Author: Torosian Aram

PACE PRESIDENT: FROZEN CONFLICTS MUST BE SOLVED

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 3 2007

YEREVAN, July 3. /ARKA/. Frozen conflicts must be solved, said the
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Rene van der Linden on eve of visit to Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia scheduled for July 4-10.

"This is an important region for the Council of Europe, and my main
aim in returning here is to see how we can do more to solve the frozen
conflicts in the countries concerned ", he said.

Rene van der Linden pointed out that only the settlement of the
conflicts will enable the peaceful development of the region in the
interest of all its peoples and the building of one Europe without
dividing lines, the Information Office of the Council of Europe
reported.

Within the regional visit to visit Armenia (4-5 July), Georgia (5-7
July) and Azerbaijan (8-10 July) the PACE President will meet with the
presidents, leading members of the parliament and the governments of
the South Caucasus countries, as well as with leaders of political
forces, representatives of civil society, mass media and religious
leaders.

PACE President also intends to raise the rights of the opposition,
freedom of expression, the role of civil society, intercultural and
inter-religious dialogue.

NKR PRESIDENT: KOSOVO EXAMPLE ENCOURAGING

arminfo
2007-07-03 13:24:00

"Kosovo example encourages us," NKR President Arkady Ghouakssyan
said making a report "Nagorny Karabakh: prospects of settlement"
at the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Tuesday.

He said the international community applies dual standards
when stating that Kosovo example cannot become a precedent for
Karabakh. Russia disagrees with such opinions and has more logic and
devoted position. "If there is a solution to an analogous conflict,
no one will be able to avoid its affecting another one. It will have at
least an indirect impact. So far, no one has found a logic explanation
to why Kosovo model is not a precedent for other conflicts," Arkady
Ghoukassyan said. He also added that from the historical point of
view there is no issue which the international community relies on to
differentiate the settlement of the two conflicts. "Nagorny Karabakh
has much more arguments for recognition of its independence than
Kosovo," NKR president said.

NY Times Online, July 3, 2007
Trial in Editor’s Killing Opens, Testing Rule of Law in Turkey

rope/03turkey.html

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

ISTANBUL, July 2 – Eighteen young men charged in the assassination of the
newspaper editor Hrant Dink went on trial here on Monday in what has been
described as a test of the rule of law in Turkey.
Mr. Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was shot dead in front of
his office on Jan. 19. A day later, a Turkish teenager, Ogun Samast, was
arrested and charged with the murder. The government has brought charges
against 17 other people.
Mr. Dink, the editor of Agos, a bilingual newspaper, challenged the official
Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which holds that hundreds of
thousands of Armenians perished because of hunger and suffering in World War
I.
But he was working to mend relations between Turkey and Armenia and had even
taken issue with Armenians who insisted that Turkey’s entry into Europe
hinge on its acknowledgment of genocide.
The trial’s verdict will have broad implications for free speech.
Ultranationalist Turks have used an article of the country’s criminal code
that forbids "insulting Turkishness" to push the government to bring charges
against Turkish writers, including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning
novelist. Mr. Dink received a suspended sentence under the statute. His
supporters argue that a limp prosecution of his killing will embolden
nationalists.
At the trial, closed to the public because some of the defendants were
minors, Mr. Samast exercised his legal right to silence, said Fethiye Cetin,
a lawyer for Mr. Dink’s family, according to the state-run Anatolian News
Agency.
Four defendants, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet Iskender,
testified, and two others asked for lawyers before speaking, Ms. Cetin said.
Mr. Samast previously confessed to the killing, according to Turkish
authorities, saying he had been angered by Mr. Dink’s columns on Armenian
history and had come to Istanbul from the Black Sea town of Trabzon to kill
him.
A crowd of Mr. Dink’s supporters stood a short distance from the
mustard-colored courthouse, which was used as a military court for years but
is now a criminal court as part of a legal reform in preparation for Turkey’s
bid to join the European Union.
His lawyers’ main concern is that the trial will not get to the heart of the
hate crime they say was highly organized by a network of ultranationalist
Turks in collaboration with Turkish authorities. Shortly after the killing,
a video surfaced showing the main suspect posing with Turkish police
officers. Security officials were fired over the incident.
"The gang does not consist of these suspects only," Ms. Cetin said of the 18
defendants, according to the news agency. "It is far more planned and
organized. There is almost an intentional misconduct of the gendarmerie and
police in this incident."
Lawyers for the defendants say the attention to the case will make a fair
trial impossible.
Liberal Turks are skeptical that the trial will result in justice for Mr.
Dink. The country’s establishment, which encourages nationalism, was deeply
suspicious of him.
"The judgment will not be free," said Aydin Ozipek, an economics student at
Fatih University in Istanbul. "There is a ruling class of people who want
everybody to be the same – no Kurds, no Armenians, no head scarves."
In a petition to the court to allow him to take part in the trial, Mr. Dink’s
brother, Hosrof Dink, described their childhood in an orphanage and a
lifetime of discrimination.
"We thought we were born as human beings," he wrote in the petition,
circulated by a group of his brother’s supporters. "In time, against our
will, we were given many identities; we were labeled."
The trial, he said, "will be between the people who believe in the rule of
law and the people who say: ‘We are the law. We are the state.’ " His
request to take part was granted.
The court worked well into the evening, then adjourned until Oct. 1. Charges
continue against all 18 defendants, but only eight were kept in custody,
Turkish television reported.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.

AGO GROUP ARRIVES IN YEREVAN

Noya Tapan
Jul 2, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The delegation of the Ago’s monitoring
commission of the Committee of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the
European Council is arriving in Yerevan on a two-day visit on July 2.

Officials of the Secretariat of the CE Ministers’ Committee, as well as
Abmassadors of Australia, France, Germany, Russia, Romania, Latvia,
and Sweden (the Chairman of the delegation and Ago’s commission)
to the European Council are included in the delagation.

According to the information provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press
and Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
meetings with Robert Kocharian, the RA President, Tigran Torosian, the
NA Speaker, Serge Sargsian, the RA Prime MInister, Gagik Haroutiunian,
the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Vardan Oskanian, the RA
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gevorg Danielian, the RA Minister of
Justice, and Armen Haroutiunian, the Human Rights Defendor, are
envisaged during the visit of the delegation.

RUSSIA COMPLETES WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS FROM AKHALKALAK MILITARY BASE

Noyan Tapan
Jul 2, 2007

AKHALKALAK, JULY 2, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Levan Nikoleishvili,
the First Georgian Deputy Defence Minister, and Andrei Popov, the
Commander of the Russian military unit in the South Caucasus, at the
June 27 ceremony held in Tbilisi, signed a a document, by which the
military base of Akhalkalak was handed over to Georgia.

According to A-Info, in recent days the Georgian armed forces are
moving to the military base in small groups, where the Georgian state
flag has been already hoisted instead of the Russian one.

Once the number of servicemen reached 15 thousand at the military base,
which began functioning in 1910.

Russia is also going to close its military base in Batumi next
year. Part of the military equipment withdrawn from that military base
is moved to Russia through the territory of Azerbaijan and another
part immediately to Armenia.

BACKERS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL REACH MAJORITY IN US CONGRESS

Turkish Daily News , Turkey
July 2 2007

Majority of lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives,
lower chamber of Congress, are now supporting a resolution calling
for the recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire as genocide, a U.S. Armenian group said.

The number of lawmakers cosponsoring the measure last week rose to 218
in the 435-member House, the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) said in astatement over the weekend.

"We welcome the growth of Armenian genocide resolution cosponsors to
the 218 threshold," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We
look forward in the coming days and weeks to working with our chapters
and activists across the country in maintaining and expanding the
bipartisan majority in favor of the timely adoption of this human
rights legislation."

This is the first time an Armenian genocide bill’s co-sponsors have
ever reached a majority in the House, and is a worrying development
for Turkey, which has been working since early this year to prevent
the resolution’s approval.

Obtaining the support of 218 lawmakers does not automatically enable
Armenians to force a House floor vote for the resolution, but means
a psychological threshold.

Another group of at least 218 representatives signing a separate and
special petition calling for a floor vote is required to push House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi to do that, and it would be hard for the Armenians
to collect that number of signatures, because most Democrat lawmakers
would not want to confront their congressional leader in this way.

Hard times ahead for TurkeyBut Pelosi, who has so far declined to
order action on the bill, may soon feel that the measure should be
brought to a floor vote because a House majority supports it.

The resolution, originally introduced in January by Democratic
Representative Adam Schiff and Republican lawmaker George Radanovich,
is presently pending at the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Analysts said the resolution would likely reach the House floor agenda
any time after early September, when Congress returns to work from
a summer recess in August.

But still this would fall behind critical parliamentary elections in
Turkey on July 22.Top Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul, have lobbied against the measure’s passage in visits
to the U.S. capital since February.

Ankara has warned that the resolution’s approval in Congress could
hurt ties with Washington beyond repair, including a disruption of
some bilateral security arrangements.

A similar resolution is also pending in the Senate, Congress’ upper
chamber, with 31 senators out of a total of 100 backing the measure.

But the Armenians’ efforts focus on moving on the House side
first.Before last year’s congressional elections in which the Democrats
won a landslide victory, Pelosi had pledged to work for the passage
of the genocide measure. But after the elections, she has adopted a
more responsible position, Turkish diplomats said.

ANCA LEO SARKISIAN INTERNS ARRIVE IN WASHINGTON

armradio.am
29.06.2007 10:10

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed 7 interns
from across the US and Canada to Washington, DC this week for the
Leo Sarkisian Internship, an eight week intensive program designed to
give student leaders and activists the tools necessary to effectively
advance Armenian American concerns.

The Leo Sarkisian Internship Program, now in its 23rd year, is an
integral part of a growing effort to provide Armenian Americans greater
opportunities to explore careers on Capitol Hill, in the US Foreign
Service and key Washington, DC foreign policy think tanks. It is a
part of the larger ANCA Capital Gateway Program, which is designed
to help university students and graduates find internships and
permanent positions in Congressional offices as well as a host of
other government agencies and policy groups.

"The ANCA Leo Sarkisian program is not just an internship; it’s a
training ground for the next generation of leaders in our community,"
said Capitol Gateway Program director Serouj Aprahamian. "We work
to provide our interns with a broad array of knowledge, skills, and
first-hand experience so that they can be more effective activists
and have a solid foundation on which to build for the future."

Interns, who participate in a wide variety of projects based on their
individual interests, are given the opportunity to gain hands-on
experience within the American political system. They participate
in a bi-weekly lecture series featuring guest lecturers, including
public officials and Armenian American leaders.

Participants were able to attend the first-ever joint US Congress –
Russian Duma open meeting and see congressmen such as House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA) participate
in a discussion about democracy, human rights and unresolved regional
conflicts with Russian leaders on Thursday.

Interns this year include Paul Ternamian from Canada, Alidz Oshgan
and Nyree Naljian from the East Coast, and Alex Der Alexanian,
Shant Hagopian, Dzovak Kazandjian and Christopher Yemenidjian from
the West Coast.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TRIES TO FAMILIARIZE HIS TURKISH COLLEAGUE WITH ARMENIA’S POSITION ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

arminfo
2007-06-29 16:27:00

At the June 29 press-conference, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan said that he tried to familiarize his Turkish colleague with
Armenia’s position on the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict during a meeting
with Abdullah Gul in Istanbul on June 25. The meeting was held beyond
the scope of the BSEC summit.

According to the Minister, the meeting with Gul covered chiefly two
group of questions: the bilateral relations, to be more precise, the
lack of the relations, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. During the
meeting V.Oskanyan confirmed Armenia’s position about willingness to
normalize Armenian-Turkish relations without preconditions. At the same
time, the Minister recalled that Turkey knows Azeri position better,
and Oskanyan presented Armenia’s position for Ankara’s assertion to be
more objective. As for Turkey’s position on the bilateral relations,
it has undergone no changes. Though there are behind-the- scenes
conversations about possible changes of Ankara’s policy after the
election in Turkey, V.Oskanyan doesn’t believe these rumors. "There
were such conversations before, too, but there has been no progress
yet," the Minister noted.

V.Oskanyan told about his meetings with the Serbian, Georgian and Greek
Foreign Ministers in Istanbul. He also expressed his impressions from
communication with media representatives. "As soon as I arrived in
Istanbul, I received so many requests for interview that we decided to
hold a press-conference. Over forty Turkish journalists participated
in it, and the press-conference was interesting enough," the Minister
noted. According to him, the journalists’ questions concerned mainly
the Armenian-Turkish relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

OSKANYAN WILL HELP THE NEXT PRESIDENT

Lragir.am
29-06-2007 16:27:54

The foreign minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan told news reporters on
June 29 he is ready to help the next president of NKR to participate
in the negotiations on resettlement. "I am sure the next president
of NKR can get acquainted with the state of the talks and participate
in the discussions if necessity occurs," Vardan Oskanyan said.

With regard to the problem of Kosovo, the minister said Armenia does
not view it as a precedent for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

The minister said the developments regarding Kosovo cannot be forecast.

According to him, if Kosovo’s independence is recognized, this
precedent may be the last for the international community. Afterwards,
the international community may state it will disagree to
help the other sides of the issue of independence. If Kosovo’s
independence is not recognized, the international community may
say it did not make this move despite the wish of some countries,
the minister said. According to him, neither of the two is favorable
for Nagorno-Karabakh, which moves towards progress. Karabakh has de
facto independence, recognition remains, Oskanyan said.

CHAIRMAN OF "PROTECTION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS" NGO CONFIRMS RUMORS ABOUT FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Jun 29 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The chairman of Protection of Consumer
Rights NGO Abgar Yeghoyan confirmed the rumors about foot-and-mouth
disease in Armenia during the June 29 press conference.

According to him, some cows died in a mountainous pasture of Vardenis
region because herdsboys did not call a veterinary in time or inform
the State Food Safety and Veterinary Inspection of the RA Ministry of
Agriculture. In the words of A. Yeghoyan, "we also have foot-and-mouth
disease-related problems in other marzes (NT: provinces)".

To recap, the rumors about cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the
country were denied by the Ministry of Agriculture.