Author: Jagharian Tania

URGING ACTION ON ARMENIANS
By Kathryn Skelton , Staff Writer

Sun Journal , Maine
Oct 30 2007

After watching his father, an Armenian priest, cut to pieces when
he wouldn’t forsake God, Negoghos DerBoghosian escaped their Turkish
village. Years later he fled to America. Before he had raised enough
money to bring his wife and three children over with him, they were
killed, too, victims of a long, bloody period in Armenian history.

Negoghos married a woman named Baizar in 1922, an Armenian immigrant
with her own sad story. They raised a new family. Neither said a word
about their brutal past.

Jerry DerBoghosian of Lewiston, their oldest son, says it all came
out several years ago at a family reunion through written accounts.

Baizar’s first husband had been killed in a raid. Her children starved
to death.

"I don’t remember my mother being there, and there it was, in black
and white," said DerBoghosian, 84.

Early this month, the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House
agreed to pass along a measure to the full body that calls on
the U.S. to affirm that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians from
1915 to 1923, carried out by the Ottoman Empire, was genocide. The
congressional action is something Turkey’s leaders vehemently oppose.

DerBoghosian thinks it’s time.

All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation have backed the
bill or a Senate version of it. Despite the activity, U.S. Rep. Mike
Michaud said last week through a spokesperson it looked unlikely the
resolution would get a vote. There’s a possibility it could linger
indefinitely.

"Many have expressed concerns about damaging our relations with Turkey
and further destabilizing the situation in northern Iraq, potentially
putting our soldiers in greater danger," Michaud said. "I believe
that this consequence is worth very serious consideration."

Gerard Kiladjian is president of the Armenian Cultural Association
of Maine, a group with 1,000 members, some of them second- and
third-generation Americans. At their peak, Armenians ran 27 grocery
stores in Maine and 24 barber shops, most in Portland, where Kiladjian
lives.

In his role as state chairman of the Armenian Assembly of America,
he planned another round of congressional lobbying this week.

"It’s a way to get closure. It’s always been in our history something
that had happened, but it’s difficult to talk to our kids (about it).

It’s not studied, yet it’s the first genocide of the century,"
Kiladjian said.

Related Info PDF PDF Text of the House bill describes Adolf Hitler
referring to the mass slaughter of Armenians by the Young Turks right
before he invaded Poland unprovoked, saying "(w)ho after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

On his wife’s side, Kiladjian said, an uncle, then a little boy,
escaped one of the frequent attacks that targeted every man in a
village by hiding in his sister’s clothes.

She "put him under her skirt and walked out of the city," he said.

"That’s how he survived."

In 2001, the Maine Legislature passed a joint resolution to honor
Armenian Americans and commemorate the genocide. And last April 24,
on the 92nd anniversary of the genocide’s start, a Portland state
senator sponsored a legislative sentiment.

On that date, in 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, business
and religious leaders were taken from their homes and killed. Among
the many sources of conflict, Armenians were largely Christian and
Turks largely Muslim.

Nearly a century later, the killings are a source of fierce debate
among scholars and others. Turkish leaders, for instance, reject the
characterization of the killings as genocide.

DerBoghosian, who retired from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, said
quite a few Armenians used to live in Lewiston-Auburn when the shoe
shops were booming here. The community’s much smaller now.

Most of his family lives in Massachusetts. His parents died within
10 months of each other in 1968.

"The sweetest people I ever met in my lifetime, God bless them,"
he said.

The stories uncovered in his family tree were gruesome. After her
father and her first husband was killed, Baizar was forced into the
desert with her children. The kids died of malnutrition.

His grandfather on his father’s side survived a raid on his village
only to be attacked and slaughtered two days later.

"They cut him up. My grandmother died of a broken heart," he said. "I
hope to live to see the U.S. Senate and House pass this so it will be
known they did this genocide. After that, I can rest in peace. Then
I can die."

U.S. House Resolution 106 calls for:

"… the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United
States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning
issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide
documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian
Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just
resolution and … (in an annual message) accurately characterize
the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as
genocide and to recall the proud history of United States intervention
in opposition to the Armenian Genocide."

36271-3/MaineNews/Urging_action_on_Armenians/

Pravda, Russia
Oct 30 2007

EDITOR SENTENCED OVER ARTICLE ABOUT POSSIBLE US ATTACK ON IRAN

Eynulla Fatullayev, an Azerbaijani newspaper editor was sentenced to
8½ years in prison. He sent to the press an article asserting that
the ex-Soviet nation could support a U.S. attack on neighboring Iran.

The Court for Grave Crimes convicted Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder
and editor of the Russian-language weekly Real Azerbaijan and the
Azeri-language daily Everyday Azerbaijan, on charges of making a
terrorist threat and inciting interethnic conflict.

Fatullayev denounced the court’s verdict as politically driven.

"That’s evidence of political pressure on me as a journalist," he said.

Fatullayev’s case is the latest in a series of prosecutions of
independent media figures in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation that
have raised concerns in the West.

The charges against Fatullayev were filed in response to the article
in Real Azerbaijan which claimed that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham
Aliev could support a U.S. military action against Iran.

The article, written under an alias, listed sites in Azerbaijan that
could be attacked by Iran if Baku were to support Washington in the
event of military action against Iran.

Aliev’s government has cultivated close ties with Washington and
contributed troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, and charges
against Fatullayev reflected official concerns about angering Iran.

Tehran has feared a U.S. attack and threatened to strike back at
any country that cooperates with it. The Azerbaijan government has
pledged its territory won’t be used for military action against
Iran, but people living along the border were nervous, pointing to
a U.S.-built radar facility and the upgrading of an airport near the
border with Iran. Both projects are U.S.-financed.

Both Fatullayev’s newspapers were forced to suspend publication in
the spring after authorities had evicted them from their offices.

Fatullayev has been in prison since April when he was sentenced to
2½ years in prison on charges of disseminating false information
related to the country’s six-year war with Armenia over the territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Previously, Fatullayev had received a two-year suspended sentence
for libeling a top law enforcement official.

Aliev, who took over from his father in a 2003 election denounced
by opponents as a sham, has faced persistent criticism over the
heavy-handed treatment of independent media and opposition parties.

–Boundary_(ID_guZxCrz0NVKUoL3hIRErOg)–

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION LEAVING FOR SAINT PETERSBURG

armradio.am
29.10.2007 10:18

October 29 the Armenian parliamentary delegation headed by NA Speaker
and Head of the Armenian delegation in the CIS Interparliamentary
Assembly Tigran Torosyan will leave for Saint Petersburg to participate
in the 29th plenary session of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.

The delegation comprises member of the NA Standing Committee on
Economic Issues Hermine Naghdalyan, members of the Standing Committee
on Defense, National Security and Domestic Affairs Michael Manukyan
and Vardan Khachatryan.

Analysis: Turkey-Iraq spat may hit energy
Published: Oct. 26, 2007 at 9:00 AM

By JOHN C.K. DALY
UPI International Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) — As Washington, Baghdad and Ankara
intensively seek a last-minute diplomatic solution to Turkey’s
intention to invade Iraqi Kurdistan to deal a decisive blow to
Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas, the ominous consequences of an
invasion are becoming clearer.

While a Turkish military operation carries the possibility of
inflaming the one remaining area of Iraq relatively free of insurgent
operations against coalition forces, the destabilization produced by
an attack could quickly spread far beyond northern Iraq to engulf
eastern Turkey’s regions, which have a significant Kurdish population,
and threaten not only Iraqi oil exports but a significant portion of
Caspian production as well — both the Kirkuk-Ceyhan and
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelines terminate at the same Turkish
Mediterranean port.

There are already clear indications that PKK militants are considering
attacking energy assets if a Turkish military offensive is directed
against them. In seeking to avert a Turkish military assault, the
PKK’s Abd-al-Rahman Chadarchi told Al-Sharq al-Awsat in a telephone
interview that in such an instance his group would assault oil targets
"since they bring huge amounts of money to Turkey."

"The military regime in the country will use this (energy revenues) to
develop its war machine to utilize it against the Kurdish people in
Turkish Kurdistan," he told the paper.

On Oct. 20, Kurdish Roj TV carried an interview with PKK Executive
Council Chairman Murat Karayilan in which he said: "If you want to
prevent an attack by an opposing force, the first thing to do is
weaken that force’s resources. It is highly likely that the
guerrillas will attack the oil pipelines transiting Kurdistan because
they provide the economic funding for the Turkish army’s aggression."

With oil prices hovering around $90 a barrel, the consequences of such
a clash on the global economy are ominous and nowhere is this better
understood than in Ankara — Turkey imports around 90 percent of its
energy needs. Furthermore, Turkey in the past has taken massive
financial losses from a cessation in the flow of Iraqi oil to Botas’
Ceyhan terminal. During eight years of U.N.-imposed sanctions on
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Turkey estimated that it lost $80 billion in
transit revenues from Iraqi oil exports to Ceyhan and other trade with
Iraq.

Since the U.S. military operation in 2004 that toppled Saddam, Iraqi
oil exports have resumed to Ceyhan, but the port’s importance
increased dramatically when in May 2005 the $3.6 billion,
1,092-mile-long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline began operations,
carrying Azeri crude from the Caspian. Securitywas a key consideration
in the BTC’s design and the pipeline was buried to help thwart
possible attacks. While the pipeline is secured from immediate attack,
its eight pumping stations (two in Azerbaijan, two in Georgia and four
in Turkey) are above ground, as are their electrical power grids,
presenting "softer" targets. More than half the pipeline’s length
traverses 669 miles of Turkish territory, nearly all of which contains
significant Kurdish populations, as does the route of the
Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline.

Turkey expects to earn about $300 million annually in transit fees
from BTC. Ceyhan is one of the largest oil facilities in the
Mediterranean, containing seven storage tanks, a jetty capable of
loading two Very Large Crude Carrier tankers of up to 300,000 DWT
tonnage and metering facilities. Ceyhan figures prominently in
Turkey’s ambitions to turn the country into a major energy transit
hub, as the projected Trans-Anatolian Pipeline running from Samsun,
which would carry Russian and Caspian oil while relieving tanker
pressure on the Turkish Straits, is also planned to terminate there.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iraq produces
about between 1.6 million and 2.1 million barrels per day of crude
oil, of which roughly 100,000 bpd are exported via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan
pipeline. But growing insurgent attacks against the pipeline render
consistent exports problematic at best. In a worst-case scenario, if
Kurdish militants expanded their attacks beyond the Kirkuk-Ceyhan
pipeline and raided the BTC in Kurdish regions inside Turkey, the
economic losses could quickly spike oil to well over $100 a barrel as
the world struggled to cope with the loss of up to 1 million bpd
production.

Besides Baghdad, Washington and Ankara, NATO is also paying close
attention to the PKK issue. On Wednesday in Noordwijk, Turkish
National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, during an informal meeting of
NATO defense ministers, briefed his colleagues about the latest PKK
attacks in Turkey as well as the motion adopted by Turkish Parliament
authorizing military action.

The Azeri, Georgian and Turkish governments may not have to go it
alone in providing BTC protection, as NATO is already considering the
issue of BTC pipeline security. Speaking after a recent NATO summit in
Riga, Robert Simmons, the NATO secretary general’s special
representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, said the issue of
protecting energy infrastructure belonging both to NATO members and
their partners was on the agenda. Given the rising level of tension
over PKK activities, the global energy community can only hope that it
is not a case of too little, too late.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 27 2007

Levon Ter-Petrossian: There is an abyss between the development of
Azerbaijan and Armenia

[ 27 Oct 2007 14:00 ]

`Armenia has continued to maintain the status quo during the past
decade. The international community didn’t show any reaction as it is
the number 1000 issue for them,’ Novosti-Armenia quoted Armenian
former president Levon Ter-Petrossian as telling a public meeting in
Yerevan on October 26.

He added that current efforts to keep the status quo is a correct
course theoretically because the world community will sooner or late
get fed up with the situation and recognize the independence of
Nagorno Karabakh and there is such a precedent in the world practice.

He said that this planned approach go right in the case of equal
balance of forces while there is a abyss (abysmal difference) between
the development level of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
`We should move to the philosophy of solution from the philosophy of
status quo. We shouldn’t be afraid of a compromise because it is the
only way leading to the effective settlement of the conflict,’ he
added.
The First President of Armenia noted that for him Karabakh issue has
always been a matter of human rights but not the problem of land or
territory.
`150,000 people aspire to live in freedom, pride and welfare. The
world community sees 150,000 people of Karabakh as a statistical
factor or national minority. However, Karabakh is not an ethnical
unit and not the Convention on National Minorities but the principles
of Self-Determination should apply to this problem,’ he said.
Levon Ter-Petrossian added that the problem is not that there is a
religious antagonism or non-possibility of coexistence between
Armenians and Azerbaijanis but the problem is that Azerbaijan will
not be able to provide security and welfare to the people of
Karabakh. /APA/

US DELAYS ARMENIA ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE

Story from BBC NEWS:
americas/7063502.stm
Published: 2007/10/26 10:45:58 GMT

Supporters of a resolution in the US Congress to label as genocide
the mass killing of Armenians in Turkey after 1915 have called for
it to be delayed.

The four main sponsors of the vote said they still believed a majority
of their colleagues would support it, but only if the "timing is
more favourable".

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she respected their decision to
postpone.

Turkey recalled its envoy over the vote and President George W Bush
warned it could damage ties with the US ally.

READ THE RESOLUTION

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The four Democrat co-sponsors of the resolution – Adam Schiff, Brad
Sherman, Anna Eshoo and Frank Pallone – said they planned to table
it again later this year or in 2008.

The vote had seemed ready for consideration by the House of
Representatives after it was passed by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee earlier this month.

Turkey, an important regional operational hub for the US military,
accepts many Armenians died during World War One, but denies they
were victims of systematic genocide.

Analysts say Ankara could deny American access to Incirlik airbase,
or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan,
in response to the passage of such a vote.

Sponsors of Armenian genocide resolution ask Pelosi to delay vote

Associated Press
THE JERUSALEM POST
Oct. 25, 2007

US lawmakers sponsoring a resolution that would label the 1915 killing
of Armenians in what became Turkey a genocide have asked the leader of
the House of Representatives to delay a vote on the measure because
they feared it would fail.

Support for the resolution deteriorated this month, after Turkey
recalled its US ambassador in protest and several lawmakers said they
feared it would cripple US-Turkey relations.

"We believe that a large majority of our colleagues want to support a
resolution recognizing the genocide on the House floor and they will
do so, provided the timing is more favorable," the lawmakers told the
House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a letter on Wednesday.

The letter was signed by four primary sponsors of the resolution, all
Democrats.

The group said they would continue to work with leadership "to plan
for consideration sometime later this year, or in 2008," they added.

Source: 656790&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER 19-25, 2007

HIGHLIGHTS:

"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: POLITICAL TRADITIONS AND CULTURE

AUTHORITIES INTERVENING WITH THE EDITORIAL POLICY OF BROADCAST MEDIA

EDITORS OF "CHORRORD ISHKHANUTIUN" AND "HAIKAKAN ZHAMANAK" DETAINED DURING
THE CRACKDOWN ON THE MARCH

"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: POLITICAL TRADITIONS AND CULTURE

On October 24 another "Press Club" show went on the evening air of "Yerkir
Media" TV company. The guest of the program host Ashot Melikian, the
Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, was the Deputy
Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, deputy of the RA National
Assembly Galust Sahakian. The subject for discussion was the upcoming
presidential elections, in particular, the formation of political traditions
and culture, the possibility of civilized debate between the power and
opposition.

The next program of "Press Club" cycle will be aired by "Yerkir Media" on
Wednesday, October 31 at 21.40.

The "Press Club" cycle is produced under a project of Media Diversity
Institute, supported by Open Society Institute Assistance
Foundation-Armenia.

AUTHORITIES INTERVENING WITH THE EDITORIAL POLICY OF BROADCAST MEDIA

On October 19 Yerevan Press Club, Committee to Protect Freedom of
Expression, "Asparez" Journalist’s Club of Gyumri, Vanadzor Press Club,
Helsinki Committee of Armenia, Vanadzor Office of Helsinki Citizens’
Assembly released the following statement:

"We, the public organizations, express our concern over the negative and
unacceptable developments that have been recently observed with regard to
freedom of expression. The print media have been reporting that for several
days already correspondents of broadcast media do not come to press
conferences, organized at various press clubs. A supposition was made that
this attitude is imposed by various power agencies. We realize that media do
not have to cover all press conferences; however, the simultaneous and
unanimous display of indifference to events of public importance only comes
to confirm the version of intervention by "invisible hand".

We receive alarming information that over the past week heads of private TV
companies were invited to various agencies, where they were "persuaded" to
ignore the public events, appearances of certain opposition figures, not to
invite them to studios, not to interview them and not to show them on air.
In particular, the TV companies have received a "recommendation" not to
cover (either positively or negatively) the rally of a number of political
forces, scheduled for October 26.

We remind that impeding the legitimate professional activities of
journalists is a criminal offence. Moreover, Clause 2 of Article 164 of the
RA Criminal Code refers to the commitment of the same offence by an
official, using his/her position.

Having no common political preferences or dislikes, all of us think it to be
an urgent necessity that information and opinions be disseminated freely, in
particular, ahead of presidential elections, and we call on authorities to
abstain from interfering with the editorial policy of media, primarily the
broadcasters, since it irreparably damages the freedom of expression and
pluralism as cornerstone principles of democracy", the statement of six NGOs
said.

On October 22 the statement of the founder of "GALA" TV company of Gyumri
Vahan Khachatrian was disseminated. The statement was prompted by attempts
of various power agencies to exert pressure on the TV company that had
occurred over the past week.

The statement of Vahan Khachatrian says in particular: "Dear compatriots,
every TV company owner must first of all realize that television is not a
private but a public asset.

The medium is to give impartial and diverse coverage of all processes in the
society. It must introduce the public to the whole spectrum of political
processes equally, allowing people to make its own conclusions.

The Independent News Channel of Gyumri ("GALA" is the abbreviation of the
Armenian name of the TV company – Ed. note) was established and formed on
the basis of these very principles and throughout its two-year activities
remains loyal to these principles.

I would like to stress that the stance of "GALA" TV company will not change
in future either, and I, as the company owner, would be stopping any
attempts of intervention made by any structures or persons."

EDITORS OF "CHORRORD ISHKHANUTIUN" AND "HAIKAKAN ZHAMANAK" DETAINED DURING
THE CRACKDOWN ON THE MARCH

On October 23 at 19.00 at one of the central streets of Yerevan the police
applied force against several dozens of march participants, who disseminated
leaflets and informed with loudspeaker the citizens about the opposition
rally, scheduled for October 26. As YPC was told by the Chief Editor of
"Chorrord Ishkhanutiun" newspaper Shogher Matevosian, who took part in the
march, their way was first blocked by the police, later joined by the "red
berets" – the special troops. The representatives of law enforcement bodies
demanded that loudspeaker be not used and then applied force and tear gas,
Shogher Matevosian said. Over a dozen of march participants were detained
and taken to the Police of Center community of Yerevan, including
journalists – Shogher Matevosian herself and the Chief Editor of "Haikakan
Zhamanak" daily Nikol Pashinian. The detained left the police at about 4.00
in the morning of October 24. All that time representatives of parties,
NGOs, journalists were gathered by the building.

According to Shogher Matevosian, during the crackdown on the march the
correspondent of "Chorrord Ishkhanutiun" Gohar Vezirian was injured and had
to seek medical assistance. The Editor of "Chorrord Ishkhanutiun" noted that
currently the condition of Gohar Vezirian has deteriorated. Violence was
exercised against Nikol Pashinian, too.

According to the press release of the RA Police of October 24, due to public
disorder and resistance (as a result of which "four police officers with
corporal injuries needed medical assistance") the Investigative Department
of the Police of Center Community of Yerevan instituted criminal proceedings
on Articles 258 ("Public disorder") and 316 ("Violence against power
representative") of the RA Criminal Code. Some of the detained, including
Nikol Pashinian and Shogher Matevosian, as suspects on the case, were
committed to not leaving the places of permanent residence, the press
release of the RA Police stresses. The document, however, fails to dwell on
the march participants injured and the application of special means.

On the same day, October 23, in Nor Nork community of Yerevan the police
detained four members of the youth wing of the Armenian National Movement,
who were also distributing leaflets, announcing the upcoming rally of
October 26. As YPC was told by the photo correspondent of "Haik" newspaper
David Jalalian, having been informed about it, staff of "Haik" arrived at
the police department. According to Jalalian, when the police noticed he was
taking pictures, they prohibited the shooting "on administrative premises".
The journalist’s camera was taken away. It was soon returned – with shots
deleted.

When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.

You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
[email protected]

Subscription for the Newsletter is free. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]

Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
_____________________________________ _______
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
0002, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site:

"AUTHORITIES CROSSED THE RUBICON"

A1+
[06:10 pm] 24 October, 2007

"This is the first time famous people, editors of two newspapers and
political figures, have been detained and bruttaly tortured. This
comes to testify that the authorities have crossed the Rubicon," RA
Helsinki Association Chairman Avetik Ishkhanian, Chairman of Armenian
Helsinki Committee told A1+.

Reminder: October 23 at least a dozen supporters of Levon
Ter-Petrosian, among them Nikol Pashinian, the editor of "Haykakan
Jamanak," Shoger Matevossian, the editor of "Chorrord Ishkhanutiun"
were reportedly detained by police on Tuesday as they urged Yerevan
residents to participate in a rally to be held by Armenia’s former
president this week.

According to Avetik Ishkhanian, journalists are pursued, tortured and
subjected to political pressure especially at the pre-election period.

The authorities take rough measures at pre-election periods. They
terrorise and arrest people thus creating an atmosphere of fear among
the public.

The recent events are resulted by the authorities’ carelessness
but they tend to turn into a wave of complaint . "The plot
was well arranged. We face recurring repressions aimed at power
preservation. The recent incident is incompliant with a legal country,"
he said.

SERJ SARKISIAN AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE DISCUSS NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2007

Armenian Prime Minister Serj Sarkisian visiting US met with US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, APA reports quoting Panarmenian.

They exchanged views on democratic and economic reforms carried
out in Armenia, technical assistance to Armenia for preparations to
presidential elections, solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Following this, Armenia’s relations with neighboring states, security
and energy issues, Armenia’s participation in international peaceful
missions and other issues arousing mutual interests were touched in
the meeting.