Author: Hovhannisian John

EX-COMMANDERS CALL FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 15 2006
A group of Karabakh war veterans have called on the nation to show
civil disobedience and achieve a power change in the country.
In a written statement spread on Wednesday several dozen ex-commanders
urged all war veterans to unite “to save Armenia and Armenians and
restore justice in all spheres”.
“The lands that we liberated are in danger today. We urge all our
compatriots, all parties and individuals to put aside ideological
differences and stop our homeland from falling into an abyss,”
they said.
For this purpose the “Brotherhood of Liberation Struggle” Council of
Commanders urges everyone to join the movement of civil disobedience.
Commander of Karabakh self-defense forces and head of Yerkrapah’s
Karabakh structure Arkady Karapetian says this disobedience will mean
that people no longer want the authorities to govern the country and
it will eventually result in a power change. “If you don’t accept that
this person is your president, then you are ready for everything,”
Karapetian said.
The Karabakh war veterans say they will consider anyone who attempts
to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem at the expense of territories
as their enemy. “Terrible things will happen if such an attempt is
made,” Karapetian warned.

LAW PASSED TO ALLOW CHURCHES RECLAIM LAND
The Irish Times
November 15, 2006 Wednesday
TURKEY: Charitable foundations can apply for restitution of property,
writes Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
The reasons courts gave for confiscating eight properties belonging to
an Istanbul Armenian church between 1987 and 1993 were always the same.
According to the deeds, the buildings belonged to St John and the
Archangel Gabriel. But who were these people? Judges sent inspectors
out to find them, but they came back empty-handed.
Now a new EU-backed law on charitable foundations is due to set the
record straight. Passed last Thursday by parliament and awaiting
presidential approval, the legislation gives foundations 18 months
to apply for the restitution of state-confiscated property. It also
foresees the appointment of a non-Muslim member to the state department
that oversees foundations.
“These are positive steps towards wiping out the effects of 1974,”
says Diran Bakar, a Turkish-Armenian lawyer, referring to a Turkish
Appeal Court decision to cancel real estate acquisitions made by
non-Muslim foundations since 1936. Coinciding with war on Cyprus,
the ruling led to the confiscation of at least 4,000 properties
belonging to Turkish Greeks, Jews and Armenians.
“Its aim was to dry up the minority communities’ economic resources,”
explains political scientist Elcin Macar, who believes that the
“founding philosophy of the Turkish Republic never had any space
for non-Muslims”.
Brussels has long-warned discrimination will have to stop if Turkey’s
EU bid is to succeed.
In its annual report on Turkey released last Wednesday, it criticised
Ankara for ongoing limitations to religious freedom, and recommended
the adoption of minority legislation in line with European Court of
Human Rights case law.
Yet, despite it providing the impulse behind the new law, few expect
Brussels to be satisfied with the end result. The law not only fails
to provide compensation for foundations whose confiscated property
has been sold on by the state, analysts point out, it also maintains
the distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim foundations.
“This is my country, I see my future here,” says Lakis Vingas,
businessman and member of Turkey’s 3,000-strong Greek community. “Yet
when I turn on the TV, it’s immediately clear that I’m seen as a
foreigner.” He is referring to the furious rows that surrounded
parliament’s discussion of the foundation bill.
Some deputies insisted the legislation would enable the Greek Orthodox
Patriarch – a parish priest for Ankara, first among equals for the
world’s Orthodox church – to build an Orthodox Vatican in central
Istanbul. Others worried it would involve handing Istanbul’s famed Agia
Sophia – once a church, then a mosque, now a museum – over to Greece.
In the case of opposition deputy Bayram Meral, prejudice took a less
whimsical form. “What’s this law about? It’s about giving Agop his
property back,” he railed, using a common Armenian name.
“Congratulations to the government! You ignore the villagers, the
workers and the farmers to worry yourself with Agop’s business.”
Baskin Oran, an expert on Turkish minorities, thinks such sentiments
are worryingly representative of an increasingly nationalistic
parliament. “Not only will this law not satisfy Europe, it’s highly
likely to damage relations further, as just another example of the
half-hearted reform process Turkey was criticised for in the report.”

Nurmela puts Finland on top
Wednesday, 15 November 2006
Finland saw off a spirited Armenia to claim all three
points and storm to the summit of UEFA EURO 2008~Y
qualifying Group A.
Third win
Veteran forward Mika Nurmela nodded the only goal
within the opening ten minutes as the hosts rarely
broke sweat in sub-zero conditions. The result,
unbeaten Finland’s third win in five games this
campaign, gives Roy Hodgson’s men a one-point
advantage over second-placed Serbia, while Armenia
remain second from bottom with a solitary point from
four matches.
Artificial pitch
The only major adaptation either side had to make
going into the game – aside from Finland having to
cope without injured talisman Jari Litmanen – was the
use of an artificial pitch, but there was nothing
cosmetic about the gritty style of play. Once the
match settled, however, the hosts showed their
attacking prowess, Toni Kallio heading narrowly wide
and Mika Vayrynen testing Gevorg Kasparov’s reactions
with a stinging drive from 20 metres.
Nurmela header
In between, Levon Pachajyan managed to call Jussi
Jaaskelainen into action at the other end, but Finland
stayed on top and made the breakthrough on ten minutes
when the 34-year-old Nurmela nodded Jonatan
Johansson’s chip into the bottom corner. Vayrynen then
added his miscued chance to the couple wasted by
Alexei Eremenko Jr as the home team chased their
second of the evening, though the game was becoming
more about strength than style.
Kasparov save
Armenia briefly flirted with the latter when Armen
Shahgeldyan went close, but as was generally the case
Finland had little trouble dismantling their attacking
threat. After the break, shooting from distance came
into fashion, Joonas Kolkka and Pachajyan trying their
luck from outside the area, but neither goalkeeper had
cause to be concerned until Kasparov parried
Johansson’s close-range effort in the 77th minute.
uefa.com

TUSIAB EXCLUDES COOPERATION WITH ARMENIA
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 13 2006
Azeri TUSIAB international business company has refuted the reports
of a number of Turkish mass media on cooperation with Armenia. TUSIAB
President’s address to “Turan” agency says that there was information
in the Turkish Daily News that the Istanbul based Club of Turkish
Producers and Businessmen /TUSIAB/ established contacts with Armenia.
The document says that “TUSIAB categorically denounces any cooperation
with Armenia before the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity.”

Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE)
Nov 10 2006

OSCE Office helps promote environmental awareness in Armenia’s
regions

YEREVAN, 10 November 2006 – As part of its environmental activities
in Armenia, the OSCE Office in Yerevan will co-host an
awareness-raising event in the province of Aragatsotn tomorrow.
The event, which has as its goal the eventual clean-up of the area
surrounding the village of Artashavan, will be attended by 15
non-governmental organizations’ representatives and 25 volunteers. It
is organized by the OSCE Office, the Public Environmental Information
(Aarhus) Centre in Lori, and the NGO Compatriot Unity.
The participants will be briefed on the Aarhus Convention and its
principles, problems related to environmental security and the OSCE’s
engagement in this field. They will also learn more about regional
history, which is tightly connected with the development of the
Armenian alphabet.
In addition, they will pay a visit to Saghmosavank, where the
so-called Monastery of Psalms of the 12th century is located.
The OSCE Office in Yerevan supports the establishment of a network of
Aarhus centres in the regions of Armenia to promote the Aarhus
principles. Currently, there are five centres in three provinces of
Armenia and one in the capital, Yerevan.

Panorama.am
14:54 10/11/06

FOUNDATION ASKS FOR DONATION TO MAKE SCHOOL FURNITURE
Levon Lazarian, minister of education and science,
complained in a press conference today that only
Diaspora Armenians financially support Hay Dproch
Foundation (Armenian School) and not local business
community and other benefactors. Levon Aharonyan,
chairman of the board of directors of the foundation,
was surprised that support to schools is not
widespread. `There are many rich people here… We must
tell them and educate,’ he said.
Hay Dproch Foundation was established in 2003 and put
an aim to provide desks, chairs and blackboards to 500
schools. Until today, the foundation managed to
provide furniture to 133 schools with 12,000
schoolchildren. The furniture is mainly provided to
borderline area schools, including some in Nagorno
Karabakh.
Each desk and chair costs them $50 but because of
depreciation of dollar this sum is not enough.
Therefore the foundation management asks for at least
$60 of donation. /Panorama.am/

ARMENIAN ECONOMY NEEDS INNOVATIONS
A1+
[04:41 pm] 09 November, 2006
“The number of saunas and night clubs is increasing in Armenia day by
day. They only enhance the sex industry,” announced Edward Aghajanov
in the club “Pastark” today.
He claims that the economy of the country can only develop due to
innovations-due to the shift to knowledge-based economy.
“The 2003 – 2007 project of the RA Government touched upon the
idea of establishing innovative economy in Armenia but it hasn’t
been implemented so far. Armenia cannot develop all the branches of
science at the same time.
We must develop at least a few branches – informational, hi-tech,
medical, biological, etc,” noted Mr. Aghajanov.
Mr. Aghajanov confesses that he has already got tired of referring
to the innovative economy. But he becomes indignant at the fact that
the government decided to allocate only one percent of the 2008 State
budget to the science. “The country that evades feeding its scientific
field will have to feed the science of foreign countries.”
Science is the most expensive pleasure all over the world which it
requires great investments. You cannot promote the country’s future
well-being by exporting tomato paste or rice.
While speaking of the investment field of Armenia, Mr. Aghajanov
qualified it as unattractive.
“Investors need super-privileged conditions as “there will be no
gain without pain.” Armenia can suggest the investors nothing but
poor poverty index and lack of communication systems.

US ELECTIONS MEET ELECTORAL REFORM TARGETS
A1+
[01:29 pm] 09 November, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C., 8 November 2006 – The electoral environment in the
United States is characterized by a high level of transparency and
professionalism of election officials.
The electoral reforms, initiated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act
(HAVA) appear to have been fully or largely implemented in most
States. However, the introduction of new electronic voting systems
has sparked nationwide debate regarding their reliability and voter
confidence in the process.
Those are the main preliminary conclusions of an Election Assessment
Mission, deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) to follow the 7 November mid-term
congressional elections at the invitation of the U.S. authorities.
“The overall election administration, including the processing of
voters on election day, seemed professional and efficiently organized
in most polling stations we visited,” said Giovanni Kessler, who
headed the mission.
“However, the swift introduction of Direct Recording Equipment (DREs),
at times without a voter verifiable audit paper trail, appeared to
negatively impact on voter confidence. This remains a challenge for
the future.”
Commenting on the campaign, Kessler raised his concern that a large
number of political advertisements consisted of personalized attacks
on opponents.
The OSCE/ODIHR assessment mission focused on the administration of
the process, in particular on specific issues related to the 2002
Help America Vote Act (HAVA) including new voting technologies,
voter registration, and absentee and provisional balloting…

EU ROLLS OUT RED CARPET FOR OIL-RICH AZERBAIJAN
By Andrew Rettman
EUObserver, Belgium
Nov 7 2006
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The EU rolled out the red carpet treatment for
Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev in Brussels on Tuesday (6 November)
for the signing of a new energy pact, with European leaders predicting
that increased trade will help raise human rights standards in Baku.
“We are creating a democratic society with strong rule of law and
human rights as well as a strong economy,” president Aliyev said.
“For us this [EU cooperation] is an opportunity in the coming years
to bring criteria in Azerbaijan very close to those in Europe. We
share the same values.”
The South Caucasus state has some 7 billion barrels of oil reserves
and sits on a key route to potential EU imports of natural gas from
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but Mr Aliyev’s 2005 election fell short
of OSCE norms while NGO Human Rights Watch remains “very worried”
about use of torture in Baku.
Speaking on the murder of prominent anti-establishment journalist
Elmar Huseynov – shot dead outside his apartment in March 2005 – the
president blamed subversive forces keen to “destabilise” Azerbaijan
while saying that unnamed suspects are “very difficult to find”
as they have fled the country.
“Let us not forget that Azerbaijan has never had a democratic state as
we consider it in the EU,” European Commission president Jose Manuel
Barroso stated. “This [pact] is not just about energy…what we are
doing is exactly the way to promote democracy and the rule of law.”
Mr Barroso shook Mr Aliyev’s hand for the cameras and placed an
arm round the president’s back in a customary gesture of warmth,
but the commission president gazed around the ceiling in a tense,
unsmiling way during his guest’s “we share the same values” speech.
“Oh I don’t know, maybe it was a question of his metabolism on
the day,” an EU official later remarked. “We have our worries here
about Mr Aliyev’s government, but Mr Barroso is too professional to
communicate anything by body language.”
New energy pact Tuesday’s “Strategic Partnership” on energy calls for
“gradual convergence with the EU’s internal energy market, aiming
ultimately at its integration” as well as “increased transit of oil”
and “possible transit of natural gas” from the Caspian Sea basin via
Azerbaijan to the EU.
It mentions protecting existing EU oil flows via the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, but does not contain any explicit Azeri
commitment to more sensitive EU plans to import gas from the Caspian
region via the “Nabucco” or “Trans-Caspian” pipeline projects that
would bypass Russia.
The text “emphasises” EU support for the “territorial integrity”
of Azerbaijan “with a view of elimination of threats [to] European
energy security” at a time when Baku is threatening to use a military
solution to its breakaway southwestern region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
EU principles Mr Aliyev also received a warm welcome from Europe’s
top diplomat Javier Solana and energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs
on Tuesday, with the EU set to sign a more political “Action Plan”
for future integration with Azerbaijan in mid-November.
Meanwhile, Brussels is getting ready to drop most of its human
rights-related sanctions against Uzbekistan and to welcome Kazakhstan’s
controversial president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to the EU capital
in December.
“We are extremely worried by what we are seeing in the EU at
present,” Human Rights Watch analyst Veronika Leila Szente Goldston
told EUobserver. “They are losing credibility every day in terms of
building a principled foreign policy in Central Asia.”

TUZMEN: TRADE VOLUME BETWEEN TURKEY AND U.S. WILL REACH 25 BILLION USD
Anatolian Times, Turkey
Nov 8 2006
ANKARA – “We plan to raise the trade volume between Turkey and the
United States (U.S.) to 25 billion USD in the next three years,”
said Kursad Tuzmen, Turkish State Minister, on Tuesday.
In a speech delivered at the Turkish-American Council meeting, Tuzmen
noted that “the current trade volume of 10 billion USD is actually
very little and does not represent the commercial potential that
exists between Turkey and the U.S.”
“We expect the Turkish-American Council to develop economic ties with
the U.S.,” told Tuzmen.
Meanwhile, Executive Board Chairman of the Turkish-American Council
retired General Brent Scowcroft remarked that “since the World War II
Turkey and the U.S. have had a close relationship. We hope to develop
economic ties between Turkey and the U.S.”
“We support strong cooperation in military and national security
matters. We will continue to oppose any resolution on so-called
Armenian genocide that may be brought up in the U.S. Congress or
Senate. We will also cooperate with Turkey in the fight against
terrorist organization PKK,” stressed Scowcroft.