Author: Vardanian Garo

Today’s Zaman , Turkey
March 13 2009

MEPs concerned over closure cases, want reform

The European Parliament (EP) endorsed a resolution yesterday on
Turkey’s process of accession to the European Union, expressing
concern over closure cases launched against two Turkish parties,
including the ruling party, and calling for amendments to relevant
laws to prevent similar cases in the future.

The Constitutional Court narrowly rejected a case filed last year for
closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK
Party). Another closure case, filed against the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP), is still pending in court, and trial proceedings
are expected to speed up after the upcoming local elections on March
29.

The annual resolution of the EP, drafted by Dutch parliamentarian Ria
Oomen-Ruijten and approved by a 528-52 vote in the an assembly
convening in Strasbourg, also called on Turkey to speed up reforms,
lamenting that there has been a slowdown over the last three years in
the reform process. It also called for renewed work on drafting "a new
civilian constitution that would place basic freedoms and human rights
at its core," regretting that earlier efforts to reform the
Constitution resulted in a dispute over the headscarf issue and
generated further polarization in society. The members of the EP
called on the EU to speed up Turkey’s accession negotiations as well,
saying talks should start on those negotiating chapters that are
technically ready for accession talks. Turkey has so far started only
10 of the 35 negotiating chapters with the EU.

In 2008 only four new chapters were opened, of which two were overseen
by the French presidency (free movement of capital and information
society and media). Only one chapter (science and research) has been
concluded since talks began in October 2005.

In its session yesterday, the EP accepted four of 16 amendment
proposals. The amendments include a call for closer consultations with
Turkey in the formulation of European defense policies and a reference
to Ankara’s efforts to create a regional mechanism for consultation in
the south Caucasus towards the resolution of main conflicts. Ankara
proposed the establishment of a stability platform for the Caucasus
after a brief Russian-Georgian war in August over a dispute in the
breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Another key message emerging from the EP resolution is that Turkish
authorities must deepen their ongoing investigation into a shadowy
network called Ergenekon, which is accused of involvement in plans to
stage a violent uprising against the government. The EP’s resolution
"welcomes the beginning of the trial against those accused of being
members of the Ergenekon criminal organization, encourages the
authorities to continue investigations and to fully uncover the
organization’s networks which reach into state structures, is
concerned about reports regarding the treatment of defendants in this
case, urges the Turkish authorities to provide them with a fair trial
and to adhere strictly to the principles of the rule of law."

The MEPs said Turkish authorities should seriously focus on the
Ergenekon network’s probable role in unsolved murders, including the
assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in January
2007.

Ergenekon, a neonationalist group, was discovered at the end of an
investigation prompted by discoveries in a police raid in June 2007
when police uncovered an arms depot in a house in Ä°stanbul’s
Ã`mraniye district. The prosecutor in the Ergenekon case has said the
group worked to create disorder and chaos through various violent acts
so that the public would be willing to accept a military intervention
to restore order. The group is suspected of involvement in the murder
of three Christian missionaries in Malatya in 2007; the 2006 murder of
a priest in the northeastern city of Trabzon; the murder of Dink,
editor-in-chief of the bilingual Agos newspaper in 2007; a 2006 attack
on the Council of State; and a grenade attack on the Cumhuriyet daily
in 2006.

The resolution also calls for full civilian supervision of the
military, judiciary reforms and measures to guarantee that members of
the judiciary will abstain from political debate. Turning to the EU,
it urges the union to take steps in easing visa restrictions for
Turkish businessmen, academics and students.

13 March 2009, Friday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL

Public Television of Armenia starts broadcasting in France Telecom network

2009-03-12 20:57:00

ArmInfo. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian took part in the
opening ceremony of broadcasting of the Armenian Public Television
programs in the television, internet and mobile network of France
Telecom (Orange) company, the Armenian Foreign Ministry press-release
says.

The ceremony took place in the headquarters of France Telecom with
participation of the company’s leadership. Henceforth, all subscribers
of Orange will have an opportunity to watch the programs of the Public
Television of Armenia on their mobile phones.

EurasiaNet, NY
March 11 2009

AZERBAIJAN: AZERI-ARMENIAN GAY ROMANCE WITHDRAWN FROM BOOKSTORES
3/11/09

After only a few weeks in circulation, the bestseller
Azerbaijani-Armenian gay romance novel "Artush and Zaur" has been
withdrawn from Baku bookstores amid growing controversy about the
work.

In an interview with the Azeri-language Radio Liberty, author Alekper
Aliyev stated that Baku police had questioned him about the
novelâ??s references to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. A
presentation of the novel, scheduled for March 11, was abruptly
canceled.

Byelorussian president to visit Armenia

YEREVAN, March 11. /ARKA/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is
to arrive for a working visit to Armenia today.

The RA Presidential press service reports that during their meeting the
Armenian and Byelorussian Presidents, Serge Sargsyan and Alexander
Lokashenko, are to discuss the development of interstate relations,
trade and economic ties, cooperation within international
organizations, as well as issues of meeting the challenges issued to
the national economies by the global economic crisis.

President Lokashenko is also to hold a meeting with Armenian
businessmen. `0–

Armen Ashotyan: The format of coalition cooperation does not mean
merging of parties
10.03.2009 16:16

Lena Badeyan
`Radiolur’

Republican MP Armen Ashotyan tried to predict today how many percents
the political forces will get at the forthcoming elections of May 31.
He said that the decision of the coalition forces to run in the
elections separately was natural.

`The format of coalition cooperation does not mean merging of the
parties,’ Ashotyan declared. The elections of the City Council of
Yerevan will be a platform for political forces to demonstrate their
power, the deputy said, reminding that the Republican Party has almost
always won in the elections.

As for the participation of the opposition in the elections, the
Republican MP said: `The diplomatic reverences the parliamentary and
non-parliamentary make to each other are just an attempt to temporarily
conceal the deep discrepancies. Every branch of the opposition used the
other one. This stage is over and the political interests are already
completely different.’

Ashotyan predicted 20-30% of votes for the whole opposition. He
believes that the Republican Party will get nearly as much as it
received during the parliamentary elections, or possible a little more
(30-35%). According to him, the Prosperous Armenia will come second
among the coalition parties. He said the remaining two coalition forces
will also exceed the th
reshold of 7%.

Science could play an essential role under the conditions of the global
crisis
10.03.2009 15:34

Alisa Gevorgyan
`Radiolur’

`For any country with restricted natural and human resources the best
means for increasing the GDP is the development of the scientific
industry. Armenia is one of those countries,’ Chairman of the State
Committee on Science Samvel Harutyunyan told a press conference today.
According to him, under the conditions of the current global economic
crisis, the development of applied sciences could be of essential
importance, and that’s what the steps of the Government should be
targeted at.

Commenting on the state of science in Armenia, Samvel Harutyunyan
stated: `If we compare today’s situation with that of Soviet times, the
situation is really bad, but Armenia is in a rather advantageous
position against the background of other post-Soviet republics,’ the
scientist says.

According to Samvel Harutyunyan, there are 7 500 scholars in the
country today, who are highly skilled specialists. Besides, Armenia
comes second after Russia all over the post-Soviet space with the
number of grant programs implemented over the past years. All this
speaks about the great scientific potential of our country, which is
not fully used for the development of economy. The crisis has brought
about the imperative to correct the mistakes and omissions.

`For effective work the Armenian scholar today needs certain social
conditions and targeted government programs. In the private sector
there is lack of trust in scientists and scientific results,’ Samvel
Harutyunyan said. According to him, the development of the
`science-economy’ link with state support is important for drawing the
attention of the private sector to scientific results.

Vardan Oskanian considers that March 1 political prisoners should be
released for rehabilitation of Armenia’s political field

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA authorities should undertake
steps to rehabilitate country’s political field, and the press should
be "opened" completely for that purpose, especially the electronic
press, the political prisoners should be released, people should be
given more freedoms to express their views, Vardan Oskanian, the Board
Chairman of the Civilitas Foundation, the former Foreign Minister,
stated in his interview to Public Television’s program 25 Minutes. By
saying "to release the political prisoners" he meant people being under
arrest on cases of mass disorders of March 1, 2008 in Yerevan.

V. Oskanian emphasized that politics is the basis of everything,
therefore as long as no correct solution is given to Armenia’s
political problems, the political sphere will not rehabilitate, no
correct counterbalances will be established. In particular, the court
will become free and independent if only people are not afraid and do
not wait for orders from above. "We should focus on our political
problems, rehabilitate our political sphere, create proper conditions
for establishing correct counterbalances through fair elections,"
Vardan Oskanian said expressing satisfaction with first RA President
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s position expressed at the 2009 March 1 rally.
"Really the right way is establishment of civil society or its
development, establishment of a sound ideological opposition, I will
sign under these words," the former Foreign Minister said.

Touching upon L. Ter-Petrosian’s statement that "we should remove the
words "revolt", "revolution", "attack" from our lexicon," V. Oskanian
said that the abrupt change in first President’s position should be
still tested, and the authorities should respond with more
responsibility to L. Ter-Petrosian’s step, should extend a hand, take
mutual steps. "There is just no excuse when 17 years after getting
independent we are not able to solve our most elementary problems,
continue living as we live, do not have the most elementary freedoms,
these five years after the elections should be a period of democracy,
stipulation of freedoms, establishment of institutions," Vardan
Oskanian said.

The former Foreign Minister considers that Armenia should treat
seriously the reports on Armenia by the U.S. State Department, Council
of Europe, other international structures. "We should attach much
importance to them, we should try to really understand what they want
to say, we should work with them and, why not, correct those problems."
According to V. Oskanian, true, the Council of Europe did not adopt a
resolution on Armenia, but the fact that the issue is on that
structure’s agenda is very harmful: "It would be better if there were a
decision, we experienced its consequences and cleaned ourselves, having
no decision and remaining on the agenda is more harmful for Armenia,"
the former Foreign Minister considers adding: "the outer world measures
our democracy level, the events taking place in Armenia, human rights,
economic merits, shortcomings by the Council of Europe, State
Department, these reports. They are independent of us, and it has an
impact on our home political problems, economy."

V. Oskanian did not wish to comment upon the authorities’ decision to
appoint 85-year-old Charles Aznavour Ambassador of Armenia in
Switzerland: "I would not like to comment, as Charles Aznavour is on
the other side, whom the whole our nation loves and respects very
much," he said.

OUTCOME OF METN POLLS MAY HINGE ON ARMENIANS
By Michael Bluhm

Daily Star
on_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=99909
March 7 2009
Lebanon

BEIRUT: The looming decision of the dominant Armenian party Tashnag
to join forces with either the March 14 or March 8 camps might well
determine the outcome of the Metn district in June’s pivotal general
elections, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Friday.

"If the Armenians side with March 14, then [the Metn] is guaranteed
for March 14," said Oussama Safa, executive director of the Lebanese
Center for Policy Studies. "If not, then there will be a battle." The
1989 Taif Accord reserves six of Parliament’s 128 seats for Armenians,
who make up about 9 per cent of Lebanon’s Christian population, said
a December 2008 report from the Lebanese Association for Democratic
Elections and Democracy Reporting International.

The choice before Tashnag comes down to continuing its relationship
with Change and Reform Bloc head MP Michel Aoun, the March 8
coalition’s top Christian politician, or returning to a previous
partnership with Metn heavyweight MP Michel Murr and his freshly minted
electoral ally, Phalange Party chief and former President Amin Gemayel,
said Walid Moubarak, director of the Institute of Diplomacy and
Conflict Transformation at the Lebanese American University. Tashnag
will also have to factor in its traditionally close ties to the
country’s presidents, as well as pressures from Armenian groups
outside Lebanon favoring one side of the political rift here, he added.

In considering Aoun, Tashnag and Armenian voters will be asking
whether Aoun, the popular politician in the predominantly Christian
Metn region, will have coattails long enough to carry the rest of his
lists into the legislature and unseat March 14 as the parliamentary
majority, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political
science at Notre Dame University.

In the feverish run-up to the June 7 poll, Aoun’s Free Patriotic
Movement (FPM) is vetting potential candidates to see whether they had
their own constituencies preceding Aoun’s unexpected 2005 electoral
success, or simply depend on the retired general to attract voters,
Hanna added.

Hanna said he expected Tashnag to stay with Aoun because their
2005 electoral alliance restored Tashnag, which is supported by the
majority of Armenian voters, to its full strength after five-time
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had for years teamed up with two
smaller Armenian parties to deny Tashnag the Beirut district’s two
Armenian parliamentary seats.

"The Armenians consider that Michel Aoun gave them what Rafik Hariri
took out of their hands," Hanna said. "They consider that Michel Aoun
gave them their rights."

On the other hand, Safa said the Armenians seemed be leaning toward
the March 14 Forces, which would deal a major blow to Aoun and March 8
hopes. Many analysts have said the elections will be won in Christian
districts such as the Metn, Kesrouan and Zahle.

If March 14 can secure an electoral bond with Tashnag, "they will make
a very strong statement that they have chipped away at the leadership
of Michel Aoun in the Metn," Safa said.

Longtime Tashnag ally Murr can also offer the party meaningful
incentives to throw in their lot with the March 14 camp, Safa
added. The peripatetic Murr has for decades cultivated close
relationships with a succession of presidents, including President
Michel Sleiman, and Murr’s son Elias is serving as defense minister
on Sleiman’s nomination.

Murr "would mediate a larger role in the next government [and] being
closer to presidential decision-making," Safa said. Tashnag would
likely be able to name the Armenian minister in a 24-member cabinet,
or two ministers in a 30-member administration, Safa added. "That’s
significant. That’s monopolizing Armenian representation, also."

If Tashnag does side with March 14 in the Metn, they will have to
smooth over the "strain" between the Armenians and Gemayel caused by
the bruising by-election campaign in 2007 to fill the seat of Gemayel’s
assassinated son, former Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, Moubarak
said. Armenians interpreted some of Gemayel’s electoral rhetoric as
ethnic slurs, and their support for FPM candidate Camille Khoury was
crucial in Khoury defeating Amin Gemayel by some 400 votes.

While Tashnag’s favor carries significant weight in the Metn, both
camps have to strive to cobble together alliances broad enough that
neither camp will lose the district by splitting votes among a raft
of candidate lists, Hanna said.

For example, the Murr-Gemayel tie-up needs to coordinate with March
14 stalwart and Minister of State Nassib Lahoud to avoid cannibalizing
March 14 votes in the Metn, Hanna added.

Tashnag will also weigh its historic tendency to stick close to the
nation’s presidents, the analysts said.

Sleiman has largely remained above the polarizing dispute between
March 14 and March 8, and his status as a Lebanese president who is
not a Syrian flunky also represents a new element in the equation
for the Armenian’s thinking, Moubarak said.

"The president has been able to make a positive impression on the
Lebanese citizens," he said. "We haven’t had a president like this
in some time."

While Sleiman will probably not endorse any specific candidate
list, his legitimizing of a nonaligned political center could
give independent candidates a key role in the Metn and elsewhere,
Moubarak added.

"There is a middle vote," he said. "This middle vote is basically
a reaction to the ongoing tensions – many people are fed up. There
will enough votes for those independents to pick up."

As a result, questions linger about how many votes Tashnag can deliver
from the typically monolithic Armenian electorate, Hanna said. All the
analysts said a majority of Armenians backed Tashnag and have usually
voted as a unified bloc, but Hanna said some in the Armenian elite were
wavering in their support for the party and its MP Hagop Pakradounian
because Pakradounian did not reflect the elites’ interests.

"The Tashnag are like an authoritarian regime, highly controlled from
the center," he said. "The Armenians are like the Shiites. They vote
as one bloc, for one person."

The Armenians will also have to deal with attempts by Armenians
outside Lebanon to push Tashnag toward March 14 or March 8 – for
instance, Armenian groups in the US will probably lobby Tashnag to
side with the US-backed March 14 Forces, Hanna said. At the same time,
rumors persist that Tashnag backers in Armenia are working with Iran
and so will urge the party to forge an electoral coalition with the
Iranian-backed March 8 alliance, Moubarak said.

In the end, it remains too early to predict either how the Tashnag
will decide or how other campaign coalitions will evolve in the
Metn, despite the ongoing flurry of talks between the party and the
various representatives from the feuding political camps, the analysts
said. The negotiations have yet to bear any fruit, and all sides have
been waiting to see the candidate lists submitted by the deadline,
Safa said.

"It’s been eerily dull," he said.

DID YOU KNOW…?

By Metro Eireann
Thursday, February 26, 2009, 17:59

Some famous Armenians worldwide are French singer Charles Aznavour,
American tycoon Kirk Kerkorian (who shaped much of present-day Las
Vegas), Canadian film director Atom Egoyan and the US metal band
System of a Down (who have highlighted the oppression of Armenians
in their song lyrics).

Armenia was the first country in history to adopt Christianity as
its state religion, in 301 AD. The conversion was achieved by Saint
Gregory the Illuminator, who is now one of Armenia’s patron saints

Mount Ararat, which is the supposed resting place of Noah’s Ark,
is seen as a spiritual homeland for Armenians. Today Ararat lies in
Turkish territory, according to the borders defined by the Treaty of
Kars (1921).

The Armenian genocide is the second most studied case of genocide in
history, and both Armenia and the country’s diaspora are campaigning
for it to be recognised worldwide. In some countries, like France,
it is illegal to dispute the atrocity ever taking place.

PRESIDENT KOLNER HAILS THE LEVEL OF ARMENIA-GERMANY RELATIONS

armradio.am
04.03.2009 17:55

On March 3 the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst
Kolner, received the newly appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of
Armenia, Karine Ghazinyan, former Armenian Ambassador to Germany.

Greeting Karine Ghazinyan, President Kolner hailed the level of the
Armenian-German political dialogue and the dynamics of development
of trade-economic ties. Horst Kolner attached importance to the
participation of the Armenian President in the Munich Security
Conference and noted that Serzh Sargsyan’s speech on dedicated to
the South Caucasus region aroused great interest.

Speaking about the EU Eastern Partnership initiative, President Kolner
noted that it will not only promote the Armenia-EU ties, but will also
promote the development of bilateral relations with EU member states.

Karine Ghazinyan underlined the high level of friendly relations
between Armenia and Germany conveyed President Serzh Sargsyan’s
invitation to visit Armenia.

The Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister presented the opportunities
of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations and the latest
developments in the negotiations on the settlement of the Artsakh
issue.