Author: Emil Lazarian

U.S. OFFICIAL CRITICIZES FRENCH LAW THAT WOULD BAN DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Steven Ross Johnson
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Oct 21 2006
Associated Press
2:57 p.m. October 20, 2006
BRUSSELS, Belgium – A senior U.S. official denounced on Friday a French
bill that would make it a crime to deny the killings of Armenians in
Turkey during World War I was a genocide.
Turkey denies allegations that Turkey was responsible for the deaths
of 1.5 million Armenians during the war, contending that many died
as a result of fighting during the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said the proposed law would
hamper Turkish-Armenian dialogue and also does not help EU-Turkey
relations. The bill was approved by lawmakers in France’s lower
house last week, but still needs approval from the French Senate and
President Jacques Chirac to become law.
“The job of outsiders is to encourage Turkish-Armenian dialogue,
not to take positions which make that dialogue harder,” said Fried,
who was in Brussels to discuss current tensions in the Caucuses with
officials from NATO, the European Union and the Belgian government.
“This legislation criminalizing discussion doesn’t seem to make any
sense,” Fried said. “We have certainly encouraged Armenians and Turks
to look at this issue honestly and painfully. Every nation that I know
of, including my own, has things in its past of which it is not proud.”
Fried said the U.S. had dealt with such events in its own history in
an “honest way” and encouraged Turkey to do the same. He said he did
not think the French legislation would encourage this process.
Tensions between France and Turkey have escalated since last week’s
vote in favor of the bill. It sparked a boycott of French goods and
a proposed blackout of French media by Turkish television stations.
The EU has taken the U.S. position in the matter, saying the French
move discourages dialogue and hinders possible Turkish accession into
the 25-member nation bloc.
Fried’s visit comes one day after a stop in Tblisi to meet with
Georgian officials and opposition party leaders. He is scheduled to
travel to Russia to speak with leaders there as a prelude to November’s
NATO summit in Riga, Latvia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRENCH LAW TO RECOGNISE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CRITICISED
The Universe, UK
Oct 21 2006
By The Universe: Plans to introduce legislation in France which would
make it illegal to deny that the massacre of Catholic Armenians living
under the rule of the Ottoman Empire as genocide have been criticised
by a leading member of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, Luigi Padovese, said the law,
which was approved by France’s lower house of parliament last week,
has been engineered just to “humiliate Turks.” The bill still needs
to be passed by the upper house senate to become law.
“Even the fact that French president Jacques Chirac has taken a stance
against the bill is significant,” said Padovese.
“The Christian reality in Turkey is very complex. There are Catholics
– both Latin and Orthodox – there’s the [Orthodox] Ecumenical
Patriarchy [of Constantinople (Istanbul)] and the one in Antioch,
Armenian Catholics, Gregorians, Chaldeans Sirio-Orthodox and other
denominations that participate in our liturgy (services).
“There is a significant number of families who were originally
Christian, but out of necessity and for reasons of survival,
they renounced their religious identity, at least from showing it
externally,” he added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REFORMED CONSTITUTION CREATES NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR SOLUTION TO YEREVAN STATUS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 20 2006
YEREVAN, October 20. /ARKA/. The reformed Constitution creates new
possibilities for a solution to the issues about the Yerevan status,
the councilor of the Armenian president Seyran Avagyan reported Friday
at the seminar “European Experience in Local Governing”.
“The reformed Constitution gives new possibilities and resources
for solving this issue, and I believe that this solution within
the frameworks of the updated Constitution can yield good results,”
Avagyan said.
He reported that adoption of the law “On Yerevan” has been postponed
until the formation of a new legal field exactly for this reason that
we give a direct solution to the problem, but not look for difficult
solutions.
According to the provision 108 of the updated Constitution, Yerevan
becomes a municipality. The peculiarities of local government
and formation of local governing bodies in the city of Yerevan are
established by the law. The law can institute direct or proxy voting
for a Yerevan mayor.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Armed Forces killed one more Azerbaijani soldier
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 21 2006
[ 21 Oct. 2006 15:29 ]
Armenian Armed Forces’ units in occupied Veyselli and Garakhanli
villages of Fuzuli region fired on opposite positions of Azerbaijani
Armed Forces, APA Garabagh bureau reports.
A soldier of Azerbaijan Armed Forces, Aliyev Arif Gulaga, born in
1980 and drafted by Ujar region Military Registration and Enlistment
Office died in the result of fire exchange. Azerbaijan Defense Ministry
confirmed the fact. /APA/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

49 ISSUES AND 10 INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS TO BE DISCUSSED AT COMING
NA 4-DAY SESSION
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. Draft decision on making additions
to the agenda of the 8th session of RA NA of third convocation and
draft agenda of October 23-26 NA four-day session were discussed at the
October 20 working consultation presided over by RA NA Speaker Tigran
Torosian. As NT was informed from NA Public Relations Department, 12
issues were included in the additions part of the session agenda. 49
issues, 10 international agreements are placed on the agenda of NA
coming four-day session. The draft decision on making additions to
the agenda of the 8th session of NA of third convocation and the
draft agenda of October 23-26 NA four-day session will be approved
at the October 23 NA sitting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ADVISER OF RA PRESIDENT POINTS TO NECESSITY TO CREATE INSTITUTION IF
INTERCOMMUNAL GOVERNMENT
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. “Issue of dispersion of local
self-government bodies is sharply set today in Armenia.” RA
President’s Adviser, Seyran Avagian, said this at the October
20 seminar organized by the European Integration NGO with the
support of F.Ebert fund, dedicated to European experience in the
sphere of local self-government. In his words, Lithuania has only
64 local self-government bodies, while their number in Armenia is
900, at that only 50 or 100 people live in some communities. This
circumstance, in S.Avagian’s opinion, impedes effective governance
in communities. Solution to the problem of intercommunal government
acquires importance in this respect. He said that determination of
Yerevan status also remains one of the most important problems. The
President’s Adviser expressed the hope that the adopted constitutional
amendments will create new possibilities and resources, which will
make possible to solve both of these problems. Despite of unsolved
problems, in S.Avagian’s words, Armenia’s legislative field regulating
the activity of local self-government sphere has been almost formed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Italian film honour for Meadows
BBC News, UK
Oct 21 2006
Meadows’ previous films include A Room for Romeo Brass Director Shane
Meadows has picked up the special jury prize at the inaugural Rome
Film Festival for This Is England. The film, set in 1983, is about an
impressionable young boy who becomes involved with a gang of skinheads.
“I thank the jury because the subject matter of the film is not
something easy to vote for,” Meadows told the AFP news agency.
Russian film Playing The Victim, a modern-day version of Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, won the best film prize.
Emotional
The films were judged by a popular jury of 50 film fans chosen from
the public.
The director of Playing the Victim, Kirill Serebrennikov, gave an
emotional speech after the winner was announced.
“This film is a film for Russia and for Russians. Because we
still believe that cinema can change people’s way of thinking and
consciences,” he said.
France’s Ariane Ascaride was named best actress for her role in Robert
Guediguian’s poignant drama Armenia.
Italy’s Giorgio Colangeli was judged best actor in the film L’Aria
Salata (The Salt Air) by Alessandro Angelini.
The film follows the story of a father and son who are reunited in
unusual circumstances after years of estrangement.
Sir Sean Connery was honoured with a lifetime achievement award on
the eve of the festival earlier this month.

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 21 2006
Internalizing Orhan Pamuk
ETYEN MAHCUPYAN
10.21.2006 Saturday – ISTANBUL 22:33
Societies which are unable to get out of their communal mentality
have always had trouble grasping the concept of the individual,
created by modernity, because being an individual requires, above
all, looking at oneself from out of one’s community.
This is already the very definition of the intellectual and this
difference also points out why the “enlightened” in Turkey fail to
become intellectuals. As for communities, they only create
“enlightened.” These are people who think they know what is true and
assume a mission of promoting the progress of society toward these
right goals. While doing so, they also pursue a goal of making the
values of their community dominate the demands of others. Such people
would not be awarded a Nobel Prize, for instance. All those who have
been awarded Nobel Prizes so far are people who succeeded in
developing a critical viewpoint toward their lands and created a new
localism out of this criticism. Therefore, it is not surprising that
Orhan Pamuk is perceived as a stranger because of the communal
perception in Turkey. In fact, Pamuk is even on the margins of the
secular circles in Turkey, not to mention the conservative ones.
However, for this very reason, his critical view toward every point
about himself made him real and enabled him to raise a localism with
a universal meaning to an intellectual level. In his book Istanbul:
Memories and the City, the author deals with his childhood, family
and the cultural structure around him. He describes the background of
Istanbul in such a way that he alienates and marginalizes while
localizing himself by making it a part of the world he is talking
about.
This novelist was awarded a Nobel Prize in literature for his ability
to handle his novels with this deep point of view. Those who say
Pamuk was awarded this prize for political reasons probably think his
books were translated into so many foreign languages and became
best-sellers as a result of lobbying activities. A parvenu culture of
keeping books on shelves instead of reading them is widespread in our
society but such a custom almost never existed in Western societies.
For over a decade Pamuk has been regarded as a “pioneering” writer,
in Western literary circles, reflecting the futuristic novel on the
present day. Hadn’t he dealt with political issues that much, perhaps
Pamuk would have already been awarded this prize because Pamuk’s real
strength lies in his distance from his objects and the courage to
declare this openly, as well as his ability to unite his high
intelligence, power of observation and expression within a literary
tradition. Pamuk also pushes the limits of the novel while doing so.
The remarks of those who criticize him show the abysmally low number
of people who possess the same intelligence and courage in our
society and how hard it is for a man of letters to look at himself
and things from out of his community.
Being a universal man of letters does not only imply an ability to
write well. Even intelligence and courage are not enough.
Synthesizing this in a way to address people’s minds and hearts also
requires honor. As for honor, it does not mean an official discourse
charged with preserving the national outlook as some people consider
it to be. It requires dealing with the society and history in a
conscientious way. Those claiming that Pamuk was awarded the Nobel
Prize because he had said a million Armenians were killed in this
country are apparently trying to say that this statement should not
be made by a “good” man of letters because a person with a conscience
cannot say the opposite. There may be various views on why these
events took place but rejecting the existence of the event just
reveals one’s fear in confessing his or her lack of ideas.
Pamuk is not that kind of a man. He is an honest person who combines
his extraordinary talent with intelligence, courage and conscience.
It is certainly difficult for communities to “internalize” such
people.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Pope’s visit to Turkey will help normalize interchurch relations
ArmRadio.am
21.10.2006 13:14
Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I has declared that
the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey will help normalize
the relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
According to the Turkish NTV, the Greek Patriarch said that the Pope’s
visit is a good chance for normalization of relations between the
Orthodox and the Catholics and to reinforcement of the opportunities
to live in peace with non-Christians. Noting that the main reason of
the Pope’s visit is the improvement of relations between Catholic and
Orthodox Churches, the Greek Patriarch said that as religious leaders
they are obliged to work to make people understand the opportunities
of preventing calashes and solving the discrepancies in a peaceful way.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PARTY EXTENDED ITS OBSERVATIONS TO IAC
Lragir.am
20 Oct 06
The Armenian side extended its observations connected with the
Imterstate Aviation Committee’s conclusion on the crash of the
Armenian A320. The press secretary of the Agency of Civil Aviation
informed Regnum that the Armenian experts scrutinized the conclusion
on the cause of the crash and extended the summary to the IAC. If
the IAC finds it expedient, the observations of the Armenian party
will be published.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress