Author: Hovhannisian John

PRESS RELEASE
Wales-Armenia Solidarity
Contact: E. Williams
Cardiff, Wales
Tel: 07870267447
Email: [email protected]

Speech by His Excellency Vahe Gabrielian, Ambassador, at the
Unveiling of the Memorial to the Victims of the Armenian Genocide
at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff, 3rd November 2007

Your Graces,
My Lord,
Reverend fathers,
Ladies and Gentlemen

This is a very special day for us. This is a very special day for the
British Armenian Community, for the people of Armenia, Armenians in many
other countries and a special day for the Welsh people. I am not the one to
speak on behalf of the Welsh, our hosts have already spoken and others will
still speak later on, but I am sure that making this day special for us,
they have made it special for themselves as well.

When one thinks about the meaning of this day, there are some obvious things
to say that come to mind immediately. It is very important that the Genocide
of Armenians be internationally recognized and condemned, that ultimately
Turkey recognizes the hideous crime against humanity and apologies,
establishes relations with Armenia and pledges to build its relations
pursuant to international standards and values of contemporary,
progressive and democratic family of nations. It is, of course, a fact that
on the British Isles the Welsh authorities are in the vanguard of standard
bearers of human values and the Welsh people should be thanked and commended
for their solidarity with a just cause. These have been already said and
will, I believe, be said in the coming addresses and many more times in the
future.

One may ask, however, why in Wales of all places on these isles? Of course,
the lobbyists have spared no effort or energy. Nevertheless, I would think
that the real reason why this happens here is the depth of similarities
between our peoples. It is because of the values that we share. And
certainly there is more common between us that meet the eye. We look at the
Welsh and see a nation of arts and talents, heroes and thinkers, of
difficult history, yet proud sons and we realise that this is what we at
least think of ourselves too. From the 12th century to our days Wales has
been celebrating the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the oldest and largest
festival of culture in Europe. We, Armenians, have been celebrating the Day
of Interpreters since the 5th, being probably the only ones to do that, at
least for that long. Our national hero, the hero of our Epic Poem is David
of Sassun, who shares a name with your patron saint, St. David. However
similarities like this are too many to list and much more will emerge once
we get to know each other better. THAT, we certainly want to do. Forgive me
the pun, but who would not like to be equal partners and friend with a
nation one of whose talented sons (Robert Recorde) invented the equals sign?

Some people may see these words as sheer politics and a formal paying of
tribute. It is not, because what is happening today in Cardiff is truly a
groundbreaking event. A groundbreaking event not only because it breaks
through the coldness of official shyness for recognition, the concern to
upset a strategic ally by calling the things by their names; it breaks
through cold-minded reasoning and calculation as what should be offset with
what; and gives way to what comes from the heart. And today’s most important
lesson is that today we announced that the hearts of the Welsh and Armenian
peoples beat on the same frequency and accelerate to express their feelings
at the same impulses. This particular instance of historical injustice has
made our hearts react the same way. And this is the most important part. It
is important because from now on every Welshman or guest of your capital
city passing by the consecrated cross-stone in the grounds of the Temple of
Peace will think of Armenians and of the special links between our nations
and thin and appreciate why this monument is here. The media in Armenia
today already spoke of this event. They have been mentioning it for some
time and the ripples that this event has created will travel a long distance
through the Armenian and other media throughout the world to the heart of
every Armenian and every person who feels they should do right in their
lives. In an interview of mine to one of leading national newspapers in
Armenia, published today, I have already thanked Wales-Armenia Solidarity,
John Torossyan and Elian Williams for their dedication and resolve to see
this wonderful initiative to the end. I have thanked the authorities of
Cardiff for the permission and unswerving support to erect the cross-stone
on a piece of public land and the entire Welsh nation for their assistance
and understanding. It is with greatest pleasure and humbleness that I do it
again here. Thank you. Thank you to the Welsh Assembly, President Lord
Dafydd and to the Church of Wales. Special thanks to Stephen Thomas of the
Welsh International Centre and the Temple of Peace trustees for their
continuing cooperation and help. And I would also like to thank everyone who
takes part in today’s ceremony, from organizers to performers and the
audience and supporters.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am not going to lecture you about the Genocide of Armenians. Much has been
said about it. Also, here and today there is no need to preach the
converted. I would, however, like to state the following. The insistence of
Armenians all over the globe and the consistent policies of the Republic of
Armenia that the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire be recognized
as Genocide are not a sign of hostility or of refusal to talk. On the
contrary, given Turkey’s vehement yet fruitless denial campaign, they are
the only ways to reconciliation.

We are trying hard to understand Turkey’s logic of exerting so much effort
to abort the increasingly unstoppable recognition process. It cannot. It is
dependent neither on Turkey, nor Armenia or the Armenian Diaspora. It is
time the opponents realized two things: 1.People throughout the world
support the recognition efforts of Armenians not because of lobbying but
because they believe it is the right thing to do and 2. The international
recognition is a momentum-gathering process of its own that will only stop
when it reaches its culmination, its ultimate logical objective – the
recognition. Following the recent approval by the US Congressional Committee
on Foreign Affairs of the Genocide Bill, House Resolution 106, we have seen
an unprecedented campaign of misinformation, outright threats and
blackmailing by the Turkish authorities and use of force and uncivilized
behaviour by Turkish mobs. The result has been that in places where they
previously shunned the issue, they now talk about it, people who did not
know, now ask questions, papers that refused to publish a paragraph on the
subject now allocate pages, all possible TV and radio stations discussed the
event or at least reported it.

The stronger the Turkish denial Campaign grows, the more people condemn it.
This is a guaranteed way to recognition. Had Turkey recognized it itself,
before many others did, it would have saved itself a lot of embarrassment
and paved an easier route to reconciliation.

There is one last thing I would like to mention. Every day I come across
statements by Turkish officials of various calibre that the Turkish Prime
Minister proposed in a letter to the Armenian President to set up a
commission of historians to discuss the issue and allegedly, still awaits an
answer. Apart from the well observed trick that any Turkish initiative to
demonstrate some goodwill comes in a moment when a Genocide Resolution is
ripe either at the US Congress or some other important institution, with the
sole aim of derailing it, I must declare, that all these statements are,
most often knowingly, intended to mislead the public, including the Turkish
one. The truth is that the answer to that letter was sent soon after it was
received. President Kocharyan said that we do not think that
inter-governmental relations and issues of paramount importance like this
could or should be left to historians.

Once politicians and diplomats establish formal relations and formal grounds
for a dialogue, then we are ready to talk about anything. We do not of
course question the fact of the Genocide but we are prepared to talk about
the ways of overcoming its consequences. Could one expect us to discuss
anything, if have no diplomatic relations, if the border is closed and if
no-one in Turkey can even utter the word Genocide without being punished?
How then can this offer be seen as a serious step towards reconciliation,
moreover, be advocated as such? For expressing a dissenting from the
official position opinion people in that country are either prosecuted under
the infamous article 301 of their Penal Code or simply shot dead on their
doorstep when they speak about reconciliation.

But once again, today’s event is not about Turkey. It is about respecting
the memory of the million and a half innocent people who perished suffering
terrible tortures because of their religion and nationality. The event is
about the strengthening of understanding, cooperation and friendship between
the Welsh and Armenian peoples.

To both notions I bow my head.

Thank you.

Director of International Institute of Humanitarian and Political
Studies: Growth of aggressiveness of Russian Nationalists evident

arminfo
2007-11-02 15:51:00

ArmInfo. The growth of aggressiveness of Russian nationalists is
evident, Director of Russian International Institute of Humanitarian
and Political Studies Vyacheslav Igrunov said in an interview with

Commenting on Russian March to be held on National Unity Day on
November 4, the political expert said: He also added that the
authorities must take necessary measures to prevent disorders. He said
in the north of Yaroslavl Armenians are often killed with cries "Viva
Russia!" Many fell victims to Russian nationalism and xenophobia here.
That is why concerns have a serious ground, he said.

HULIQ, NC
Nov 3 2007

The Armenian Genocide and Turkey’s Attempt to Deny It

From 1915 to 1917 the Young Turk regime in the Ottoman Empire carried
out a systematic, premeditated, centrally-planned genocide against the
Armenian people. One of the documents authenticated by Turkish
authorities in 1919 is a telegram sent in June 1915 by Dr. Sakir, one
of the leaders of the secret organization that carried out the
planning and implementation of the genocide.
He asks the provincial party official who is responsible for carrying
out the deportations and massacres of Armenians within his district:
"Are the Armenians, who are being dispatched from there, being
liquidated? Are those harmful persons whom you inform us you are
exiling and banishing, being exterminated, or are they being merely
dispatched and exiled? Answer explicitly…." [3]
The evidence of intent is backed also by the outcome of the actions
against the Armenians: it is inconceivable that over a million persons
could have died due to even a badly flawed effort at
resettlement. Moreover, the pattern of destruction was repeated over
and over in different parts of Turkey, many of them far from any war
zone; such repetition could only have come from a central
design. Further, the reward structure was geared toward destruction of
the Christian minority: provincial governors and officials who refused
to carry out orders to annihilate the Armenians were summarily
replaced. [4]
Armenian men were drafted into the army, set to work as pack animals,
and subsequently killed. Leaders were arrested and executed. Then the
deportations of women, children, and the elderly into the deserts of
Syria and Iraq began. The American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire,
Henry Morgenthau, immediately recognized that the forced marches into
the desert, and the atrocities that accompanied them, were a new form
of massacre. "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these
deportations, they were simply giving the death warrant to a whole
race; they understood this well, and in their conversations with me,
they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact." [5]
The ambassadors of Germany and Austria, representatives of governments
allied with Turkey, also quickly realized what was taking place. As
early as July 1915, the German ambassador reported to Berlin: "Turks
began deportations from areas now not threatened by invasion. This
fact and the manner in which the relocation is being carried out
demonstrate that the government is really pursuing the aim of
destroying the Armenian race in Turkey." And by January 1917 his
successor reported: "The policy of extermination has been largely
achieved; the current leaders of Turkey fully subscribe to this
policy." [6]
More than one million Armenians perished as the result of execution,
starvation, disease, the harsh environment, and physical abuse. A
people who lived in eastern Turkey for nearly 3,000 years lost its
homeland and was profoundly decimated in the first large scale
genocide of the twentieth century. At the beginning of 1915 there were
some two million Armenians within Turkey; today there are fewer than
60,000.
Despite the vast amount of evidence that points to the historical
reality of the Armenian genocide_eyewitness accounts, official
archives, photographic evidence, the reports of diplomats, and the
testimony of survivors [7], denial of the Armenian genocide by
successive regimes in Turkey has gone on from 1915 to the present. [8]
The basic argument of denial has remained the same, it never happened,
Turkey is not responsible, the term "genocide" does not apply. The
tactics of denial, however, have shifted over the years. [9] In the
period immediately after World War I the tactic was to find scapegoats
to blame for what was said to be only a security measure that had gone
awry due to unscrupulous officials, Kurds, and common criminals. This
was followed by an attempt to avoid the whole issue, with silence,
diplomatic efforts, and political pressure used where possible. In the
1930s, for example, Turkey pressured the U.S. State Department into
preventing MGM Studios from producing a film based on Franz Werfel’s
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a book that depicted aspects of the
genocide in a district located west of Antioch on the Mediterranean
Sea, far from the Russian front. [10]
In the 1960s, prompted by the worldwide commemoration of the fiftieth
anniversary of the genocide, efforts were made to influence
journalists, teachers, and public officials by telling "the other side
of the story." Foreign scholars were encouraged to revise the record
of genocide, presenting an account largely blaming the Armenians or,
in another version, wartime conditions which claimed the lives of more
Turks than Armenians. [11] Thereafter, Turkey tried to prohibit any
mention of the genocide in a United Nations report and was successful
in its pressure on the Reagan and Bush administrations in defeating
Congressional resolutions that would have designated April 24 as a
national day of remembrance of the Armenian genocide. [12] The Turkish
government has also attempted to exclude any mention of the genocide
from American textbooks. Stronger efforts still have been made to
prevent any discussion of the 1915 genocide being formally included in
the
social studies curriculum as part of Holocaust and genocide
studies. [13]
There have also been attempts by the Turkish government to disrupt
academic conferences and public discussions of the genocide. A notable
example was the attempt by Turkish officials to force cancellation of
a conference in Tel Aviv in 1982 if the Armenian genocide were to be
discussed, demands backed up with threats to the safety of Jews in
Turkey. [14] The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council reported similar
threats over plans to include references to the Armenian genocide
within the interpretive framework of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington. [15] At the same time, Turkey has sought to make an
absolute distinction between the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide,
defining the latter as "alleged" or "so-called." The documents we
have, however, show that, in private, such labeling drops off (a point
to which we shall return and discuss in detail).
Finally, in the 1980s the Turkish government supported the
establishment of "institutes", whose apparent purpose was to further
research on Turkish history and culture. At least one also was used to
further denial of Turkish genocide and otherwise improve Turkey’s
image in the West. To our knowledge, the memorandum and letters that
we reproduce in full provide the first direct evidence of the close
relationship between the Turkish government and one such
institute. Before turning to that evidence, we shall provide
background information on the origin, funding, stated purposes, and
tax status of the institute from which that evidence comes.
Sources:
3. Vahakn N. Dadrian, "A Textual Analysis of the Key Indictment of the
Turkish Military Tribunal Investigating the Armenian Genocide,"
Armenian Review, 44:1 (Spring 1991), pp. 26-27.
4. Vahakn N. Dadrian, "The Documentation of the World War I Armenian
Massacres in the Proceedings of the Turkish Military Tribunal,"
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 23:4 (November 1991),
p. 560.
5. Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, Page: 1918), p. 309.
6. Dadrian, "The Documentation," p. 568.
7. Here we can cite only a few of the many works that document the
Armenian genocide. Among the contemporary accounts, see: Leslie Davis,
The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat’s Report on the
Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917 (New Rochelle, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas,
Publisher, 1989); Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page; 1918); and Arnold J. Toynbee, ed.,
The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: Documents
Presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916). The Armenian Genocide in
the U.S. Archives, 1915-1918 (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyok-Healey Inc.,
1990) provides 37,000 pages of documentation in microfiche. For recent
studies, see three articles by Vahakn N. Dadrian, "The Secret
Young-Turk Ittihadist Conference and the Decision for the World War I
Genocide of the Armenians," Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 7:2 (Fall
1993), pp.
173-201; "The Documentation of the World War I Armenian Massacres in
the Proceedings of the Turkish Military Tribunal," International
Journal of Middle East Studies, 23:4 (November 1991), pp. 549-576; and
"Documentation of the Armenian Genocide in Turkish Sources," in Israel
W. Charny, ed., Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review (London:
Mansell Publishing; New York: Facts on File, 1991), Vol. 2, Ch. 4;
Tessa Hofmann and Gerayer Koutcharian, "’Images that Horrify and
Indict’: Pictorial Documents on the Persecution and Extermination of
the Armenians from 1877 to 1922," Armenian Review, 45:1-2
(Spring/Summer 1992), pp. 53-184; Robert Melson, Revolution and
Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); and Donald E. Miller and
Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian
Genocide (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). For an
extensive bibliography on the
Armenian genocide, see Richard G. Hovannisian, The Armenian
Holocaust: A Bibliography Relating to the Deportations, Massacres, and
Dispersion of the Armenian People, 1915-1923 (Cambridge, MA: Armenian
Heritage Press, 1980). On the availability of survivor testimony in
the form of oral history, see Miller and Miller, pp. 212-213. Most of
the oral histories are in Armenian and have not been translated; on
the other hand, many survivor memoirs exist in English: among the more
detailed are Abraham H. Hartunian, Neither to Laugh nor to Weep: A
Memoir of the Armenian Genocide (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968) and
Ephraim K. Jernazian, Judgment Unto Truth: Witnessing the Armenian
Genocide (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1990).
8. There is a substantial literature on denial of the Armenian
genocide. See, Rouben Adalian, "The Armenian Genocide: Revisionism and
Denial," in Michael N. Dobkowski and Isidor Wallimann, eds., Genocide
in Our Time: An Annotated Bibliography with Analytical Introductions
(Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 1992), Ch. 5; Marjorie Housepian
Dobkin, "What Genocide? What Holocaust? News from Turkey, 1915 1923: A
Case Study," in Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian Genocide in
Perspective, Ch. 5; Richard G. Hovannisian, "The Armenian Genocide and
Patterns of Denial," in Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian Genocide in
Perspective, Ch. 6; Clive Foss, "The Turkish View of Armenian History:
A Vanishing Nation," in Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian
Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1992), Ch. 11; Vahakn N. Dadrian, "Ottoman Archives and Denial of the
Armenian Genocide," in Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian Genocide,
Ch. 12; Vigen Guroian,
"The Politics and Morality of Genocide," in Hovannisian, ed., The
Armenian Genocide, Ch. 13; and the following articles by Roger
W. Smith, "Genocide and Denial: The Armenian Case and Its
Implications," Armenian Review, 42:1 (Spring 1989), pp. 1-38; "Denial
of the Armenian Genocide," in Charny, ed., Genocide, Vol. 2, Ch. 3;
and "The Armenian Genocide: Memory, Polities, and the Future," in
Hovannisian, ed., Armenian Genocide, Ch. 1. See also the wide-ranging
discussion by Israel W. Charny, "The Psychology of Denial of Known
Genocides," in Charny, ed., Genocide, Vol. 2, Ch. 1.
9. See, for example, Hovannisian, "The Armenian Genocide and Patterns
of Denial," in Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian Genocide in Perspective,
pp. 115 131; and Roger W. Smith, "Genocide and Denial," pp. 15-20.
10. Edward Minasian, "Musa Dagh: The Film That Was Denied,"Journal of
Armenian Studies, 11:2 (Fall/Winter 1985 86), pp. 63-73; Hovannisian,
"Patterns of Denial," pp. 120-21.
11. Hovannisian, "Patterns of Denial," pp. 113-14, 124-27, 129 30.
12. Leo Kuper, Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 219-20; Smith,
"Genocide and Denial," pp. 22-23.
13. Leo Kuper, "Problems in Education on Genocide," Internet on the
Holocaust and Genocide, 14, (Feb. 1988), Special Supplement, p. 1.

U.S. MILITARY STARTED GIVING TURKEY MORE INTELLIGENCE ON PKK REBELS

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2007 14:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. military has started giving more
intelligence – "lots of intelligence" – to Turkey to help it against
Kurdish rebels staging cross-border attacks from their hiding places
in neighboring Iraq, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

Turkey has complained for months about what it has said is a lack
of U.S. support against the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’
Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK. And Ankara has threatened
a full-scale ground attack into northern Iraq if the U.S. and Iraqi
officials don’t do something about the rebels.

"We have given them more and more intelligence as a result of the
recent concerns," said Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff
Morrell.

"There has been an increased level of intelligence sharing as a
result of this," he told Pentagon reporters Wednesday. He did not
say specifically when the increase started.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested last week that air strikes
or major ground assaults by U.S., Turkish, or other forces would not
help much because not enough is known about where the rebels are at
a given time.

At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that when President
George W. Bush meets on Monday with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recip
Tayyip Erdogan, the president will say that the United States wants
the Iraqis and the Turks to be able to have continued dialogue about
the PKK problem.

"We expect the Iraqis to step up and make sure that they are doing
everything they can to eradicate the PKK," Perino said Wednesday.

"Turkey has a right to defend its people, it has a right to look
for its soldiers, and we are asking Turkey, as well, to exercise
restraint and to limit its exercises to the PKK," he said, The
Associated Press reported.

TURKEY DOESN’T SEEK AFTER EU MEMBERSHIP ANY LONGER?

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2007 13:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Turkey has restrained its diplomatic stride toward
the European Union recently," Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the
Institute of the Oriental Studies, told a news conference in Yerevan.

Turkey longs for domination in the Middle East but not in Europe,
according to him.

"Position of leading European states, including France which doesn’t
want to see it in the EU, is an important factor here. Furthermore,
support for the European way of development wanes in Turkey," he said.

The EU-Turkey entry talks opened in October 2005, although the bid
was submitted in 1965.

The Cypriot issue remains the major stumbling block for Turkish
membership.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has numerously stated that ‘Turkey
has no place in Europe’. Manuel Barroso, the President of the European
Commission, shares this opinion.

TER-PETROSYAN PSYCHOLOGICALLY NOT READY TO RETURN
Harutyun Gevorgyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 30 2007
Armenia

Interview with MP, deputy-Chair of the Republican Party Razmik
Zohrabyan

"Mr. Zohrabyan how would you evaluate Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
"demonstration-speech". With what play-cards does he intend to start
his political game?"

"October 26 speech was the extended version of September 21 speech,
with certain specific emphasis. All the accusations included in
this public speech can be addressed to them. Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
political, economic, ideological, and moral accusations once used to
be addressed to his administration. Today the leader of the former
administration blames the government in power for the same things,
trying to change the addressee or pointing at a new target.

Going ahead of the term of official nomination, he already announced
about his nomination for presidency. This rush, in my view, has
nothing to do with the main election process. We came to know that
the members of his team were quite unaware of his self-nomination
and it was a surprise for those who were with him on the platform.

This circumstance, in its turn, testifies to the fact that Levon
Ter-Petrosyan usually comes to personal decisions. This means there
is a lack of team in the newly formed opposition camp as well. They
can’t speak about common programs or goals. Even on Friday I noticed
essential contradictions in that pole."

" Do you agree to the assessments, that the former President made
impermissible announcements, from which our enemies can easily
benefit?"

"There were various emphases in the speech regarding the vulnerable
aspects of our state. To reveal the weak points of your country to
the foreign world is not proper to the person who used to head the
country. The attempts to speculate similar phenomenon are also not
justified, because our state has only 16 years’ history. By the way
the reforms of the second generation are aimed at fillings those gaps.

I wouldn’t say that they have disclosed a state secret, but the first
public speech causes concerns, because it included such tendencies. And
we all know that Levon Ter-Petrosyan knows important state secrets.

In internal political campaign, to address similar announcements
and speculations to the foreign audience cannot be justified. In
general the political opposition that desires to see the country’s
progress and development must elaborate its tactics and strategy from
constructive positions."

" The honor of the first President presumes weighty responsibility. Can
you justify his calling the government in power "chieftains", when both
the state and the government system have been formed under his rule?"

" Such characteristic given to the government proves that Levon
Ter-Petrosyan is psychologically not ready to return to the political
domain and take the power. Instead he gives a scream of a weak and
causes offense to the authorities. There were scoundrels in his
administration, but I would abstain from remembering the years when
he was in power.

I accept that a big part of economy is in shadow at present, but
the state and the authorities never hinder the activity of any
entrepreneur. On the contrary they persuade them to transfer their
activity into the legal field. But during his power they used to
threaten by gun all those who were not with them.

If this new movement really desires to come to power through
democratic methods, through elections, then why didn’t they run
for the parliamentary elections with this team? Why did Levon
Ter-Petrosyan make his mind to start his political game on the
threshold of the presidential elections? In what way is he going to
change the government that has gained the majority of the votes, some
months back, when the political developments are still in process,
when no turning point has occurred and people can’t abruptly change
their position? Public opinion is usually formed during years and it
changes only and only in case of the existence of weighty factors.

They ignored the people and they didn’t event try to clarify
the attitude of the voters towards them during the parliamentary
elections. Why should they vote for them now?"

UNPRECEDENTED SEARCH AT VARDASHEN PRISON

Lragir
Oct 31 2007
Armenia

On October 29 Monday an unprecedented search took place at the prison
of Vardashen. The security of the department of penitentiaries of
the Ministry of Justice led by the head of the same department,
Lieutenant Colonel Varujan Yeghiazaryan searched the cells of the
prison. 7 officers took part in the search, including three colonels,
8 incognito representatives of security agencies in plain clothes,
15 masked special operation troops of the Police, the committee for
support of Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan informs. Inmates
serving a long sentence at Vardashen say they have never seen such
a demonstrative search.

"The search was serious only in the room where Jirair Sefilyan and
Vardan Malkhasyan are. However, nothing illegal was found there.

Afterwards V. Yeghiazaryan provoked an argument with Vardan Malkhasyan,
stating that he uses inappropriate wording, there are illegal things
in the room, and all the five inmates in the room must receive a
warning. If the warning is set down in the record of the convicts,
they will have no chance for conditional sentence as long as the
warning is lifted," runs the release of the Committee.

The authors of the news release say there is every reason to think
it was a show with mask to warn Vardan Malkhasyan and to warn Jirair
Sefilyan for the second time not to have the "independent commission"
discuss a conditional sentence. Meanwhile, a few days are left until
the deadline of making its agenda for November.

"It is not clear whether this "mask show" is effective because nothing
was found on Sefilyan and Malkhasyan. At the moment, there is no
reliable information whether the warnings were included in their
personal records or not. However, due to the group warning during
the search another inmate in the same room may be denied conditional
sentence. There is information that one of the inmates was warned
who kept an illegal item. Apparently, the purpose is to spoil the
relations of Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan with the other
inmates," the Committee of Support thinks.

KOCHARIAN SAYS MALICE SHOULD NOT BE USED IN POLITICS

ARMENPRESS
Oct 31, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS: Presidnet Robert Kocharian said today
it was regretful that ex-presidnet Levon Ter-Petrosian is seeking
a political comeback being filled with malice. He said it was that
malice that destroyed his Armenian National Movement (ANM).

Kocharian made his remarks after a journalist asked him to comment
on accusations which the ex-presidnet leveled on the incumbent
administration in a 90-minute speech at the October 26 rally.

Kocharian said the main ‘idea’ in his predecessor’s speech is that
‘everything was good when he ruled Armenia and when he resigned
everything turned bad.’ "I think our people remember well what quality
of life they had during Ter-Petrosian’s years in office and now. At
any rate, there is one and simple option to assess how the presidents
perform after taking up their offices. From this perspective we should
look at what each of them inherited and what each achieved by the
time they resign,’ Kocharian said.

He said this approach is equally applicable to a farmer, a businessman
and the country’s presidnet.

"Levon Ter-Petrosian became presidnet of Armenian in 1990 August,
when it was still part of the Soviet Union and one of the most
industrialized republics and had a developed agriculture. Three-four
years later Armenia transformed into one of the poorest world
nations. Certainly, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union had
resulted in certain losses, but in my assessment they should not have
gone beyond 15-20 percent. These losses should have been recovered
through investments and development projects, which was the case in
the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine, while in Armenia the economy
was destroyed completely in few years.

Today we can say the following-Ter-Petrosian and his allies inherited
a country in a normal state and handed it down to me as a country
with a collapsed economy, rated by international organizations as
one of the world’s poorest nations," Kocharian said.

RF DEFENSE MINISTRY TO CONTINUE EQUIPPING RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.10.2007 15:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Russian Ministry of Defense will continue
equipping the 102nd military base in Gyumri, Defense Minister Anatoly
Serdyukov told reporters.

"Extra measures will be taken," he said. "I wanted to learn about
the problems our servicemen and their families face."

He also informed that the Ministry intends to find sponsors for
reconstruction of a 19-century Orthodox Church situated on the base’s
territory, Novosti Armenia reports.

COMMISSION ALLOWS TO EXTEND PREPAID CARDS REGISTRATION DEADLINE

ARMENPRESS
Oct 30 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS: The Public Services Regulatory
Commission (PSRC) has ruled today to allow ArmenTel and VivaCell,
two mobile phone operators, to extend the delaine for mandatory
registration of all prepaid telephone cards until March 1, 2008.

The previous delaine was November 1, but it appeared that only 25
percent of almost 600,000 subscribers of ArmenTel and 17 percent of
about 1 million of VivaCell subscribers pf prepaid cards managed to
register their cards.