Author: Emil Lazarian

VIC DARCHINYAN RETAINS IBF TITLE
Armenpress
Oct 09 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 9, ARMENPRESS: Australia’s Armenia-born Vic Darchinyan
retained his International Boxing Federation flyweight title with
a technical decision over Glenn Donaire from the Philippines on
October 8.
Darchinyan knocked Donaire down in the fourth round with a short
right on the way to recording his fifth successful IBF title defense
and fourth International Boxing Organization title defense.
The bout was stopped at 1min. 27sec of the sixth round when Donaire
sustained a jaw injury from what referee Tony Weeks determined was
an accidental head clash. The ringside doctor recommended the bout
be stopped.
The fight went to the scorecards with the hard-punching Darchinyan
leading 60-53 on all three.
He improved his overall professional record to 27 wins and no losses
with 21 KOs. Darchinyan was disappointed the result was recorded as
a technical decision rather than a KO, as he was adamant that any
injury Donaire suffered was caused by a punch not a head clash.
“I nearly knocked him out and they stopped the fight for nothing,”
Darchinyan said. “There was no real reason to stop it.
“It was one of my best, but not my best performance, because I was
very sharp and I did what I wanted.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REPUBLICAN MP RULES OUT PROGRESS IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT UNTIL 2009
Armenpress
Oct 11 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS: A parliament member from the ruling
Republican Party predicted today that a real window of opportunity
to settle the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will likely to
start outlining in 2009 or at best in 2010.
Armen Ashotian, who is the youngest lawmaker in the 131-member
legislative, said all optimistic forecasts made earlier this year
that a major breakthrough is possible this year will remain as
forecasts only.
“The year is moving swiftly towards the end but there are no
indications, even slightest signs of a possible breakthrough in
the solution efforts ,” he argued, citing also the decision of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to transfer
hearing of a report on the Karabakh conflict to 2007 and the delay
of a PACE monitoring commission’s visit to the region to ground
his deduction.
“European structures, at least on the level of the Council of Europe
are realizing well that the problem cannot be settled before the end
of this year and this is why they have postponed all related meetings
until next year,” he argued.
He said no progress could be expected in 2007 or 2008 either as these
are the years for holding parliamentary and presidential elections
in Armenia respectively.
He then moved to underscore a constitution that Nagorno-Karabakh
is going to adopt in December saying it would first reconfirm that
Nagorno-Karabakh is a sovereign state and it would also prove that
Karabakh has chosen the democratic path of development.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY SAYS FRENCH BILL ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE “GREAT INJUSTICE”
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.10.2006 16:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The adoption of the bill penalizing the Armenian
Genocide denial in France is a “great injustice” toward Turkey,
Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Turan Morali told reporters October
11. He remarked that France’s move aroused anxiety in Turkey.
“The step taken by the French government is very primitive. The
adoption of the bill by a country like France arouses regret,” Morali
said. The diplomat considers that the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide by France will hamper Turkey’s accession to the EU.
Morali also remarked that the Turkish government welcomes the Azeri
parliament’s stand on the issue.
“Yesterday we spoke to the chairman of the state committee on the
affairs of Azeris living abroad,” he said and thanked the Azerbaijani
government for support, reports Trend news agency.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

UK ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO DIALOGUE WITH SOUTH CAUCASIAN STATES
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.10.2006 16:47 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
met with UK Minister for Europe Jeff Hoon, reported the RA MFA
press office. The RA FM assessed highly the bilateral relations
and pointed out to Yerevan’s aspirations to deepen these relations,
especially within the European Neighborhood Policy. When touching
upon the Armenia-EU Action Plan Vartan Oskanian underscored Armenia’s
intention to secure efficiency of the program implementation. At
that he remarked that Yerevan expects practical assistance of the
European Union member states in the issue. For his part, Mr Jeff Hoon
presented the goals of his visit and noted the importance of dialogue
between the UK and South Caucasian states and realization of joint
programs. The interlocutors also referred to regional problems, the
Armenia-Turkey relations and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IT SPECIALIST CRITICIZES ARMENIAN INTERNET SITES
Panorama.am
13:49 11/10/06
Armenian internet sites are “dead” since their pages open for more than
8 seconds, Hovanes Avoyan, director of Lycos’s Armenian representation,
told a news conference today.
In his words, Armenia is poorly presented in the internet. “If our
local users have to wait until the page opens, no one will wait more
than 8 seconds abroad,” Avoyan mentioned. Speaking about the reasons
of such failures, Avoyan said the internet connection is bad. He also
said it is disconnected for hours and even for days. Among reasons,
Avoyan also mentioned the technical capacities.
Some 110 companies work in the sphere of IT today in Armenia 30%
of them with foreign capital. Some 5,000 people are employed in the
field. IT attracts $100 million private and government investment
annually.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY UNITES TO OPPOSE FRENCH PLANS FOR ARMENIAN LAW
by: Ingo Bierschwale, dpa
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 10, 2006 Tuesday 11:50 AM EST
DPA POLITICS Turkey Politics France Armenia NEWS FEATURE: Turkey
unites to oppose French plans for Armenian law Ingo Bierschwale, dpa
Istanbul On a visit to Ankara at the beginning of the year, French
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy highlighted the interest shown
by French business in investing in Turkey, particularly in the huge
project to construct a nuclear power station at Sinop on the Black Sea.
Now, instead of lucrative contracts, those same companies face a
boycott of their products, and political relations between the two
countries have plumbed a low not seen since that of five years ago.
Then France passed a law in which the murder of thousands of Armenians
in the declining days of the Ottoman Empire was characterized as
“genocide.”
The reason for Turkish anger this time is that France may take
a further step with a proposed law that would make it a criminal
offence to deny the genocide that took place 90 years ago.
That anger is being expressed right across Turkish politics, by
business leaders and by consumer associations, ahead of consideration
of the bill by the French National Assembly on Thursday.
Ankara has made clear it will not stand idle. The Turkish government
sees the French move as yet another attempt to sabotage talks about
Turkish accession to the European Union that are in any case bogged
down.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called in French business leaders
over the weekend and demanded that these top representatives of French
companies like Renault and Peugeot, Lafarge, Carrefour and Danone to
use their influence at home.
The Foreign Ministry warned on Monday that if the draft law is
accepted, this would be seen as a “hostile decision” that would have
consequences for economic links between the two countries.
France could expect to be excluded from large-scale projects in
Turkey. And calls for a boycott of French products and even for French
visitors to apply for a visa were being raised.
Turkey is particularly outraged and embittered at what it sees as
double standards in the European Union.
Turkey has to endure harsh criticism that there are limits there
on freedom of expression, while precisely this is what is now being
restricted in France.
With the proposed law France, which has “since the revolution of 1789
been in the vanguard of human rights,” is now returning to “the Middle
Ages,” in the words of Rifat Hisarciklioglu, president of the Union
of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.
And even Turkish intellectuals, who have been brought before the
courts in Turkey because of their opinions on the Armenian question,
have come out against the French draft bill.
Hrant Dink, publisher of the Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper Agos,
said that if the proposal was passed, he would travel to France
with the express purpose of “denying the genocide,” even though he
is convinced of the opposite and is in fact facing prosecution in
Turkey for this reason.
The French initiative displayed the same “mentality” as that shown
by those in Turkey who strongly reject the allegation that genocide
took place, Dink said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY IN LAST-DITCH APPEAL FOR FRANCE TO DROP ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2006 Wednesday 4:31 PM GMT
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul Wednesday launched a last-ditch
appeal to France to drop a bill on the World War I massacres of
Armenians which has threatened to poison bilateral ties.
“I hope France, the homeland of freedom where everyone is able to
express their opinions freely, will not turn into a country where
people are jailed for expressing their opinions and publishing
documents,” Gul told reporters here.
“If the bill is adopted, Turkey will not lose anything, but France
will lose not only Turkey, but something of itself as well.”
The French national assembly is scheduled to vote Thurday on the bill,
which provides for a year in prison and a 45,000-euro (57,000-dollar)
fine for denying that Armenians were the victims of genocide between
1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor.
If the bill passes through the assembly, it will have to be approved
by the Senate and the president before it becomes law in what is
expected to be a lenghty process.
Ankara has warned that bilateral ties will suffer a serious blow and
French companies will be barred from economic projects if the bill
is adopted.
Turkish officials largely see the draft law as a gesture to France’s
large Armenian community before legislative elections next year.
The French government has described the bill as unnecessary, while
the ruling UMP party bloc has distanced itself from the draft, which
was tabled by the Socialist opposition.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading
Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRENCH ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL THREATENS TO SCUPPER TRADE WITH TURKEY
by Hande Culpan
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
France risks losing an important economic partner in Turkey and being
left out of major projects ranging from the defense sector to energy
if it adopts a controversial bill on the World War I-era massacres
of Armenians.
The French national assembly is scheduled to vote Thurday on the bill,
which provides one year in prison and a 45,000-euro (57,000-dollar)
fine for denying that Armenians were the victims of genocide between
1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor.
If the bill passes through the assembly, it will have to be approved
by the Senate and the President before it becomes law in what is
largely expected to be a lenghty process.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has already warned that French
companies should expect to be barred from major tenders and several
civic groups have threatend to boycott French goods if the bill
is approved.
This would be a repetition of what happened in 2001, when France
officialy recognised the Armenian massacress as genocide, but French
businessmen here feel the repercussions of the new bill could be
more severe.
“In 2001, Turkey went though a huge economic crisis and the boycott
of French goods was forgotten. But I do not think it will be the same
this time round,” Raphael Esposito, director of the French-Turkish
Chamber of Commerce, told AFP. “The wound will be deeper and will
not heal as quickly.”
Analysts say Turkey cannot cancel projects already awarded to French
companies, but could easily bar them from future tenders.
One project France is interested in is the planned construction of
the country’s first nuclear power plant, which calls for an initial
investment of four billion dollars (about 3.1 billion euros).
The government plans to build three nuclear power plants with a total
capacity of about 5,000 megawatts, to be operational in 2012, in hopes
of preventing a possible energy shortage and reducing dependence on
foreign supplies, mainly from Russia and Iran.
Nuclear Power International (NPI), a subsidiary of Germany’s Siemens
and France’s Framatome, had previously bid in a now-defunct tender
to build a nuclear plant on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast.
Another area that could be adversely affected by the French bill is
the defence industry.
Eurocopter, the fruit of a Franco-German merger, is among four foreign
companies to submit bids for the purchase of 52 general-purpose
search-and-rescue helicopters for military and civilian use, a project
said to be worth several million dollars.
French companies are also keen to participate in several transport
and infrastructure projects in major Turkish cities, such as the
extension of Istanbul’s underground railway system.
Analysts, however, say Turkey could keep planned economic sanctions on
a strict bilateral level and not move against multinational companies
that may include France.
The French bill, if approved, is also likely to hit some 250 French
firms already present in Turkey and active in sectors ranging from food
and the automobile industry to banking and insurance, and providing
employment for about 65,000 people.
“All this is very tiring,” Esref Hamacioglu, the director in Turkey
of Sodexho, a French food voucher company.
He said his firm lost about one million euros (1.25 million dollars)
in 2001, during a two-week boycott triggered by France’s recognition
of the Armenian massacres as genocide.
Bilateral trade between the two countries totalled 8.2 billion euros
(10 billion dolars) in 2005.
France also plays a leading role in foreign direct investment in
Turkey with 2.1 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros) last year and 328
million dollars (260 million euros) in the first seven months of 2006.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRENCH MPS TO DEBATE ARMENIA ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL, ANGERING TURKEY
by Marc Burleigh
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
French MPs are set to debate Thursday a bill on the 1915-1917 massacres
of Armenians by the Ottomans which, if passed into law, could gravely
threaten France’s economic relations with Turkey.
Tabled by the left-wing opposition, the draft law would make it a
crime in France to deny that the massacres constituted genocide,
hitting violators with a prison term of up to one year and a fine of
up to 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars).
Turkey, the modern state which emerged from a sprawling Ottoman Empire
that included Armenia, contests the term “genocide” for the killings
and strongly opposes the bill’s provisions.
It 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.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings.
Around 400,000 people of Armenian origin are estimated to live in
France, the most famous being the singer Charles Aznavour, born
Chahnour Varinag Aznavourian to immigrant parents.
In 2001 France adopted a law calling the massacres a genocide,
but the new bill would, in addition, make it illegal to deny that
genocide took place, much in the way denial of the Holocaust during
World War II is a crime.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that
passage of the bill would be a mistake bearing serious consequences
for French investors in Turkey.
“We expect Paris to avoid this blunder, this political accident that
will harm Turkish-French relations,” he told members of his party.
Erdogan claimed the criminalisation of those who challenged the
use of “genocide” for the Armenian killings ran counter to freedom
of expression in the European Union, which Turkey itself is under
pressure to respect as it seeks membership.
Ankara has warned France that its companies will be barred from
potentially lucrative economic projects in Turkey, including a planned
nuclear power plant, if the bill is adopted.
The Ankara Chamber of Commerce, which groups some 3,200 businesses,
has also threatened to boycott French goods.
At stake is bilateral trade that totalled 8.2 billion euros (10
billion dollars) in 2005.
But observers warned that any economic retaliation could prove worse
for Turkey than for France.
France plays a leading role in foreign direct investment in Turkey,
with 2.1 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros) last year and 328 million
dollars in the first seven months of this year. About 250 French firms
are active in Turkey, providing employment for about 65,000 people.
Nevertheless, Chirac’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party
has been unsettled by the intensity of the Turkish backlash over the
proposed law, which was entered by the opposition Socialist Party.
On Tuesday, French foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei
told reporters that the bill “does not implicate the government” and
“in our view, it is not necessary”.
The head of the UMP majority in parliament, Bernard Accoyer, said
a “large number” of the party’s MPs would abstain from voting on
the bill.
“The law is not the best tool to write history,” he said.
The furore also plays out against the context of Turkey’s EU membership
bid, and France’s key role in deciding its fate.
Chirac has championed Turkey’s ambition to join the European Union,
but domestic opposition — including within the UMP — has since
prompted him to add conditions and qualifications.
On a recent trip to Armenia, he said Turkey should recognise the
Armenian killings as a genocide before being allowed to join the EU.
But he also called the opposition bill “deliberately controversial”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ROYAL SAYS TURKEY MUST RECOGNISE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Kerstin Gehmlich
Reuters, UK
Oct 11 2006
PARIS, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Turkey has to recognise Armenians suffered
genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks if it wants to enter the
European Union, French Socialist presidential frontrunner Segolene
Royal said on Wednesday.
Royal, who heads opinion polls to become the leftist party’s candidate
for next year’s presidential poll, did not say whether she personally
supported Turkey’s EU membership, saying the French people would
decide the issue in a referendum.
“If Turkey should one day confirm its candidacy and enter Europe,
it is obvious that it must recognise the Armenian genocide,” Royal
told a press conference.
Royal was speaking just a day before the French parliament was to
vote on a bill that will impose prison terms on anyone who denies
the 1915 genocide of Armenians took place.
The bill, proposed by Royal’s Socialist party, has strained relations
between Paris and Ankara, with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
telling France to examine its own colonial past.
Ankara denies that some 1.5 million Armenians perished in a systematic
genocide last century, saying large numbers of both Christian Armenians
and Muslim Turks died in a partisan conflict raging at that time.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he hoped France, “a country
of freedoms”, would not become “a country where people are jailed
for expressing views and releasing documents”.
“If this bill is passed, Turkey will not lose anything but France
will lose Turkey and it will no longer remain as France that boasts
the values I mentioned,” Gul told reporters.
The European Commission has criticised the French bill, saying it
undermines its efforts to persuade Turkey to increase freedom of
expression by scrapping article 301 of the penal code used against
Turkish intellectuals and writers.
NO LECTURING
Turkey began EU entry talks last October and France is especially
cool on taking in the large, mainly Muslim nation.
Royal said France had also found it painful to deal with darker
chapters of its past.
“It’s not easy for certain countries to recognise a number of actions
or episodes that are totally counter to the respect of human dignity,”
she said.
Asked whether she personally supported Turkey’s entry into the EU,
Royal said the French people would decide this issue in a referendum.
Royal’s likely conservative competitor for the 2007 poll, Interior
Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, is a long-standing opponent of Turkey’s
EU entry.
Some deputies in Sarkozy’s UMP party say there is no need for the
controversial bill, but the mood has toughened since President Jacques
Chirac visited Armenia last month and said Turkey should recognise
the genocide before joining the EU.
UMP party officials expect around 60 of their 362 parliamentarians
to back the motion, with most of the rest likely to skip the debate,
handing victory to the Socialists.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress