Author: Emil Lazarian

BY JOINING EU, TURKEY LOSES CONTROL OVER ITS BORDERS – FRANCE’S AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
Regnum, Russia
Oct 24 2006
“I have no right to comment on a draft legislation adopted by the
French parliament lower house,” Ambassador of France to Armenia Henri
Cuny told journalists about the legislation criminalizing public
denial of Genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915.
According to the Ambassador, Armenian society has in general highly
appraised adoption of the legislation that is regarded as a step that
makes Armenia “feel not so lonely.” At the same time, he says, many
argue that the future of the country depends on improving relations
with Turkey, which could be achieved by way of dialog rather than by
direct conflict.
Henri Cuny said when meeting with students that once Turkey joins
the EU, the issue of its borders will be decided not by itself but
by the central EU headquarters in Brussels. “This is the order. And
entering the EU suggests open borders.” The question is, when this
is to happen, says Cuny.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INTERNATIONAL TRADE BANK ARMENIA TO ENTER MORTGAGE CREDITING MARKET SOON
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Oct 24 2006
YEREVAN, October 24. /ARKA/. ITB – International Trade Bank (Armenia)
will enter the mortgage crediting market soon. The ITB press service
reported that the bank has already become one of the participants of
the KfW credit program “Development of Stable Market of Housing Loan”.
Executive Director of the ITB Ara Kitabalyan reported that the KfW
program will become an important incentive for new qualitative
rise of this segment of the financial market in the country,
and encourage local banks to the next improvement of the terms on
crediting for clients, reduction of interest rates and extension of
payment deadlines.
“Implementation of this program will raise the quality level and
culture of the very process of provision of crediting. The technology
of crediting provision will be considerably improved that is very
important for further development of this segment of the market,”
Kitabalyan said.
Under this program, the bank will give opportunity to the middle
class of Armenia to take the opportunity of housing loan.
Besides this, the ITB intends to provide mortgage loans from the owned
funds, and also it is planned that it will participate in various
international programs. The bank has elaborated its own program on
mortgage lending and will announce it’s entering this markret.
The bank will provide mortgage loans for no less than 10 years. At
the initial stage, the loan will not exceed AMD 12mln. The start of
the program implementation has been scheduled for November-December
2006. The refinancing will be carried out in the mid of February 2007.
International Trade Bank (Armenia) was created on the basis of
“Bank-Menatep-Armenia” in 1992 as the Yerevan branch of the Russian
bank Menatep. In April 2000, the bank’s share were purchased by
foreign companies, later joined in the Makarios (MG) Holdings GMBH,
and bank itself was renamed to ITB – International Trade Bank. In 2005,
the bank’s 99.91% shares were purchased by Makarios (MG) Holdings GMBH.
ITB’s total assets made up AMD 5.1bln as of 30 June, 2006, the credit
portfolio totaled AMD 2.98bln. The bank currently operates four
branches The Makarious Group Holdings GMBH joins about 60 companies
that are registered in Austria, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland,
Cyprus, and in a number of CIS countries. The group consists of banks,
leasing, investment and consulting organizations, the activity of
which is aim at implementing large-scale investment programs in the
spheres of construction, metal mining, timber, woodworking and textile
industries, and also trade and high technologies.
The economic interests of the Makarios group are not limited in Armenia
only by the banking sphere. The group has made large investments for
$22.5mln in the program of construction of the Northern Avenue of
Yerevan. ($1 – AMD 382.47).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH MPS ANNOUNCE ‘SHAME LIST’
By Cihan News Agency
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 24 2006
On Thursday, the Turkish parliament took a new step in condemnation
of the French parliament’s acceptance of a bill criminalizing any
denial of an Armenian genocide.
It compiled a “shame list” of massacres committed by European
countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands.
The necessary study for the list was conducted by the parliament’s
justice sub-committee as part of its debates over a bill that would
recognize the Algerian genocide committed by France.
The commission is researching the past massacres and tyrannies of
countries that accept the Armenian genocide.
The members of the commission listened to Turkish History Society
President Professor Yusuf Halacoglu and decided that announcing the
European list to the world would be more efficient than recognition
of an Algerian genocide.
In this context, the commission requested that the Turkish History
Society and foreign affairs department carry out extensive studies
into the history of countries recognizing an Armenian genocide.
The “shame list” is expected to be announced following the Ramadan
holiday.
Deputy Mustafa Nuri Akbulut announced that the parliament would
publish the list rather than recognize an Algerian genocide.
Akbulut also asserted that this study would enable the international
community to better see the objective attitude of the Turkish
parliament and added human rights, freedom of speech and the process
that this method was subject to would be discussed extensively in
the document.
Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Akbulut also said the
document would include a text that will explain the circumstances
under which Turkey decided to deport Armenians in 1915.
Akbulut noted that while Ottoman soldiers were deployed in the
Dardanelles and the Caucasus during World War I, Armenians committed
massacres in Anatolia and betrayed Ottomans.
France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Belgium,
Slovakia, Greece, Latvia and Greek Cyprus have all made decisions
so far about an Armenian Genocide in different years, and some have
issued declarations and reports on the issue.
For further information please visit
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA IS A DEFEATED PARTY IN TERMS OF DIPLOMACY
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2006
In an interview Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite news channel, President
of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev touched on Iran-Armenia relations, saying
it raises public concern in Azerbaijan. According to him, not only
Iran but also other states also have good relationship with Armenia.
This fact must not have an impact on political decision-making in
Azerbaijan. On the contrary, Azerbaijan must seek better relations
itself with those countries.
Saying Armenia is a defeated party in terms of diplomacy, President
Ilham Aliyev added that the countries, which were allies to Armenia,
became friends for Azerbaijan as well. Azerbaijan is more important
for them than Armenia. The land-locked Armenia is not interesting for
them because it is geographically disadvantaged and has already been
left out of regional energy projects. Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway will
isolate Armenia even more.
Azerbaijan is the country that delivers energy resources to the world
markets and located along the East-West corridor. According to the
President, Armenia cannot be compared with Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKS CAN LIVE WITHOUT EU – POLL
Independent Online, South Africa
Oct 24 2006
Less than a third of Turks think Turkey must enter the European
Union, a poll showed on Tuesday, the latest sign of waning support
for membership as Ankara faces increasing pressure from Brussels.
The survey, carried out by pollsters A&G and published in newspaper
Milliyet, showed 32,2 percent thought Turkey “must certainly enter the
EU”, a sharp decline on 2005’s 57,4 percent and 67,5 percent in 2004.
Of 2 408 people polled, 25,6 percent said Turkey “should certainly
not enter the EU”, more than twice the 10,3 percent who felt that
way in 2005, when Turkey began entry talks.
The poll, which shows a more dramatic decline in EU support than other
recent surveys, comes as Brussels urges Turkey to step up reforms
and make concessions over the disputed Mediterranean island Cyprus
if it is to avoid a possible freeze in talks later in 2006.
The poll was carried out in late September, and since then anti-EU
feeling has been fuelled further by a law passed in the French
parliament making it a crime to deny – as Ankara does – that Ottoman
Turks carried out a genocide against Armenians.
The poll also showed that 76,5 percent of Turks expect tougher
conditions to be imposed on them in the future and only 7,2 percent
trust the EU. Many Turks, including the government, complain that
Brussels is changing the rules as it goes along over the Cyprus issue.
The EU is due to present a report on Turkey’s progress on November 8.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT RUSSIA
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Oct 24 2006
YEREVAN, October 24. /ARKA/. On October 30-31, 2006, Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan will be on a visit to Russia.
The Armenian state leader’s regular visit is supposed to raise the
level of Armenian-Russian partnership, reports the press service of
the RF Embassy in Armenia.
The year 2005 was marked as a Year of Russia in Armenia, and 2006 is
a Year of Armenia in Russia.
Successful implementation of large-scale projects facilitated the
intensification of public and business initiatives, expansion of
economic, scientific, technical, information and cultural cooperation
During his visit, the Armenian President is to hold discussions
the most topical issues of bilateral cooperation, implementation
of top-level agreements on further development of Russian-Armenian
cooperation, particularly in the fuel, energy and transport spheres, as
well as in direct economic ties between Russian and Armenian regions.
The sides are also to exchange views on the development of cooperation
within the CSTO, further consolidation of the organization to meet new
challenges. The CIS problems will be an important item on the agenda.
The sides will focus their attention on the coordinating efforts toward
improving the situation in the Caucasus, creation of an atmosphere of
confidence for establishing of cooperation in the region and settling
conflicts on this basis.
Special emphasis will be laid on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.
“Welcoming the Armenian-Azerbaijani dialogue at different levels, first
of all between the two countries’ Presidents, Russia believes that
the conflicting parties’ themselves must find a mutually acceptable
settlement of the conflict,” states the RF Embassy. Russia is ready
to render active assistance both at the bilateral level and as OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chairman, as well as be a guarantor of the agreement.
Armenian-Russian relations are an alliance and are marked by positive
dynamics in their development. Effective multipronged bilateral
cooperation has a solid legal basis – an Agreement on friendship,
cooperation and mutual assistance, Declaration of allied cooperation
in the 21st century.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN GUESTS END VISIT TO TOPEKA
Story by Liz Dodds
49abcnews.com, KS
Oct 23 2006
Topeka is saying goodbye to one special group of visitors. Members
of the Department of Armenian Ministry of Defense are finishing up
their visit to the Capitol City. The two met with Kansas Adjutant
General Tod Bunting Monday morning.
The group came to familiarize the Armenian Ministry of Defense with
the U.S. military’s wartime and peacetime methods. But the Adjutant
General says the learning went both ways.
“Like us, they have a country that has a lot of severe weather and
emergencies, so they keep their public informed on what to do and what
they’re going to be doing in an event of an emergency. So we learned
from them you don’t have to be high-tech and fancy, you just need to
keep people informed and tell them what’s going on and what to do,
says Adjutant General Tod Bunting.
Kansas became a partner with the Republic of Armenia in 2003.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY, FRANCE: FRENCH FIRMS SET TO SUFFER FROM TURKISH ANGER OVER ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL
Monday Morning, Lebanon
Oct 23 2006
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has appealed for
calm and opposes launching a campaign which might end up hurting
Turks more than the French
But the government is still weighing other responses which may hit
French firms, from blocking the country’s defense and energy companies
from bidding for multi-million euro (dollar) contracts to the more
symbolic, such as lawmakers replacing their official Peugeot cars.
And although an official ban is unlikely, consumers and businesses
are set to cold-shoulder French goods, nearly five billion euros
(6.25 billion dollars) worth of which entered Turkey last year.
On October 12 the French National Assembly, the lower house, passed
a bill making it a crime to deny that the 1915-1917 massacres of
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks constituted genocide.
The bill, which stipulates a prison sentence of up to three years and
a fine of up to 45,000 euros, must be approved by the French upper
house and by President Jacques Chirac before it becomes law.
The result has caused widespread dismay, not only in Turkey — several
hundred people rallied outside France’s consulate in Istanbul —
but also from French historians and European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso.
Turkey says 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in
civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart during
World War I. But it refuses to accept this was genocide.
Armenians, who constitute a sizeable minority in France, say up to 1.5
million of their forbears were slaughtered in orchestrated killings,
which they maintain can only be seen as genocide.
In 2005 France and Turkey exchanged goods worth more than eight billion
euros, and French imports to Turkey were worth 4.7 billion euros.
Commercial ties between the two countries run deep. Some 250 French
companies have strong links with Turkey stretching back many years.
The carmaker Renault, for example, employs hundreds of people at a
factory in the Northwest of the country.
As a result, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, together with
the country’s more liberal newspapers, has appealed for calm and
not to launch a campaign which might end up hurting Turks more than
the French.
“What do we have to win or lose by boycotting products? … We should
consider that with a great deal of caution”, Erdogan said recently,
adding that his government would proceed with calm.
Lutfu Yenel, head of the Turkish affiliate of the French telecoms group
Alcatel, said he was astounded by calls for a boycott of his company.
But although an official ban is unlikely, Turkish consumers and
businesses are expected to vent their anger by not buying French.
The country’s consumer organization, for instance, has said that a
boycott would begin at the 500 gasoline stations in Turkey owned by
France’s Total.
Every week there would be an appeal to boycott products from a new
French firm until the genocide bill is scrapped, the organization
threatened.
“From today onwards, we’re going to boycott every week a French brand
and show our reaction in a language that France can understand,”
said Bulent Deniz, the group’s president.
In some commercial centers in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, shops
were calling on Turks not to buy French — although it was business
as usual at an outlet of French chain Lacoste in the city.
Ankara’s merchants’ association has also decided to post on billboards
in the capital pictures of products that will be boycotted such
as perfumes and cosmetics, according to the group’s head Mehmet
Yiginer. And across the country, commercial groups and businessmen
have called on their fellow citizens to cold-shoulder French brands.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GAZPROM SEEKS TO CONTROL IRANIAN-ARMENIAN GAS PIPELINE
By Andrea R. Mihailescu – UPI Energy Correspondent
United Press International
Oct 24 2006
Russia has tightened control over Armenia’s power distribution network
after a subsidiary of Russia’s state-controlled Unified Energy Systems
purchased $73 million of the Electricity Networks of Armenia, on
Sept. 26.
It remains unclear why it took so long and the deal was formalized
one year after Yerevan approved Russia’s decision to buy ENA from
Midland Resources Holding, a British-registered firm that privatized
the once loss-making network in 2002.
Armenian media reports suggested UES, which is expanding its operations
throughout the region, was re-examining ENA’s books and discovered
serious financial irregularities.
But the Armenian firm is desperately in need of capital and the
Russian energy giant said it will invest $20 million in ENA over the
next 12 months.
Critics are concerned the deal will further increase Armenia’s
dependence on Russia. Gazprom controls Armenia’s largest thermal
power plant and is the country’s only supplier of natural gas.
Russian gas is used for generating nearly 40 percent of Armenia’s
electricity. ENA also saw its Russian gas prices double when Gazprom
decided to increase the price of its gas for all three South Caucasus
states.
Gazprom also initially confirmed, but later denied reports that it
will acquire ownership of an incomplete Armenian pipeline, which
is slated to start pumping gas from Iran early next year. Armenia
remains concerned over these reports.
According to Armenian media reports, Moscow also reportedly wants to
ensure that the pipeline diameter is not large enough to allow Iran
to re-export its gas to Georgia or Eastern Europe. Tehran and Yerevan
are considering building a second pipeline to deliver Iranian gas to
third countries.
“Naturally, when Iranian gas starts flowing into Armenia, perhaps it
will be exported to other countries as well,” Gholamali Haddad-Adel,
the speaker of Iran’s parliament, told reporters during a recent
visit to Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MUMCU: BOTH THE INVENTOR AND PERPETRATOR OF GENOCIDE CLAIMS IS THE WEST
Turkish Press
Oct 24 2006
ANKARA – “Both the inventor and perpetrator of genocide claims are
Western countries. They inject their own crimes in us and want us
to claim responsibility for those crimes,” the Motherland Party
(ANAP) leader Erkan Mumcu said when addressing his party group in
the parliament on Tuesday.
Prior to his speech, Mumcu observed a minute of silence in the memory
of Turkish citizens massacred by Armenians (during WWI).
“The West should go first through a process to get rid of ‘Turk
complex’. Otherwise, their enmity towards Turkey will not end. The
history of the West is hypocritical,” he said.
ANAVATAN leader Mumcu underscored that the target of France which
prepares to adopt a draft law (that makes any denial of so-called
Armenian genocide a crime) is to push its hinterland towards east
of Turkey.”
On the other hand, Mumcu defended that Turkey was weak on foreign
policy, indicating that Ankara failed to take initiatives on issues
concerning its own fate.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress