Author: Hambardsumian Paul

MEPS APPEAL TO THE TURKISH MINISTER OF JUSTICE

armradio.am
21.04.2008 15:58

Four eminent members of the European Parliament – Mrs Koppa and Mr
Toubon, both vice-presidents of the delegation EU-Turkey, Mr Gaubert,
vice-president of the sub-committee on Human Rights and president of
Licra, Mr Kasoulides, former minister of Foreign Affairs and recent
candidate for the Cypriot presidency – have recently sent a letter
to the Turkish Minister of Justice, Mr Sahin, in order to inform him
of the Union’s concern about the trial developments in Ragip Zarakolu
case. The MEPs mention that the "long, costly and morally exhausting"
trial comes from "judicial relentlessness." They are also worried
about Mr. Zarakolu’s "physical security" regarding "nationalistic
renewal in Turkey" especially revealed by the "murder of Hrant Dink
and the revelations referring to the criminal organization Ergenekon".

The MEPs ask Mr Sahin to "abrogate without any delay the 301 article
and similar clauses" of the Turkish Penal Code and "other legislative
and statutory texts which are effective in Turkey". They also ask
for the cessation of "iniquitous prosecutions" in opposition to Mr
Zarakolu and they underline that his "condemnation and even more,
any attempt to his integrity will constitute a cutting contradiction
to the European ambitions of Turkey".

On April 9, at the end of another hearing of Mr Zarakolu, the criminal
court in Istanbul decided to postpone the hearings until June 17,
i.e. after the possible adoption by the Turkish Parliament of the
amendments tabled by the AKP government referring to the 301 and 305
articles of the TPC.

Mr Zarakolu is a publisher and militates for several years in favour
of Human Rights in Turkey. He is one of the founding members of
the Turkish Association for Human Rights and he forms part of those
dissidents prosecuted under the 301 article for having "insulted the
State and the Republic" and "the memory of Ataturk".

In this case, Mr Zarakolu is prosecuted following the article 301
because he published two books on the Armenian genocide, the founding
act and the major taboo of the Turkish state and society. One of the
books deals with the rescue of an Armenian family by Turks during
the genocide!

"Mr Zarakolu case is without any doubt one of the most symbolic trials
instituted by the Turkish State against one of its dissidents. Apart
from the penal condemnation, Mr Zarakolu is enduring financial
difficulties deliberately induced by the trial in order to reduce
him to silence.

Moreover, he fears now for his life as the trials are only a way to
point out the potential victims to the killer teams controlled by
the State" commented Laurent Leylekian, the executive director of
the European Armenian Federation.

According to the latest news, the "reform" proposed by the AKP
recommends to replace in the 301 article which penalizes "the insult
to the Turkish identity, the Republic, State institutions and organs"
the terms "Turkish identity" and "Republic" respectively by "Turkish
nation" and "Turkish Republic".

The Federation considers that this "reform" will change nothing to
the Turkish prosecutors dealings who – according to a recent poll –
consider themselves as the guardians of the "National interest" of
their country. "The Turkish prosecutors will continue prosecuting
in the same way those who dare to speak about the Armenian Genocide,
the occupation of Cyprus, or oppression of the Kurds. Europe has to
force Turkey to abrogate these articles which clearly violate the
Copenhagen criteria by penalizing the freedom of expression not only
of Turks but also of Europeans", concluded Laurent Leylekian.

Several international organizations, such as the International
Publishers Association, the League for Human Rights, Amnesty
International mobilized and launched petition campaigns and alerted
the European Commission in the framework of Turkey’s "accession
process". They also point out that these trials violate at the same
time "freedom of expression" and the "right to a fair and impartial
trial" which are theoretically guaranteed by the European Convention
on Human Rights. They ask for a total abolition of the 301 article
and other similar clauses of the Turkish Penal Code.

MINISTERS OF JUSTICE, SPORT AND AGRICULTURE APPOINTED

armradio.am
17.04.2008 12:12

According to decrees signed by President Serzh Sargsyan, Gevorg
Danielyan was appointed RA Minister of Justice, Armen Grigoryan was
appointed RA Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs and David Lockyan
was appointed RA Minister of Agriculture.

Agriculture Minister David Lockian will also coordinate the national
programs of agricultural development.

AAA TO CONTINUE SERVING FOR ARMENIA’S INTERESTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.04.2008 18:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan met Tuesday
with Hrair Hovnanian, Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Armenian
Assembly of America, the RA leader’s press office reported.

The parties discussed the Armenia-Diaspora relations and the
Armenian-American cooperation. "The AAA will continue cooperating
with Armenia’s new President and will continue serving for Armenia’s
interests," Mr Hovnanian said.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION DESTABILIZES SITUATION IN REGION – AZERBAIJANI MP

Trend News Agency
April 15 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 April / Trend News / Speaking on the discussions
over the post-election situation in Armenia within the framework of
the PACE spring session, Ganira Pashayeva, a member of the Azerbaijani
delegation, reminded European parliamentarians that Armenia has been
pursuing an aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan for many years and
does not recognize the countless UN and PACE resolutions and will
not vacate the occupied Azerbaijani territory.

She said that the situation emerging from the presidential elections
in Armenia, the internal political situation after the elections and
the processing which took place in Yerevan during that period seriously
concerns international organizations and causes discontent in the South
Caucasus. Pashayeva emphasized that during his election campaign and
his inauguration, the new Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has made
statements which are harming the negotiations held with mediation of
the OSCE Minsk Group.

"The worst thing is that the election of the Armenian President was
held in the occupied Azerbaijani land – Shusha, Lachin, Kalbajar.

Consequently, the Yerevan again harshly broke international standards
and demonstrated its reluctance to adhere to the Council of Europe’s
efforts in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," she said.

"Furthermore, after committing unlawful actions in Yerevan and then
facing the reaction of international organizations, the Kocheryan
Administration made the entire region dangerous by provocations in
order to divert the attention of the international organizations and
the Armenian community from the internal political processes. On 4
March, the Armenian Armed Forces violated the ceasefire and attacked
the positions of the Azerbaijani Army, the Azerbaijani settlements.

Azerbaijan sustained casualties. The Armenian attack was foiled but the
tensions at the contact lines are still persisting," Pashayeva said.

In her speech Pashayeva cited other concrete examples confirming
the destructive position of the Armenian administration towards the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Armenia’s wish to
hold peaceful negotiations.

"Given the escalation of tension, we ask PACE to urge Armenia to put
an end to its statements which undermines the negotiations.

Furthermore escalation of tension in the South Caucasus is dangerous
for all of Europe. Unfortunately, several Russian officials are
working towards aggravating the situation in the region. Some
time ago the leaders of the unrecognized republics in the South
Caucasus were invited by the Russian Parliament for an event in
Moscow where statements undermining the peace in the region were
made. Our counterparts at the Russian Parliament should not forget
that Russia is the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group engaged in the
peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Pashayeva said.

DEATH TOLL IN MARCH 1-2 CLASHES IN YEREVAN REACHES 10

Azeri Press Agency
April 14 2008
Azerbaijan

Yerevan – APA. The number of those, who died in the confrontation
between the government forces and the opposition supporters in Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia on March 1-2 reached 10.

APA reports quoting "Novosti-Armenia" that resident of Ararat province,
29-year-old Samvel Arutunyan, who was seriously injured during the
events, died on April 11. Advisor of Health Minister Ruslan Gevorkyan
said that Samvel Arutunyan had felt better, the doctor even detached
medical ventilation apparatus.

"But on April 11 his health deteriorated and medical ventilation
apparatus was applied again. He died at 19.00", he said.

Ruslan Gevorkyan said three men, who were injured during the events
of March 1-2, were in hospitals and they felt normal.

ARMENIA VIEWS COOPERATION IN ENERGY SECTOR AS ONE OF POSSIBLE
MECHANISMS FOR SOLUTION OF KARABAKH PROBLEM

KIEV, APRIL 12, NOYAN TAPAN. A meeting of the ministers of energy of
the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) member states took place in
Kiev on April 9. The Armenian delegation headed by the deputy minister
of energy Levon Shahverdian participated in the meeting.

According to a press release of the RA MFA Press and Information
Department, a Declaration on Cooperation of BSEC Member States in the
Energy Sector was adopted at the meeting.

In response to Azerbaijan’s statement outside the Declaration, the
Armenian delegation also made a statement, according to which Armenia
is ready to cooperate with any country within the framework of the BSEC
cooperation. Armenia views cooperation in the energy sector is one of
the possible mechanisms for solution of the Nagorno Karabakh problem.
The Armenian side expressed regret at Azerbaijan’s rejection of the
opportunity to regulate the regional conflict.

Globe and Mail, Canada
April 12 2008

Around the world in 80 crimes
JULIAN SHER

April 12, 2008

McMAFIA
A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld
By Misha Glenny
Anansi, 375 pages, $29.25

A middle-class woman sips her white wine in a comfortable
neighbourhood in Surrey, England, when a knock on the door announces
a pizza delivery. The man at the door promptly shoots her several
times in the head.

It’s a case of mistaken identity. The assassin was after her sister,
a BBC producer whose Armenian husband had gotten into some shady
dealing with Chechens. The entire family has since gone into hiding,
on the run from the rising crime lords in the former Soviet Union.

Misha Glenny starts his rollicking book with that anecdote and never
lets the reader go, determined to shake us into realizing none of us
are safe in the end from the tentacles of the new global underworld.
Glenny, a former BBC correspondent, pulls off with aplomb what is
always the biggest challenge for true-crime writers: making it
matter.

He reveals the politics of crime and the crime in politics. Glenny’s
central thesis is that two powerful currents in the 1990s – the fall
of communism and the liberalization of international financial and
commodity markets – unleashed a golden age for capitalism but also
for crooks. "They were also good capitalists and entrepreneurs," he
notes wryly, who "saw real opportunity in this dazzling mixture of
upheaval, hope and uncertainty."

Glenny first spotted this trend covering the wars in former
Yugoslavia for the BBC in 1990s. But, as he says, "Nobody had
connected the dots." He sets out to do that, sketching a map of the
world you thought you knew. But you have been reading the wrong road
signs.

McMafia takes you down the "new silk route" from Asia to Europe, a
criminal highway that extends from the former Soviet republics to the
troubled Balkans and the turmoil in Pakistan and Afghanistan,
allowing for the swift and easy transfer of people, narcotics and
cash. Glenny takes you along the silnice hanby, the Highway of Shame,
linking Dresden and Prague via the heart of the old Czechoslovakia,
where young Eastern European women sell themselves for a few dollars.

Few countries escape Glenny’s penetrating wrath. Israel has let
itself be colonized by "oligarchs and organized crime bosses" from
Russia. Dubai has become the "washing machine of the world," where
money-laundering is blatant and easy. The Nigerians perpetuating
those ubiquitous e-mail scams – don’t laugh, one survey estimated
they pulled in more than $3-billion from 38 countries – grew up in
the "sewers of Nigeria corruptocracy." They are simply mimicking the
criminal behaviour of their "thieving elite." In China, a country
that once wiped out its opium shame, the heroin trade has returned
with a vengeance. China, in turn, is now turning North Korea –
renowned as the world’s largest producer of virtually undetectable
counterfeit U.S. $100 bills – into an economic vassal.

Even British Columbia’s booming marijuana trade comes in for searing
criticism. (A disclosure is in order here: Glenny cites a book I
co-authored on the Hells Angels as "very revealing" about Canada’s
politics of crime.) Assuming law enforcement estimates of at least a
$4-billion annual trade in B.C. bud, involving 100,000 workers,
Glenny argues "western Canada is home to the largest per capita
concentration of organized criminal syndicates in the world."

What is remarkable is how businesslike the new crime bosses are. The
Firm, one of the super gangs in South Africa, operated an informal
bank, offering start-up capital to prospective members. Colombian
drug lords, "like good global entrepreneurs … sought out new
marketing and distribution strategies" when they realized the
collapse of the Berlin Wall offered a new middle class and fresh
markets.

But they are a seedy and dangerous bunch as well: "Nixon," a
narco-trafficker in Bogota who "snorted, screwed and shot his way
across Colombia." Chen Kai, part of China’s "political criminal
nexus" between local tycoons and Communist Party bosses. And Viktor
Bout, the "merchant of death," who was arrested recently for selling
arms to a Colombian guerrilla group, the latest in a long list of
unsavoury clients.

And there are the heart-wrenching tales of their victims, such as
Ludmila, the sex slave in Tel Aviv who was tricked into coming to
Israel only to be brutalized, raped and infected with HIV.

If Glenny’s portrait of crime is grim, his prognosis for the future
is even bleaker. He lashes out at "unimaginative politicians who lack
the vision or interest to address the structural inequities in the
global economy upon which crime and instability thrive." He concludes
that a cynical Russia, an incompetent European Union, a hostile
United States and the unstoppably ambitious China have combined to
usher in a "vigorous springtime for both global corporations and
transnational organized crime."

Glenny’s book is bound to dissatisfy some. Not everyone will buy his
cogent arguments to legalize drugs, although he points out the
billions spent on the so-called "war on drugs" has simply left an
industry that has merely grown in size, profits and human sacrifice.
He notes that cybercrime represents perhaps the "greatest challenge
for public law enforcement," but – except for the Nigerian scam
artists – devotes little time to it. And one would wish there was
more on the good guys: We only meet a handful of investigators, and
then only briefly, who are trying to do battle against the behemoth.

But Glenny’s book should be appreciated for the powerful wake-up call
it is. Think of it as a Lonely Planet Guide of Organized Crime. Don’t
leave home without it. Our brave new world of globalization may be
flat, but it also very, very crooked.

Julian Sher is the author of five books about crime and the justice
system. The latest is One Child at a Time: Inside the Police Hunt to
Rescue Children from Online Predators.

/story/LAC.20080412.BKMCMA12/TPStory/Entertainment

A NEW SITE HAS BEEN STARTED IN INTERNET

Azat Artsakh Daily
Published on April 11, 2008
NKR Republic

Dear friends We inform, that on "Tsir Katin" company’s own
initiative, the site has been started in internet,
which tells about monstrous slaughter undertaken on April 10th 1992
by azerbaijanian band of robbers against armenian people of Maragha
village.Chronicle-documentary themes are placed in the site: written
and oral evidences, photographs and videoes. Coming days the site
will be started in armenian and russian languages. Let’s remember
innocent victims of Maragha’s slaughter and unite our voice in the
name of justice. The authoress of the project is Narine Aghabalian

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS RECOGNIZED AS MOST OPEN AND PUBLIC STATE BODY

Noyan Tapan
April 11, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Armenia has been recognized as the most open and public
state body with 46 percent by the results of the poll conducted by the
Information Freedom Center with the assistance of the Eurasia fund
(the poll was conducted among 105 journalists from the capital and
regions). This information was provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press
and Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

ODESA PREPARING TO OPEN ARMENIAN CONSULATE, NEGOTIATING ITALIAN, AUSTRIAN, GERMAN CONSULATES

Ukraine General Newswire
April 9, 2008 Wednesday 2:14 PM MSK

Odesa is preparing to open a consulate general for Armenia and
is negotiating the creation of consulates for Italy, Austria and
Germany, the head of the regional branch of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry
Kostiantyn Rzhepyshevsky has said.

He was speaking at a press conference in Odesa on Tuesday.

The Armenian community in Odesa has said it is ready to provide
premises for the consulate in the Armenian culture center. The
consulate is to open in May.

Odesa already hosts consulates of Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, China,
Poland, Russia, Romania and Turkey.