Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

New York Times, NY
March 7 2008

Dark Days in Armenia

Published: March 7, 2008

The democracy that Armenians dreamed of during their long decades
under Moscow’s yoke is slipping away. After opponents challenged last
month’s flawed presidential election, the government imposed a brutal
state of emergency. At least eight people are now dead, independent
news outlets throttled and all protests silenced. President Bush and
other Western leaders need to make clear to Armenia’s government that
such behavior is unacceptable and will jeopardize future relations.
Compared to post-Soviet tyrannies like Belarus or Uzbekistan, Armenia
may not look so bad. That is why it is so important to halt this
slide into authoritarianism before it is too late.

Go to The Board » Official election results handed an overwhelming
victory to the ruling party candidate, Serge Sargsyan. International
monitors declared that while the overall outcome appeared fair, there
were serious problems with the vote count. The protests that followed
only turned violent after police began beating demonstrators.

Witnesses told our colleague, Sabrina Tavernise, that government
authorities planted guns and grenades among the sleeping protestors
last Saturday morning. Then, claiming that they were thwarting an
attempted coup, police attacked the opposition camp. The next day,
the outgoing president sent tanks into the streets, banned
demonstrations and ordered Armenian news organizations to relay only
information provided by his government. Local stations can no longer
use the Armenian language programs produced by foreign broadcasters
including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

That drew an admirably strong protest from Washington’s Broadcasting
Board of Governors, the independent federal agency that supervises
these stations, while the State Department has expressed its concern
over the death toll. Their words would carry more weight if President
Bush added his voice. Armenia, embroiled in a lengthy standoff with
neighboring Azerbaijan, is relatively isolated in its own region and
especially values its good relations with the United States.

This is not a case of pure democratic virtue against pure
authoritarian evil. The defeated opposition leader, Levon
Ter-Petrossian, is a former president who in the 1990s sent armored
cars into the streets to crush demonstrators protesting his electoral
manipulations.

He insists, without credible evidence, that he won this election. And
once government forces set off last weekend’s violence, some of those
who turned out in Mr. Ter-Petrossian’s behalf seemed more interested
in looting nearby shops. The main responsibility lies with Armenia’s
government leaders, and it is to them that the White House must
address its protests.

Congress President: "The situation in Yerevan has negative consequences
on local authorities throughout Armenia"

Strasbourg, 07.03.2008 – "I am deeply concerned about the political
crisis in Armenia and the introduction of the state of emergency in the
capital city of Yerevan, which also has repercussions on local
authorities elsewhere in the country," Halvdan Skard, President of the
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe,
stated today.

"Local authorities in Armenia are the first to face the consequences of
disturbances and tensions caused by the crisis, and I call on them to do
their utmost to keep calm within their communities," he said.

President Skard also called on all parties to engage in a political
dialogue and expressed hope that the state of emergency will be lifted
soon, since the existing situation may also influence the elections of
local authorities in Armenia, which will take place this year,
especially the elections in Yerevan, as well as the adoption of the law
on the capital city and the process and timeline of elections of local
authority bodies in Yerevan

Le président du Congrès: ”La situation à Erevan a des
conséquences négatives sur l’ensemble des pouvoirs locaux en
Arménie"

Strasbourg, 07.03.2008 – " Je suis profondément préoccupé par la
crise politique en Arménie et par l’instauration de l’état d’urgence
dans la capitale Erevan qui a aussi des répercussions sur l’ensemble
des pouvoirs locaux dans le pays ", a déclaré aujourd’hui Halvdan
Skard, Président du Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux du
Conseil de l’Europe.

" Les pouvoirs locaux en Arménie sont les premiers à être
confrontés aux conséquences des perturbations et tensions causées
par la crise et je les appelle à tout mettre en =9Cuvre pour
préserver le calme au sein de leurs collectivités " a-t-il ajouté.

Le Président Skard a également appelé toutes les parties à
engager un dialogue politique et a souhaité que l’état d’urgence
soit bientôt levé. En effet, la situation actuelle pourrait
également influer sur les élections locales en Arménie qui auront
lieu cette année, en particulier les élections à Erevan, ainsi que
sur l’adoption de la législation relative au statut de ville capitale,
le processus et le calendrier des élections locales à Erevan.

PRESS RELEASE
Communication Unit of the Congress
of Local and Regional Authorities
Ref:164b08
Tel: : +33 3 90 21 49 36
Fax : +33 3 88 41 27 51
[email protected]

The Congress has two chambers, the Chamber of Local Authorities and the
Chamber of Regions.
It brings together 318 full and 318 substitute members representing
more than 200 000 European territorial communities.

President of the Congress Halvdan Skard (Norway, SOC), President of the
Chamber of Regions: Yavuz Mildon (EPP/CD,Turkey),

President of the Chamber of Local Authorities : Ian Micallef (Malta,
EPP/CD).
Political Groups : Socialist Group (SOC), Group of the European People’s
Party – Christian Democrats (EPP/CD),
Independent and Liberal Democrat Group (ILDG).

ARMENIA ASKS AZERBAIJAN TO STOP SHOOT-OUT ON FRONT LINE – AZERI ARMY OFFICIAL

Day.Az
March 5 2008
Azerbaijan

5 March: The events that took place on the [Azerbaijani-Armenian]
front on 4 March and the worthy response by theAzerbaijani armed forces
show once again that the enemy will not manage to overpower our army,
the head of the pressservice of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry,
Lt-Col Eldar Sabiroglu, said today.

He said that the combat readiness of the Azerbaijani armed forces
was at a high level.

"The Armenian armed forces sustained numerous casualties and there
were wounded soldiers, which has caused awave of discontent in that
country. Armenia is engaged in disseminating misinformation again,
and there is nothingstrange about it. The enemy carried out this
provocation in order to divert the attention of the world community
fromfalsifications during the [19 February] presidential election in
Armenia, and this yielded no results.

"One of the aims of the large-scale violation of the cease-fire was
an attempt to put the blame for thedevelopments on Azerbaijan.

However, everyone knows that the international community, too,
is informed about the tricks of the Armenian side. Their two-faced
mask has been torn off, and the whole world knows that Armenia is
anoccupier," he said.

Sabiroglu noted that in order to conceal the actual number of its
casualties, Armenia is currently disseminatingbiased information. He
said this was not happening for the first time.

The head of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press service stressed
that the enemy should have considered that if it attacked [Azerbaijan]
it would sustain serious casualties as the principle of hostilities
is that the attacking sidesustains greater losses.

Armenia’s military leadership was at a loss and asked the Azerbaijani
Defence Ministry leadership andinternational organizations for the
shoot-out to be stopped.

[Day.az on 4 March quoted the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry as saying
that 12 Armenian troops were killed and 15seriously wounded in a clash
on the contact line between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops on 4
March. On 5 March, theArmenian Defence Ministry denied the report,
while the defence ministry of Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagornyy
Karabakhsaid that Azerbaijan lost eight killed in the fighting.]

YOU DON’T LIKE KURDISH? HOW ABOUT CHINESE OR JAPANESE?
Erhan Ustundað

BIA
March 6 2008
Turkey

Local authorities in Diyarbakir have found a creative means of
criticising the ban on Kurdish: They have added Chinese to their
repertoire and are awaiting reactions…

Diyarbakir is a Kurdish-majority city in the south-east of Turkey
which has exploded in size because of migration from the countryside,
both because of forced village clearances and general unemployment.

Use of Kurdish is often prosecuted Because municipalities in Diyarbakir
constantly face prosecution for using Kurdish in official texts,
they have found a creative means to protest: This year’s congratulary
posters for Women’s Day on 8 March have been printed in Turkish,
Kurdish and Chinese.

Sefik Turk, deputy mayor of the Yenisehir district of Diyarbakir
explains: "There are five court cases and three investigations
against our mayor Firat Anli at the moment. They are telling us,
‘You can publish messages, but you cannot write it in the language
which people understand.’ Let us see if they will open an investigation
against the Chinese posters?"

He added, "Government members boast that democratic reforms have
been carried out, and that people are free to open Kurdish language
courses and to sing Kurdish songs. The reality is different."

"Konnichiwa, Erdogan…"

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit the southeastern
provinces of Turkey at the end of March, and Turk hints that he might
well be welcomed in Japanese.

A gathering for 8 March will use Chinese slogans, and the posters
for the Newroz festival at the end of March will also be prepared
in Chinese.

This festival, written "Nevruz" in Turkish and "Newroz" in Kurdish has
long been a time of tensions. First of all, the Turkish government bans
the use of the letter "w" in such contexts and has claimed the festival
as a Turkish one. Kurds on the other hand, have used the festival
as a day of protests, which is why Turkish authorities, in the past,
often banned celebrations in the Kurdish-majority provinces altogether.

Use of Kurdish leads to sanctions Using Kurdish can still lead to
official sanctions. For instance,

There has been an investigation against the Yenisehir municipality
in Diyarbakir because its children’s choir sang a "Kurdish march."

The regional Coban Atesi (Shepherd’s Fire) newspaper in Gaziantep
was confiscated for an article written in Kurdish.

Students were kicked out of Mersin University in southern Turkey for
"singing Kurdish songs and dancing."

An investigation has been opened against Osman Baydemir, mayor of
Greater Diyarbakir, for printing invitations to Diyarbakir’s 6th
Culture and Arts Festival in Turkish and Kurdish.

The State Council has removed the mayor of the Surici municipality
in Diyarbakir from his office for offering multi-lingual municipal
services.

The trials against politicians and public employees using Kurdish are
usually opened under the Law on Political Parties and the Law on the
Acceptance and Application of Turkish Letters, the latter dating back
to the 1930s.

"A future of peace, democracy and equality" Presumably slightly tongue
in cheek, deputy mayor Turk said that they had chosen Chinese "despite
the fact that it is far away and perhaps only three people come as
tourists, so that they can find something of themselves in Diyarbakir."

The posters were prepared with the help of tourists to the region.

"We also wanted to express our respect for the cultures and languages
of other peoples. We may prepare posters in other languages, too."

The 8 March posters prepared in Kurdish, Turkish and Chinese, read:

"We congratulate all our women on 8 March International Women’s Day,
believing in a future of peace, democracy and equality."

36 languages in Turkey The Ethnologue survey based on data from the
1980s and 90s says that there are 36 languages spoken in Turkey, with
more than five million people speaking Kurdish as their mother tongue.

According to research by the KONDA company in 2007, 11.5 million
people in Turkey define themselves as Kurdish. This is out of a total
population of around 70 million people.

Before the Surici municipality in Diyarbakir offered multi-lingual
services, it did a survey according to which 24 percent spoke Turkish
as their mother tongue, 72 spoke Kurdish, 1 percent spoke Arabic and
3 percent spoke Armenian or Syriac.

–Boundary_(ID_12extXYyx7SkyTyNzSd3lg)–

RA MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS RECEIVES STATE SECRETARY OF VATICAN

Noyan Tapan
March 5, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Receiving the delegation headed by
Cardinal Tarchizio Bertone, the State Secretary of Vatican, on March
5, Vardan Oskanian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic
of Armenia, attached importance to the visit of the guests as another
evidence of the high-level relations established between Armenia and
the Holy See.

Cardinal Bertone mentioned that he planned the visit to Armenia yet
last year and at this responsible moment for the country the object
of his visit is to express his support for the Armenian people. The
Cardinal stated that he discussed the created situation in Armenia
during the meeting with RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsian held on
the eve and prayed with the Catholicos of All Armenians for a quick
restoration of peace and stability in Armenia.

Speaking about the relations of Vatican and Armenia, Vardan Oskanian
said that Armenia has always felt the assistance of the Holy See
during its newest history and the setting up of a monument to Saint
Gregory the Illuminator and the recent opening of a square named after
him in Vatican speak about it. The Minister also attached importance
to the activities of the Mechitarist Congregation of Venice in the
development of the cooperation of Armenia and Vatican.

According to the message provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press and
Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vardan
Oskanian introduced the approaches of Armenia with regard to the
Armenian-Turkish relations and the regulation of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict to the Cardinal Bertone.

3 AZERI SOLDIERS KILLED IN CLASH WITH ARMENIAN FORCES – AZERI TV

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS
March 4, 2008
Russia

Three Azeri soldiers have been killed in clashes that broke out
between Azeri and Armenian forces, Azeri television said on Tuesday,
while the Azeri Defense Ministry declined to confirm the toll.

Armenian forces positioned in a village in Nagorno-Karabakh had opened
fire on Azeri army positions in a nearby Azeri village and that two
Azeri soldiers, Yusif Gasymov and Neimat Dusayev, had been killed in
the attack, ANS television said.

Later, Lider television said one more soldier, Bakhruz Ismailov,
had been shot dead and that several Azeri servicemen and civilians
had been wounded.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry told Interfax it could not confirm the
three soldiers’ deaths because, it said, the battle was still on going.

ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES BREAK CEASEFIRE REGIME IN SEVERAL POSITIONS: ARMENIA TRIES TO DIVERT ATTENTION FROM INTERNAL CLASHES

AzerTag
March 4 2008
Azerbaijan

Subunits of the Armenian Armed Forces, on March 4 subjected to
gunfire the opposite positions of Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces and
several bordering villages, press service of Defense Ministry of
Azerbaijan said.

As a result, residents of Tap Gargoyunlu village of Goranboy region
Rahim Aliyev and Miralam Heydarov were wounded while working in
their yards.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian has confirmed the violation
of cease-fire regime. Oskanian accused the Azerbaijani side "of
exploiting the current internal situation in Armenia."

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said it was
Armenian forces who began the fighting. "Authorities in Yerevan devised
the conflict in order to divert attention from the weekend chaos",
Ibrahim stressed.

"This is a clear provocation by Armenia," Ibrahim said. "They are
trying to use the situation which is taking place in Yerevan after
the elections and are trying to divert the attention of their citizens
and international community from the internal and domestic issues in
order to seek an external enemy," Ibrahim underscored.

The spokesman reiterated official Baku’s position, saying Azerbaijan
does not interfere in internal affairs of any country.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense announced that by violating cease-fire
regime Armenia is trying to divert the attention of the international
community from the internal clashes.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN RECEIVES SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF OSCE CHAIRMAN-IN-OFFICE

Noyan Tapan
March 3, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 3, NOYAN TAPAN. They inform from the RA President’s
Press Office that "President Robert Kocharian received Heikki Talvitie,
the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-office," on March
2. The main subject of the discussion was the situation created in
the country after the disorders instigated by the opposition on the
eve. The President of the Republic presented what has happened and
mentioned that what was happening for the past two days in Yerevan is
diffucult to consider politics or political process. Stressing the
resolution of the authorities in establishing rules in the country,
he has said: "Legal issues should be solved on a legal plane and all
the organizers, instigators and perpetrators of the disorders will
bear responsibility in front of the law."

Touching upon the necessity for declaring a state of emergency in the
city of Yerevan, Robert Kocharian has said that it, first of all,
is directed at the provision of security of the people. "They have
tried to cause minimum inconveniences to people and not to violate
their fundamental rights," he has mentioned.

The sides expressed hope that the home political situation created
in Armenia will be settled as soon as possible and the authorities
will manage to quickly restore the stability and public order of
the country."

CC TO CONSIDER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS APPEALS MARCH 4

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.03.2008 17:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Constitutional Court has pinned the
suits brought in by Tigran Karapetyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan on
February 27 and February 29 respectively. The hearing on appeal of
the presidential election outcomes is due on March 2, the CC press
division reported.

The decision on disputes over the presidential election results is
to be taken within 2 days.

According to the RA CEC, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was elected
President of Armenia with 52,82 per cent of votes. Levon Ter-Petrosyan
came second with 21,5 per cent. Tigran Karapetyan was backed by 0,6
per cent of votes.

KHAZAR IBRAGIM: "AZERBAIJAN NEVER INTERFERES WITH INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF OTHER COUNTRIES"

Today
litics/43502.html
March 3 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan never interferes with internal affairs of other countries,
as this contradicts both to our traditions and powers.

The due announcement was made by spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry Khazar Ibragim commenting on the tense situation in Armenia
following elections at a briefing today.

"The events occurring in Armenia are Armenia’s internal affairs. On
the other hand, Armenia has occupied Azerbaijani lands and we are
in process of negotiations. We do not want the events in Armenia to
affect the negotiation process", Kh.Ibragim said.

He noted that Azerbaijan has stated more than once that nothing can
be a reason for suspension of the negotiation process.

"The negotiation process should continue", Khazar Ibragim announced.

He said OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, visiting Baku, also voiced hope
that they are interested in continuation of the negotiation process.