TIGRAN KOTANJIAN AND LILIT GALOYAN LEADERS IN ARMENIAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Noyan Tapan
Jan 21, 2009
YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian Men’s and Women’s Chess
Championships continue in Yerevan. The leaders are Tigran Kotanjian
with 6 out of 8 points and Lilit Galoyan with 4.5 out of 5 points.
ARMENIA TO PROMOTE IMPLEMENTATION OF AGREEMENTS WITH EU
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2009 14:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met Monday
with European Commissioner for External Relations and ENP Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, the RA leader’s press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.
Stressing the importance of a successful continuance of the high-level
political dialogue as a favorable condition for expanding the
cooperation agenda between the Republic of Armenia and the European
Union, President Sargsyan noted with satisfaction the steadfast
implementation of the agreements reached with the leadership of the
EU structures during his visit to Brussels last November.
The Armenian President thanked the European Union for providing the
republic with the opportunity to benefit from the General System of
Preferences (GSP+) trade system and stressed that our country would do
her best for bringing to life the other agreements as soon as possible.
President Sargsyan and Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner discussed a wide scope
of issues related the possibilities of expanding bilateral and
multilateral cooperation in the framework of the Eastern Partnership
Policy. They also referred to the international and inter-Armenian
developments.
KILLING PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON BLOODY PAST
Thomas Seibert, Foreign Correspondent
The National
9/FOREIGN/630244377/-1/NEWS
Jan 19 2009
United Arab Emirates
Hrant Dink’s funeral procession was attended by thousands who showed
solidarity with the slain journalist.
ISTANBUL // Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish journalist of Armenian
descent, was walking back from a bank errand to the office of
his newspaper Agos in a busy Istanbul shopping district one Friday
afternoon two years ago, when a young man stepped up from behind and
shot him in the head and the neck.
As Dink lay dead on the pavement and a crowd of shocked passers-by
and friends gathered around the body that had been quickly covered
with a blanket, it became clear immediately that the murder was a
defining moment for Turkey.
Television stations interrupted their normal programmes to report
on the killing, and the government in Ankara broke off a cabinet
meeting to dispatch two ministers to Istanbul to watch over the
investigation. A few days later, tens of thousands of people joined
the funeral march for Dink, carrying signs that read: "We are all
Armenians." Turkey had never seen anything like it.
Even though radical Turkish nationalists had long regarded Dink as a
traitor because he wanted Turkey to face up to the massacres against
the Armenians in the First World War and called for a reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians, the murder came as a shock for the
country. Nationalists had brought Dink, the outspoken editor of Agos,
and other intellectuals to court for expressing their views about
the Armenian question, but the killing crossed a line. Dink himself,
in his last column for Agos, had compared himself to a dove: "I know
that in this country no one will hurt a dove."
Two years after the shots that were fired on Jan 19, 2007, Turkey is
still haunted by the murder, but the debate about what happened to
Armenians almost 100 years ago is much more open than before. Several
hundred thousand Anatolian Armenians perished in massacres and death
marches that started in 1915. Turkey says the deaths were the unwanted
results of a relocation move under wartime conditions.
Armenia and many international scholars say that up to 1.5 million
people were victims of a genocide.
"The funeral march was a turning point," said Aydin Engin, a
Turkish journalist who briefly took over as editor of Agos after the
murder. "Many Turks were forced to think: what happened in 1915? Was
there a genocide or not? People recognised there is a problem."
The probing is new for Turkey, where public talk about the Armenian
question was long considered taboo and can result in jail sentences
even today. Mr Engin, who is not of Armenian descent, said he still
receives many e-mails from high school and university students asking
him to explain what happened to the Armenians.
"The taboo has been broken for good," Mr Engin said. "People talk
about it in coffee houses, in their families."
Shortly after the murder, police caught the confessed killer, Ogun
Samast, a teenager from the Black Sea city of Trabzon, which is known
as a nationalist stronghold. The trial against Mr Samast and several
other defendants accused of incitement or of being accomplices
continues in court in Istanbul. It has kept the case of Dink on
the agenda.
Friends and family members meet today for a remembrance march from
Taksim Square in Istanbul’s city centre to the scene of the crime in
front of the building that houses Agos.
Ever since the killing, the government has been under public pressure
to investigate reports that those guilty acted with the knowledge of
leading police officers. When Mr Samast was arrested, some policemen
posed with him and a Turkish flag for souvenir photos. Only a few
days ago, Turkish media reported that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
prime minister, had given permission to open investigations against
two high-ranking police officers who are accused of having ignored
information about the plot to kill Dink.
Still, Armenians in Turkey feel exposed. This month, police in the
central Anatolian city of Sivas arrested about a dozen nationalists
after discovering a plot to kill a leader of the local Armenian
community. The plot is said to have been ordered by members of the
Ergenekon organisation, a right-wing group that prosecutors say tried
to provoke a military coup against Mr Erdogan by creating chaos in
the country with the help of terrorist attacks and assassinations.
Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for Dink’s family in the murder trial, has
claimed that there are "very strong connections" between the Ergenekon
gang and the killing of Dink.
"Right now every Armenian can feel like a target," Dink’s brother
Orhan told the Sabah newspaper last week.
Mr Engin said every time the Armenian question receives heightened
publicity, Armenians felt under threat by nationalists.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Russia
Jan 15 2009
Moscow and Yerevan Parry Blow From Baku
by Yuriy Simonyan
On Wednesday [14 January] the Russian Defence Ministry officially
refuted a report disseminated by the Azerbaijani media on the handover
of armaments worth 800m dollars to Armenia. This happened almost a
week before the deadline announced by the Russian Federation Defence
Ministry for clarifying the circumstances. "The reports do not
correspond to reality. The text of the official announcement will be
issued in the next few hours," Nezavisimaya Gazeta was told at the
press centre of Russia’s defence department.
Let me remind you that the story of the virtually free handover to
Yerevan of armaments from the 102d Russian military base located in
the Armenian city of Gyumri was published in the first days of the New
Year by a number of the Azerbaijani mass media. Ambassador of the
Russian Federation Vasiliy Istratov was summoned to the Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry to give an explanation.
The Russian Foreign Ministry promised Baku that it would look into the
situation, and the Russian Federation Defence Ministry, after
immediately refuting the Azerbaijani journalists’ report, nonetheless
took a timeout until 20 January "in order to prepare an official
response."
There was no shortage of Azerbaijani theories about the "New Year gift
to Armenia": from the commonplace – nowadays – accusation that Russia
is planning to stage another war in the Caucasus, to the outrageous
suggestion that the Armenian authorities might need weapons worth
nearly $1 million to deal with opposition elements in their own
society.
Colonel Seyran Shakhsuvaryan, press secretary at the Armenian Defence
Ministry, was inundated with telephone calls. "We have received
nothing from the Russians… Go to the Russian Defence Ministry, after
all, and ask them why it took a whole week to prepare a statement," he
said to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, making no secret of his irritation.
Stepan Grigoryan, head of the Globalization Analysis Centre, expressed
surprise at events. According to him, taking into account the fact
that Russia and Armenia are members of the CSTO [Collective Security
Treaty Organization] and a number of other factors, military
cooperation will continue and deepen, and "the most important thing is
that commitments under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in
Europe (CFE Treaty) should not be violated in this context."
The Republic itself has in recent days been full of rumours that the
Russian base at Gyumri will be substantially extended through the
redeployment of subunits to other regions of Armenia and that the
question of opening another military base has also been raised:
Representatives of the Russian Federation Defence Ministry have
visited various parts of the country on familiarization trips and
their choice has supposedly come down in favour of the irregularly
functioning civil airfield in the small town of Stepanavan in the
north of Armenia. Both countries’ defence departments declined to
comment on the existence of these plans.
"Such issues are not decided quite so simply. If the Russian military
liked the Stepanavan airfield, that in itself tells us nothing.
Familiarization trips by the Russian military around the country have
happened and will continue to happen – this is normal practice among
strategic partners, as is the discussion of long-term plans," former
Armenian Defence Minister Bagarshak Arutyunyan told Nezavisimaya
Gazeta. According to him, talk to the effect that the 102d Military
Base is spreading all over the Republic has no foundation: It is
deployed where it is supposed to be under the treaty concluded while
Arutyunyan was minister, and the same, incidentally, is true of its
aviation component – at Yerevan’s Erebuni airport, "which is in joint
use."
"Under the CFE Treaty both Russia and Armenia must give notification
of what they have, where, and in what quantity. They are obliged to
inform OSCE headquarters in Vienna of any changes to the quantity of
particular units or redeployments," Arutyunyan told Nezavisimaya
Gazeta. For this reason the ex-minister believes that the $800 million
deal publicized by the media is not in accordance with reality: At any
time any of the parties to the CFE Treaty may express the desire to
verify compliance with the treaty. "Thus far not a single inspection
of Armenia has uncovered any violations," the ex-defence minister
believes. According to him, Azerbaijan is violating the treaty by
actively buying weapons from the Czech Republic and particularly from
Ukraine – this is first and foremost a question of armoured equipment
and Smerch long-range multiple-launch rocket systems. "We all saw the
results of Ukraine’s arming Georgia, and we certainly would not want
history to repeat itself. And the fact that Baku has rearmed is known
to the United Nations, to which weapons-exporting countries annually
send information on the deals made," Arutyunyan told Nezavisimaya
Gazeta.
[translated from Russian]
THOSE WHO TALK, THOSE WHO KEEP SILENT, AND THOSE WHO ARE BUSYBODIES
Ekrem Dumanli
Jan 15 2009
Turkey
Susurluk or Ergenekon? Or both? What did we have in the Susurluk
case? An outlaw, a police chief and a deputy in a car that crashed
into a truck. The car’s trunk was full of weapons.
Was there a weapons depot? No. There was only a mention of
lost weapons. Those were never found. Were there assassination
plots? No. Labeling people according to their ideologies,
videocassettes for blackmailing, bombings, murder… None of these
were at hand with respect to Susurluk, but media organizations were
storming in a teacup nonetheless. This was because, with a wrong move,
the political figures of the time mistakenly described Susurluk as
an unimportant and trivial event. Eventually, the well-established
rule of politics stepped in: The government that failed to wind up
its shadowy network was toppled by that network.
On the other hand, what do we have in the Ergenekon
case? Everything! Plots for military takeover of democratic governance,
establishing organizations to this end, organizing events to create
chaos, assassinations, burying weapons in the ground, categorizing
people according to their ideologies, plotting to kill well-known
Armenian and Alevi figures, and the list goes on. The information
and documents obtained have already been made public in about
2,000 pages of the indictment. A supplementary indictment is being
prepared. Meanwhile, new detentions are being made, from retired
generals to military officers on active duty. Some of them are being
released. This means that the legal process in underway.
If the Ergenekon investigation unearths a network that is much more
far-reaching, deeper and more dangerous than Susurluk, then why do some
people defend so blindly this network? Moreover, why do those who in
the past aggressively defended democracy against Susurluk opt to pose
themselves as in favor of the Ergenekon network? Why do they act so as
to negate all their past actions? Adopting a negative stance against
the shadowy networks was the right thing to do in the past. Those who
were sincere in their past stance must show the democratic courage,
saying that the Ergenekon investigation must go wherever it may reach.
Those who are detained as part of the Ergenekon investigation
insistently claim that they respect the judicial process. For instance,
Kemal Yavuz said: "I still respect the police department and judicial
organs." While the former commander says so, those who declare
themselves as Ergenekon’s lawyers are barking at the judiciary and
the police department. Who is right? Those who are plus royaliste
que le roi? These days some ask insistently: Why do those detained
under the Ergenekon investigation start to keep silent? Actually,
the answer is simple: First, there must be concrete information and
documents in the case file and, second, the suspects are respectful of
the legal process and expect the prosecution to proceed in a healthy
manner. Isn’t this the question that must be asked? Why do those who
do not know the content of the case file speak so sharply and why are
they so sure of themselves — although every day new weapons depots
are being unearthed — and attempt to put pressure on the judiciary?
For instance, until when will this Supreme Board of Prosecutors and
Judges (HSYK) be hanging over the Ergenekon network like the sword
of Damocles? Everyone knows that this HSYK has been convicted in
the collective conscience of the nation by removing the Å~^emdinli
prosecutor from office. Now, this board is being mentioned in all
scenarios related to the Ergenekon prosecutors. A few days ago, one of
the HSYK members said to the Radikal daily that they might convene
on Thursday to discuss Ergenekon. Won’t the general public ask:
Are you plotting a new Å~^emdinli?
There is also the head of the Judges and Prosecutors Association
(YARSAV), who continues to act as a prosecutor. This guy is utterly
Mr. Wrong and his statements are foul. If you are so ambitious, then
remove your prosecutor’s cloak and stop giving political statements
in the building of the Supreme Court of Appeals and start a political
career. Unfortunately, when you speak, you disparage your fellow
colleagues and cast a shadow over the judicial independence and confirm
the suspicions that the judiciary has been politicized. Yet, weirdly,
not a single criticism is raised against him from certain media
organizations. Also, interestingly, he is creating a number of excuses
in front of the busybody "Ergenekon lawyers" of the media who in the
past organized democratic actions against the Susurluk network. Go
with it! But be sure that the collective conscience will this time
not allow those attempt to conceal Ergenekon. Those who exert their
best efforts to hide Ergenekon must learn their lesson from Susurluk
if they do not want history to record their names as network members.
–Boundary_(ID_BW6blz9MM1v5X/SV9qRU5A)–
PRAGUE TO HOST EASTERN PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT IN APRIL 2009
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.01.2009 16:55 GMT+04:00
The first ever Eastern Partnership Summit which will bring together
representatives of 27 EU member states and six post-soviet countries
will be held on the Czech capital in April 2009, Radio Prague reports.
The Eastern Partnership was approved in December 2008 by the EU
leaders. It envisages closer cooperation with Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Belarus’ participation is also
possible if the country accepts a number of democratization conditions.
SOCHI-YEREVAN FLIGHT ESCAPED NEW CRASH
Panorama.am
14:45 12/01/2009
Sochi-Yerevan flight, A-320 airplane of "Armavia" company fell in
air turbulence; reports press service of the company. Only due to
the highly qualified staff a new crash has been escaped.
According to the source, being 50-70km far from Tbilisi, at 13:00,
on 11 January, A-320 fell in air turbulence because of A-380airplane,
Dubai-New York flight, which was flying straight to A-320. According
to the company the distance between the airplanes corresponded to
the international norms, but still air turbulence made the pilot to
turn left which was strong enough for the staff and the passengers
to feel that.
OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS TO VISIT ARMENIA
ARMENPRESS
Jan 9, 2009
YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, ARMENPRESS: OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Yuri
Merzlyakov (Russia), Bernard Fassier (France) and Matthew Bryza (USA)
will visit Armenia in midst of January.
Spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan told
Armenpress that the co-chairs expressed wish to visit the region in
the second half of the month.
After the signing of declaration on Karabakh conflict regulation
by the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia November 2
in Moscow, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs visited the region and
Nagorno Karabakh. Afterwards, December 4, in Helsinki at the annual
gathering of the OSCE Ministers Committee a statement on Nagorno
Karabakh regulation was adopted.
Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
[email protected]
Internet
PRESS RELEASE
January 8, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
ANSWERING THE OBAMA CALL TO SERVICE: ANCA LAUNCHES "CANS FOR THE
CAUSE" CAMPAIGN TO HELP LOCAL FOOD BANKS
— Urges Armenian Americans and Groups to Participate in local ANCA
Campaigns or Take the Lead in Neighborhood Food Drives
— Effort Honors U.S. Humanitarian Relief for Armenian Genocide
Survivors from 1915-1923
WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
has answered President-Elect Barack Obama’s challenge to Americans
to participate in National Day of Service activities with a nation-
wide campaign to feed the hungry. The Day of Service is set to
coincide with Martin Luther King Memorial Day (January 19) and the
Presidential Inauguration (January 20th).
In honor of U.S. humanitarian assistance efforts for survivors of
the Armenian Genocide from 1915-1923, the ANCA has initiated the
"Cans for the Cause" Campaign, which encourages community members
to work with local ANCA chapters and Armenian American
organizations, or take the lead themselves in canned food drives
across the U.S., to assist food banks dedicated to feeding the
hungry.
"During the Armenian Genocide and in the aftermath of this terrible
crime, Americans participated in an unprecedented humanitarian
relief effort for the survivors of Ottoman Turkey’s brutal campaign
of race extermination," said ANCA Executive Director Aram
Hamparian. "As a community we owe a tremendous debt to the
generosity of the American people and strive to honor this proud
chapter in U.S. history by doing our part to feed the hungry and
bring hope to those facing hardship both abroad and here on our own
shores."
The National Day of Service, first initiated by Congress in 1994,
honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King by transforming the
federal holiday honoring Dr. King into a national day of community
service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social
justice. The aim is to make the holiday a "day on," where people of
all ages and backgrounds come together to improve lives, bridge
social barriers, and move our nation closer to the "Beloved
Community" that Dr. King envisioned. With thousands of projects
planned across the country, the 2009 King Day of Service on January
19 promises to be the biggest and best ever. Individuals can find
projects in their area by visiting:
The ANCA’s goal is for each local Armenian American community to
collect 500 food items (canned or boxed) by January 19th. To
facilitate this effort, the ANCA has set forth an organizing "tool
kit" for local community activists and groups, which outlines the
following:
Each local Armenian American community should establish:
* One lead organizer who take responsibility for collecting 500
food items
* 10 Super Volunteers responsible for 50 food items
(the lead organizer should be one of these super volunteers)
10 Super Volunteers x 50 food items = 500 food items
Each super volunteer can collect 50 food items by finding 5 people
(including themselves) to donate 10 items, or they can buy all 50
items themselves.
Lead organizers are responsible for the following:
* Finding a location to store collected food items
* Identifying and recruiting super volunteers
* Keeping track of the number of food items and reporting to the
ANCA headquarters in Washington, DC [email protected]
* Delivering food items to food bank (or delegating this task to a
volunteer)
The ANCA will provide lead organizers with the following:
* Location of local food banks
* Flyers to pass out (church, special events, etc)
* Lists of potential activists in your area
* Full time ANCA staff support via phone and email.
To sign up as a Lead Organizer or a Super Volunteer, or to just ask
questions or make suggestions, contact national campaign
coordinator Garo Manjikian at [email protected] or (202) 775-1918.
Today.Az, Azerbaijan
Jan 5 2009
Armenia refutes statements of ceasefire violation on contact line with
Azerbaijani armed forces
05 January 2009 [17:57] – Today.Az
The defense ministries of Armenia and self-declared "Nagorno Karabakh"
refute information of Azerbaijani mass medias about violation of
ceasefire on the front line on holidays.
Spokesman for the Defense Ministry of Armenia Seyran Shahsuvaryan has
refuted information in Azerbaijani mass medias about firing on
Azerbaijani positions by Armenian armed forces.
He called it disinformation and said Armenia is never first to violate
the ceasefire regime.
Spokesman for the defense army of separatist "Nagorno Karabakh" Senor
Asratyan also announced that in New Year and on the following days
there were no fire exchanges on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani borders and
ceasefire regime is maintained.
/Regnum/
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