Author: Kalantarian Kevo

WE WILL HAVE NOTHING TO SAY IF TURKISH PARLIAMENT DECIDES ON A CERTAIN SYSTEM, SAYS PM ERDOGAN

Anadolu Agency
May 7 2012
Turkey

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said that the writing
process for Turkey’s new constitution began and that a presidential
system in Turkey maybe debated during this process.

Speaking to reporters at a joint press conference with his Slovenian
counterpart Janez Jansa in Ljubljana, Erdogan said that presidency
system could be discussed within the scope of preparation process
for a new constitution.

We will have nothing to say if the Turkish parliament decides on a
certain system after debates, Erdogan stressed.

A sun of reality gets borne after the clash and debate of ideas,
Erdogan underlined.

Reminded about two Turkish journalists Adem Ozkose and Hamit Coskun
in Syria and their meeting with officials of the Humanitarian Aid
Foundation on Sunday and asked about their possible return to Turkey,
Erdogan said that he made some statements on the matter in Gaziantep
on Sunday.

The issue of the two Turkish journalists in Syria is being closely
followed by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Turkey’s
initiatives on the matter continue in Syria and Iran. Our wish is to
see the two journalists released as soon as possible. We will follow
up on the matter closely, Erdogan underlined.

Asked if a military intervention to Syria was among Turkey’s options,
Erdogan said that Turkey did not have a problem with the people
of Syria.

The Syrians are our brothers, sisters and friends. We have a border
that is 910 kilometers long with Syria. We have kinship ties with
Syria. There are close ties between those residing in Aleppo, and
Hatay-Antakya. Everyone must know that we have a certain responsibility
in the case of Syria, Erdogan noted.

Turkey feels a kind of responsibility based on humanitarian laws and
international laws when it comes to Syria, Erdogan stated.

We are against the Syrian regime. No one should expect us to be
on the side of the tyrants. More than 10,000 people were killed in
Syria. The number of injured is not certain. There are around 150,000
Syrians who have been displaced and have become refugees. 23,000 of
them reside in Turkey. More than 100,000 reside in Jordan. A certain
number of Syrians are living in Lebanon. Syrians are running away from
tanks and artillery fire. I do not believe that the Syrian regime can
continue for long. The national will of the Syrian people will soon
win over the regime. No one can achieve victory against a people and
nation. If you act with the nation, you can achieve victory. You are
bound to lose if you act against the national will. This is what is
going to happen in Syria, Erdogan indicated.

“We have always remained at the table but they ran away”

Reminded that a new political term began in France and how Turkey will
continue its sanctions against France, Premier Erdogan said that the
elections process in France was not over yet and that a parliamentary
election would take place in France in June.

Any statement we make before the parliamentary elections would be
wrong, Erdogan stressed.

Turkey and France have never been enemies against each other and we
do not want to see France as an enemy, Erdogan said.

We have always preferred to be silent against the negative stance of
the Sarkozy administration and their attitude on the so-called Armenian
genocide during our 9.5 years in rule. There are around 600,000 Turks
living in France. They make up a bridge between Turkey and France. We
have made efforts to protect such relations. I have had a chance to
work with Mr. Chirac. During the Chirac administration, we always
participated in the summit of leaders. Once Sarkozy came to power,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sarkozy blocked our participation
in the summit of leaders. On the Armenian issue, we have told Sarkozy
that this was a matter for historians and not parliaments. We went
further by saying that our state archives were ready for historians,
lawyers, political scientists and archeologists.

If Armenia and third countries have similar documents, they should
also make available such documents to historians and scholars. Just as
we are ready to face our history, so should Armenia. We also began an
initiative with our foreign ministers in Switzerland. We have always
remained at the table but they ran away. We do hope that, in this
new term in France, they would not run away from the table. There
is something we heard which I hope is not real. And, that has to
do with an approach that Turkey can not become an EU member unless
it solved the Armenian issue. I hope that such a statement was not
actually made. If such a statement was made, we would have to review
the whole process, Erdogan emphasized.

“It could be debated in the process”

Asked if a presidential system was on Turkey’s agenda, Premier Erdogan
said that this issue could be debated during the process of writing
the new Turkish constitution.

Debates on such a system are part of a democracy. We have to debate if
we wish a presidential or semi-presidential system. If the parliament
decides on a certain system, we would have nothing to say. A sun of
reality gets borne after the clash and debate of ideas, Erdogan said.

“Wrong behaviour against Turkey can be corrected”

Asked if France would have a different look at Turkey’s EU membership
after Sunday’s presidential election, Erdogan said that they had
better relations with social democrat parties in the EU.

The Christian Democrats should not be angry due to this fact,
Erdogan stated.

The social democrats always support Turkey. I do hope that the EU’s
wrong behaviour against Turkey, a country waiting to join the union
for 50 years, could be corrected in this new term with Mr. Hollande,
Erdogan noted.

Turkey has always been in a positive approach to the EU. Everything
that was not applied against other EU countries were applied on
Turkey. These were rules not mentioned in the EU acquis. The rules of
the game were changed during the game itself. You just can not change
ruled during a game. The game has already begun and the rules should
remain the same. I hope that during this new term France’s attitude on
Turkey gets more positive. We expect this from France. Turkey can make
contributions to the institutionalization of the EU, Erdogan also said.

STAMP OUT: WAS DISAPPEARING INK A GLITCH OR A TOOL IN VOTE 2012?
By Gayane Lazarian

ArmeniaNow
07.05.12 | 15:19

The disappearing stamps in passports were one of the key concerns and
possible violations in Sunday’s parliamentary elections and have been
qualified by many as a well-planned stunt skillfully implemented by
the authorities.

As opposed to 2008 when passports were stamped with regular permanent
ink, this time it was decided to use special ink that would disappear
after 12 hours.

The point of stamping is to prevent double-voting, and the opposition
believes this method of prevention did not serve its purpose.

Early on May 6, single-mandate candidate Satik Seyranyan, editor of
“168 hours” local newspaper, running in election district No. 4,
wrote on her Facebook profile: “Good morning, people. The stamp in
passports disappears after a short while.”

Heritage party election headquarters’ press release reported that
since early morning that day they had received numerous calls about
the stamps disappearing from passports much earlier than they were
supposed to, sometimes within a few minutes.

The party headquarters turned to the Central Election Commission
(CEC) and demanded to replace the special temporary ink pads with
regular ones.

A similar complaint to CEC was made by the Armenian National Congress
bloc, demanding to stop the election and annul the votes made by
that hour.

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP Naira Zohrabyan also informed the
OSCE/ODHIR and European Parliament observers about the issue.

“What we had feared, has happened. We view this as a planned scenario
for double-voting. This is not how democracy can be built, and those
behind this election fraud will not be forgiven,” says Zohrabyan.

CEC chairman Tigran Mukuchyan said Sunday that they had been informed
about the ink problem and explained it by the fact that the inkpot
should be shaken before use. The issue, nonetheless, did not get
resolved.

At the joint headquarters established to control the elections PAP
representative Vartan Oskanian showed his passport to everyone present
and said: “I voted at noon today. I am willing to share it with you,
please, open and take a look, see if you can find the stamp.”

EXIT POLL WAS PRESSURE

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:13:49 – 07/05/2012

“Although the campaign was covered by the TV channels very well, and
it was one or two or even three steps towards progress, during the
campaign we did not notice similar progress by political parties,
there was no readiness for debates,” said Boris Navasardyan, the
chair of Yerevan Press Club.

He thinks that if a candidate rejects debates, it is a reason why
people would not even elect him. “Unfortunately, this tradition comes
from 1991 when only the main presidential candidate refused debate,
and this tradition continues,” Boris Navasardyan said, adding that
three political forces – Republicans, Rule of Law, Armenian National
Congress – were reluctant. The others were neutral or willing.

He presented the final report of the monitoring of broadcast media
coverage of the parliamentary election. Two legislative problems
remain open. The law does not define the activities of political
forces outside the election campaign. Hidden advertisement is a
problem. Some reports which were prepared by parties for the campaign
are broadcast on several TV channels without any modifications which
may arouse doubts.

Boris Navasardyan considers the second problem more complicated because
it must be regulated by the mass media, not by the legislation. He
brought the example of keeping the result of exit poll for a long
time on TV channels late in the evening and at night.

“This is psychological pressure. Considering the reality we understand
that the issue is not settled after the polling stations close so
psychological pressure is unacceptable, especially that the mechanism
of exit poll is not as efficient as it should be.”

According to him, exit polls are an important tool in the electoral
process, and its use in Armenia is highly important though Armenia
cannot ensure the role it plays in developed democratic countries.

Boris Navasardyan also said these elections allow major change and
success of political reforms, and if the positive tendency continues,
in a year Armenia will be a leading country by political reforms in
the post-Soviet space except the Baltic states. “We’ll see how Armenia
will be able to use this opportunity,” Boris Navasardyan said. During
the campaign Shant TV was the most passive, while Armnews, Armenia,
H2 TV channels and Public Radio were the most active.

HOW MUCH DO THE VICTORIES AND DEFEATS OF PARTIES COST?

12:03 . 07/05

Head of Oversight-Audit Service of the Central Election Commission
Sevak Hovhannisyan has published information on the sums spent by
the parties on the election campaign as of April 26.

RPA has spent most-78mln AMD, Heritage Party comes after RPA with 66
mln AMD. PAP has spent 53mln AMD, ANC-10mln AMD, ARF-D 40mln AMD, the
Communist Party of Armenia-1 mln AMD, the United Armenians Party-992,
000AMD, the Democratic Party of Armenia-305,000AMD.

The final data will become known after May 10, when the certificates
are to be presented. Up to this moment, the Central Election
Commission has received no application-complaints connected with
financial campaign.

AZERBAIJAN’S ATTEMPTS TO USE UN SECURITY COUNCIL PLATFORM IN KARABAKH ISSUE NOT PROMISING

ARMINFO
Sunday, May 6, 10:16

Ilham Aliev’s speech opening the 6765th session of the United Nations
Security Council in New York “indicates that Azerbaijan will try to use
the platform of the Security Council to bring the Karabakh conflict
to the attention of the international community. It will however not
be possible to push the Council to adopt any meaningful resolution
on Karabakh since the Permanent members are still committed to the
Minsk Process as the mechanism to deal with the efforts to resolve it,
and a role for the UN at this stage is not envisaged.

There may however be some humanitarian aspects of the problem that may
be taken up by the world body and it is likely that Azerbaijan will
have a strategy to push in this direction over the coming months,”
Commonspace.eu political editor says when commenting on the Azerbaijani
leader’s speech wherein he also referred to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict and linked terrorism with “agressive separatism, extremism
and organised crime” as well as accused Armenia of ethnic cleansing
during the Karabakh conflict.

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev yesterday opened the 6765th
session of the United Nations Security Council in New York and chaired
the first meeting. Azerbaijan has the Chairmanship of the Council for
the month of May under the system of rotating chairmanship between
the fifteen members of the Council which include the five permanent
members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) and ten members
elected for two years by the General Assembly.

ARMENIA’S NAREK KAZAZYAN REACHES EUROVISION YOUNG MUSICIANS FINAL (VIDEO)

May 7, 2012 – 10:58 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The semifinal of Eurovision Young Musicians 2012 is
over, and 7 of the 14 participants have now qualified for the final,
due on 11 May in Vienna.

After watching all 14 performances on May 5 and 6, the jury of
Agnieszka Duczmal (Jury Head), Christian Eggen, Carol McGonnell,
Franz Bartolomey, have made their decision for the finalists of
Eurovision Young Musicians 2012.

Narek Kazazyan, Kanun (Armenia)

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Violin (Austria)

Alexandra Dzenisenia, Cimbalom (Belarus)

Michaela paÄ~Mková, Bassoon (Czech Republic)

Dominic Chamot, Piano (Germany)

Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad, Viola (Norway)

Jagoda KrzemiÅ~Dska, Flute (Poland)

These seven will take part in the grand final on Friday, May 11. All
participants, including the non-finalists, received a diploma
recognizing their participation in this year’s competition.

They all will stay in Vienna for the week, enjoying a social program
and music classes at the Vienna’s Conservatory, the official website
of the contest reported.

The Eurovision Young Musicians competition began in 1982, with 6
participating countries and has become one of the most important
classical music competitions on an international level.

This biennial competition for young, talented musicians has been an
important and effective tool for fostering the careers of promising,
talented musicians in Europe, by allowing them to perform to the
widest possible audience.

The new format, introduced in 2006, has been very popular not only
with the large audience in Vienna, but also with television viewers
throughout Europe.

Armenia participated in this international contest for the first time
in 2012.

APRES L’EXPLOSION DES BALLONS DE GAZ DANS LE CENTRE D’EREVAN
Laetitia

armenews.com
lundi 7 mai 2012

Le parti republicain d’Armenie (HHK) a defendu samedi sa decision
controversee de continuer un meeting pour la campagne electorale a
Erevan. Des ballons de gaz ont explose samedi 5 mai 2012, blessant
plus de 150 personnes.

Selon le ministère armenien des situations d’urgence, 80 des 154
personnes hospitalisees vendredi soir sont restees a l’hôpital jusqu’a
samedi. Un communique du ministère a indique que 25 d’entre elles
etaient au soin intensif.

Le ministre de la Sante, Haroutioun Kushkian, a affirme a la
television d’Etat qu’aucune d’entre elles ne souffraient de blessures
mortelles. Le meeting du HHK a continue malgre la panique et le chaos
qui a suivi les explosions.

Le directeur de la campagne electorale, Hovik Abrahamian, a affirme :
” Quelques secondes après l’incident, nous avons rapidement consulte
des fonctionnaires de police et des experts qui nous ont informe que
l’arret du meeting pourrait conduire a des consequences plus graves “.

” Pour organiser le transport des victimes, on nous a demande de
garder la foule sur la place pendant au moins 40 minutes, jusqu’a
ce que la dernière victime soit conduite a l’hôpital. ” Abrahamian
n’a pas explique pour quelles raisons le president Serge Sarkissian,
le leader du HHK, n’a fait aucune mention des explosions lors de son
discours place de la Republique.

Tout en defendant la reaction du parti, le chef de campagne du
HHK a note que les autorites armeniennes ont tire les lecons de la
situation d’urgence. ” Nous avons serieusement besoin de reglementer
les questions de securite lors d’evenements d’une telle ampleur,
et c’est ce que nous ferons a l’avenir “, a-t-il dit.

La police armenienne, quant a lui, n’a fait aucune declaration samedi
sur les resultats de leur enquete concernant les explosions. Les
fonctionnaires de police ont suggere vendredi que les ballons ont
ete accidentellement brûles par une cigarette ou un briquet.

ERDOGAN S’ATTEND A DES CHANGEMENTS DANS LES RAPPORTS TURCO-FRANCAIS
Ara

armenews.com
lundi 7 mai 2012

ANKARA, 07 mai 2012 – Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip
Erdogan a annonce s’attendre a des changements dans les relations
turco-francaises après l’election du socialiste Francois Hollande a
la presidence francaise.

“Nous esperons que la nouvelle periode en France soit très differente
de la precedente dans les rapports turco-francais”, a-t-il dit
dimanche soir aux journalistes a Ankara avant de partir pour une
visite en Slovenie.

Il a souhaite que “les messages populistes exprimes lors de la
campagne” presidentielle francaise ne se reflètent pas dans la
pratique, en politique. Dans un tel cas de figure, a affirme M.

Erdogan, “cela aura un impact defavorable sur les relations
Turquie-France”.

Concernant le president sortant, Nicolas Sarkozy, très impopulaire en
Turquie parmi le gouvernement et l’opinion publique a cause notamment
de son opposition a une adhesion de la Turquie a l’Union europeenne,
M. Erdogan a indique qu’il n’avait plus d’autre option que “de partir
en vacances”.

“M. Sarkozy avait promis de ne plus continuer en politique. Il n’a
plus d’autre choix. Il partira sans doute en vacances”, a-t-il ajoute.

Turkey provided toxic milk to Armenian students

news.am
May 05, 2012 | 17:18

ANKARA. – Turkey’s Ministry of National Education decided on including
schools of national minorities into a program of distributing free
milk.

The Minister Omer Dincer stated that 44 schools, out of which 16 are
Armenian, will receive free milk, Turkish Radikal reports.

To note, Turkey launched a program on providing free of charge milk
with junior classes, while the very first day over 2,000 students were
hospitalized diagnosed by `poisoning.’

Military says Azerbaijan may commit more incitements

15:55 05/05/2012 » Politics

`Recent incitements committed by Azerbaijani armed forces differ as
they target mainly civilians. This is not an innovation, but it has
become more intensified. The goal is obvious – we are holding
elections and the spring recruitment has kicked off,’ said military
expert.

Speaking to Panorama.am Artsrun Hovhannisyan said they try to have a
negative impact on the recruitment and this time they are doing it
more persistently.

`First of all it means they avoid direct clashes with our army, as in
that case their attacks will have quite a different upshot. It is a
hard thing to prevent further subversions, but measures must be
undertaken to do it. Thus, it’s not by chance that the Supreme
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces ordered to fortify military
shift on the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line.’

The expert has highlighted that May 9 parade will follow Armenian elections.

`Committing incitements Azerbaijan may try to damage our reputation
and `to increase’ `reputation’ of its army and statehood. Hence, the
additional measures underlined by the president are timely,’ said the
expert.

Source: Panorama.am