Author: Frangulian Shushan

New Anatolian, Turkey
Feb 19 2008

Visiting French official: Parliament did not approve bill on Armenian
genocide

The New Anatolian / Ankara

19 February 2008

French Secretary of State for Industry and Foreign Trade Herve
Novelli said the French parliament did not approve bill on 1915
incidents; the bill was adopted only by national parliament and
presented to senate.

The bill bans denial of Armenian genocide.

Novelli said the adoption of that bill was not on their agenda.

Upon questions of reporters (regarding the French bill on 1915
incidents) during a ceremony at which Turkey’s Halkbank and French
Development Agency (AFD) signed a loan agreement, Novelli said
sometimes politics intervened in economy.

Novelli said he arrived in Turkey with a crowded group of
businessmen, and it showed their will to further strengthen the
relations between Turkey and France.

On the other hand, Turkish State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister
Nazim Ekren said they exchanged views on what could be done to
further improve the quality of relations in area of economy between
Turkey and France.

"This project is one of the things that should be done. Loan for
small & medium scale enterprises should be considered a support for
regional and company development," Ekren added.

Opposition allegations cloud Armenia election

Hasmik Lazarian and Margarita Antidze , Reuters
Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008

YEREVAN (Reuters) – Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan won Armenia’s
presidential election in the first round, an exit poll showed on
Tuesday, but the opposition said voting was marred by beatings and
ballot-stuffing.

Most observers say Sarksyan would pursue policies followed by President
Robert Kocharyan during his decade in office. Poor and land-locked,
Armenia relies heavily on a long-standing alliance with Moscow.

Sarksyan won 57 percent of the vote, way ahead of his nearest
opposition challenger, former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, according
to an exit poll by Britain’s Populus pollster for Armenian public
television.

Populus said Ter-Petrosyan scored 17.04 percent.

But Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign office said staff had been beaten and
even kidnapped at polling stations and vowed to hold a protest rally
in Yerevan on Wednesday, opening the specter of mass protests which
have followed previous elections.

Polling stations closed at 8 p.m. (11:00 a.m. EST) in the mountainous,
impoverished country of 3.2 million people and the first official
results were expected on Wednesday.

Armenia is squeezed between Turkey and Azerbaijan in a region that
is emerging as an important transit route for oil exports from the
Caspian Sea to European and world markets.

Sarksyan, after voting in a Yerevan school, said the priority was
for Armenia to conduct a free and fair election.

"It’s not important whether the election will be held in one or two
rounds. The most important point is that our election be trustworthy,"
Sarksyan said. The top two candidates will contest a run-off if no
one tops 50 percent in the first round vote.

The rest of the field is led by former speaker of parliament Artur
Baghdasaryan and Ter-Petrosyan, a former president who was forced to
resign in 1998 and is now seeking a comeback.

"I’m confident that I’ll win in the first round … I’ve voted for
freedom," Ter-Petrosyan said after casting his ballot.

"There are some ‘dirty things’ already going on," he said, but declined
to give details on specific cases.

TEST OF STABILITY

Previous elections in Armenia, high in the Caucasus mountains, have
been followed by mass opposition protests alleging ballot fraud.

Baghdasaryan also said there had been violations. "There is absolute
chaos at one polling station in Yerevan … which is impeding the
voting process," said a spokeswoman for his campaign.

"At another polling station people were distributing voting lists
that were already filled in favor of one candidate."

Kocharyan, 53, is barred by the constitution from serving a third
consecutive term. He is expected to remain influential but has refused
to disclose what role he wants until his replacement is inaugurated.

"I think no one has any doubt about whom I would be voting for. I
voted for stability and prosperity in Armenia," Kocharyan said, after
casting a ballot at the same polling station as his prime minister.

"I voted for Sarksyan because I don’t want Armenia to be plunged into
chaos again," said Khachatur Babayan, 63, a doctor. Many Armenians
associate Ter-Petrosyan’s time in office with economic meltdown and
power blackouts.

But others said they wanted change.

"I think that Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be able to help people, to make
our country really prosperous," said school teacher Hasmik Hovannesyan,
54, as she cast her ballot.

Armenia is still officially at war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan has frosty relations with Turkey,
in part because of a bitter dispute over the killing of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks during World War One.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Robert Woodward)

JAVAKHI ARMENIANS SUPPORT SERZH SARKISIAN

A1+
[02:59 pm] 17 February, 2008

Armenia’s Prime Minister and presidential candidate Serzh Sarkissian
holds a rally at "Azatutiun" (Liberty) Square at 3:00 p.m., on
February 17th.

The "Union of the Armenians of Georgia" takes every effort to give
unstinting support to Serzh Sarkissian.

Today morning Armenians of Akhalkalak and Ninotsminda set off to
Armenia to participate in the rally. They were unable to reach their
destination because of unfavorable weather conditions.

To remind, Javakhki Armenians have no right to participate in the
upcoming presidential election as they are considered Georgia’s
residents.

In reply to A1+’s question what’s the use of attending the rally if
they have no right to vote, they said, "They have promised to gasify
Javakhk and tackle our problems."

Hindu, India
Feb 18 2008

Anand blunders, suffers defeat

NEW DELHI: Armenia’s Levon Aronian handed out a shock defeat to World
champion Viswanathan Anand in the second round of the Morelia-Linares
chess tournament at Morelia, Mexico, on Saturday.

Anand, playing white in this Ruy Lopez game, committed a blunder with
his knight-move on the 30th turn and gave up after 34 moves when
faced with checkmate. In the day’s other decisive battle Vassily
Ivanchuk beat Peter Leko.

The results (second round): Viswanathan Anand (1) lost to Levon
Aronian (Arm, 1); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr. 1.5) bt Peter Leko (Hun, 1).

Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 0.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1.5);
Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1).

Armenian candidate for president Levon Ter-Petrosyan applied to
citizens of the country

2008-02-16 20:42:00

ArmInfo. Today Armenian first president, candidate for president Levon
Ter-Petrosyan applied to citizens of the country.

The message received by ArmInfo says, that on 19 February Armenian
citizens will have an opportunity to demonstrate their will and in such
a way "to liberate Armenia" from "the robbery state" and become true
and worthy masters of the country. For this it is just necessary to
fulfill their civil duty and take part in the election. Indifference
will help the authorities to do fraud and to fail success of the
pan-national movement. The more people take part in the election the
more victory of the people is guaranteed. ‘In case of your activeness
we shall manage to fulfill what we failed to do in 1998 and 2003. And
this time we shall undoubtedly win’, – the message says.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan also called up all the political forces that
support him, all the activists, which organized his campaign, his
agents and all his supporters to watch the voting course attentively,
to stop any violation and to immediately demand all the final protocols
after voting. He applied to all representatives of municipal
authorities and members of district electoral commissions as well as to
the police commanders and said that their task is to ensure legal
election. He also emphasized that any violation made by them will
serious legal consequences. ‘The robbery state has already lost and the
people won. And this victory should be legally formed on 19 February’,
– Ter-Petrosyan’s message says.

Armenian General Prosecutor’s Office made a statement and warned on
criminal liability for electoral violations

February 15, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian General Prosecutor’s Office made a
statement, in which it reminded on criminal liability for violations of
the electoral legislation.

Mediamax reports that the General Prosecutor’s Office stressed that the
following violations are considered criminal offence:

– making obstacles on the way of realization of the electoral right and
work of the electoral commissions;

– falsification of elections, or the results of voting;

– spreading slanderous information about candidates or parties;

– infringement of the order of electors’ lists composition, their
publication or provision of those lists to citizens or parties;

– double-voting, or voting instead of another person;

– preparation and distribution of spurious ballots;

– making obstacles on the way of free will of the citizens;

– non-return of the seal of the electoral commission, violation of the
established order of seal guarding;

– entry to the polling station with arm;

– non-provision of protocol copies of the electoral commissions, making
obstacles on the way of examination of the electoral documents by the
proxies, members of electoral commissions, observers or media
representatives.

General Prosecutor’s Office urged Armenian citizens in case of
revelation of such violations to turn to the law-enforcement bodies or
to the General Prosecutor’s Office by 56-29-45 telephone number.

"CAMPAIGN PROCEEDS IN STRAINED ATMOSPHERE," "CHOICE IS YOURS" PUBLIC ORGANIZATION SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Feb 15, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The campaign of the RA presidential
candidates is proceeding in a strained and not always balanced
atmosphere with inaddmissible manifestations. This statement was made
by Haroutiun Hambardzumian, the Chairman of the "Choice is yours"
public organization, at the press conference, which was held on
February 15.

In his estimation, all that could not contribute to the formation of
confidence among society disappointed by the electoral processes. In
the words of Haroutiun Hambardzumian, a number of preoccupying
phenomena have been recorded, which, in particular, concern the
obstacles appeared during the campaign and the application of the
administrative resource.

The "Choice is yours" organization calls to the competing sides and
all the people included in the electoral processes for keeping away
from manifestations of intolerance, for displaying a high political
culture and exceptionally acting within the borders of the law and
legality on the day of the ballot. Haroutiun Hambardzumian expressed
hope that a change for the better will be recorded on the day of
the ballot, which will provide the legitimacy of the result of the
elections for the public and raise the level of public confidence
towards the electoral process.

He stated that on February 19 the organization will conduct a
monitoring mission in all the electoral stations of the republic.

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Feb 15 2008

FMS OF ARMENIA AND SERBIA DISCUSSED KOSOVO ISSUE

YEREVAN, 15.02.08. DE FACTO. The development of situation around
Kosovo, influence of concerned states on the conflict’s settlement
was discussed at a meeting of Armenian and Serbian FMs Vardan
Oskanian and Vuk Jeremic held in Kiev within the frames of a meeting
of FMs of the countries of Black Sea region and the EU.
According to the information DE FACTO received at the RA MFA Press
Office, in the course of the meeting the parties had underscored
friendly nature of relations between Armenia and Serbia and mutual
sympathy between the two countries’ peoples.

PRE-ELECTION SLANDER IS BEING COLLECTED

Lragir
Feb 12 2008
Armenia

The special working group of the Office of Prosecutor General was
set up to study reports on breaches of the electoral legislation. The
office has received 41 reports, of which 20 through the media.

Charges were brought on 11 reports, 18 reports were declined, 11
reports are under investigation. On February 12 Prosecutor General
Aghvan Hovsepyan released this information, saying that on the days to
go before the election the office of prosecutor general will hold news
conferences more often to release the findings of the working group.

Aghvan Hovsepyan said it is difficult to single out the gravest
violation of the law which has been reported to the office of
prosecutor general. However, in the context of the criminal law,
the gravest crime is the use of a gun in the Fourth village.

Aghvan Hovsepyan also said that the peculiarity of the presidential
campaign is that most reports on breaches are false, and their
authors seem to think that the more lies they tell, the more people
will believe them. Aghvan Hovsepyan stated that the purpose of these
reports is to denigrate the law enforcers. However, the prosecutor
general says the law enforcers perform their duties, and before and
after the election and on the day of the voting the law enforcers
will try their best to reveal and punish wrongdoers because it is a
matter of reputation of the country. By the way, Aghvan Hovsepyan also
stated that the reports on breaches will be classified, and slander
will be separated. The prosecutor general reminded that slander is
also a crime in our country.

CHAIRMAN OF THE UNION OF ARMENIANS OF RUSSIA URGES THE CITIZENS TO VOTE FOR SERGE SARGSYAN

armradio.am
13.02.2008 15:33

Chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia and the World Armenian
Congress Ara Abrahamyan urged the citizens of Armenia to vote for
the presidential candidate from the Republican Party Serge Sargsyan.

Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan, Ara Abrahamyan stated
that Serge Sargsyan is a candidate who stands for the deepening of
cooperation with Russia. According to him, for Armenians residing
in Russia the stance of the Armenian authorities concerning the
prospects of Armenian-Russian relations, in the given context the
stance of Serge Sargsyan, gives all the grounds to assume that the
relations of the two countries will continue developing.

Ara Abrahamyan expressed the opinion that Serge Sargsyan is a strong,
consistent and intelligent leader, capable of solving both economic
issues, and the problems, related to Armenia’s security.

The Chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia expressed hope
that the presidential elections in Armenia will be held in line with
international standards.