Author: Frangulian Shushan

Zaman, Turkey
July 7 2005

France Finds The Quid Guilty of Turkish Propaganda
By Ali Ihsan Aydin
Published: Thursday July 07, 2005
zaman.com
A Paris court found the famous French encyclopedia The Quid guilty
of printing the Turkish view on the so-called “Armenian genocide”.
The court fined The Quid encyclopedias a symbolic indemnity payment
of one euro. According to the court decision the 2003 and 2004
editions of the encyclopedia, the Turkish version of events were
presented on the Armenian claim and the opinions mentioned by the
‘denying historians’ were given as if they were definite information.
The court concluded that the Turkish opinion was handled more
extensively in the encyclopedia.
The Quid was also found guilty of supporting the thesis claiming that
Armenians were deported since they cooperated with Russians against
Turks. The Robert Laffont Publishing, which published the
encyclopedia, will announce the court decision in three newspapers
and three magazines. The publishing company had made a change in its
2005 edition upon Armenian pressure. The French Armenian Case Defense
Committee (CDCA) appealed to a Paris court in 2003 to launch an
investigation against The Quid on the grounds of publishing the
Turkish version of the 1915 incidents. Commenting on the court
decision, CDCA President Harout Mardirossian said, “it is a great
victory for the memory of our grandmothers and grandfathers”‘ adding
that with this decision France sent a significant messeage to Turkey
to end its ‘denial propoganda’. Stressing that the fight against
denial would continue, Mardirossian said they would try for France’s
enacting a law to punish those denying the Armenian genocide. Four
law drafts about this issue are waiting to come to the agenda in the
French Parliament.
A Paris court heard the case in May. Armenian organizations had
claimed that the genocide is a reality accepted by everyone and there
cannot be a “Turkish opinion” and “Armenian opinion”. Accusing The
Quid of propaganda in favor of Turkey, CDCA claimed that the
viewpoint shown as scientific was in fact Turkey’s official stance
and to question the “Armenian genocide”. Refuting the accusations,
Robert Laffront Publishing said they had handled the genocide issue
taking all its aspects into consideration and that they mentioned
Armenian opinions in the section about Armenia. Formerly, the court
had convicted famous historian Bernard Lewis to a symbolic payment of
one euro for indemnity in 1995 after he spoke to French newspaper Le
Monde against the so-called “Armenian genocide”.

Tehran Times
July 7 2005
National fiber optics network to be operational soon
Tehran Times Economic Desk
TEHRAN – Iran’s 31,000 km fiber-optic cable network will soon be
operational, Fars News Agency (FNA) reported. `The network will link
all the cities, provinces, and border points together, once the
required infrastructures for implementing this plan are fully taken
care of. The network is to be extended from Bandar Genaveh in Iran
all the way to Kuwait, and the extension of it would also reach other
neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Armenia.’
After the invention of laser in the early 1960s, the idea of
employing fiber optics for relaying information took shape gradually.
According to the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI), the
research in this field assumed its initial theoretical development in
the early 1980s. The work eventually led to the establishment of
Fiber Optics Production Complex in Punak area of Tehran, and the
actual production with the capacity of 50,000 km began in 1994.
Fiber optics is used in the form of cables made of thin glass or
plastic fibers for sending information; however, it does lend itself
to be used in the other fields such as measuring electrical currents
and medical and military applications.

AZG Armenian Daily #123, 06/07/2005
Neighbors
ARMENIANS TO FEED GEORGIAN ARMY
According to Regnum agency, president Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia
stated at the meeting with students yesterday that the government will
buy necessary agricultural goods for the Georgian army from
Samtskhe-Javakhk region. “2000 Russians are fed on potatoes, milk,
cheese of Ninotsminda and Akhalkalak, and that brings the locals their
small profit. Naturally, they were always worried to lose their
earnings once Russian base leaves the region. Together with the
defense minister we have decided to provide supplies for all 20.000
servicemen of the Georgian army from the goods produced in Akhalkalak
and Ninotsminda”, Saakashvili said.
Kovkaz Press informs that the military excursuses going on in mainly
Armenian-populated Javakhk drew in 150 tanks. The exercises will
continue to mid-July, and president Saakashvili will arrive in the
region to watch them close.

Armenian president urges voters to support constitutional changes
AP Worldstream; Jul 05, 2005

Armenian President Robert Kocharian on Tuesday congratulated his
landlocked Caucasus nation on the 10th anniversary of the adoption of
the country’s constitution and urged Armenians to approve a key
referendum later this year on constitutional changes.
“The basic law of our country is the main guarantor of civil unity,
lawfulness and stability,” Kocharian said, according to his press
service.
Armenia gained independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet
Union. But it did not adopt a constitution until 1995 because of a
bloody conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the disputed ethnic
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the referendum, Armenians will be asked whether they support a
stricter separation of powers between the judicial, executive and
legislative branches. They will also be asked about the removal of a
clause outlawing dual citizenship for members of Armenia’s large
foreign diaspora.
The first draft of the text of the referendum has been approved by
pro-government and opposition lawmakers as well as by European
experts. In 2003 Armenians rejected a similar referendum because the
government failed to sell it to voters, critics say.
According to a recent opinion poll conducted by the Vox Populi center
among 624 residents of the capital Yerevan, only 13 percent of them
were sure they would vote in the plebiscite, while 32 percent said
they would boycott it. The margin of error was not given.

Pan Armenian News
LENNMARKER SATISFIED WITH PARTICIPATION OF PARLIAMENTS IN KARABAKH
SETTLEMENT
05.07.2005 04:21
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) special representative
for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict Goran Lennmarker is satisfied with the
participation of the Parliaments of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the conflict
settlement. `Within this period I actively cooperated with them. They
received me in the course of my regional visits. We actively cooperated
outside the countries as well. I would say that our cooperation was
productive. We became friends. During my frequent trips to Baku Azeri MPs
assisted me much. Thus I cannot complain of participation of Parliaments in
the process,’ he said, AzerTAj reported.

Opposition pauses: too early to speak of collaboration
Yerkir/Arm
1 July 05
In a rare case of cooperation, representatives of the authorities and
opposition in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) held a joint news conference this week. Usually the views of
the authorities and opposition differ on the issues discussed at PACE
sessions; this time there seemed to be a consensus.
The latest PACE plenary session discussed the Armenian constitutional
amendments, and the Armenian delegation declared a balanced document
was adopted. Shavarsh Kocharian, opposition member of the National
Assembly, noted that this would make it possible to bring the country
out of the internal crisis.
Speaking at the joint news conference, he said the opposition insists
that the Constitutional amendments should comply with the memorandum
of understanding Armenia has signed with the Venice Commission. So, is
the opposition ready to collaborate with the authorities and
relinquish its calls for the regime change? “We are ready to
collaborate as far as the Constitutional amendments are concerned,”
Shavarsh Kocharian said. “I believe there are issues that more
important than the relations between the authorities and opposition.”
He added that goal of revolutions is bring about reforms.
In his turn, Hrant Khachatrian, another opposition member of the
Natioanl Assembly, said that what happened in Strasbourg was not the
authorities’ achievement, the Council of Europe pressured the Armenian
authorities to concede. “This is the victory of the Armenian people
and opposition,” he said, adding that unless the authorities take
steps towards getting rid of the clan system, the opposition may
consider adopting a relevant tactics.
Another opposition politician, Hmayak Hovhannisian of the Liberal
Progressive Party not represented in the NA, mentioned that the
“upbeat” sentiment has no grounds. “Nothing is clear yet. We will make
a statement only after the final draft (of the amendments) is ready,”
he said.

AGO DEFENDS ARMENIA’S STANDPOINT
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
01 July 05
The head of the AGO monitoring group Roland Wegener is hopeful that
Azerbaijan will also commit to the settlement of the conflict. The
head of the AGO monitoring group of the EC Committee of Ministers,
German Roland Wegener was in Armenia on an official visit. In the
evening of June 28 he gave a press confere nce. Summing up his visit
in the press conference together with the foreign minister of Armenia,
he evaluated his visit as effective. Although the maintopic of the
meetings of the AGO group was the issue of constitutional reforms in
Armenia, the German diplomat said the Karabakh issue was also touched
upon. Minister Oskanian had briefed the ambassadors on the current
process of resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the developments
and prospects. The head of the European delegation stated they were
informed about the issue in detail because they had shown by their
activities that they are confidential. Anyway, as distinct from the
AGO delegation, it again remained a secret for the Armenian people
what definite issues had been discussed by the foreign ministers in
Paris, because declassification would affect the talks. Instead the
minister stated once again that nevertheless something was discussed,
and added, `We did not come to a final conclusion but we came quite
close to it. I think several small questions are left, the solution to
which finally can be reached. Allthe proposals are on the table and
under consideration by the ministers and the president. At the moment
when the final agreement is achieved, it will not be easy to put it
down on paper.’ But it looks like the situation is far from the moment
of putting it down on paper, and neither do the parties seem to have
come to an agreement; the latest meeting in Paris simply brought them
closer to some X point. `I think several small questions are left, the
solution to which finally can be reached. This being successful, we
may say that one of the hindrances is overcome and we can already
proceed to other problems,’ said the foreign minister. In his turn the
German diplomat mentioned that they endorse the commitment of the
president, the government and the foreign minister of Armenia to
resolution. Roland Veneger said that they will also visit Azerbaijan
where election will be held in autumn which, according to him, will
not impact the country’s effort for resolution. As to good news,
V. Oskanian informed that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will arrive
in the region in July but will not bring along any new proposals. One
of the questions of the journalists referred to the recent statements
of the Azerbaijani side. Namely the Azerbaijani political scientist
Salizadeh stated, `In order to resolve the Karabakh issue, Azerbaijan
needs strong army, but even with a strong and effective army it is
necessary to take the position of peace process.’ Salizadeh’s
statement was followed by Ilham Aliev’s counterargument that for
Azerbaijan negotiating with the Armenian side is the same as making a
compromise. And at the point whenthe negotiations are stopped,
military force is used. Vardan Oskanian mentioned that he was not
aware of Aliev’s statement but if Aliev made one, it is pointless to
comment on this kind of statements.
AA.
01-07-2005

Armenian power company denies reports of takeover by Russian energy giant
Mediamax news agency
1 Jul 05
Yerevan, 1 July: The press secretary of the Armenian power grids,
Margarita Grigoryan, has denied reports that the company has been
taken over by the Unified Energy System of Russia.
“There have been only changes in the company management, which will
be announced next week,” Grigoryan told Mediamax today.
To recap, the Unified Energy System of Russia said the following in
its annual report on 30 June: “The Interenergo company, which is part
of the group [Unified Energy System of Russia], has bought 100 per
cent of the shares of the Armenian power grids. The total sum of the
deal was more than R2bn or 73m dollars, which was paid in cash.”

AUA Public Relations Office
PRESS RELEASE
June 29, 2005
American University of Armenia
40 Marshal Baghramian
Yerevan 375019 ARMENIA
Telephone: (37410) 512-522
Fax: (37410) 270-859; 512-512
Contact: Diana Manukyan
E-mail: [email protected]
US Department of Energy Awards Armenian Scientists Proliferation Prevention Grant
Dr. Kenell Touryan, Vice President of Resarch and Develpoment at
the American University of Armenia (AUA) and Dr. Artak Hambarian,
Associate Director of AUA’s Engineering Research Center (ERC), are
announcing a special grant for proliferation prevention that the US
Department of Energy has awarded to a team of scientists at the AUA,
the Yerevan Physics Institute, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) in Golden, Colorado, and an optico-physics Institute in Moscow.
The proposal calls for the development of a high-speed laser scanning
system for the detection of defects in solid-state wafers, including
solar cells. If successful, the system will accelerate the rate at
which the quality of the wafers is tested in assembly-line production,
by a factor of 10 to 100. Solid-state wafers are very thin slices
of solid-state materials (30cm x 30cm x 800 micrometers thick)
of very high purity that are used in many solid-state devices and
in the manufacturing of solar cells. Any defects in these wafers
will degrade the quality of the device produced from these wafers.
The market for such an instrument is huge. The USDOE has approved
the project at the funding level of $800,000.
“As manager of the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP)
projects at NREL, for the US Department of Energy, I have been able to
obtain funding for several institutes and universities in Armenia, in
high technology. The high-speed laser-scanning project is an ambitious
project. When successfully completed, it will have wide commercial
application in the semiconductor industry. Royalties received form
the sale of this equipment can provide sustainable income to the
participating institutes,” said Dr Kenell Touryan.
According to Dr. Artak Hambarian, Principal Investigator at AUA
for this project, if successful, this project could be a start for
revitalizing a direction in design and construction of semiconductor
test equipment that will help to integrate Armenia into a modern high
tech pattern in a very competitive way. The team at the Yerevan Physics
Institute will be led by Director, Dr. Asatryan. Dr. Touryanof AUA,
will have general oversight along with Dr. Dave Kline at NREL, both
of whom are managers of all IPP projects at NREL, including those
awarded to various institutes in Armenia.
—————————————-
The American University of Armenia is registered as a non-profit
educational organization in both Armenia and the United States
and is affiliated with the Regents of the University of California.
Receiving major support from the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading
to the Masters Degree in eight graduate programs. For more information
about AUA, visit

Armenian president, South Korean envoy discuss expanding economic ties
Yerkir website
28 Jun 05
Yerevan, 28 June: The newly-appointed South Korean ambassador to
Armenia, Kim Jae-sup, (resident in Moscow) presented his credentials
to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today.
Kocharyan congratulated the South Korean ambassador on his
appointment, adding that this would open a new stage in the progress
of Armenian-Korean relations, the presidential press office reported.
The president said that trade between the two countries doubled last
year. However, this figure is not relevant as against the existing
opportunities and therefore, it is necessary to take steps to make
full use of the existing potential.
Stressing the importance of bilateral relations in the economic sphere,
the Korean ambassador said that he intended to do his best for the
expansion of Armenian-Korean relations.