Author: Madatian Greg

SERBIA DELAYING ARMS SALES TO ARMENIA

AssA-Irada
Published: Mar 06, 2007

Armenias planned arms purchases from Serbia a deal that Azeri officials
labeled as the neighboring countrys illegitimate armament defying
international law – have been delayed since mid-January but the first
consignment of weaponry is to be delivered by Friday, reports say. The
deliveries have been put off due to the complex licensing procedures
for the exports of arms, eastbusiness.org website reported. Under
a deal signed with Yerevan last year, Serbias Zastava plant was
to supply the first consignment of ammunition worth $1.7 million
to Armenia by January 10, but the order was not fulfilled due to
problems with documentation. But after all the arrangements were
completed, Serbs pledged to deliver the arms by February 15. After
the consignment is delivered, Serbian gun-makers and Armenia plan
to continue cooperation. Reports say they plan to ink another arms
supply contract worth $900,000. However, certain issues concerning the
deal are yet to agreed, as none of Serbias ministries in charge have
endorsed the needed papers so far. According to unofficial sources,
the problem concerns Serbias national interests, in particular,
the future status of the Kosovo and Metohia regions, as Serbs beware
that selling weapons to the conflict zone could turn out costly. The
issue remains open, as Serbian ministries of foreign affairs, defense
and interior are in no rush to authorize the second arms deal. The
agreement on Serbian arms deliveries was reached last summer, causing
a wave of uproar due to the Serbian governments position on the
issue. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic criticized the move,
and warned that the arms sales would violate the OSCEs embargo and
a UN Security Council resolution, which bans the sales of weapons
to Azerbaijan and Armenia due to the lingering conflict over Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh. Russia, which has long been Serbias ally, also
came out against the deal, on apparent concerns that it was losing
a share of its weaponry sales market. Moscow stated that the weapons
could be used against Russians or Russia as a whole.

But the developments took a different turn late in December when
Serbian President Boris Tadic said he agrees to Russian arms sales
to Armenia. Azerbaijani officials earlier announced plans to raise
the issue of Armenias illegitimate armament at the spring session of
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE.

ACCUSE DE NEGATIONNISME, DOGU PERINCEK PERSISTE A NIER LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

Le Temps, Suisse
6 mars 2007

VAUD. A la veille de son procès devant le Tribunal de police de
Lausanne, le militant a tenu une conference de presse au Centre
culturel turc de Renens, devant une trentaine de personnes. Mais des
centaines de partisans sont attendus aujourd’hui.

Il aura fallu plusieurs allers-retours aux membres de l’Association
des Turcs de Lausanne pour apporter assez de chaises dans la petite
salle du Centre culturel de Renens. Une trentaine en tout, juste assez
pour accueillir les journalistes, et surtout les sympathisants venus
entendre Dogu Perincek a la veille de son procès pour negationnisme
devant le Tribunal de police de Lausanne. Prive de conference publique
faute d’avoir trouve un proprietaire de salle pret a courir le risque
d’un debordement, le president du Parti des travailleurs s’est rabattu
sur une conference de presse, lundi.

Propagande imperialiste

A côte d’un billard et en face d’un baby-foot colles contre les murs
blancs pour l’occasion, le militant a repete sans etats d’âme les
convictions affirmees en 2005 et qui lui valent de comparaître dès
aujourd’hui devant le juge: "Il n’y a pas eu de genocide des Armeniens
durant la Première Guerre mondiale." Un discours bien rode, prononce
dans une salle sobrement, mais très symboliquement, decoree.

Insistant sur sa confiance dans la justice suisse, et sur l’importance
de la comprehension mutuelle des Turcs et des Helvètes, Dogu Perincek
s’exprimait entre le croissant blanc du drapeau turc et la croix
blanche du suisse, juste sous l’inevitable portrait de Mustafa Kemal
-Ataturk -, le fondateur de la Turquie moderne. Sur quelques tables,
toujours couvertes de leur tapis de cartes vert, des piles de livres
sur Le mensonge du "genocide armenien" (sic), en turc, allemand
ou francais.

Devant une assistance largement acquise a sa cause, Dogu Perincek a
repete, en allemand, ses certitudes: aucun genocide, mais des massacres
de part et d’autre, et une population armenienne malheureusement
"instrumentalisee par l’imperialisme de la Russie, la France et
l’Angleterre", qui auraient ainsi tente de diviser l’Empire ottoman
contre lequel elles etaient en guerre.

Dogu Perincek en est persuade: ces arguments lui eviteront toute
condamnation. Arrive a Renens avec une heure de retard -il preparait
sa defense avec son avocat-, le sexagenaire s’est muni d’une -petite-
partie des monceaux de "preuves" de la conspiration imperialiste,
essentiellement tirees des archives sovietiques.

Delegation londonienne

Il pourra egalement compter sur des dizaines de partisans, arrives
par avion de Turquie lundi après-midi. Recteurs d’universite, anciens
generaux, intellectuels… Sans compter les sympathisants anonymes,
de France, d’Allemagne ou de Belgique, qui auront fait la route
dans la quinzaine de bus attendus. Une delegation londonienne avait
deja pu faire le deplacement lundi: une demi-douzaine de personnes,
accompagnees de l’historien Justin MacCarthy, acquis a la cause de
Dogu Perincek. "We don’t believe there is an armenian genocide, but
we believe there is a turkish genocide", resume l’un de ses supporters.

Pour tous, Dogu Perincek est le defenseur de la Turquie face aux
attaques, occultes, de puissances internationales. Peu importe si
l’ecran plat du Centre culturel diffuse en permanence l’edition turque
de CNN: le genocide des Armeniens est une invention de l’imperialisme
americain, qui cherche a diviser la Turquie pour imposer un nouvel
ordre dans la region. Le president du Parti des travailleurs se
presente comme un patriote, mais refuse le terme de nationaliste:
"Je ne suis pas nationaliste, et je n’ai pas besoin de l’etre: la
Turquie est objectivement une grande nation…"

Et que ferait-il en cas de condamnation? La perspective est accueillie
par Dogu Perincek avec un grand eclat de rire. "C’est très improbable,
j’ai confiance dans la justice de ce pays." Le militant est convaincu
que la position suisse sur le genocide des Armeniens "evolue
positivement". Notamment par les critiques de Christoph Blocher sur
la norme antiraciste, tenues en Turquie.

Encadre: Les sympathisants limites a la Riponne

Les Armeniens ne manifesteront pas.

Par Nicolas Dufour

S’il agite bien des esprits, le procès de Dogu Perincek ne devrait pas
provoquer de debordements a Lausanne. La semaine passee, la crainte a
toutefois pousse les autorites de Renens a refuser de louer la salle
communale aux sympathisants du politicien.

Ceux-ci organisent une manifestation ce matin sur la place de la
Riponne, prevue sans prise de parole. C’est la seule action annoncee.

La Ville articule une fourchette de 700 a 1500 personnes, dont
au moins 200 venues par Genève, et quelques dizaines d’Allemagne,
en car. "Nous prevoyons des mesures classiques, en tenant compte
d’eventuelles tensions", note le municipal a la Securite, Marc
Vuilleumier. Celui-ci a refuse que ce rassemblement ait lieu devant
le Tribunal de police, a Montbenon, "par principe, cela ne se fait
pas durant un procès". Si la police ne precise pas l’ampleur de
son dispositif, le magistrat indique que les policiers empecheront,
si necessaire, que les manifestants ne se deplacent vers Montbenon.

De leur côte, les representants des Armeniens s’abstiennent de toute
demonstration publique, afin "d’eviter de jeter de l’huile sur le
feu, ce que l’autre camp fait royalement, et pour permettre au juge
de garder sa tranquillite", selon le copresident de l’association
Suisse-Armenie, Sarkis Shahinian.

–Boundary_(ID_hvplCzlBSfMrpiZEo0iXBQ) —

ARMENIAN TV CHANNELS GIVE PREFERENCE TO ARFD

Arminfo
2007-03-07 15:03:00

The Yerevan Press Club’s monitoring of Armenian TV channels before
the parliamentary elections has shown that local TV channels give
preference to ARFD, Prospering Armenia and Republican Party.

The president of the press club Boris Navasardyan says that the
monitoring was carried out Feb 1-28 and covered 7 TV channels: Public
Television, Second Armenian Channel, ALM, Armenia, Yerkir Media,
Kentron and Shant.

Navasardyan says that they registered all mentions of parties in news
and commercials, all TV interviews.

ALM is the most political channel but 85.5% of its air time is given
to the party of its owner Tigran Karapetyan.

The dominance of ARFD, Prospering Armenia and RPA is due to their
political weight. Much depends on the competence of leaders and their
readiness to contact with mass media. Navasardyan does not agree
with the view that other parties are debarred from TV: the three
leaders are closely followed by opposition parties Orinats Yerkir and
Constitutional Right Union. Certain discrimination was showed against
three opposition parties: Republic, New Times and Heritage. Navasardyan
says that its is a coordinated discriminatory policy.

The monitoring will be continued in Mar and as soon as the electoral
campaign starts it will be held on a weekly basis.

REAL INCITERS OF DINK’S ASSASSINATION HAVE NOT BEEN FOUND, MESROB II SAYS

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2007 14:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The patriarch of Turkey’s Armenians, Mesrob II,
said yesterday that the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink has not been fully resolved, as mourners gathered at an Ýstanbul
church to commemorate him. Mourners laid flowers at Hrant Dink’s
grave on the 40th day after his killing.

Dink, the editor of the bilingual Agos daily, was gunned down on
Jan. 19 outside his office in downtown Istanbul by 17-year-old Ogun
Samast. "It is extremely saddening and thought-provoking that the real
inciters of this assassination have not been found over the past 40
days," Mesrob II said, reports Today’s Zaman.

–Boundary_(ID_KWwO9fpaqwarj7epfP3/tA)–

More Talks Sought on U.S Anti-Missile Plan

Friday March 2, 2007 12:46 PM
By PAUL AMES
Associated Press Writer

WIESBADEN, Germany (AP) – Germany’s defense minister on Friday urged
more talks within NATO on the U.S. plan to locate elements of an
anti-missile shield in Europe which has raised tensions between Russia
and the United States.

The U.S. has formally requested to place a radar base in the Czech
Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of its plans
for a missile defense shield that Washington says would protect
against a potential threat from Iran or North Korea.

“We should talk about the development of such a measure within the
framework of NATO,” Franz Josef Jung told reporters on the sidelines
of a European Union defense ministers meeting. He said NATO should
also do more to allay Moscow’s concerns about the American plan.

Britain is also in talks with the U.S. about the deployment. On
Thursday, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency,
Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, said Washington wants to base an
anti-missile radar in the Caucasus, a move likely to intensify Russian
concerns.

Officials in Azerbaijan and Georgia say they are not in talks with the
United States on the possibility of placing missile defense components
on their territory. The other Caucasus nation, Armenia, has close
military ties to Russia and would be an unlikely choice.

“There have been no negotiations, and we are not discussing these
questions either in a bilateral or multilateral format,” said
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim.

Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said Tuesday that Georgia
has received no request from the United States to allow deployment of
missile defense elements on its territory, and ministry spokeswoman
Nato Chikovani said that was still the case Friday.

On Thursday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana
said the EU had no plans as a bloc to participate in the development
of a missile shield, but said member nations were free to decide if
they wanted to join the project.

“We are not as Europeans concerned to establish a mechanism of that
type,” Solana said. “This is for every country to decide.” He
questioned whether there was an immediate threat to Europe from a
missile attack, but said it was something the EU should consider in
the future.

NATO leaders at a summit in November ordered further study on
“political and military implications of missile defense for the
alliance including an update on missile threat developments.” A
preliminary report by NATO experts last year concluded there was a
missile threat and that it was technically feasible to develop such a
defense system.

However, while several allies are wary of pouring billions of dollars
into developing a NATO alliance system, the United States is pressing
ahead with its own missile shield plans.

13 PARTIES NOMINATED AT RA CEC FROM FEBRUARY 26 TO MARCH 2

YEREVAN, MARCH 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The process of nominating candidates
for deputacy by the proportional and majoritarian electoral systems in
the upcoming parliamentary elections will finish on March 3 at 6:00
pm. In the period of February 26 to March 2, applications for
nomination by the proportional system at the RA Central Electoral
Commission (CEC) were submitted to the following 13 parties: "National
Unity" (Chairman Artashes Geghamian), "Nor Zhamanakner" ("New Times")
(Aram Karapetian), People’s Party (Tigran Karapetian), "Bargavach
Hayastan" ("Prosperous Armenia") (Gagik Tsarukian), "Democratic Way"
(Manuk Gasparian), Democratic Party of Armenia (Aram Sargsian),
Progressive Party of Armenia (Tigran Urikhanian), Liberal Progressive
Party of Armenia (Hovahannes Hovhannisian), National Democratic Party
(Shavarsh Kocharian), Social-Democratic Hnchak Party (Lyudmila
Sargsian), United Labor Party (Gurgen Arsenian), People’s Party of
Armenia (Stepan Demirchian) and Marxist Party of Armenia (Davit
Hakobian). Besides, the alliance "Impeachement" composed of the
"Democratic Fatherland" Party and the Conservative Party was
registered at the RA CEC. Out of the main political forces represented
in the parliament, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), ARF,
"Orinats Yerkir" and a number of extraparliamentary parties, which
announced beforehand their decision to participate in the elections,
have not been nominated so far.

ARONYAN STILL TO PROVE HIMSELF

A1+
[08:24 pm] 01 March, 2007

The second tour of ‘Morelia-Linares’ chess super tournament will
take place in Linares at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow (Yerevan time). Magnus
Karlsen, Norwegian grand master together with Viswanathan Anand,
skillful Indian chess player head the tournament table by 4.5 points.

Levon Aronyan also was also a success, but he was beaten by Ivanchuk
and as a result he appeared in the 4th place. Aronyan will still
prove himself.

Judging his previous games, Aronyan plays better in the second half
of the tournament.

We should also mention the fact that Aronyan was the only grand master
to beat Viswanathan Anand in the current tournament.

In the 8th castle Levon Aronyan will play with Pjoter Swidler. As to
the bookmakers, they give preference to the Armenian , who is playing
with white draughts.

To mention, they tied the meeting in the first period.

FOREIGN MINISTER FOTYGA IN ARMENIA

Polish Press Agency, Poland
Feb 26 2007

Armenia is satisfied with cooperation with Poland in the framework
of the Iraqi mission, foreign minister Anna Fotyga told PAP on the
first day of her official visit here. Armenian forces serve in the
Polish-managed zone of Iraq.

Fotyga met PM Andranik Markaryan, speaker of the national assembly
Tigran Torosyan and foreign minister Vartan Oskanyan on Monday. She
said the climate of her visit here was very good and she perceived
Armenia’s desire for deepening its relations with Poland.

Armenian politicians did not mention any plans to withdraw their forces
from Iraq, Fotyga told PAP. They also voiced no doubts concerning
the U.S. proposal to deploy part of the anti-missile shield in Poland.

The two sides reviewed the situation in the Caucasus region and did
not avoid controversial issues, like the Armenian-Azeri relations or
Armenian-Turkish ones, Fotyga said. The prospects for solving the
conflict over Gorny Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan were
also discussed.

Fotyga’s visit falls on the 15th anniversary of establishing diplomatic
ties between Poland and Armenia.

She will then go to other Caucasian countries.

JIVAN HAKOBYAN DIES

A1+
[09:37 pm] 27 February, 2007

Jivan Hakobyan died in reanimation department at "Armenia" Medical
center. His respiratory and other living organs were burnt.

In fact, the government informed that Jivan Hakobyan turned to
Gagik Tsarukyan, chairman of "Prosperous Armenia" party as well as
"Justice’ party.

Jivan Hakobyan had a wife and four kids, a piece of land and
ownership.He has returned from abroad lately where he used to do
outgoing work.

TURKISH PROSECUTORS INTERROGATE 2 NEW SUSPECTS IN KILLING OF ETHNIC ARMENIAN JOURNALIST

AP Worldstream
Feb 26, 2007

Turkish prosecutors on Monday interrogated two new suspects in the
killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist, who were detained over
the weekend.

Police detained the two on Saturday in Trabzon, the Black Sea port
city where all eight other suspects, including the alleged teenage
triggerman, lived.

Police, meanwhile, released another suspect in Istanbul following his
interrogation over the weekend, the state-run Anatolia news agency
reported Monday.

Last month’s killing of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in
Istanbul prompted international condemnation as well as debate within
Turkey about free speech, and whether state institutions were tolerant
of militant nationalists.

On Friday, a group of activists invited prosecutors to press charges
against them in a protest against a law that restricts free speech
and has been used to prosecute intellectuals.

Five members of the small Powerful Turkey Party stood in front
of a prosecutor at a courthouse and repeated statements by Nobel
Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, slain journalist Dink and other
intellectuals that were used as evidence to prosecute them under
Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which bans insults to Turkish
identity.

The group, including party leader Tuna Bekleyic, then asked the
prosecutor to file charges against them. Prosecutors would have to
investigate Bekleyic and his friends before opening any lawsuit,
and none of the activists were arrested.

More members of the party, which has just a few thousand adherents
in a country of 70 million, were expected to conduct a similar act
of civil disobedience this week.

Article 301 makes denigrating Turkish identity a crime punishable by
up to three years in prison.

Pamuk and Dink had both spoken out about the mass killings of Armenians
by Turks in the early 20th century, an issue that remains sensitive
today.

Numerous other writers, journalists and academics have also been
prosecuted.

Dink was shot outside his Istanbul office on Jan. 19 and his murder
revived a debate about the law. His prosecution under Article 301
turned him into a reviled figure among radical nationalists, some of
whom were arrested in connection with his killing.