Author: Nahapetian Samvel

ARMENIAN AND RUSSIAN SPECIALISTS TO IMPLEMENT WORK ON GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF URANIUM MINES IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Apr 23 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 23, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 23 the RA Ministry of Nature
Protection and the RF Atomic Energy Agency signed a cooperation
memorandum on prospecting, exploration and operation of uranium mines
in Armenia. The memorandum was signed by the RA Minister of Nature
Protection Vardan Aivazian and the Head of the Russian Atomic Energy
Agency Sergei Kirienko.

V. Aivazian said that in 2000, the governments of the two countries
signed the agreement on cooperation in the use of atomic energy for
peaceful purposes. In early 2007, the Russian side presented a draft
joint action plan on exploration and operation of uranium mines.

According to the minister, an Armenian-Russian joint venture will
be set up for geological exploration of uranium mines and their
preliminary industrial assessment, with Geoeconomica state CJSC
representing the Armenian side.

Unranium mine exploration will mainly be done in Syunik marz.

S. Kirienko said that geological surveys in the Soviet time showed
that Armenia has uranium resources of at least 30 thousand tons. In
his words, the real resorces may be 2-3 times as much, which will
allow Armenia to export uranium. He noted that uranium is the only
power-bearing substance whose price has increased 10fold in recent
years. According to S. Kirienko, Russian geologists will come
to Armenia in a few weeks. The preparatory work related to mine
exploration is envisaged to be completed by late 2007.

V. Aivazian said that no uranium enrichment will be done in Armenia. A
"political agreement" has been reached with Russia, according to which
Armenia will participate in the creation of the newly-established
International Atomic Center where uranium enrichment will be carried
out.

ARMENIANS REMEMBER TURKISH KILLINGS 92 YEARS AGO
By Hasmik Lazarian

Reuters, UK
April 24 2007

YEREVAN (Reuters) – Thousands of Armenians climbed a mountain in the
country’s capital on Tuesday to lay wreaths of remembrance for 1.5
million victims of what they call a genocide by Ottoman Turkey 92
years ago.

Modern Turkey rejects the Armenian claim, though the issue has evolved
into a festering source of tension to both Ankara’s EU ambitions and
its relations with the United States.

Clutching red tulips and carnations, local families mingled with
members of Armenia’s diaspora who flew in from Europe and the United
States to remember loved ones who perished between 1915 and 1923.

"We are Armenians and we have to send an important message to Turkey
to acknowledge our genocide," said Carla Garapedian, a film director
who travelled from the United States.

The killings during the chaotic disintegration of the Ottoman Empire
should be declared a genocide, Armenia insists.

Turkey rejects this view, arguing instead that Armenians were victims
of a partisan war that also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives.

Armenian claims against Turkey are casting a shadow over Ankara’s EU
membership bid, perceived in many European capitals as a test case
for Ankara’s willingness to atone for its own past.

Officially, though, EU negotiators say recognition of the 1915 killings
as a genocide are not a precondition for Turkey’s eventual admission
to the 27-member bloc.

The U.S. Congress has debated a bill on recognising the 1915 killings
as a genocide, although the Bush administration opposes the bill.

The White House is keen to avoid antagonising Turkey, a NATO ally and
moderate Muslim country whose support it needs in the region as it
battles Iraqi insurgents and confronts Iran over its nuclear programme.

The site of many deaths, Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, could not
be seen on Tuesday from Armenia due to fog and rainy weather. The
mountain is a symbol for the Christian nation but lies out of reach,
across a fortified frontier.

The two countries have no diplomatic ties. Turkey closed its border
in 1993 when it backed Azerbaijan during the war with Armenia over
the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Turkey also objects to Yerevan’s claims
on some of its land.

Armenia’s leadership insists a Turkish admission of genocide would
be important not just morally but also as a guarantee to regional
security.

"The international community has realised that genocide is a crime
against not only one nation but the whole of mankind and its denial
is not less dangerous than its preparation and implementation,"
President Robert Kocharyan said in a statement.

NKR FOREIGN MINISTER GEORGY PETROSSIAN’S COMMENTARY ON NKR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

A1+
[06:10 pm] 23 April, 2007

Mr. Minister, how will you comment the statement of the CE Committee of
Ministers, Foreign Minister of San Marino Fiorenzo Stolfi concerning
the information that the forthcoming elections in Nagorno Karabakh
cannot create favorable conditions for the conflict settlement since
they predetermine the region’s status?

The statement of the Chairman of the CE Committee of Ministers denotes
once more that the European officials of even such high level are
poorly aware of the Karabakh conflict’s essence and process.

Representatives of different European structures try to compensate
this gap by using stereotyped answers, as Foreign Minister of San
Marino Fiorenzo Stolfi did.

However, similar standard approach to the Karabakh problem as a whole,
and the process of civil society building in the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic in particular, which has recently become established in the
international structures is counterproductive and dangerous. The
indulgence to the caprices of the Azerbaijani side, which is more
often demonstrated by the European officials, can be perceived as an
attempt to bring Nagorno Karabakh back to the past. In connection with
this, I would like to remind Mr. Fiorenzo Stolfi that any attempts
to deprive the people of Nagorno Karabakh of the right to democratic
development and civil society strengthening are condemned to failure.

Under the conditions of democracy the elections are crucial institute
of demonstrating political role of the people as the source of
power. The forthcoming presidential elections in the NKR are not
an exception. They cannot impact the Karabakh conflict settlement
process and cannot predetermine Nagorno Karabakh’s status, as their
main function is to form power through democratic mechanisms. The
NKR’s status was determined by the will of people of Nagorno Karabakh
at December 10, 1991 referendum in conformity with the norms of the
international law and the national legislation which was in force
during that period.

It should be noted that we have repeatedly invited the representatives
of various European structures to visit Nagorno Karabakh and get
acquainted with the situation on-site to overcome the stereotypes
and cliches, which have become established among European officials
regarding Nagorno Karabakh.

ATTEMPT IS MADE TO OBSERVE CRIMES OF EVERYDAY CHARACTER COMMITTED DURING PRE-ELECTORAL PERIOD FROM POLITICAL VEIWPOINT, SAMVEL NIKOYAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Apr 20 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, NOYAN TAPAN. "The hooliganism taken place in Erebuni
on April 19 has no connection with any party, particularly, with the
RPA and Bargavach Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia)," Samvel Nikoyan,
a RA NA deputy, Council member of the Republican Party of Armenia
(RPA) stated at the April 20 press conference. In his words, this
as well as the explosions in the offices of the Bargavach Hayastan
party are usual crimes.

S. Nikoyan at the same time did not exclude that criminals may be in
every party as "anybody who wants, becomes a party member."

In the deputy’s words, the number of crimes grew during the recent
period.

And in S. Nikoyan’s words, an attempt is made to observe the crimes
of everyday character committed during the pre-electoral period from
the political viewpoint.

ARMBUSINESSBANK PUTS INTO OPERATION FIRST IN ARMENIA MACHINE FOR AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE OF FOREIGN CURRENCY

Noyan Tapan
Apr 19 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, NOYAN TAPAN. Armbusinessbank CJSC has put into
operation a machine for automatic exchange of foreign currency. This
machine is the first one in Armenia and has been installed at the
bank’s branch at 20 Mashtots Avenue (Yerevan).

Karen Khachatrian, Head of the Plastic Card Operations Unit of
Armbusinessbank, told NT correspondent that the machine (made by the
Italian company Sigma) exchanges 6 most widespread foreign currencies
in Armenia – US dollars, euros, Russian rubles, Ukrainian grivnas,
Swiss francs and British pound sterlings.

According to K. Khachatrian, besides banknotes, 10-, 50- and 200-dram
metal coins can be used in the automatic exchange machine, thanks to
which exchange is carried out in full amount at the exchange rate set
by the bank. He noted that all 10 automatic exchange machine purchased
by the bank will be put into operation next month, and their number
will reach 70 by late 2008.

Armbusinessbank currently has 10 teller machines and intends to
put another 10 into operation in the near future. In the period of
September, 2006 up to now, the bank has issued over 400 plastic ArCa
cards. It envisages to issue MasterCards soon.

CHRISTIAN CONVERTS MURDERED IN TURKEY
Nicholas Birch in Istanbul

Irish Times
Published: Apr 19, 2007

TURKEY: Two Turkish Christian converts and a German man were killed
yesterday in a publishing house that prints bibles, in the latest
attack on religious minorities living in mainly Muslim Turkey.

Security officials found the men with their hands and feet tied to
chairs and their throats cut in the office of Zirve Publishing in
the southeastern city of Malatya.

A fourth man was being treated for severe head wounds after he jumped
from a third-floor balcony to escape.

The attack comes two months after a nationalist gunman killed Turkish-
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a native of Malatya, on an Istanbul
street.

Television pictures showed police leading several young men out of
the building, apparently in handcuffs. Officials said that four men
had been taken into custody.

Turkish media reports claimed that police arrested the attackers
before they left the building, acting on a tip-off from victims’
families, who had been unable to reach the office by phone.

Ahmet Guvener, the pastor of a Protestant church in the nearby city of
Diyarbakir, who was a friend of the victims, said that he had spoken
to them on Tuesday night.

"They were at peace with the world. This news came as a total shock",
he said.

Zirve Publishing’s director, Hamza Ozant, who opened the Malatya
office last year, said that the murdered men had been "on the verge
of asking for police protection", following threats.

Malatya, the home town of Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II
in 1981, is known as a nationalist city. Nationalists had previously
protested outside the Zirve building following local news reports
accusing the staff of proselytism.

Introduced in 2005, Turkey’s new criminal code made it an offence to
prevent missionaries from working.

But widespread conspiracy theories continue to link missionaries to
international attempts to divide the country, and suspicion of them
is not just limited to Malatya or to nationalists.

The Islamist weekly Aksiyon claimed recently that 35,000 clandestine
Christian congregations were meeting in the country. In fact, Turkish
Protestant congregations number about 40.

In 2005 petrol bombs thrown at the International Protestant Church
in Ankara caused considerable damage.

Last year an American missionary in the southeastern city of Gaziantep
was bound and gagged by two assailants who claimed they were members
of al-Qaeda.

Although the attackers did not follow through on their threats to
kill the man, they promised to return and finish him off unless he
and his family left Turkey immediately.

Employees of Zirve Publishing in Malatya had been "forced by
circumstances to be quite bold, going round from bookshop to bookshop
offering their books for sale", said Jerry Maddix, an American
missionary who knew the murdered men well.

"They paid for their boldness with their life," he added.

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS CONGRATULES POPE BENEDICT XVI, BISHOP OF ROME

Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2007

ETCHMIADZIN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos
of All Armenians sent a message of congratulation to His Holiness Pope
Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome, on the occasion of the 80th birthday
anniversary. Noyan Tapan was informed about it by the Information
Services of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

"We are sure that, led by You, the Roman Catholic Church will fix
new successes in the present chronology of its centuries-old mission,
and warm and brotherly relations between the Armenian Apostolic and
Roman Catholic Churches will continue developing. It is our prayer
that cooperation and friendship between our churches more strengthen
in this new era, with making spirit of Christian love and brotherhood
powerful in our believing hearts," is said in the congratulation
message of His Holiness Patriarch.

His Holiness wished 80th-year old Benedict XVI sound health and
effective enthronement.

CHAIRMAN OF ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS’ REPRESENTATION IN EUROPE: ARMERNIAN ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUAL LOBBYISTS SHOULD WORK JOINTLY

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 16 2007

BRATISLAVA, APRIL 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Turkish embassies
in several European countries received instructions to work with
Armenian lobbyists of various countries. Ashot Grigorian, Chairman
of the Armenian Organizations’ Representation in Europe, Chairman of
the Armenian community of Slovakia, informed NT about it.

According to him, the subject discussed at such meetings is the issue
of the Armenian Genocide and the necessity to improve relations between
Armenia and Turkey. "As a rule, Turkish ambassadors "approach the issue
of the 1915 massacres with understanding", but they try to persuade
about the "inexpediency" of using the word "genocide". Recently leaders
of Turkey and Azerbaijan have repeatedly expressed the opinion that
there would not be difficulty in solution of problems with Armenia,
if the Armenian Diaspora did not function so actively. In fact,
after making warnings about the danger coming from the Diaspora,
Turkey has begun taking concrete steps," he said.

"I think that Armenian organizations and individual lobbyists need to
begin work on joint and mutually agreed activities," Ashot Grigorian
noted.

TURKS REJECT IDEA OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Angus Reid Global Monitor, Canada
April 17 2007

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – A large number of people in Turkey
disagree with an initiative of the United States Congress to recognize
the death of thousands of Armenians as a state-sponsored extermination
campaign, according to a poll by Terror Free Tomorrow.

77.7 per cent of respondents oppose the "Armenian Genocide" resolution.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey are still tense due to historical
factors. In 1915, the government of the Ottoman Empire-formed by
members of the Turkish nationalist Committee of Union and Progress
(ITC)-ordered hundreds of thousands of Armenians to relocate from
the Caucasus to Mesopotamia.

The state-sponsored deportation campaign led to a high number of
Armenian fatalities, estimated at anywhere from 200,000 to 1.8
million. While some scholars believe the campaign was a deliberate
attempt to exterminate Armenians, Turkey has never formally accepted
the use of the term "genocide" to describe the event.

In March 2005, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called
for an impartial investigation of Armenian claims, saying, "We do not
want future generations to live under the shadow of continued hatred
and resentment."

On Mar. 28, a U.S. Senate panel condemned the murder of a
Turkish-Armenian editor, Hrant Dink, who had urged Turks to acknowledge
the mass killings of Armenians. The U.S. Congress is now considering
a resolution that would recognize the events as "genocide."

Following the Senate panel resolution, Foreign Relations Committee
chairman and Delaware senator Joe Biden said he would not back down
under Turkish pressure, saying, "A relationship that rests on a
requirement of a denial of an historical event, is not a sound basis
for a relationship."

In October 2006, France’s National Assembly approved a bill that makes
it a crime to deny that the state-sponsored deportation campaign
undertaken by the Turkish government from 1915 to 1917 actually
constituted a genocide.

Polling Data

The U.S. Congress is considering a resolution, which will recognize-I
will now read to you its exact words: "the Armenian Genocide." Do
you strongly favour, somewhat favour, are neutral, somewhat oppose,
or strongly oppose this resolution?

Strongly favour 4.2%

Somewhat favour 3.2%

Neutral 8.5%

Somewhat oppose 11.4%

Strongly oppose 66.3%

Don’t know / No answer 6.3%

Source: Terror Free Tomorrow Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with
1,021 Turkish adults, conducted from Jan. 27 to Feb. 8, 2007. Margin
of error is 3.1 per cent.

useaction/viewItem/itemID/15415

NEXT IN TURN ANTI-ARMENIAN PROVOCATION OF VAN BAYBURD CALLING HIMSELF AN ARMENIAN

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 17 2007

AKHALKALAK, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The appeal made
by participants of the April 13 meeting organized by the Council of
Armenian NGOs of Samtskhe-Javakhk was misinterpreted in reports of
Georgian mass media.

During his interview to the Georgian television "Mze", deputy of the
Georgian parliament Van Bayburd said that the meeting participants
allegedly demanded that the country’s authorities recognize Armenian
as the second state language in Georgia. Whereas, as was reported,
the participants appealed to Georgia’s authorities with a proposal
to grant Armenian status of regional language in Samtskhe-Javakhk.

According to A-Info news agency, the Council of Armenian NGOs of
Samthkhe-Javakhk called on not to pay attention to "Van Bayburd and
those like him who are ready, for their personal benefit, not only
to mock lawful demands of their own people but may also endanger the
country’s stability."