Author: Khondkarian Raffi

MATTHEW BRYZA: KOSOVO CANNOT BE A PRECEDENT FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

ArmRadio.am
07.02.2007 13:55

"The scenario of settlement of the Kosovo conflict cannot become a
precedent for resolution of the Karabakh conflict," US Co-Chair of
the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza told the journalists in Baku.

He said that every conflict in the world has its peculiarities,
therefore one should not draw parallels between the methods of
settlement of these."

Speaking of the opportunities to resolve the conflict this year,
the diplomat noted that "the situation is somehow complex connected
with the parliamentary elections in Armenia and in such situation
it is necessary to demonstrate caution in the attempts to achieve
progress." Nevertheless, he emphasized the optimism on the resolution
of the issue and added that "the political will of the Presidents of
both countries is necessary."

Matthew Bryza informed that "common approaches have been found on
the main components of the peace treaty, but the technical components
are now being discussed."

He found it difficult to answer when the recurrent round of
negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place."

"LOS ANGELES TIMES": RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BE ADOPTED THIS TIME BY CONGRESS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Feb 06 2007

LOS ANGELER, FEBRUARY 6, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. It is mentioned
in the article entitled "New Hope for Draft on Genocide" published
in the Los Angeles Times newspaper being published in California that
the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide will be adopted this
time by the Congress.

"The probability of adoption of the resolution is very big, the main
reasons of which are the democrates’ presence at the Congress and
Hrant Dink’s murder," the newspaper wrote.

According to the Turkish "Milliyet" newspaper, the American periodical
paid attention to the circumstance that George Bush promised during his
2000 electoral campaign to use the word "genocide": "Ankara has great
influence and Turkey is the valuable ally from which one may not refuse
because of decisions made by the Congress. But the time came for the
U.S. when the reality must be given preference," the newspaper wrote.

COUCHEPIN BUILDS BRIDGES WITH TURKEY

Swissinfo, Switzerland
Feb 5 2007

Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin has begun his weeklong trip to
Turkey by approving a cultural goods treaty between the two countries.

But the visit looks set to be overshadowed by the "Armenian question"
– whether Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Turks almost
100 years ago. Couchepin said he would raise the issue.

Couchepin, who holds the culture portfolio, met Atilla Koc, the
Turkish minister for culture and tourism, in Ankara on Monday and
the pair agreed to pursue an accord aimed at returning cultural goods.

Turkey has many significant classical antiques, from the Byzantine era
as well as modern times. Switzerland is the world’s fourth-largest
art trade hub – behind the United States, Britain and France – with
a market worth SFr1.5 billion ($1.2 billion).

Couchepin is also set to meet the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan and other ministers on Tuesday.

He will then spend two days in the southeastern part of the country,
populated mostly by Kurds, where he will meet local dignitaries and
visit projects supported by Switzerland. On Friday, he will attend
a meeting with Turkish intellectuals.

Genocide?

Couchepin is visiting Turkey at a tense time. On January 19 Hrant Dink,
a Turkish-Armenian editor who wrote articles referring to a "genocide"
of Armenians, was murdered in Istanbul by an ultra-nationalist Turk.

Armenians say Ottoman Turks slaughtered up to 1.8 million Armenians in
a planned genocide between 1915 and 1919. Turkey vehemently denies that
the mass killings were genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and
Armenians were killed in civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

In an interview on Swiss radio on Sunday, Couchepin said the topic
would be brought up in the course of his visit, adding that the
Swiss government’s position was clear: "History should be left to
the historians".

He said an important step would be the creation of an international
commission that would "examine the issues and look for the causes of
the events of that time – including the massacre".

The Swiss government does not officially speak of genocide.

Rocky

Previous visits by Swiss politicians to Turkey have hardly gone
smoothly – if at all.

On an official visit in October to commemorate the 80th anniversary
of Turkey’s adoption of the Swiss civil code, Swiss Justice Minister
Christoph Blocher attacked Swiss anti-racism laws that have led to
investigations against two Turks for denying the 1915 massacre.

Blocher’s comments raised a storm of protest in Switzerland and
Couchepin described them as "unacceptable".

In August 2005 the Turkish authorities postponed a visit by the then
economics minister, Joseph Deiss, citing "agenda problems" of his
Turkish counterpart.

Cultural goods

A cultural goods treaty with Turkey is the latest in a series of
measures by Switzerland to combat trafficking in stolen antiquities.

In December Couchepin signed an accord with Peru aimed at returning
stolen goods, particularly archaeological artefacts, and in October
Switzerland and neighbouring Italy agreed a similar deal against the
traffic of illicit goods.

The authorities say the measures have already boosted Switzerland’s
standing as a place for dealing in art and antiquities.

Previously the country had gained an unwelcome reputation as a transit
point for stolen artefacts because of its previous reluctance to
tighten its laws on the transfer of cultural goods.

–Boundary_(ID_Nud6rzb4R50/K2QtTcX6zw)–

ARMENIAN ACTING LEGISLATION HAMPERS ARMED FORCES REFORM

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.02.2007 13:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An interdepartmental commission that includes
officials of the RA Defense Ministry and NATO proceeded to work in
order to promote the military reform in Armenia, RA Deputy Defense
Minister, lieutenant general Artur Aghabekian said at a seminar
titled "Military reform in Armenia: provision of Defense Ministry
with civil personnel and introduction of amendments in the law On
Defense", initiated by the George C. Marshall Center. In his words,
the cooperation with NATO is developing both within the Individual
Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) and in the framework of planning and
coordination of reforms.

"Our reforms will be carried out in three stages: reconsideration of
the strategy of military security to be completed in 2008, reforms in
the armed forces in 2008-2010 and ensuring of sustainable development
of the RA armed forces proceeding from international standards and
commitments Armenia undertook to European structures. The last stage
is planned for 2010-2015," Aghabekian said.

At that the RA Deputy Defense Minister remarked that the acting
Armenian legislation is outdated and hampers the armed forces’
reform. "The law On Defense should be reconsidered. Changes are
needed in provisions on call-up and engagement of civilians in the
army structures. We have to elaborate a military doctrine that along
with the national security strategy will raise the efficiency of the
Armenian armed forces. The law On Defense was adopted in 1997 and does
not answer modern demands especially in the light of the reviewed
Constitution. We also have to establish civil control over the army
and elaborate a law on peacekeeping forces," Aghabekian underscored.

SLAIN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST REMEMBERED ON ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH IN TURKEY

AP Worldstream
Feb 05, 2007

The head of Italy’s bishops on Monday led a memorial Mass for a
Catholic priest slain in Turkey at the time of widespread anger in
the Islamic world over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet
Muhammad.

The Rev. Andrea Santoro was shot dead Feb. 5, 2006, as he knelt
in prayer in his church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon. A
16-year-old youth is serving an 18-year prison sentence for the
murder that was believed linked to the outrage over publication of
the caricatures in European newspapers.

"I hope this service will help deepen friendship," Cardinal Camillo
Ruini, accompanied by Santoro’s mother and two sisters, told reporters
upon arrival in Trabzon. "I hope it will help us to find the truth
and bring us closer to God."

The city, on Turkey’s eastern Black Sea coast has come under intense
scrutiny after the killing last month of ethnic Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, who spoke out about the mass killings of Armenians in
the early 20th century and drew the ire of nationalists.

Prosecutors have charged eight people in connection with the killing,
including a teenage gunman and an alleged instigator _ who, like
Santoro’s killer, were from Trabzon.

Pope Benedict XVI remembered Santoro, who worked for dialogue
between the Christian and Muslim faiths, during his visit to Turkey
in November.

Santoro’s killing was one of many recent attacks against Christians
in this predominantly Muslim country. Two other Catholic priests were
attacked last year in Turkey, where Christians have often complained
of discrimination and persecution.

A group of young men attacked and threatened a Catholic priest in
the Aegean port city of Izmir. The priest, a Slovenian, told Italian
state TV at the time that the men grabbed him by the throat, threw
him into a garden and threatened to kill him.

A French priest, Pierre Brunissen, 74, was injured in the hip and leg
when a man stabbed him. That attack took place in the Black Sea port
of Samsun.

Of Turkey’s 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox
Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic, and 3,500 are Protestant,
mostly converts from Islam. Around 2,000 are Greek Orthodox and 23,000
are Jewish.

Hürriyet, Turkey
Feb 2 2007

Mehmet Y. Yilmaz: Why was Yasin Hayal not convicted as a "terrorist"?

The word "terror" is a general term that we use to describe threats
or actions meant to force people to accept certain thoughts or
behavior.

It is a word we use to talk about the utter discounting of human
life, the use of innocent people as targets, the killing of others in
complete disregard for the rules of war, or the kidnapping,
terrifying, injuring, and provocation of others.

One of terror’s "specialities" is that there is no importance
attached to who the victims might be of the specific act. Terror
appears to hit randomly.

Within these parameters, I think it is time we have a serious
discussion in Turkey over how it is that a person who bombed a
McDonald’s with a weapon of his own making was not immediately put
into the category of "terrorist."

I am talking about Yasin Hayal, the man who gave the orders to kill
Hrant Dink, and who putthe gun into Ogun Samast’s hands. I am talking
about the trial that he stood through in Trabzon following his
bombing of the McDonald’s there.

In a report published yesterday in another Turkish newspaper, there
was a comparison made between the trial of Yasin Hayal, which wound
up in this man serving only 10 months, and the trial of two people
caught in Ankara with molotof-cocktails who then served two years.

Hayal carried out a terror act in Trabzon, and was responsible for
the injury of 6 people in the aftermath. By comparison, the two
people in Ankara, though preparing for some sort of terror act, never
carried through with it, and were caught before they did anything.

It is because Hayal’s act was not considered "terror" that we face
the tableau we do right now. We have the right to learn why it is
that justice made the decisions it did in his case. We need to learn
how such a "mistake" could have been made. Is the Justice Ministry
looking into this?

Alexan Harutyunyan is the only candidate

ArmRadio.am
31.01.2007 13:35

Yesterday was the deadline for submission of applications for the
vacant position of the member of the Council of the Public TV and
Radio Company of Armenia. The competition commission informs that the
only applicant is the ex-President of the Council Alexan
Harutyunyan. According to the procedure, the decision will be taken
within 10 days.

Alexan Harutyunyan was elected President of the Council of Public TV
and Radio Company on January 8, 2003, however he term of his office
was calculated starting January 19, 2001. Let us remind that on
January 19, 2001 Tigran Naghdalyan was elected President of the
Council of Public TV and Radio Company. On December 28, 2002 he was
assassinated.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
January 30, 2007 Tuesday 7:59 PM EST

Nobel winner Pamuk cancels German trip over security fears: report

DPA CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT Germany Culture Turkey Nobel winner Pamuk
cancels German trip over security fears: report Cologne
Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish author who received the
Nobel Literature Prize last month, has cancelled a promotional trip

to Germany because of fears that he may be killed if he leaves his
home, a German newspaper was to report Wednesday.

Pamuk, 54, has received threats from Turkish nationalists. The
newspaper Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger said his German publisher confirmed
that a national tour set to begin with an honorary doctorate award at

the Free University of Berlin this Friday was off.

It said Pamuk was concerned after the assassination of an ethnic
Armenian journalist in Turkey, Hrant Dink. Experts said he was not in

greater danger in Germany than in Turkey, but put himself at risk by
leaving his home.

Pamuk was awarded the world’s most prestigious literature prize
for his novels, mostly set in Istanbul. A bid to prosecute him for
insulting "Turkishness" was dropped early last year.

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
January 30, 2007 Tuesday 06:50 AM EST

Ethnic Armenian shot dead in Moscow

A 36-year-old man, who was ethnic Armenian, has been shot dead in the
northwest of Moscow on Tuesday.

The man was shot on the doorstep when he came out from a house in
Khimki Boulevard. His death was instantaneous.

A group of investigators from the northwest city district has been
working on the scene.

The victim has been identified. His name is Armen Manukian, born in
1970, a source from the prosecutor’s office said.

The victim was attacked at around noon Tuesday. The shots were fired
from a Zhiguli car that was passing by, according to preliminary
inquest.

Moscow police have put into effect an emergency capture plan
code-named Perekhvat in a bid to detain the killer.

HOVHANNES DANIELIAN RECOGNIZED 3rd AT 1st STAGE OF JUDO WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT

TBILISI, JANUARY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The 1st stage of the judo world cup
tournament finished in Tbilisi on January 29. Representative of
Armenia Hovhannes Davtian (60 kg, Gyumri) had 4 victories, one loss
and won the 3rd place. The next stage of the cup tournament will start
on February 9 in Paris. 4 judoists will represent Armenia.