Author: Torgomian Varazdat

"HERITAGE" PARTY: WHILE IN ARENI, RAFFI HOVANNISIAN ATTEMPTED TO CALL TO ORDER "VILLAGE HEAD CONSIDERING HIMSELF LOCAL SERF-OWNER"

Noyan Tapan
Apr 19 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The "Heritage" party’s candidates
for deputacy conducted a two-day electoral campaign in Vayots Dzor
and Syunik marzes.

According to a press release submitted by the party to NT, "this
tour did not pass without unplesant incidents either": in Areni the
campaign participants were met by the village head who stated that no
one has the right to conduct a propaganda campaign in Areni without
informing him 5 days in advance as he is the owner of the village.

Raffi Hovannisian made an attempt to call to order the village head
considering himself as the local serf-owner. R. Hovannisian said that
Areni is no property of anybody, it belongs to all residents of the
village, also – to the Armenian people.

EU AGREES NEW RACE HATRED LAW: MINISTERS STOP SHORT OF BAN ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL BALTIC STATES DROP CALL TO INCLUDE ‘STALINIST CRIMES’
Ian Black

The Guardian – United Kingdom
Published: Apr 20, 2007

Incitement to racial hatred and xenophobia is to become a crime
across the EU, although the long-fought agreement avoids singling
out Holocaust denial and was watered down after differences between
member states.

Six years of often fractious negotiations ended in Luxembourg
yesterday with a compromise that struggled to balance freedom of
expression with a tough stance on anti-semitism and other forms of
racism and prejudice.

Justice ministers from all 27 EU countries agreed to punish incitement
to hatred or violence against a group or a person that is based on
colour, race, national or ethnic origin, by a sentence of between
one and three years’ jail.

But, disappointing anti-racism campaigners, Jewish groups and Germany,
which holds the EU presidency, the law neither bans Holocaust denial as
such, nor Nazi symbols. "Europe has a special historic responsibility
to combat anti-semitism and it is a shame that the final version did
not include this," said the European Jewish Congress.

Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Spain and several eastern European
countries have laws banning Holocaust denial. These laws will still
apply. Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries have always resisted
such a law so as not to compromise academic or artistic freedom unless
it specifically incites racial hatred.

There is no reference either to the mass killings of Armenians by the
Ottoman Turks in 1915, which Armenians insist should be recognised
as genocide.

Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, had made clear it would object
strongly to this.

The new EU legislation will need to be ratified by some national
parliaments. It criminalises "publicly condoning, denying or grossly
trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war
crimes . . . when the conduct is carried out in a manner likely to
incite to violence or hatred against a group or [group] member".

British officials insisted the EU provisions would mean no changes
because UK domestic law, including the 2006 Religious and Racial
Hatred Act, was tougher.

The final deal was only completed to the sound of bitter historical
controversy, with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania pressed into dropping
their demand for a reference to "Stalinist crimes" to balance the
attention given the Nazi atrocities.

The EU justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, said the commission had
agreed on public hearings in one of the Baltic states and Slovenia,
on "the horrible crimes of the 20th century". He added: "The fact
that the EU now has moral responsibility and not only on the economy,
is demonstrated by initiatives like this."

Lady Ashton, Britain’s constitutional affairs minister, said the
decision struck the right balance between all the issues.

525.6 TONS OF HUMANITARIAN AID BROUGHT TO ARMENIA IN JANUARY-FEBRUARY

Noyan Tapan
Apr 20 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, NOYAN TAPAN. 525. tons of goods at the total price
of 3.2 mln U.S. dollars were brought to Armenia as humanitarian
aid in January-February of 2007. To recap, 1594.9 tons of goods
of 4.6 mln dollars were brought in the same period of time of the
last year. According to data of the RA National Statistic Service,
textiles made 24.2%, devices and apparatuses made 22%, different
industrial goods made 11.6% of the got assistance.

MOURNERS BURY GERMAN VICTIM OF PUBLISHING HOUSE ATTACK IN TURKEY, POLICE DETAIN 11TH SUSPECT

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
April 20 2007

MALATYA, Turkey: Singing hymns in Turkish, mourners on Friday buried
the German victim of this week’s attack at a Christian publishing
house, while local media reported police had detained an 11th suspect
in the slayings.

The killing of the German and two Turks – who had converted to
Christianity – highlighted the country’s uneasy relationship with
its minorities. Christians expressed fear that growing nationalism
and intolerance could lead to more violence against them.

Police detained five people Wednesday at the scene of the attack
Wednesday in the eastern city of Malatya, including one man who jumped
out of the window to avoid arrest. Another five suspects were detained
Thursday. Private Dogan news agency and other media reported that
police detained an 11th suspect on Friday in Istanbul. Police there
would not comment on the reports.

Hurriyet newspaper reported that some of the suspects told police
they had carried out the killings to protect Islam. Police did not
comment on the report.

The three victims were found with their hands and legs tied and their
throats slit. Their faces were bruised, and the ropes had cut into
their wrists.

On Friday, the Hurriyet reported that at least one victim had also
been stabbed many times.

"There were so many stab wounds that we couldn’t count them," Hurriyet
quoted Dr. Murat Ugras as saying. "It was clearly torture."

German victim Tilmann Geske was buried at an Armenian cemetery in
Malatya, overgrown with weeds. His wife and three children – aged 13,
10 and 8 – were among the mourners, who sang in Turkish to guitar
music and prayed for forgiveness for the attackers. His youngest,
Miriam, wept as dirt was shoveled onto his coffin.

Rev. Ahmet Guvener, the pastor at a church in the city of Diyarbakir,
prayed for tolerance.

"We are part of this country, we are not foreigners here," Guvener
said.

The attack added to concerns in Europe about whether the predominantly
Muslim country – which is bidding for European Union membership –
can protect its religious minorities.

Christian leaders said they worried that nationalists were stoking
hostilities against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting growing
uncertainty over Turkey’s place in the world.

The uncertainty – and growing suspicion against foreigners – has
been driven by the faltering EU bid, a resilient Kurdish separatist
movement and by increasingly vocal Islamists who see themselves –
and Turkey – as locked in battle with a hostile Christian West.

"Our lives are in danger because of this mind-set," the Rev. Ihsan
Ozbek, pastor of the Kurtulus Church in Ankara, told a news conference
in Malatya. He said there was a "witch hunt" under way against
Christians and other minorities.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as Vatican secretary of state is
Pope Benedict XVI’s top aide, called the attack "an insane act by a
fanatic minority."

"We must not waste the fruits of the pope’s visit to Turkey, which
has really brought us closer," Bertone was quoted as saying by Italian
news agency ANSA.

The pope visited Turkey in November, promising greater understanding
and dialogue with Islam.

Nationalists, who have long dominated public debate in Turkey, have
also begun to call for Turkey to withdraw its EU bid and make its
own way in the world. Some young men indoctrinated with a vision of
Turkish greatness – and with a view of the West as intent on keeping
the Islamic world weak – view non-Muslims with suspicion.

"The problem is our education and our media," Mustafa Efe, head
of Mujde FM, or Miracle FM, a Christian broadcasting station, said
after traveling to Malatya to meet Protestant pastors. "They always
say Christianity is dangerous because Christians are trying to break
up Turkey."

Christians make up just a fraction of 1 percent of Turkey’s population
of 71 million.

"There is this general atmosphere of fear – that Turkey will be
segmented," said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer who
represented one of the slain Christians, Necati Aydin, 26, in an
earlier court case. Aydin was charged with insulting Islam and spent
a month in jail after he was found distributing Bibles in the Aegean
city of Izmir.

Christians and other minorities have watched Turkey’s struggling
EU bid with alarm. Many worry the papacy of Benedict XVI, who when
he was still a cardinal spoke against Turkey’s bid for membership,
would only contribute to their problems.

ELMAR MAMMADYAROV AND VARDAN OSKANYAN DISCUSS PRAGUE PROCESS ELEMENTS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 19 2007

Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and
Vardan Oskanyan had the next round of the negotiations for peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Belgrade, Khazar
Ibrahim, spokesman for Foreign Ministry told the APA.

At the meeting, the parties discussed all the eight elements of the
Prague process. OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Matthew Bryza, Yuri
Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier gave proposals on two elements of the
negotiations. Moreover, the co-chairs’ visit to the region after the
parliamentary elections in Armenia was agreed.

GALA CONCERT WITH PARTICIPATION OF WORLD STRONGEST FIGURE SKATERS ORGANIZED IN PARIS WITHIN FRAMEWORK OF YEAR OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2007

PARIS, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. A gala concert with participation
of world figure skating champions of different years took place on
April 14 on the skating-rink of the Paris Bercy sports center. The
organizers of the event, Figure Skating Federations of France and
Armenia, Armenian Youth Union of France also invited the Anastasia
Grebyonkina – Vazgen Azroyan dancing pair who performed their mastery,
accompanied with composer Ara Gevorgian’s music.

As Samvel Khachatrian, the Chairman of the Figure Skating Federation
of Armenia informed the Noyan Tapan correspondent, the event was held
within the fra mework of the year of Armenia in France.

TYCOON RULES OUT ‘REVOLUTION’ IN ARMENIA
By Aza Babayan in Moscow

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 16 2007

Attempts to stage an anti-government popular revolt in Armenia are
doomed to fail because they would meet with a tough response from
President Robert Kocharian, according to his most trusted oligarch
who looks set to do well in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Gagik Tsarukian interrupted the election campaign of his Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK) to visit Moscow late last week. No details of
the trip were made public by his aides in Yerevan.

RFE/RL learned on Monday that Tsarukian met with officials from
President Vladimir Putin’s administration and two senior members
of Russia’s parliament close to the Kremlin. It also emerged that
he was interviewed by a little-known Russian television station,
commenting on the political situation in Armenia and the future of
its relations with Russia.

"We will develop 90 percent of our relations with Russia and 10
percent with Europe and others," Tsarukian told the O2 TV channel in
rare remarks on Armenian foreign policy. He declined to elaborate.

The tycoon, whose party is widely seen as Kocharian’s new power base,
was also asked about the Armenian opposition’s chances of replicating
the kind of post-election regime change that took place in Ukraine and
in Georgia to Moscow’s dismay. "Our president is very strong and is
closely following the pre-election struggle," he said. "If something
happens, he will strictly punish the guilty."

Kocharian already cracked down on the opposition to suppress its most
recent attempt to force him into resignation with a campaign of street
protests three years ago. Some opposition groups seem undaunted by the
failure of that campaign and make no secret of their plans to use the
May 12 elections for again trying to spark a "democratic revolution"
in the country.

COMPLETE DESTABILIZATION THREATENS THE REGION IN CASE TURKEY INVADES NORTHERN IRAQ

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.04.2007 GMT+04:00

Iraqi Kurdistan is almost the only province of the country the
Americans do not have to worry for.

Turkey’s probable invasion of Northern Iraq threatens the country
with serious economic crisis and with chaos in the already troublesome
region. In case of Turkish Army’s invasion of Iraq the US will simply
lose control over the situation, something which America will not
let happen. The latest announcement made by the Chief of the Turkish
General Staff Yashar Buyukanit was an obvious hint at the possibility
of launching a military operation at the border of the Iraqi Kurdistan.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "It is necessary for the Turkish Army to implement
military intervention at the bordering regions in the Northern part
of Iraq, to break down the oppositions sheltering Kurdish militants
there. If I am asked, whether or not such operation is needed to carry
out, I will say it is," said the General. The newspaper Cumhurriyet is
certain that for its own security Turkey needs to invade Northern Iraq.

The official Ankara’s motivation; that is the fight against terrorists
from the Kurdish Worker’s Party, which Turkey has been waging since
1984, looks rather convincing. Yet to this day the annihilation
of the Kurdish people has been realized on Turkish territory
mainly. Presently, struggle against the founders of "The Great
Kurdistan" got beyond the bounds of the country.

The US tries its best to prevent Turkey’s invasion on Northern Iraq
controlled by the Kurds. The representatives of Bush Administration
has lately been assuring Turkey, that American troops will put more
pressure on the militants of the Kurdish Worker’s Party, sheltering
on Kandil mountains at the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

The US agrees upon the plan on holding a referendum in Kirkuk,
province in Northern Iraq. Turkey suspects, that Iraqi Kurds aim at
taking control over Kirkuk, as a prelude to the establishment of the
Independent Kurdistan. General Joseph Ralston, U.S. special envoy for
countering the Kurdish problem, considers that the possibility of the
Turkish military operation is growing. "We have come to a critical
point, where the pressure of the Kurdish Worker’s Party’s continuing
attacks brought to a gigantic public pressure on the Turkish government
with the request of launching the military operation. When snow melts
on the mountains, we will see whether or not the Party will recommence
attacks and what the Turkish government’s reaction will be. I hope,
that Turkey will remain on our side," the Guardian writes.

Iraqi Kurdistan is almost the only province in the country the
Americans do not have to worry for – there is no opposition getting
on the way of the multinational army, no bloody clashes between Sunnis
and Shiites.

However it should not be forgotten, that the "rebirth" of the mythical
"Great Kurdistan", including parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria and
even a small region in Armenia, may start right from this point. It is
not surprising, that "a small region in Armenia" is always included
in the plans of the establishment of any "Great" state. Kurds are
not alone in their intentions; Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia make
claims on the Armenian territories too. In its "condemnations" of
the possible invasion of the Turkish army into Northern Iraq most
likely Armenia is guided by one main principle; my enemy’s enemy is
my ally, however it should not be forgotten that the Turks committed
the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the very Kurds.

"PanARMENIAN.Net" analytical department

DISC IS RELEASED ABOUT MASSACRE OF VILLAGE OF MARAGHA

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The presentation of the "Maragha"
disc recently took place at the Artsakh State University. It contains
archive documents, photos, video materials, publications and evidences
of eye-witnesses of the massacre of the peaceful population of the
Maragha village, the NKR region of Martakert, by the Azerbaijani armed
units. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the NKR Foreign Ministry, the
disc was released on the initiative of Narine Aghabalian, the head of
the "Tsir Katin" studio, journalist, and is dedicated to the 15th
anniversary of the tragic events in Maragha. The NKR Foreign Ministry,
"Against Legal Wilfulnesses Fund" and other organizations gave the
archive materials in the Armenian, Russian and English languages.
Representatives of the NKR authorities, society and journalists
participated in the presentation.

All the ones made speech emphasized the idea that with the level of
depth, regour of the human tragedy, number of people subjected to
violence and taken hostage, the tragic events of the village of
Maragha have a special place in the chronology of the Karabakh
national-liberating struggle and it is necessary to inform the world
community about them. It was affirmed by comparison of different lists
that 81 peaceful inhabitants were killed in Maragha, 67 people were
taken hostage. The fate of many of them has remained unknown by now.

PanARMENIAN.Net Armenian News
April 13, 2007

Armenia is not blockaded, Fried assures

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "We want to see an improvement in the Armenian
parliamentary elections. That is important. We don’t expect perfection. We
don’t expect to go from deeply flawed to perfect, but we do expect to see
substantial forward progress, said Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for the
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at a daily press briefing posted at

"That is important. Armenia, given the strength of the Armenian Diaspora and
given Armenia’s links to the West, frankly, you ought to be way ahead of
Georgia. Armenia should be doing better. It should be a leader. It should be
a prospering country. It has all the ingredients. And lack of oil and gas is
not necessarily a curse," he said.

When commenting on closing borders, Assistant Secretary Fried said, "Yes,
but a lot of countries – Armenia is not blockaded. It has access through
Georgia. It’s not as if it has no access to the outside world. We hope that
more is done."