Author: Khondkarian Raffi

ARMENIAN CONSUL GENERAL TO TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT FORUM OF SOUTH OF RUSSIA
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 05 2006
KRASNODAR, SEPTEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Ararat Gomtsian,
RA Consul General in the RF South Federal Okrug, will take part in
the International Investment Forum of South of Russia “First Year
of Realization of Priority National Projects in the South of Russia:
Results and Prospects.”
According to the Yerkramas (Krai) newspaper of Armenians of Russia, the
forum is held on September 7-9 in the town of Kislovodsk, Stravropol
territory, within the framework of All-Russian Marketing Program
“Investments in Russia.”
The forum organizers are RF Federation Council, the administration
of RF President’s Plenipotentiary in the South Federal Okrug, the
government and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Stavropol
territory.
The most successful industrial and financial companies, the biggest
Russian financial structures, foreign investment banks are involved
in the forum.
Among forum participants there are also businessmen of Armenian
origin. The main goal of the forum is to bring closer investment
demand and supply.

YEREVAN SLAVIC UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR DECLARES WAR TO TURKISH, GEORGIAN, TURKMEN, UKRAINIAN AND AZERBAIJANI HISTORIANS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug 5 2006
Artyom Khachaturyan, professor of the Yerevan Slavic University called
Turkmenistan’s President Saparmurat Niyazov “successor of barbarians”,
APA reports.
Armenian professor states in his article published in Russian
“Politicheskiy klass” journal Saparmurat Niyazov did not stand against
one’s interest by calling Seljuk Turkish Empire Turkmen state.
“No state protests against Niyazov’s position. Because, no one wants
to be the successor of the “barbaric” Empire,” Khachaturyan underlined.
The Armenian researcher attempted to distort the histories of turkey,
Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan as well. Accusing
Ukrainian historians of appropriating Russian history, Khachaturyan
said the claims that Ukraine is the first Slavic state and the Kyiv
Russian State belonged to Ukrainians are groundless.
He also introduced poet Azerbaijani poet Nizami as Persian. He said
Nizami never wrote in Azerbaijani but in Persian.
The Armenian professor also raised claims against Turkey related to
its denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide”.
Ukrainian and Turkmen historians have not yet reacted to Khachaturyan’s
article written by the order of Russian and Armenian political circles.
Artem Khachataryan is holding an active campaign in the forum section
of the countries.ru website for introducing Azerbaijani poets Nizami
Ganjavi and Khagani Shirvani as Persian. He also called it nonsense
that Armenians killed many Jews in Guba, Azerbaijan saying that the
world community is fed up with Jews trying to create an image of
suffering nation.

AUTHOR FACES JAIL FOR SAYING HERO DRESSED AS WOMAN
>From Suna Erdem in Istanbul
The Times, UK
Sept 4 2006
THE author of this summer’s Turkish bestseller is to stand trial for
allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country’s revered
founding father, in her popular revisionist biography of Latife,
his wife.
The case is the latest in a series of high-profile lawsuits initiated
against writers and intellectuals that has brought attention to the
shortcomings of the supposedly reformed Turkish legal system with
regard to freedom of expression in the European Union candidate
country.
Ipek Calislar, the respected journalist and writer, has been charged
by an Istanbul prosecutor over an anecdote in Latife Hanim in which
Ataturk dons a woman’s chador to leave his besieged house with a
party of women and children, bringing back reinforcements to foil an
assassination attempt. Latife remains inside and communicates with
the attackers to give them the impression that Ataturk is still there.
The previously unrecorded version of the attack by “Lame Osman”,
which took place in April 1923, was told to Mrs Calislar by one of
Latife’s surviving relatives, who heard it from her sister, Vecihe,
an eyewitness.
However, it aroused the ire of a reader of Hurriyet newspaper, which
ran extracts of the book. The reader, Huseyin Tugrul Pekin, applied
to the prosecutor’s office in the Istanbul district of Bagcilar,
on the grounds that “To claim and write that Mustafa Kemal Pasha,
whose courage no man, nor any of us, could dare to doubt, did such
a thing is the greatest insult to him, his nation and particularly
to myself”. Mrs Calislar now faces 4½ years in jail for infringing
the special laws in place to protect Ataturk. The trial begins on
October 5. An editor of Hurriyet will also be tried.
Mrs Calislar said that her book was not intended to belittle
Ataturk, lamenting that “the most striking report in the book for our
male-dominated society turned out to be of Ataturk disguising himself
in a chador in order to evade an assassination attempt”. She told The
Times: “If a leader is under siege, his ability to break this siege
with an ingenious method does not diminish him .”
Mrs Calislar’s account of Ataturk’s wife overturns the long-held
belief that Latife was a shrewish woman whose tantrums ended their
marriage. Instead, we get the portrait of a Western-educated woman
who spoke several European and Oriental languages, played the piano
to concert standard and was a driving force behind many of Ataturk’s
reforms for the emancipation of women, including giving them the vote
well before some EU countries. The book has had nine print runs in
two months.
Mrs Calislar joins Elif Safak, who will go on trial next month over her
popular novel The Bastard of Istanbul, in which a fictional Armenian
character refers to “Turkish butchers” who killed large numbers of
Armenians in Turkey during the First World War. Similar charges of
“insulting Turkishness” also put Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous
author, in the dock this year. Perihan Magden, a journalist, stood
trial for her support of conscientious objection.
Mrs Calislar said that Turkey did not deserve such trials as hers.
Most are thrown out of court but the violent environment created
outside the courthouse makes writers’ lives very difficult, she
added. At Mr Pamuk’s trial, supporters were heckled not just by
protesters but also by violent nationalist lawyers in the courtroom
itself.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Government points to the
high acquittal rate from these trials. Ms Magden and Mr Pamuk were
both acquitted, but a High Court decision this month to convict a
Turkish-Armenian journalist on similar charges proved that the show
trials are not just empty threats.
–Boundary_(ID_18439TCiRGA0vb11Pa0N6Q)–

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of delaying EU inspection of alleged vandalism

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
31 Aug 06

At the request of Armenian Public TV “Aylur” news programme, the
Armenian Foreign Ministry today commented on Azerbaijan’s refusal to
host the delegation of the European Parliament to monitor cross stones
at the Armenian cemetery of Old Juga (Culfa town in the Azerbaijani
exclave of Naxcivan).

Vladimir Karapetyan, a spokesman of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, has
noted that this is not first time that Azerbaijan creates obstacles
for observers to visit Naxcivan and monitor the acts of vandalism.

Groundless accusations regarding the fires are also aimed at hiding
these barbarous actions in Old Juga under artificial fuss [Azerbaijan
has accused Armenia of starting blazes in the occupied territories
around Nagornyy Karabakh]. Vladimir Karapetyan also recalled that
numerous international experts and international mass media have
confirmed that the Azerbaijani government has decided to destroy 2,000
tombstones. He said that the experts and the media have urged bringing
the culprits to account.

Similar actions and Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian propaganda show that
Baku’s methods has not changed, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

AZERI, ARMENIAN MINISTERS FAIL TO MEET IN SLOVENIA – AGENCY
Azerbaijani news agency APA
29 Aug 06
Baku, 29 August: Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Elmar
Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan, have not met to discuss a settlement
to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict at the international conference
Caspian Outlook 2008 Strategic Forum in Slovenia, a source in the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said. The reason is that the co-chairmen
of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is designed to mediate a solution to
the conflict, Bernard Fassier (France) and Yuriy Merzlyakov (Russia),
were not in Ljubljana. Only Matthew Bryza, the US co-chairman of
the group and the US deputy assistant secretary of state, joined the
conference, but he did not suggest that the ministers meet.
The head of the press and information policy department of the Foreign
Ministry, Tahir Tagizada, has told APA that Mammadyarov met Bryza
to discuss the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict on the day of his arrival
in Slovenia.
A new round of talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign
ministers as part of the Prague process [which envisages a
stage-by-stage solution] are expected to take place in a European
country in mid-September.

U.N. CHIEF DEMANDS HEZBOLLAH RELEASE 2 CAPTIVES
Gainesville Sun, FL
Aug. 28, 2006
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded Monday that Hezbollah
release two captured Israeli soldiers to the international Red Cross,
and that Israel lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon.
Also Monday, Turkey’s Cabinet voted to send peacekeepers to southern
Lebanon, becoming the only Muslim country that has relations with
Israel to propose deploying troops. Turkey’s Parliament will convene
later this week or early next week to debate becoming part of an
expanded U.N. force.
Italy’s Cabinet, meanwhile, approved sending 2,500 troops to take
part in the expanded U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Visiting Beirut on the first leg of an 11-day Mideast tour, Annan
said he was renewing his “call for the abducted soldiers to be free,”
and urged Hezbollah to transfer them to the Lebanese government
“or a third party” under the auspices of the international Red Cross.
“We, the U.N., will be prepared to play a role if we are required to
do so. And I offer our services,” he said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora led Annan on a tour of Beirut’s
southern suburbs, an area ravaged by Israeli airstrikes during the
34-day war. Hundreds of Lebanese shouted pro-Hezbollah slogans and
booed him as he toured the rubble-strewn streets. The crowd mobbed
Annan’s heavily guarded motorcade, and security agents ran along both
sides of the vehicles.
Annan urged Israel Monday to lift its blockade on Lebanon. “I’m
working with them and a number of international partners to see to
it that this is done,” he said.
Israel has said a resolution of the conflict must include the release
of the two soldiers captured by Hezbollah militants in a cross-border
raid that triggered the conflict last month.
“So long as this issue with the two soldiers is not solved, the whole
thing is of little significance,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said
in Germany. “Our sovereignty has been infringed and if this resolution
does not make that good, then we still have this problem.”
France, saying the European Union did not do enough to end the
“devastating” conflict, urged Israel to lift its air and sea blockade
of Lebanon, which has kept out all but a trickle of supplies.
Annan met with Mohammed Fneish, one of two Hezbollah ministers in
Saniora’s Cabinet, in the first direct contact with the guerrilla
group during the U.N. chief’s Lebanon visit.
Annan also met separately with Saniora and Parliament Speaker
Nabih Berri, who serves as Hezbollah’s de facto negotiator. The
secretary-general said the Lebanese government assured him it would
“faithfully” implement the cease-fire resolution.
“We have a chance now to have a long-term cease-fire and a long-term
peace (in Lebanon), and we all need to work together and this is the
purpose of my visit here,” Annan said.
But Annan cautioned that the road ahead would be long, and pledged
the international community’s support.
“There is lots of work to be done. We are now entering the stage
of recovery and reconstruction,” he said. “I assured Speaker Berri
that the U.N. and international community will want to work very,
very intensively with the parties to ensure that they do implement
the resolution to the fullest, and that we have long-term peace in
this region.”
Annan also was expected to visit Israel, and Hezbollah’s main
supporters, Syria and Iran, during his 11-day tour.
The resolution ended 34 days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli
forces on Aug. 14. It calls for deployment of 15,000 peacekeepers
in southern Lebanon and an equal number of Lebanese troops to patrol
the border region when Israel withdraws.
The Italian government on Monday also approved a $38.4 million aid
package for Lebanon, and authorized spending for the peacekeeping
mission of $239.1 million until Dec. 31.
Earlier Monday, the Defense Ministry said a naval task force was
already being assembled to transport to Lebanon some 1,000 troops,
including marines and engineering corps specialists.
The task force, led by the Giuseppe Garibaldi aircraft carrier, is
scheduled to set sail Tuesday from a southern Italian port and reach
the Lebanese coast on Friday.
On Friday, the European Union pledged 6,900 troops _ the core of the
proposed 15,000-member force.
The United States, the European Union and Israel also were pressing
for peacekeepers from Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, and
a country with close ties to Israel and Arab countries. A growing
number of Turks, though, oppose sending troops who could face danger
and be seen as supporting Israel against fellow Muslims.
“In principle, we’ve decided to join the U.N. peacekeeping mission,”
government spokesman Cemil Cicek said. “We will call on the parliament
to meet in the shortest time.”
Cicek added that it was “out of the question for the mission to be
directly responsible for disarming Hezbollah. Turkey won’t be part
of such an effort. We’ve made that clear, so there is no point of
us hesitating.”
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who holds a ceremonial post but
wields considerable influence in the country, came out strongly against
the deployment on Friday, saying it was not Turkey’s “responsibility
to protect the interests of other countries.”
Turkey ruled Lebanon for 400 years during the Ottoman Empire and many
Turkish officials want their country to have a say in an area that
they regard as their country’s backyard.
The large Armenian population in Lebanon has loudly protested Turkish
involvement. Armenians say up to 1.5 million Armenians died or were
killed over several years during World War I as part of a genocidal
campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey.
In Germany, which has mediated past prisoner exchanges between
Hezbollah and Israel, German deputy foreign minister Gernot Erler told
ZDF television that a meeting between Livni and German intelligence
chief Ernst Uhrlau would include discussion of efforts to get the
Israeli soldiers released.
“It is well known that Germany has possibilities … to help free
these captured and kidnapped Israeli soldiers,” Erler said. “There
are also earlier cases and experiences that we can use.”
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier denied that German officials
were already making contacts to free them.
“There has been no request either from the Israeli or the Lebanese
side,” he added.

Panorama.am
14:30 25/08/06
ARMENIAN FOREST AGENCY CUTS FORESTS
Armenian Forest has posted announcements at different TV channels
inviting people to buy firewood. It is utmost amazing that a forest
protection agency is engaged in such a sale when the forests are under
the danger of extinction. Panorama.am called the Armenian Forest and
introduced itself as a buyer to learn more on the details of the
sale. It turned out that the sale has nothing to do with sanitary
cutting. The agency said they sell 1 cubic meter of firewood per 4800
Armenian drams in case the buyer cuts the firewood and 9600 Armenian
drams if the agency makes the cutting. The commercial department
employee also ensured that there will be no problems on the roads since
“they are providing a document.”/Panorama.am/

CHIRAC CHANGED THE PROGRAM
Lragir.am
25 Aug 06
We have learned that the French president Jacques Chirac, who is
likely to visit Armenia in mid-September, made a suprising and in
some sense also sensational decision connected with the protocol of
the visit. The French president is said to have cancelled his visit
to the National Assembly of Armenia. The decision is serious not only
because it was made by the French president but also because Chirac is
going to change the protocol of Armenia. It means there is an important
reason. By the way, this is going to be the first case when a president
does not visit the National Assembly during their visit to Armenia.

RUSSIAN CITIZEN ARMENIAN BY ORIGIN VIOLENTLY BEATEN UP IN KRASNODAR
Krasnodar, August 23. ArmInfo. A group of youngsters attacked an
Armenian in the center of Krasnodar, in the corner of Kommunarov and
Gorky streets, approximately at 10:00 PM on August 21.
Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia, told ArmInfo the group
consisted of about 15 youngsters at the age of 18-22, as witnesses
say. The Armenian was violently beaten up after he tried to protect
a woman from the group that attacked her shop. The man was beaten as
long as he lost consciousness. He was hospitalized with concussion
of the brain and numerous injuries.
Witnesses say the youngsters cried nationalist slogans like “Let’s
clear Kuban from the black” and “Russia is for Russians.” It is
noteworthy that witnesses applied to a nearby guard department,
which, however, made no response to their cries for help, the
newspaper reports.

TURKS SWEEP AWAY ARMENIAN TRACES UNDER THE EXCUSE OF RENOVATION
Panorama.am
15:39 23/08/06
Turkish government plans a big event on the occasion of the renovation
of an Armenian church on Akhtamar Island. It is expected that even
Prime Minister Erdogan will be present at the ceremony.
Samvel Karapetyan, head of an office dealing with the Armenian
architectural monuments, shared his impressions on the Armenian
monuments in Turkey after his recent visit to Western Armenia. In
his words, Turks use the Armenian monuments as military bases.
Under such conditions, it is amazing that Turkey celebrates the
renovation of an Armenian monument with great celebrities. Karapetyan
connects that with Turkish aspirations to be part of Europe.
Karapetyan cast doubts that a cross will be raised on the top of
the church. Even if Turks decide to raise the cross, they will do
so to convince Europe that they are progressive, he said. Karapetyan
doubts that the architectural shape of the church will be preserved. ”
Turks massacred Armenians until 1918 and after that sweep away their
traces. How is that possible that they preserve an Armenian church?”
Karapetyan indicated.