Author: Talalian Arpi

NEW MONUMENT IN YEREVAN TO UNITE MEMORY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND HOLOCAUST VICTIMS

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.10.2006 14:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 27 the Jewish community of Armenia will
open a new monument to victims of the Holocaust at the Ring Park
in Yerevan. In the words of head of the Jewish community of Armenia
Rimma Varzhapetyan, the new monument is a rare one, as it is dedicated
not only to the Jewish Holocaust, but also to victims of the Armenian
Genocide. "We are very grateful to Armenian authorities for providing a
lot for the monument," she said. A large number of guests from various
countries will arrive for the opening of the monument. A round table
discussion of consequences of genocides in 20th century will be
arranged. "We want to prove once again that Jews living in Armenia
work for doing useful deeds. We hope that no malefactor will dare to
profane this memorial," head of the Jewish community of Armenia said,
reports the Azg.

SLOVAK POLICE BREAK UP OUR GANGS OF PEOPLE SMUGGLERS

Czech News Agency
October 10, 2006 Tuesday

Bratislava, Oct 10 (CTK) – The Slovak police have broken up four
groups of people smugglers at various places in Slovakia since the
beginning of September, police vice-president Michal Kopcik told
reporters today. One of the groups also operated in the neighbouring
Czech Republic and Austria and its members helped refugees from local
asylum camps cross the border westwards, Kopcik said.

The police have accused more than 30 people, including foreigners.

Some of them face up to ten years in prison, if found guilty. The
leader of the group that smuggled illegal migrants further to western
Europe was a Georgian who has applied for asylum in Slovakia. The
10-member group reportedly escorted at least a hundred people
across the green border. Three of the ten accused have been taken
into custody. Another gang’s operation was broken up in the regions
of Bratislava and Presov, east Slovakia. In this case, the gang’s
12 accused members include two Vietnamese with a permanent stay in
Slovakia, another two with a permanent stay in the Czech Republic,
and one Czech. The gang smuggled at least 350 people, mostly of Asian
origin, and earner almost 6 million crowns, Kopcik said. The third
gang, broken up in east Slovakia, has smuggled at least 164 people,
mainly Moldovans and Chinese, to Slovakia from Ukraine. The gang
has also secured the illegal migrants’ escort across Slovakia. The
last gang was caught smuggling mainly citizens of former Soviet
Union countries across the border with Ukraine and Hungary. The six
accused include two Armenians and an Indian. ($1=29.386 Slovak crowns)

AGBU Press Office
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Phone: 212.319.6383, x106
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
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PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Never Too Young for Camp Nubar – Inaugural Young Professionals Retreat
Opens Cabin Doors & Hearts to AGBU

Andes, NY – Forty Armenians from greater New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, and even Monaco, joined the AGBU Young Professionals of
Greater New York (YPGNY) and YP Boston in kicking off their inaugural
joint retreat at AGBU Camp Nubar from August 18-20, 2006. While making
friends and memories in the scenic Catskill Mountains of upstate New
York, YP campers enjoyed the summer weekend getaway complete with a
variety of indoor and outdoor activities, such as swimming, boating,
tennis, yoga, basketball and hiking.

By uniting sister YP communities on the recently renovated grounds of
Camp Nubar, guests were provided the unique opportunity to connect in
a tranquil setting far away from hectic city life. "The AGBU YP
Retreat to Camp Nubar was a wonderful experience, and gave the
northeast chapters an opportunity to meet each other and enjoy the
beauty of the Catskill Mountains," said Stephan Nigohosian of
Ridgewood, NJ. "It also promoted a feeling of extended family among
the campers, and strengthened the Armenian bond among the
up-and-coming generation."

YPGNY ([email protected]) and YP Boston ([email protected]) are
committed to upholding the mission of AGBU to preserve and promote the
Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and
humanitarian programs. For more information on AGBU Young
Professionals, please visit the Programs section of

FM: ARMENIAN BILL WILL HARM FRANCE, NOT TURKEY

Anatolia news agency, Ankara,
11 Oct 06

Ankara, 11 October: "If French parliament adopts the draft law
(which envisions denial of so-called Armenian genocide as crime),
Turkey will not lose anything, but France will lose not only Turkey
but also many other things," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
told reporters after his meeting with Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell
of the Bahamas in Ankara on Wednesday [11 October].

Upon a question about French parliament’s debate the draft law
tomorrow, Gul said that Turkey has exerted every type of efforts on
all levels to warn France.

"Turkish politicians, businessmen, the government, parliament, ruling
and opposition parties, deputies and intellectuals have all exerted
efforts. Also the EU stated that this issue is very wrong. I hope
France will not be the victim of small inner policy tools. I hope
France, which is the homeland of freedoms and liberty as well as
the pioneer of freedom of thought and expression, will not become
a country where people are imprisoned as they release the documents
and express their thoughts," Gul noted.

Gul added that turning of EU’s locomotive country and pioneer of
freedoms into such a country will concern France more than Turkey.

ELEKDAG: TURKEY SHOULD DECREASE DIRECT FLIGHTS FROM ARMENIA
Mucahit Taskiran (JTW)

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Oct 11 2006

ANKARA – Yasar Yakis, former foreign minister and MP from right-wing
AK Party, argued that Turkey should expel 70,000 illegal Armenian
workers in Turkey in apparent retaliation for the probable adoption
by the French National Assembly. However many Turks oppose this idea.

Sukru Elekdag, former diplomat and MP from left-wing cHP party, also
a former senior diplomat and deputy of the main opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP), at a press conference at Parliament on Monday,
said that France has been exploiting Turkey’s EU membership process
and was trying to get Turkey to eventually cave in.

Over 70,000 Armenian citizens have been illegally working in Turkey
but have been tolerated, Elekdað said. However, Turkey should now
implement the related laws and gradually send these illegal workers
back, he added.

In addition to this measure, Turkey should also decrease the number
of flights between Istanbul and Yerevan, which is seven flights per
week at the moment, Elekdað also added.

The idea was originally voiced by former Foreign Minister Yaþar Yakis,
head of Parliament’s European Union Harmonization Commission, during
a meeting in the northwestern province of Duzce province in a show of
reaction against the French bill penalizing any denial of the claimed
genocide of Armenians.

"Seventy-thousand illegal Armenian workers in Turkey should be sent
back to Armenia in response to the bill", Yakis offered.

"You may say that the mistake was made by France, but the ones
punished are Armenian. However, Armenia should as well be aware of its
responsibilities," he was quoted as saying by the Dogan News Agency.

However some of the Turkish parliamenterians say that "if they are
illegal, they should expel immediately without making any connection
with the French draft".

Yakis based his argument on the fact that the Armenian lobby in France
played a key role in bringing the controversial bill to the agenda
of the French National Assembly.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ozcan, Turkish EU expert, however argues
that "Turkey should not expel anyone as a measure against France’s
Armenian attempts: "France makes mistakes. Turkey should not do the
similar mistakes. Armenians came here, because they are not happy in
Armenia. They found jobs and stable life here. We should not disturb
these people. They continue to make contribution to Turkey’s and
Armenia’s economies" Prof. Ozcan added.

–Boundary_(ID_bbPp/zNP7kIls6E6rIQ4uw)–

BRUXELLABAD: MUSLIMS HAVE THEIR SAY IN BRUSSELS
>From the desk of Paul Belien

Brussels Journal, Belgium
Oct 10 2006

Since last Sunday’s local elections in Belgium more than one fifth
(21.8%) of the municipal councillors in Brussels, the capital of
Europe, are immigrants of non-European origin. Most of them are
Muslims, and most of them have been elected as Socialists. The
non-European immigrants vote overwhelmingly Socialist, owing to
the fact that many of them are rentseekers who migrated to Western
Europe attracted by the subsidies of its generous welfare states. The
immigrants have become the electoral life insurance of European
Socialism.

The Brussels borough of Sint-Joost-ten-Node (where the party
headquarters of the Vlaams Belang party is located) has 19 councillors
of non-European origin on a total of 27. Eleven of the 16 Socialist
councillors in Sint-Joost are non-European immigrants, as are 4 of the
5 Christian-Democrats, 2 of the 3 Greens and 2 of the 3 Liberals. The
most popular of them is Emir Kir, the Socialist secretary of state
for public monuments in the Brussels regional government. Mr Kir, who
is Turkish, wants to demolish the Brussels monument for the genocide
of the Armenians. According to him the genocide is a hoax.

Exactly 50% of the Brussels electorate are either foreigners or
naturalized Belgians. Six years ago the figure was only 32%. In
Antwerp, where 17% of the electorate are immigrants (11.5% in 2000),
one third of the Socialist councillors are Muslims. In Ghent, where
12.6% of the electorate is foreign (8.1% in 2000), one quarter of the
Socialist councillors are Muslims. In Vilvoorde, a Flemish suburb of
Brussels, where 14.8% of the electorate is foreign (9.3% in 2000),
half the Socialist representatives are Muslims.

In Antwerp, one third of the "Christian"-Democrat councillors are
Muslims, too. The latter, however, such as Ergun Top, tend to be more
moderate. As Koenraad Elst explained here earlier, they are badly
needed to counter the large Muslim presence in the Socialist Party
in the contest for the fast-growing Muslim electorate.

LAVROV: WE ARE AND HAVE BEEN ALLIES WITH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.10.2006 15:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Historical and spiritual closeness of the
two peoples is the pledge for Armenian-Russian union, Russian FM
Sergey Lavrov stated in Moscow on the Public TV Company of Armenia
at a reception in honor of celebration of the 15th anniversary
of Armenia’s Independence. "We are and we have been allies with
Armenia. Historical and spiritual closeness of the two peoples is
the pledge for Armenian-Russian union," he said. "Many Armenians
now work and live in Russia. Call the name of Armen Jigarkhanyan –
there is no Russian, who does not know or love him," the Minister
remarked. "Of course we have separated as republics of the USSR,
however we are overcoming that hard period," Sergey Lavrov added,
reports Novosti-Armenia.

SARKOZY DEMNDS FROM TURKEY TO ABOLISH ARTICLE 301 OF THE PENAL CODE

Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 9 2006

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarcozy has promised Turkish
Prime Minister Rejeb Tayyib Erdogan to "block" adoption of the law
criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide on condition that
the latter will exclude Article 301 from the Turkish Penal Code.

Turkish "Milliet" reports that the Interior Minister of France made
this interesting suggestion during the phone talk with the Turkish
Prime Minister, who had called Sarkozy, requesting to undertake
measures for preventing adoption of the bill in the French Parliament.

According to the source, Sarkozy demanded also to open the
Armenian-Turkish border.

IRANIAN EXPERT: TEHRAN AS REGIONAL POWER SHOULD HELP KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.10.2006 17:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iranian expert Daryush Safarnejat says no serious
improvements are observed in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, because Karabakh does not take part in peace making process.

In his article titled "Iran’s potential of mediating in Nagorno
Karabakh conflict" Daryush Safarnejat noted that "Nagorno Karabakh
forces seized some adjacent regions to Karabakh in 1992-1993." "Iran as
a border country with three countries, namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, and
Karabakh, has established neighborly relations with all of the," the
expert said. "Although Iran does not recognize Karabakh as independent
political unit, but being the regional power can help it, reported APA.

8 AGENTS AMONG THE RA HIGH OFFICIALS

A1+
[07:09 pm] 09 October, 2006

"We are ready for any step: from a statement to another beating
in answer to their", announced leader of "New Times" party Aram
Karapetyan in connection with the act of violence against former
Minister of Internal Affairs, former mayor of Yerevan, and member of
the Republican party political council Suren Abrahamyan.

Mr. Karapetyan found it difficult to say who organized the beating,
but he said, "The fact is that it took place after Mr. Abrahamyan’s
announcement that the Prime Minister himself is a criminal
element". But still, he added that "I don’t think the Prime Minister
is silly enough to order to beat him after his announcement".

He assessed the incident as encroachment against the anti-criminal
movement. As for why Suren Abrahamyan was chosen for that purpose,
Mr. Karapetyan said, "It could be any representative of the movement".

As for the activity of leader of the Progressive party of Armenia
Tigran Urikhanyan against him, Mr. Karapetyan said, "Serge Sargsyan and
Seyran Shahsuvaryan have made orders to compromise Aram Karapetyan, and
the execution of the order is the task of the RA National Security
Service – Gorik Hakobyan-Yepiskoposyan. We have our own sources
of information".

The leader of the "New Times" party is sure that Tigran Urikhanyan
cooperates with power structures.

"If it isn’t so, tell me how the leader of a party can know what
declarations the leader of another party signed in the airport".

Without revealing his sources of information Aram Karapetyan announced
that they have learned that there are eight agents among RA high
officials, "We offer the RA National Security Service, the Office
of the Public Prosecutor and the Police to make public the names of
all the agents in the RA political field. I have a part of the list,
and if the list is not made public before the elections, I will name
the agents by TV".