highly assessed Armenia’s cooperation with the UN and
expressed willingness deepen it, particularly in the filed of amendment
of the legislation promoting legalized migration.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY APPEARS TO MISS OUT ON RAPID EU ACCESSION
Workpermit.com, UK
Nov 6 2006
The European Commission will decide this week if it will recommend
a partial suspension of Turkey’s membership negotiations for joining
the European Union. Turkey has failed in several key areas, including
failure to open up its ports to Cyprus and other trade issues.
This, on the heels of a new French law last month that makes it
illegal to deny that the deaths of 600,000 to 2 million Armenians
during 1915 – 1917 is genocide. The law equivocates denial with the
Jewish Holocaust during World War II.
Turkish law allows severe penalties for persons who refer to the
event as “genocide,” or the equivalent, as being subversive of the
government of Turkey.
While this last is a rather dramatic example of differences that must
be resolved, it is by no means the only one.
The controversy is complex, with a number of strong arguments in
favour of Turkish accession as well as a number of equally strong
arguments against.
Economic and trade disputes are more likely to have the final word.
The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, and Olli Rehn,
Enlargement Commissioner, are considering a recommendation to suspend
three negotiating topics closely linked to the ports dispute.
Other commissioners are urging Brussels to send out a strong message:
that many more parts of the negotiations will be affected if Ankara
does not meet the EU’s demand. Austria wants the Commission to
distinguish Turkey’s case from that of Croatia, the other country
currently in EU membership negotiations.
France, Cyprus, Austria and Greece are all pushing for a tough
line with Turkey, with the UK championing efforts to keep the talks
on course.
“If the issue was just Turkey not opening its ports, that would
be one thing and you could just suspend three chapters,” said an
EU diplomat. “But remember that the Commission will also report on
Wednesday that Turkey is not making progress on reforms. This is a
question of political control of the EU’s enlargement process.”
Turkey’s prime minister appears ready to amend a controversial
article of the Turkish penal code that the Commission says inhibits
free speech. “We are ready for proposals to make article 301 more
concrete if there are problems stemming from it being vague,” he said.
The Commission debate opens the way for a full-blooded EU dispute over
Turkey, which some officials fear could bring the entire negotiations
to a halt.
On Wednesday the Commission will also adopt a strategy paper for future
enlargement, which says that, before any new expansion takes place,
the EU will have to deal with its own institutional arrangements –
which were to have been decided by the ill-fated European constitution.
With the expansion of the European Union to the EU-27 on 01 January
this year, most EU States are ready to take a slower approach,
with a more structured and restrictive attitude toward new potential
accession states. Croatia, Turkey and the Ukraine look like they will
have to meet tougher standards to get a treaty, and then will likely
face more restriction internally from existing member States as the
economic changes begin to settle out.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH SHOP-KEEPER AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
A1+
[07:50 pm] 06 November, 2006
Another attempt of rejecting the Armenian Genocide was made yesterday
in Vercelli, Italy. According to newspaper of “Azdak”, Beirut, the
exhibition of photos by Armin Vegner about the Armenian Genocide was
opened with a delay of 1.5 hours.
A little before the opening of the exhibition a Turkish shop-keeper
who lives in Italy tore away the posters, broke into the exhibition
hall and tore 5-6 photos; moreover, he beat down the Italian woman
working in the hall.
Shortly after that, the police arrested the aggressor.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress