1923 POLLING DISTRICTS
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[04:55 pm] 08 January, 2008
The Central Electoral Commission informs that 1923 polling districts
will be open in the RA on 19 February in 2008. The CEC informs that
442 polling districts will be located in Yerevan.
The CEC will officially register the candidates, participating in
2008 elections, from 31 December by 21 January. But no one has been
officially registered until the present day.
TURKISH PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO WASHINGTON HERALDS UPTURN IN BILATERAL TIES
Nicholas Birch
EurasiaNet, NY
Jan 8 2008
Less than three months ago, the United States and Turkey seemed poised
for a political falling out. Since then, bilateral ties have made a
stunning comeback, and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who arrived in
Washington on January 7, is expected to stress "the new found warmth"
during a meeting with US President George W. Bush.
Closer strategic cooperation opened the way for the rapid US-Turkish
rapprochement. Gul’s visit is coming two months after Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured a US pledge to provide real-time
intelligence support for Turkish raids against Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) bases in northern Iraq. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. With US backing, the Turkish military opened an aerial
bombardment campaign of PKK camps on December 16. Two days later,
Washington turned a blind eye to a small army incursion into Iraq.
Turks saw the US intelligence support as the first serious sign that
Washington was taking their struggle against the PKK seriously.
Accordingly, anti-American sentiment in Turkey began experiencing
a decline. "The latest developments have been a turning point" in
US-Turkish relations, Gul told Turkish journalists accompanying him
to Washington. He added that Turkish "aid to northern Iraq and Iraq
as a whole would increase tenfold … once the PKK is out."
"Our relations with the United States have an importance that goes
beyond our relations with any other country. The United States is not
[just] any ally for us, it is the most important ally," added Gul,
as reported in Today’s Zaman. "It is a fact that there has been
some turmoil in the relations in past years. But today this has been
overcome, and a climate of confidence has emerged."
Speaking on CNN-Turk television recently, the government’s chief
foreign policy advisor, Ahmet Davutoglu, characterized relations
between Ankara and Washington as "the best they have been since the
end of the Cold War."
The long-standing US-Turkish alliance seemed on the brink of collapse
as recently as last October, when the US Congress appeared poised
to adopt a resolution to recognize the World War I-era slaughter
of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. In addition, Ankara felt that Washington
was not doing enough to contain PKK militants. [For background see
the Eurasia Insight archive].
Now, to keep diplomatic momentum moving forward, some experts believe
Turkey should help advance Washington’s global diplomatic agenda.
Along with the Iraqi government and the European Union, the Bush
administration is keen to see Turkey rapidly follow up military
action against the PKK with political and economic policies aimed at
diminishing Kurdish support for militancy. But following a PKK bomb
attack that killed six people in southeastern Turkey on January 3,
it is now unclear whether Turkish government talk of a PKK pardon
can receive needed support from either the military or the hawkish
mainstream media.
Meanwhile, Middle Eastern geopolitics remains a potential stumbling
block in US-Turkish relations. With Bush set to depart after his
meeting with Gul on the longest Middle Eastern tour of his presidency,
few analysts think Washington and Ankara will ever see eye to eye on
Iran and Syria, Turkey’s neighbors and – more or less – friends.
Some analysts believe that Pakistan, a country in turmoil since the
December 27 assassination of presidential hopeful Benazir Bhutto,
is one area where Turkey can play an important supporting role for
the United States. "Turkey has a lot of credit in both Pakistan and
Afghanistan," says Hikmet Cetin, a former NATO senior representative
in Afghanistan. "It has more space for maneuver than the United States
in both countries, and it should do more."
With 1,500 troops in Afghanistan, Turkey is the only Muslim state
contributing to peacekeeping efforts there.
But Turkey’s close interest in the region extends further than that.
Pakistan’s founders modeled their state on that developed by Turkish
founder Kemal Ataturk. Many Turkish 30-somethings can still sing bits
of the Pakistani national anthem that they were made to learn when
Pakistani dictator Mohammad Zia ul-Haq visited Turkey in the 1980s.
More recently, and more seriously, Turkey played an important
behind-the-scenes role in the historic 2005 meeting between the
Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers. Last April, Pakistan’s
president, Pervez Musharraf, was in Ankara to broker an agreement
with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai to increase cooperation over
anti-terrorism. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Gul repaid the compliment to his Turkish-educated, fluent
Turkish-speaking counterpart when he traveled to Pakistan on December
3 for talks with Musharraf. He also met with Bhutto and Nawaf Sharif,
another Pakistani presidential contender. "Turkey has very close
political and military relations with Pakistan," said Zeyno Baran,
a Turkish expert at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
Baran suggested that Ankara wouldn’t need to offer much to win US
gratitude. "As a Muslim country, Turkey has a natural insight that
westerners sometimes lack," she said. "Simply translating what is
happening on the ground [in Pakistan] to a western perspective would
be a great help."
A Pakistan expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
George Perkovich, agrees that members of the Bush administration would
appreciate Turkish input on the formulation of a stabilization strategy
for Islamabad. Since Bhutto’s assassination, he says, senior members
of the Bush administration have "absolved themselves of Pakistan. They
don’t know what they want to do. If somebody from Turkey came along
and said ‘we’ve got an idea of how to push things forward’, I think
the President would say, ‘Jeeze, tell me.’"
The issue of Pakistan was on the agenda for the Gul-Bush meeting.
Turkish diplomats specializing in the region accompanied the Turkish
president to Washington. Responding to a question about Pakistan on
January 7, Gul himself said that Turkey was "the country that knows
and understand this region the best."
Yet, beyond agreement with Washington that Pakistan and Afghanistan
represent a combined, and growing, security threat, there is little
evidence that the Turkish delegation is coming with creative ideas,
either large or small. Most analysts put that lack of creativity
down to Turkey’s preoccupation with other issues. One senior Turkish
official who knows Pakistan well thinks it has more to do with the
source of Pakistan’s turmoil. He believes Pakistan’s problem will not
be solved until something is done to control the "hundreds of extremist
madrasa [religious colleges]" in the country’s tribal northwest. "I
don’t know how ready Turkey is to take a strong stance in the fight
against religious fundamentalism over there," he said.
Editor’s Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the
Middle East.
Posted on Sun, Jan. 6, 2008
John V. Shamlian, 86, orchestra bassoonist
By Gayle Ronan Sims
Inquirer Staff Writer
John Victor Shamlian, 86, of Haddonfield, a musical prodigy who rose
to assistant first bassoonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra before
he retired in 1982 after 31 years, died Dec. 14 at Cooper University
Hospital in Camden of complications from a fall. Mr. Shamlian, one of
five children whose father survived the 1915 Armenian genocide and
whose mother was a wealthy New Yorker who studied opera, grew up above
the family’s tailor and dry-cleaning shop in Bryn Mawr.
He taught himself to play the violin, the clarinet and bells as a
young boy. He studied the bassoon and the glockenspiel at Lower Merion
High School, from which he graduated in 1939. Mr. Shamlian was awarded
a four-year scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music, but World
War II interrupted his studies.
He tried to enlist in the U.S. military, but was rejected because of a
medical condition resulting from childhood polio. The determined
Mr. Shamlian joined the Canadian navy, was shipped to England, and
played in a military band throughout the war.
In Scotland, he met his future wife, Peggy Walden, who was in the
signal corps in the British navy. Mr. Shamlian was awarded a grant to
finish his degree at the Royal Academy of Music. After graduation, he
played the bassoon with the London Symphony Orchestra for five years
and free-lanced with Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic.
On a trip to Philadelphia, Mr. Shamlian played for Eugene
Ormandy. Ormandy hired him as third assistant bassoonist for the
Philadelphia Orchestra in 1951, and Mr. Shamlian moved his family to
Haddonfield.
By chance, Mr. Shamlian played his last rehearsal in 1982 when the
touring orchestra was at London’s Royal Albert Hall – the same hall
where he had performed 31 years before.
At the start of his career in London, "England was just digging out
from the war," Mr. Shamlian said in a 1982 Inquirer interview. "I
played my first concert right here with the London Symphony. I’ll
never forget it." His trunk with his concert clothes did not arrive,
and Mr. Shamlian had to wear a suit too small and moccasins instead of
black shoes. "But that was all right because we were performing
Pocahontas."
In retirement, Mr. Shamlian continued teaching bassoon and opened a
shop in his home to repair bassoons and produce the instrument’s
delicate double reeds. Orders came from around the world, his son
David said.
His father, he said, "was like a bassoon whisperer. He had a Zenlike
quality about him when he worked on a bassoon. Many of his adjustments
were counterintuitive to others who repaired the instrument. But they
worked."
In addition to his son David, Mr. Shamlian is survived by sons Peter
and Mark; five grandchildren; two brothers; and a sister. His wife
died in 2006.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Grace Episcopal
Church, 19 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield, N.J. 08033. Burial will be
in the church garden.
Memorial donations may be made to the church.
AZERBAIJANIS TO BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO NEWS IN ARMENIAN ON TURKISH TRT CHANNEL
Today.Az
07 January 2008
Ibragim Shahin, the newly appointed head of the Turkish TRT channel,
signed a resolution on broadcasting news in Armenian, along with
other seven languages, on these channel, as reported by ANS-press.
According to the Directors’ Board of the TRT channel, the news will
not be complex. Their main aim is to present true facts about the
events of 1915 and to oppose the unilateral propaganda of the Armenian
Diaspora on the said issue.
The initiative has been supported by the Turkish state minister
Mehmet Aydin.
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 31 2007
New constitution to dominate 2008
Turkey is leaving behind a year full of tension, initiated by the
presidential election crisis, and the country is understandably eager
to make major changes in 2008, starting with a new constitution that
will replace the current one, which was drafted by a handful of
generals after a bloody coup d’état.
Law professionals from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
and constitutional law professors from various universities have
drafted a new text for the constitution. This draft text differs
fundamentally from Turkey’s current constitution, a painful left over
from the 1980 coup. The government will open the draft to public
debate soon, but the process to enact it is likely to take the entire
year. There is not the slightest doubt that debate on the new
constitution will be the top political issue this year.
Some of the changes promised for the new constitution promises are
likely to give rise to clashes between the government and the
opposition. The AK Party, which has 340 deputies in Parliament, does
not have the strength to adopt a new constitution by itself. Some of
the articles of the new constitution are likely to be supported by
the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), while some are likely to have
the backing of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) or the Democratic
Society Party (DTP). There are 170 articles in the draft, each of
which should be discussed and voted on in Parliament two times — a
process likely to take anywhere between three and five months. This
is why the AK Party would like to finish its work on the constitution
within the first six months of the new year.
The AK Party hopes the new constitution will enable it to fulfill the
dream of selling Treasury land that has lost its "quality as a
forest." The government says the sale of such land could earn the
Treasury $20 billion. The introduction of a new ombudsman law, which
is of crucial importance in the EU harmonization process, also
depends on the adoption of the new constitution.
If discussions on the new constitution go nowhere, a new referendum
might be in store for 2008. The AK Party has expressed its
willingness to take the constitution to the people in the event that
opposition parties do not support the new constitution.
The government will also refocus on the EU-accession process, which
it had somewhat abandoned this year due to domestic political
developments. Before the constitutional change, changes to the
Turkish Trade Code will be brought to Parliament. When this law
passes, Turkey’s 50-year-old trade code will be adapted to EU
legislation.
Meanwhile, Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which
criminalizes "insulting Turkishness" and which has caused countless
writers to appear before courts although nobody has yet been
convicted will be changed. The EU has repeatedly for a change to
Article 301, which has become perhaps the most famous penal code
article in the world.
Many have blamed this article for the murder of ethnic Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink. Dink was tried under 301 before he was
assassinated by a teenager who said he had heard that Dink had
insulted "Turkishness."
However, parliamentary discussion on Article 301 is going to be no
less lengthy or troublesome than discussion about the Constitution.
Other key laws crucial to the EU harmonization process Parliament
must deal with this year include a 44-article law on the protection
of personal data that will be voted also in one of the next weeks.
The Foundations Law, which returns Turkey’s religious minority
foundations goods unjustly confiscated from them decades ago, will
also be in Parliament shortly. This law is crucial for minority
rights in Turkey and the EU has been pressing for its adoption for a
long time. It was earlier approved by Parliament, but vetoed by
nationalist President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who preceded Abdullah Gül.
Changes in other panel laws, such as the Notary Law, Bankruptcy Law,
Legal Arbitration Law and changes to many parts of the penal code are
also to be taken up very in Parliament soon — all as part of the EU
harmonization process.
The year of party congresses
Most of Turkey’s political parties have congresses scheduled for
different dates in 2008. Some will be searching for new leaders, as
many suffered defeat in the July 22 election, in which the AK Party
received almost half of the total vote. The Democrat Party (DP) has
the earliest congress of the year, scheduled for Jan. 6. The only
candidate for party leadership is Süleyman Soylu, the head of the
party’s Ýstanbul branch. This means that this will not be the last
congress of the year for the DP, whose leader, Mehmet Aðar, resigned
after his party’s defeat on July 22. In fact, it is more likely to be
the first of many to come.
The CHP has scheduled its congress for March. Þiþli Mayor Mustafa
Sarýgül, who challenged the current leadership, is now out of the
picture, as he was expelled from the party. But Samsun deputy Haluk
Koç, Deputy Chairman Eþref Erdem, Gülsüm Bilgehan Tokar — the
granddaughter of Turkey’s second president, Ýsmet Ýnönü — and Ýzmir
deputy Oðuz Oyan have taken out their swords to challenge the party
leadership.
Although the CHP has more seats in Parliament than any other
opposition party, the role of the main opposition party has been
played by the MHP for a long time, since the CHP has been struggling
with inner-party conflict.
MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli was criticized by some in his party for
supporting Abdullah Gül’s presidency. It is likely that contenders
might challenge him in a congress this year, although the party does
not have a scheduled congress for 2008 as of yet.
The Democratic Society Party (DTP) will be having its next congress
in June this year. The DTP will vote for a new chairman, as its
current chairman, Nurettin Demirtaþ, is facing a jail sentence for
forging documents to avoid fulfilling his mandatory military service.
01.01.2008
ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA
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VAZGEN MANUKYAN WILL HAVE AN INTOLERABLE FUTURE
[04:31 pm] 27 December, 2007
more images `My political future will be intolerable
after the elections’, said Chairman of the `National
Democratic Union’ Vazgen Manukyan. He is convinced
that after the elections he will continue his career
as the RA President, whose commitments and amount of
work will be great. `What if you are not elected? What
career perspectives do you have?’ Manukyan did not
respond to these questions.
Vazgen Manukyan’s confidence is agreed with the fact
that he has always won. He won even when he was the
Minister of Defense. As to the consideration that
Vazgen Manukyan did not win during 1998 and 2003
elections, the Chairman of the `National Democratic
Union’ agreed partly: `In 2003 the feeling to revenge
was great and that wave brought new heroes’. Vazgen
Manukyan ensured that in 1998 Karen Demirchyan would
win in the first stage, or he and Karen Demirchyan
would compete in the second stage, but not Robert
Kocharyan. According to him all powerful structures,
Vano Shiradeghyan, Vazgen Sargsyan, the `All Armenian
Movement’ party supported Robert Kocharyan and all
administrative resources fought against Vazgen
Manukyan in order not to promote the continuation of
1996.
My and the nation’s motives coincide, our motive is to
establish a modern national state. Four powers support
Vazgen Manukyan: `I am proud that these parties
support me, of course, I would like other parties also
to support me as well’, said Vazgen Manukyan. Among
Manukyan’s supporters are the `National Democratic
Alliance’ party headed by Ashak Sadoyan, the `National
Democratic Party’ headed by Shavarsh Kocharyan, the
`National State’ party headed by Samvel Shahinyan and
Hrant Khachatryan’s `Constitutional Rights Union’.
Although Vazgen Manukyan is convinced that he will be
elected, he is confirmed that the elections will not
be conducted without frauds. `No free and fair
elections have been conducted in Armenia’. The
opposition will win only `if a united power is set up,
which in 1996 de facto defeated authorities’. Vazgen
Manukyan also underlined that the powers should unite
not only for victory, for coming to power, but for the
state they wanted to establish after the elections. To
the question who the five parties would support if
Manukyan was not elected, the latter insisted that he
would definitely win and did not want to think of
anything else.
Vazgen Manukyan prioritizes sociological surveys, but
he believes in the surveys carried out by his party on
the phone, which showed the true image both in 1996
and in 2003. Manukyan also noted that crowded
gatherings did not speak of a leader’s rating, since
people came for interest. He reminded 2000-2001 Arkadi
Vardanyan’s movement.
OSCE/ODIHR TO DELEGATE 24 LONG-TERM AND 250 SHORT-TERM OBSERVERS TO ARMENIA
armradio.am
24.12.2007 17:08
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
(OSCE/ODIHR) intends to delegate 24 long-term and 250 short-term
observers to Armenia.
Press secretary of OSCE/ODIHR Urdur Gunardodir told Armenpress that
the long-term observers will arrive in Armenia early January to follow
the process of registration of candidates, the election campaign,
the accessibility of mass media. The short-term observers will follow
the process of voting.
To remind, 387 short-term and long-term observers of the OSCE/ODIHR
followed the parliamentary elections in Armenia in May 2007.
Insurer’s U-turn too late to save life of transplant teenager
· Lawyer wants company to be charged with murder
· Death inflames debate over US healthcare system
Ed Pilkington in New York
Saturday December 22, 2007
The Guardian
The family of a California teenager plan to sue her health insurer
which refused to pay for a liver transplant until hours before and she
died on Thursday night.
Her family’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, will ask the Los Angeles district
attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna
HealthCare, arguing that the firm "maliciously killed" Nataline
Sarkisyan by its reluctance to pay for her treatment. The company
reversed its stance after protesters called for a rethink, but the
decision came too late.
The 17-year-old from Glendale, California, had been in a coma for weeks
after complications following a bone marrow transplant to counter
leukaemia.
After the operation, her liver failed and doctors referred her for an
emergency transplant. Although she was fully insured and had a matching
donor, Cigna refused to pay on the grounds that her healthcare plan
"does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services".
Cigna’s rejection on December 11 led Sarkisyan’s doctors at UCLA
medical centre, including the head of its transplant unit, to write a
letter to protest that the treatment which they proposed was neither
experimental nor unproven. They called on the firm to urgently review
its decision.
In the absence of a response from Cigna, doctors told the Sarkisyan
family that the only alternative would be for the family to pay. But
they could not afford the immediate down payment of $75,000 (£38,000).
The family, backed by nurses, relatives and Sarkisyan’s friends,
mounted a protest of 150 people outside Cigna’s Glendale offices.
"Cigna cannot decide who is going to live and who is going to die," the
teenager’s mother, Hilda Sarkisyan, told the crowd.
The demo was amplified by an internet campaign orchestrated by the
liberal Daily Kos website and other blogs that bombarded Cigna’s HQ in
Philadephia. In the middle of the rally, a note was handed to Mrs
Sarkisyan saying that Cigna had decided to reverse its decision.
"Cigna HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and
unusual case and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the
requested liver transplant," it said in a statement.
The news drew cheers from the crowd, but they quickly grew sombre when
they heard Sarkisyan’s condition had deteriorated. A few hours later,
her life support was switched off.
"She passed away, and the insurance [company] is responsible for this,"
Mrs Sarkisyan told the Los Angeles Daily News.
"Why did it take public humiliation for a multibillion-dollar insurance
company to force them to provide appropriate medical care?" asked
Charles Idelson of the California Nurses Association.
"This is what’s wrong with our health system – insurers decide
treatment, not doctors."
The protests over Sarkisyan’s case point to growing public
disenchantment with the healthcare system in America.
Politicians vying to be the Democratic candidate for the presidential
race next year have prepared plans for reform to bring the 47 million
uninsured Americans into the healthcare net, and to improve terms for
those already insured like Sarkisyan.
The subject was given an added boost this summer by Michael Moore’s
documentary on the state of the American health service, Sicko.
Moore refers to the case of Sarkisyan on his website, under the simple
banner: "Justice delayed is justice denied."
Following the teenager’s death, Cigna issued another statement
yesterday.
"Their loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with
them," it said. "We deeply hope that the outpouring of concern, care
and love that are being expressed for Nataline’s family help them at
this time."
The company recently posted figures for its third-quarter performance
this year, which showed profits up 22%. Next year it expects to earn an
income of up to $1.2bn.
Interfax, Russia
Dec 22 2007
Armenia’s first post-Soviet leader backed by various groups
YEREVAN. Dec 22 (Interfax) – Seventeen political parties as well as
some other nongovernmental groups on Saturday urged the Armenians to
cast their votes at the February 19 presidential election for the
first post-Soviet Armenian president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, who held
the office in 1991-98 and is seeking re-election.
The Armenian people need to get rid of the current regime, Stepan
Demirchian, leader of the People’s Party, told a meeting that groups
backing Ter-Petrosian presidency bid held in Yerevan.
The fact that groups espousing different kinds of ideologies are
rallying around Ter-Petrosian makes this goal easier to achieve,
Demirchian argued.
"Levon Ter-Petrosian is a politician who will be able to take on the
challenges facing Armenia," he said.
"The goal of all the parties and public organizations supporting the
first Armenian president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, is not his victory at
the presidential election but the victory of the Armenian people,"
said Ararat Zurabian, chairman of the board of the Armenian
Pan-National Movement.
"As early as February 20, the day after the Armenian presidential
election, we will be celebrating the victory of Levon Ter-Petrosian,
and consequently the victory of the entire people," Zurabian said.
Ter-Petrosian, who also took the floor at the meeting, announced his
bid for re-election in October 2007.
CIS MARKS 16TH ANNIVERSARY
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.12.2007 15:26 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) marks
its 16th anniversary on December 21.
Initiating the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1991,
the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met on December 8 in the
Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve, about 50 km north of Brest in
Belarus, and signed an agreement establishing the CIS.
At the same time they announced that the new alliance would be open
to all republics of the former Soviet Union, as well as other nations
sharing the same goals.
On December 21, 1991, the leaders of eleven of the fifteen constituent
republics of the Soviet Union met in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, and signed
the charter, thus de facto ratifying the initial CIS treaty. The
Soviet government had already recognized the independence of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania on September 6, 1991, and the three Baltic
nations refused to join the CIS.
Georgia and Azerbaijan were initially reluctant to join the CIS but
eventually did so. The CIS charter stated that all the members were
sovereign and independent nations and thereby effectively abolished
the Soviet Union.
The ten original member states were Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan joined the CIS in September 1993 and Georgia
joined in December.
Presently, over 60 coordinating and consultative bodies function within
the CIS, the major being the Council of Heads of State, Council of
Heads of Government, Council of Foreign Ministers, Council of Defense
Ministers, Economic Court, Interparliamentary Assembly, etc.
Organizations like the EurAsEC, CSTO, GUAM also function within the
Commonwealth.