Author: Hovhannisian John

GUL: "STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY HELPS OUR FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM"

Turkish Press
Star
Nov 28 2007

Speaking at press conference yesterday at the Turkish Embassy in
Paris, President Abdullah Gul said that Turkey has avoided sacrificing
democracy or freedom in its fight against terrorism and that this
has helped it to isolate terrorists. "Some countries have opted to
restrict rights and freedoms in the name of the fight against terror,
but Turkey has expanded them," said Gul.

"Strengthening democracy in Turkey helps our fight against
terrorism." Before leaving Paris, Gul met with French Prime Minister
Francois Fillon to discuss the fight against terrorism, the Armenian
issue, and Turkey’s European Union membership bid. "I mentioned
Turkey’s offer to set up a joint research commission regarding the
Armenian issue," he said. "Fillon supported our joint commission
idea. It was very fruitful meeting." In an interview with French
daily Le Figaro, Gul said Turkey’s relations with the EU have legal
foundations, adding that negotiations for its membership are well
underway. Gul said a French-proposed "Mediterranean union" project
was no substitute for Turkey’s full EU membership.

AN UNPRECEDENTED EVENT ON THE POLICAL ARENA
Haroutyun Gevorkyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Nov 27 2007
Armenia

On Friday "Dashink" party convened its second and last session.

The issue included in the agenda was merging with Ramkavar-Liberal
Party of Armenia. One of the 644 delegates participating in the session
abstained from voting. The others voted for the proposal advanced by
Samvel Babayan, leader and founder of "Dashink" party.

The Head of the party expressed belief that "Dashink" can achieve
the intended success "only due to coordinated mutual cooperation". At
the same time, he didn’t conceal his disappointment with the current
negotiations and introduced the diagnosis of the pro-Opposition camp.

"There were only a couple of activists that were able to soberly assess
the situation, make a pragmatically clear political calculation and
behave in a decent manner. Unfortunately, their efforts were not
enough for restraining the political pretensions of the others at
least a little.

Self-satisfaction: this is the main disease our political arena
is suffering from. The result recorded by the Opposition is both
regrettable and equally natural. Then, having got into a mess because
of their own personal pretensions, those figures made a little fuss,
complaining about their lives, and then they went home with clear
conscience, having assumed the posture of someone who has accomplished
his task."

"National Revival" party also considers merging to be the only
remedy for the political arena. In a private interview with "Hayots
Ashkharh", ALBERT BAZEYAN, the leader of this political faction which
has more than 2300 members, expressed an opinion that reaching their
cherished goal, i.e. national revival, will be impossible without
merging. As reported by A. Bazeyan, the agenda issue of merging with
Ramkavar-Liberal Party of Armenia will be discussed during the December
5 session of "National Revival".

"Mr. Bazeyan, what goals and objectives do you see by merging with
S. Babayan’s ‘Dasink’ party, under the flag of Ramkavar-Liberal Party
of Armenia?"

"Our only goal is to start the process of accomplishing Armenia’s
political arena. This initiative of ours is not in any way related to
the upcoming presidential elections. It is obvious to us that each of
the 77 registered parties cannot possibly have its own ideology and
model of the developing the social system. Therefore, the existence
of around 8 dozen parties prompts that our political arena is not
accomplished yet.

It is necessary to put an end to all kinds of dissidences and start
the process of merging the parties pursuing similar ideologies."

"Nevertheless, all the political forces are preparing for the
presidential elections. Does it contribute to the formation of an
atmosphere, favorable for merging?"

"Those who display their pretensions by way of advancing their
candidature for presidency do, of course have that right. However, it
would be desirable for some political forces and activists to make a
sober assessment both on their potentials and the political situation.

At the same time, it is obvious that different pretenders pursue
different goals by running for presidency. Perhaps, some people
are really convinced that they can receive the people’s vote of
confidence. I consider that it will be more appropriate to evaluate
the candidates’ behavior after they are nominated and registered.

When they start the campaign and intorduce their programs, we will
express our clear-cut attitude."

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ENDORSES STATE BUDGET FOR 2008

Mediamax Agency, Armenia
Nov 28 2007

Yerevan, 28 November: The National Assembly endorsed the Armenian
state budget for 2008 today.

The budget revenue in 2008 will total 746bn drams (about 2.5bn dollars)
and the budget expenditure will be about 822bn drams [2.7bn dollars],
Mediamax news agency reports.

"THEY ARE A TROIKA, NOT JUDGES"

A1+
[05:51 pm] 29 November, 2007

Ashot Sargsyan, attorney of the two owners of "Royal Armenia" Company
was not present during the delivery of the sentence. He said to "A1+"
that it was discrediting for him to come to the Court and to see the
faces of the judges. "Have you seen a true Court?

It is not a court; three men in black are not judges.

They are a "troika". And it was clear beforehand, what they would do",
said Ashot Sargsyan.

It should be reminded that the head of FIG Vache Petrosyan accused
the two owners of "Royal Armenia" of smuggling, avoiding taxes and
of falsifying documents.

The Court sentenced the executive director of the Company Aram
Ghazaryan to 2 years of imprisonment, and one of the owners Gagik
Hakobyan to 6 years of imprisonment.

Ashot Sargsyan informed us that he had appealed to the Court of
Cassation and in case on necessity he would appeal to the European
Court of Human Rights so that "the judges will feel on their skins
how it feels when you are accused of doing".

YOUTUBE VIDEO MAY BE SUBJECT TO TURKISH GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.11.2007 14:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A video documenting the achievements of the Armenian
National Committee – Western Region (ANC-WR) has been posted on
This video may be subject to censorship by the Turkish
government because it includes numerous references to the Armenian
Genocide. According to Eurasia Daily Monitor, a new set of Turkish
government regulations may criminalize access to websites and internet
content that does not conform to government-approved standards. The
article goes on to state that these latest restrictions certainly
are not in keeping with the openness and transparency required by
the European Union.

"From denying the genocide to censoring our YouTube videos, we see
the same pattern of the Turkish government seeking to subvert freedom
of expression and twist historical facts," stated Andrew Kzirian
Executive Director of the ANC-WR.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Nov 30 2007

ARF Dashnaktsutyun ready to cooperate with other Armenian political
parties

YEREVAN, November 30. /ARKA/. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF) Dashnaktsutyun is ready to cooperate with all the Armenian
political parties, said ARF Presidential Candidate, RA NA (National
Assembly) Deputy Speaker Vahan Hovhannisian.

`We are going to search supporters at the threshold of the
presidential election,’ he said. According to Hovhannisian, `life
will go on after election’ and ARF will keep cooperating with all the
political parties.

Dashnaktsutyun’s objective is to establish relations between
authorities and guarantee loyalty, the Deputy Speaker said. He
believes the acting authorities lack decision. This is the reason why
ARF has nominated their presidential candidate.

The ARF presidential candidate does not participate in the
forthcoming election to distribute portfolios, according to
Hovhannisian.

The presidential election will be held in Armenia on February 19,
2008. RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsian, Armenia’s first president
Levon Ter-Petrosian, Deputy Speaker of the RA Parliament Vahan
Hovhannisian, Leader of the `Orinats Yerkir’ Party (State of Law)
Arthur Baghdasarian, Leader of the RA National Democratic Union
Vazgen Manukian, Leader of the `Nor Zhamanakner’ (New Times) Party
Aram Karapetian, Leader of the Marxist Party of Armenia David
Hakobian and Leader of the People’s Party Tigran Karapetian are
candidates for presidency. Z. Sh. -0–

LPPA TO SUPPORT LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S CANDIDATURE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Noyan Tapan
Nov 15, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. A decision to support first RA
President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s candidature in the forthcoming
presidential elections was made at the sitting of most active
members of the Liberal Progressive Party of Armenia (LPPA). Hovhannes
Hovhannisian, the Chairman of the party, said this at the November
15 press conference. As he predicted, there will be no surprises in
Armenia’s home political field, the electoral campaign will mainly
proceed between the pro-governmental candidate and the first President.

H. Hovhannisian said that the authorities using administrative and
force resources, strive for hampering the holding of the opposition’s
rally scheduled for November 16. According to him, the authorities
intimidate opposition’s activists, in particular, "those pasting
leaflets," exert pressures on state officials, businessmen, and
other citizens, for them not to take part in the rally. At the same
time, H. Hovhannisian expressed confidence that the resource of the
authorities has been expired. "I doubt that the authorities will use
their force resource. However, if this happens, I think it will have
a grave impact on them: remember international community’s position
to Saakashvili," the LPPA Chairman said.

MORE CORPSES OF A320 VICTIMS FOUND
Translated by A.M.

AZG Armenian Daily #210
15/11/2007

Emergency

The corpses of three more passengers of A320, flying from Yerevan to
Sochi and crashed in May 2006, were found. The experts found out the
identities of the corpses. The results of the expertise were reported
to the relations of the air crash victims.

According to the Territorial Administration Ministry of Armenia,
the Government made orders to hand the corpses to the families of
the victims.

AZERBAIJANI POLITICAL MOVEMENT TO HOLD DEMONSTRATION TURKEY’S SUPPORT

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 12 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I.Alizade / The Way of Azerbaijan
the political movement will hold a demonstration through Turkey’s
support to protest against terrorist attacks, carried out in Turkey
by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). This decision was taken during
the meeting of the Coordination Council of the political movement
Way of Azerbaijan.

The protestors will condemn the resolution on recognition of
the "Armenian genocide" taken at the Subcommittee of House of
Representatives of the US Congress and use of this fact as a mean of
pressure on Turkey.

The place and date of the rally will be defined soon.

Oppositional Political Movement Way of Azerbaijan was established
in 2004. Ilgar Hasimov, the General of the Russian Justice Ministry,
is the leader of the movement.

SERGE SARGSYAN’S ADVICE TO LEVON TER-PETROSYAN

Lragir.am
11-11-2007 10:09:15

Having absolute power in Armenia until 1997, it made awful mistakes and
had to resign. This is the evaluation of the All-Armenian Movement by
the leader of the Republican Party Serge Sargsyan, which he spelled out
on November 10 during the 11th conference of the Republican Party.
Serge Sargsyan who had seemed to avoid criticizing Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
made harsh statements about the All-Armenian Movement and Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, referring to the first president as the godfather of the
All-Armenian Movement. `However, it failed to learn from its mistakes,
and ten years later it is reemerged and states to go all the way.
Moreover, the godfather of the All-Armenian Movement Levon
Ter-Petrosyan announced in one of the meetings that he is going to
dissolve our national pyramid. Fortunately, Armenia is free from the
danger of revanchism but this is a factor which we cannot take into
account,’ Serge Sargsyan says. Perhaps he means that they must take it
into account, otherwise his statement is illogical.

Then Serge Sargsyan says Levon Ter-Petrosyan is so unrealistic to
believe in revenge and even advises Robert Kocharyan and him to leave
the political stage. `I owe him advice. He had better atone and
apologize to the Armenian people for his mistakes, to put it mildly. I
am sure he will not do this because he feels bitter now and has fallen
back from life and cannot keep up with it. His desperate efforts to
return to the office of president do not aim to serve people but to
take revenge on everyone who has ever uttered a forceful word and
proved that he was not wrong, that the Karabakh issue cannot be
resolved in a dignified way, that the development of Armenia is
impossible without returning Karabakh, that it is impossible to bring
together the potential of Armenians worldwide, that the national
ideology is a false category,’ Serge Sargsyan says.

He says Levon Ter-Petrosyan lost his nerve, and Serge Sargsyan thinks
he has turned their conceptual debate into a street fight. `The reason
is clear. Slowly but steadily we are approaching the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict but not through concessions. Despite the
existing problems, the Armenian economy is starting to breathe little
by little, poverty in Armenia is being reduced,’ Serge Sargsyan says.

According to him, for different reasons Levon Ter-Petrosyan missed the
chance to serve people in the post of the president of Armenia. `At a
difficult period of time, he resigned voluntarily from the post of the
commander-in-chief, leaving behind him people on the verge of despair,
a decayed economy, an unhealthy moral and psychological climate,
defensive moods. Tragic events followed, horrible crimes were committed
which they are now manipulating with pleasure,’ Serge Sargsyan says. He
says every effort to undermine the state mentioned by Levon
Ter-Petrosyan will be prevented.

`The good thing about this is that people had a chance to see that we
are different, our visions of future of Armenia are different, and if
we avoided political evaluations in the past ten years, it is because
we did not want to cause tensions,’ Serge Sargsyan says.