Author: Karapetian Hovik

NATO HEAD SAYS IT’S IMPORTANT INTERLOCUTOR FOR KAZAKHSTAN
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

New Europe
5 July 2009 – Issue : 841

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the outgoing NATO Secretary General was a main
guest of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) Security Forum,
which was held in Sweden in 2005 and in FYROM in 2007. NATO is seeking
to deepen cooperation with its partner countries in Central Asia –
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The
NATO partnership offers a multilateral framework for security dialogue
opportunities for bilateral cooperation, which promotes transparency,
builds confidence and helps address shared security challenges. At
a press conference on the eve of the forum and after the plenary
session he answered some important questions concerning Kazakhstan
and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including those asked by
the Kazinform correspondent.

The EAPC Security Forum for the first time will be held on the
post-Soviet territory and Asian continent in general and will be
the first large event on the territory of our country in 2009. How
important is it for Kazakhstan? What place does it take among the
NATO partners in Central Asia?

I do believe that both Kazakhstan and NATO influence each
other. Kazakhstan’s position as an energy supplier and the political
role of your President plays an important role in different areas and
international organizations active in this region. I’ve just come
back from the Palace of the President. We did not only discuss the
Central Asian region but the Middle East Region as well. We discussed
nonprofit operations; touched upon the uranium issues, nuclear program,
which are well of course in concern of international policymakers. We
discussed the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that is
very important as well. It also will be discussed at the seminars
NATO and Kazakhstan are organizing tomorrow. There’s no direct link
between the two organizations but I consider the OSCE as a relevant
organisation for regional security.

With regard to the current level of cooperation between our
country and NATO I would say that is done very well. I know that
your President Nursultan Nazarbayev has always been ambitious about
cooperation between Kazakhstan and NATO. So I can say we have a serious
political dialogue, we have a practical cooperation and Kazakhstan
is very helpful to NATO as far as the lines of communication within
the operation in Afghanistan are concerned. We have an Individual
Partnership Action Plan which we are going to discuss. So I think as
a whole I am very positive about this cooperation.

Kazakhstan will head the OSCE next year. Have you any advice for
Kazakhstan in relation to this post and particularly cooperation
between NATO and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe?

So, first of all let me congratulate Kazakhstan because I think
in this regard this is a milestone for Kazakhstan that is going
to be the chairman of the OSCE in 2010. I can only say from my own
experience that it is a complicated job. It is a big organisation
where unfortunately are too many conflicts and the chairman-in-office
will have to try to find resolution. I could mention many of them:
Nagorno-Karabakh where the OSCE Minsk Group plays a big role as a
mediator, and we have a lot of unfinished business after the crisis
in Georgia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the Caucasus. But I do think
that Kazakhstan is in a good position to mediate and to tackle all
these frozen conflicts. So I wish Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan
leadership all the very best. It is a difficult job and I am quite
sure Kazakhstan is able to do it very well.

As you know new American leadership and President Barack Obama are
launching several initiatives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle
East region. In this regard is NATO strategy going to be reviewed in
order to achieve more positive outcomes in these regions?

Let me focus on let’s say the boundary question which is relevant to
NATO. We see President Obama as the US new president who has been
very proactive as far as our military operation in Afghanistan is
concerned. That’s he intends to do – do very favorable and positive
actions by eventualising the summit of NATO. There is our new
commander, who as you know, commands both US and NATO forces. There
is a review going on and NATO is involved in that review. So I do
think that this pro-activity showed by President Obama is reflected
in the NATO’s lines and it also reflected in the position taken by
Obama as far as Afghanistan is concerned. On Iraq I can only tell
that NATO’s activities in Iraq are focused as you know on the NATO’s
training mission in Iraq. We are training the Iraq escorting forces
in a successful NATO training mission including the mission with the
Italian Carabinieri. And since it is interesting to know that one of
the decisions made at the summit in April of this year is that NATO is
going to have a training mission in Afghanistan, which like in Iraq
will be in combination with American friends. So also in Afghanistan
we are starting up our activity as far as the least is concerned. You
know that NATO does not have any ambitions and I think should never
have any ambitions to involve itself into the Middle East process.

There is an opinion that the security in the central part of Eurasia
should be based not so much on the military control, but on economic
pragmatism. It will help to prevent future traps. Could you brief
about other spheres of cooperation beyond military cooperation?

Let me mention the so called Virtual Silk Highway computer networking
project establishing high speed internet connectivity which I think is
one of the most successful programs in this sense. Another sphere is a
political dialogue in general and, finally civil emergency planning. We
are preparing a training exercise in Almaty this year in consequence
management -"What will you do if there’s a disaster?" it may be a
natural disaster. And I think we have excellent interlocutors for
NATO and I am sure that the Kazakh authorities will also consider
NATO as an interlocutor for Kazakhstan. So the cooperation extends
to many many areas. And I think we should be more ambitious and we
can always be more ambitious and Kazakhstan is the important player
in the region and beyond.

Fiction Chronicle

The New York Times
Sunday Book Review
July 5, 2009

Reviews by JOSEPH SALVATORE

PERFORATED HEART
By Eric Bogosian
Simon & Schuster

Bogosian, the manic monologist of New York’s downtown in the 1970s and
’80s, may be even more manic today ‘ writing drama, screenplays and
fiction while continuing to act. However, there’s no
jack-of-all-trades syndrome here: Bogosian takes his fiction
seriously, creating powerful and often disturbing characters and
rendering them in language as precise as it is authentic. This novel,
his third, is his most assured to date. Told entirely in diary
entries, the story shows us two different periods in the life of
Richard Morris, an American writer now in his 50s. When the book opens
in 2005, Morris’s once luminous career has started to fade. He loses
literary prizes, long-time girlfriends, lovers and friends. His editor
starts ignoring him. Jaded by fame, he confuses decades of selfishness
and indulgence with the dedication great art requires. Then his life
takes a turn: open-heart surgery. During his convalescence, he
uncovers a box of diaries from 30 years earlier, when a young,
ambitious Morris moved to New York to pursue literary
stardom. Alternating between the past and the present, the entries
allow a rich portrait of Morris to emerge. Bogosian renders 1970s New
York City beautifully, describing the great blackout as well as
legendary clubs like Max’s Kansas City. A few conveniently plotted
events permit reunions and resolutions, but the plot isn’t the
point. Bogosian’s novel explores what it’s like to get what we thought
we wanted. Reading the words of young Richard, old Richard writes:
`This kid gives birth to the man I am now.’ Would that someone had
warned him.

UGLY MAN
Stories
By Dennis Cooper.
Harper Perennial, paper

Many of the stories in Cooper’s potent and humorous new collection are
short ‘ often a page or two ‘ and in them recurs all the notorious
subject matter of his oeuvre: pedophilia, necrophilia, torture,
kidnapping, murder, sexual mutilation, death-fetishization, drug
addiction, desire and love, homosexual relationships, teenage
ennui. There are recurrent images as well: among them, axes, hammers
and fists. Knives abound. In `Jerk’: `Wayne’s standing over Brad,
holding a knife.’ In `The Hostage Drama’: `So I got a knife out of the
kitchen.’ In `Oliver Twink’: `I went into the kitchen and got that big
knife.’ And in more than one story, young men decide that being
tortured to death might be an experience worth investigating. In
`Jerk,’ Buddy tells Dean: `I’ve been thinking about what you said,
man. About death and stuff. And . . . yeah, I’m sick of
life. Definitely. I want to go.’ Dean replies: `All right. I’ll take
you out, but first, as bizarre as this sounds, I want you to live here
with me for a few days, a week, and let me get to know you.’ In
`Oliver Twink’ Chris tells his lustful friend that he has considered
death as well: `I thought about what if . . .. I wanted to be with
God? Wouldn’t that be like your big dream come true?’ One of the
strongest stories is the clever and funny `Anal- – Retentive Line
Editor,’ in which an obsessive editor far oversteps the boundaries of
his job. As always, the need for connection ‘ even if experienced at
the level of unspeakable yet intimate violence ‘ as well as the need
to expose what lies underneath are Cooper’s main preoccupations.

THE HOSPITAL FOR BAD POETS
By J. C. Hallman
Milkweed Editions, paper

The figure uniting Hallman’s fabu- – realist stories is the average
man, the common man. Yet as this first collection makes clear, `the
average man is not what he used to be.’ Perceptive, curious, fallible,
Hallman’s Everyman is self-aware enough to understand that personal
change is necessary, but not aware enough to know how to achieve it ‘
a condition, the book suggests, that may be our common lot. As the
narrator of `Autopoiesis for the Common Man’ remarks: `Indeed, to err
is more than human, it is biological.’ Hallman reconfigures our
everyday errors and flaws into deeply affecting fiction. In `Ethan: A
Love Story,’ the narrator visits home over Christmas. Middle-aged and
never married, he feels alienated from his strident family, who, he
says, `had decided to respond to the world’s basic intricacy so
differently from me that just recognizing myself in them, in their
mannerisms and bad habits, made me kind of lonely.’
However, there is one family member not of that ilk ‘ his 6-year-old
nephew, Ethan. Likewise alienated, Ethan gravitates to his outsider
uncle, introducing him to a world of video games and fantasy. What
could have been a sentimental story about lessons learned from a child
is subtly transformed by the author’s fabulist brushstroke, which
paradoxically makes things not stranger but more familiar. Hallman is
wonderfully bright. Yet in a few stories, that brightness lights the
stage too well for his searching characters, who seem to find their
way better in the dark.

PYGMY
By Chuck Palahniuk
Doubleday

Readers of Palahniuk’s excellent early work (`Fight Club,’ `Invisible
Mon – sters’) will sense a shallow, phoned-in quality to his new
novel. Despite its transgressive trappings and cultural- – critique
posturing, `Pygmy’ is as defanged as Marilyn Manson. The book renders
a tween world where antisocial behavior leads either to sex or to an
exasperated eye-roll. Adults are nonentities, often passed out from
the `roofies’ slipped them by their own children. That’s well and good
‘ but when your primary characters are as poorly developed as your
unconscious ones, it’s a problem. Pygmy, the book’s narrator, is
utterly unconvincing as a Hitler-quoting 13-year-old terrorist
operative. His antagonism toward America is his motivation, its
destruction his goal: fine. But where is he from? A `totalitarian
state,’ is all we learn from the jacket copy. When the story opens,
Pygmy and other teenagers from his country arrive in America as
exchange students, but they are actually sleeper cells waiting to
unleash `Operation Havoc,’ whatever that is. Pygmy narrates the book
in part broken English and part who-knows-what: `In Magda hands
already knotted finger ready Cobra One-Strike No-Blood, bam-slam,
inflict cat sister instant dead. More fast most eye able look.’ The
entire book sounds like that. Add to this the de rigueur transgressive
stuff: explicit sodomy and rape, extreme cruelty to animals,
manga-like violence and kids buying their mothers vibrators for
Mother’s Day, and you’ve got this year’s Palahniuk. What will he think
of next?

Joseph Salvatore teaches writing and literature at the New School.

eview/Salvatore-t.html

‘ARMAVIA’ AIR COMPANY RESUMES FLIGHTS TO ASTRAKHAN

ArmInfo
2009-07-03 12:21:00

ArmInfo. Beginning from 14 July ‘Armavia’ air company will resume
direct regular flights from Yerevan to Astrakhan and back.

As press-service of Armavia told ArmInfo, the flight number U8937/938
Yerevan-Astrakhan-Yerevan will be implemented according to the
following schedule:

Departure from Yerevan at 10:00 AM (local time)- arrival in Astrakhan
at 10:35AM (local time), departure from Astrakhan at 12:50 PM (local
time)- arrival in Yerevan at 3:30 PM (local time).

Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Telephone: (818) 500-1918
Facsimile: (818) 246-7353

PRESS RELEASE

July 2, 2009
Contact: Haig Hovsepian
Tel: (818) 500-1918

Students Engage Ambassador Yovanovitch on America’s Foreign Policy

ENCINO, CA — On Friday, June 26th, the United States Ambassador to
Armenia, Marie Yovanovitch participated in a town hall meeting hosted by the
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Church at Ferrahian High School’s Avedissian
Hall in Encino, California. Designed to educate and inform Ambassador
Yovanovitch about the Armenian-Americans concerns in connection with US
foreign policy, the event was one of several community engagements that
included public forums with Armenian-Americans in New York and Boston. A
broad cross-section of the community attended the event on Friday to express
their opinions and concerns regarding US-Armenia relations to the newly
appointed Ambassador. Present and participating in the public forum were
several current and former Armenian National Committee interns and
volunteers.

"This meeting provided a valuable opportunity to actively engage in the
US-Armenia dialogue," said Hovsep Hajibekyan, a University of California,
Berkeley senior currently interning with the Armenian National
Committee-Western Region (ANC-WR), who attended the town-hall meeting. "It
was a rare chance to meet our Ambassador to Armenia and address our
thoughts, concerns and frustrations directly to her. There was clearly high
interest in today’s event, judging from the packed hall, and that is very
encouraging."

After her opening remarks, Yovanovitch responded to many pointed questions
from the audience, many of which were critical of the US position on
recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the Obama Administration’s proposed
reduction of aid to Armenia for 2010.

"I think there are many disappointments and lingering doubts in the
Armenian-American community regarding the new Administration and its
policies in the Caucuses region," commented Christina Toroyan, a volunteer
with the ANC-WR and a student at California State University, Northridge.

"Today’s tough questions and the audience’s uneasy mood reflected those
doubts," she said, recalling an audience member who asked the Ambassador to
identify a single moral or political advantage that resulted from America’s
continued refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. During the town hall
event, Yovanovitch responded by insisting that President Obama has gone
further than his predecessor with his April 24, 2009 statement.

The Ambassador often prefaced her responses with apologies and
acknowledgments that the responses she would give would most likely be
unsatisfactory to the public before which she stood. During her remarks,
Ambassador Yovanovitch never utilized the word "genocide" and struggled to
explain how the US Administration favored increasing direct aid to
Azerbaijan and Georgia, in spite of both countries’ flawed democratic
credentials and their expressed belligerence against their own ethnic
Armenian communities.

Shant Taslakian, a former ANCA Leo Sarkisian Intern and law student at the
University of California, Hastings was not surprised by the Ambassador’s
equivocal answers. "I wish she was a little more candid and clear in her
answers, especially regarding the decrease of aid to Armenia, but as a
diplomat who simply represents US views her style was expected."

Hajibekyan agreed, "Yovanovitch only articulated the ambiguities that exist
in US policy on such questions as aid to Armenia and the genocide issue. Our
hope is that by engaging the Ambassador, we can make our voices heard and
affect change on higher levels of the government."

Community members also expressed their frustration with President Obama?s
failure to properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. During his
presidential campaign, then-candidate Obama had won overwhelming support
from the Armenian-American community with a strongly worded promise to
unequivocally refer to the Armenian Genocide as such. Since taking office in
2009, President Obama has yet to fulfill that campaign promise.

"Genocide is a powerful legal term that properly characterizes the events of
1915," said Shant Taslakian who voted for Obama in 2008. "The president had
a great opportunity to clearly state his position and follow his election
pledge. Instead, he prevaricated. Yovanoitch’s poor answers today reflected
the Administration’s policies."

Hrag Melkonian, a student at the College of the Canyons and an activist with
the Armenian Youth Federation, had even stronger words for the President.
"The fact that our President has constantly used words such as ‘justice’,
‘equality’, and ‘truth’ in his speeches, but refused to properly
characterize the Armenian Genocide is unacceptable and shames me as an
American," Melkonian explained.

"This amounts to defying everything that he and this country have said and
is meant to stand for," adding that he hopes the Ambassador will convey the
community’s disappointment with the Administration when she holds meetings
in Washington, DC.

The town-hall meeting on Friday was the first time Yovanovitch met with the
Armenian-American community of the greater Los Angeles area in her official
capacity as Ambassador. Yovanovitch’s nomination was confirmed in August
2008 by the U.S. Senate. The previous nominee, Richard Hoagland, was
withdrawn following his controversial statements denying the Armenian
Genocide during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings. Yovanovitch is
scheduled conclude her visit to the United Sates with high-level meetings
with officials from the State Department and the White House.

"It is our right and obligation as concerned Americans to have a dialogue
with our government regarding issues of concern to our community," noted
Hrag Melkonian following the meeting with the Ambassador. "I am pleased the
community, specifically young Armenian-Americans, took advantage of this
opportunity and asked our nation’s ranking diplomat in Armenia direct and
important questions regarding America’s foreign policy."

EM AZERBAIJAN – THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME AND THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS

x.php?id=6811&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2347&cHas h=834d32ef9e
25.06.09 16:08

The documents called "Eastern Partnership Programme" signed on May
07 this year between Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova,
Belarus and EU have a great impact. The "Neighborhood Policy" adopted
in 2004 and the signed partnership programme are based on a document
called "European Security Strategy" adopted in 2003. The observations
indicate that the Security Strategy is an outcome of military-political
shocks Europe faced on the international level. Thus, in the mid
of 1990 EU didn’t do anything to prevent the military conflict in
Bosnia. Only after the USA mediatory mission, the Dayton agreement on
Bosnia was reached and the conflict was put to an end. Then conflict
in Kosovo forced the EU to feel the political-military shock. It’s
true that the EU tried to put an end to the conflicts but failed to
do so. This is natural, because the EU didn’t have any real mechanisms
to settle these conflicts. It should be noted that prevention of this
conflict was also reached after NATO intervention. Finally in March
2003 during military operations against Iraq of allies led by USA
different opinions were observed within the EU. This is a third shock
for Europe. Especi ally the wars in Balkanlar indicated the EU to stay
defenseless. The Iraq war proved the importance of the involvement
of the USA in military context in Europe. Ensuring security around
the EU is important in regard to ensure its own security.

Today we can list following threats to the EU:

1. Increase of nuclear weapons 2. Terror threats 3. The State Failure
model in Neighborhood 4. Energy security.

This is a main term to get to work out different instruments and carry
serious reforms in the neighboring states. In this regard the Eastern
Partnership Programme can be considered one of such instruments.

If we take an attention to Eastern Partnership Programme and if take
account not only the cooperation in the field of energy security the
principles reflected here are the same with principles of Copenhagen
in 1993.

Certainly, adding the cooperation in the filed of energy is natural.

Because, after the final enlargement in 2007 the European borders
closed to a energy origins. Besides, Russian usage of energy factor
as a political pressure made topical this question for EU.

The region has strategic importance in geopolitical regard. After
collapse of Soviet Union the regional countries gained their
independence and there is built the important hall in geographical
context dividing the Russian and Iran geopolitical from each
other. Just the South Caucasus region is a unique spa ce playing
a role for guaranteed access to Middle Asia of West. So,the region
has special importance on the context of transit. Besides, region
settlement in geographical context between Russia and Iran determines
the geopolitical importance on global context. Also, the direct access
of region to a basin of Khazar with richest fields of gas and oil
shapes its geo-economic importance.

At present the region carries the importance in three directions:

â~@¢ The geographical position between Russia and Iran â~@¢ Access
to energy resources â~@¢ Importance on context of transit.

Among the above mentioned factors the first and third ones are
geographical so they are very stabile. But the second one is not
long-lasting. The natural resources are exhausted so this factor
is temporarily.

The policy being pursued by Russia toward region mainly looks like a
system of relations existed during Soviet period. Russian political
establishment didn’t escape from stereotypes of Cold War so this
creates a serious problems. This interferes with building bilateral
equal relationships with former soviet republics in psychological
context. Such a situation often creates a tension in the bilateral
ties. Russia treats to former soviet republics as its own space of
interests. This was proved in 2008 August during Russia-Georgia war.

At present Russia is one of the creates exporter of gas and oil to

Europe. Just for these natural superiority Russia uses the energy
factors in its foreign policy as pressure against western countries. On
the bases of this tension there is a chance of South Caucasus to
be alternative of Russia in this field. So, this alternative (South
Caucasus) gives an outcome like weakening of Middle Asia’s dependence
from Russia.

Another factor is Iran. Increasing of probabilities of Iran’s gaining
the nuclear weapon makes it real to become a Nuclear State in the
near period. Iran in the west part of region as a state of anti-west
inclination trying to get a nuclear weapon could be brought cataclysms
to region hard to be analyzed. Hereinafter the regional countries must
take serious account Iran and Russia factors in their relationships
with EU. If Iran get nuclear weapon the "South Caucasus Hall" will be
closed again as it was happened during Cold War period. The unsolved
problems in the region increase this threat.

At present the problems in region need to be solved are followings:

â~@¢ Security â~@¢ Settling of conflicts â~@¢ Sustainable democracy
â~@¢ Good governing â~@¢ Social-economic development

Just implementation of articles considered in the Programme (Eastern
Partnership) has a great importance in regard of settling of problems
above mentioned. Later the EU and the regional countries will earn
more.

A nother importance of Partnership Programme is that there is
considered to create a Civil Society Forum here. Involvement of
Civil Societies will create a real condition for programmes to be
effective. Of course the Forum to be built can realize mainly a
public lobby function, besides, in regard of building and promoting
of mutual relationships between Civil Society Institutes of region
this Forum will be beneficial. Because, if compare European Movements
in South Caucasus with other NGOs it’s clear that three Movements
are the institutions who share the same values and have common goal
and are real partners. To increase Civil Society Institutes active
participation in the process it would be better to give a Forum a
status of Observation and Consultative Body.

In the geographical, historical and cultural context the South
Caucasian countries are a continuation of Europe and if they can
execute this programme successfully this will be a great step toward
membership to European Union.

Surkhan Latifov EM in Azerbaijan

CHARLES AZNAVOUR HANDS OVER HIS CREDENTIALS IN UN GENEVA HEADQUARTERS

NOYAN TAPAN
JUNE 30, 2009
NEW YORK

NEW YORK, JUNE 30, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian Permanent Representative to
UN Charles Aznavour handed over his credentials to the head of the
UN Geneva headquarters Sergo Orjonikidze at the end of the last week.

During the conversation following the ceremony of handing of the
credentials, S. Orjonikidze, highly assessing the decision of the
President of Armenia on entrusting the defense of Armenia’s interests
at the high international instance to the world-famous artist,
noted that the activity of Charles Aznavour will be important both
for Armenia and UN.

According to the Press and Information Department of RA Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the ceremony of giving the credentials was widely
covered by Swiss and international media.

DAVID HARUTYUNYAN: ARMENIA WILL REMAIN UNDER MONITORING
Siranush Muradyan

"Radiolur"
30.06.2009 15:47

Summing up the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe, head of the Armenian delegation to PACE David
Harutyunyan said the issue of Armenia will hardly be discussed at the
fall session of the Assembly unless there are unexpected developments
in the country.

David Harutyunyan predicts that Armenia will remain under monitoring
like 11 other Council of Europe member states.

According to the Head of the Armenian delegation, in Res. 1677
the Assembly welcomed the amendments to the Electoral Code and the
amnesty. However, it expressed regret for the dissolution of the
fact-finding group, expressing hope that the ad hoc parliamentary
commission will do what the group did not manage to do.

The Head of the Armenian delegation noted that all their suggestions
were accepted. "All our suggestions were accepted, which is the result
of diligent work. Nothing falls from the sky," he said.

In response to Zaruhi Postanjyan’s accusations, David Harutynyan
said he had not signed any document presented by Azerbaijan. Besides,
he had no intention to have the page of March 1 closed.

Mahir Oral: Arthur is dangerous from first to last
27.06.2009 15:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish boxer Mahir Oral is confident in his
abilities and hopes to pick up championship of peace in the average
weight (the IBF version) from his opponent Arthur Abraham on June
27. According to Mahir Oral, in case of victory, he will gain
popularity in the United States.
"I have not spent much time studying videotapes of Arthur’s fights,
since I am familiar with him in sparrings. Almost everyone in Germany
knows Arthur’s manner of fighting. I have had excellent sparrings
before the fight. Arthur has not changed since the joint sparrings. It
is still the same fighter . I know that I must watch both his hands,
because they are both dangerous. He is dangerous from first to
last. Despite the fact that Arthur has many fans in Berlin and he is
considered to be the favorite, I will also not remain without
support. I am happy that the fight will be broadcast in the United
States and I want to show a good fight. I hope that I’ll win, and my
name will become known in the United States ", – fightnews.com quotes
Mahir Oral.

Police tries to defend organizers of Dink’s murder
27.06.2009 18:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A report on the threat to Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink’s life was tampered with and toned down before
being sent to Istanbul.
In particular, the sentence ‘Yasin Hayal will murder Hrant Dink
whatever the cost’ was changed to ‘Hayal is planning to take action
toward Dink’.
On June 16, 2006, Trabzon Police Department received report on Yasin
Hayal’s intention to take action against Dink’s life. Two days later,
the modified form of the statement was sent to Istanbul Police
department. The document carries the signature of Ramazan Akyürek who
was Trabzon’s chief of police at the time.
In a report prepared by the Prime Minister’s Inspection Board, Akyürek
is being blamed for `neglecting duty’. The document was approved by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan.
The report signed by Akyürek includes intelligence provided by
Tuncel. Tuncel says an accomplice of Hayal told him that Dink and Agos
daily were blackening the image of Turks and the Turkish Republic, and
for that reason they were planning to take action against him.
`While I was convinced Hayal would do what he wanted to do for sure, I
advised him not to do so. He told me that he would kill this person no
matter the cost,’ Hurriyet Daily News quotes Tuncel as saying.
Hrant Dink was gunned down Jan. 19, 2007 in front of his office in
central Within case frameworks, there are 18 detainees, most of them
being from Trabzon.
Yasin Hayal, 26, who supplied Ogün Samast will stand trial on July
6. That will be the 6th hearing over the case.

ILHAM ALIEV AGREES FOR PARTICIPATION OF AZERI JUDOISTS IN EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP IN ARMENIA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
26.06.2009 20:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Judo Federation actively prepares for
the forthcoming European youth judo to be held between September
11 to 13 of 2009 in Yerevan. As Aleksan Avetisyan, president of
the Armenian Judo Federation told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, more
than 40 national teams are expected to take part in the tournament,
including the national team of Azerbaijan.

"Since Azerbaijan, as Turkey is a member of European judo union, an
invitation was send to them as well. Turkey will necessarily take
part in the championship, and Azerbaijan after a short hesitation
gave a positive answer too. According to the president of Azerbaijan
Ilham Aliev, the national team of Azerbaijan must take part in
the championship. It means they are likely to come to Yerevan,"
Avetisyan said.