Author: Nahapetian Boris

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Oct 14 2006

EU: The French Armenian Bill Would Prohibit Dialogue

Saturday , 14 October 2006

* The EU says the French Armenian bill would damage the relations
between Turkey and Armenia and Turkey and EU

The European Union said French parliament approval on Thursday of a
bill making it a crime to reject the Armenian accusations against the
Turkish people about the 1915 communal clashes could harm efforts to
end decades of dispute over the killings. Armenians name the 1915
Events `genocide’ while the Turks accuse the Armenians of massacring
520,000 Turkish civilian people.

A European Commission spokeswoman noted the bill still needed upper
house approval and said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn had
repeatedly warned in recent days it would damage efforts in Turkey
and Armenia to resolve the dispute. Turkish prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan had called Armenia to set up a joint commission to
solve the historical disputes. Yet Yerevan Government rejected the
offer claiming there was nothing to be discussed.

"Should this law enter into force … it would prohibit dialogue
which is necessary for reconciliation on the issue," spokeswoman
Krisztina Nagy told a regular news conference.

Asked whether the bill could add a stumbling block to difficult
accession talks with Ankara opened just over a year ago, she noted
recognition of the 1915 killings as a `genocide’ was not a
precondition for accession.

"It is not up to law to write history. Historians need to have
debate," she said.

Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 13 2006

Foreign Minister Oskanian received CoE Commissioner for Human Rights

13.10.2006 15:52

October 13 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received Council of
Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Tomas Hammarberg, who arrived in
Armenia to participate in the 27th sitting of CoE Justice Ministers.
The interlocutors dwelt on the issue of Armenia’s joining the
international conventions in the sphere of human rights and the
process of ratification of the documents signed. Minister Oskanian
confirmed that the ratification of the latter will be completed as
soon as possible.
The parties discussed the legislative initiatives after the
Constitutional amendments and the opportunities of full
implementation of these.
At the request of the guest, Minister Oskanian generally presented
the process of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

TURKISH MFA CRITICIZES FRENCH PARLIAMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.10.2006 17:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ignoring Turkish protests, the French lower house
of parliament approved a bill on Thursday making it a crime to deny
Armenians suffered a Genocide in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman
Turks.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the vote would hurt ties between the
two NATO allies and analysts warned that it would complicate Turkey’s
efforts to secure European Union membership. "French-Turkish relations,
which have developed over centuries … have been dealt a blow today
as a result of the irresponsible false claims of French politicians
who do not see the political consequences of their actions," the
Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement, reports Reuters.

MARSAUD SAYS: "IT IS AGAINST FUNDAMENTAL LAW"

Sabah, Turkey
Oct 12 2006

Regarding the legal draft voted on today regarding the denial of
the Armenian genocide, which anticipates imprisonment and monetary
penalty, the chairman of the parliament’s law committee Marsaud said:
"It is against the freedom of opinion and fundamental law."

France recognized the Armenian genocide four years ago. Today, the
French parliament will vote on the legal draft deeming the "denial of
the Armenian genocide as a crime" which was prepared by the socialist
party. Regarding the legal draft which has caused debates for months,
the chairman of the parliament’s law committee Marsaud said: "It is
against the freedom of opinion and fundamental law."

EUROPE’S ENLARGEMENT COMMISSIONER HAS DENOUNCED THE BILL

EuroNews
Oct 12 2006

This comes barely six months before French elections and amid a climate
of strong French voter opposition to Turkey’s potential future EU
entry. France’s Armenian community numbers around 500,000.

President Jacques Chirac at a commemoration ceremony recently said
he believes Turkish acceptance of the country’s role in the deaths
ought to be a condition for its European Union membership.

When these negotiations began a year ago, it was not a pre-condition.

Chirac said all countries grow by coming to terms with their dramas
and errors. EU enlargement spokesperson Krisztina Nagy, in Brussels
made the European stance clear: "For the concrete framework for the
negotiations with Turkey, the European Council has taken a decision,
and this decision does not include the recognition of the Armenian
genocide as a criterion for accession for Turkey." The European
Commission warned France that it could hinder efforts to end decades
of dispute over the killings. Nagy said: "It is not up to law to
write history."

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 27.00.03, 27.16.00 (temporary)
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46 (temporary)
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:

October 10, 2006

HERITAGE STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN ‘WATERGATE’

Yerevan–On October 9, Raffi Hovannisian and the Heritage Party sent a
complaint to the Republic’s prosecutor general Aghvan Hovsepyan, appealing
the recent decision of the Yerevan prosecutor’s office not to file criminal
charges in the case of the illegal forcible closure of and break-in to their
offices and computer system in March. The prosecutor general personally
pledged to Hovannisian to consider the case and respond by week’s end.

As a reminder, an official laboratory examination ordered by the Yerevan
police department had concluded months ago that on March 8 individuals yet
to be identified entered the premises in question, from which Hovannisian
and Heritage had unlawfully been evicted days earlier, and after
circumventing the computer’s password "at 1:06am a monitor and a USB-type
memory-bearing flashcard of an unknown brand were externally connected to
the computer, the operational system of which registered modifications to a
host of files."

This alone is clearly sufficient to meet the threshold requirement for
initiating a criminal case, after which all witnesses and suspects,
regardless of their official capacity, must be questioned and a series of
other relevant investigations carried out.

Anything short of this means an orchestrated cover-up of a criminal act well
beyond the bounds of justice.

We demand truth and right.

FATE OF THE DEPUTY WILL BE DECIDED TODAY

A1+
[12:10 pm] 11 October, 2006

11:40 p.m. of the current day will mark the end of the 72 hours which
NA deputy Hakob Hakobyan spent in the isolation cell. After that he
must either be set free or be arrested for hooliganism.

If the police decide to punish the deputy, RA Public Prosecutor
Aghvan Hovsepyan must go to the National Assembly in order for the
Parliamentarians to deprive Hakob Hakobyan of immunity. By the way,
according to the regulations, in this case the arrested deputy must
be brought to the Parliament hall in handcuffs.

Let us remind you that three months ago Hakob Hakobyan became member of
the Republican Party of Armenia which has one of the largest factions
in the NA.

NA SPEAKER DENIES PRIME MINISTER’S INVOLVEMENT IN BEATING OF REPUBLIC PARTY BOARD MEMBER

Panorama.am
17:11 09/10/06

Tigran Torosyan, speaker of parliament, denied any involvement of Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan in beating of Suren Abrahamyan, member
of Republic Party board who was also former mayor of Yerevan, former
interior minister and former chairman of Armenian Football Federation.

"I condemn any violence against any person," the speaker said today
also saying it seems strange to him that the prime minister is blamed
in the incident especially prior to investigation. "I think it will
be unveiled that neither HHK nor Andranik Margaryan have any relation
to the incidence." In his opinion, Abrahamyan gave way to provocations.

Torosyan also denied that HHK member, and National Assembly deputy
Hakob Hakobyan is arrested. "If the deputy were arrested, I would
know about it," he said.

RA MPS ANXIOUS ABOUT AGGRAVATION OF RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 6 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. "I agree to the viewpoint of a
number of Russian media that if danger threatens some country, this
accelerates the process of this country’s admission to NATO." Stepan
Zakarian, member of the People’s Party of Armenia, member of the
Ardarutiun (Justice) NA faction, declared at the October 6 discussion
at the Pakagits club dedicated to home and foreign political problems.

He expressed confidence that the Georgian events initiated by President
M.Sahakashvili were aimed at the very acceleration of the process of
Georgia’s joining NATO. S.Zakarian expressed anxiety about further
aggravation of Russian-Georgian relations and their possible impact
on Armenia. As he estimated, Armenia will suffer more from this than
Georgia. "The West, first of all the U.S. may express readiness to
compensate to Georgia the damage from blockade by Russia and who
compensates the damages of Armenia?" S.Zakarian said.

Grigor Ghonjeyan, member of the United Labor Party parliamentary
faction, also considers that aggravation of Russian-Georgian relations
will have a negative impact on hard socio-economic state of the
majority of Armenia’s population.

Both MPs held the same opinion, according to which home political
situation in the country will aggravate on the background of the
parliamentary elections to be held in 2007 spring. G.Ghonjeyan
expressed anxiety that the Armenian public lacks realization of
importance of the forthcoming elections and their significance for
the country’s future.

TURKEY MAY HIT BACK AT FRANCE WITH ALGERIA ‘GENOCIDE’ LAW

Agence France Presse — English
October 7, 2006 Saturday 9:11 AM GMT

Turkey may retaliate to a draft French law making it a jailable
offense to deny the Armenians were the victim of genocide under the
Ottoman Empire with a similar law on French killings under colonial
rule in Algeria, a senior lawmaker said in remarks published Saturday.

Koksal Toptan, head of the Turkish parliament’s justice commission,
told the mass-selling Sabah daily he had initially ignored proposals
made in May for Turkey to brand killings of Algerians under French
colonial rule as genocide and introduce prison terms for those who
deny it.

"I just swept them under the carpet," he said.

But following renewed attempts in France to pass a bill calling for
five years in jail to anyone who denies Turks committed genocide
against Armenians during World War I, Toptan said he had ordered
that the proposals be put on the commission’s agenda for Wednesday,
a day before the French draft is debated in Paris.

"What is France trying to do? Their attitude is damaging Turkish-French
ties and is doing no good to Turkish-Armenian ties either," Toptan
told Sabah.

"If the French parliament is acting like that, we must give a response
… in the name of our pride," he said.

The justice commission is the first instance where draft laws are
debated before being sent to a vote at the general assembly.

France already passed in 2001 a resolution recognizing the 1915-17
killings of Armenians as genocide.

The bill to criminalize genocide denial was first tabled in May but
the debate ran out of parliamentary time before a vote could be held.

Toptan said Turkish MPs had filed three proposals for retaliative laws.

According to parliamentary records, two of them call for the
recognition of the killings of Algerians under French colonial rule —
from 1830 to 1962 — as genocide and the introduction of jail terms
for those who deny it.

The third calls for the imprisonment of those who assert the Armenians
were victims of genocide under Ottoman rule.

All three proposals were sumbitted in May — apparently in reaction
to the debate in France.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose
for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian
troops as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

On Friday, the Turkish foreign ministry warned that a positive vote
at the French parliament next week could jeopardise "investments, the
fruit of years of work, and France will — so to speak — lose Turkey".