Author: Nadirian Emma

IRAN TO COMPLETE ARMENIAN PIPELINE

PRESS TV
Oct 23 2007
Iran

President Ahmadinejad says Iran will complete gas pipeline construction
with Armenia, stressing both states desire improved relations.

In an interview with the state-owned Armenian Public Television and
Radio, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Armenia and Iran have decided to
continue the construction of a gas pipeline and build an oil refinery
on the border between the two countries.

Ahmadinejad added that the proposal to transfer Iran’s gas to Europe
via Armenia is still under discussion.

The President also called Tehran-Yerevan relations friendly and said
Iran and Armenia share the same historical background.

President Ahmadinejad arrived in Armenia on Monday morning for
a two-day visit. He held a joint press conference with Armenian
President Robert Koucharian in Yerevan on Monday night and made a
speech at Yerevan University where he was granted an honorary doctoral
degree as well.

IRANIANS ARE PEACE-LOVERS: PRESIDENT

Mehr News Agency
Oct 23 2007
Iran

TEHRAN, Oct. 23 (MNA) — Iran is a major upholder of peace in the
world and welcomes negotiations over its nuclear program, President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad said in Yerevan on Tuesday.

However, the president said, the Islamic Republic will never abandon
its absolute right to peaceful nuclear technology.

"We are in favor of talks but we will not negotiate with anyone about
our right to nuclear technology," Ahmadinejad told Iranian nationals
in Armenia. "Iran will not retreat one iota."

"We believe anyone who compromises over its rights (he) would lose
some parts of it."

U.S. President George W. Bush recently said Washington is ready to
hold talks with Iran if it stops its nuclear enrichment activities.

"Bush should better know that Iran is not in need of negotiations
with the U.S.," Ahmadinejad said in direct reference to Bush’s remarks.

The president insisted that the hegemonic powers must bow to the
Iranian nation’s legal rights.

The sanctions imposed on Iran have encouraged the Iranian nation to
make progress in various fields, he noted.

He described Iran’s relations with Armenia close and friendly and
called for further expansion of bilateral relations.

PanARMENIAN.Net

OSCE MG Co-chairs arriving in Yerevan
23.10.2007 19:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, Matt Bryza (U.S.),
Bernard Fassier (France) and Yuri Merzlyakon (Russia) are arriving in
Armenia October 24, RA MFA Spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told a
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

The mediators are scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian and President Robert Kocharian, he said.

The Co-chairs held consultations on the Karabakh settlement in Paris
October 23-24.

LOCAL TV ‘CENSURED FOR AIRING TER-PETROSIAN SPEECH’
By Astghik Bedevian

Rdaio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 22 2007

A regional television station claimed on Monday to have incurred the
Armenian government’s ire by broadcasting former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s September 21 speech that contained harsh verbal
attacks on the authorities.

In his first public speech in nearly a decade, Ter-Petrosian described
Armenia’s current leadership as "corrupt and criminal" and called for
its ouster. His political allies offered to pay TV stations across
the country to air the 20-minute speech in full. Only two of them
accepted the offer.

The owner and chief executive of one of those broadcasters, the
Gyumri-based Gala TV, told RFE/RL that he did so despite a stark
warning from the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR),
a presidentially appointed body that issues and revokes broadcasting
licenses. Vahan Khachatrian claimed that officers of the Gyumri branch
of the National Security Service visited him shortly afterward and
warned Gala to stop covering Ter-Petrosian’s return to active politics.

Khachatrian said he will ignore the alleged warning. "I’m not afraid
of anything or anyone," he said, adding that tax officials in Gyumri
are now investigating the legality of his ownership of real and
other property.

Khachatrian also struck a defiant in a separate written statement
issued later in the day. "I want to emphasize that the Gala TV
company’s position will not change and that I, as the company’s owner,
will not tolerate any attempt at interference by any structure or
individual," he said.

The claims came just three days after Armenia’s leading media
associations expressed serious concern at reports that the government
has ordered TV channels in Yerevan and elsewhere in Yerevan to shun
events featuring Ter-Petrosian and, in particular, a rally which he
plans to hold on Friday.

The largest of the broadcasters, the state-owned Armenian Public
Television and Radio, denied this. Its chairman, Aleksan Harutiunian,
told RFE/RL that his H1 channel, the most accessible in Armenia,
will cover the Ter-Petrosian rally.

Other, local channels will not necessarily follow suit. Margarita
Minasian, chairwoman of another Gyumri channel, Tsayg, said she will
not send any correspondents to the rally. "We lack the technical
capacity to videotape events in Yerevan on a daily basis," she
told RFE/RL.

"We haven’t decided yet. We may and may not cover it," said Anzhela
Stepanian, who runs the news service of the private Alt TV station in
the southern town of Armavir. She argued that local news has always
been the main focus of her company.

All major Armenian broadcasters are loyal to the administration of
President Robert Kocharian and rarely air opposition criticism of
its policies. The only TV station not controlled by the authorities
was controversially pulled off the air in 2002.

Meanwhile, representatives of the pro-Ter-Petrosian Armat organization,
said on Monday that it has prepared video clips informing citizens
about Friday’s rally and have offered various channels to air them
as advertisements. They said none of them has agreed to run the ads
so far.

Armat and other groups supportive of the ex-president portray this
as an indication that the authorities are seriously worried about
Ter-Petrosian’s participation in the upcoming presidential elections.

Ter-Petrosian is increasingly emerging as the main challenger of the
election favorite, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

US IN ‘DIPLOMATIC FULL COURT PRESS’ TO STOP TURKISH INCURSION INTO IRAQ
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press
October 22, 2007 Monday 7:01 PM GMT

The United States has opened a "diplomatic full court press" to keep
Turkey from invading northern Iraq, an incursion that could further
destabilize Iraq and the region.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials implored
Turkish and Iraqi leaders to work together to counter the threat from
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the State Department
said on Monday as Turkish troops headed toward the border.

Tensions soared after a weekend ambush by rebel Kurds killed 12
Turkish soldiers and left eight missing. Word from Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani’s office that the PKK would announce a cease-fire was
met in Washington with little enthusiasm. Officials cautioned that
a temporary truce would not resolve Turkey’s long-standing concerns
about the group, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization.

As part of the diplomatic offensive, Rice called Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leader of Iraq’s Kurdish region, Massoud
Barzani, on Sunday to press the U.S. case for restraint from Turkey and
action from Iraq against the Kurdish militants, department spokesman
Sean McCormack said.

He said Washington would not object to the Iraqi government pressing
the PKK for a truce but stressed that "any sort of actions that they
may take cooperatively with the Turkish government or on their own
to prevent terrorist attacks should in no way prejudice the long-term
solution, that is to get rid of the PKK."

At the same time, Rice told Erdogan that "we do not believe unilateral
cross-border operations are the best way to address this issue,"
according to McCormack.

"In our view, there are better ways to deal with this issue," he said,
stressing the U.S. regards the PKK as a terrorist organization.

"We think the best way to do this and that is to address the PKK
threat is for the Turks and the Iraqis to work together to mitigate
it and eliminate it."

Rice also told Barzani that Iraqi authorities needed to take action
against the PKK either on their own or with the Turks, McCormack said.

As Rice was speaking to Erdogan and Barzani, the U.S. Ambassador
to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, was making similar points in Baghdad with
Talabani himself a Kurd who ordered the PKK to lay down their arms
or leave Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite.

McCormack said he expected the White House, possibly President Bush,
to follow up the Rice and Crocker conversations with Turkish and
Iraqi officials.

"From our perspective this is a diplomatic full-court press," he
said. "We want to see an outcome where you have the Turks and the
Iraqis working together and we will do what we can to resolve the
issue without a Turkish cross-border incursion."

However, he acknowledged that U.S. influence with NATO ally Turkey
was limited, particularly after a House committee passed a resolution
describing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during
the waning days of the Ottoman Empire as a "genocide," infuriating
Ankara, which has threatened repercussions.

"It makes it harder," McCormack said, referring to the resolution.

Speaking in Ukraine, Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday said a
major Turkish incursion into northern Iraq would hurt the U.S. effort
against the insurgency in Iraq and would further complicate the
administration’s efforts to persuade the full Congress not to pass
the Armenia genocide resolution.

Erdogan said he had told Rice in their conversation that Turkey
expected "speedy steps from the U.S." in cracking down on Kurdish
rebels and that Rice had asked "for a few days" from him.

McCormack declined to comment on what Rice had meant by asking for
"a few days."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said his country will pursue
diplomacy before it sends troops across the rugged frontier.

Sunday’s ambush outraged an already frustrated Turkish public and
demonstrations erupted across the country while opposition leaders
called for an immediate strike against rebel bases in Iraq, despite
appeals for restraint from Iraq, the U.S. and European leaders.

It occurred four days after the Turkish Parliament authorized the
government to deploy troops across the border in Iraq, amid growing
anger in Turkey at perceived U.S. and Iraqi failure to live up to
pledges to crack down on the PKK.

Ant iwar.com
October 22, 2007
Here’s Hoping Pelosi Peeves the Turks
by Charley Reese

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has apparently promised some wealthy
Armenian-American backers in her district that she would bring to a
vote a resolution condemning the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 as genocide.

It was that. You don’t kill 1.2 million people out of a population of
only 1.6 million by accident. In addition to mass executions,
Armenians were forcibly deported to the deserts of modern-day Syria,
where thousands more died of starvation and dehydration. There is a
voluminous record of the horrors of that time.

There is a hitch, however. The modern Turks, our NATO allies,
strenuously and vehemently oppose any labeling of what happened to the
Armenians as genocide. When the French did so, Turkey permanently
ended all military cooperation with France. The Turks are threatening
similar measures if Congress votes on the resolution and have already
recalled their ambassador to the U.S. They claim the deaths were the
result of wartime starvation and a civil war.

Consequently, the president, the Cabinet, former secretaries of state
and defense, not to mention the war supporters in the media, are all
decrying the resolution and pleading with Pelosi not to bring it to a
vote. They fear the Turks will kick the U.S. military out of Turkey,
including at the Incirlik Air Base. About 70 percent of the supplies
to American troops in Iraq flow through Turkey. The base was
officially opened in 1955.

Both strategically and tactically, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to
alienate a current ally because of a historical event that occurred 92
years ago. The Ottoman government didn’t survive much longer than the
Armenians. Defeated in World War I, it was replaced in a revolution
led by Kemal Ataturk. Thus, modern Turks and the present Turkish
government are as innocent as lambs of having played any part at all
in the genocide.

I’ve heard some very naive statements by some supporters of the
resolution. One congressman asserted that Turkey needs us as much as
we need Turkey. That’s not true. Turkey became an ally because of its
traditional enmity with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union no longer
exists.

Years ago, during an interview with a visiting Turkish colonel, I
naively asked if he thought the U.S. and Turkey would remain friends.
The grim-faced colonel replied: "Turkey and the U.S. are not friends.
We just happen to have the same enemy." Well, today we don’t.

To further complicate matters, the Turks have massed troops on the
border with northern Iraq and are threatening to invade in order to
get at the Kurdish faction that commits acts of terror against Turkey.
I have no sympathy for the U.S. or the Kurds. If they didn’t want the
Turks to act, they should have put a tight grip on the PKK faction and
stopped its attacks in Turkey. They failed to do so despite promises.

Another congressman said the U.S. would actually be doing Turkey a
favor by passing the genocide resolution. That is so stupid, it’s not
worthy of comment. I’m sure Armenian-Americans have a jillion lawsuits
and demands for reparations all ready to go.

As an American opposed to the American Empire, I fervently hope Pelosi
doesn’t lose her nerve and lets the House vote on the genocide
resolution. I would be pleased as punch if the Turks kicked us out of
Turkey, moved us out of Incirlik, and moved in their own air force.

Given President Bush’s determination to keep American troops in Iraq
apparently forever, if the Turks made it harder to do that, they would
be doing us a favor.

ARMENIAN PREMIER, US OFFICIAL DISCUSS MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE PROGRAMME

Mediamax, Armenia
Oct 20 2007

Yerevan, 19 October: According to a preliminary report, Armenia is
fulfilling its commitments to the US Millennium Challenges Corporation
(MCC). As Mediamax was told in the press service of the Armenian
government, the Chief Executive Director of the Millennium Challenges
Corporation, Ambassador John Danilovich, said this on Thursday [18
October] during the meeting with the Armenian Prime Minister Serzh
Sargsyan in Washington.

He said that a session of the management board of the Corporation
will take place in November of 2007 in Washington, during which the
implementation of agreements with member states for a one-year period
will be discussed.

In turn, the Armenian prime minister noted that, in accordance with
the MCC classification, this year Armenia passed from the category
of countries with law income to the one with average income, which
prompts the Armenian government to work more actively. According to
Serzh Sargsyan, the draft state budget of Armenia for 2008 is quite
ambitious, which can be noticed by the MCC representatives as well.

Yesterday evening the Armenian delegation, headed by the prime
minister, left Washington for Los Angeles, where meetings with the
editorial staff of The Los Angeles Times, the leadership of the Lincy
Foundation and representatives of the Armenian community of the USA
are planned to take place.

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 20 2007

MOMENT TO BECOME SERIOUS

Judging by all, the circles assiduously preparing for Levon
Ter-Petrosuyan’s `return’ are little by little starting to overcome
the feeling of `euphoria’ and are looking around carefully, weighing
the resources of the reanimation of the Armenian pan-National
Movement.
Encouraged by the data of the SMS surveys and virtual
computer-based polls published in the press supporting the Armenian
pan-National Movement, these people were quite recently daydreaming
that Mr. Ter-Petrpsyan’s `unexpected’ return would give rise to an
incredible panic and fuss inside the pro-Government camp. In the
meantime, without giving any information on whether the criminal
administration is shaking in agony or is about to have a heart
attack. But here they are: with the purpose of scrutinizing and
invalidating the results of the most recent polls conducted by the
Armenian Sociological Association, they have conducted a `fleeting’
survey on their own. And they were horrified to find out that the
inhabitants of the center of town (as to the district population and
especially those living in villages, we modestly keep silence about
them) are not, mildly speaking, delighted by the dreamy prospect of
the pro-Ter-Petrosyan revanche.
Moreover, they mention with disappointment that the people, alas,
do not want to hear anything about bringing `Levon’ to power for the
second time. Whereas, the `the pan-national revival’ seemed so close
that it was enough to just stretch your hand and get hold of the
victory.
Or, as Aram Z. Sargsyan would say, it only remains to decide
whether to seize the Presidential residence and then join `decisive’
demonstration on October 26, or gp to the demonstration and then lead
the critical mass to Baghramyan Avenue to seize the Winter Castle.
Alas, the moment to become serious has arrived. Referring to some
`PR’ specialist, the fans regret to state that `there will be a
choice between strength and intellect’. And after the elections they
will declare to the whole world that the elections were falsified. Or
society is not yet mature enough to have an `intellectual’ president
like L.T.P.
These individuals cannot in any way put up with the idea that the
people do not suffer from amnesia and unlike some political leaders,
they do not have the psychology of a manipulated person. Making a
fool of themselves, they even fail to `realize’ the obvious truth
that the fight between the present-day and former authorities is
first of all around the issue whether or not to cede Karabakh. And
during the upcoming presidential marathon (if, of course, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan decides to nominate his candidacy, after all) the
choice will be between the those who hurry to resolve the Karabakh
conflict at all costs and their confirmed rivals who desire to
re-subject Karabakh to Azerbaijan in some status.
Undoubtedly, the RA citizens will simultaneously make a choice
among denationalization, a unilateral pro-Western policy and a
balanced, i.e. complementary foreign policy. Because, even though Mr.
Ter-Petrosyan has found himself surrounded by Russia’s unfriendly
attitude, he is far-sighted enough to avoid cutting the navel string
between Russia and Armenia, and his team (which, let’s note, is not
quite a suitable place for Stepan Demirtchyan, Head of the People’s
Party of Armenia) is the best index of the ex-President’s
geopolitical preferences.
At the same time, the voters will have to answer a number of
`adjacent’ questions. For instance, whether it is worth to regulate
the relations with Turkey at the price of refusing to pursue the
`short-sighted’ state policy aimed at achieving the international
recognition of the Armenian Genocide or to leave the issue on the
agenda of the RA foreign policy?
Or whether history (national ideology) is a false category or not
quite so?
And after all, as Andranik Mihranyan mentioned last week, in case
of Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s participation, the elections will change into
a specific kind of referendum by which society will sum up the
balance sheet of Armenia’s newest history, including the period when
the Armenian pan-National Movement was in power and the period that
followed it. After all, they will assess the activities of the former
and present-day authorities.
In this respect, the good news is that certain signs of
sensibility are being observed among the people who suffered from the
childish disease of dreaming about Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s return. Even
the Levon-oriented circles confess from the distant town of Los
Angeles that this is not an appropriate moment for the Armenian
pan-National Movement to take revanche.
As they say, better late than never.

S. HAROUTYUNYAN

Think Progress, DC
Oct 19 2007

NYT Embraces White House Talking Point, Claims Bush’s Veto Proves He
Can `Still Get His Way’

Yesterday, House conservatives sustained President Bush’s SCHIP veto,
killing a bill that was overwhelmingly supported by the American
public. The White House used the occasion to assert its dominance
over the legislative branch. `We won this round on SCHIP,’ claimed
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Perino’s comments underscore Bush’s claim earlier this week, when he
argued that by issuing vetoes, he ensures that he is `relevant.’
`That’s one way to ensure that I’m in the process,’ he told
reporters.

The media have blindly picked up this administration talking point.
In a New York Times article today, authors Robert Pear and Sheryl Gay
Stolberg called Bush’s veto `artful’ and said it shows that he is
able to `still get his way on Capitol Hill`:

For now, the insurance vote stands as the latest example of how Mr.
Bush can still get his way on Capitol Hill. Through artful use of
veto threats and his veto pen, Mr. Bush has fended off attempts to
force a change of course in Iraq – a feat Democrats would never have
imagined when they pushed Republicans out of power a year ago. He has
twisted Democrats into knots over domestic surveillance, and forced
them to rethink a resolution condemning as genocide a century-old
massacre of Armenians.

Bush’s vetoes aren’t `artful.’ They have killed bills widely
supported by the public. They also don’t say anything about Bush’s
relevance or power. As a recent analysis in the National Journal
shows, overriding a president’s veto has historically been rare:

Any president can wield a veto pen. A more significant measure of
Bush’s power is the fact he has been unable to convince Congress to
pass his major priorities, such as immigration and Social Security.
Last month, Bush himself acknowledged that people don’t listen to him
and in January, the American public already thought that Bush was a
lame duck.

o-bush/

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Oct 19 2007

Turkish business group lobbies US over Armenian resolution

Passing the resolution will damage relations between the US and
Turkey, the TUSIAD letter said.

Güncelleme: 13:17 TSÝ 19 Ekim 2007 Cuma

ANKARA/WASHINGTON – Turkey’s largest business organisation has called
on the US Congress not to adopt a resolution acknowledging
allegations that the Ottoman Empire massacred many of its Armenian
citizens during World War One.

On Friday, the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association
(TUSIAD) sent a letter to US congressmen warning that, if adopted,
the resolution passed by the House of Representatives Foreign
Relations Committee could harm ties between Turkey and the US.

TUSIAD also warned that adopting the resolution would undermine
efforts to improve relations between Turkey and Armenia and damage
attempts by Turkey to set up an international committee to study the
events of 1915.

The Turkish business community can not understand why the US
parliament would want to re-write Ottoman history, the letter said.

TUSIAD also said it was regrettable that the Armenian bill arose at a
time when the US administration was not willing to support Turkey’s
fight against terrorist group the PKK.

`We invite the American people, congressmen and the US administration
to help block the arrival of the Armenian bill to the General
Assembly of the US House of Representatives,’ the letter said. `We
also invite the said parties to support with more determination
Turkey’s fight against terrorist organisation the PKK.’