Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

LINCY PROJECT DISCONTINUED BECAUSE OF US GOVERNMENT’S INTERFERENCE,
MOST OF RESPONDENTS OF NT’S SURVEY CONSIDER

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, NOYAN TAPAN. Though it was formerly announced that in
case of the successful realization of the first stage of Lincy project
the project will continue no reasonable explanation to the fact why
the project was stopped has been given by now. To recap, at the first
stage of the project that ended in 2003, unprecedented work amounting
to nearly 200 mln dollars on repairs of roads and cultural entities
was done in Armenia. Multi-millionaire Kerk Kerkorian having financed
the project expressed satisfaction with the results of this work
during his recent visit to Armenia and at the same time didn’t give a
concrete answer to the question, if the project will continue. From
May 27 through June 3 Noyan Tapan held a survey on its Internet site
suggesting answering the question, what is the fact discontinuation of
the work on the Lincy project is conditioned by. 6 respondents
consider that this is conditioned by change of Kerkorian’s personal
plans, 9 respondents consider that this is conditioned by
unsatisfactory results of the project’s first stage. 10 respondents
explain this by personal relations of the multi-millionaire and RA
leadership and most of the respondents, 22, explain this by the
interference of the US government.

Voice of Europe campaigns against Turkey’s EU admission

07.06.2005 16:56

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Voice of Europe, a Slovakia non-governmental organization,
has launched a campaign to petition against Turkey’s admission into the
European Union, Armenpress reported, citing a Russian source.

During the campaign, the citizens of Slovakia can express their position
towards the EU enlargement in the context of Turkey’s inclusion in the Union.
Similar actions are underway in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic.

A1plus

| 15:21:07 | 07-06-2005 | Official |

DAY OF ARMENIA IN JAPAN

Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, who is on working visit in Japan
at the moment, attended EXPO 2005 international exhibition and participated
in the opening ceremony of the Armenian pavilion on occasion of the RA
National Day.

In his welcoming speech the RA Premier said, in part, `Welcoming you on the
occasion of the National Day of Armenia within EXPO 2005 I assure you that
we have brought the best exhibits characterizing our far but warm and sunny
country with age-old history. I think the exhibition will contribute to the
development of multilateral cooperation. From this viewpoint I welcome the
idea that the three South Caucasian states are represented in one pavilion.’

Armenia named its pavilion `Art of Life’ presenting our culture, history,
economic and intellectual potential, harmonic co-existence of humanity and
nature as well as the approaches of our country towards the process of
international integration. In all over 200 states are taking part in EXPO
2005.

In the evening the Armenian delegation headed by Andranik Margaryan will
make for Tokyo, where the Premier will meet with Japanese top officials.

LUFTHANSA CARRIES OUT FIRST MUNICH-YEREVAN FLIGHT

YEREVAN, June 3. /ARKA/. The Lufthansa air carriers has carried out
the first Munich-Yerevan flight today. At a press conference held on
this occasion, Guenther Ott, Regional Director in Russia and CIS,
pointed out that the flight is the inauguration of regular flights
to Armenia planned by the Lufthansa air carrier. Specifically,
Munich-Yerevan flights will be carried out on Monday, thursayd and
Sunday, and Yerevan-Munich flight on Monday, Thursday and Friday. He
also pointed out that Lufthansa makes a special offer to Armenian
passenger, namely, flights to Europe, North Amercia and Africa, which
offer will be in effect until October 24. Guenther Ott reported that
from today the passengers that will make use of the new package offered
by Lufthansa will have the opportunity to fly to the German citiers
of Munich, Berlin, Ftrankfurt, Cologne, Dresden for 299 USD; to the
European cities of Amserdam, London, Brussels, Rome, Madrid and Milan
for 349 USD, as well as to North America and Africa for 599 USD. He
also said that Lufthansa air carriers proposes the «Miles&more» bonus
system to Armenian passengers. The air carrier also offers special
Flynet services to its clients, which will afford businessmen the
opportunity to use Internet during flights, Ott said.

He also reported that on June 5 Lufthansa intends to make its first
flight to Georgia.

The Lufthansa air carriers wasa founded in 1926 and currently makes
15,000 daily flights to 139 countries in 375 directions. P.T. -0–

–Boundary_(ID_llskoI9Ex1PgE9habZ6mBA)–

The Messenger, Georgia
June 3 2005

Press Scanner

PanArmenianNet: Georgia justifies itself to Azerbaijan

In the course of the Georgian-Russian talks over the terms and
conditions of withdrawal of Russian military bases that are still in
the Georgian territory, the Georgian party has taken into account the
interests of Azerbaijan, which protests against transit of Russian
arms to Armenia, reported Regnum news agency.

As reported by Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, in the
course of the Georgian-Russian talks the Russian party insisted on
inclusion of an item on withdrawal of the bases to Armenia, however
the Georgian party “did not cede it” and resorted to “last
concessions” over the terms of withdrawal of the bases to rule out
such an item. As Zurabishvili explained, the Russian party insisted
on the stationing of the bases in Armenia motivating it additional
time is necessary to move these to Russia via the Black Sea. “We
agreed to it exactly for them not to be able to tell us they had to
withdraw bases in Gyumri, as you did not agree to additional time,”
the Georgian FM said. “Thus, we did all we could for the bases to be
withdrawn to Russia,” she noted. As noted by S. Zurabishvili, now “if
a part is withdrawn in the Gyumri direction, it depends not on us,
but a decision of Russia.” In the Georgian FM’s words, she has
discussed it with her Azeri counterpart during the ceremony of
opening the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline held in Baku May 25.

“Our explanations are understandable and acceptable to Azerbaijanis,”
S. Zurabishvili noted. “Azerbaijan sending a note to Russia and not
to us is very correct,” she added. As reported earlier, rail echelon
of 15 cars loaded with military equipment and ammunition withdrawn
from the Russian base in Batumi arrived in Armenia today. According
to data available, ammunition, chemical processing appliance and
antiaircraft emplacements are transported.

PanArmenianNet, June 2, 2005

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-

PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741.562543

Email: [email protected]:

PRESS RELEASE

184-03-06-2005

Foreign Minister Oskanian received GRECO Monitoring Commission

On 3 June, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received the GRECO
monitoring commission headed by Mr. Carlo Chiaramonte, a member of
the GRECO Secretariat.

Minister highly valued the work of the commission and noted that
Armenia seriously understands the need to take necessary steps to
make the fight against corruption more effective.

During the last five days, the GRECO delegation had met with officials
and specialists responsible for the fight against corruption, through
legislative reforms and other steps. During the next six months, the
commission will draft a report with conclusions and recommendations for
steps to be taken in Armenia to overcome this obstacle to democratic
and economic development.-0-

FEDERATION OF ARMENIAN ORGANISATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS
24 April Committee
Address: Weesperstraat 91 – 2574 VS Den Haag
Tel. 070 4490209
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

Press Release

Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands demands Time
Magazine apology for misleading Turkish information

In Time Magazine of June 6 a DVD of Turkish Chamber of Commerce
(ATO) is attached to a number of advertisement pages for Turkey as
the holiday country, a DVD including a large scale collection of
propaganda material denying the Armenian Genocide. Film shots as well
as documents present the well known twisting and denying stories,
and an illustrious company of genocide denialists as Mac Carthy and
Halacoglu, prosecuted in Switzerland for denying the Armenian genocide,
make statements of the well known kind.

The Federation cannot imagine how a quality magazine like Time could
have added such a DVD to the 494 thousand copies of Time, intended
for the European market. The Federation protests against this sort
of misleading information and demands Time Magazine at least apology
on the front page of next week issue.

Turkey will not impress Europe with this rearguard action and
propaganda DVD, since for most European Countries the Armenian Genocide
is a fact, politically as well as scientifically spoken.

See below the protest letter of the Federation of Armenian Organisation in
the Netherlands
————–

To the Editor of Time Magazine

Dear Madam, Sir,

The Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands and it¹s
24 April Committee are astonished by the fact that how a quality
magazine like Time could have added a free DVD as tourist information
for Turkey, which however practically exclusively contains misleading
historical information, namely obvious distortion of historical
facts in favour of denial of the Armenian Genocide. According to
our information this DVD is distributed this week to 494 thousand
subscribers of Time Magazine in Europe.

The Federation protests against this misinformation and demands Time
Magazine at least apology on the front page of next week issue. We
also ask you to withdraw the copies from the retailers.

Although the DVD is not made by Time Magazine, we hold Time Magazine
responsible for this very unwanted present.

Waiting for your reaction.

Yours sincerely,

M. Hakhverdian (Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands)
I. Drost (24 April Committee)
The Hague
The Netherlands

–Boundary_(ID_fb5GU0K4V/5e0v3QaTwXUQ)–

Russian arms from Georgia will be under Russian jurisdiction

Interfax
June 2 2005

BAKU. June 2 (Interfax) – Russian Charge d’Affaires in Azerbaijan Pyotr
Burdykin on Thursday handed over an official answer from the Russian
Foreign Ministry to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry to Baku’s note
expressing its concern about the redeployment of some weapons from
the Russian military bases in Georgia to Armenia.

“The [response] note reads that the matter can only imply the transfer
[of weapons] from one Russian military base to another rather than
their transfer to Armenia,” Burdykin said commenting on reports
alleging that Russian weapons could be passed to the Armenian armed
forces’ disposal.

“This is absolute invention, this is just impossible,” he said.

TURKISH JUSTICE MINISTER LOST ERDOGAN’S FAVOR “BECAUSE OF ARMENIA”

Pan Armenian News
30.05.2005 04:21

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned
the statement by Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, AFP (Istanbul)
reported. In his words, the negative statement on the conference
entitled “Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of the Empire: Issues
of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy” scheduled for May 25-27
was merely personal and does not reflect the official position of the
Turkish government on the issue. To remind, under pressure from the
Turkish government, organizers were forced to cancel the unprecedented
event set to open in Istanbul. Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek
accused the conference organizers of committing treason. It should
be also noted that the EU subjected to sharp criticism the government
decision.

ANCA: TURKEY MAKES MOCKERY OF ITS CLAIMS TO SEEK DIALOGUE WITH
ARMENIANS

WASHINGTON, MAY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The Turkish government’s actions
reflect a long-standing, profoundly troubling, and increasingly
aggressive policy of seeking to silence any discussion of the Armenian
Genocide – domestically, through coercion and threats of prosecution,
and abroad through blackmail and intimidation. This declared Aram
Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA), commenting on the fact of indefinitely postponing
under Turkey Government’s pressure the conference which would have to
focuse on the Armenian Genocide. He underlined that by taking these
steps, Turkey’s leadership had made a mockery of its claims to seek a
dialogue with Armenians, compounded international skepticism about its
willingness to meet even minimal standards for freedom of expression,
and underscored the need for our government and the international
community to press Turkey – once and for all – to end its campaign to
deny justice for this crime against humanity. The Conference, titled
“Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of
Scientific Responsibility and Democracy,” was jointly organized by the
Comparative Literature Department of Bilgi University, the History
Department of Bogazici University and the History Program at Sabanci
University. Originally set to take place May 25th-27th at Bosphorus
University, the schedule was to include over 30 papers by Turkish
scholars from Turkey and abroad. In the days leading up to the the
conference, Turkish Government officials spoke stridently against the
conference and its organizers. Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek,
in a speech before the Turkish Parliament on May 24, went so far as to
accuse the academics of “treason.” The Minister described the
conference as a “a stab in the back to the Turkish nation.” Opposition
parliament members concurred with the government’s views. According to
the Agence France Presse, senior Republican People’s Party Parliament
member and former Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Sukru Elekdag,
qualified the conference as a “treacherous project.” The government
crackdown on the conference is the most recent chapter in the Turkish
government’s 90-year campaign of genocide denial. This effort has
intensified in recent years. In 2003, Education Minister Hikmet Cetin
issued a decree making student participation in a nation-wide essay
contest denying the Armenian Genocide compulsory. The most recent
revisions to the Turkish Penal Code criminalize references to the
Armenian Genocide and the removal of troops from Turkish occupied
northern Cyprus. World- renowned Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, is the
latest to be charged with violation of the Turkish penal code for
references to the Armenian Genocide. According to news reports, Pamuk
stated, “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in
Turkey. Almost no one dares to speak out this but me, and the
nationalists hate me for that.”