Author: Nalbandian Albert

COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMISSIONER ENDS MISSION IN ARMENIA
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
Oct 11 2007

Council of Europe (CE) Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg
completed his five-day fact-finding mission in Armenia on Thursday,
concluding that his preliminary information about the human rights
situation in the country "corresponded to the impressions he got
while on this visit."

Hammarberg, who has held various meetings with Armenian officials,
as well as visited some residents of makeshift lodgings in the
earthquake area and prisoners, pointed out some problems pertaining
to legislation. He urged Armenia’s authorities to ensure that the
country’s amended constitution and new judicial legislation should have
practical application "to promote an effective and fair judiciary."

"There are also problems of a social character which need to be
addressed," he added.

The CE commissioner on Wednesday also met with Zhirayr Sefilian,
Vartan Malkhasian and Arman Babajanian, who were convicted and
jailed under different penal code articles in criminal cases that
many believe were persecution for their political views.

Hammarberg found it difficult to say with confidence whether fair
verdicts had been passed on the prisoners he met, but added that
"there is a need to look into their cases to secure that they got a
fair treatment."

Editor of the opposition "Zhamanak Yerevan" newspaper Arman Babajanian,
who is currently serving a 3.5-year prison term for forging documents
to evade compulsory military service, confirmed having a meeting with
Hammarberg in a telephone conversation with RFE/RL.

"Mr. Hammarberg was quite well informed on the whole process and
regards my case in the context of the general human rights situation
in Armenia," Babajanian said, adding that the CE commissioner had
promised him to raise the issue during his meeting with Armenia’s
prime minister and prosecutor general.

Issues related to Armenia’s law on exemption from compulsory military
service will also be covered by Hammarberg’s human rights situation
report which the commissioner is going to submit to the Council of
Europe Committee of Ministers early next year. One of the points of
the law envisages exemption of certain draft-dodgers from criminal
prosecution in exchange for paying a state duty. Babajanian claims he
was denied the application of the law in his case, which he thinks
he was eligible for. He also asserts that the parole committee’s
rejection of his application for early release was groundless.

"I don’t cherish great hopes that I will be paroled in this
pre-election period. It is clear that the authorities are growing more
and more concerned over the new political realities and processes,"
Babajanian said.

Hammarberg confirmed that he was informed of article 301 of Armenia’s
Criminal Code which envisages criminal prosecution for public calls for
a violent overthrow of government and was controversially used against
prominent Karabakh war veterans Vartan Malkhasian and Zhirayr Sefilian.

"This sounds like an issue that we should explore," Hammarberg
concluded.

BOSTON’S CARDINAL SUPPORTS INAUGURATION OF MONUMENT TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.10.2007 18:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Boston supported the idea of inauguration of a monument
to the Armenian Genocide victims in Boston. "I want to affirm that I
recognize the Armenian Genocide and the sufferings that befell the
Armenian nation. We support endeavors for inaugurating a monument
to the Armenian Genocide victims in Boston," the Cardinal said at a
meeting with Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Garegin II.

Reverend Jack Johnson, Executive Director of the Massachusetts
Council of Churches, read a Council resolution recognizing the
Armenian Genocide.

The resolution says in part, "The Massachusetts Council of Churches
recognizes the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 when 1.5 million
of Armenians were slaughtered in the Ottoman Empire and the
entire Armenian population was exiled from the homeland of their
ancestors. The Armenian Genocide is the first genocide perpetrated at
the state level. The Massachusetts Council of Churches will oppose
the policy of denial and will condemn all those denying Genocide,
no matter whether they are accomplices in the crime, pursue political
goals, wish to receive false scholarship or just feel indifferent,"
the press office of Holy Echmiadzin reports

ARMENIAN LOBBYISTS DOWNPLAY PRESSURE AGAINST GENOCIDE BILL
By Anna Saghabalian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 8 2007

A senior representative of a political party wielding influence
in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora is optimistic about an imminent
approval by a U.S. Congress committee of a resolution that he hopes
will lay the groundwork for the World War I-era killings of Armenians
in Ottoman Turkey to be recognized as genocide by the full House.

Giro Manoyan, Head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)
Bureau’s Armenian National Committee and Political Affairs Office,
said in Yerevan on Monday that the pressure mounted by Turkey and
its lobbyist groups in the United States is unlikely to change the
mood of congressmen, a majority of whom currently favor the bill.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress’ House of
Representatives is due to consider Resolution 106 on Wednesday. If the
resolution is approved by the Committee, it will be up to the House
Speaker to decide whether to bring it to the House floor for a vote.

According to Manoyan, only one congressman has so far succumbed to
pressure to withdraw his support, which, overall, shows that the
bill stands a good chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled House
despite opposition from the Bush administration.

"The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) initiated active
work to preclude any possible changes in [congressmen’s] positions,
and on October 10 the Committee will surely adopt a resolution and
this resolution will be put to vote to the [full] House," he said.

Manoyan also downplayed the impact of the statement by eight former
U.S. state officials voicing concern over the possible advancement
of the resolution in the U.S. Congress.

"The former secretaries of state are only eight votes in U.S.

elections," Manoyan commented, referring to the political weight
of ethnic Armenian voters in the United States ahead of next year’s
presidential election.

"Of course, the statements by the [former] state secretaries and
even three defense secretaries will have their influence, but in the
United States the opportunities of citizens’ votes are the main means
to counterbalance that."

Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) Armenia and Karabakh country
director Arpi Vartanian says the main target today is to reach the
passage of the resolution by the full House, since "it will mean the
opinion of the House of Representatives that reflects the opinion
of millions of Americans." Vartanian added that the adoption of the
resolution by the Senate is a separate activity.

She believes that the continuing Turkish pressure will not
significantly influence the position of House representatives because
Armenian advocacy groups in the United States, including the AAA,
"work throughout the year to resist Turkish pressure by meeting U.S.

congressmen and conducting explanatory work among them."

"There are some congressmen who, of course, may withdraw their support,
but I don’t think a majority will make that step. For various reasons
there are good chances for the resolution to be adopted this year as
there is a better understanding of what a genocide is in the United
States today," she explained.

Measures related to Armenian genocide recognition have been debated in
Congress for decades, but have repeatedly been thwarted amid concerns
about damaging relations with Turkey, an important U.S. ally.

Armenia and its lobbyist groups worldwide claim some 1.5 million
Armenians were killed in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923 in an organized
genocide. Meanwhile, Turkey denies that the deaths and deportations of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the beginning of last century
was a result of genocide, but insists that Armenians rather fell
victim to the widespread chaos in the years leading up to the Ottoman
Empire’s collapse.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President George W.

Bush last week that ties between the two countries would be hurt if
the U.S. Congress passed the bill.

Manoyan, however, thinks that "Turkey needs the U.S. more than the
U.S. needs Turkey" and in this sense he considers the threats voiced
by Ankara to be of a formal nature.

"The ANCA’s stance is that these are mere threats. Experience shows
that even if Turkey did something immediately to realize its threats
against countries that adopted similar resolutions, later everything
was restored within a short period of time," the ARF representative
said.

TOPTAN SENDS PELOSI LETTER ON ARMENIAN RESOLUTION

Turkish Press
Oct 8 2007

ANKARA – Turkish Speaker of Parliament Koksal Toptan has sent a
letter to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi on a resolution regarding the incidents of 1915 and that
supports Armenian allegations, it was reported on Sunday.

In his letter, Toptan reminded Pelosi about the strong relations
between Turkey and the U.S. for the past 50 years.

"A resolution giving support to one sided claims, if adopted, would
make the Armenians less willing to compromise," told Toptan in
his letter.

"If adopted, the Armenian resolution would encourage Armenians to
introduce the incidents of 1915 as those accepted by the U.S. and
this is how the Turkish society would perceive the decision of
the U.S. Congress. It would be very difficult to stop the negative
impact such a resolution would have on the Turkish public opinion,"
underlined Toptan.

"Adoption of Armenian resolution would not serve interests of Turkish
and American people," Toptan.

"The adoption of an Armenian resolution in regard to the incidents
of 1915 in the United States House of Representatives would not serve
the interests of neither the Turkish people nor the American people.

Furthermore, the resolution would hurt Turkish-U.S. relations and have
a negative impact on the normalization of relations between Turkey
and Armenia," said Turkish Speaker of Parliament Koksal Toptan, in
a letter sent to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi, on Sunday.

In his letter to Pelosi, Toptan indicated that Turkey and the U.S.

have been close friends and allies for over 50 years. "We share
common values such as plural democracy, the rule of law, and free
entrepreneurship. Both nations have a desire to boost relations
further. We work together in many parts of the world to preserve
peace and stability," noted Toptan.

Toptan stressed that the adoption of the House Resolution 106
pertaining to the incidents of 1915 would very seriously hurt
Turkish-U.S. relations.

In his letter, Toptan reminded Pelosi that in 2005 the Turkish
government extended an invitation to Armenia to establish a joint
historical commission to study the incidents of 1915. No response
came from Armenia to date.

Toptan indicated that "hopefully, logic will prevail in the U.S. House
of Representatives and the resolution would not be adopted."

Toptan added that the adoption of the Armenian resolution in the
U.S. House of Representatives would injure Turkish-U.S. relations
whose repair may take decades.

TURKEY LAUNCHES LAST DITCH EFFORT TO PREVENT ARMENIAN RESOLUTION IN US

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 8 2007

While Turkey has intensified diplomatic and political efforts to
dissuade the American Congress from passing an Armenian genocide bill
Turkish leaders are telling their American counterparts that such a
move will seriously hurt relations.

On Sunday Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan sent a letter to U.S. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that "it might take decades to heal
negative effects of the bill if it passes," Toptan’s office said in
a statement.

Toptan – who is elected by the legislative body to chair parliamentary
sessions – is considered neutral toward all political parties.

The genocide bill declares the killings of Armenians between 1915
and 1917 a genocide, though it would have no binding effect on the
U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs
Committee is expected to consider the legislation late Wednesday.

Toptan’s letter said the passing of the bill would be declared by
Armenians as a confirmation of their view of the historical dispute.

"Then, it will be difficult to control the dynamics triggered by
Turkish public reaction," it said.

Toptan said Armenia did not respond positively to Turkish proposal to
establish a commission of historians to examine Turkish and Armenian
archives and to share their findings with the public.

On Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President
George W. Bush that the measure would "harm the strategic partnership"
between the two countries.

Bush reassured Erdogan that he opposes efforts by US lawmakers to
denounce the Ottoman Empire’s killings of Armenians as genocide,
the White House said.

"The president reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the
passage of which would be harmful to US relations with Turkey,"
said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Bush’s National Security Council.

He recalled that Bush has described the events of 1915 as a tragedy,
but believes that determining whether it was genocide is up to
historians, not lawmakers, Johndroe said in a statement.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is due to vote on the genocide
measure Wednesday. A similar bill is pending in the US Senate, adding
to pressure on the administration to recognize the Armenian deaths
not just as "forced exile and murder" – Bush’s words in 2004 – but as
genocide. Congressional sources say the fact that the house committee
is voting for the resolution means it has the blessing of Pelosi.

Meanwhile, a Turkish parliamentary delegation comprised of top foreign
policy experts will fly to Washington today to meet congressional
members to dissuade them from voting for the resolution.

"If the United States makes a historical error and adopts a resolution
on the incidents of 1915 in the House of Representatives, this would
be a problem and scandal of the U.S.," said Egemen Bagis, Deputy
Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party who will
be in the delegation.

Bagis told reporters that main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) Istanbul deputy Sukru Elekdag and opposition Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP) Istanbul deputy Gunduz Aktan and he will pay a
visit to the United States to hold discussions with non-governmental
organizations, senators, members of the House of Representatives,
high level bureaucrats and academicians and try to explain to all
that the adoption of a resolution on the incidents of 1915 would be
a serious blow to Turkish-U.S. relations.

"We will do everything possible to defeat the Armenian resolution
which, if adopted, can hurt Turkish-U.S. relations and the national
interests of the U.S.," Bagis said.

Bagis, Elekdag and Aktan will be in the United States until October 11.

Elekdag is a former Turkish ambassador in Washington and a former
undersecretary of foreign affairs. Aktan is also from the foreign
ministry who served as deputy undersecretary. He is a retired
ambassador.

Meanwhile, in a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post, the
Turkish embassy to the US called the pending legislation "one-sided"
and warned it would "affect relations between the United States
and Turkey."

A senior State Department official said US lawmakers risk provoking
a severe backlash from Turkey.

Applying the genocide label would harm US interests, including
"our forces deployed in Iraq which rely on passage through Turkey,"
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said.

He said it was a historical fact that up to 1.5 million Armenians
were killed or forced into exile from 1915 through the early 1920 –
something recognized by Bush as well as former president Bill Clinton.

"But it is true that the Turkish reaction would be extremely strong,"
Fried told reporters.

Armenians claim say more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in
a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during the World
War I, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the death toll is inflated and that the deaths occurred
at a time of civil unrest.

Public opinion polls show that the United States has become widely
unpopular in Turkey because of opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq.

After France voted last year to make denial of Armenian genocide
a crime, the Turkish government ended military ties. A similar move
with the United States could have repercussions on operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan, which rely heavily on Turkish support.

GENOCIDE SURVIVORS TO RALLY FOR DARFUR

Boston Channel.com, MA
Oct 8 2007

Organizers To Call On China For Help

BOSTON — Genocide survivors along with thousands of Massachusetts
residents are expected to gather on City Hall Plaza Monday to support
the people of Darfur.

The Dream for Darfur Rally will call on China to use its influence
to help end the humanitarian crisis in the Sudanese region.

Rally organizers said China has strong economic, political and military
ties to the Sudanese government and has considerable influence on
the African nation’s decisions.

The rally will also feature a torch lighting ceremony that will then
be relayed through 20 American cities.

The rally will feature genocide survivors from Darfur along with
genocide survivors from local Armenian, Bosnian, Cambodian, Jewish
and Rwandan communities, along with human rights activists, and
public officials.

The event starts at 3:30 p.m.

Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Oct 6 2007

George W Bush won’t talk of Armenian ‘genocide’

Article from: Agence France-Presse
October 06, 2007 06:39am

US President George W Bush today opposed moves to legally term the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the Ottoman
Empire a "genocide", backing Turkey’s stand on the issue.

"The President has described the events of 1915 as ‘one of the
greatest tragedies of the 20th century’, but believes the
determination of whether or not the events constitute a genocide
should be a matter for historical inquiry, not legislation," said
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

The comments came after Mr Bush talked with Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discussed legislation before the US
Congress, which describes the deaths of Armenians from 1915 to 1923
as genocide.

"The President reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the
passage of which would be harmful to US relations with Turkey," Mr
Johndore said.

Turkey is a key Muslim ally for the US and a fellow member of NATO.

And Turkey’s then foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, warned after a
visit to Washington in February that passing the draft would "poison"
ties and "spoil everything" between the two countries.

A similar draft to the resolution before Congress was pulled from the
House floor in October 2000 following an intervention by then
president Bill Clinton.

Turkey categorically rejects Armenian claims that 1.5 million of
their kinsmen died in systematic deportations and killings during
1915-1918 as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.

Mr Bush commemorates the massacres each year in a speech, but stops
short of calling them genocide.

The parliaments of many countries have recognised the killings as
genocide, and Turkey has responded by temporarily downgrading its
political and economic ties with some of them.

In rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to
500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia
during World War I.

PLAYING POLITICS WITH HUMAN SUFFERING

British National Party, UK
ntID=2732
Oct 5 2007

Home Affairs correspondent reports.

Today’s generation of schoolchildren are leaving for university,
college or the workplace barely able to communicate in anything
other than "text speech", have little knowledge of our own nation’s
great and glorious history but Brown’s government continues to fund
the Holocaust Educational Trust to the tune of £1.5m to enable two
students from every secondary school in the country to be taken to
Auschwitz-Birkenau over the next three years.

130 students from the North East recently made the trip to the former
concentration camps in Poland where the horrors of the Second World
War are enshrined in a permanent memorial to the dead.

21st century politics is a dirty business, a once noble profession
undertaken by those who had the very best interests of their
constituents and the wider nation at heart. Today politics is
associated with sleaze, scandal, backhanders, bungs, bribery and
lies. It is also a dirty business which takes the widespread suffering
of Jews, Russians, Slavs, gypsies, political dissidents, homosexuals
and others and uses that misery to pursue a narrow political agenda. To
use the misery of those killed in the atrocities of the 1940s in
order to further the cause of political correctness is about as low
as it gets.

Our Jewish members and supporters are outraged to learn that the
tragedy of their people and of others, has been hi-jacked and turned
into a political tool by the political correct liberal-leftists
to bash those who have played no part in the horrors of that blood
soaked century.

Further to elevate just one of the many atrocities Man has inflicted on
Man is in itself discriminatory and racist. Emphasis on the lessons to
be learned from the horrors of the 1940s concentrates one peoples’
suffering and implies that only Europeans can be guilty of such
atrocities. It is racist because it minimises or completely omits from
the school curriculum the lessons to be learned from the massacres of
Christians in Armenia, the butchering of Serbs in Kosovo, the slaying
of Christians (including many of our own forebears) at the hands of
Islamic pirates as well as the ongoing ethnic conflicts in Rwanda,
Sudan and Burma.

As well as a firm grounding in the "3 Rs "our schoolchildren need
a stern history lesson that suffering has been universal.

–Boundary_(ID_jOkwpqWqZwCwndbtudChCA) —

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES 2008 BUDGET WITH WIDENING DEFICIT
by Venla Sipila

Global Insight
October 4, 2007

The Armenian government has approved the draft of the 2008 state budget
and submitted it to parliament. According to ARMINFO, the Armenian
Ministry of Finance and Economy has put forward a fiscal plan with a
deficit of 76.1 billion dram (US$229 million), which corresponds to
2.1% of the projected annual GDP. Specifically, revenue is targeted at
744.7 billion dram, or 21.2% of GDP, while expenditure of 820.8 billion
dram, or 23.3% GDP, is planned. The budget is based on an expectation
of annual GDP growth of 10%, while inflation is forecast at 4% with
a band of 1.5% on either side, and the average dram exchange rate is
put at 336.48 against the U.S. dollar. It was also reported that the
budget posted a surplus of just over 2 billion dram, or 0.1% of GDP,
over the January-August period.

Earlier, it was announced that the state budget for the first half
of the year had come in at 1.7% of GDP (seeArmenia: 1 August 2007: ).

Significance:The plans, as well as the very recent data, imply
some deterioration compared with the better-than-expected results
in 2006 and in early 2007. Increasing fiscal expenditure implies
increased a risk of accelerating inflation. Armenia’s tax collection
and administration has recently seen some improvement, and the
officials have proven relatively responsible in their policymaking
and competent in overall macro-economic policy co-ordination. However,
the government still has a long way to go in building a strong fiscal
administration system, while the task of reducing the size of the
black economy continues to pose a challenge. At the same time,
pressure on expenditure will remain high because of the level of
poverty and social inequality in the country, as well as the need to
improve infrastructure. Strengthening government financing through
further tax administration reforms remains a recurrent recommendation
by international financial institutions.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY MOBILIZES COMMUNITY SUPPORT

AZG Armenian Daily
05/10/2007

Washington, DC – As part of the Armenian Assembly’s ongoing effort
to secure passage of H. Res. 106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution,
the Assembly issued a "call to action" as the House Foreign Affairs
Committee announced its decision to consider the resolution on
Wednesday, October 10th. The resolution is identical to legislation
adopted by the Committee in 2005 by a vote of 40 to 7, which included
the support of the Chairman and Ranking Member.

The legislation, introduced in January of this year by Congressman
Adam Schiff, along with his colleagues Congressmen George Radanovich,
Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone, Jr.and Joe Knollenberg, as
well as Reps. Brad Sherman, Thaddeus McCotter and Anna Eshoo, garnered
over 150 supporters on the day of introduction, and has now grown to
a majority in the House of Representatives with over 220 cosponsors. H.

Res. 106 also enjoys the support of millions of Americans as evidenced
by the broad-based support of more than 50 organizations.

"Passage of this bipartisan human rights legislation will send a
powerful message to those who continue, despite the incontestable
truth, to deny the Armenian Genocide," said Assembly Executive Director
Bryan Ardouny. "Now is the time to ensure a resounding victory. We
must put an end to denial and the vicious cycle of genocide."The
Assembly will continue to mount an aggressive campaign, which
also includes raising international awareness of other genocides
and combating denial. Last week, as part of the Assembly’s ongoing
commitment to increase awareness of past and current genocides and end
the atrocities in Darfur, the Assembly joined His Holiness Karekin
II, Catholicos of All Armenians, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams, Armenian Genocide survivors and other human rights activists
for a symbolic torch lighting ceremony honoring genocide victims and
survivors worldwide.

Also, last week, the Assembly challenged the morally bankrupt letter
by eight former U.S. Secretaries of State calling their letter
to prevent consideration of H. Res.106 "inconsistent with the
fundamental tenets of American values."H. Res. 106 must pass the
House Foreign Affairs Committee before it can be considered for a
vote on the House floor.Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly
is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting
public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues.