Author: Karapetian Hovik

PanARMENIAN.Net

No Armenians among victims of Beirut blast
26.01.2008 14:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A car bomb Friday killed one of
Lebanon’s top terrorism investigators who was probing
assassinations of prominent anti-Syrian figures and a
series of other attacks in recent years.

Capt. Wissam Eid, 31, worked for the police
intelligence agency which is closely tied to the
Western-backed government and had survived two
previous assassination attempts. The attack also
killed his bodyguard and three passers-by and wounded
37 people, police said, the AP reports.

Shahan Kandaharian, the editor of Beirut-based Azdak
newspaper told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that there
are no Armenians among the victims.

However, one Armenian was injured and a shop belonging
to an Armenian was damaged in January 15 bomb blast
targeting a U.S. embassy vehicle in a northern suburb
of Beirut, he said.

ARTUR BAGHDASARIAN STATED THAT THE ATTACK ON HIS REGIONAL HEADQUARTER EVIDENCES "THE FEAR OF THE ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES"

Mediamax
January 25, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Last night, the windowpanes of the pre-election
headquarter of the candidate for the position of the Armenian President
Artur Baghdasarian were broken and his pre-election posters were torn
up in Vanadzor.

Mediamax reports that Baghdasarian himself stated this in Yerevan
today, speaking at the meeting with the electors. Condemning the
incident, the candidate for the position of the President expressed
hope that the law-enforcement bodies will manage to unveil the crime
and punish the "craven rascals".

Artur Baghdasarian stated that the attack on the Vanadzor headquarter
evidences "the fear of the authorities for the increase of his
rating and the upcoming victory during the presidential elections of
February 19".

The candidate informed that the "national rally" of his allies will
take place on February 3 in Yerevan at the Freedom Square.

PLOT TO KILL ORHAN PAMUK FOILED

Times of India
Jan 25 2008
India

ANKARA: A group of ultra-nationalists who were detained this week
had been plotting to kill the Nobel Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk,
Turkish newspapers said on Thursday.

The group, known as Ergenekon and led by a retired brigadier, was
also planning a series of bomb attacks and assassinations aimed at
fomenting chaos before mounting a coup against the Turkish government
in 2009, the papers said.

Police have arrested 35 people, including former army officers and
lawyers known for their far-right views, following the seizure of
explosives and weapons at a house in Istanbul last year.

Newspapers carried extensive and detailed claims suggesting the
nationalists may have been behind a number of past bomb attacks
and assassinations. The gang was reportedly seeking 2 million lira
($1.67 million) and a Glock gun to assassinate Orhan Pamuk.

Pamuk, known for novels such as ‘My Name is Red’ and ‘Snow’, is
loathed by Turkish nationalists for saying Turkey was responsible for
the deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War One and
of 30,000 Kurds in recent decades.

Police had been observing Ergenekon, which is named after a valley
in Turkish nationalist mythology, for several years and have compiled
a 7,000-page dossier on the group and its activities, the newspapers
said.

Far-right groups have long operated in Turkey with relative impunity.

Many Turks say the lack of arrests after past attacks in which
such groups have been implicated points to some degree of official
protection or collusion.

But PM Tayyip Erdogan’s government has vowed to combat the
ultra-nationalist gangs, saying their activities harm Turkey’s image
and its drive to join the European Union.

"You see our security forces have begun a very serious and decisive
process in the struggle with this kind of organised crime," told
Erdogan.

HUNDREDS OF ACTIVISTS GATHER TO OPPOSE CONG. ROBERT WEXLER’S DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

armradio.am
24.01.2008 10:15

Hundreds of activists from around the country, and from as far as
Australia and Argentina, joined together in the 19th District of
Florida to rally against genocide denier Cong. Robert Wexler (D-FL-19),
and stand in support with democratic primary candidate Dr. Benjamin
Graber, reported the Armenian National Committee of South Florida
(ANC of S. FL).

"The ANC of South Florida felt it was time to voice our concerns
about Congressman Wexler. Enough is enough. It is time for change, and
to elect someone who will represent Florida’s 19th District. We now
have a candidate who is the right man for the job, and the Armenian
and Greek communities stand by him one-hundred percent," commented
Albert Mazmanian, Chairman of the ANC of S. Florida.

The event, organized by the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), and
co-hosted by the Armenian National Committee of South Florida the
Armenian Student Association (ASA), and the Cyprus Action Network
of America (CANA) amounted to a great success. Also present at the
rally was Dr. Benjamin Graber, the democratic primary challenger to
Cong. Wexler in the 19th district, as well as his family.

For over two hours, activists held up signs and chanted "Vote Graber
2008" and "Wexler Out of Congress." Following the rally, a program
was organized with the following participants offering remarks and
motivating activists to take action: Isabel Ohanian, chairwoman
of the AYF Central Hai Tahd Committee; Albert Mazmanian, chairman
of the ANC of S. Florida; Nikos Taneris of CANA; John Bosnitch of
the Serbian community; Dr. Benjamin Graber; and Karine Birazian,
Executive Director of the ANCA Eastern Region.

During his speech, Graber commented: "The world needs leaders who
are fair, calm, and intelligent. The time for war should be over. A
new era of peace, understanding, and cooperation amongst people and
nations needs to begin.

The leaders of the status quo like Robert Wexler need to retire and
make room for the agents of change who will lead us into a secure
and stable future. I am an agent of change, a believer in peace and
a mediator of ideas. I will develop consensus and accomplish our
goals. That’s why I am running to be your congressman."

Several thousand Greeks and Armenians reside in Florida’s 19th District
and have already begun taking action against Cong. Wexler. His past
actions on the Cyprus issue as well as his denial of the Armenian
Genocide have concerned several constituents and have led them to
join Graber’s campaign.

GAS IMPORTS INTO ARMENIA GROW BY 19.7% IN 2007

Noyan Tapan
Jan 24, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 24, NOYAN TAPAN. Last year, natural gas imports
into Armenia grew by 19.7% and made 2 bln 54 mln cubic meters. NT
correspondent was informed by the press service of ArmRusgazprom
company that gas sales grew by 17.9% to 1 bln 869 mln cubic meters,
icluding consumption of natural gas by the population (32.5% growth
to about 532 mln cubic meters).

Industrial consumption grew by 406 mln cubic meters or 17.5% as
compared with 2006.

According to the same source, last year there were 6,250 gas consuming
organizations against 4,838 ones in 2006. The amount of gas supplied
to these organizations increased by 12.9% to nearly 1 bln 337 mln
cibic meters.

Among the largest gas consumers were the Yerevan Thermal Power Plant
(TPP), the Hrazdan TPP, the Nairit Plant, Ararat Cement and Mika
Cement. Gas consumption by Nairit grew by 47.9%, by Ararat Cement –
by 14.4%, by Mika Cement – by 1.4% as compared with 2006. Consumption
by the Hrazan TPP declined a bit: 354 cubic meters in 2007 against
368 cubic meters in 2006.

40.3 bln drams (about 132 mln USD) was invested by ArmRusgazprom in
the system in 2007.

KOSOVO’S INDEPENDENCE DICTATED BY INTEREST OF LONG-TERM STABILITY AND SECURITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.01.2008 15:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Albanian President Bamir Topi addressing the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said "only a united
Europe is capable of eliminating war as a political instrument for
solving conflicts and leading the countries of the region towards a
more prosperous future".

He said that Kosovo’s independence was dictated by the interest of
long-term stability and security and described the Ahtisaari plan as
the only possible compromise solution for the unique case of Kosovo,
PACE communication unit reports.

SKYLARK FARM
By Antonia Arslan

The Independent
18 January 2008
UK

It is 1915, and Sempad the prosperous pharmacist and his family
are excitedly making preparations for his brother Yerwant’s visit
after decades abroad. The Pharmacie Hayastane, named after the lost
homeland of the Armenians, is a "beacon of prog-ress and civilisation"
in their little Anatolian town. The Arslanian family are busy putting
the finishing touches to Skylark Farm, their new country house, with
tennis and croquet lawns and rose-covered pergolas, while in Italy
Yerwant dreams of building a villa nearby where he can retire.

This is a bucolic paradise, yet from the first we know that disaster
looms; most of the family will perish. The reader has already met
little Henriette, three in 1915, as an old lady accompanying the author
to her first name-day church service in Italy. Arslan’s first novel
is also a family memoir, and bears witness to the Armenian massacre
that wiped out so many of her forebears in Turkey.

Her imagined history is frequently mystical. Some have had
premonitions, "smelled blood in the air, caught the scent of
evil" or had visions of the archangel surrounded by evil fire. The
paterfamilias, Hamparzum, sees the horsemen of the Apocalypse as his
toddler grandson feeds him grapes on his deathbed. He entrusts the
child to the Virgin as he dies.

The atrocities they suffer are hard to read, both because of the
horrific events and Arslan’s purple prose. Leslie is "flung against
the wall, where his small round head smashes like a ripe coconut,
spraying blood and brain across the delicate floral designs." Carnage
becomes religious kitsch, as when Hripsime sees her baby skewered on
a bayonet, "the joyous soul of her little Vartan hesitantly trying
out his new wings".

Leaving aside literary quality, Arslan’s novel raises compelling
questions about the traumatic historical events that shaped our
inherited identity – here, where memory becomes third-generation
legend. The Armenian massacres are said to have served as a model
for Hitler’s subjugation of Poland. Here the collective memory
of the Holocaust serves as the model for imagining the Armenian
genocide. Arslan inappropriately attributes Nazi ideologies to the
Ottomans. Setrak the baker becomes a sub-human collaborator with the
Kurdish guards. Arslan calls him "a capo": I read this to mean kapo,
a term borrowed from Nazi concentration camps. This was the only moment
Geoffrey Brock’s translation offered anything less than lucid clarity.

The narrative has echoes of Schindler’s Ark. Ismene, a wily Greek and
Nazim, a Turkish beggar, save the survivors. Nazim is no Schindler,
though, compelled by greed as much as remorse. There’s little hope
for redemption or reconciliation here, in the face of an inherited,
implacable grief.

Atlantic £12.99 (275pp) £11.69 (free p&p) from 0870 079 8897

–Boundary_(ID_m66RpzWDdIUf6RMU5h9qxg)–

JAN KUBIS: IF PEOPLE IN AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA ARE NOT PREPARED FOR COMPROMISES, THE EFFORTS OF THE MINSK GROUP WILL NOT BE EFFECTIVE

arminfo
2008-01-23 12:24:00

ArmInfo. Council of Europe Committee of Ministers closely follows
the process of negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict.

It is interesting for us how Azerbaijan and Armenia fulfill the
commitments vis-a-vis the Council of Europe," Jan Kubis, Minister
for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Chairperson of the Council of Europe
Committee of Ministers said in the PACE session, APA’s Europe bureau
reports. He said that the Committee of Ministers’ Group (AGO Group)
will visit the two countries in April. "

The Group will discuss the ways of solution with the countries’
authorities.

The Committee of Ministers considers that confidence should be
established between the parties first of all. If people in Azerbaijan
and Armenia are not prepared for compromises, the efforts of the
Minsk Group will not be effective," he said. Jan Kubis said they
support the relations between the two communities, civil societies
and media representatives.

DINK’S ANNIVERSARY A REMINDER THAT COUNTRY MUST REFORM PENAL CODE, SAY IFEX MEMBERS

IFEX

Jan 23 2008
Canada

IFEX members in Turkey and around the world commemorated the first
anniversary of the murder of Armenian editor Hrant Dink on 19 January,
while reminding the Turkish government that true justice for Dink
must include urgent reform to its penal code.

Ten thousand people, including Dink’s widow Rakel and writer and peace
activist Arundhati Roy, gathered in front of the "Agos" newspaper
office in Istanbul at 3 pm, the place and time where Dink was gunned
down last year allegedly by a Turkish nationalist, report IFEX members
in Turkey IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) and the Initiative
for Freedom of Expression (Antenna-TR). The protesters placed red
carnations on the spot where he was killed and demanded justice in
the case.

Although a murder trial started last year, it is taking place behind
closed doors and none of the 19 suspects have been charged.

Dink had tried to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and
Armenia. But months before his death he was prosecuted under Article
301 of Turkey’s penal code for "insulting Turkishness" and given
a six-month suspended sentence for describing a century-old mass
killing of Armenians as "genocide" in the Turkish-Armenian newspaper
"Agos". His high profile trial and conviction under Article 301 branded
him a traitor and made him a target for extremists, say IFEX members.

"Writers, journalists and publishers continue to face charges under
301 and other similarly divisive articles, receiving frequent threats
of violence as a result," wrote ARTICLE 19, Index on Censorship and
English PEN in a joint letter to "The Times".

IFEX members believe that true justice for Dink must include the
urgent abolition of Article 301 and are "dismayed" at how little has
changed since his death. Rakel Dink, addressing the crowd in front of
"Agos", pointed out that if Dink were still alive, he would actually
be in jail now. Dink’s son, Arat, and the newspaper’s owner were
given suspended sentences under Article 301 in October.

Over the coming weeks, the Turkish parliament will discuss amendments
to 301, but IFEX members believe they are likely to prove inadequate –
although "insulting Turkishness" may be removed, "denigration of the
Turkish nation" will still be considered a criminal offence carrying
severe penalties.

The International Publishers Association (IPA), who has been leading
an international campaign for the repeal of Article 301 and has been
in Turkey along with International PEN on a fact-finding mission,
calls the changes "cosmetic" and "likely to lead to more trials of
publishers and writers."

IFEX members are calling on the EU, in its negotiations with Turkey,
to ensure Article 301 is repealed and not just amended, and that no
one else is killed or persecuted solely for expressing their opinions.

The website of "Hrant Icin, Adalet Icin" ("For Hrant, For
Justice") campaign, run by a group of Turkish organisations, gives
information on the events held for Dink in Turkey and abroad. See:

PACE MISSION TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA ON JAN 28

ARKA News Agency
Jan 23 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, January 23. /ARKA/. The PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe) Mission headed by John Prescott arrives in
Armenia on January 28 on the occasion of the forthcoming presidential
election. On January 29, the delegation will meet with Boyana Urumova,
special representative of OSCE/ODIHR Secretary General.

The OSCE observers plan to meet with RA NA (National Assembly)
Speaker Tigran Torosian and members of the Armenian delegation in
PACE. President of the RA Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan and
Chairman of the RA Central Electoral Commission Garegin Azarian will
meet with OSCE representatives on January 29.

The OSCE Observers plan to meet with presidential candidates on
January 30.

Round table discussions with mass media representatives are scheduled
as well.

The mission’s meeting with RA President Robert Kocharian is scheduled
for January 30.

Next day, the observers will meet with members of the National
Television and Radio Committee and the Council of the Public Television
and Radio. RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and Head of the RA
Police Haik Harutyunyan will also meet with the guests. After this,
the OSCE observers will meet once again with Garegin Azarian.

The results of the meetings will be made public on February 1, after
the delegation departs from Yerevan.

Presidential election in Armenia is scheduled for February 19, 2008.

Nine candidates have been nominated by the RA Central Electoral
Commission.