Author: Jilavian Emma

CATHOLICOS KAREKIN II EXPRESSES GRATITUDE TO SWEDISH AUTHORITIES FOR SUPPORTING ARMENIAN COMMUNITY

Noyan Tapan
Oct 25 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 25, Catholicos of All
Armenians Karekin II received newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Armenia, Hans Gunnar Aden, and Consul
of Honor of Sweden to RA, Edit Khachatrian, in the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin. As Noyan Tapan was informed from the Information Services
of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, greeting the visit of the
Ambassador of Sweden to Etchmiadzin, His Holiness expressed happiness
on the occasion of deepening of diplomatic relations between the two
countries. During the meeting His Holiness the Patriarch touched upon
the Armenian community in Sweden and organization of its spiritual
life, expressed gratitude for support provided to the newly formed
community by the authorities. The newly appointed Ambassador in his
turn expressed gratitude for reception and expressed the hope that
the diplomatic relations between the two countries will contribute
to development of Armenian-Swedish relations in various spheres. At
the end of the meeting the Catholicos of All Armenians wished the
Ambassador success in his mission.

BLACK PR IN THE NA

A1+
[06:55 pm] 24 October, 2006

"Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan and Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan
have initiated black PR against the Orinats Yerkir Party," announced
Heghineh Bisharyan, deputy from the OYP in the NA today.

She claims she has got enough evidence and urges the above-mentioned
high-rank officials to withdraw from such activity as ordinary citizens
will win "in the struggle between the kind and evil" under OYP’s aegis.

Heghineh Bisharyan and her party members are indignant that the
regional TV Companies broadcast reels defaming the OYP, and the
authorities, fearing the positive attitude of the people towards the
OYP, deprive, deprive the party members of halls to hold meetings
with the RA residents.

Prior to Heghineh Bisharyan’s announcement, Arthur Bagdasaryan made
a speech. He claimed that there are two states in the country, one
– in Yerevan with its everyday hustle and bustle, and the other –
in the regions with the local social-economic problems.

The OYP leader illustrated an example; 90 thousand children were born
in Armenia in 1993, whereas in 2005 the number of new-born infants
was reduced to 30 thousand.

Arthur Baghdasaryan is convinced that the purchase of votes in the 2007
elections will become an ordinary phenomenon though he maintains that
"it will be impossible to buy the Christian nation having 1700-year-old
history."

Armen Ashotyan, deputy from the Republican Party replied to OYP.

"How can Republican party tolerate such attitude?"

asked Mr. Ashotyan and then answered his question, "Those who deal
with rubbish do not refrain from ooze."

Deputy Hamlet Haroutyunyan wasn’t surprised at the fact that it is
Heghineh Bisharyan who defames the Prime Minister and Defense Minister
and not the OYP leader. He is convinced that the author of Mrs.

Bisharyan’s announcement is Arthur Baghdasaryan.

ARMENIAN POLISHED DIAMOND PRODUCTION DOWN BY OVER A FIFTH

Tacy, Israel
Oct 22 2006

Armenia’s polished diamond production, at US$171.3 million, fell by 22
percent in first nine months of 2006 compared to the first nine months
of 2005, says a spokesman for Armenia’s Trade and Economic Development
Ministry. Sales of polished diamonds fell 20.1 percent to US$173.1
million, while exports were down 21.3 percent to US$168.4 million.

The drops were attributed to a fall in world prices for cut and
polished diamonds combined with a weaker dollar in Armenia.

"WE MUST LIVE UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS OF ARMENIANS"

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
Oct 17 2006

On October 7 the repaired building of Arevik Children’s Medical
Center was opened, the reconstruction of which started in 2003. At the
ceremony the president, the speaker and the prime minister, as well
as members of government, health workers and the benefactors were
present. In her speech Minister of Health Zoya Lazarian thanked the
French Aida for Armenia organization (President Stepan Berberian),
as well as everyone else, who had contributed to the reconstruction
and equipment of the hospital. The minister of health said the
project implemented for several years now was also supported by the
ministry of health, as well as several local businessmen. Although
part of the building was repaired, over 360 thousand euros was spent
on this project. Stepan Berberian said when six years ago he first
visited Artsakh and saw the state of the children’s hospital, he
decided to take up its reconstruction. He was helped by his parents
and uncle. Stepan Berberian, the president of Aida for Armenia,
thanked the NKR government, people living in France and Artsakh who
contributed to the project. President Arkady Ghukassian said in his
speech that hopefully the other part of the building will be repaired
too. "We must take care of the health of our people for them to feel
safe here and not have to leave for other cities to get treatment. We
must live up to the expectations of Armenians for them to be sure
that the money they donate for one purpose or another reaches its
destination," said Arkady Ghukassian.

LAURA GRIGORIAN.
17-10-2006

Economist
Oct 20 2006

Georgia’s prospects
Oct 19th 2006
>>From Economist.com

Russia’s mixture of economic, political and covert-action pressure
on Georgia recalls of another stormy and scary period, in the Baltic
states in the 1990s, that changed history completely

WHEN your correspondent lived in the Baltics in the early 1990s, it
was common to pooh-pooh the prospect of NATO membership. The obstacles
seemed insurmountable: Soviet occupation soldiers who wouldn’t go
home; disputed borders with Russia; the expense; the gulf between NATO
standards and those of the flimsy and ill-run Baltic home guards-and
most of all the deafening lack of enthusiasm from the West.

But just as Russia’s economic sanctions shunted Baltic foreign
trade westwards, its insistence that letting the Balts join NATO
was "impermissible" (a favourite Kremlin word) was the strongest
proof that membership of the alliance was not just desirable, but
necessary. Russia neatly backed that up with footdragging on the
withdrawal of the Russian military, refusal to recognise the Baltic
states’ legal continuity from the pre-war period and endless huffing
and puffing about the language and citizenship laws. It all made local
support for NATO soar: when you scare people, they buy more insurance.

After a bit, the West came round, too. The Baltic states are still
effectively indefensible; two of them (Estonia and Latvia) still lack
border treaties with Russia. Yet, rather like the even less defensible
West Berlin during the cold war, they have gained a symbolic importance
that means they cannot be abandoned. (Or so they hope).

As an illustration, just imagine how different history would have
been if the Kremlin line in the 1990s had been: "Sure, go ahead and
join NATO if you want. We wouldn’t dream of interfering and we want
excellent relations with NATO ourselves anyway. Of course we will
pull our troops out as soon as we can…and we will be delighted
to sign border agreements as soon as possible, recognising your
historical continuity."

That message would have destroyed the case for NATO expansion
overnight. It is unlikely that any of the ex-communist countries
would have wanted to join or that NATO would have wanted to have them.

Now Russia is making the same mistake with Georgia. NATO’s appetite for
expanding to the eastern shores of the Black Sea is mostly minimal. The
alliance is dreadfully overstretched anyway and the last thing it
needs militarily is another small poor country which needs a lot and
(pipelines apart) offers little.

But Russia’s determination to see Georgia as part of a ‘near abroad’
over which it wields a geopolitical veto is creating the mood-already
in Georgia and soon, with luck, in the West-in which the opposite
will happen.

It is not just because bullying goes down badly. Russia has signally
failed to show the benefits of being an ally. Every country that teams
up with Russia ends up regretting it. Nobody in the Kremlin seems to
have bothered to think about loyal little Armenia, savagely hit by the
sanctions against Georgia. In Belarus, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka
calls Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, "worse than Stalin" and is
putting out feelers to the West. Cheap gas sounds nice initially-but
it always comes at a high price.

The stubborn attractiveness of the ‘Euro-Atlantic orientation’ is
striking given that it survives both the hideously botched occupation
of Iraq and extraordinarily selfish agricultural protectionism. It must
surely give the Kremlin foreign policy thinkers pause for thought that
for all its faults NATO has a queue of real countries eager to join
it, whereas only a handful of puppet states such as Transdniestria
want to go in the other direction.

CONSUMERS UNION: OUR ACTIONS AGAINST FRANCE WILL GO ON

The New Anatolian
EkoTurk News Agency / Istanbul
Oct 17 2006

Consumers Union Chair Bulent Deniz said that the boycott undertaken
by the Union against French goods will go on with the addition of a
new French company every week until the decision to outlaw the denial
of the so-called Armenian genocide allegations is withdrawn.

Deniz said in a written statement that the "A French good every week"
boycott initiated on October 13 upon the passing of the law proposal
to outlaw the denial of the so-called Armenian genocide allegations
proved fruitful very soon.

He stated that in a few hours from the onset of the boycott, French
FR2, Arte, Danish DR television channels and German Berlin radio
performed interviews in Turkey to make news stories on the boycott
initiated by the Consumers Union and broadcast them as the leading
stories on their news bulletins. Deniz also said that the call for
boycott had wide-ranging repercussions in the French, Belgian, Dutch,
Austrian, German and American media.

Deniz asserted that the interest that the European media took in the
boycott actions is a primary indicator of the concern caused by the
boycott on the part of the EU and particularly the French public.

"Moreover, according to the information received from the 25 branches
of the Consumers Union nationwide as well as from independent sources,
the sales figures of Total, the first company against which boycott
action was taken, has indicated a drop of up to 30 percent in sales. On
the first day of the boycott, Total shares lost 0.09 percent value
in the stock markets abroad," Deniz said in his statement.

Deniz argued that the most noteworthy development was French President
Chirac calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and saying that he
would do his best to prevent the ratification of the law. All these
developments prove that the Turkish people gave the harshest response
to France, he said.

Deniz informed that the Union will go on with the boycott started
against Total with the addition of a new French company every week
until the decision to criminalize the denial of the so-called Armenian
genocide allegations is withdrawn, and that the second French firm
to be brought under the boycott will be made public on October 19.

–Boundary_(ID_bhD8mWYiKP2jZaXbTwMj5Q)–

OSCE MG CONSULTATIONS SCHEDULED OCTOBER 23

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.10.2006 16:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Co-chairs of the OSCE MG for settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict will hold consultations prior to the Paris
meeting of Armenian and Azeri FMs, to be held October 24. The co-chairs
are supposed to meet October 23, Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE MG
Yuri Merzlyakov told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, the
Paris meeting will have the ordinary format. "The Ministers will meet
tete-a-tete first, then the co-chairs will join them," Merzlyakov said.

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF ARMENIA HAS BROUGHT A CHARGE AGAINST HAKOP HAKOPYAN

Regnum, Russia
Oct 18 2006

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia has filed a charge against
MP Hakop Hakopyan. Hakopyan is charged with forming a group and
committing an act of hooliganism with the use of firearms (point 4,
article 38-258 of Armenia’s Criminal Code). He is also charged with
tax avoidance (point 2, article 214 and article 205), complicity in
the deliberate destruction or damage of property (point 2, article
34-214, point 1, article 38-185) and some other misdeeds.

To remind, on October 8, Hakop Hakopyan was caught trying to penetrate
the territory of the ArmRosgazprom gas-distributing station in the
village of Hayanist and began a squabble with the members of the Full
Contact Fighting Federation who guarded the territory. The sides used
firearms. As a result, the president of the federation, a coach and
Hakopyan’s driver were taken to hospital with injuries. The police
found a Winchester gun on the scene.

On October 11, Hakopyan was released from the Yerevan-Center
penitentiary because of the expiry of the 72-hour period of custody.

On Oct 13 the Armenian Parliament granted the petition of Public
Prosecutor Agvan Hovsepyan for depriving Hakopyan of his deputy
immunity. During the meeting, Hakopyan said that he did not regret what
he had done as his voters were there and he just wanted to stop the
fight. "You shouldn’t talk about this incident as if it is a crime of
the century," he said and noted that 90% of the charges were groundless
and he was ready to disprove all of them alone if the justice was fair.

TURKISH PARLIAMENT CRITICIZES FRANCE

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 18 2006

The Turkish parliament issued an indirect condemnation of the French
parliament’s acceptance of a bill criminalizing the denial of the
so-called Armenian genocide Tuesday. The common declaration of
the parliament emphasized that acceptance of the bill would cause
irreversible damages to political, economic and military relations
between Turkey and France.

The declaration called France to retreat from its "historical mistake,"
stating that the bill harmed Turkey’s struggle to normalize its
relations with Armenia. The declaration also said that France caused
more than one million deaths in its own past, primarily in Algeria,
and read, "The burden of policies harming Turkey and Turkish people
will be very large."

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey might apply to
international courts in opposition to the bill that French parliament
accepted.

Gul informed the deputies during a special parliamentary session
that as the government they did their best to prevent the bill
from being accepted, adding: "We have another alternative and our
government will not abstain from applying this method. We will use
all of the means that international law allows, including applying
to an international court."

Gul emphasized that Turkey was never intolerant to other nations
throughout its long history and added France was trying to provoke
Armenia and the Armenian people just as it did during World War I.

Gul said Turkish culture was based on tolerance, and added: "If
our ancestors had applied assimilation toward the other nations in
the past, behaving in the same way that some countries, which are
giving us ‘civilization’ lessons at the moment, behaved previously,
many religions, languages and religion sects would not have survived
to the present day."

Gul said if the bill became operant in France, despite all their
warnings, it would be a great shame for France and irreversibly harm
political, economic and military relations between the two countries.

After the special meeting, the parliament accepted the declaration
prepared commonly by the members of all parties in the parliament.

The declaration read the genocide bill was accepted with the votes
of only one out of five French MPs, and many deputies could not
use their votes as they were against the acceptance of the bill and
further emphasized the bill was accepted under strong influence of
the Armenian minority in France.

The declaration also emphasized that although French politicians
thought it was the job of historians to discuss past events when their
own history was concerned, interestingly enough, they thought it was
the right of politicians to decide in Turkey’s case.

The declaration emphasized that in the history of Turkey, no shameful
events have occurred, and as such the Turkish people had nothing to
hide from.

The Turkish parliament declaration also named many distinguished
international historians, including French ones, who did not
describe the events of 1915 as a "massacre," contrary to the claims
of Armenians.

FINNISH ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SUPPORT TURKEY OVER FRENCH BILL
By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara

Zaman Online, Turkey
Oct 11, 2006

The Party of European Socialists (PES) has said that it feels uneasy
about the bill envisaging punishment for a denial of the Armenian
genocide.

Finnish Assembly President Paavo Lipponen, also the president of the
advisory board of the PES Turkey Group, said, "the so-called Armenian
genocide will never be a criterion for Turkey’s membership to the EU."

He used "the so-called Armenian genocide" phrase during his entire
speech and worried about the consequences of the bill’s passage.

Lipponen noted that he would take the matter up with Francois Hollande,
the secretary general of France’s Socialist Party, a member of PES.

Asking Turkey to open its Armenian border, he went on to say that
Turkey should be reconciled with its past. Supporting Turkey’s full
membership and opposing a privileged partnership, he also praised
the Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a "real reformist party."

"There are many more things to be undertaken in the direction of
economic and social growth; however, this party has contributed a
great deal to the development of Turkish society," he remarked.

Without naming it, he also criticized the Turkish opposition People’s
Republic Party (CHP) by saying, "I hope all the parties in the
Turkish parliament adopt a positive approach in terms of supporting
the government for the continuation of the reforms."

He also expressed his concern about the rise of Turkish nationalism,
adding that "issues related to the EU are being exploited."