Author: Karagyozian Lena

Armenian Ambassador handed his credentials to the King of Spain

ArmRadio.am
24.01.2007 17:07

Armenian Ambassador to Spain Ruben Shugaryan handed his credentials
to Juan Carlos King I King of Spain.

Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
informs that Ruben Shugaryan had meetings in the Spanish MFA, during
which the current state of Armenian-Spanish bilateral relations was
discussed. Reference was made to the visit of the Spanish Foreign
Minister, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Miguel Angel Moratinos to the
region and the opening of the Spanish Embassy in Armenia.

During the meetings the Ambassador also presented the process of
Armenia’s European integration in the framework of the European New
Neighbors Program, the state of Armenian-Turkish relations, as well as
the current stage of the negotiation process on the Karabakh conflict.

TERRY DAVIS: THE COUNTRY WHO WILL FIRST APPLY FORCE TO RESOLVE KARABAKH
CONFLICT WILL BE EXPELLED FROM COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Strasbourg, January 24. ArmInfo. When Armenia and Azerbaijan were
joining the Council of Europe they committed themselves to resolve
the Karabakh conflict by peace, CE Secretary General Terry Davis
said during a press-launch when answering the question of ArmInfo’s
correspondent.

The failure to meet this commitment will lead to very serious
consequences, up to the expulsion of the defaulter-country from the
CE, Davis said and noted that he will be very much sorry if Armenia
or Azerbaijan break their promises.

Davis thanked the Armenian and Azeri FMs for constantly informing
him of the peace process. He reminded the journalists that he was
rapporteur on the Karabakh conflict and is always keen to know about
the developments in the South Caucasus. Davis stressed the importance
of the early resolution of the conflict for the fates of the people
living in the conflict zone. Many people have died in this conflict
and the sides should do their best to find an early solution to it –
a solution that would serve the interests of the nations of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.

American Spectator –
Jan 22 2007

Turkish Blood

By Christopher Orlet
Published 1/22/2007 12:07:02 AM

In his last newspaper column, Hrant Dink wrote that he was now
considered an enemy of the state and of the Turkish people. He had
but recently completed a six-month suspended sentence for the charge
of "insulting Turkish identity," and he now faced two additional
charges. More ominously his email’s inbox, he said, was crammed with
death threats.

"My computer’s memory is loaded with sentences full of hatred and
threats," Dink noted in his last column for Agos, the Armenian language
weekly of which he was editor-in-chief. "I do not know how real these
threats are, but what’s really unbearable is the psychological torture
that I’m living in….For me, 2007 is likely to be a hard year. The
trials will continue, new ones will be started.

Who knows what other injustices I will be up against." Even so,
the editor believed he would survive the year.

He was wrong. Last Friday at 1 p.m., as Dink was leaving his newspaper
office, Ogun Samast, an unemployed 17-year-old Turk, waited outside
on the busy Istanbul street. He approached Dink and fired four
shots. Three of them hit the editor in the neck and head. The assassin
then shouted, "I shot the non-Muslim!" and fled the scene.

Samast was a native of the Black Sea port town of Trabzon. It was
there that police, acting on a tip from Samast’s father, arrested the
gunman as he stepped off a bus. Once in custody he proudly confessed
to the murder.

Police also suspect Samast of last year’s murder of an Italian Roman
Catholic priest shot and killed in the courtyard of his church in
Trabzon. It seems likely that Fr. Andrea Santaro, 60, was killed in
connection with the uproar following publication of cartoons of the
prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, cartoons that many Muslims
found insulting.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an ardent supporter of article 301 of
the Turkish criminal code that outlaws insulting Turkish institutions
or Turkish national identity, is also a shrewd politician who
seeks EU membership for Turkey. The prime minister thus condemned
Dink’s murder. "A bullet has been fired at democracy and freedom of
expression," he said in a news conference. "I condemn the traitorous
hands behind this disgraceful murder." This must have puzzled the
dozens of Turkish writers and intellectuals charged under article
301, like publisher Abdullah Yilmaz who faces jail time for issuing a
Turkish edition of Greek writer Mara Meimaridi’s novel The Witches of
Smyrna. The novel describes parts of the Turkish quarter of Izmir as
"dirty." A cynic might say that Mr. Erdogan and his government have
no business talking about freedom of expression.

DINK, AN ETHNIC ARMENIAN, was given a six-month suspended sentence
in October 2005 after writing about the Armenian "genocide" of 1915.

Last fall he was again charged with "insulting Turkish identity"
for using the word "genocide" in an interview with Reuters. After
his conviction at a trial that PEN, the international association of
writers, described as featuring the controversial courtroom procedure
of an "attempted lynching," Dink began to think seriously about
emigrating. When he announced that, if the case against him was not
dropped, he would leave Turkey, Ankara charged him with attempting to
influence the judiciary, a crime punishable by 4 1/2 years in prison.

I suspect that Dink’s murder will finally force Ankara to reconsider
article 301. Similar charges against novelist Orhan Pamuk for remarks
he made about the Armenian genocide doubtless contributed to his
winning last year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. Indeed, the award was
seen as a slap in the face to Ankara and Turkish nationalists. (The
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer refused even to congratulate
Pamuk.) Similarly Ankara’s demonizing of Hrant Dink no doubt stirred
up the jihadist in Ogun Samast and is at least partially to blame
for the editor’s murder.

After Dink’s 2005 conviction, Ankara said it had no intention
of lifting article 301. Perhaps now Ankara, fearful of losing out
completely in its EU membership bid, will think twice before it throws
journalists and novelists behind bars for telling the unpleasant
truth about the Armenian genocide. Perhaps then Hrant Dink’s death
will not have been in vain.

Christopher Orlet is a frequent contributor and runs the Existential
Journalist.

Hrant Dink Murder suspect faces 19 years in prison if convicted

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Jan 22 2007

Sunday , 21 January 2007

The 17-year-old Ogun Samast who is the prime suspect in
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murder, will be tried
according to the Children’s Preservation Law adopted in June 2005
since he is below the age of 18.

If a lawsuit is filed against Samast for "committing planned murder",
he may be sentenced to imprisonment from 18 to 24 years according to
article 31 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). If he is tried according
to the Execution Law, he will be given two-thirds of the punishment,
which makes for 19 years. If it is revealed that the murder has
links with criminal organizations, it is possible for him to be
sentenced to another four to five years of imprisonment. An expert
on criminal justice, Professor Bahri Ozturk, recalling that Samast
will be tried according to Children’s Preservation Law, explained
that a reduction is unlikely in Samast’s punishment in light of the
new penal code enacted in 2005. He added that the public’s conscience
will be relieved with this.

The suspect, who is currently held in the Terror branch of the Istanbul
Security Directorate, will be interrogated by the public prosecutor
instead of the police since he is under 18. If it is clear that the
suspect committed this crime without any outside support, he will be
held in custody for 24 hours. But this duration might be increased to
48 hours upon the public prosecutor’s demand, according to criminal
procedure. At the end of this period, Samast will be questioned by
a Judge in Children’s court. Since Samast will be sentenced to more
than five years of imprisonment, he may be kept in custody.

Samast will be tried by the Istanbul Children’s High Criminal Court
which has two judges and a public prosecutor.

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
January 18, 2007 Thursday 4:32 PM MSK

Armenian cut diamond output plummets 22% in 2006

Armenia reduced cut diamond production 22% in 2006 to 88.048 billion
dram ($240.5 million), an Armenian Trade and Economic Development
Ministry official said.

Cut diamond sales fell 20% to 88.993 billion dram ($243 million),
with exports falling 20.6% to 87.077 billion dram ($237.8 million).

A drop in world prices for cut and polished diamonds combined with a
weaker dollar in Armenia were behind the drop in output and sales,
the ministry said.

16.html

Friday, January 19, 2007. Page 4. (javascript:window.print();)
Business Weary of Border DisputeBy Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters

YEREVAN, Armenia — The Turkish-Armenian border has been shut for 14
years because of a dispute rooted in the centuries-old suspicions
between Muslims and Christians in this remote part of the world.

But the business communities in both countries pay heed to a different
imperative — making money — and they are telling their political
leadersto put the past behind them.

"I want the borders opened," Turkish businessman Kaan Soyak said on
the sidelines of a conference in Armenia’s capital over the weekend
that brought together business leaders and officials from both
countries.

"The first problem is the lack of trust. Turks don’t know Armenians,
and Armenians don’t know Turks because there is no connection. … We
need more dialogue, more visits."

Turkey and Armenia share a 355-kilometer frontier that snakes through
the Caucasus mountains.

Ankara closed all border crossings and cut diplomatic ties in 1993 to
pr otest the seizure by Armenian forces of territory in Azerbaijan,
Turkey’s historical ally that at the time was fighting a war with
Armenia.

Lurking in the backdrop are Armenian accusations that Turkey carried
out a genocide of 1.5 million Armenians during the last days of the
Ottoman Empire.

Turkey denies that there was a genocide, a stance that has complicated
its bid to join the European Union.

These, however, are not the most immediate concerns for businesses
struggling to operate in this isolated corner.

For Turkey, the closed border means building materials and textiles it
exports to the booming Russian market have to go by road via Georgia
to the north, instead of using the cheaper but now rusting railway
route through Armenia.

Armenia, under virtual blockade because its border with Azerbaijan to
the east is also closed, has to import goods from Turkey by air or
through third countries. And Armenian exports have to go around
Turkey.

"There are two aspects: [opening the border] will make trade with
Turkey cheaper and on the other hand it will open up transit routes
for Armenia to the Mediterranean," said Arsen Kazaryan, an Armenian
businessman.

With no sign of any diplomatic thaw soon between Yerevan and Ankara,
business groups are trying to ratchet up the pressure for the border
to bereopened.

The conference, at Yerevan’s plushest hotel, was organized by a
U.S.-based think tank and attracted several hundred entrepreneurs,
economists, researchers and officials.

It was supported by the U.S. government. All speakers were in favor of
reopening the border.

A cross-border business lobby, the Turkish-Armenian Business
Development Council, is spearheading the campaign.

Mayors and regional bosses near the border with Armenia in eastern
Turkey — one of the poorest parts of the country and the area that
would gain most from free trade links — are also pressing Ankara on
the issue.

Soyak, co-chair of the Business Development Council, said opening the
border would mean a flood of Armenian tourists visiting historic sites
in eastern Turkey like Ani, once the capital of a medieval Armenian
kingdom.

"That would mean $100 per day [from each visitor]," he said. "The
eastern part of Turkey doesn’t have that sort of
money. … Unfortunately, the central government in Turkey does not
take into consideration the problems of the eastern part."

In the meantime, people in Turkey and Armenia are not waiting for the
politicians.

Charter flights regularly take Armenian tourists to Turkish holiday
resorts and Turkish businessmen can be seeing cutting deals in hotel
lobbies in Yerevan.

_© Copyright 2007 The Moscow Times_
( ts/copywrite.html) .

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I: WE NEED TO ADAPT RELIGION TO NEW TIMES

ArmRadio.am
17.01.2007 13:55

This morning His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos of the Great
House of Cilicia, met with the representatives of World Council of
Islam-Christian Cooperation lead by its General Secretary Dr. Yousef
Farran.

The focus of the meeting was the role of religion in general and the
Christian-Muslim dialogue in particular. His Holiness Aram I considered
religion as " a force in society, and the nature and scope of its
role are defined differently by religions in different times and in
different contexts". His Holiness warned about "misuse of religious
feelings and values". It is vitally important, said Aram I, that
"religions as a force be used for the transformation and progress
of society, and not as a means to generate violence and presume
political interests".

Catholicos Aram I also stressed the need for the religion to
adapt itself to new times. "Religion has its traditions, values
and principles. They need to become more relevant and open to new
conditions and realities. Adapting religion to new times, by keeping
the substance of its teachings, in my judgment, is essential for the
inner renewal of religion".

His Holiness also discussed with his visitors a number of matters
pertaining to Christian-Muslim dialogue. He welcomed the growing
commitment of Christians and Muslims throughout the world to engage
in process of seeking common values and working together by respecting
each others values and traditions.

IRAQI ARMENIAN YOUNG MAN INJURED FROM EXPLOSION IN BAGHDAD

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Jan 17 2007

BAGHDAD, JANUARY 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Iraqi Armenian
Joseph Makukchian was gravely injured from an explosion that took
place at 9:00 on January 16 near Baghdad’s Center for Scientific
Researches. Anton Archbishop Adamian, the leader of Baghdad’s Catholic
Armenians, informed Beirut’s Azdak newspaper about it.

Makukchian is the director of the office of a humanitarian organization
on human rights. As a result of the explosion his car entirely burnt
and Makukchian was hospitalized with grave burns.

LEVON ARONIAN GETS 2.5 POINTS FROM 4 POSSIBLE ONES IN WIJK AAN ZEE TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Jan 17 2007

WIJK AAN ZEE, JANUARY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Levon Aronian played a drawn
game with blacks with Sergey Matilyov (Russia) at the 4th stage of the
big international chess tournament being held in the city of Wijk Aan
Zee, Holand, on January 16. L.Aronian got 2.5 points from 4 possible
ones and shares the 3rd-7th places with 5 chess players. The leader
is Temur Rajabov (Azerbaijan) who got 3.5 points.

In the 2nd group tournament being held in parallel, Gabriel Sargsian
yeild Tatyana Kozintseva (Russia) at the 4th stage and has 1.5 point
from 4 possible ones at present.

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DECIDES CITIZENS MAY APPEAL UTILITY FEES IN COURTS

Panorama.am
19:58 16/01/2007

The Constitutional Court made a ruling today which entitles customers
and utility service companies to appeal the decision of public services
regulatory committee in courts. The Constitutional Court decided
that part 2 of article 12 of the law on public services regulatory
body, which prohibits to appeal tariffs in courts, is contradicting
the constitution (part 1, article 18 and part 2, article 43). The
application to Constitutional Court to consider the law invalid was
received by Hovhannes Margaryan, member of Orinats Yerkir party.