Author: Khoyetsian Rose

Hürriyet, Turkey
June 14 2008

Sweden rejects Armenian so-called "genocide" claim

The Swedish parliament rejected Wednesday a draft law proposing
recognition of the Armenian allegations regarding incidents of
1915. The parliament rejected the bill while 245 votes against and 37
for the proposal.

Turkey welcomed the decision. "Turkish public, with its government and
opposition, is grateful to all the political parties represented in
the Swedish Parliament for both their support to Turkey’s EU bid and
their decision rejecting calls for recognition of Armenian
allegations," Egemen Bagis, Turkish prime minister’s advisor and an
AKP MP, was quoted as telling reporters by the state-run Anatolian
Agency.

Turkey has long been facing a systematic campaign of defamation
carried out by Armenian lobbying groups. The Armenian diaspora has
lately increased its organized activities throughout the world for the
recognition of their unfounded allegations in regard to the events of
1915 as "genocide" by national and local parliaments.

Some 300,000 Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks were
killed in civil strife when Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up
against the Ottomans in 1915. However Armenians claim in a systematic
campaign of defamation some 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in
orchestrated killings during the 1915 incidents.

The parliaments of Argentina, Belgium, France, Netherlands,
Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Lebanon, the Russian Federation, Slovakia,
Uruguay, Greece, the Greek Cypriot administration, Poland, Germany,
Lithuania, Chile, Venezuela and the European Parliament passed either
resolutions or issued statements.

Turkey says parliaments and other political institutions are not the
appropriate for to debate and pass judgments on disputed periods of
history. Past events and controversial periods of history should be
left to the historians for their dispassionate study and evaluation.

However Turkey’s efforts to carry a deeper investigation have yet made
a positive outcome. In 2005, Turkey has officially proposed to the
government of Armenia the establishment of a joint commission of
history composed of historians and other experts from both sides to
study together the events of 1915 not only in the archives of Turkey
and Armenia but also in the archives of all relevant third countries
and to share their findings with the public. Unfortunately, Armenia
has not responded positively to this initiative, yet. Turkey’s
proposal is still on the table.

oikotimes.com, Greece
June 10 2008

Jonatan Cerrada in a musical about Charles Aznavour

Jonatan Cerrada, the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004,
will perform the leading role in `En haut de l’affiche", the
musical-comedy based on Charles Aznavour’s songs and life. The play
about one of the most famous artists in French scene will go on in
Paris Р`Th̢̩tre du Gymnase" Рfrom October 2 to January
9. Laurent Ruquier is the author and Marie-Paule Belle the main
actress-singer. This is not the first experience of Jonatan in the
showbizz: He was eight years old when he entered the `Opéra
Royal de Wallonie’ where he stayed until he was fourteen. More
recently, he sang the soundtrack for the French edition of the film
‘Robots’ – "Mon Paradis".

Alongside his career in the theatre, Jonatan is finishing his 3rd
album, sang in Spanish – his mother native language. With no schedule
announced, we can confirm that he’ss working with some special
producers in Spain, recognised to work usually to Ana Torroja and
Miguel Bosé.

SWEDISH PARLIAMENT REFUSES TO RECOGNIZE THE 1915 GENOCIDE

armradio.am
12.06.2008 14:44

On June 12, 2008, the Swedish Parliament, with the votes 245 to
37 (1 abstain, 66 absent), rejected a call for recognition of the
1915 genocide in the Ottoman Empire. On June 11, a long debate took
place in the Swedish Parliament in regard to the Foreign Committee
report on Human Rights, including five motions calling upon the
Swedish Government and Parliament to officially recognize the
1915 genocide. In its answer, a majority consisting of the ruling
alliance parties together with the Social Democrats (opposition party)
proposed rejecting the motions, whereby the Green (Miljöpartiet)
and the Left (Vänsterpartiet) parties announced their reservations,
forcing the Parliament to have a debate in the main chamber before
the proposal was voted on, Vahagn Avedian, Chairman of the Union of
Armenian Associations in Sweden informed.

On an initiative of Vahagn Avedian, petition published in 10 languages,
whose Turkish, is addressed to the members of the Swedish Parliament
on June 9 in order to influence on a decision of the Foreign Affairs
Commission suggesting at the Parliament and the government to disallow
the proposals for recognition of Armenian Genocide of 1915

Mats Pertoft (Green), one of the co-authors of the motions, pointed
out that the 1915 genocide was no different from the climate issue. For
couple of years ago, there was a disagreement among researchers about
the global warming, but now, even though there are some who still
disagree, there is a consensus on the issue among an overwhelming
majority of the researchers. The same applies to the 1915 genocide.

Two politicians defied their parties. Yilmaz Kerimo (Social Democrat),
an ethnic Assyrian was one. The other, Lennart Sacrédeus (Christian
Democrat), going against his party line, took the podium defending a
recognition of the 1915 genocide and ended his statement by adding:
"I know that we will stay here again in one year debating the very same
question. Turkey will be hit by bad will for every debate in every
parliament where this question is deeply associated with Turkey. I
think that we acknowledge and can understand the background for why
the issue is locked in Turkey; but the truth will set you free and
it applies to Turkey and the legacy after Ataturk." The truth will
set you free, but Swedish politicians today displayed that they are
neither ready to acknowledge the truth nor willing to set Turkey free
from its dark burdensome past.

The debate lasted over three hours, during which the present audience
agreed upon one certainty: no one of those recommending the rejection
of a recognition could explain, less defend their case. It was soon
obvious that there simply were no sustainable arguments to be given
to explain why Sweden can not recognize the 1915 genocide. The "no"
was purely a political decision for maintaining good relations with
Turkey, nothing else. But could such a decision actually benefit
Turkey? Or Sweden? Or EU? According to Vahagn Avedian, similar
decisions and signals are nothing but doing Turkey, and not least
oneself, a disservice. "What kind of message do we send to a Turkey
in urgent need of reformation and democratization when we tell them
that it is actually acceptable to cover up crimes and deny facts
and the truth? What kind of a democracy does Sweden and EU nourish
in Turkey? Notwithstanding, I can not imagine a single Armenian who
would not welcome, by European measures, a reformed and democratized
Turkey as their neighbor. The same would apply to Assyrians, Greeks,
Kurds etc. But, the kind of signals which the Swedish Parliament today
sent surely cause more damage to the Turkish process of becoming a
more open society than the opposite."

–Boundary_(ID_N/cURbggiODMzCBvQQ 5Ntw)–

CAN THE FPM FIND PURPOSE WITH BAABDA OFF THE TABLE?
Rabih Haddad

The Daily Star, Lebanon
June 12 2008

MP Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) have had a single
overriding goal since the party’s founding nearly five years ago: to
pave the way for his rise to the presidency. It has been no secret,
and indeed they have made public announcements on several occasions,
that the only presidential candidate they fully supported was Aoun.

Now that Parliament has elected Michel Sleiman as president, and
its once populous fan-base is beginning to dwindle, the FPM must
take action quickly to re-orient the party and answer many important
questions. Can Aoun run again in six years? If not, what is the FPM’s
new aim? Has too much time been spent marketing Aoun rather than the
party? Is there an FPM without Aoun?

There are obvious answers to some of the questions, but ones that
need to be formalized nonetheless.

For example, there are few scenarios in which Aoun, who was born in
1935 and will subsequently be 79 years old in six years, will be a
viable candidate for the presidency in 2014. Assuming Aoun will not
run for president in 2014, the FPM must transform from a vehicle
designed to deliver Aoun to the presidency into an entity that has
more sustenance and political views than him alone.

The FPM’s current charter reads like an off-the-shelf manifesto,
with generic goals such as "people are individuals," "people are born
equal and die equal" and "to guarantee Lebanese sovereignty." This
will need to change, in order to define a unique concept and mission.

While up until now most of the FPM’s decisions, and even debatably
its political alliances, have been guided by the question of which
decision would increase Aoun’s chances to become president, now
deliberations may need to take place in a different matter.

The FPM has choices. It could, for example, build a niche for itself
as an on-the-fence party that would moderate between the March 14
and March 8 factions. Or it could continue to develop its current
alliances and serve a joint Christian-Shiite constituency. Numerous
other options exist as well, although none are as clear-cut as the
goal of a Aoun presidency.

Over the next six years, FPM members, recruiters and supporters are
going to have a tougher time persuading the voting public (notably
Christians) that there is more to their party than the now-defunct
dream of a Michel Aoun as president, that they have more to offer. The
really difficult question will be: What else can the FPM offer?

The 2009 parliamentary elections will no doubt be a make-or-break event
for the FPM. It will have a much more difficult time convincing people
to vote for a party which is losing ground daily, rather than one led
by a president in waiting, as appeared to be the case during the 2005
elections. This is further confirmed by the pre-emptive campaigning
and rallies being organized by Aoun. It seems clear to all, including
Aoun himself, that there is a lot at stake for his movement.

The problem facing Aoun, and the FPM for that matter, is that unlike
most typical Western democracies, Lebanon’s voting public, unlike
its leaders, are not particularly swayed by external factors such as
US foreign-policy shifts, the economy and UN resolutions. Instead,
the prevailing system is one of political inheritance in which the
majority of votes are won and lost through last-minute political and
feudal alliances.

This system may well work against Aoun and the FPM in the next
election. Although he is doing very well among certain groups,
such as Shiites in Kesrouan and Metn, and Tashnak loyalists in the
Armenian community, Aoun’s bread and butter – middle- and upper-class
Christians who have only relatively recently become politically active
– are beginning to have second thoughts. The situation has not been
aided by Michel Murr’s recent deviation, the row with Bkirki, and
his inability to reach the presidency.

It is difficult to imagine a core voter for the Lebanese Forces or the
Phalange Party changing camps. Decades of family tradition and voting
habits are to be considered. Also, the Lebanese Forces especially
seems to have significant momentum on its side. On the other hand,
Aoun’s Christian base, which is to some extent relatively new, seems
to be showing signs of weakness.

Aoun’s claim to the Christian majority is threatened, if not
lost. However, the next election will define his legacy: Will he prove
to have been the founder and cornerstone of a sustainable political
entity that will continue beyond 2009, or simply the presidential
favorite who never was?

The only thing certain is that his strategy must change if he
hopes to avoid a major defeat in 2009, and even then, it must be a
strategy that focuses more on the FPM’s other MPs and less on Aoun
himself. This is something that he has thus far seemed unable to
do. What apparently is not evident to Aoun and FPM members is that
to preserve the ideology and long-term goals that Aoun stands for,
he needs to begin to stand aside.

ERNARD FASSIER: OUR MAIN DUTY NOW IS TO COMPLETE WORK ON THE BASIC PRINCIPLES
X-X-Sender: [email protected]
X-Listprocessor -Version: 8.1 — ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

armradio.am
12.06.2008 17:40

"Every meeting of the presidents gives a result and progress is made
after every meeting. At the St. Petersburg meeting it was possible to
create a positive atmosphere for the negotiations," Bernard Fassier,
French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group (France) told APA.

He said co-chairs will pay the next visit to region just with this aim.

"We will specify the date of the visit in the next few days. We intend
to visit both Baku and Yerevan, but we are not sure to achieve it.

Everything depends on the schedules of the foreign ministers and
the presidents."

Fassier said they needed to visit Yerevan to learn the position of the
new leadership of Armenia. "The main duty of the co-chairs now is to
complete work on the basic principles considering proposals of both
sides." Fassier said there were some new points in the negotiations,
but didn’t make it public. He said co-chairs didn’t need much time
to complete their work. "Our aim is clear in this situation – we
will organize the meetings of the foreign ministers and presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia."

PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARKISIAN AND OTHER GOVERNMENT MINISTERS REMEMBER FORMER PRIME MINISTER ANDRANIK MARGARIAN

ARMENPRESS
June 12, 2008

Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian, government ministers and other
high-ranking officials visited today Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan
to remember former prime minister Andranik Margarian who would have
become 57 today.

They laid flowers at his grave. President Serzh Sarkisian, members of
the Republican Party, of which Margarian was chairman and his family
members will pay their tribute to Andranik Margarian later today.

Andranik Margarian died of heart attack on March 25, 2007 at the age
of 56. Margarian was the longest serving Armenian prime minister. He
was first appointed to the post in 2000 and then headed the coalition
government after the 2003 parliamentary elections.

IRAN OFFERS TO MEDIATE AZERI-ARMENIAN DISPUTE

United Press International
June 11 2008

WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) — As oil prices rise relentlessly to
record-high levels, relations between the United States and Iran,
OPEC’s third-largest producer, continue to worsen. Further heightening
investors’ anxieties, speculation about a possible Israeli or
U.S. attack to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions continues to mount.

Despite Washington branding Iran a charter member of the "axis
of evil," in a diplomatic gesture full of portent for the future
of Caspian energy exports, Tehran has offered to mediate one of
the Caucasus region’s longstanding disputes, the Nagorno-Karabakh
clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan. If Iran succeeds, it will have
accomplished something The Bush administration failed to do in one
of its first foreign policy initiatives.

As reported by Azerbaijan’s APA news agency, during a news conference
in Baku, the Azeri capital, on June 5, Iranian Deputy Foreign
Minister Alireza Sheikh-Attar said that Iran is ready to mediate the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict if requested by both sides, noting that while
Iran had earlier attempted to negotiate a resolution of the issue,
"Unfortunately, under the influence of outside forces, our country
was sidelined from the mediatory mission."

A shooting war between the two southern Caucasian nations broke out in
February 1988, as both nations claimed the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
then administered by Baku. The rising violence saw the Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (now the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe) in the summer of 1992 create the 11-country
Minsk Group with the aim of mediating a solution to the conflict.

By May 1994, when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement
ending active hostilities, the conflict had caused thousands of
casualties and created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides
and left Armenian armed forces occupying swaths of Azeri territory,
including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring districts. While
14 years later Russia, France and the United States, currently the
Minsk Group co-chairs, are currently holding talks, nothing concrete
has been achieved.

In a largely forgotten U.S. diplomatic initiative, Washington’s
interest in resolving the impasse led the new administration of
U.S. President George W. Bush to convene a diplomatic summit in
April 2001 in Key West, Fla., under OSCE auspices between Armenian
President Robert Kocharian and Azeri President Geidar Aliyev. As with
the earlier Minsk Group efforts, however, the talks went nowhere.

The diplomatic impasse has affected all three countries’ economies,
with only Azerbaijan’s soaring because of its oil revenue. Last year
the Central Intelligence Agency estimated Armenia’s GDP growth rate at
13.7 percent, Azerbaijan’s at 31 percent and Turkey’s at 5.1 percent.

The last couple of years have seen some softening of Yerevan’s
position; on June 5, 2005, the Armenian media noted that Kocharian
announced, "We are ready to continue dialogue with Azerbaijan for
the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and with Turkey on
establishing relations without any preconditions."

Both sides have lost out in the impasse. Armenia was excluded from
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, but Azerbaijan in turn was forced
to pay a price for its unwillingness to negotiate, as BTC was forced
to take a lengthy detour around Armenia, adding substantially to the
project’s cost and construction delays.

The prize is certainly tempting; the Caspian Sea’s 143,244 square
miles and attendant coastline are estimated to contain as much as 250
billion barrels of recoverable oil, boosted by more than 200 billion
barrels of potential reserves, quite aside from up to 328 trillion
cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

Needless to say, foreign companies are battling to build more export
pipelines, and Iran has been angling for years to increase its transit
trade of other Caspian nations’ exports, while energy-starved Armenia,
which has no oil reserves and imports virtually all of its needs,
could benefit from improved relations with its oil-rich neighbors to
the east.

Should diplomatic relations normalize, Armenia also could benefit
from transit fees on any pipelines constructed across its territory,
while Iran possibly could sidestep the crippling U.S. ILSA sanctions,
which have largely precluded development of its natural gas reserves,
estimated at more than 26 trillion cubic meters, the world’s second
largest after Russia. Despite such potential riches, a lack of foreign
investment means that Iran currently produces a paltry 460 million
cubic meters of gas per day.

Iran brings a number of negotiating strengths to the table; it
maintains diplomatic relations with both nations, 24 percent of its
population is Azeri, while an estimated 400,000 Armenians reside in
the Islamic Republic. The above considerations give Iran an added
cachet as a possible "honest broker" in negotiations that the Minsk
Group members lack. In a sign of the diplomatic relations between
Armenia and Iran, the new Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan
recently visited Tehran.

Given the diplomatic barrenness of 16 years of discussions, Iran’s
offer ought to be seriously considered by all interested parties. The
results of a negotiated peace are obvious — the only question is
whether "outside forces" will allow Iran’s efforts to proceed.

/06/11/Iran_offers_to_mediate_Azeri-Armenian_dispu te/UPI-53561213210013/

RA LAW ON MEETINGS, RALLIES, MARCHES AND DEMONSTRATIONS DISCUSSED AT SECOND READING

armradio.am
10.06.2008 17:47

The National Assembly today discussed the draft law on implementing
amendments and addenda in RA Law on Law on Conducting Meetings,
Rallies, Marches and Demonstrations at second reading.

Author of the draft law, Speaker of the National Assembly Tigran
Torosyan presented the changes implemented after the first reading,
which were mainly of editorial character. He noted that suggestions of
the Heritage faction were not adopted because these were principally
inconsistent with the draft.

The conclusion of the Venice Commission and the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights was positive.

"I’m sure that the changes will not only make the law correspond to
European standards, but also have improved provisions as compared
to its content before March 17. I’m confident that these changes
are necessary from the point of view of having the law correspond to
international standards and it’s necessary to adopt those as soon as
possible," the Parliament Speaker said.

Representative of the Heritage faction Vardan Khachatryan declared
that they will vote against the draft law and suggested returning to
the law that existed before March 17.

The voting on the bill is scheduled for June 11th sitting.

DM SEYRAN OHANYAN MET WITH AMBASSADOR KAPINOS OF THE OSCE

armradio.am
10.06.2008 12:13

On June 10 RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan received the delegation
headed by Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, the Head of the OSCE Office
in Yerevan.

The Minister greeted the guest and expressed hope that new achievements
will be registered during his tenure in office.

At the beginning of the meeting the parties turned to issue of
improving the mechanisms of public control in the Armed Forces in
the framework of defense reforms and discussed issues connected with
the human rights protection in the Armed Forces reflected in the
Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan.

The parties spoke about the reforms under way in the Armed Forces,
especially the implementation of special civil service, civil control
to keep the Armed Forces away from political forces.

At the end of the meeting Ambassador Kapinos thanked the Minister
for the fruitful cooperation with the OSCE Office.

ANKARA WILL ALWAYS SUPPORT BAKU AT KARABAKH-RELATED NEGOTIATIONS – TURKISH PRIME MINISTER

Trend News Agency
June 5 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 4 June /Trend News corr M. Guliyev/ " Turkey
will always support Baku’s equitable position in settlement of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Nakhchivan on 4 June after
negotiations with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The Turkish Prime Minister is paying a 1-day official visit to the
Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan (NAR). In the first
half of the day, Erdogan held twosome negotiations with Azerbaijani
President. Moreover, Aliyev and Erdogan headed the negotiations between
two countries’ governmental delegations at the NAR Supreme Assembly
(Parliament).

At the briefing after negotiations, President Aliyev thanked Turkey
for its permanent support to Azerbaijan in the peace negotiations
with Armenia.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.