Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

ROMAN AMOYAN NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN EUROPEAN WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. European champion of Greco-Roman
wrestling Roman Amoyan will not participate in the European
championship to start in Sofia on March 18. On March 15 the sportsman
had an operation on muscular ligament of his left collar-bone.

Professor Rafael Toroyan, Director of the Republican Center of Sports
Medicine and Antidope Service, told NT correspondent that the
operation was performed by Hayk Avagian, Head of the Sports Orthopedy
and Traumatology Unit of the Surb Nerses Medical Center. In one week
R. Amoyan will start general physical exercises, in 2 weeks – special
exercises.

PRECIPITATIONS AND FALL OF TEMPERATURE FORECAST IN COMING DAYS IN
ARMENIA

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Precipitations are forecast in Armenia
on March 17, snow is forecast in mountainous regions, in foothills and
Ararat valley’s foothills. Heavy wind, 15-20 m/s, is forecast in some
regions. As Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed by Gagik Surenian,
chief specialist of Haypethydromet Department’s Meteorological
Forecasts Unit, tonight temperature will fall by 3-5 degrees and in
the daytime of March 17 by another 2-4 degrees. No precipitations are
forecast on March 18, but due to cloudless weather, the temperature
will fall by another 2-4 degrees. Precipitations, mostly snow, is
again forecast in the territory of the country on March 19. On March
20, precipitations will stop and temperature will gradually rise.

The lowest temperature will be registered at night of March 18. On
that day temperature in mountainous regions will be -15, in Ararat
valley and in Yerevan -5.

AFFAIRE DINK: LA FAMILLE RECLAME DES POURSUITES JUDICIAIRES CONTRE LA POLICE

Agence France Presse
15 mars 2007 jeudi 1:16 PM GMT

Les avocats de la famille de Hrant Dink, journaliste turc d’origine
armenienne assassine le 19 janvier, ont reclame jeudi a Istanbul
l’ouverture de poursuites judiciaires contre des responsables de la
police, impliques selon eux dans le meurtre.

"Nous venons de deposer auprès du Parquet une requete demandant
l’ouverture d’une enquete (penale) contre tous les agents publics
vises par une procedure administrative en lien avec ce dossier",
a declare a la presse Me Bahri Bayram Belen en sortant du tribunal
stambouliote instruisant l’affaire.

"Nous pensons que si les responsabilites restent imputees a quelques
enfants de familles pauvres de Trabzon, la dimension politique de
ce crime sera passee sous silence", a-t-il poursuivi. "Nous pensons
qu’il s’agit du travail d’une organisation bien structuree (…)
voulant nuire au fonctionnement democratique de la Turquie".

Le meurtre de Dink, abattu devant le siège de son journal bilingue
Agos, a Istanbul, a ete impute par la police a Ogun Samast, un chômeur
de 17 ans originaire de Trabzon, un bastion nationaliste du nord-est
du pays.

L’assassin presume a ete rapidemment arrete avec 10 complices presumes,
tous proches de milieux ultra-nationalistes haïssant le journaliste en
raison de ses prises de position sur le genocide armenien de 1915-1917,
que la Turquie nie categoriquement.

L’affaire a cependant provoque un scandale, la presse reprochant a
la police d’Istanbul de ne pas avoir su assurer la protection de Dink
alors qu’elle avait obtenu des informations sur le projet d’assassinat
un an avant sa realisation.

Une enquete administrative preliminaire a ete lancee contre le chef
de la police d’Istanbul Celalettin Cerrah et un des ses ex-adjoints,
tandis que le gouverneur et le chef de la police de Trabzon, accuses
de negligence, ont ete limoges fin janvier.

Montrant a la presse une copie d’une note de la police de Trabzon
informant celle d’Istanbul du projet de meurtre, l’avocate Fethiye
Cetin a affirme que pas moins de 17 messages similaires avaient
circule.

"Cela prouve qu’il n’y a pas eu de negligence ou d’oubli, mais
une participation consciente de certaines autorites a ce crime",
a-t-elle dit.

–Boundary_(ID_Pi7tondFf20JGWIDiZZmbQ)–

ARMENIA PROPOSES TO FOUND REGIONAL SYSTEM OF SEISMIC MONITORING

Noyan Tapan
Mar 15 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The program of foundation of the
regional system of seismic monitoring proposed by Armenia arose great
interest at the NATO. Samvel Mkrtchian, the Permanent Representative
of Armenia to the NATO informed the journalists about it on March 14.

In his words, in this sphere Armenia got rather ahead of neighboring
countries. A corresponding center has already been founded in Garni, a
program has been worked out, a specially equiped underground laboratory
functions which implements that monitoring. S.Mkrtchian mentioned that
the program has already been presented to the NATO subdivision engaged
in issues of science and also discussed with Jean Fournet, the NATO
Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, who visited the RA
NAS Geology Institute during the NATO week being held in Yerevan.

In S.Mkrtchian’s opinion, adoption of the program will be a great
achievement in the sense of development of regional cooperation. He
also mentioned that Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan have cooperated
for years within the framework of another program, one on monitoring
of pollution of rivers having regional importance. The program is
implemented with the NATO assistance.

AZERI, ARMENIAN MINISTERS MEET TO DISCUSS KARABAKH

Day.az website, Baku
14 Mar 07

14 March: Another round of negotiations on settling the Karabakh
problem has been held in Geneva between Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

They discussed a document containing basic and fundamental principles
of settlement, drafted by the [OSCE] Minsk Group co-chairs.

Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuriy Merzlyakov said
that the basic principles include two main issues – withdrawal of
the Armenian troops from the districts around Nagornyy Karabakh
and determination of the status of the unrecognized republic till a
referendum is held.

[Passage omitted: Merzlyakov said Karabakh needs contacts with
international organizations]

ARAZ AZIMOV: THE GENEVA MEETING OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS MAY LEAD TO A POSITIVE RESULT

ArmRadio.am
13.03.2007 14:50

"If Armenia does not take unforeseen steps, the Geneva meeting of the
Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan may lead to a positive
result, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov told Lider TV.

In his opinion, the successful continuation of the negotiation
process the conflicting sides should demonstrate political will and
constructiveness. "The political ways of settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict have not been exhausted yet. The work in this
direction must be continued, many times Azerbaijan has declared about
its commitment to the peaceful resolution of the issue, the Azeri
diplomat noted.

ANKARA CONDEMNS SWISS COURT FOR GENOCIDE RULING

Kathimerini, Greece
March 12 2007

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has condemned the decision of a Swiss
court to impose a suspended jail sentence and a fine on a Turkish
citizen for denying that mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
in 1915 amounted to genocide. In the first such conviction under
Swiss law, the court on Friday sentenced Dogu Perincek, head of the
leftist-nationalist Turkish Workers’ Party, to a 90-day suspended jail
term. "The court case was inappropriate, groundless and controversial
in every sense… The verdict cannot be accepted by the Turkish
people," Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said late on Friday.

ARKADI GHOUKASYAN TO STAY IN KARABAKH AFTER THE ELECTIONS

A1+
[10:08 pm] 12 March, 2007

"There are many decent people in Karabakh. If there are people in
Armenia who think they are perfect candidates for the NKR President’s
post they can come and participate in the elections provided their
participation is compliant with law", Arkadi Ghoukasyan announced
during today’s press conference while speaking of the possible
nomination of Arthur Aghabekyan.

"Any person can participate provided he has got the chance. It is
quite normal," Mr. Ghoukasyan notes. The President of NKR once more
assures that he is not going to run for the third term.

"It will be rather difficult for me to quit politics.

I want to pass my experience to the future president and government. As
you know it requires time and patience.

By the way, Arkadi Ghoukasyan isn’t going to leave Karabakh after
the elections.

NUMBER OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES RECOGNIZING GENOCIDE TO INCREASE IN NEAR FUTURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.03.2007 18:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In near future one more European country will
recognize the Armenian Genocide, representative of "Hay Dat" European
Office, member of "Hay Dat" Commission in Greece Gaspar Karapetian
stated, who was participating in the conference of ARF Dashnaktsutyun
"Hay Dat" committees launched in Yerevan March 12. He refused to say
what particular country is going to recognize the Armenian Genocide
fact, noticing that from territorial viewpoint it is not a large
country, but occupies an important place in Europe and plays a
significant role in European processes.

Commenting on the Swiss court’s verdict towards Turkish Workers’
Party leader Dogu Perincek for denying the Armenian Genocide,
Mr. Karapetian noted, one more time it proved that it is impossible
to deny the historical fact remaining unpunished. Speaking about
achievements of "Hay Dat" Commission in Europe, Gaspar Karapetian
referred to recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Greece, where,
according to him, several successive years already April 24 is being
marked as Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day and wreathes are being
laid to the eternal fire. He also stressed, thanks to activity of
"Hay Dat" in 2006 the Greece government assigned Armenia $1 million
for developing agriculture, IA Regnum, reports.

ARMENIAN PATRIARCH CALLS FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN HISTORIANS

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 10 2007

Istanbul, 10 March: Turkish Armenians’ Patriarch Mesrob II talked to
the Anatolia correspondent before the introduction of his book titled
"Armenians in a society of tolerance" at a conference sponsored by
the Erciyes University in Istanbul today.

Mesrob II indicated that "it would have been good if Mr Halacoglu,
chairman of the Turkish Historical Society, and Armenian historian
Ara Sarafian had come together. I support collaborative works by
politicians, historians and academicians."

Sources said that Sarafian sent an e-mail to Halacoglu about his
decision not to get together with Halacoglu for discussions on past
incidents.

Asked if Sarafian changed his mind in meeting Halacoglu due to
pressures from the Armenian diaspora, Mesrob II underlined "that
may actually be the case. However, I have no definite information on
the matter."