Author: Vanyan Gary

RA FM: 21st Century Can Become Age of Armenianhood
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.09.2006 15:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The most urgent task the Armenian Diaspora faces is
the maintenance of the originality of the young generation, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated at the Third Armenia-Diaspora
Forum. “The originality of the new generation of the Armenian youth
depends on what they bind it with. It can be the history of Armenia,
Nagorno Karabakh, the Armenian Genocide or the present of Armenia. The
Armenian nation should bind its originality with Armenia only,
otherwise it will be lost for the coming several years,” the RA FM
said. “Besides, the unification of Armenia, Diaspora and NKR should
be secured. If we succeed we will make miracles and the 21st century
will become the age of Armenianhood,” he added, reports Newsarmenia.ru.

ERDOGAN BLUFFS WHEN SAYING TURKEY DOESN’T ASPIRE TO EUROPE
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.09.2006 13:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In today’s Europe the fact of the Armenian
Genocide recognition has a political basis, said Hilda Tchoboian,
the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation (EAFJD) in an
interview with PanARMENIAN.Net. According to her, Turkey’s membership
in the EU depends on the importance the European states attach to this
issue. “Turkey should face with the fact that it cannot become a full
EU member that without political resolution of this issue. As for the
statements made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who assures
that this country doesn’t aspire to Europe, this is nothing else but
bluff. Turkey is not ready to join Europe and tries to insist on its
own terms to make things look as if Europe joins Turkey but not vice
versa,” Ms. Tchoboian said.
At that she underscored that one should see the difference between the
state and the people. “The U.S. wishes to see Turkey as an EU member,
however the Armenian lobby launched a successful counteraction.
For example the French public is not willing to have Turkey
in the EU. In general, the European Union is a heterogeneous
organization. Each state proceeds from its own aims and it’s
natural. Turkey for its part establishes relations with each state
individually and can enlist their support,” Ms. Tchoboian said.

JAMIL CHICHEK: “WE’LL SUPPORT AZERBAIJAN IN KARABAKH ISSUE TILL THE END”
Today.Az
19 September 2006 [20:39] – Today.Az
“Law, economy and politics are linked closely. We offer setting up a
Responsible Council of Turkish-speaking countries to enhance economic
relations first of all.
“Thus, when businessmen invest capital to somewhere they are concerned
about legal solution of disputes.
We need mechanisms to address economic disputes in a short time. This
way passes through ‘Eurasia Responsible Council’,” Turkish Justice
Minister Jamil Chichek told APA’s Turkey bureau exclusively.
The Minister said they indent to headquarter the council in Istanbul
adding tha Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Exchanges supports this
project too, “Though we have sent the project to several Turk
states, they have not demonstrated the needed political will for
the implementation.”
Touching on the cooperation in juridical sphere between Turkey and
Azerbaijan, Mr.Chichek said called Azerbaijan brotherly country and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Fikret Mammadov his close friend.
“We should make efforts to enhance the cooperation between our
countries. Our juridical systems differ.
So, we need to ensure parallelism in our systems to make the work
easier,” Mr.Chichek said.
Turkish Minister also stressed that Turkey is very concerned over
Azerbaijan’s Karabakh problem underlining necessity of ending the
occupation as soon as possibly.
“International law, justice and conscience demand this. We want the
problem to be solved soon. We’ll support Azerbaijan in this issue
till the end. You know that Turkey has taken some steps not only for
the interest of Azerbaijan. All know that. We are together with our
brothers in putting an end to injustice,” he said.
Today.Az ” Politics ” Jamil Chichek: “We’ll support Azerbaijan in
Karabakh issue till the end”
19 September 2006 [20:39] – Today.Az
“Law, economy and politics are linked closely. We offer setting up a
Responsible Council of Turkish-speaking countries to enhance economic
relations first of all.
“Thus, when businessmen invest capital to somewhere they are concerned
about legal solution of disputes.
We need mechanisms to address economic disputes in a short time. This
way passes through ‘Eurasia Responsible Council’,” Turkish Justice
Minister Jamil Chichek told APA’s Turkey bureau exclusively.
The Minister said they indent to headquarter the council in Istanbul
adding tha Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Exchanges supports this
project too, “Though we have sent the project to several Turk
states, they have not demonstrated the needed political will for
the implementation.”
Touching on the cooperation in juridical sphere between Turkey and
Azerbaijan, Mr.Chichek said called Azerbaijan brotherly country and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Fikret Mammadov his close friend.
“We should make efforts to enhance the cooperation between our
countries. Our juridical systems differ.
So, we need to ensure parallelism in our systems to make the work
easier,” Mr.Chichek said.
Turkish Minister also stressed that Turkey is very concerned over
Azerbaijan’s Karabakh problem underlining necessity of ending the
occupation as soon as possibly.
“International law, justice and conscience demand this. We want the
problem to be solved soon. We’ll support Azerbaijan in this issue
till the end. You know that Turkey has taken some steps not only for
the interest of Azerbaijan. All know that. We are together with our
brothers in putting an end to injustice,” he said.

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CONGRATULATES ARMENIA ON INDEPENDENCE DAY
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.09.2006 12:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has sent
a congratulatory message on the 15th anniversary of declaration of
Armenia’s independence. The letter specifically says, “I am sending
my warm regards to those, who mark the 15th anniversary of Armenia’s
independence. It is always important that people enjoy their legacy
together and I have the honor of sharing the celebration of the 15th
anniversary of Armenia’s independence with the Armenian community
of America.
You enrich our country and especially our state by diligent labor,
commitment to duty and preserving cultural traditions. I thank you
all for your activities on behalf of the State of California.
Honoring our ancestors, we start to understand ourselves better. Allow
me to congratulate you on this important holiday and wish success of
behalf of all people of California,” Schwarzenegger’s message says,
reports the Administration of California Governor.

Scotsman.com
Saturday, 16th September 2006
Writers on trial, state in the dock
ELIF SHAFAK IS A TURKISH NOVELIST WHO has spent much of her life in
Europe and the US. She fills her books with characters who defy all
orthodoxy, and in her journalism she lives by the same code, mixing
feminism and nuanced political analysis with a deep interest in
Ottoman culture. She is also unafraid of censorship, which is why this
Thursday she will come before the courts in a case the world would do
well to watch.
In her latest novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, already a bestseller in
Turkey, one character declares: “My father is Barsam Tchakhmakhchian,
my great-uncle is Dikran Stamboulian, his father is Varvant
Istanboluian, my name is Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian, all my family tree
has been Something Somethingian, and I am the grandchild of genocide
survivors who lost all their relatives in the hands of Turkish
butchers in 1915, but I myself have been brainwashed to deny the
genocide because I was raised by some Turk named Mustapha!”
These are strong words in a country whose official historians maintain
that the Armenian genocide at the hands of Turks is a fiction. In
February last year, when Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous novelist,
said in passing to a Swiss journalist that “a million Armenians had
been killed in these lands, and I am the only one who talks about it,”
he was branded a traitor and prosecuted for “denigrating
Turkishness”. Shafak must have known that she was risking the same, as
she has frequently challenged Turkey’s treatment of its minorities. A
year ago, she spoke at the first Turkish conference to challenge the
official line on the Ottoman Armenians , and though she went on to
state her own position in several newspapers, the censors left her
alone. But in July, Shafak learned that she was to be prosecuted for,
among other things, allowing a character of partly Armenian heritage
in her novel to utter the forbidden G-word.
Since its inception in 1923, Turkey has policed its writers
fiercely. Its penal code, taken from Mussolini’s Italy, puts serious
curbs on freedom of expression, but leading writers have never toed
the line. The great modernist poet Nazim Hikmet spent much of his
adult life in prison and died in exile. The novelist Yashar Kemal, for
many decades Turkey’s most famous writer, has been serially harassed
and prosecuted. Between the 1970s and 1990s, so many writers,
journalists and scholars were imprisoned that a prosecution became a
badge of honour.
But 18 months ago, the game looked set to change. The European Union
had at last set a date for talks on Turkish accession. The long
conflict with Kurdish separatists was apparently over, and the Kurds
had been accorded limited cultural rights. Encouraged by the prospect
of entry into the EU, other Muslim and non-Muslim minorities were
beginning to make themselves heard. It was finally possible to tap the
rich multicultural Ottoman legacies that nationalist ideology had so
long repressed. There was a new vogue for family memoirs. Some showed
how peacefully the empire’s diverse “nations” had coexisted. Others –
like Fethiye Cetin’s My Grandmother, in which she recounts her
discovery that her grandmother was Armenian – explored suppressed
histories. In Europe, a new generation of bicultural Turks were mixing
Turkish and Ottoman traditions with European forms and winning
prizes. As Pamuk’s star rose in the West, many other novelists –
Shafak, Latife Tekin, Asli Erdogan and Perihan Magden – had their
works translated. All refused to conform to national – or nationalist
– modes.
In so doing, they seemed to be reflecting the mood of the country as a
whole. An overwhelming majority wanted to join the EU. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, the pro-market, pro-Europe Islamist prime minister, had
committed himself to a new penal code to bring Turkey into line with
Europe. However, Article 301 of the code recommends sentences of up to
three years for “denigrating Turkishness” or insulting the judiciary
or other state organs, while other articles make it an offence to
insult the memory of Ataturk or “seek to alienate people from military
service”. A recently revised anti-terror law is so broad that human
rights groups say it will make it a crime to espouse any view shared
by an outlawed group, or even to publish a statement by an illegal
organisation.
To date, there have been more than 60 cases against novelists,
publishers, journalists, scholars, politicians and cartoonists. Hrant
Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, currently has two
cases against him. The publisher Fatih Tas is on trial for a book that
looks critically at the Turkish army. Two eminent professors faced
charges for saying, in a never-published government-commissioned
report, that Turkey’s treatment of its minorities fell short of
European standards, while the magazine Penguen and one of its
cartoonists were prosecuted for portraying the prime minister as a
kitten and an elephant, among other animals.
So far, no-one has been sent to prison. Some defendants have been
acquitted; others, like Pamuk, have seen their cases dropped on
technicalities. Many were given suspended sentences that were then
converted to fines. However, it should not be assumed that writers
have nothing to fear.
Behind most of the high-profile prosecutions is an ultra-nationalist
lawyers’ group called the Unity of Jurists. Its main spokesman is a
lawyer named Kemal Kerincsiz. His rabidly xenophobic sound-bites have
turned him into a celebrity, and his words are echoed by the thugs who
have taunted and assaulted defendants in the corridors of the
courthouses, denouncing them as traitors and “missionary children” (a
reference to the foreign schools many of the defendants attended) and
spouting racist slogans that call to mind Berlin in 1935, while the
riot police look on .
There must be others within the state apparatus who believe, like
Kerincsiz, that “the European Union means slavery and a prisoner’s
chains for Turkey”. They must be pleased that the trials have damaged
the case for Europe inside Turkey, while also giving fodder to
anti-Turkish nationalists in Europe. They must be rejoicing that the
EU sees the 301 trials as serious impediments to accession. This is
not a tug of war between East and West as the West likes to understand
it: while some of Turkey’s ultra-nationalists are Islamists, most are
old-guard secularists. The battle is about democracy, with supporters
of EU membership hoping for peaceful change and opponents hoping for a
return to authoritarian rule.
How best to help the writers caught in the middle? Because Kerincsiz
and his colleagues have successfully labelled foreign trial observers
as spies and agitators, many in Turkey believe that non-Turkish human
rights groups should keep their mouths shut. But if the
ultra-nationalists are allowed to continue their campaign
unchallenged, they stand a very good chance of winning. And if they
do, the oldest stable secular state in the Muslim world will cease to
democratise, and a brave new literature will die.
– Maureen Freely is the author of five novels and the translator of
Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, Istanbul and The Black Book. She teaches creative
writing at the University of Warwick.
This article:
367812006
Last updated: 16-Sep-06 01:12 BST

POST OFFICE NAMING THRIVES IN CONGRESS
By Brit Hume
FOX News
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Confirmation on Hold
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez has put the confirmation of Richard
E. Hoagland – the Bush administration’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador
to Armenia – on hold. Why?
Menendez said the move comes in response to the Bush administration’s
refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide and added: “As a leader and
defender of democracy, it is our nation’s responsibility to speak out
against injustice and support equality and human rights. If the Bush
administration continues to refuse to acknowledge the atrocities of
the Armenian genocide, then there is certainly cause for great alarm,
which is why I am placing a hold on this nominee.”
The atrocities Sen. Menendez speaks of took place from 1915 to 1923.
Lucrative Legislation
There’s a once rarely used legislative privilege now thriving in
Congress.
In a culture where scrutiny of earmarks and other constant goodies
is on the rise, post office naming is now the most common form of
legislation.

RUSSIA AGAINST UN ASSEMBLY ROLE TO RESOLVE POST-SOVIET CONFLICTS
RIA Novosti
15:47 | 13/ 09/ 2006
MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is against involving the
UN General Assembly in the resolution of long-running conflicts in
the former Soviet Union, the Foreign Ministry’s official spokesman
said Wednesday.
The assembly’s general committee discussed September 12 an initiative
put forward by Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova to include
this issue on the current 61st session’s agenda.
Mikhail Kamynin said that Russia had spoken against this initiative
and most members of the general committee had supported its
decision. Accordingly, the issue was not added to the session’s agenda.
“We have from the outset been against politicizing this issue and
involving the General Assembly,” Kamynin said.
Russia has had peacekeepers stationed in the conflict zones of
unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia,
as well as the self-proclaimed republic of Transdnestr in Moldova,
since ceasefires were brokered between the breakaway and central
authorities in the early 1990s. Armenia and Azerbaijan have observed an
often tense truce over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with
a largely Armenian population, since about three years of fighting
came to an end in 1994.
“Russia regards attempts to eliminate the existing mechanisms of
resolving the Nagorno- Karabakh, Georgian-Abkhazian, Georgian-South
Ossetian and Transdnestr conflicts as counter-productive,” Kamynin
said.

ARKADY VOLSKY PASSED AWAY
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.09.2006 13:00 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ September 9 at the age of 75 Arkady Volsky died
owing to hard and continuous illness.
Arkady Volsky was a well-known public and state figure, Honorary
President and founder of the Russian Union of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs that he headed for over 15 years.
In 1988 Arkady Volsky was the representative of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the USSR Supreme
Council Presidium in the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous District (NKAD)
of the Azerbaijani SSR, while since January 1989 he chaired the Special
Management Committee of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous District.
In spring 1989 he was elected people’s deputy of the USSR from the
Stepanakert territorial electoral district, NKAD. He was a member
of the USSR Supreme Council Committee on Defense and State Security,
reports Interfax.

“ORINATS YERKIR” AND “DASHINK” PARTIES CONDEMN ACT OF VIOLENCE COMMITTED TOWARDS “IRAVUNK” NEWSPAPER EDITOR
Noyan Tapan
Sept 08 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The “Dashink” (Alliance) party
political council made a statement in which it condemned the act of
violence committed on September 6 against “Iravunk” newspaper editor
Hovhannes Galajian, qualifying it as a hopeless step taken by weak
people. In the statement authors’ words, the happened was addressed
against free speech. The “Dashink” party political council called
on public, political unions and healthy forces of the society to
unite for establishing a democratic state in the RA and improvement
of free press. The “Orinats Yerkir” (Country of Law) party expressed
deep anxiety on the occasion of the act of violence committed towards
H.Galajian.
“Acts of violence committed against journalists show that there are
forces in Armenia for which the free press speech and independent way
of action are inadmissible and they do not limit themselves in choosing
criminal means to limit that speech,” is said in the statement made
by the OYP press service. The party is also deeply concerned in the
sense of murders of public sonority taking place in Armenia during the
last period which are not revealed. According to the statement, “the
mentioned is becoming a part of our public life what is too dangerous
for future of the Republic of Armenia.” Expecting implementation of
decisive actions by legal bodies, the OYP mentions that “if real-legal
estimations of the “Tsetsi krug” (shooting accident in the outskirts
of Yerevan in early this year) and other noisy murders were given in
time, we would not have such developments today.”

YUSHCHENKO HELD TALKS WITH ALIYEV
UNIAN , Ukraine
Sept 8 2006
In Baku, Victor Yushchenko and Ilham Aliyev have discussed areas
of cooperation between Ukraine and Azerbaijan, according to the
President’s press-office.
They agreed the two countries strived to profoundly develop bilateral
relations and thereby decided to establish an interstate commission
to deal with the most important issues.
Mr. Yushchenko said Ukraine was ready to take part in energy projects
together with Azerbaijan and offered his colleague cooperation in
the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline project.
In his turn, Mr. Aliyev said his country produced more oil every year,
adding it was quite expedient to transport Caspian hydrocarbons to
European consumers via Ukraine. The leaders also discussed their
experience in the exploration of oil fields and production of crude,
particularly in the Black Sea.
They agreed the two countries could also cooperate in agriculture
and in the military sector, and also jointly build aircraft.
Mr. Yushchenko and Mr. Aliyev broached the subject of regional
cooperation. The President of Ukraine said his country would help
Azerbaijan settle the Nagorny Karabakh armed conflict.
Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, First Deputy Premier Andriy Klyuyev,
Emergency Minister Viktor Baloha, First Deputy Energy Minister Vadym
Chuprun, Agriculture Minister Yuriy Melnyk, Transport Minister Mykola
Rudkovsky, Naftogaz Chairman Volodymyr Sheludchenko, Ukrtransnafta
Head of the Board Evhen Bakulin and deputies Anatoly Kinakh and Eduard
Zeynalov attended the talks.
Then the Presidents took part in a ceremony to sign bilateral
agreements.
Victor Yushchenko and Ilham Aliyev signed a Joint Declaration Between
Ukraine and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Naftogaz Chairman Volodymyr Sheludchenko signed an Agreement Between
Naftogaz Ukraiiny and the Azerbaijan State Oil Company on Long-Term
Cooperation.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Stepan Volkovetsky signed an
Agreement Between Ukraine’s Nuclear Regulation Committee and the Azeri
Emergency Ministry on Cooperation in the Area of Radiological Security.
Agriculture Minister Yuriy Melnyk signed an Agreement Between the
Agriculture Ministry of Ukraine and the Agriculture Ministry of
Azerbaijan on Cooperation in the Area of the State Testing and
Protection of Varieties of Plants.
Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovsky signed an Agreement Between the
Government of Ukraine and the Government of Azerbaijan on International
Combined Cargo Transportation.
Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk signed an Agreement Between the
Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
on the Training of Diplomats and an Agreement Between the Government
of Ukraine and the Government of Azerbaijan on the Protection of
the Environment.