Author: Karakhanian Suren

EU official meets Turkish novelist who faces prison
ISTANBUL, Oct 8 (Reuters) – A senior European Union official on
Saturday met best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who faces a
possible three-year jail sentence for his views, and urged EU
candidate Turkey to respect freedom of expression.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn is in Turkey to mark the opening
of EU membership talks this week with the large Muslim nation after
years of delay due partly to human rights concerns.
“Free speech and free expression are core values of the European
Union,” Rehn’s spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy quoted him as saying after
meeting Pamuk at his home in Istanbul.
“You don’t have to agree with everything a writer or journalist says
but they all have a right to express themselves freely,” Rehn was
quoted as saying.
Pamuk, best known for historical novels such as “My Name is Red” and
“The White Castle”, is being charged in connection with claims that
Armenians suffered genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands during World War
One.
The first hearing in his trial has been set for Dec. 16.
Underlining the sensitivity of the Armenian issue in Turkey, an
Istanbul court gave Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrank Dink a six-month
suspended sentence on Friday for “insulting Turkish identity” in an
article he wrote.
Dink denies any wrongdoing and says he had in fact called on the
Armenian diaspora to reject the anger they felt towards Turkey for
events which happened 90 years ago.
Nagy told Reuters Rehn had wanted to meet Pamuk because he admired his
work. She said they had discussed literature and the situation in
Turkey and in Europe.
Pamuk’s comments about the Armenians upset the Turkish establishment
and nationalists, who strongly deny the Armenian genocide claims.
They were also angered by Pamuk’s remarks that Turkish forces shared
responsibility for the death of more than 30,000 Kurds in southeast
Turkey during separatist fighting there in the 1980s and 1990s.
Rehn met Turkish political leaders in the capital Ankara on Thursday
and told them their country would now come under much closer scrutiny
as it tries to bring its laws and standards into line with those of
the wealthy 25-nation EU.
10/08/05 13:22 ET

Pan Armenian
Indian Vice President Invited Artur Baghdassaryan to Delhi
07.10.2005 12:11
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Parliament Speaker Artur Baghdassaryan met with
Thiru Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, RA NA press center reported. The discussions
focused at the development of the Armenian-Indian relations. Artur
Baghdassaryan voiced assurance that the visit of the Vice President will
become a new stimulus for the development of bilateral relations. He also
noted the importance of the development of interparliamentary ties and
informed that an Armenian-Indian parliamentary friendship group was formed
in the RA National Assembly. The parties discussed the possibilities of
cooperating in IT sphere. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat invited Artur
Daghdassaryan to Dehli.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 7, 2005 Friday 10:29 AM Eastern Time
Self-determination should be Karabakh settlement basis-Kocharyan
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The Karabakh conflict should be resolved on the principle of
self-determination of peoples, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
told a joint press conference with Latvian leader Vaira
Vike-Freiberga on Friday.

CHAIRMAN OF CEC: “IF THERE IS A VIOLATION IN REGISTRATION OF CANDIDATES WITH PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS, SUCH CANDIDATES WILL BE DISQUALIFIED”
Today, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2005
Interview with the chairman of the Central Elections Commission (CEC),
Mazahir Panahov.
Question: Is the process on clarification of electors’ list held by
the CEC complete. Was the electors’ list on Khankandi constituency
compiled?
Answer: List of electors, who are Azerbaijani by origin, in the
Khankandi constituency has been compiled. However, the list of
citizens, Armenian by origin, is still to be compiled. Even unless the
list of clarified, the results of elections on Khankandi constituency
will be considered as adopted, because there no quorum on number of
electors in the Azerbaijani legislation. So, the participation of
electors, Azerbaijanis by origin, in the elections will be enough
to consider the results of voting as legal. The international
organizations also gave positive estimation to the establishment of
the Khankandi constituency. An interim report by the OSCE Office
for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Election Observation
Mission (EOM) to the Republic of Azerbaijan Parliamentary Elections
in particular stressed the issue.
Question: The document also contains some notes in connection with
the pre-election processes in Azerbaijan. How do you estimate the
interim report by the OSCE/ODIHR and EOM?
Answer: The report is normal and balanced, while there are some
milestones which I can’t agree with. I think they take wrong position
in connection with participation of religious leaders. The precinct
elections commissions did not register the candidacy of the head of
religious Jewish community, Mr. Zelmanovich, as the Constitution of
Azerbaijan bans the election of religious leaders to the parliament.
The OSCE tries to make suspicious that Zelmanovich is a religious
leader. However, he himself indicted his official position in the
document submitted to the precinct elections commission as the
head of the Jewish religious community. The head of the religious
community is a clerical leader, so the precinct elections commission
did not register his candidacy and the CEC maintained the resolution
in force. OSCE makes notes in this respect, while I’m sure there is
no ground for dissatisfaction. Besides, there are notes in connection
with the cancellation of the candidacy of the chairman of the Islamic
Party, Hajiaga Nuri. There is no any restriction in the registration
of the political parties in Azerbaijan in respect to their religious
activities. To my mind, such notes included in the report do not
correspond to reality as well. The rest can be somehow accepted. As
of general estimation, the pre-elections developments go on well. The
international organizations, in particular, their observation missions
do not consider as necessary to mark the satisfactory peculiarities of
the situation. They mainly note and inform about the shortcomings. As
it seems, no serious shortcomings were indicated in the report.
Question: How many international observers will observe the elections?
Answer: Over 100 international observers have been registered thus
far. Their total number attains even 1000 people. Vladimir Rushaylo,
the chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, will pay a visit to Baku
on 5 October with his delegation. The mission of observers plans
to hold meetings with the leadership of the CEC and discuss the
pre-elections processes. I guest the CIS mission will be satisfied
with the current stage of elections and work done by the CEC thus far
for holding elections. Question: How do you estimate the process of
electioneering? Answer: I think this stage develops quite normally.
We should not lose from sight the number of candidates to participate
in the elections is quite high. Over 2,000 candidates ballot for
deputy mandate. So, it would not be real to name everything as
ideal and urge that all candidates will behave correctly. In some
cases they lay accusation on each other. As a chairman of the CEC,
I would like not to see such facts. Some candidates even come out
against the statehood, which is also unacceptable.
Question: Some complaints are made on the heads of the Executive
Powers, state officers, involved in the elections process. Some
candidates, abusing their better financial status, try to attract
the voters. Does the CEC take relevant steps in regard to such people?
Answer: We studied some complaints and revealed that they did not
correspond to reality. Some problems sometimes are exaggerated. In
case the complaints do not correspond to reality, people who commit
law-breaks are warned. The CEC takes steps in accordance with the
law. The candidacy of those who made serious violations can be
disqualified in the end.
Question: When will the results of the investigation into cases of
candidate with previous accusations be publicized?
Answer: the CE secretaries are seriously involved in it. As a result
we will define how legal the registration of the candidates is. In
general, 10 candidates are suspected to have such accusations.
Shortly, the court will provide the reply and the CEC will take a
final resolution. If any law-break is revealed, the candidate will
be immediately disqualified. The results will be publicized late
this week.
Question: The opposition parties and blocs are anew going to appeal
to the CEC with request to combine the free air time allocated them.
Could the proposal be implemented?
Answer: No, the proposal fully contradicts the legislation. Even if
the CEC wants, it cannot do it. So, the CEC did not consider the
appeal. The CEC secretaries explained it with irrelevance of such
proposals with their competency. The CEC Secretary, Vidadi Mahmudov,
held talks with the applicants. As to their dissatisfaction with
the duration of air time, it concerns only the free air time. The
candidates can use the paid air time as much as they want. AzTV and
the Public TV offer better conditions for candidates. I guess, there
is no ground for dissatisfaction.
Question: Were the shortages in covering the elections removed after
the CEC’s appeal to media?
Answer: Yes, the TV channels have fully observed the law and the
process of covering of the elections develops normally. The mistakes
made earlier are also eliminated.

YOU MUST BUILD YOUR HOUSE
A1+
| 11:37:20 | 05-10-2005 | Regions |
For the last two years no state program of house-construction has
been realized in Gyumri. A variant of solving the problem of proving
people with houses was the allotting of certificates for buying
houses. Another variant is private house-construction.
This is 98 people have been allowed to build their houses. According to
the Municipality urban development department head Hrayr Karapetyan,
this year was unprecedented as so many people received permission to
build houses.
The reason is that no state program of house-construction has been
realized in for the last two years. According to the official, 98%
of the applications get a positive answer. The only exceptions are
the cases when the applicants want to build their houses in places
where no construction is allowed.

ARMENIA’S GDP UP 11.7% IN JAN-AUG 2005
RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – Armenia’s GDP in
January-August grew 11.7% year on year to $2.5 billion, a government
official said Monday.
According to the National Statistics Service, per capita GDP for the
period was $784.
Armenia’s H1 industrial output grew 6.2% to $906.5 million and
agricultural output increased by 11.8% to $550.5 million.
Estimated GDP annual growth rate is 8% and inflation, 3%.
The country’s H1 trade turnover was almost $1.7 billion, a 31.4%
increase year on year.
The average monthly salary in January-August was $109, up 23.6%
compared with the same period last year.
Unemployment fell by 1.1% to 124,300 jobless.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BID TO SAVE EU TURKISH ENTRY TALKS
CNN
Oct 3 2005
Draft document sent to Turkey, Austria to try to broker deal
LUXEMBOURG — European foreign ministers were trying to rescue talks on
Turkey’s entry to the European Union after they were forced to postpone
them following a hard line by Austria on full Turkish membership.
EU president Britain presented Turkey and Austria with a revised
draft negotiation mandate for Turkey’s EU membership talks in a bid
to break a diplomatic deadlock and launch the talks, diplomats said.
“Things are at an advanced stage. We are checking with Ankara and
Vienna to ensure that any text we put on the table will meet the
approval of all,” a British official told Reuters.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was waiting in Ankara to fly
to Luxembourg for a delayed opening ceremony late on Monday if the
compromise was accepted, the diplomats said.
But chances appeared slim, with Austria — alone among the 25 EU
nations — sticking to its insistence that predominantly Muslim Turkey
be offered something short of full membership if it cannot meet the
entry criteria.
The postponed ceremony had been due at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) in Luxembourg
and was to have involved Turkey’s Gul.
In the end following Austria’s stand, he did not leave Turkey in time
to attend — and a bid from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
to get the talks started on schedule failed.
Austria was sticking to demands that the vast, poor, Muslim country
be offered an alternative, less-than-full membership if it failed
to meet all the EU criteria. Turkey said it angrily rejected any
second-class status.(Turkish PM: No compromise)
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw — due to chair the talks –said
negotiations were “hard and difficult,” but continuing.
Straw had told reporters after a private meeting with Austrian Foreign
Minister Ursula Plassnik and a telephone call with Turkish Foreign
Minister Gul Monday morning he was not sure the talks would go ahead.
Diplomats told Reuters he had told the 24 other EU foreign ministers
upon resuming talks after only a couple of hours’ sleep: “Yes, we
are near but we are also on the edge of a precipice.
“If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands. If we go the
wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union.”
Diplomats said there were also problems between Turkey, on the one
hand, and Greece and Cyprus, on the other, over a clause in the draft
negotiating mandate demanding that Ankara not block the accession of
EU states to international organizations and treaties.
Turkey was concerned the wording could give a divided Cyprus a lever
to join the NATO defense alliance without a U.N.-brokered peace
settlement on the Mediterranean island.
Turkish hardliners had argued that Turkey could prevent Ankara blocking
a divided Cyprus from joining NATO.
Diplomats revealed how U.S. Secretary of State Rice had stepped in
Monday to try to rescue the talks.
They told Reuters that Rice had spoke by telephone with Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and assured him that the EU’s proposed
negotiating framework for the talks, due to open later on Monday,
would not impinge on NATO.
Cypriot officials denied to The Associated Press that they sought
additional demands.
But the central problem remained Austria’s insistence — alone among
the 25 EU nations, including Cyprus — that Ankara be offered a
status short of accession if it failed to meet the criteria or if
the EU was unable to absorb it.
Straw had urged that all member states had to fulfil their many
promises to Turkey, a long-establish NATO member and strategic ally
of America and Europe, British sources said.
He also warned that pulling the plug now risked widening the divide
between the Christian and Muslim worlds, the UK’s Press Association
reported.
Turkish financial markets weakened on the uncertainty in Luxembourg,
with the main share index down 2.3 percent and the lira down almost
1 percent against the dollar. Although there was no apparent markets
panic, failure of talks could deal a longer term blow to political
reform and foreign investment in Turkey.
“We are not striving to begin negotiations no matter what, at any
cost,” Gul said in an interview published Sunday in Turkey’s Yeni
Safak newspaper. “If the problems aren’t solved, then the negotiations
won’t begin.”
Outgoing German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned his colleagues
that Turkey might walk away if the EU watered down the terms on offer
any further.
“If you want to open negotiations, you have to remember we have to
have someone to open them with,” a diplomat told Reuters he had told
the meeting Sunday.
Cyprus issue The EU has already angered many Turks by demanding that
it recognize Cyprus soon and open its ports and airports to traffic
from the divided Mediterranean island.
The European Parliament compounded Turkish ire last week by saying
Turkey must recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians under Ottoman
rule as an act of genocide before it can join the EU.
EU diplomats had hoped Austria would ease its stance after regional
elections in Styria province Sunday. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel’s
People’s Party lost power there for the first time since 1945 despite
his brinkmanship on Turkey.
Schuessel has informally linked the Turkish issue to a demand that
the EU open accession talks immediately with Austria’s largely Roman
Catholic neighbor, Croatia.
But those talks have been frozen until Zagreb satisfies U.N. war
crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte that it is cooperating fully in
the hunt for a fugitive indicted ex-general.
Accepting the mostly poor, predominantly agricultural Turkey into the
bloc has been met with resistance across the EU. Recent polls show
a majority of French, German and Austrian voters oppose admitting
Turkey, and a majority of Danes would rather see non-EU candidate,
Ukraine, in the EU than an Islamic country.
Turkey has accepted unprecedented conditions to take part in the EU
negotiations, including an open-ended halt to the movement of Turkish
workers into the bloc.
Turkish immigration remains a thorny issue in many EU states and
anti-Turkish sentiment figured in votes in the EU constitution in
France and the Netherlands.
Austrians in particular have some deep-rooted historical mistrust
of Turkey, seeing themselves as Europe’s gatekeepers ever since they
vanquished the Ottoman Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. (Austrians
troubled by Turkey)

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005
FINLAND SUPPORTS OSCE ACTIVITY IN SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30. ARMINFO. Finland supports the OSCE activity in
settlement of Karabakh conflict, says Finnish President Tarja Halonen
at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
in Baku, Azertag reports.
Finland is for settlement of the conflict through peaceful
negotiations only. Tarja Halonen expressed desire that the
conflicting parties achieve a mutually advantageous way of
resolution. ‘As you know, we paid a special attention to the problem
and aspired for appointment of EU Special Representative. And this
work was fulfilled’ the Finnish president said. The work was uneasy
as there are other states in the region, she said. They also faced
conflicts and make similar steps to settle them, the president said.
‘ OSCE is on the one side and the EU on the other side. I think
strengthening the relations of Azerbaijan with the EU can make a
definite contribution to settlement of the given problem,’ Halonen
said. She added in the course of its chairmanship Finland will
further work actively to render necessary assistance to Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

FINNISH PRESIDENT VISITS MILLI MAJLIS
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Sept 29 2005
President of Finland Mrs. Tarja Halonen has visited today the Milli
Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan, where she met with Speaker of the
Milli Majlis Murtuz Alasgarov.
The speaker informed the distinguished guest on the activities of
the Azerbaijan-Finland interparliamentary friendship group noting
the two countries relations were based on the traditions of fruitful
cooperation within international organizations including the Council
of Europe and OSCE. Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh he expressed hope it would be solved on the
basis of the international law, and that the visit to Azerbaijan
by the Finnish president would enhance cooperation between the two
countries in political, economic and cultural fields.
President Halonen responded she stood for solution to the conflict
through negotiations in the framework of the Minsk process adding
assuming EU presidency next year Finland would support Azerbaijan’s
integration into Europe. She expressed hope for democratic
parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan noting if invited Finland too
could sent its observation mission to Azerbaijan.

Hurriyetim, Turkey
11:30 CET, 29.09.2005
Lift off hour for October 3 plane hangs in the balance; Ankara awaits word
from Brussels
Last minute changes to the EU accession talks Framework Document may
be responsible for Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his delegation
deciding to stay in Ankara rather than leave for Luxembourg for the
start of the October 3 meetings. The private plane meant to lift off
on October 2 for Luxembourg will wait instead on the runway at
Ankara’s Esenboga Airport for word coming out of Brussels. According
to sources at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, “If the Turkish
delegation interprets the document ‘positively,’ the plane will take
off. But if the document is laden with requirements to the detriment
of Turkey, the motors will not be started.”
Currently, EU member Austria is reportedly making great efforts to
have the “privileged partner” status included in the Framework
Document as a formula for membership alternative. Foreign Ministry
spokeperson Namik Tan has signalled that entrance of the “privileged
partner” option, or the requirement that Turkey immediately open its
air and sea ports to southern Cyprus into the document’s body will
mean that the delegation will not be attending the October 3 talks.
Tan echoed a call from the Foreign Ministry for full explanation and
revelation of the inner workings of the Framework Document from the EU
in advance of the Turkish delegation’s acceptance and pursuit of the
upcoming talks.

Tan also confirmed a telephone call between FM Gul and his British
counterpart Jack Straw, affirming that the Turkish FM had warned Straw
that the Turkish delegation would not be attending talks in Luxembourg
if the EU continued to pile on what are perceived in Ankara to be last
minute and unfair requirements for Turkey.