Author: Frangulian Shushan

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 24 2009

New Ergenekon indictment in offing

An indictment charging 26 individuals, most of whom served as police
and military officers and were detained on Thursday on charges of
being members of Ergenekon, a clandestine terrorist organization
nested within state organs and charged with plotting to overthrow the
government, is on the way, prosecutors said on Friday.

Ä°stanbul’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor Turan
�olakkadı said yesterday that a comprehensive report
about the group’s ammunition and weapons caches found earlier will
soon be released. He gave a summary of Thursday’s raids, detentions
and searches, adding that new detentions might be around the corner
based on new evidence found.

Two Ergenekon assassination teams were captured in Thursday’s police
operations, conducted in 14 provinces throughout the country in raids
organized as part of an investigation into the group. Most of those
taken into custody were detained on charges of being members of two
assassination teams led by Ä°brahim Å?ahin, a former
senior police official who was the deputy head of the National Police
Department’s Special Operations Unit. Å?ahin was arrested on
Jan. 7.

A wave of detentions on Jan. 7 in the Ergenekon investigation revealed
that the group was planning to assassinate Alevi and Armenian
community leaders, the prime minister and members of the Supreme Court
of Appeals — acts that would have dragged Turkey into chaos had they
been carried out. The dozens taken into custody on Jan. 7 included
some of the hawkish generals behind the Feb. 28, 1997 unarmed military
coup that overthrew a democratically elected coalition government. One
such detainee is retired Gen. Erdal Å?enel, a former legal
undersecretary at the General Staff.

A second indictment is yet to be released and will include close to 20
people, including two former army commanders, a journalist and the
leader of a professional chamber — all detained on June 1 of last
year.

Ã-zbek in spotlight again for extreme wealth

Mustafa Ã-zbek, who has been heading the Türk Metal workers’
union for 33 years, has come into the spotlight with his wealth on
various occasions. Known for his anti-imperialist stance and political
engagements, Ã-zbek has a hard-to-believe amount of money and a
number of immovable properties. Coming from a poor family, Ã-zbek
carved out a fortune soon after he became the head of the metals
sector workers’ union, Türk Metal. He currently holds a 40
percent share of the Cumhuriyet daily, several five-star hotels in
Ankara, Didim and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), the
ART TV network and the Baha news agency. Türk Metal is an
extension of the Milli Ä°Å? Workers’ Union (MÄ°SK),
famous for its stance against leftist and revolutionary workers’
unions. Ã-zbek, who started his career at the Turkish Mechanical
and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE), worked as a laborer until
1971. He later engaged in unionism and became the head of Türk
Metal in four years. Ã-zbek’s assets are predicted to exceed TL 10
million.

Retired Gen. Å?ener Eruygur, retired Gen. HurÅ?it Tolon,
retired Gen. İlker Güven and former Gendarmerie General
Command Intelligence Department head Levent Ersöz as well as
Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman Sinan Aygün and the
Ankara bureau chief of the radically secularist Cumhuriyet daily,
Mustafa Balbay, were among those taken into police custody in that
raids.

More than 100 have been detained since the beginning of the
investigation in July 2007, when an arms cache was discovered inside a
shanty house in Ä°stanbul. Some of those were arrested, some
were released pending trial. As the investigation expanded from the
July 2007 discovery, a structure suspected of being responsible for a
number of politically motivated murders, including that of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007 and attacks on
newspapers and judicial entities to foment chaos and engineer a
military takeover, became more and more visible. Every new wave of
raids has produced more documents, evidence, findings and testimonies
leading to more detentions.

Arms caches

Early in January, the police discovered a weapons cache buried in a
forest in Ankara’s GölbaÅ?ı region through a map
found in suspect Å?ahin’s home. Officers discovered 30 hand
grenades, three light anti-tank weapons (LAW), many plastic
explosives, ammunition for Uzi machine guns and other ammunition
buried close to a road near the capital. Other weapons storage sites
as well as munitions were found in some of the suspect’s homes. Police
seized a large number of bombs and ammunition during searches made in
the house of Lit. Col. Mustafa Dönmez, in the Sapanca district
of Balıkesir. A sketch found in his house also helped police to
unearth explosives and ammunition on Jan. 12 at a historic site in the
Sincan suburb of Ankara.

Military statement on recent detentions

In a press briefing it held yesterday General Staff Communications’
Unit President Gen. Metin Gürak responded to a question on the
munitions found in Lt. Col. Dönmez’s house, saying, "We, more
than everyone else, want this matter to be clarified."

He also said the General Staff had appealed to the Press Council and
Journalists’ Union to impose sanctions on certain newspapers that
published news stories about Col. Abdülkerim
Kırca. Kırca was an alleged leader of JİTEM, a
clandestine and illegal gendarmerie intelligence unit whose existence
has thus far been officially denied, who was, allegedly, responsible
for hundreds of unsolved murders, kidnappings and killings of mostly
Kurdish individuals in the Southeast. Kırca was found dead last
Monday afternoon in his Ankara home.

Criticism from opposition

Ergenekon has also been a source of political tension since the
investigation’s start. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz
Baykal, who spoke at a party convention yesterday, accused the Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) of being behind the operation. "They
have undermined secularism and the social state. Now they are trying
to destroy the rule of law and democracy," he said, referring to the
four pillars of the Turkish Republic.

He referred to the Ergenekon investigation as a "social trauma" and
accused the government of trying to crush opposition voices.

Another criticism came from Haydar Ã-zbek, the son of Mustafa
Ã-zbek, chairman of the Türk Metal Ä°Å? workers’
union, also detained in Thursday’s operations. Mustafa Ã-zbek is
being charged with financing the Ergenekon terrorist organization
using the union’s money. Haydar Ã-zbek yesterday said the latest
wave of operations would be the wave "that will capsize this ship." He
said: "That wave will drown those who made it. They are trying to
silence the people. The day will come when they will be silenced. They
will not be allowed to talk."

A number of Türk Metal Ä°Å? officials were detained
on Thursday in addition to Mustafa Ã-zbek. Deputy Chairman Mecit
Hızır, Secretary-General Muharrem Aslıyüce
and former Secretary-General Süleyman Erdinç were also
detained. Prosecutors have long suspected that Mustafa Ã-zbek was
one of Ergenekon’s major backers. The Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office
had previously seized the past five years of the union’s financial
records and requested its financial statements and other bookkeeping
records from the Labor Ministry. The prosecutors reportedly found
important clues about the link between Ergenekon and Türk Metal
Ä°Å? in these files.

Mustafa Ã-zbek was a member of the movement Türkiyem (My
Turkey), founded by a number of people who are currently in jail as
Ergenekon suspects. The movement, which was being financed by the
union, was attempting to become a political party. Kemal
Kerinçsiz, an ultranationalist lawyer known for filing lawsuits
against intellectuals and writers whose opinions do not match the
official state line on various issues, was the president of the
İstanbul branch of Türkiyem. Retired Gen. Tolon was on
the movement’s consultative board. Tolon was also arrested in the
Ergenekon investigation.

24 January 2009, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL

ACTION FILED

A1+
[08:02 pm] 21 January, 2009

On January 19 the Cassation Court (CC) has upheld a December 19, 2008,
claim of Meltex Ltd. against February 27 and April 23 decisions of
the CC Chamber on Civil and Economic Cases. The decision was made on
the basis of new matters revealed after the decision of the European
Court of the Human Rights regarding A1+ Company. Remind that Meltex
had requested the CC to recognise the violation of the right of
dissemination of information stipulated in Article 10 of the European
Convention on Human Rights. Naturally enough, the Court had also been
requested to make the National Commission on Television and Radio
announce tenders for frequencies. Thus, Meltex had requested the Court
of Cassation to nullify the tenders for seven frequencies. Note that
A1+ had been denied broadcasting licenses on groundless motivations
during the tenders.

NET PROFIT OF BANK VTB (ARMENIA) TRIPLES UP TO 2.9BLN DRAMS BY END OF 2008

ARKA
Jan 21, 2009

YEREVAN, January 21. /ARKA/. Net profit of Bank VTB (Armenia) closed
joint stock company grew by over three times up to 2.9bln Drams by
the end of 2008, General Director of Bank VTB (Armenia) closed joint
stock company Valery Ovsiannikov told a press conference at Novosti
International Press Centre.

In 2008 the bank recorded very good profit indicators as per the
national standards and provided a 363% growth as compared with 2007
bringing the volume up to 3bln Drams, Ovsiannikov said.

The bank’s balance sheet profit increased by 462.5$ or by 2.9bln
Drams up to 3.7bln Drams.

ROE (return on equity) indicators grew up to 13.1% in 2008 against 6.8%
in 2007, whereas ROA (return on assets) remained unchanged at 3.3%. CIR
(bank’s cost/income ratio) went down to 50.2% in 2008 against 55.7%
in 2007.

Bank VTB (Armenia) (Armsavingsbank before June 20 2006) joined the
VTB Group in April 2004. Currently the bank VTB is the full owner of
Bank VTB (Armenia) closed joint stock company.

The share capital of the bank was 13.9bln Drams, total capital 23.9bln
Drams as of the end of December 31. The bank’s assets totaled 99.2bln
Drams and credit portfolio 70.2bln Drams with net profit amounting
to 2.9bln Drams in January-December 2008.

REVIEW: THE DILIJAN SERIES PREMIERES A NEW TIGRAN MANSURIAN WORK

Los Angeles Times
er/2009/01/tigran-mansuria.html
Jan 20 2009
CA

The Dilijan Chamber Music Series is, outside the Armenian community, a
much too nicely kept secret. It presents half a dozen Sunday afternoon
chamber music concerts a season in Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn
School. Most include a new piece by an Armenian composer, and a loyal
Armenian fan base guarantees decent-size audiences.

Parents, hoping to preserve a cultural identity, come with children
in tow. Concertgoers dress better than most matinee crowds and listen
with respect. The atmosphere is gracious. No one is rushed. If you
linger over brunch and arrive 25 minutes late, no matter — you’re
unlikely to miss any music.

All of that is admirable, and Sunday the hall was three-quarters
full. But where was everyone else? The concert was, in fact, a major
chamber music happening, a program of superbly performed, profound
and universal string trio music that investigated the meaning of late
style and easily transcended the concerns of any single ethnicity.

The centerpiece was a new trio by Tigran Mansurian, Armenia’s leading
composer, who has developed a worldwide following thanks to a series
of riveting, soulful CDs on the ever-hip ECM label. He will turn 70
this year, and Dilijan commissioned a short score in celebration.

Surrounding Mansurian’s trio were selections from György Kurtág’s
"Signs, Games and Messages" — 11 exceedingly brief pieces by Hungary’s
leading composer. Played at the edge of audibility, they suggest
messages from the beyond. The closing work was Mozart’s magical
Divertimento in E flat for string trio.

The performers were Movses Pogossian, who is artistic director of
Dilijan and one of the finest violinists in Los Angeles; violist Kim
Kashkashian, a star; and Rohan de Saram, the former cellist of the
Arditti Quartet. All are imposing virtuosos and specialists in new
music. The playing was clean, precise and probing.

The string trio is a very difficult medium and one little
used. Beethoven, for instance, wrote string trios at the beginning of
his career and quickly realized that something was missing. A young
composer wants more resources, and the string quartet, he discovered,
held far more promise.

All the works on Sunday’s program, though, represented late style. Some
of Kurtág pieces are miniatures in memory of friends or historical
personages. The music implies more than it tells you with wisps of
melody or counterpoint. Notes never touch the ground.

Mansurian’s new trio is in three short movements. In the first, a
tender melody moves among the three instruments. The second has a folk
character. The third is very slow and somber, the music ultimately
evaporating in thin air. The instrumental textures are exquisite,
and counterpoint is kept to a minimum. There is, here, the quality
of late Beethoven, where every phrase implies others not realized,
where every thought is condensed to its essence.

In contrast to Kurtág and Mansurian, Mozart’s divertimento, in six
movements, is very expansive. It is usually hailed as the finest
string trio in the repertory, maybe the only great one. Mozart treats
the three players as equals and individuals, but even so he gave a
little something special to the viola part, which he wrote for himself.

Kashkashian happens to have been the violist on a CD of the trio,
with Gidon Kremer and Yo-Yo Ma, which is, for my money, one of the
all-time great chamber music recordings. Her tone is dark — mellow yet
penetrating. Her phrasing is not fancy. But she has, in her playing,
an extreme eloquence, as if she is expressing truths.

Like her, Pogossian and De Saram use minimal vibrato. They illuminated
the Mozart as if it were new music. The performance was stirring,
a worthy successor to Kashkashian’s momentous recording. The little
chamber music series that can, Dilijan, on Sunday, made the big time.

–Boundary_(ID_VfhWbzE8kKcXCcFc/BvaBg)–

ECOGLOBE COMPANY TO IMPLEMENT CERTIFICATION OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURAL FOODSTUFFS

Noyan Tapan

Jan 19, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. Henceforth Ecoglobe company
will implement certification of organic agricultural foodstuffs in
Armenia. The director general of the company Nune Darbinian said at
the January 19 press conference that organic agriculture is a pure
agricultural activity which is mainly based on production of food
and raw materials without mineral fertilizers and chemical methods.

The RA deputy minister of agriculture Samvel Avetisian said that
there are currently about 40 farms engaged in organic argiculture
to some extent or another in Armenia. However, not all companies
have certificates, that is, the right to be engaged in organic
agriculture. According to him, some of the foodstuffs with "Bio" or
"Eco" marking sold in shops today are produced by companies that
do not have the right for it. Ecoglobe is competent to provide a
recognition document to such companies, and these documents will
be valid in other countries as well. The deputy minister reminded
that in May 2008 the RA National Assembly adopted the Law on Organic
Agriculture that will take effect in May 2009.

Ecoglobe is the first company in the region to be recognized by DAP
company (Germany) as a company competent to implement certification
in agriculture and food processing sector.

Playbill.com, NY
Jan 17 2009

Neeson, Moore and Seyfried Set for Egoyan Film "Chloe"
By Adam Hetrick
12 Jan 2009

Academy Award nominees Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore will join "Mamma
Mia!" star Amanda Seyfried for the new film thriller "Chloe."

Variety reports that Moore has signed to portray a doctor who suspects
her husband of having an affair in the film directed by Atom
Egoyan. To test his fidelity she hires an escort, played by Seyfried,
to seduce him.

Erin Cressida Wilson penned the script; Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock,
Jason Reitman and Dan Dubiecki produce. Shooting begins Feb. 9 in
Toronto.

Neeson, a two-time Tony nominee, has appeared on Broadway in The
Crucible, The Judas Kiss and Anna Christie. His noted screen credits
include "Kinsey," "Love Actually," "Gangs of New York," "Nell" and
"Leap of Faith."

Moore’s stage credits include The Vertical Hour, Vanya on 42nd Street,
Gate|Beckett, Surviving Picasso and Serious Money. On screen she has
appeared in "I’m Not There," "Laws of Attraction," ""The Hours,"
"Boogie Nights," "Far From Heaven," "The End of the Affair,"
"Magnolia" and "Hannibal."

Amanda Seyfried starred in the 2008 movie adaptation of "Mamma Mia!"
Her screen credits also include "Big Love," "CSI," "Wildfire" and
"Mean Girls."

le/125139.html

Control Chamber of Armenia reveals violations in environmental
protection sphere

YEREVAN , JANUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. During the January 14 sitting, the
Board of the RA Control Chamber approved the current reports on the
results of checks in environmental protection and several other spheres
in 2008. The chairman of the Control Chamber Ishkhan Zakarain said
following the sitting that the board plans to sum up the work done last
year at the upcoming 1-2 sittings, and the first results of the studies
under the 2009 program will be presented in April.

Presenting the reports approved on the same day, I. Zakarain said that
the examination of some programs implemented in the environmental
protection sphere in 2006-2007 revealed various violations of 226
million drams committed by the RA Ministry of Nature Protection. Most
violations were related to inefficient expenditures, and 63 million
drams will be paid back to the state budget. This type of violation was
mainly related to upward distortion of volumes during mine exploration,
inventory making and metrological measurements.

Violations were also revealed as a result of checks on the provision of
lands for use in the Sevan National Park and the collection of
payments. In particular, out of the total number of 904 land users in
the park, 492 did do any work in 2006-2008. The remaining 412
implemented work of various kinds, and only 25 of them did legal
construction work. 227 of 412 land users implemented work in areas
smaller than the permissible 1,908 meters under a governmental
decision, including 142 unauthorized structures, and 13 cases of
illegal land occupation.

Increase of budget expenditures and the world economic crisis
17.01.2009 14:36

Hasmik Dilanyan
`Radiolur’

Still at the end of 2008 people in Armenia were predicting that 2009
would be hard economic year. This time the world crisis is guilty. It
becomes clear from the words of our officials that there is no need to
worry. Moreover, they say 2009 is going to be a year of an `ambitious
budget that will combine the wishes and the opportunities.’ In 2009 the
judges and MP will be more secure. If everything proceeds according to
the predetermined scenario, at the end of the year corruption risks
will reduce in Armenia and better laws will be worked out.

At the time when the world financial crisis was storming all over the
world, our senior officials were saying Armenia was not concerned.
Moreover, upon his return from Washington Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan noted during his meeting with reporters that we could even
draw benefits from the world economic crisis. There is no more
financial stability on the world economic market. How will it affect
the financial stability on the Armenian market? In this regard PM
Tigran Sargsyan said: `We need to maintain the trust in our financial
institutions without expectations that are far from reality.’

Latter the main financial document ` the State Budget ` was put on
discussion. According to officials, it is socially targeted. Right at
the moment when the world was searching for ways to overcome the world
economic crisis, the expenditures of our state budget increased.
Opposition leaders were continuously stating that the buget included no
concrete steps for overcoming the world crisis. Instead, it envisaged
raise of judges’ salary, for example.

Again due to budget allocations, for the first time every MP will have
an assistant with the salary of 80 thousand AMD. Chairman of the
National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance-Credit and Budgeting
Issues Gagik Minasyan compares the salaries and expenditures of
Armenian Deputies with foreign MP, and considers that the opportunities
of Armenian MPs are very poor. `The countries with smaller budget
create more favorable conditions for Deputies. In this regard, the
adoption of the Law on assistants to Deputies was very fair,’ he said.

Will the high salaries and Assistants to MPs contribute to the
reduction of corruption risks in our country, elaboration of
practically applicable laws, overcoming the world crisis? It’s hard to
say now.

B92, Serbia
Jan 17 2009

Turkey: Armenia relations may normalize

17 January 2009 | 15:53 | Source: Reuters

ISTANBUL — Relations between Armenia and Turkey as well as Azerbaijan
and Armenia could be normalized this year.

"I can easily say we have never come this close to a plan regarding
the final normalization of relations with Armenia," state-run news
agency Anatolian reported Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan as
saying.

The step up in diplomacy comes as Armenia may be eyed as a transit
route for energy pipelines shipping oil and gas from the Caspian Sea
to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, helping to make Turkey a key energy
hub.

"It’s not a dream, it’s a realistic estimate to see the normalization
of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as Turkey and
Armenia," Babacan said.

Turkey closed its border with former Soviet Armenia in 1993 in a show
of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Turkic-speaking ally which was
fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population broke away from
Azerbaijan in a war as the Soviet Union fell apart.

Turkey showed a willingness to step up diplomatic efforts to normalize
relations between Ankara and Baku and Yerevan last year when President
Abdullah Gul visited the Armenian capital for a soccer match between
Turkey and Armenia.

The countries have also participated in three-way talks on normalizing
relations.

Relations between the two have been strained by accusations Ottoman
Turks committed genocide by killing ethnic Armenians in World War I.

yyyy=2009&mm=01&dd=17&nav_id=56488

ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN WARSAW CELEBRATES NEW YEAR

Panorama.am
19:30 14/01/2009

The Embassy of Armenia in Warsaw celebrates New Year holiday with
the participation of graduates of Armenian-Polish educational center,
reports the press and information department of the Foreign Ministry
of Armenia.

According to the source, the Ambassador of Armenia to Poland,
representatives of Armenian Community and other guests were invited
to be present at the New Year Party on 11 January.