Author: Khondkarian Raffi

U. S. STATE DEPARTMENT: RA PRESIDENT MADE A COURAGEOUS STEP INVITING TURKISH PRESIDENT TO YEREVAN

DeFacto Agency
July 22 2008
Armenia

RA President Serzh Sargsian made a courageous step by inviting
Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Yerevan, said Matthew Bryza,
U.S. Deputy Assistance Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs. "Certainly, I can’t speak on behalf of President
Gul or Turkish government but the U. S. hopes that Abdullah Gul will
take this golden opportunity," he noted, PanARMENIAN.Net reports
quoting RFE/RL.

To note, RA President Serzh Sargsian invited Abdullah Gul to Yerevan
to a World Cup qualifying match between Armenian and Turkish teams
to be held on in September 6. According to Turkish FM Ali Babacan,
Abdullah Gul’s presence at the football match between Armenian and
Turkish teams in Yerevan will depend on the development of relations
between the two countries before the match. "Normalization
of relations with Armenia is one of serious goals of Turkey’s
foreign policy", he underscored.

WILL CRIMINALS BE UNMASKED?

A1+
21 July, 2008

The criminal action brought with regard to Levon Gulian’s death will
likely resume. Today the RoA Appellate Court rejected the claim lodged
by the Prosecutor’s Office against the court of general jurisdiction
of Kentron and Nork-Marash districts.

On March 26, 2008, the Prosecutor’s Office rejected the petition
of Gulian’s advocates to continue the case hearing. The advocates
appealed the decision at the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron
and Nork-Marash districts. The latter upheld the petition to resume
the case hearing on June 6, 2008.

Reminder, on May 12, 2007, Levon Gulian was invited to testify as
a witness of a murder case at the Police Department of Yerevan’s
Shengavit district. He was then taken to the police headquarters
building.

According to a police statement, Gulian died while attempting to escape
from a police custody. Human rights activists and his family suspect
that he died during interrogation at the hands of police. They say
Gulian was tortured and brutally beaten.

Levon Gulian’s case was first viewed by the prosecutor’s office then
by the special investigation service. On March 12, 2008, the case
was dismissed because of the absence of corpus delicti.

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN ON TURKISH – ARMENIAN RELATIONS

Turkish Press
July 20 2008

ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Burak Ozugergin said on
Friday that there were contacts between Turkey and Armenia from time
to time.

Commenting on a news report that appeared in media today with the title
"secret talks with Armenia", Ozugergin said, "Turkey has recognized
Armenia as a state in 1991. The two parties have contacts from time
to time within this scope. There is no sense to interpret the talks
in question differently."

AZERBAIJANI PARTY PRESENTS MURDER OF ARMENIAN SOLDIER AS FIGHT ‘WITH RECONNAISSANCE GROUP’

ArmInfo
2008-07-21 15:13:00

The Azerbaijani party presents the murder of the Armenian soldier
as a fight ‘with reconnaissance group’.

As spokesman of RA Defense Ministry, Colonel Seyran Shahsouvaryan told
ArmInfo, the statements of the Azerbaijani party about the alleged attempt
of RA Armed Forces to penetrate into the territory of Azerbaijan are the
next attempt of disinformation of the world community and its own country’s
population. ‘Nothing of the kind happened in fact’, S. Shahsouvaryan
emphasized. As for the murder of the Armenian captive Gor Manasaryan, RA DM
spokesman said that a soldier of involuntary service of one of the boundary
units G. Manasaryan lost his way and was shot dead by the Azerbaijani
soldiers. Now, the Azerbaijani party presents the murder of the Armenian
soldier as a fight "with reconnaissance group". ‘The Azerbaijani party
deliberately hushes up or does not want to admit that there was not even an
outfit on the killed soldier required in the case if everything happened in
a way the Azerbaijani party presents’, S. Shahsouvaryan said.

Presently, the body of the killed soldier is at the Azerbaijani side. The
Armenian party intends to shortly take active measures to return the body of
the died soldier to his relatives.

R. BALAYAN: "WORLD INTERESTED IN ARMENIAN LAUGH, NOT CRY"

Panorama.am
15:30 19/07/2008

Today "Pan Armenian Film Project" forum started on July 14
finished. The forum was conducted in the frames of "Golden Apricot"
festival.

In the frames of the forum two film projects should be drafted,
one of which should be a documentary. One of the projects is named
"home" and the other one – "land". The most interesting point of the
project is that there won’t be one director as the films should be
collected via 8-9 different films.

Armenian-Russian director Roman balayan said that world is interested
in how Armenians laugh and not cry. He asked the authors of the films
to think from this angle.

Interfax News Agency, Armenia
July 19 2008

ARMENIA DENIES REPORT OF CLASH ON AZERI BORDER

Yerevan, 19 July: The Armenian Ministry of Defence dismisses
Azerbaijani media reports about the attempt of an Armenian sabotage
group to enter the territory of the neighbouring country.

"This information is yet another propagandistic step of Baku which
does not fit in any reasonable frames" the press secretary of the
Armenian Defence Ministry, Col Seyran Shahsuvaryan, told Interfax on
Saturday [19 July].

"Besides, dissemination of such misinformation puts under threat the
negotiation process on the peaceful resolution of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict," Shasuvaryan added.

The Azerbaijani television channel ANS had earlier said that a
sabotage group consisting of 14 people attempted to enter Azerbaijan’s
Tovuz District from Armenian on the night of 18-19 July. [Azerbaijani]
servicemen prevented this attempt, killing one of the members of the
group. The body of the dead [Armenian soldier] and his weapon remained
in the hands of Azerbaijani servicemen, ANS reported.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HAS REJECTED U.S. ADMINITSTRATION’S PROPOSAL TO CUT FUNDING TO ARMENIA

NOYAN TAPAN

JU LY 18

The House Foreign Operations Subcommittee approved million in
assistance to Armenia and million for Nagorno Karabakh, as well as
million in Foreign Military Financing for Armenia and Azerbaijan,
reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

The Bush Administration initially proposed to cut funding to Armenia
by nearly 60 percent from .5 million in FY 2008, to a proposed level
of million in FY 2009. In addition, the Administration had requested
that million of the funds to Armenia allocated in FY 2007, be directed
out of Armenia, which triggered a response by Congressmen Adam Schiff
(D-CA) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI). In a letter sent to House Foreign
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Ranking
Member Frank Wolf (R-VA), they urged that funding be re-programmed
to support democracy efforts in Armenia: "As friends of Armenia, and
more importantly, as advocates of democracy, we urge you to support
the transfer of funds to help nurture Armenia’s democracy as opposed
to stifling it. Armenia would benefit greatly from more democracy
and good governance programming."

The Assembly commends the efforts of Congressman Knollenberg (R-MI)
for sending a strong message regarding Azerbaijan’s continued war
rhetoric during today’s consideration of the House Foreign Operations
Appropriations Bill. The Knollenberg amendment sought to zero out
military funding for Azerbaijan. The amendment was not approved by
a vote of 7 in favor and 8 against.

BUS CONVEYING ARMENIAN TOURISTS CATCHES FIRE

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.07.2008 16:06 GMT+04:00

A bus conveying Armenian tourists to Antalya, Turkey, caught
fire. According to preliminary data, the fire emerged in the engine and
then spread over the passenger compartment. It was soon extinguished
and none of 33 passengers suffered, continuing their way in another
bus, the Public TV of Armenia reported.

Turkish media reports say that a criminal case has been initiated.

DINK MURDER PROBE MAY EXPAND TO INCLUDE ‘PRE-WARNED’ COLONEL

Today’s Zaman
July 19 2008
Turkey

Inspectors from the Interior Ministry investigating the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink have requested permission to
launch an inquiry into several individuals claimed to have prior
information about the plot to assassinate Dink, reported Milliyet
daily yesterday.

According to Milliyet, upon direction by Interior Minister BeÅ~_ir
Atalay earlier this month, ministry inspectors launched a preliminary
inquiry into the assassination of Dink, who was shot dead in broad
daylight outside the office of his newspaper, Agos, in Ä°stanbul on
Jan. 19, 2007.

Suspicious of contradictory statements by former commander of the
Trabzon Gendarmerie Command Col. Ali Oz and intelligence chief
Capt. Metin Yıldız, who previously refused to cooperate with the
investigation, inspectors asked Trabzon Governor Nuri Okutan earlier
this week to grant them authorization to launch an investigation into
Oz and Yıldız, along with five gendarmerie officers who allegedly
had knowledge of the plot to murder Dink months before the incident
occurred.

An investigation in the wake of the Dink assassination revealed that
a group of ultra-nationalist youths were behind the murder. Strong
evidence suggested that some members of the group had ties with
the police department in northern Trabzon, the hometown of the
plotters. Some gendarmerie officers later confirmed that they had been
tipped off about the plot to kill Dink before the murder was committed.

Sgt. Maj. Okan Å~^. and Sgt. Veysel Å~^., who appeared in a Trabzon
court in March on charges of dereliction of duty for failing to
take the necessary measures to prevent Dink’s death, confessed
that they had been informed about the murder plot months before his
assassination. "We wanted to share this information with Col. Oz,
but he covered up the issue. He forced us to give false statements
during the course of the investigation," they said.

Oz, who was serving as the Bilecik provincial gendarmerie commander
at the time of the murder, was removed from his position and sent to
the Bursa Regional Command.

Interior Ministry inspectors asked Oz and Yıldız about the
allegations, and they replied that they "might have forgotten about
being informed of the plot." However, the two had previously denied
having prior knowledge of the plot.

If permission is granted to the ministry inspectors, Oz, Yıldız and
five gendarmerie officers will face a probe on suspicion of dereliction
of duty for failing to act on warnings before the Dink murder.

–Boundary_(ID_Nvfd5pUG6SRhKCoLVm1RXw)–

Basler Zeitung

Türkei und Armenien bemühen sich um Normalisierung

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Istanbul. sda/dpa/baz. Die Türkei und Armenien bemühen sich einem
Zeitungsbericht zufolge verstärkt um eine Normalisierung ihrer Beziehungen.

Im Juli habe es in Bern eine Serie von Treffen gegeben, berichtete die türkische
Tageszeitung Hürriyet am Freitag. Diese seien in guter Atmosphäre verlaufen. Das
Eidg. Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (EDA) nahm dazu nicht Stellung.

Armeniens Präsident Sersch Sarkissjan hatte seinen türkischen Amtskollegen
Abdullah Gül zuletzt eingeladen, das WM- Ausscheidungsspiel der beiden
Nationalteams am 6. September anzuschauen. Der Besuch in Armenien, der von
türkischer Seite nicht ausgeschlossen wird, soll einen Neubeginn markieren.

Die beiden Nachbarstaaten unterhalten keine diplomatischen Beziehungen. Armenien
fordert von der internationalen Gemeinschaft, Massaker an Armeniern im
Osmanischen Reich als Völkermord anzuerkennen. Der Vorwurf des Genozids wird von
der Türkei heftig bestritten.

Ein zweiter Streitpunkt ist die von Armenien besetzte Kaukasus- Enklave
Berg-Karabach, die völkerrechtlich zu Aserbaidschan gehört.