Author: Vardanian Garo

TURKEY FINDS CANADIAN PREMIER’S ARMENIAN "GENOCIDE" REMARKS UNACCEPTABLE

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
April 27 2007

Ankara, 26 April: "We find this reference in the statement of the
Canadian prime minister unacceptable, unjust and incompatible with
our relations as friends and allies," Turkish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) said when commenting on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper’s statement on 24 April related to the events of 1915 to which
he referred as "genocide".

Releasing a statement, the MFA said, "Turkey remains committed to
preserving its good will and constructive approach in order to assure
that the events of 1915 are understood correctly in their entirety
by the Turks, the Armenians and other nations."

"Turkey’s proposal to establish a joint commission of historians is
still on the table and has been brought widely to the attention of
the international public opinion. This commission will be open to all
concerned and competent historians regardless of their nationality,"
the statement pointed out.

"We regret Prime Minister Harper’s statement which will contribute
neither to the promotion of the Turkish-Canadian relations nor to a
possible rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia. We believe that
Mr Harper continues to be misled, and suggest that he encourages
competent Canadian historians into studying the events of 1915 on a
proper basis," it added.

PETER SEMNEBY TO VISIT NAGORNO KARABAKH IN MAY

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 26 2007

"I have arrived in Baku for one-day visit as the European Union
approaches media issues very attentively. Of course, I am interested
in concrete issues, and I discussed these issues in my previous visits
and I intend to keep on debating these issues again", European Union
Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby exclusively
told APA.

He said there are no specific standards of criminal responsibility
for libeling about any person.

"We hold the position that a journalist should not be arrested for
his articles. I have already faced this problem in other states. I
experienced that the best way in the situation is to remove article
punishing for libel from Criminal Code".

EU envoy expressed concern over the arrest of Eynulla Fatullayev chief
editor of "Gundalik Azerbaijan" and "Realni Azerbaijan" newspapers
and other journalists. "I am sure I will be able to discuss these
issues with Azerbaijani officials during my short stay in Baku".

Peter Semneby said his next visit to Nagorno Karabakh-Armenia-occupied
territory of Azerbaijan will take place in mid May.

2 CHESS PLAYERS OF ARMENIA ARE AMONG LEADERS WITH 3.5 POINTS AT DUBLIC INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Apr 26 2007

DUBLIN, APRIL 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The 4th stage meetings took place on
April 25 at the chess international tournament being held in Dublin. 10
participants, among them Ashot Anastasian and Tigran Kotanjian as
well, got 3.5 points each from the possible 4 and make the leading
group. Tigran L. Petrosian and Hrant Melkumian have 2.5 points each,
and Artashes Minasian has 2 points.

CANADIAN LAWMAKERS REMEMBER ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Agence France Presse — English
April 24, 2007 Tuesday 8:20 PM GMT

Canadian parliamentarians stood in silence for one minute Tuesday
to recognize the "Armenian genocide" during World War I, a sensitive
issue that hurt Canadian relations with Turkey last year.

A spokeswoman for Speaker of the House Peter Milliken told AFP the
Conservative government’s House leader and his counterparts from all
three opposition parties agreed to the official commemoration.

Turkey said in April 2006 it was "appalled" by Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper’s reference to the bloodbath as the first genocide of
the 20th century, and temporarily recalled its ambassador to Ottawa
in protest.

Ankara said then Harper’s comments gave support to Armenia’s "unfounded
allegations of genocide" and that his position on the issue would
"negatively affect ties between Turkey and Canada."

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen were slaughtered in
an orchestrated genocide in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide, arguing that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians began fighting for independence in eastern Anatolia
and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

YURI MERZLYAKOV: WE ARE CLOSE TO REACH AGREEMENT ON BASIC PRINCIPLES

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 24 2007

The meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Elmar
Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan in Belgrade was efficient, Russian
co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov told the APA.

Merzlyakov assessing the current state of the negotiations for the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict said that they are close
to reach an agreement on basic principles.

The co-chair said that the already agreed elements were reconsidered
in the latest two meetings of the foreign ministers.

"Theoretical changes can be made to the agreed elements, because
according to the procedure, basic principles of the settlement will
be considered as agreed after all the issues are agreed. Yet I can
say that the majority of principles have already been agreed", he said.

All the eight elements of the negotiation process were discussed in
Belgrade meeting. Russian diplomat reminded again that an agreement
on basic principles is not peace agreement.

"These principles will serve as "carrying elements", and all the rest
issues will base on these elements," he said.

The mediator said there can a step forward only after there is an
agreement on basic principles.

RUSSIA TO LOOK FOR URANIUM IN ARMENIA
By Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 23 2007

The Russian and Armenian governments agreed on Monday to jointly
develop Armenia’s untapped uranium reserves which they said could
make the country self-sufficient in production of nuclear energy.

A relevant agreement was signed in Yerevan by Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian and Sergey Kirienko, the visiting head of Russia’s Federal
Agency on Atomic Energy (Rosatom).

"The main purpose of the agreement is to look for radioactive materials
in Armenia and jointly develop those resources," said Environment
Minister Vartan Ayvazian.

According to Kirienko, the two sides will set up a joint venture that
will explore areas in the southeastern Syunik region which Armenian
and Russian geologists believe are rich in uranium. He was confident
that they will discover commercially viable reserves of the radioactive
metal used in nuclear power generation.

"Armenia will be able to meet its needs and sell [uranium] to others,"
the Rosatom chief told journalists "It is turning from an energy
resource dependent country to an energy resource exporting one."

A U.S. company, Global Gold, is already looking for uranium in another
region of Armenia.

The mountainous country was a major center of non-ferrous metallurgy
in the former Soviet Union and still exports copper and gold in large
quantities. But its uranium reserves, estimated at 30,000 metric tons
by Soviet geologists, have not been developed so far. Officials said
the real reserves may be twice bigger.

In Kirienko’s words, Armenia could become one of the few countries
of the world with a full uranium production cycle from extraction of
the metal to its transformation into nuclear fuel. Some of that fuel
would be supplied to the nuclear power station at Metsamor, he said.

The Armenian government plans to decommission the Metsamor plant by
2016 in accordance with its commitments to the European Union and the
United States. It announced plans last year to replace the Soviet-era
facility with a new plant meeting modern safety standards. The
government pushed through parliament a legal amendment allowing
it to look for foreign investors that would be willing to provide
an estimated $1 billion needed for its construction. Kirienko said
Moscow is ready to participate in the ambitious project.

TURKISH PROSECUTOR WANTS 11 JAILED OVER CHRISTIAN MURDERS

Agence France Presse — English
April 22, 2007 Sunday

A Turkish prosecutor called on Sunday for 11 suspects to be jailed
pending trial over the gruesome murder of three Christians in eastern
Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The prosecutor made the demand after questioning the suspects —
10 young men and a woman — for about eight hours in Malatya city,
where a German and two Turkish converts to Christianity had their
throats slit Wednesday.

A judge was due to make a ruling later on Sunday.

A 12th suspect, allegedly the leader, remains in hospital with a
serious head injury after jumping from the third-floor office of the
Christian publishing house in Malatya where the victims were killed,
to escape arrest.

Doctors say the condition of the suspect — named in the press as
Emre Gunaydin, 19 — is improving and he may be fit for questioning
within several days.

The murders were the latest attack on minorities in Turkey following
the killings of a Roman Catholic priest last year and an ethnic
Armenian journalist in January.

The media have speculated that the assailants belong to a nationalist
Islamist cell similar to one in the northern city of Trabzon blamed
for the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Police brought the suspects to the courthouse in armoured vehicles
and stepped up security in the area, Anatolia said.

One of the suspects allegedly filmed the murders on his mobile
telephone.

He told the police he was asked to record the grisly scenes by
Gunaydin, the mass-selling Sabah daily said.

The three victims, who belonged to the tiny Protestant community
in Malatya, were tied to chairs and tortured for three hours before
being killed as their assailants interrogated them on their missionary
activities.

The Zirve publishing house distributed bibles and published Christian
literature.

Four suspects were captured at the crime scene when police raided the
publishing house, alerted by a local Protestant who grew suspicious
when he found the office door locked.

Gunaydin had reportedly visited the publishing house several times
and even attended an Easter dinner hosted by the community in Malatya
this month.

The sole woman suspect, detained Saturday, has been identified as
his girlfriend.

Officials have not revealed the details of the remaining six men,
who were detained Thursday and Friday, saying only that all suspects
are aged 19 and 20.

Newspapers said one of them was the son of the mayor of a nearby town
from the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party.

The police are looking for seven other people, including a bearded
man believed to have fled the publishing house shortly before police
arrived, newspapers said.

Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union
that Turkey is seeking to join, has urged Ankara to take measures to
ensure the protection of religious freedom.

The German victim, Tilmann Geske, was buried in Malatya, where he
had lived since 2003.

His wife Suzanna told the Vatan daily Sunday that she and her three
children would continue to live there "until Jesus gives me a sign
to go."

SWASTIKAS DAUBED ON ARMENIAN CHAPEL IN UKRAINE’S CAPITAL

TV 5 Kanal, Kiev
22 Apr 07

[Presenter] Unidentified individuals have vandalized an Armenian church
in the capital’s Podil district. At dawn, the diocese administration
of the Armenian Apostolic Church erected a metal chapel. Later in
the morning, priests saw that Nazi swastikas and red paint had been
daubed on its doors and porch. It is unknown who did this.

The archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Grigoris, says he
saw a man and a woman near the chapel. Local residents repeatedly
protested at the construction of this chapel. Recently they have asked
a court and the city administration to ban any construction works in
this recreation area.

[Grigoris, in Russian] We know – suspect who did this. At 0800 [0500
gmt], some woman brought something in her bag. Together with a young
man they went there. The police could not see this. We were in a car
and could not see this.

But there was something suspicious about them. They quickly went away
and when we arrived, we saw swastikas on both sides [of the chapel].

[Unidentified man, in Russian] Podil residents are protesting. People
do not want this lawlessness and land grabs.

DURING HIS VISIT TO YEREVAN LATVIAN FM WILL LAY FLOWERS TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MEMORIAL

Arminfo
2007-04-19 17:00:00

During his visit to Yerevan Foreign Minister of Latvia Artis Pabriks
will lay flowers to the Armenian Genocide Memorial.

The press service of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia reports
that Pabriks will meet with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan,
Parliamentary Speaker Tigran Torossyan, Catholicos of All Armenians
Garegin II, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan.

Pabriks and Oskanyan will give a joint press-conference.

U.S. REVISES ‘ANTI-ARMENIAN’ KARABAKH STATEMENT
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 20 2007

Facing strong Armenian protests, the U.S. State Department has
revised a controversial passage in its latest human rights report
that described Nagorno-Karabakh as an Azerbaijani territory occupied
by Armenia.

The original version of the annual report released on March 4
said Armenia "continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories." The
statement was welcomed by many in Azerbaijan but was rejected as
inaccurate by the Armenian government and Armenian lobbying groups
in the United States.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said later in March that Armenian
diplomats have raised the issue with State Department officials. He
said the latter admitted that it was an "obvious mistake on their part"
and promised to "try to make a correction in that document."

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) likewise expressed
"profound concern" at the reference. "To say that Nagorno-Karabakh is
an Azerbaijani territory and that Armenia occupies Nagorno-Karabakh
and other territories is to ignore the very fundamentals of this
conflict," Ken Hachikian, the ANCA chairman, said in an April 3 letter
to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The revised version of the U.S. report’s chapter on human rights
practices in Armenia does not refer to Karabakh as an internationally
recognized part of Azerbaijan and stops short of explicitly accusing
Yerevan of occupying Azerbaijani districts surrounding the disputed
enclave. "Armenian forces occupy large portions of Azerbaijan territory
adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian officials maintain that they
do not "occupy" Nagorno-Karabakh itself," reads the report posted on
the State Department’s website.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry refused to comment on what is a rare
change in the text of a department report made after its official
release. A ministry spokesman only reiterated Oskanian’s earlier
comments on the issue.

The ANCA, for its part, was only partly satisfied with the revision
which it said was made public this week. "We remain concerned that
the amended text continues to fall short of accurately describing the
situation, as well as by the fact that the Azerbaijan section of the
report continues to make incorrect assertions, thus making its text
inconsistent with the State Department’s own revision of the Armenia
section," its executive director, Aram Hamparian, said in a statement.

Washington has always stated that it supports Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity in the Karabakh dispute. But that has not kept it from
helping to draft over the past decade peace proposals that would
essentially pave the way for international recognition of Karabakh’s
secession from Azerbaijan.