Author: Nahapetian Samvel

President of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] Arkadiy Gukasyan
interviewed by Armenian TV
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
9 May 05

Text of report by Armenian Public TV on 9 May
[Correspondent] We will now talk to the president of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic [NKR] Arkadiy Gukasyan.
Good day Mr Gukasyan. First of all I would like to congratulate you
and the people of Artsakh on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of
the liberation of Shushi [Susa].
[Arkadiy Gukasyan captioned in studio] Thank you. This is a victory
for all of us. Really, Shushi was where it all began. Had we not
liberated Shushi, we would never have had any success in the future,
because Shushi was our road to Armenia. If we had not opened the road,
we would still be in a blockade and we would still have many serious
problems not only in the military but in all spheres. Today it is
obvious to everybody that this was our road to life. All those
programmes which were implemented in Shushi for the first time, became
important to our people. The establishment of our army started from
Shushi.
You know that at the time Shushi was bombed every day and we suffered
great losses. Thank God, after Shushi we had many victories, but
Shushi was where it all began.
[Passage omitted: correspondent makes remarks about time flying so
quickly]
It seems to me, that at the time we understood that nobody will help
us if we do not help ourselves. In fact when Stepanakert [Xankandi]
and all the other Karabakh towns and villages were bombed, the world
was indifferent to this. Yes, in the eyes of the world we were the
victim. We understood that future was in our hands.
In 1992 Azerbaijani tanks were 10 km from Shushi. If they had crossed
that distance, the future of Karabakh would have been different.
The world should have reacted to these facts, unfortunately this did
not happen. We understood that the solution of the problem of Shushi
depends on us. Today there are many opinions, the Azerbaijani side is
trying to persuade the world that Shushi was occupied by the Armenians
but in fact, it was liberated. We have liberated our historical
motherland.
[Passage omitted: Gukasyan spoke about forthcoming parliamentary
elections to be held in June]
[Correspondent] The president of the NKR, Arkadiy Gukasyan, was in the
studio of Artsakh Public TV at the invitation of Armenian Public TV’s
“Aylur” news programme.
Thank you Mr President and let me congratulate you and all the Artsakh
people once again.

CONSTITUTION SHOULDN’T DEAL WITH FORMATION OF COURTS
A1plus
| 14:11:51 | 07-05-2005 | Politics |
The issues referring to the court formation are usually not fixed
in the Constitution. It usually contains some clause on the Supreme
Courts as, for example in the US or Japan. The French Constitution
does not contain a word about the court formation. The reason is that
Constitution should not impede the process of inserting the necessary
changes into the order of court formation.
The justice is administrated via civic and criminal legal court
examinations. Òhe courts on civic and criminal cases are called the
Court of Common Competence However the structure of the court is not
the same in all the countries. In Anglo-Saxon states the pyramid of
the Court of Common Competence is concluded with the Supreme Court. In
a number of countries, for instance in Sweden, Netherlands, Japan and
China there is a united court system. In some states specialized courts
function along with the Court of Common Competence. The number of
these courts depends on the traditions of the countries. U specialized
courts function in Germany, these being the Administrative Court,
the Financial Court, The Labor Court and the Court for Social Disputes.
«In Roman states the juridical system is usually concluded with the
Court of Cassations, which is to decide whether the law was applied
correctly”, specialist of constitutional law Vardan Poghosyan says.
Rather few states of the Eastern Europe have the Courts of Common
Competence. In the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine
and Belarus the juridical system is not three-step. In Moldova the
supreme instance of the courts of common competence is the Supreme
Court Chamber empowered to cancel the decisions of the Court of
Appeal. Vardan Poghosyan highlights the role of the European Court
of Human Rights.
Victoria Abrahamyan
–Boundary_(ID_ww03JZbcHuy587Q7tcXhVQ)–

Armenia records only two money laundering cases in 10 years – chief banker
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
5 May 05
[Presenter] Only two criminal cases on charges of money laundering
have been instituted in Armenia over the last 10 years and there have
been no criminal proceedings on charges of financing terrorism, the
chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, Tigran Sarkisyan, said today.
The two criminal cases had been launched on charges of money
laundering. The first one is the well-known scandal around the
Credit-Yerevan Bank connected to individual bills to the tune of 250m
dollars, which could be cashed in different states.
In the second case, the crime was committed by an Armenian citizen
and his bank account in an Armenian bank was frozen at the request
of the USA.
[Tigran Sarkisyan] We received information from the USA. Appropriate US
bodies informed us that they had revealed a suspicious deal and asked
us to freeze an account in one of the Armenian banks, which was done.
This is an Armenian citizen who was cooperating with foreign citizens
to illegally transfer money from the USA to Armenian banks.

To be or not to be: Former Soviet republics question commonwealth’s need for existence
By JUDITH INGRAM
AP Worldstream
May 07, 2005
Dictators and democrats will rub elbows this weekend at a Moscow
meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, where the most
pressing question may well be whether the Russian-led organization
shouldn’t just be shut down for good.
The loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics has long been rent
by disputes _ between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave, between Georgia and Russia over mutual accusations of support
for separatists and terrorists.
But it has never appeared so untenable as it does today, following
the uprisings against the entrenched leaderships of Georgia, Ukraine
and Kyrgyzstan. The CIS puts democratically elected leaders such
as Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko in the same club as Belarusian President Alexander
Lukashenko _ whom the United States has branded the last dictator
in Europe _ and the Turkmen autocrat, President Saparmurat Niyazov,
best known abroad for the cult of adoration he’s built to himself
and his family.
“The CIS is a pointless organization for today. It brings together
absolutely different countries with diametrically opposed interests,”
said Levan Ramishvili, an analyst at Georgia’s independent Freedom
Institute.
Sunday’s meeting comes amid a spiraling diplomatic spat between Ukraine
and Belarus, where five Ukrainians have been jailed for taking part
in a protest.
And it comes less than a month since Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko and the leaders of other former Soviet republics
joined their voices in challenging Russia to make good on its
six-year-old pledge to withdraw troops and weaponry from Georgia
and Moldova.
The CIS clearly has more quarrels than shared vision among its members.
Saakashvili is staying away from Sunday’s meeting, as well as Monday’s
Victory in Europe day celebration in Moscow, because Georgia failed
to win agreement on the withdrawal of Russian bases. Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliev is staying away because of the attendance of
the Armenian leader, and because Sunday is a day of mourning, marking
a key battle during the six-year war between Armenia and Azerbaijan
over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“If the CIS is going to survive, then it will be merely as a
consultative council of heads of state, which doesn’t obligate
anyone to anything,” said Stanislav Shushkevich, the Soviet-era
parliamentary speaker in Belarus who together with Russia’s Boris
Yeltsin and Ukraine’s Leonid Kravchuk signed the 1991 document that
dissolved the Soviet Union.
“There’s only one problem: Does the leader of a democratic state
really want to confer with dictators?”
The most vocal recent criticism of the CIS has come from countries
such as Ukraine and Georgia, where pro-Western leaders have come to
power and hopes of shedding Russian influence are high.
But even President Vladimir Putin has thrown doubt on the future of
the CIS, telling reporters in the Armenian capital Yerevan earlier
this year that the forum had been created for the “civilized divorce”
of the former Soviet republics, in contrast to the European Union,
which was built to foster real cooperation.
Other officials have been no more sanguine.
“There is no good in the CIS as it is now _ ineffectual and unable
to function,” said Ilyas Omarov, the spokesman for the Kazakh Foreign
Ministry.
The group’s attempts to be more than a talk shop have often
only fostered more discord. Its peacekeepers have been accused
of destabilizing conflict zones in the former Soviet Union, and
its election monitors _ deployed to provide a counterbalance to
Western-dominated observer missions from such groups as the Council of
Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe _
have consistently given high marks to blatantly fraudulent ballots.
Pavel Borodin, the secretary of the Russia-Belarus union, said the
CIS would have to radically change its focus to survive _ but survive
it would.
“The CIS will be reborn as a purely economic organization,” he
said. “This is a market of 300 million consumers. There’s nowhere
else to turn.”
Putin made much the same point to German journalists this week,
singling out the shared energy system, transport network and other
infrastructure dating back to Soviet times as strong incentives to
deepen economic cooperation.
“These are all natural advantages that the past has give us,” Putin
said. “Not to use this, I think, would be simply stupid.”
Yet the plans to remove trade barriers between member states that have
dominated the CIS agenda since its creation have never gotten off the
ground. Attempts at forging closer economic ties have been hampered
by the stark differences between the sizes of the member economies and
their levels of development, as well as fears of Russian domination.
“The CIS is a system that has completed all of its set tasks, and
there is no hope for its development,” Ukrainian Economic Minister
Sergei Teryokhin said.

‘NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT HINDERS DEVELOPMENT OF REGION’
AZG Armenian Daily #082, 06/05/2005
Karabakh issue
Heikki Talvitie, EU Special Representative in the South Caucasus,
stated in the press conference held together with RA Foreign
Minister that the EU is interested in contributing to the regional
cooperation. But he added that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict hinders
that cooperation.”
Vartan Oskanian stated that his meeting with the OSCE Minsk group
co-chairs is likely to take place two days before the meeting of RA
and Azeri president. It is envisaged that Kocharian and Aliyev will
meet in Warsaw on May 16-17.

Kerkorian Discloses GM Investment, Plans to Double It (Update9)
Bloomberg
May 4 2005
May 4 (Bloomberg) — Kirk Kerkorian, who shook up Chrysler Corp. with
a hostile takeover bid a decade ago, said he planned to double a
previously undisclosed stake in General Motors Corp. to 8.8 percent,
sending the shares to their biggest gain in more than 40 years.
Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. said in a statement today that it offered
$868 million for as many as 28 million GM shares at $31 each, raising
its holdings in the Detroit-based automaker to 50 million shares.
Kerkorian is buying the stock after a 42 percent decline in the past
12 months. The Los Angeles-based firm said the purchase is “solely
for investment purposes.”
“He’s going to put their feet to the fire like he did Chrysler,”
said John Kornitzer, who manages $5.5 billion at Kornitzer Capital
Management in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, including GM shares. “They’ll
get more lean and efficient. They’ll get tougher on the unions. It’s
good.”
The investment raises the prospect that Kerkorian, 87 will try to
shake the world’s biggest automaker out of a slump that led to its
lowest U.S. market share in 80 years and a $1.1 billion first-quarter
loss. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner must now contend with the specter
of an activist Kerkorian while trying to rebuild sales, develop better
vehicles and wrest health-care concessions from U.S. workers.
After Kerkorian bought shares in Chrysler starting in 1990, he
pressured the automaker to increase its dividend, buy back shares
and add a Tracinda employee to the automaker’s board.
Wagoner’s Steps
“We haven’t yet seen aggressive moves by Wagoner and his team,” said
Pete Hastings, a corporate bond analyst at Morgan Keegan Inc. in
Memphis, Tennessee. “They need to take some significant steps.”
GM shares rose $4.47, or 16 percent, $32.24 at 2:20 p.m. in New York
Stock Exchange composite trading. It’s the biggest gain in at least
44 years, according to Standard & Poor’s analyst Howard Silverblatt.
GM was upgraded to “neutral” from “sell” by analyst Merrill Lynch
analyst John Casesa. GM spokesman Tom Kowaleski declined to comment
on Tracinda’s bid.
The purchase would make Kerkorian GM’s third largest- shareholder,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tracinda holds a controlling
interest in casino operator MGM Mirage. He is ranked 41st on the Forbes
list of the world’s wealthiest people, with a net worth estimated at
$8.9 billion.
Dividend
As part of Kerkorian’s offer, stockholders will be entitled to keep
GM’s 50-cent quarterly dividend, which is to be paid next month. On
that basis, the offer is a 13.4 percent premium over GM’s closing
price of $27.77 yesterday, Tracinda said in the statement.
GM’s 8.375 percent bonds maturing in 2033 rose about 3 cents to
79 cents on the dollar, yielding 10.8 percent, according to Trace,
the bond-price reporting system of the NASD. The bonds have weakened
since GM cut its annual profit forecast on March 16, falling to 72
cents last month, an all-time low.
GM’s bonds have been losing value because ratings companies say
they may further downgrade about $200 million of GM’s long- term and
short-term debt, excluding asset-backed bonds, most of which is at
its auto finance unit. Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s
Investors Service rate GM at the lowest investment grade level.
Kerkorian, the son of an Armenian immigrant rancher in California’s
San Joaquin Valley, became a billionaire by buying airlines and
casinos for less than they turned out to be worth. He made his bid
for GM with the stock near a 13-year low.
First Airline
In 1965, Kerkorian invested $3 million in Trans International
Airways — an airline he had originally created — and later sold it
Transamerica Corp. for $149 million. He bought his first casino in
1967 and built the 1,500-room International Hotel, then the largest
hotel in Las Vegas.
He bought the MGM film studio for the first of three times in 1970.
His last MGM purchase was in 1996, for $1.3 billion in cash.
Kerkorian began buying shares in Chrysler Corp. in 1990 after the
automaker had a third-quarter loss of $214 million. He paid $12.37 a
share in December 1990 for his initial 22 million shares, then bought
6 million more shares at $10.13 each on Oct. 10, 1991, as the company
headed toward a full-year loss of $795 million.
He tried to buy all of the automaker in April 1995 for $21 billion.
While the effort collapsed when he couldn’t line up the financing,
he increased his stake and continued to exert pressure on the
company, giving his support to the 1998 combination with Stuttgart,
Germany-based Daimler-Benz AG.
Daimler Suit
Two years later, Kerkorian sued DaimlerChrysler AG and Chief Executive
Officer Juergen Schrempp after Schrempp told the Financial Times
he’d planned to take control of Chrysler following a deal that was
billed as a merger of equals. Tracinda last month appealed a lower
court ruling Kerkorian wasn’t duped about the 1998 transaction.
In December 2003 DaimlerChrysler lawyers estimated Kerkorian made
about $2.7 billion on his Chrysler investment when the company was
purchased by Daimler-Benz.
In buying GM shares, Kerkorian is “gambling that the shares can’t
go much lower and are going to go higher,” said Eugene Jennings,
a business professor emeritus at Michigan State University. “This
should indicate to the board what happens when you mismanage
shareholder value.”
Tracinda said it disclosed the investment as a tender offer in response
to rumors of the transaction circulated over the weekend.
Removing Doubt
The firm said it “decided to go forward with this tender offer to
remove any doubt in the marketplace as to its investment purposes,”
the company said in the statement.
GM, which is negotiating with unions to reduce the $5.6 billion
it expects to pay for employee health costs this year, on April
19 abandoned its 2005 profit forecast of as much as $2 per share,
excluding some expense, because of uncertainty about the outlook for
the year, particularly health care costs. It said it can’t project
earnings until it resolves the “health-care cost crisis.”
The Detroit-based United Auto Workers union declined to comment on
Tracinda’s announcement, spokesman Paul Krell said.
Tracinda, which was named for Kerkorian’s daughters Tracy and Linda,
may try to increase its holdings in GM if management isn’t aggressive
enough in addressing the waning profits, Morgan Stanley analyst Steve
Girsky wrote in a report to investors.
General Motors could raise as much as $14.2 billion if it sold its
residential mortgage and insurance units, Merrill Lynch said in a
March 24 report. As an alternative, the units may be spun off to GM
shareholders, the report said.
Tracinda’s investment “indicates to me that the headwinds the company
is facing seem to Kerkorian to be short-term in nature,” said Carol
Moreno, an analyst at TCW Group, which has $109 billion in assets,
including shares of General Motors. “I would imagine that he has been
in contact with management prior to this, and if anything, it gives
the impression that there is value to the stock and that management
is on the right track.”

Mirror, UK
May 4 2005
SIMON REEVE visits four countries so dangerous that they don’t
officially exist
Simon Reeve
THERE are almost 200 official countries in the world. But there are
dozens more unrecognised nations determined to become independent.
Terrorism expert SIMON REEVE set out to visit these little-known
countries for the BBC2 series Places That Don’t Exist.
Somaliland
THIS tiny wannabe nation was once “British Somaliland” and today the
locals struggle to understand why their UK friends have abandoned them.
After independence from Britain in the 1960s Somaliland joined
with Somalia to form one country, but then fought a bitter war for
independence during which thousands died.
On the way to Somaliland the film crew and I stopped in the Somali
capital Mogadishu. With no government or police, it is probably the
most dangerous city on earth, and we paid a dozen gunmen to keep
us alive.
Somalia has no government, but is recognised as a proper country.
Somaliland, on the other hand, has a government, a president, a lively
parliament – and functioning traffic lights – but is not recognised
by any nation in the world.
The capital, Hargeisa, where 50,000 died during the conflict, is
being rebuilt with little outside help, and refugees are returning
from camps in Ethiopia.
But lack of recognition means the country has trouble getting
investment or foreign aid to help with terrible drought and tens of
thousands are at risk of starvation.
Somaliland’s president runs the country on just a few million pounds
a year, or “whatever we can get”.
Ironically, because nobody recognises his government, it cannot get
loans, which at least means Somaliland isn’t burdened by the foreign
debt repayments that cripple most African nations.
Transdniestria
SQUEEZED between Moldova and Ukraine, this strange country is stuck
in a Soviet timewarp.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, two-thirds of Moldova wanted closer
ties with Romania and neighbours to the West.
War broke out, and the east split to form Transdniestria, a country
which remains unrecognised by the world.
Today, ongoing tension between Moldova and Transdniestria ensures both
countries suffer. Moldova is officially the poorest nation in Europe,
and I visited a village where men sold their kidneys to buy cows.
Then we crossed the border into Transdniestria – and found statues
of Lenin still standing.
A mysterious firm called Sheriff – headed by former Red Army officers
– runs much of the economy. It is hard to believe many drivers of
shiny new Mercedes in dirt-poor Transdniestria earned their money
legitimately.
Independence Day was being celebrated when we visited. The Soviet-era
army goose-stepped along the main road, and small children in uniforms
sang: “Our army is the best army,” with evident pride.
Transdniestria has a Wild West feel and is a centre for smuggling.
Rumours suggest it is a major producer of illegal arms, and guns from
Transdniestria have turned up in conflicts around the world.
But there are no foreign embassies, and few international agencies
keeping an eye on what goes on in the country.
Even Interpol doesn’t operate there.
And yet as the EU expands, Transdniestria will soon be our neighbour
on the eastern edge of Europe.
South Ossetia, Ajaria, Abkhazia
AFTER the collapse of the Soviet Union three areas of Georgia all broke
away and declared independence: South Ossetia, Ajaria and Abkhazia.
In the ensuing conflicts thousands died and the whole region has
suffered ever since.
We crossed the border from Georgia into South Ossetia, which has its
own government and army.
Tensions are high and the Ossetes are suspicious of foreigners, partly
because my Ossetian government minder kept telling people I was from
“London in America”. After I explained that London was in the UK,
young soldiers shared drunken birthday toasts.
Ajaria, on Georgia’s western Black Sea coast, was a Soviet-era holiday
destination. It is rejoining Georgia, largely because of local anger
at the former strongman dictator.
His son would close the best road every night and race his Lamborghini
up and down the sea front. This did not go down well among locals
earning £20 a month.
Abkhazia may also be a lovely place to visit – but we barely made it
across the border before the Abkhaz government kicked us out.
No Western government operates in Abkhazia, although organised crime
gangs are thought to be based there.
Nagorno-Karabakh
HIGH in the mountains of Muslim Azerbaijan is Nagorno-Karabakh,
a breakaway region that was historically mainly Armenian Christian.
It might be 2005 in the rest of the world, but on both sides of
the border between Karabakh and Azerbaijan young soldiers are still
manning trenches.
We had to sprint across open ground to avoid sniper fire to enter
Karabakh, one of the most depressing places on earth.
Despite mines and war, the people claim they would have the world’s
highest rate of longevity – if only they were recognised as an
independent country.
Although international recognition seems unlikely, wealthy Armenian
exiles in the US still provide massive funding to encourage the
Karabakh government’s claims for independence.
There seems no easy end to the situation. One day war may erupt again,
causing huge problems for the supply of oil from Azerbaijan and the
Caspian region to the outside world.
But perhaps it’s only when oil pipelines are switched off that the rest
of the world will wake to the ongoing crisis of unrecognised nations.
Holidays In The Danger Zone – Places That Don’t Exist, BBC2, tonight,
7.30pm.
–Boundary_(ID_BpEHctSX6kweZv5Awj9/qg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Anti-Semitism in Turkey
By: Amed Demirhan
KurdistanObserver.com
May 2 2005
Historically anti-Semitism all most always has been related to general
intolerance, racism, and xenophobia. In modern Turkey this elements
have the main ingredients of foundation of the Turkish Republic. In
republican era there have been up and down with anti-Semitism and some
times high-ranking government officials have been speaking positively
about Jews and Israel and even claming to be protectors of the Jewish
minority in Turkey. However, in recent years anti-Semitism and racism
become very dangerous, and not just targeted to small minority of
Jews in Turkey but to the “Donme” the Jews that were converted about
300 years ago to Islam and “Turkism”, and to Jews in general.
In the past Jews were forced to relocation in 1924, forced to pay
higher taxes or forced to bankruptcy by force of government, for
example in 1942 infamous “Wealth Tax” that directed to non-Muslim
minorities. In 1955 they were targeted in Istanbul together Greek
and Armenians. In late 1980s and in 1990s Jewish or “Donme” business
people were subject of “Ulkucu Mafia” a state sponsored extreme
rights group was taking money from Jews by force and illegally. Some
Jewish businessman had to move to the USA and Israel.
However, recent anti-Semitism is more dangerous, in the past it was
limited to small marginal leftist, Marxist, Islamist, and fascist
groups, and all most of them were controlled by the state; now
anti-Semitism is becoming a mass movement like 1930s Europe. Some
people seemed surprised to see Hitler’s book become best seller,
in reality there are many more anti-Semitics books and articles
recently have been published and they are more dangerous than
Hitler’s book. For example, the Dr. Yalicin Kucuk a former Marxist
his book titled “Tekelistan” about Jews and specifically about
donme, it has more conspiracy in it than Hitler’s book. This book
become so popular he had to write several other books and among many
other Pan-Turkist/Pan-Islamists become Dr. Kucuk’s main readers. In
addition Yalcin Soner’s book about “Done” was one of the best seller
in Turkey for long time. Mr. Soner’s book is comparable with Dr.
Kucuk’s book. All major newspapers are daily full with anti-Semitic
remarks. These conspiracies includes Jews or “hidden Jews” been
in charge of the Turkish state, been behind separatist movements,
Islamist movements, been in charge of America, or Israel Zionist
conspiracy to take over South Eastern part of Turkey. The type of
conspiracy dependent to the ideology of the writers, for example
if an Islamist write like Sevket Eygi he will claim Turkey’s ethnic
conflict is invention of the Jews, Kemalist-nationalist will claim
Jews are in charge of America and they try to divide Turkey, and
so on. Fighting against ant-Semitism is as important as fighting
against Nazism, neo-Nazism or any totalitarian regime or ideology. One
of the important ways fighting against anti-Semitism in Turkey is
defending freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of assembly,
and Western pluralistic democracy.
May 3 2005
Armenia Must Recognize Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s National Borders to
Normalize Relations
Jan SOYKOK – (JTW) Diplomatic sources argue that Armenia must recognize
neighboring Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s national borders to normalize
its relations with Turkey and other regional states. According to
the Turkish sources Armenian forces should withdraw from Azerbaijan.
Dr. Nilgun Gulcan said the US and the EU should make pressure on
Yerevan to end the Armenian occupation:
“The US makes pressures on Syria and Syrian troops have withdrawn
from Lebanon. The US imposed embargo and military operations against
Serbia. The occupier Iraq was punished. However Armenian forces
occupied Azerbaijan and the occupation has lasted for more than a
decade. The US and the EU did almost nothing. International community
did not ask the Armenians to end occupation. The US and EU politicians
question Turkey – Armenia relations but never question the Armenian
occupation. The US impose embargo against Iran, Cuba and other states,
but when Turkey-Armenia border is closed due to the Armenian aggressive
policies, the US criticizes Turkey. Both the Americans and the EU
have to see the Armenian responsibility in relations.”
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan offered a joint commission
to discuss the historical disputes, but the Armenian side rejected
the offer.
The irredentist groups in Armenia call Turkey’s eastern provinces
‘Western Armenia’ and the Armenian Constitution does not recognize
Turkey’s national borders.

A1plus
| 14:14:33 | 30-04-2005 | Politics |
PEOPLE SHOULD GET BACK THEIR RIGHT
Presently the laws and amendments to the Constitution can be put to
referendum at the suggestion of the National Assembly or the President.
Justice faction secretary Victor Dallakyan considers that in the civilized
world the power belong to the people. It is an elementary principle of
democracy. Article 2 of the Constitution says that the people express their
will via referenda, elections, local self-government bodies and officials.
`Consequently, people’s right to initiate referenda is rather logical. The
law on referendum adopted in 1991 says that the President and parliament
have the right to initiate a referendum. However the resolution on
conducting a vote of confidence by the Constitutional Court of April 16,
1995 says that the people should have the right’, Victor Dallakyan says.
He considers that the issues referring to the sovereignty of the republic,
state budget, territorial integrity and so on cannot be put to referendum
while people should have the right to make amendment to some laws and the
Constitution. He brings the example of California, where people can dismiss
a governor, pass laws, withdraw a local senator, etc.
As for the periodicity of holding referenda, Victor Dallakyan considers that
it can be once a year, however without any strict limitations.
National Unity faction secretary Alexan Karapetyan considers that well
formed legitimate powers are essential for the establishment of the
institute of referendum. `Referendum can be held once in six months or once
a year on the issues referring to the global changes, foreign policy and
future of the people’ he says.
Diana Markosyan

Agence France Presse — English
April 29, 2005 Friday 9:09 AM GMT
Turkey makes new offer to Armenia over genocide claims
ANKARA April 29
Turkey could normalize relations with Armenia at the same time as
undertaking a study of the massacres of Armenians by Turks in 1915
which Turkey refuses to acknowledge as a genocide, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a newspaper Friday.
“Political relations could be established while the work of the study
is conducted,” Erdogan told the newspaper Milliyet.
Turkey has previously demanded that Armenia abandon its campaign for
the recognition of the World War I massacres as genocide before
formal diplomatic relations can be established between the two
countries.
In 1993, Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with
Armenia, dealing a heavy economic blow to the impoverished nation.
On Tuesday, Armenian President Robert Kocharian accepted in principle
a Turkish proposal to create a joint committee to study the genocide
allegations but demanded that Ankara first normalize relations with
Yerevan without pre-conditions.
However Erdogan emphasised Friday that the establishment of formal
diplomatic relations with Armenia would depend on its “sincerity” to
undertake a joint study with Turkish experts to clarify the events
surrounding the massacres during the final years of the Ottoman
empire.
Ankara fears that the genocide allegations could fuel anti-Turkish
sentiment in international public opinion at a time when it is vying
for membership of the European Union.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
deportations and orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Ankara argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died
in what was civil strife during World War I when the Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian
troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
Armenians across the world Sunday marked the 90th anniversary of the
beginning of the massacres, which have already been recognized as
genocide by a number of countries.
The Turkish parliament called off a series of meetings with lawmakers
from the Polish parliament next month in protest at the latter’s
acknowledgement as genocide of the killings of Armenians.