Author: Vanyan Gary

DO NOT RENOUNCE GENOCIDE

A1+
[03:48 pm] 02 October, 2007

European Parliament deputies proposed 236 amendments aimed at improving
the draft resolution on "EU-Turkey Relations". The draft text of this
document was prepared by Mrs. Oomen-Ruijten (Christian-democrats,
Netherlands). Numerous amendments, proposed by MEPs from various
political parties, aim to address Armenian issues, which were fully
censored in the draft text.

Hence, Turkey’s will to exclude Armenia from regional projects and
its direct blockade of Armenia are denounced by several amendments
including those from Conservatives (EPP), Liberals (Lib/Dem),
Souverainists (UEN) and Socialists (PSE). These amendments as well
as those by the Leftists (GUE) reiterate the requirement that Ankara
recognize the Armenian Genocide and put an end to its official policy
of denial. The texts of all of these amendments are available.

The European Armenian Federation urges the European deputies to vote
for the amendments that clearly call on Turkey to acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide, to end its official policy of denial, to withdraw
its blockade of Armenia and to end its policy of by-passing Armenia
in regional projects.

The resolution will be voted on in the Foreign Affairs committee this
Wednesday, the 3rd of October.

ARMENPRESS

SEVENTY PATIENTS APPLY FOR FREE HEART OPERATION

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS: Nork- Marash
Medical Center in Yerevan has received 70 applications
from people who seek to be included in the list of 100
people, eligible to free heart surgeries.
By a July 19 decision this year the government has
committed to release funds for 100 people from
insecure segment to have free heart operations.
Lida Muradian, chief manager of the hospital, said
the earmarked sum is 170 million Drams. She said 47
patients had been already operated free of charge.
To be eligible patients must be in the list of poor
families which receive monthly allowances. According
to Ms. Muradian, some 1,500 people in Armenia need
heart operations every year.

NEW RUSSIAN BASES IN ARMENIA TO CAUSE REGIONAL TENSION – AZERI OFFICIAL, MP

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku,
28 Sep 07

[Presenter] Russia is continuing talks in Yerevan on setting up
a second [military] base in Armenia. Azerbaijan believes that if
the talks are successful, the situation in the South Caucasus will
seriously deteriorate. In the meantime, the Moscow government refuses
to make a clear-cut statement on the issue.

[Correspondent] If Russia succeeds in its plans to set up new military
bases in Armenia, this will create tension both in the settlement of
the Nagornyy Karabakh problem and in the South Caucasus as a whole,
[Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said. He
noted that representatives of the Russian Defence Ministry were
currently discussing the issue with Yerevan officials. Although Russia
is trying to conceal its plans to set up new bases under the guise
of development plans, this does not sound convincing. The ministry
spokesman said that if the report is confirmed, Baku will send a
protest note to Russia. However, the truth is that Russia wants to
conceal the increase in its military aid [to Armenia].

[Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasiliy Istratov, in Russian with
superimposed translation into Azerbaijani] I cannot comment since
this has not been confirmed officially. Therefore, we have yet to
verify the report. If we are talking about the withdrawal of military
hardware from Georgia, it is being redeployed to the Russian base in
Gyumri. It is not Armenian hardware, it belongs to Russia.

[Correspondent] Ziyafat Asgarov, chairman of the standing parliamentary
commission for security issues, believes that by taking this step,
Russia has once again confirmed that it backs Armenia’s position
on the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement. The Baku government intends
to inform the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs of the issue. The deputy
speaker did not rule out that the issue could be put on the agenda
of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s autumn session.

[Asgarov] We will raise this issue once again soon at the autumn
session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland –
both the renewed armament of Armenia and fires in Azerbaijani lands
and other issues.

RA AND TURKISH FMS TO MEET IN NEW YORK

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2007

October 1 RA FM Vardan Oskanian will leave for New York to participate
in the 62nd session of the U. N. General Assembly.

According to the information DE FACTO got at RA MFA Press Office,
in the course of the meeting RA FM will hold a number of meetings,
including the one with Turkey’s newly appointed FM Ali Babacan.

October 2 Vardan Oskanian will take part in an unofficial meeting of
the ministers of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) member countries
October 3 Armenia’s FM will deliver a speech at the U. N. General
Assembly sitting.

RA FM’s meeting with the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs has been scheduled
for October 4.

October 6 Vardan Oskanian will participate in a solemn ceremony
dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund.

HEAD OF BOARD OF ALL-ARMENIAN MOVEMENT TOLD A SECRET

Lragir, Armenia
Sept 26 2007

The All-Armenian Movement has worked out a strategy of running in
the presidential election in case Levon Ter-Petrosyan decides not
to run in the presidential election. On September 26 the head of
the board of the All-Armenian Movement announced about the decision
of the board of the All-Armenian Movement in answer to the question
of the reporter of Lragir.am. "I will tell you a secret. In June the
board of the All-Armenian Movement made a decision, an internal one,
maybe it was a joke, but it also had a serious aspect, we had decided
not to rule out the nomination of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. We were sure
that Levon Ter-Petrosyan would be nominated. It is not fetishism,
we think this team has the best player. In this case, it is Levon
Ter-Petrosyan," Ararat Zurabyan says.

He says only in case Ter-Petrosyan keeps away from the ongoing
political process. "It is the solubility of the problems, in other
words if he thinks there are problems he cannot tackle," Ararat
Zurabyan says. However, he thinks there is no such problem in Armenia.

RUSSIA, ARMENIA SIGN VALUE ADDED TAX ACCORD

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 25, 2007 Tuesday

Russia and Armenia have signed an agreement on a zero rate of the
value added tax in bilateral trade.

The document was signed after interstate talks in Moscow on Tuesday.

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said the agreement had extended
a previous accord.

"This agreement provides the right to trustfully do business, and
this will benefit qualitative budget revenues," Zubkov said.

Also, changes have been added to earlier signed accords between Russia
and Armenia on the stationing of a Russian military base in Armenia and
on the procedure of land allocation for it, PRIME-TASS said on Tuesday.

ANIMATIONS; L’ARMENIE S’INVITE A L’ESPACE FRANQUIN

Charente Libre , France
18 septembre 2007

Expositions, debats, films, conference… la semaine de l’Armenie
qui debute aujourd’hui pour se poursuivre jusqu’au 22 septembre sera
riche. En conclusion de l’annee Armenie, mon amie, elle est parrainee
par l’ambassadeur de l’Armenie en France et organisee en partenariat
avec l’acApA.

Le 21 septembre, jour phare, fete nationale de l’Armenie sera marque
par le vernissage de l’exposition carnets de voyage de Jean-Pierre
Seferian, artiste deja venu aux Gastronomades en novembre dernier. Il
est connu pour fabriquer ses propres pigments et remettre au goût du
jour des techniques anciennes. Il a aime la ville et vient avec la
symbolique de son temoignage, explique le maire adjoint d’origine
armenienne Jean Mardikian. Le groupe Trio Alpha, des professeurs
du conservatoire reprendra les airs de musiciens connus comme
ceux d’auteurs plus confidentiels. Le concert sera precede d’une
degustation de mets typiques prepares par la vingtaine de familles
armeniennes du departement et de la diffusion du film d’Alain Tyr:
Les Khatchkars entrent au Louvre.

Finalement l’Armenie est très presente en Charente, surtout depuis
l’edification en mai

2005 de la croix de pierre a Fleac. Cultiver la memoire de ce petit
peuple et ce petit pays est primordial, poursuit-il.

Quand il y a eu le tremblement de terre en 1988, les pompiers
d’Angouleme sont venus a la rescousse. ca nous pousse a etre d’autant
plus attache a cette ville, explique encore Jean Mardikian.

Coïncidence ou non, le deuxième volet des Sept boules de cristal
traduit en armenien est arrive jeudi dernier au CNBDI.

La semaine de l’Armenie du 18 au 22

septembre a l’espace Franquin.

Gratuit

–Boundary_(ID_DZMBW1l4ngFLVFk 2uhvWQQ)–

ARMENIAN PM NOT TO GIVE UP PLANNED VISIT MOSCOW IN LATE SEPT

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 12, 2007 Wednesday 11:35 PM EST
Russia

Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said he was not going to give
up his plans regarding a visit to Moscow on September 24-26, in spite
of the Russian Cabinet’s resignation that occurred on Wednesday.

"Russia has changed only the government, not the policy," Sarkisyan
said in the national parliament.

Depending on the composition of a new Russian government and those
who will co-chair the Russian-Armenian intergovernmental commission on
economic cooperation, "we will brush up our approaches," the Armenian
prime minister said.

Middle East Online, UK

First Published 2007-09-22, Last Updated 2007-09-22
16:06:05

Protesting against the division of Iraq

Ethnic violence forces more Arabs to flee Iraq’s Kirkuk

Arab families begging for help from police after being forced from
homes by Kurdish militias.

KIRKUK, Iraq – Iraqi Arab residents of the northern oil-rich city of
Kirkuk, some 250km from Baghdad, say scores of Arab families are
fleeing the city as ethnic violence increases there.

`The attacks on our community have worsened since February 2007. We
are being forced to leave the city almost empty-handed and the
government isn’t taking any action to support us,’ said Ali Akram
Mahmoud, a spokesperson for Kirkuk’s Arabs Association (KAA), formed
in 2003 with the aim of safeguarding the rights of Arabs who had
settled in the city.

`The number of [Arab] families fleeing the city has increased by 20
percent on previous years. Their flight will seriously affect the
upcoming referendum in which Kurds will have a majority not because of
their numbers but because, with guns in their hands, they will have
forced all Arabs to flee the city. It is absolutely unfair,’ he said.

The December 2007 Kirkuk status referendum is due to decide whether
the city becomes part of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

`The most common scene in Kirkuk is of families filling cars with
their relatives and fleeing the city in the early morning,’ said Jihad
Muhammad, a political analyst at Mustansiriyah University.

Kirkuk was long considered a microcosm of Iraq with its diversity of
ethnic and religious groups.

Advised to flee south

A local Iraq Red Crescent senior official, who prefers anonymity for
security reasons, said since June 2007 at least 2,000 Arab families
had fled Kirkuk. `Hundreds of families are fleeing the city without
their belongings.’ They had been forced to search for displacement
camps and many had joined the nearly one million displaced families in
southern governorates, whilst others were staying on roadsides or in
poor areas, he said.

In a local police station IRIN witnessed dozens of families begging
for help from police after being forced from their homes by Kurdish
militias. They were all told the same thing – that they could not be
given individual protection and that they would be best advised to
find more secure accommodation in southern Iraq.

The city, a multi-ethnic mix of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkomans and
Armenians, has plenty of oil, but may not have much time left to avoid
being dragged into sectarian bloodshed.

© IRIN

Panorama.am

15:34 20/09/2007

TOGETHER AGAINST GENOCIDE

The Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) will organize a ceremony of
pass-over of symbolic Olympic fire `Dream for the sake of Darfur’ at
Tsisernakaberd, the memorial to the victims of Armenian genocide, and
at Republic Square on September 25. Catholicos of All Armenian,
survivors of the Armenian genocide, their heirs and others will take
part, AAA says.

The aim of the event is to demonstrate what happens when the world
turns its eye away from genocide and that the incidents in Darfur are
connected with the mass murders of 20th century. The organizers
believe it’s an exceptional chance for Armenians to unite in world
movement against genocide and to show that we are against of any
genocide.

The ceremony will start with putting flowers at the memorial after
which Catholicos of All Armenian and Canterbury archbishop will read
prayers. The ceremony of pass-over of the symbolic fire will follow
the prayers.

Source: Panorama.am