Author: Emil Lazarian

“ARMENIAN BUSINESSWOMAN 2005” EXHIBITION KICKS OFF IN YEREVAN TODAY
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 19 2006
YEREVAN, October 19. /ARKA/. The second exhibition “Armenian
Businesswoman 2006” was opened in Yerevan today. ASME program
coordinator for support to Anahit Bobikyan told reporters Thursday
that 60 women-run companies participate in the exhibition.
She said that particularly food, textile, clothes, wooden and stone
ware, applied arts, leather accessories, souvenirs, handwork carpets,
embroidery, publishing and consultation services were demonstrated
at the exhibition.
The first exhibition was held in May 2005. The second one “Armenian
Businesswoman 2006” will last until October 21. The activity was
organized by the ASME (small and medium enterprises) Program in
association with the Logos EXPO Center exhibition company and funded
by the USAID.
At the exhibition, a meeting of Armenian businesswomen with beginner
representatives of business, a round table of businesswomen and
Armenian students, and also a gala-concert dedicated to Armenian
businesswomen to be participated by well-known musicians and prominent
figures of art. R.O. –0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
Oct 19 2006
Press Review
AKSAM
CICEK: “ARTICLE 301 CAN BE CHANGED”
Before a meeting of Parliament’s Justice Commission yesterday,
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek spoke to reporters about possible
changes to controversial Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Article 301, saying
that only four articles of the TCK couldn’t be changed, namely 1,
2, 3, and 174. “Thus, all articles except these can be changed,”
said Cicek. “Article 301 was amended in the past. Article 301 isn’t
off-limits to change.” /Aksam/

Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa
Oct 19 2006
Turkey’s Parliament raps France’s ‘genocide’ Bill
Ankara, Turkey
19 October 2006 02:14
Turkey’s Parliament backed on Tuesday a declaration condemning the
French National Assembly’s approval of a draft Bill that would make
it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide by Ottoman Turks in
1915.
But the government stopped short of taking measures against French
interests and companies, aware this could harm Turkey’s economy more
than France’s.
Diplomats say the genocide Bill, approved by the lower house last
Thursday, is unlikely to become law due to resistance from the upper
chamber, the Senate and President Jacques Chirac.
Turkish lawmakers said much damage had already been done.
“Naturally, approval of the draft by the French Parliament will
inflict irreparable damage on political, economic and military
relations between Turkey and France,” said the declaration which had
the backing of all political parties.
It said Armenia would pay a “heavy price” for using lobbies in France
and in other countries against Turkey, although it did not say what
that might entail.
Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia due to the tiny
ex-Soviet republic’s occupation of territory belonging to Ankara’s
Turkic-speaking ally Azerbaijan.
France is home to Europe’s largest Armenian diaspora.
Ankara denies Armenians’ claims they suffered a systematic genocide
in Turkey during World War I, saying both Christian Armenians and
Muslim Turks died in large numbers in a partisan conflict that
accompanied the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
In Tuesday’s debate in the Turkish Parliament, Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul said the “baseless” Armenian claims were nothing more
than political propaganda.
“We hope this bill stops halfway and that the French come to their
senses,” Gul said.
Gul said the French Bill violated the principle of free speech, a key
requirement of the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join. He
said Ankara would fight the Bill in international courts if it ever
became law in France. – Reuters
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Daily News
Oct 19 2006
Diplomacy Newsline
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Azerbaijan to counter Armenian diaspora:
ANK – TDN with AFP
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has announced a campaign to
counter the influence of the Armenian diaspora, a major backer of
ethnic-Armenian separatists in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Aliyev said his oil-rich ex-Soviet republic was opening embassies
and consulates in parts of the world where the Armenian diaspora was
especially influential.
“It’s no secret that California is a state with a large Armenian
population. We opened a consulate general [in Los Angeles] to be
there and to fight the Armenian lobby,” Aliyev said on Tuesday in an
interview with Arabic network Al Jazeera. He said his country planned
to open an embassy in Argentina, where the Armenian lobby “is [at its]
strongest among Latin American nations.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a territorial dispute
over the Nagorno-Karabakh ethnic-Armenian enclave since before the
breakup of the Soviet Union. Turkey severed diplomatic relations with
neighboring Armenia after Armenian troops occupied Nagorno-Karabakh,
and the border gate between Turkey and Armenia has been closed for
more than a decade. The influential Armenian diaspora, particularly in
the United States, has long been exerting efforts against Turkey via
its lobbying for Armenian genocide allegations to be internationally
recognized.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan’s new oil wealth gave it a chance to outweigh
ethnic-Armenians’ influence abroad. “What is attractive about
Armenia? Only the fact that it has a rich diaspora that influences the
policies of various countries,” he said. “Azerbaijan is a country that
will supply Europe and world markets with energy resources. Imagine
Azerbaijan on one side of the scale and Armenia on the other.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Warm Ties with the Diaspora
By MEHMET KAMIS
10.19.2006 Thursday – ISTANBUL 20:51
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 19 2006
The Armenian issue constantly confronts Turkey. Everywhere in the
world – in France, America, Lebanon – when Turkey is mentioned, some
group appears hating Turkey and opposing them to the death. I have
written on this story of hate in previous articles.
More than in those subjected to deportation, this is a hate that has
formed in later generations. The migration of Armenians, an Eastern
Christian group, after World War II to Western countries played a big
role in the transformation of the resentment of the first generation
into the hatred of later generations.
Last year was the 90th anniversary of the deportation. 2015 will be the
100th anniversary. The Armenians, or, more accurately, those who want
to put pressure on Turkey, are trying to keep this issue on the agenda
as much as possible and are preparing for a finale ten years from now.
In World War II, which began in 1939 and ended in 1945, 35 million
people died. Twenty million remained crippled. Twelve million mothers
miscarried before holding their babies in their arms. Occupying France,
Germany attacked Russia and caused the death of hundreds of thousands
of people. A total of 35 million people from England, France, Italy
and Germany lost their lives in this war. Killing millions of each
other’s people just 60 years ago, these states are uniting under one
roof today by their own desire. But the events Turkey experienced with
the Armenians during World War I are constantly bearing down on it,
growing larger with each passing day.
This issue constantly confronts us in a different country.
There is only one action Turkey has taken against this situation.
That is to say as loudly as possible to anyone who begins speaking
about the alleged Armenian genocide that we didn’t’ butcher them,
they butchered us. Repeated more so in Turkey, these words don’t
reach the rest of the world. The whole world believes the claims of
the Armenians; their voice comes out a lot stronger than Turkey’s.
Turkey has no other approach or policy regarding this matter. When a
few authorities repeat these words that we didn’t kill them, Armenian
gangs killed Turks, the subject is closed for us.
For example, if we say that historians should handle this, it isn’t
going to resolve anything. The subject isn’t closed for the Armenians
and because it is useful for big states, it is constantly brought up
against us. This situation could have been acceptable before because
Turkey was a country squeezed between the Kapikule and Habur borders
where only the rulers were happy. But things have changed today. We
are finally living in a country integrated with the rest of the world.
Turkey should change its policy on this issue and create warm ties
with the Armenian Diaspora. In fact, civilians should be doing more
than the government. We should sit down and talk with them a little
about Fenerbahce football. Eating stuffed grapevine leaves together,
presenting gold jewelry at weddings, and occasionally speaking
Turkish. In short, it’s necessary to remember again that we are
societies that until yesterday did a lot of things together, ate the
same food, sang the same songs, and reacted similarly when insulted;
we shared the same emotions.
There are so many people in the Armenian Diaspora who have never met
a Turk in their whole life. Through face-to-face encounters, seeing
that Turks are different from the type of person they have created
in their minds could make a deep impression on them. Seeing that the
Turks they hate to death are not like the image they have in their
heads could turn their beliefs upside down.
Turkey can overcome this issue with more human-oriented policies.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Daily News
Oct 19 2006
>>From the columns
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Who will forgive whom?:
Bugun, Gulay Gokturk: Orhan Pamuk’s task is really difficult. So
many are dictating what he should say at the Nobel Prize ceremony.
The minute the news of the Nobel came in, many started writing draft
speeches. These mentors said, “Make a statement condemning France’s
genocide denial bill.” Some said it would be appropriate for him to
go to France at once and have himself arrested. Following that, a
race to craft the best phrases to say at the ceremony began. If he
said one thing, he would make peace with the people of Turkey, or
perhaps instead he’d better say something else. He was assigned a
wide range of missions, from stating support for Turkey’s European
Union membership bid to proving how wonderful Turkish democracy
actually is. Some said that while the opportunity exists, they
expected him to say that he opposes U.S. policy in Iraq. Those who
demanded he turn down the prize are another story. What is being done
here is, in its simplest form, disrespect. It is disrespectful to
write a sentence for a great writer and try to make him read it. It
is as if we won the prize together. As if it was not given to Orhan
Pamuk. As if he will be representing Turkey on that podium and is
obligated to say what we’d like him to. We have a Nobel-winning
author and we think we can exploit his fame as we wish and make him
send the messages we want. As if the Nobel was won through the joint
efforts of a team. The reality is very different. Turkey was never on
the same team as Pamuk. Not simply without us, he earned this prize
in spite of us. Our state tried him, our intellectuals took every
opportunity to demoralize him, to find fault with and destroy him.
Our people were, in general, indifferent to this lynching attempt.
And now do we have the ability to talk about “forgiving,” about
“compensating for a mistake”? Do we have the ability to tell him what
to say at the Nobel ceremony? If this honor is going to be an
instrument for a reconciliation of some sort, it is not us, but Orhan
Pamuk, who should be forgiving.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA: ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE SPURS RESPIRATORY DISEASES
Marianna Grigoryan 10/20/06
EurasiaNet, NY
Oct 20 2006
A dramatic increase in respiratory diseases over the past several years
means that Armenia is now struggling to breathe, physicians and public
health specialists say. While government representatives downplay
the problem, environmentalists point to desertification as the cause.
Between 2001 and 2005, the number of respiratory diseases registered in
Armenia increased by 45 percent to just over 161,000 cases, according
to statistics from the Ministry of Health.
Andranik Voskanyan, one of Armenia’s chief lung specialists, believes
that the real number of individuals suffering from respiratory
diseases, particularly asthma, is much higher than officially
reported. Voskanyan estimates that the number of such cases has at
least doubled in the past decade. He is also seeing respiratory disease
strike at an earlier age. “A few years ago the youngest child suffering
from asthma was five or six … [but] we now find this disease also
among one to two-year-old[s],” said Voskanyan. “This is the reaction
of the body to the environment.”
Voskanyan believes that shrinking green areas, industrial emissions,
lack of quality control for imported fuel, and increased emissions
from automobiles have played a central role in the increased number
of respiratory diseases.
Yerevan pediatrician Anahit Mazmanyan agrees. “Almost all newborns
have allergies, symptoms of rickets [inflammation of the spine],
which was a rare phenomenon in the past. These are phenomena that
one should pay great attention to,” commented Mazmanyan.
Environmentalists and public health specialists say a major factor
behind the trend is galloping desertification. Recent United
Nations (UN) data reports that 82 percent of Armenia’s territory
is at risk of desertification and 26 percent is at risk of extreme
desertification. In response, the UN recently called on the government
and civil society groups to develop programs to address environmental
issues.
“Armenia today has opted for a peculiar way of desertification –
an asphalt-concrete desertification,” commented Karine Danielyan,
a former minister for environmental protection who now chairs the
For Sustainable Human Development non-governmental organization.
“Construction in gross violation of the rules of urban development
is going on everywhere at the expense of green areas.”
In Yerevan, where fashionable cafes have mushroomed recently in city
parks, trees today cover only 2 percent of the land area, according to
government statistics. In 2005, the amount of so-called “green area”
available per resident in this city of 1.1 million stood at 4.2 square
meters, a threefold decline from 1990 levels.
With fewer trees, fewer ways exist for removing emissions from cars
and factories, according to environmentalists. At the same time,
greater quantities of dust enter the atmosphere as the soil erodes.
“Soon it won’t be the amount of green area per resident that will
be calculated, but the number of cafe chairs per resident, and cafe
tables per family,” quipped one elderly Yerevan resident who regularly
strolls in the capital’s parks.
Experts note that during the Communist era, Yerevan ranked as one
of the Soviet Union’s most polluted cities. The closure of nearby
factories in the 1990s failed to make much of a difference. In
addition, an energy crisis during the early 1990s, largely connected
to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, led to a rash of tree cutting
throughout Armenia. Today, even though the energy crisis is long past,
large-scale logging continues.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Environmental Protection,
the quantity of dust, sulfur, dioxide, ethyl benzol, nitric oxide
and other substances, including lead, in the atmosphere over Armenia
exceeds admissible concentration levels.
Experts deem the situation dangerous. “Monitoring has collapsed in
recent years. Very few materials are studied now,” said Danielyan.
Carbonic acid and ozone, for instance, are no longer monitored in
Yerevan, he added.
As yet, no government policy exists to address the issue of tree
loss. Officials maintain that attention is being paid to the country’s
general environmental welfare.
“There are certain government resolutions and decrees aimed at
protecting the environment, in particular those envisaging control
over car emissions,” said Aram Gabrielyan, head of the Environment
Ministry’s Department for Environmental Protection. “Certain measures
are being taken in terms of control, but I don’t think that the
shrinkage of green areas can contribute to air pollution and
respiratory diseases,” Gabrielyan claimed.
Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan is a reporter for the Armenianow.com
weekly in Yerevan.

Turkish Daily News
Oct 19 2006
>>From the columns
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Hot contact with the diaspora:
Zaman, Mehmet Kamýþ: The Armenian question is being brought before
Turkey at every opportunity. A group of people all over the world —
in France, America and Lebanon — hate Turkey and wish only bad
things for it. This hatred has been fostered not by those who were
deported but rather by the generations that followed. The migration
of Armenians, an Eastern Christian society, to Western countries
after World War I played a huge role in this Armenian transformation.
This is the 90th anniversary of that forced deportation. States that
were at each other’s throats only 60 years ago are today united under
one roof. Nobody feuds anymore. The significance of Turkey’s World
War I incident with the Armenians is growing on a daily basis. Each
time this problem confronts us in a different country. To manage
this, Turkey should change its policy and establish close contact
with the Armenian diaspora. Civilians, rather than the state, should
put more effort into solving this problem. We need to sit down with
them and talk a little bit about Fenerbahce. Eat sarma with them, put
jewelry on the bride at weddings. In short, we should remember that
we are similar nations emotionally; we eat the same foods and sing
the same folk songs.
–Boundary_(ID_kgEnUy/auTM5k0Ev7PlTrQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Levon Ter-Petrasiyan to nominate his candidacy in the presidential elections
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 20 2006
[ 20 Oct. 2006 20:28 ]
The former president Levon Ter-Petrosiyan can nominate his candidacy
in the presidential elections in 2008, Ararat Zurabyan, administrator
of Armenian National Movement (ANM) headed by Levon Ter-Petrosian
said in the press conference, APA reports.
He thinks that the return of the first president of Armenia to the
sphere of action will change the conditions in the country.
“Levon Ter-Petrosiyan’s two words are more important than the activity
of the all political power, “he said.
Zurabyan said that if former president do not nominate his candidacy,
ANM will nominate other candidacy. Zurabyan said that the aim of
opposition is to prevent the leading of those who came to power
illegally. He said that during the reign of Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian and Defense Minister Serj Sarkisian Armenia stood aside from
regional projects./APA/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey Bakhchasaray University prepared 1mn application forms against false Armenian genocide
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 20 2006
[ 20 Oct. 2006 19:31 ]
Turkey Bakhchasaray University prepared one million application forms
against false Armenian genocide for sending European Court of Human
Rights, the University rector and famous lawyer Suheyl Batum told
APA Turkey bureau exclusively.
“Armenia tries to accuse Turkey of the genocide which was not
recognized by well-known historians of the world. The political
aim of this accusation is evident from France Interior Minister’s
suggestions. He said that France Parliament will not adopt the law if
Turkey opens the borders with Armenia, restores diplomatic relations
between the two countries and abolish Turkish Criminal Code article
301. This problem concerns Azerbaijan, too. Armenians occupied 20
percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, but they want us to recognize the
controversial historical event. France does not allow Turks to protest
against its decision. It gives us a chance to appeal to European Court
of Human Rights. We prepared application forms for this. Turkey should
solve the problem legally. Azerbaijan and Turkey will have great
chances to pressurize France and other western countries. Armenians
occupied Azerbaijan’s territories, but the world community wants us to
restore diplomatic and commercial relations with Armenia. They do not
pay attention to UN decision making Armenia aggressor. Azerbaijan would
have solved this problem if it were economically strong country. But
now we should solve the problem legally,” he said. /APA/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress