Author: Kalantarian Kevo

PACE CO-RAPPORTEURS MEET THE PROSECUTOR GENERAL OF ARMENIA

armradio.am
15.01.2009 11:08

The co-rapporteyrs of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of
Europe, John Prescott and Georges Colombier, and Secretary of the
Commision Bas Clain arrived in Yerevan.

This morning they had a meeting with the Prosecutor General of Armenia,
Aghvan Hovsepyan.

Within the framework of the visit the co-rapporteurs are expected
to meet also the Special Representative of the Council of Secretary
General, Silvia Zehe and Human Rights Defender Armen Harutyunyan.

At the National Assembly the co-rapporteurs will be received by Speaker
Hovik Abrahamyan, Head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation to PACE
David Harutyunyan, President of the parliamentary ad hoc commission
investigating the events of March 1-2 in Yerevan Samvel Nikoyan,
members of the fact-finding group of experts.

The co-rapporteyrs of the Monitoring Committee John Prescott and
Georges Colombier will be hosted by the President of Armenia,
Serzh Sargsyan.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th Street, NW, Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
Email: [email protected]
Web:

Dear Friends,

The Armenian National Committee of America is answering President-Elect
Barack Obama’s challenge to Americans to participate in National Day of
Service activities with a campaign to feed the hungry. The Day of
Service coincides with Martin Luther King Memorial Day (January 19) and
the Presidential Inauguration (January 20th).

In honor of U.S. humanitarian assistance efforts for survivors of the
Armenian Genocide from 1915-1923, we are hosting the "Cans for the
Cause" Campaign in cities throughout the Southland to assist food
banks dedicated to feeding the hungry.

Let’s make a difference in our Community!

** Be a Super Volunteer: Donate 50 food items to the ANC "Cans
for the Cause" effort.
** Be a Volunteer: Donate any amount of food items.
** Donate: Give $5 to the ANC "Cans for the Cause" campaign
and we will purchase the food items for you.

We have multiple events and food drop off sites in your area. Show your
support by signing up to participate by clicking one of the links
below. The links will also provide detailed drop-off location address
and times.

Montebello — Armenian Mesrobian School:
NUJPQLBV/2787685071

La Crescenta — ANC:
PQLBW/2787685071

Burbank — ANC:
PQLBX/2787685071

Glendale — ANC:
PQLBY/2787685071

Glendale — "Heros" Humanitarian Foundation:
Z/CFSBJPQLBZ/2787685071 for "Heros" Humanitarian Foundation

San Fernando Valley — ANC:
PQLCA/2787685071

Pasadena — United Human Rights Council and Armenian Youth Federation
(Also hosting "Opposite of Silence" event on January 19th):
FJPQLCB/2787685071

Pasadena — ANC:
PQLCC/2787685071

Thank you, in advance, for your support of this effort

TURKISH FOOTBALL FEDERATION RECEIVES FIFA FAIR PLAY AWARD FOR 2008

Jan 13 2009
Turkey

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has received the FIFA Fair Play
Award for 2008 in a ceremony held in Zurich, Switzerland on Monday.

The President of TFF, Mahmut Ozgener, received the FIFA Award from UEFA
President and FIFA Executive Committee member Michel Platini and UEFA
First Vice-President and FIFA Executive Committee member Senes Erzik.

The FIFA Fair Play Award for 2008 was shared by the Football
Associations of Turkey and Armenia.

FIFA presented the Award to Turkey and Armenia based on a World
Cup qualifier game played in Yerevan on September 6, 2008 that was
attended by the presidents of Turkey and Armenia, two countries that
do not have any form of diplomatic relationship.

ARMENIA TO PARTICIPATE IN TWO INTERNATIONAL IT-EXPOSITIONS CEBIT AND GITEX IN 2009

ArmInfo
2009-01-12 16:52:00

Armenia is to participate in two international IT-expositions CeBIT
and GITEX in 2009, Zhenya Azizyan, the head of the Armenian Economy
Ministry Department for Information Technologies, told ArmInfo.

In 2008 Armenia participated in CeBIT exposition on 4-9 March in
Hannover.

Zhenya Azizyan said Armenia is also to participate in series of other
expositions that will be specified later within the year. ‘In this
connection, certain amounts to be allocated from the state budget
will be specified within the year’, she said.

To recall, the state budget of Armenia envisages 250 million drams
or nearly 830,000 US dollars for development of IT-technologies as
against 100 million drams in 2008.

GEORGIA SUSPENDS TRANSIT OF RUSSIAN NATURAL GAS TO ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2009-01-09 14:54:00

ArmInfo. Georgian gas and transport company has officially informed
Armenia on 9 January in the morning about suspension of natural gas
transit to Armenia due to some repair and restoration work on the 1000
mm gas main Ghazakh-Saguramo, CJSC ArmRusgasprom, the sole supplier
of gas to Armenia, reported.

A group of ArmRusgasprom specialists have left for Georgia to get first
hand view of the situation and render necessary assistance. Georgian
colleagues reported the work will be completed within shortest
term. CJSC ArmRusgasprom Dispatcher’s Office reported that gas will be
supplied to consumers from the underground gasholder. The suspension
of gas transit will not result in any changes in the gas consumer
market of Armenia.

ANKARA PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE LAUNCHES CRIMINAL CASE ON ARMENIAN APOLOGY CAMPAIGN

Azeri Press Agency
Jan 9 2009
Azerbaijan

Ankara -APA. Ankara Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation
on Armenian apology campaign started via internet previously, APA
reports quoting Haberturk .

A group of citizens appealed to Prosecutor’s Office and asked to
launch a criminal case under Article 301 (humiliation of Turkish
people) of Criminal Code.

Written statement made by them covers establishment of Armenian apology
campaign on developments occurred in 1915 by a group of intellectuals.

"These insincere intellectuals paid no attention on savagery committed
by Armenian Armed Forces, which served for imperialist invaders,
against hundred thousand Turkish people. They accused Turkish people of
committing genocide against Armenians without any proof. "Accusation
of Turks in genocide is humiliation of Turkish nation ," said in a
statement .

The Prosecutor’s Office has launched a criminal case under Article
301 taking the appeal into account. Ankara Prosecutor’s Office will
call organizers of the campaign to give testimony and will investigate
the website created by them.

MUBARIZ AHMEDOGHLU: "THE DIPLOMATIC RESULTS OF 2008 ON THE RESOLUTION OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT ARE POSITIVE FOR AZERBAIJAN"

Today.Az
s/politics/50004.html
Jan 8 2009
Azerbaijan

All diplomatic results on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict in
2008 are positive for us, said chairman of the center of political
innovations and technologies Mubariz Ahmedoghlu at a press conference
today.

Among the achievements of the Azerbaijani diplomacy the political
scientist listed the adoption of the draft resolution on the situation
in the occupied lands, proposed by Azerbaijan.

The Moscow declaration, where Nagorno Karabakh was removed from
the process as one of the parties of the conflict, became no less
important", said he,

At the same time, he noted that on the whole beginning from 1994
all adopted international documents on the Karabakh conflict are in
favor of Azerbaijan and in all of them Armenia is fixed as a country,
which occupied a part of Azerbaijani lands..

He said the philosophy of the attitude towards the conflict resolution
has also changed.

"If earlier the international community said that it is primarily
necessary to restore economic relations for people to contact with
each others, which will facilitate the conflict resolution, now
everyone says that the conflict resolution will help create and
develop economic relations", said he.

According to Ahmedoghlu, public diplomacy which is spoken of too much,
is more harmful for the conflict resolution than helpful.

"Not only public diplomacy but contacts on high level exist in the
process of the resolution of the Transdniestrian conflict. President
of Moldova Voronin has repeatedly received representatives of the
unrecognized republic. There are ties among simple citizens, yet
it does not lead to the resolution of the conflict. Other examples
are ties between Servia and Kosovo residents before the unilateral
declaration of independence of Kosovo, ties between Georgians and
Abkhazians", said he.

UNE HISTOIRE DE FAMILLE

Le Monde
7 janvier 2009 mercredi
France

AU 18, rue de Normandie, a Courbevoie, Roland Devedjian avait une
petite entreprise. Le coin etait " merdique, degueulasse ", se souvient
Patrick Devedjian, son fils. Ingenieur en fonderie, c’est ici, dans
les Hauts-de-Seine, que le père du ministre de la relance a invente un
autocuiseur, ancetre de la Cocotte-Minute. Refugie armenien en France,
il pensait avoir trouve la son lieu d’ancrage.

Mais, un jour, il a fallu lever le camp. Au debut des annees 1960,
l’Etat a requisitionne le terrain. Les Devedjian ont ete expropries
pour laisser place a un quartier d’affaires international. Comme 6
000 autres familles de Puteaux, Courbevoie et Nanterre, delogees pour
que s’accomplisse le grand projet du general de Gaulle. " Mon père,
ca le rendait malade. Ca le bouleversait. Il maudissait l’EPAD. Moi,
j’etais gosse. J’ai vecu ca comme un petit bourgeois qui ne comprend
rien a une histoire qui le depasse. "

"UN BORDEL ABSOLU "

Desormais, douillettement installe hotel de Cassini, dans son bureau
de ministre, M. Devedjian fils revit cette " souffrance " qui lui
revient de l’enfance. La Defense, " il fallait, pour la comprendre
en profondeur, en avoir ete brise ".

Au 18, rue de Normandie, il n’est jamais repasse. " Mon père est
mort, helas ! J’aurais adore, poursuit-il, le prendre par la main,
lui montrer comme la Defense peut etre belle, lui expliquer qu’il
faut se mefier des commencements ! "

Il peste, certes, contre les technocrates qui ont dessine le plan
du quartier d’affaire erige a l’ouest de Paris : " Un bordel absolu,
un dedale labyrinthique où on ne sait jamais où on va arriver ! Où on
se paume ! " Mais, il en convient : " Ca me plaît, ca. J’aime que la
Defense soit complexe ! " De ce territoire de 1,6 km2, plante de 71
tours, Patrick Devedjian detient aujourd’hui les cles, et n’entend
pas les ceder !

–Boundary_(ID_ql/gsZXLcM9ExOC66Ku99Q)–

Turkey’s ‘most courageous newspaper’
Roy Greenslade

Guardian/UK
Friday 2 January 2009 11.49 GMT

Taraf, a small-circulation liberal daily launched in November 2007, is
currently regarded as "Turkey’s most courageous newspaper". It may sell
only 60,000 copies a day – but it has won a reputation for breaking
stories that no other paper dares to touch.

Most notably, it has been pursuing a sinister story about the links
between a shadowy ultra-nationalist gang known as Ergenekon and a
branch of the Turkish military. Ergenekon is suspected of carrying out
extra-judicial killings in Kurdish areas. The paper has also dared to
affirm the Armenian genocide.

The paper is the subject of a lengthy article by Suzy Hansen in today’s
issue of The National, the UAE-based daily. She reports:

"Taraf owes its boldness to a luxury that is increasingly rare ` and
not just in Turkey: an independent owner who does not interfere with
the work of his editors. Taraf’s founder Basar Arslan, a 40-year-old
bookstore owner and publisher, wasn’t particularly active in politics
before launching Taraf, and he still shies away from the public eye…

"He called up a few of his friends to recruit them to produce a small
daily that represented their liberal views, what he envisioned as ‘a
very prestigious, independent paper, according to Yasemin Congar,
[deputy] editor, who added: ‘Now he loves it.’"

He must do because it is reputed to cost him £342,000 a month to
publish Taraf, and Turkish corporations have recently announced that
they will not advertise in the paper, supposedly out of fear. Now the
paper’s few ads usually appear on a single page.

Taraf’s many critics, including those at the highest levels of
government and the military, have suggested that the paper is secretly
funded by Islamic groups. But there is no sign of Islamist sympathies
in its pages. However, there is persistent criticism of the military
and of its dealings with the Kurdish population.

Jenny White, an academic who has written extensively on Turkey and
lives on-and-off in Istanbul, says: "I’m amazed it hasn’t been shut
down."

But neither Taraf’s declining financial fortunes nor the threat of
anti-speech trials seems to worry the staff. Congar said: "We receive
e-mail threats, personal death threats ` I do, and Ahmet does, and
probably some of the columnists do."

(Sources: Der Spiegel/The National/The Guardian/Wikpiedia)

NAZARBAYEV OFFERS TO FORM CSTO FAST RESPONSE FORCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.12.2008 17:08 GMT+04:00

The informal summit of CIS leaders in Astana was actually a
multilateral meeting, with a number of sensational news, Central
Asian News reports.

The leaders agreed to form CSTO fast response force. "Existence of CSTO
collective armed forces in August could sober up Georgian politicians,"
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

Besides, leaders of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia
showed interest in introduction of a common currency in the CIS market.