Author: Emil Lazarian

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
September 28, 2006 Thursday
Russia’s reply to Georgian demarche must be well-considered-Gustov
by Lyudmila Yeremakova
Russia must take harsh, well considered measures in response to the
detention of Russian military in Georgia, the chairman of the
Federation Council’s CIS affairs committee, Vadim Gustov, said on
Thursday.
He described Georgia’s latest demarche as another link in the chain
of events that may eventually lead to Georgia’s admission to NATO.
Georgia hopes that its unceremonious policy would earn it more
authority with NATO, Gustov said, adding he would not rule out that
Georgia might be number one target of US policies of making CIS
members break off with Russia.
As for the peacekeepers, Gustov recalled that “there are
well-established procedures of their presence in the region, there is
the CIS mandate and recognition by the OSCE.”
Should Russian troops be pulled out, “a long and sanguinary war will
flare up in the Caucasus that may cause destruction not in Georgia’s
territory only.”
The FC’s CIS affairs committee chief would like the other CIS
countries, including Armenia, to take the correct position on the
issue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Xinhua News Agency
September 28, 2006 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Turkey expresses concerns over Netherlands’ approach on Armenian
genocide
A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday expressed concerns
over Netherlands’ approach on a “so-called Armenian genocide” in
early 20th century, Turkey’s semi-official Anatolia news agency
reported.
“We are deeply worried about the one-sided approach of our ally
Netherlands’ political parties on so-called Armenian genocide as this
puts a limit on the freedom of expression,” Namik Tan was quoted as
saying.
Tan’s comment came after three Turkish-origin candidates were removed
from their party lists in the Netherlands for the Nov. 22 early
parliamentary elections because they refused to acknowledge the
Armenian genocide.
Ruling out the possibility that his country would accept allegations
on Armenian genocide as historical reality, Tan stressed that Turkey
had opened all its archives, including military ones, so that the
incidents of 1915 can be studied from a scientific perspective.
Tan also recalled that the Turkish government had proposed the
Armenian side to establish a joint history commission over the issue.
Turkey, a country seeking European Union (EU) membership, has always
refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia on the basis
that Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians died as a result of
systematic genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period between 1915
and 1923.
Some European Parliament (EP) members characterized the removal of
the three Turkish candidates as a violation of the freedom of
expression, Turkish Zaman daily newspaper reported.
On Wednesday, the EP approved a report on Turkey’s progress towards
accession to the EU, in which the lawmakers dropped their demand that
Turkey must acknowledge the Armenian genocide before it can join the
bloc and called on Turkey to speed up its reform process.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN TOP ARMY OFFICER BRUSHES ASIDE AZERI ALLEGATIONS
Armenpress
Sept 28 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS : A top Armenian army officer has
brushed aside today Azerbaijani accusations that Armenia is violating
the terms of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.
Chief of staff of Armenia’s armed forces, Mikael Harutunian, told
reporters that before trying to accuse Armenia Azerbaijan should
itself observe the terms of the Treaty. He said Azerbaijan has 500
tanks, almost twice as many as it is allowed by the Treaty, also 700
artillery systems instead of 280 and 500 war cars instead of 220.
Mikael Harutunian said numerous inspections in the Armenian armed
forces revealed no violation of the limits. He said Armenia observes
strictly all its commitments stemming from the Conventional Forces
in Europe Treaty.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HACOBYAN’S NEXT VICTORY
A1+
[12:15 pm] 28 September, 2006
Armenian Grand Master Vladimir Hakobyan beat Evgeny Postny in the fifth
round of the International Chess Tournament which is held in Great
Britain. At present Hakobayn is in the third place with four points.
Michael Krasenko and Mateos Bartel, representatives from Poland,
head the fixture table with 4.5 points.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY TO REJECT TOUGHER CONDITIONS FOR EU MEMBERSHIP – PM
AFX International Focus
September 27, 2006 Wednesday 12:17 PM GMT
ISTANBUL (AFX) – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said any extra
conditions for Turkey’s European Union entry would be ‘unacceptable’
as he pledged that Ankara would stick to the path of democratic reform.
Erdogan was speaking after EU officials signalled that enlargement
may slow down after they opened the door for Bulgaria and Romania
in January.
‘We do not ask for privileges from the EU, but putting forward
new criteria is unacceptable for us,’ Erdogan told a conference
in Istanbul.
‘You cannot change the rules halfway through the match,’ he said.
‘The game has started and the rules are there.’
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said further
enlargement should be frozen until EU members decide on reforms to
streamline decision-making, referring to a gridlock over the bungled
EU constitution.
Turkey is also irked by attempts by some European Parliament members
to require Ankara to recognize as genocide the massacres of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire as a condition for EU membership.
‘Our (accession) talks will be tough and will take long time. We are
determined to work closely with the EU… to ensure that they are
successfully completed,’ Erdogan said.
‘Turkey’s reform process is continuing and there will be no going
back on that,’ he added.
The European Commission will issue on November 8 a key report on
Turkey’s progress towards membership, which is widely expected to
be critical.
Turkey is under fire for failing to ensure freedom of speech and its
rejection to open its sea and air ports to EU member Cyprus, whose
internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government Ankara refuses
to endorse.
Its accession talks, which started last October, have already met with
serious European opposition amid concerns over its sizeable population,
relatively weak economy and predominantly Muslim faith.
Erdogan argued that Turkey’s accession would be of ‘vital importance’
to prove that different cultures and religions can co-habitat and
called on EU members to keep that in mind when making their decisions
about the country.
Turkey is not expected to be ready for membership until at least 2015.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY RISKS SCUPPERING EU MEMBERSHIP TALKS OVER CYPRUS STANCE
by Amelie Bottollier-Depois
Agence France Presse — English
September 27, 2006 Wednesday 4:53 PM GMT
Turkey’s talks on European Union membership could be frozen unless
Ankara fully opens its ports to Cypriot ships, the European Parliament
warned Wednesday.
In a 429 to 71 vote, with 125 abstentions, the euro-MPs voted that a
“lack of progress” in the matter would have “serious implications
concerning the negotiation process and could even stop it”.
The vote was merely consultative and has no legal strength.
The deputies were discussing a tough report on Turkey, prepared by
Dutch rapporteur Camiel Eurlings.
“It is important that this process should not be a game of accusing
each other. It should be a process where we advance until we reach a
solution,” Eurlings said, while praising the parliament’s stance as
“very strong but also fair”.
The euro deputies did however water down the declaration by deleting a
paragraph calling on Turkey to recognise the 1915-17 Armenian genocide
as a precondition for joining the European Union.
Ankara refuses to apply the term genocide to the events. Earlier
this month it rejected an EU report saying that it should do so as
a condition for membership.
In July 2005, Turkey signed a protocol extending its customs agreement
with the EU to the 10 new states that joined in 2004, including the
island of Cyprus which Ankara refuses to recognise.
But its parliament has yet to ratify the document and Ankara continues
to block Cypriot ships’ access to Turkish ports.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara on Wednesday that
any extra conditions for Turkey’s European Union entry would be
“unacceptable”, while pledging that his government would stick to
the path of democratic reform.
“We do not ask for privileges from the EU but putting forward new
criteria is unacceptable for us,” he told a conference in Istanbul.
Erdogan was speaking after EU officials signalled that enlargement
may slow down after they opened the door for Bulgaria and Romania to
join in January.
Armenians estimate that up to 1.5 million of their forebears perished
in systematic killings orchestrated by the Ottoman Empire between
1915 to 1917.
Turkey rejects all accusations of genocide, estimating the number of
Armenian deaths at 300,000 and arguing they were not a consequence
of deliberate extermination but a combination of war, disease, famine
and ethnic conflict.
The European deputies also deplored the slow pace of Turkey’s
reform process over the past year and called on Ankara to “relaunch”
it immediately.
Their resolution put particular emphasis on freedom of expression
and religion and treatment of Turkish minorities.
The European Commission — the EU’s executive arm — is set to issue a
crucial report on Turkey’s progress towards EU membership on November
8 amid mounting criticism of Ankara within the bloc.
Several European officials have warned that the Cyprus question could
lead to a crisis between Ankara and the EU before the end of the year.
Last week, the EU criticised Ankara for failing to promote free speech
after best-selling novelist Elif Shafak went on trial for insulting
the Turkish nation in a book about the massacres of Armenians.
Even though the writer was swiftly acquitted, the Commission said “a
significant threat to freedom of expression” remains in Turkish law
and urged amendments to the penal code, including the infamous Article
301, which landed Shafak and a string of other intellectuals in court.
Philippe de Schoutheete, of the Belgian Royal Institute for
International Relations, said there was “reluctance over Turkey
entering (the EU) certainly in western Europe and in some parts of
central Europe”.
This was apart from the growing feeling of “enlargement fatigue”,
he told AFP, and more due to its relatively large size and political
issues including the Armenian question and human rights.

TURKISH MPS HOLD TALKS IN GERMANY ON OBSTACLES TO EU ACCESSION
Anatolia news agency, Ankara,
26 Sep 06
Berlin, 26 September: Members of Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary
Commission met members of EU Commission of German Federal Parliament
in Berlin on Tuesday [26 September].
Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission Co-Chairman Aydin Dumanoglu
told reporters after the meeting that they discussed problems of
Turkish citizens who are living in Germany as well as obstacles before
Turkey’s EU accession process.
“We exchanged views about Cyprus question, so-called Armenian genocide,
and privileged partnership which concern Turkey,” he added.
On the other hand, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy
Onur Oymen told reporters that Turkish side expressed uneasiness
about so-called Pontus and Syrian genocide allegations as well as
headscarf issue. [Passage omitted]

MAN GETS 26 YEARS IN FILMMAKER’S ROAD-RAGE MURDER
CBS Broadcasting Inc
Sep 27, 2006 3:15 pm US/Pacific
VAN NUYS The first man to be handed over to U.S. authorities by Armenia
to face criminal charges was sentenced today to 26 years to life in
state prison for the road-rage murder of a documentary filmmaker.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Kathryne Stoltz rejected the defense’s
request for a new trial for Shahen Eghia Keshishian and refused to
reduce his first-degree murder conviction to second-degree murder.
Keshishian, 34, was also found guilty Aug. 25 of vehicular manslaughter
with gross negligence and leaving the scene of an accident.
Jurors also found true the allegation that Keshishian used his GMC
Suburban as a dangerous and deadly weapon when he ran down Michael
Craven on April 29, 2000, as he stood on the shoulder of the Hollywood
(101) Freeway, south of Barham Boulevard.
The Canoga Park resident, 44, had been driving southbound when someone
in the SUV that Keshishian was driving began lobbing eggs at his Jeep,
authorities said.
Both motorists pulled over and Keshishian ran down Craven as he stood
on the shoulder, then sped away. The filmmaker died at a hospital.
Keshishian was charged with Craven’s slaying on June 23, 2000, and
charged separately by federal authorities that November with unlawful
flight to avoid prosecution.
He was placed on the Los Angeles Police Department’s most wanted list
and named as a fugitive on the FBI’s Web site.
In October 2004, with the help of various agencies in the United
States and in Yerevan, the LAPD’s homicide unit located Keshishian
in Armenia, where he had ties, according to Glendale police.
He was arrested a month later by the Armenian government for
overstaying his visa and subsequently extradited to the United
States. Glendale police said then that it was the first time someone
located in Armenia was handed to U.S. authorities to be returned to
face criminal charges.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN-FRENCH MILITARY COOPERATION DEVELOPS SUCCESSFULLY
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.09.2006 16:20 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Secretary of the National Security Council at the
President of Armenia, Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan received French
Ambassador to Armenia Henry Cuny and newly appointed Military Attache
of France in Armenia, colonel Daniel Chambon. As Spokesperson of
the Armenian MOD, colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan told PanARMENIAN.Net,
dynamics in development of Armenian-French military cooperation was
noted at the meeting. Sargsyan specifically underscored that military
medicine and language studies cooperation. D. Chambon noted he will
do his best for further strengthening the already available relations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ATOM-ANTI-TERROR 06 EXERCISES KICK OFF
By Marietta Makarian
AZG Armenian Daily
29/09/2006
Atom-Anti-Terror 06 exercises began in Armenia Tuesday Sept. 26. Heads
of anti-terror departments of CIS states are participating in
the exercises and the representatives of the G8, OSCE, UN Security
Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee as well as Shanghai Organization
Cooperation are acting as observers.
Greeting speeches were made by Colonel General Boris Melnikov, head
of Counter-Terrorism Committee of the CIS, and Colonel General Gorik
Hakobian, head of National Security Service of Armenia. President
Robert Kocharian sent a greeting message to the participants of
three-day drills. The opening ceremony taking place at Armenia-Marriott
Hotel was attended also by defense minister Serge Sargsian, head of
RA Police Department Hayk Harutyunian and other officials.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress