Author: Jilavian Emma

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VOTERS ARE ACTIVE IN SYUNIK
[03:19 pm] 12 May, 2007

Citizens are actively participating in election
particularly in Syunik Marz/Province. According to CEC
data, 14142 voters have been registered by this time,
i.e. 13. 43 percent potential voters.

The lowest participation is registered in Shirak Marz,
i.e 8. 87 % of the potential voters.

CEC data for marzes is the following:

Aragatsotn Marz, 12443 voters or 12.57%

Armavir Marz, 20558 voters or 10.22 %

Ararat Marz 2358 voters or 11.67 %

Gegharkunik Marz, 17210 voters or 9.98 %

Kotayk Marz, 22861 voters or 10.68 %

Lori Marz, 223 157 voters or 10.34 %

Vayots Dzor marz, 5256 voters or 12.95%

Yerevan 9.98 %

ARMENIA SURPRISED BY TURKISH DECISION TO SEND OBSERVERS TO POLLS

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 9, 2007 Wednesday 01:41 PM EST

Ankara’s initiative to send observes to the upcoming parliamentary
elections in Armenia scheduled for May 12 looks "somewhat strange"
as relations between the two countries remain in limbo, Foreign
Ministry’s acting spokesman Vladimir Karapetyan said on Wednesday.

"Armenia regrets that in the absence of relations between our countries
Turkey was not tactful enough when deciding to send its observers
over here as observers," he said.

"Turkey continues to keep the border with Armenia closed and refuses
to establish diplomatic relations with it," the spokesman said.

"We understand the concern of the OSCE member states about Armenia’s
compliance with its obligations to this organisation and confirm our
commitment to them," the official said. "At the same time, we also
hope that OSCE countries expect Turkey to comply with the obligation
of establishing normal good-neighbourly relationsÛwith Armenia,’ë
Karapetyan said.û.

The head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights, Christian Strohal, said on Monday that Armenian authorities had
informed him that they would not issue entry visas to eight observers
from Turkey, with which Yerevan has no diplomatic relations even
though the two countries share a 330-kilometer border.

Strohal stressed that the Armenian government, like the authorities
of the OSCE member states, are obliged to accept and comply with the
organisation’s norms, including invitations for all OSCE observers.

Turkey has conditioned the normalisation of bilateral relations with
Armenia on its refusal to support Nagorno-Karabakh in its conflict
with Azerbaijan and to press for the international recognition of
Armenianýgenocide in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire.

However Yerevan calls for the normalisation and establishment of
diplomatic relations without preconditions.

–Boundary_(ID_dNq+Rhg3tGnyS42LMMg Iog)–

ARCHERS OF ARMENIA TAKE 86th AND 88th PLACES IN STRUGGLE OF 107 RIVALS AT 2nd STAGE OF WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
May 08 2007

ROME, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The 2nd stage of the world cup tournament
of archery finished in Italy on May 7. 304 sportsmen from 44
countries participated in the tournament. Andranik Shahnazarian
and Arshak Petrosian represented Armenia in the Olympic type of
sport. A. Shahnazarian was recognized the 86th (1217 points) and
A. Petrosian was the 88th (1215 points) in the struggle of 107 rivals.

As Boris Vasilian, the senior trainer of the team of Armenia informed
the Noyan Tapan correspondent, he is pleased with results of his
pupils as he envisaged the 80-100th places.

The 3rd stage of the world cup tournament will be held from May 26
to June 2 in the city of Antalia, Turkey.

OH NO! IT’S SARKOZY
Ilnur Cevik

The New Anatolian, Turkey
May 8 2007

The election of Nicholas Sarkozy winning 53 percent of the votes
in the second round of the presidential elections did not come as
a surprise to anyone in Ankara but the victory still caused deep
disappointment and concern in the Turkish government.

Turkish diplomatic sources said they feared Turkey’s bumpy relations
would take a beating with Sarkozy as the French president.

He has repeated several times that he does not want to see Turkey in
the EU and will do everything to bloc it. Turkish authorities fear
that Sarkozy could halt the accession talks.

"Further enlargement of the European Union is impossible without
preliminary reforms in its institutions. An endless enlargement means
death of political Europe. If I am elected as president of France
Turkey will not enter EU during my office. Turkey is located on Asia
Minor and it says everything," Sarkozy told his rival Segolene Royal
during a TV debate last week.

During the same debate Royal reserved the right to change her mind on
the issue, depending on future events, Sarkozy said his position is
"definitive."

Soon after his victory was announced Sarkozy said Turkey should be
the leader of a union of Mediterranean countries that will deal with
the EU…

Observers said this means Sarkozy may move to use French veto powers
to halt the accession negotiations with Turkey.

Turkey aware of these dangers has reportedly approached Germany to
convince the French not to stop Turkey’s accession process. Turkish
officials argued that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also against
Turkey’s EU full membership but has not done anything to block it. So
they feel Germany should use its good offices to convince Sarkozy
not to take any radical moves on Turkey.

EU officials have also said they are dead against such a move
especially at a time when Turkey is going through a political crisis
and needs all the encouragement it can get to bolster its democracy.

What is also ironic is that Sarkozy is pro-American and is set to
forge closer relations with Washington. President George W. Bush was
the first to congratulate Sarkozy after his victory was announced.

Foreign policy analyst and commentator Cengiz Candar says Sarkozy’s
close relations with Bush could help Turkey to soften the French
objections over the EU. The Americans want Turkey to join the EU and
have often lobbied in favor of Ankara at times disturbing Germany
and France.

Now the Bush administration could help in convincing Sarkozy to be
more facilitating on Turkey. But Candar says this also means Turkey
has to maintain closer ties with Washington.

Turkish diplomatic sources say their concerns about Sarkozy are not
only limited to his negative attitude on Turkey’s EU membership. They
say his close relations with the Armenians in France who are highly
anti-Turkish are also creating anxiety in Ankara.

They say Sarkozy’s right-hand man Patric Devecian who is of Armenian
origin is slated to be named into a top position in France if the
conservatives win in the next parliamentary elections. There is even
talk that he may become prime minister.

Devecian is regarded as the mastermind who convinced the French to
legislate a law banning the denial of a so-called Armenian genocide
by the Ottoman Turks in 1915. The law which has drew angry reactions
form Turkey has been stalled in the French Senate but could be revived
if Sarkozy decides to push for it.

Turkish sources say Turco-French ties are already at an all time low
and may slide further down with Sarkozy. Turkey has banned French
companies form participating in defense tenders.

The New Anatolian learnt that France had a security attache at the
embassy whose term in office ended and he went back home. Now the
French have decided not to send a replacement signaling worsening ties.

ARMENIA’S EX-FOREIGN MINISTER DETAINED

AP Online
Published: May 08, 2007

Armenia’s former foreign minister has been detained on suspicion of
money laundering, security officials said Tuesday, in a probe that
prompted criticism from opposition lawmakers.

Police detained Alexander Azrumanian on Monday, just two days after
investigators allegedly found $55,400 in foreign cash in his apartment,
the National Security Service said.

Azrumanian and former Deputy Defense Minister Vaan Shirkhanian traveled
to Moscow last month and allegedly agreed with a Russian citizen who
is wanted in Armenia for financial fraud to transfer thousands of
dollars to Armenia, the security service said.

Azrumanian’s lawyer, Hovannes Arsenian, confirmed the detention,
but refused further comment. Shirkhanian has not been detained.

The two had worked to set up an organization to fund opposition
political activities in Armenia, and Azrumanian’s detention prompted
complaints from opposition lawmakers that the probe was politically
motivated.

Azrumanian served as foreign minister from 1996 to 1998, while
Shirkhanian was deputy defense minister from 1994 through 1999.

Waco Tribune Herald, TX
May 6 2007

Nathan Stone, guest column: Silence on Darfur holocaust is deafening

Sunday, May 06, 2007

April 15 was Holocaust Remembrance Day, the annual evoking of a time
– only about 60 years ago – when 6 million people were killed
systematically by the Nazi empire.

Those exterminated included not only Jews but also homosexuals,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, political dissidents, gypsies, the disabled and
miscellaneous Slavic people.

Preparing to speak at a service for the commemoration, I revisited
Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.

What a painful experience to watch: the rounding up of the condemned,
the ghettos, the executions, the heroism of so many Jews, the
complexity of the Nazi Oskar Schindler (bad man, good man).

Over and over, I found myself crying and muttering, `You gotta be
kidding me.’

Now there is Darfur: that little western section of the country of
Sudan in East Africa. One recent report is that 200,000 have died
there and 2 million have been displaced.

The United Nations estimates that if the killing in Darfur is not
stopped, the fighting will bring civil war into the neighboring
country of Chad – and then the death toll will reach 100,000 a month.

The first holocaust of the 20th century was of the Armenians. There
was a lot of publicity about the Armenians at the time, but their
story was quickly forgotten because they didn’t have the writers and
painters and musicians to tell their story. When asked what the
world would think about the Jewish holocaust, Hitler said, `Who
remembers the Armenians?’

Stalin killed an estimated 14 million who wanted to hang on to their
small family farms. Mao, in the Great Leap Forward, is estimated to
have killed 30 million Chinese.

Pol Pot, in an effort to return to the glories of the Khmer past,
killed an estimated one fourth of Cambodia’s population, while
one-third of the population fled.

The world already has forgotten those victims, but they remember the
Jewish Holocaust. Why? Because Jewish writers, painters, musicians
and historians will not let us forget. For that we owe them our
thanks. But we also need to remember it wasn’t the only genocide or
the worst.

Even with all of our good and potential, we can be a very spooky
species.

There is so much to learn about Darfur. But, as things now go, you
and I will probably not know much if we wait for television coverage.
The slacker now is ABC News. The Tyndall Report, which monitors
network news coverage, found that ABC’s nightly newscasts included
just 11 minutes of coverage of Darfur in all of 2006, compared with
23 minutes ABC devoted to the false confession to the killing of
JonBenet Ramsey.

If only a Darfuri would falsely confess to killing JonBenet, maybe
ABC would cover genocide.

Every person I asked knew very little about Darfur, and the most
disconcerting reality is that no one I spoke to really cared very
much. They weren’t mean about it. They just didn’t have much interest
in talking about it.

What bothers me most about Darfur, and even the whole notion of
genocide is that it doesn’t really bother me very much. Oh, I get a
twang of conscience now and then ,but not much more.

The situation is so big and so complex that I hardly know where to
begin in terms of a response.

There are some situations for which you can just ask for money and
leave it at that. But this is so much bigger.

This is one of those situations where you and I are going to have to
do any number of things:

* Join the United States Holocaust Museum’s `Community of Conscience’
and be informed through its e-newsletter.

* Contact the media and demand more coverage.

* Communicate with decision-makers (the U.S. government, the African
Union, the European Union and the United Nations Security Council).

* Spread the word in your community about Darfur and genocide.

* Support education and relief efforts.

The words of Martin Luther King Jr. are so relevant:

`We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.’

Indeed, genocide there invites potential genocide anywhere.

Nathan Stone is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
Waco.

ws/opinion/stories/2007/05/06/05062007wacstone.htm l

ARMENIA AGREES TO PHASED VERSION

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[07:56 pm] 04 May, 2007

"The stance of the official Armenia on the negotiation process
is introduced to public with distortions," says Ilham Aliev, the
president of Azerbaijan.

According to Ilham Aliev, "Armenia violated the preliminary arrangement
to keep the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
resolution in confidence"

"The Armenian side agreed to the phased resolution and to the troops
withdrawal from seven regions adjacent Nagorno-Karabakh."

NKR status will be determined after the final return of refugees. It
should be compliant with the principle of Azerbaijan’s territorial
wholeness.

ARONYAN-KRAMNIK TOURNAMENT STARTING

ArmRadio.am
04.05.2007 10:55

The main sports event of the day will take place in the national
Theatre of Opera and Ballet after Alexander Spendiaryan. A rapid
chess tournament is expected here between the World Cup holder Levon
Aronyan and World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik.

The tournament will be comprised of six games. Every day the sportsmen
will have two meetings. 25 minutes will be given for the whole tour
plus 10 seconds for every step.

"Levon Aronyan is in good condition and is ready for the tournament,"
RA Chess Federation said lately. He held a training in Jermuk, where
Grand Masters Gabriel Sargsyan, Ara Minasyan and Arman Pashikyan
helped him.

ARMENIAN MINISTER, US OFFICIAL DISCUSS TIES, KARABAKH

Arminfo
30 Apr 07

Yerevan, 30 April: US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and
Eurasia Daniel Fried and Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
discussed the current stage and prospects of developing Armenian-US
relations at their meeting held on the sidelines of the Brussels
Forum 2007 in the Belgian capital.

At the meeting, the sides exchanged opinions on the development of a
peaceful solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. The sides also
discussed the controversy over the US Department of State report on
human rights, the Armenian Foreign Ministry information and press
department told Arminfo today.

Oskanyan also met Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili during
his working visit to Belgium.

At the meeting they discussed the prospects of developing
Armenian-Georgian relations and the possibility of a peaceful solution
to the regional conflicts, the Armenian Foreign Ministry information
and press department told Arminfo today.

[Congressional Record: April 24, 2007 (Extensions)]
[Page E849]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr24ap07-48]

NINETY-SECOND COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

______

speech of

HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO

of illinois

in the house of representatives

Monday, April 23, 2007

Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the victims
of the Armenian Genocide.
Today marks the anniversary of the deliberate campaign of genocide
perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. On April 24th, the Ottoman
government arrested an estimated 250 Armenian religious, political, and
intellectual leaders, which were taken to the interior of Turkey and
murdered. From 1915-1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed and more
than 500,000 were forced from their homeland into exile.
In spite of overwhelming evidence, particularly American diplomatic
records from the time, some continue to deny the occurrence of this
brutal tragedy in human history. As a member of Congress, I represent a
significant population of Armenian survivors who have proudly preserved
their culture, traditions, and religion and have told the horrors of
the genocide to an often indifferent world.
We must continue to ensure future generations know and understand the
history of the Armenian Genocide in order to learn from the mistakes of
the past and prevent future atrocities. For that reason, I have again
cosponsored a resolution, H. Res. 106, that calls upon the president to
make recognition of the Armenian Genocide an official position of
United States foreign policy.
Mr. Speaker, it is time to fully recognize the Armenian Genocide in
order to right the historical record. By doing so we pay tribute to the
memory of all the individuals who suffered, their family members that
remain, and vow to never forget their sacrifices.

____________________