42 MILLION DRAMS ALLOCATED BY 2007 STATE BUDGET FOR IMPROVEMENT OF
YEREVAN CEMETRIES
YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. 42 million drams (about 113.5
thousand USD) was allocated from the 2007 state bufget for improvement
of Yerevan’s cemetries. The Head of the Trade and Services Department
of Yerevan Mayor’s Office Karen Gevorgian said this at the January
22 press conference. According to him, this year improvement work
will be done at the Central, "
Militant admits giving teen gun used to kill journalist
The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
January 23, 2007 Tuesday
Final Edition
A nationalist militant convicted in a 2004 bomb attack at a McDonald’s
restaurant has confessed to inciting last week’s slaying of an ethnic
Armenian journalist, police said yesterday.
Yasin Hayal told police officers he provided a gun and money to
the teenager who is suspected of carrying out Friday’s shooting,
a newspaper reported, citing police records.
The teenager, Ogun Samast, was also arrested over the weekend along
with several other people and has confessed to fatally shooting the
journalist, according to a chief prosecutor.
Russian planemaker MiG hopes to win Indian fighter tender
20:46|22/ 01/ 2007
BANGALORE (India), January 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russian aircraft
manufacturer MiG hopes to win a tender to supply fighters for the
Indian Air Force, the company’s general director said Monday.
India earlier announced a tender for the acquisition of 126 light
fighters for its Air Force worth about $4 billion.
"We are ready to supply more than a hundred MiG-35 fighters to India,"
said Alexei Fedorov, who is visiting India as part of the Russian
delegation led by
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.
Fedorov said it was impossible to give an accurate estimate of the
tender’s actual value because most of the aircraft under the future
contract would be license-manufactured in India.
Russia’s MiG-35 will compete with U.S., Swedish and French jet fighters
in the Indian tender.
"It is hard to estimate our chances to win the tender because the
competition is very strong," Fedorov said, adding that the MiG-35
features a number of competitive upgrades, including improved avionics,
advanced weaponry and a new pulse Doppler radar.
The MiG-35, an export version of the MiG-29M OVT (Fulcrum F), is a
highly maneuverable air superiority fighter, which was shown for the
first time in Au gust 2005 during the MAKS Air Show outside Moscow.
The fighter is powered by RD-33 OVT thrust vectoring control
engines. The RD-33 OVT engines provide superior maneuverability and
enhance the fighter’s performance in close air-to-air engagements.
The existing Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation program
until 2010 lists up to 200 projects, worth about $18 billion, a
Russian military official said earlier.
Spiegel Online, Germany –
Jan 22 2007
What Does Bush Have Planned for Iran?
By Ralf Hoppe, Georg Mascolo and Bernhard Zand
0,1518,461281,00.html
When it comes to Iran, the rhetoric coming out of Washington has
become noticeably sharper in recent weeks. A naval battle group has
also been deployed to the Gulf. A prelude to a military strike?
To dampen the noise coming from their forbidden gathering, the hosts
have pushed a clothes rack, heavily laden with winter coats, in front
of their apartment door. The windows are covered with blankets. In
the apartment, young women dance with young men, the whisky is from
America and the red wine from Armenia. It’s the sort of affair that
can get you into a lot of trouble in Tehran.
AP
The USS John C. Stennis left for the Persian Gulf over the weekend.
The party is in an apartment on Vanak Square in one of Tehran’s more
exclusive northern neighborhoods. The guests, ranging in age from 20
to 35, are liberal and pro-Western. The hosts are siblings, both
single, and they still live with their parents. But mom and dad are
away in Europe for two weeks; the mood is festive.
Half of the alcohol is gone within the first half hour. The host
appears with a tray of fruit juices and offers it apologetically to
her guests. The more threatening the country’s policies, says one
young women, the more she and likeminded young Iranians are likely to
party. But then she says that she prefers not to talk about politics.
It would spoil the atmosphere.
But politics are difficult to avoid, and in the kitchen it has become
the subject of the evening: American threats; the risk of an Israeli
bomb attack; and the risk of war. "If that happens," says one man,
"the country will unite and it will make Ahmadinejad even stronger."
All the guests approve of the Iranian president’s policies, but not
his rhetoric. They say that the United States is acting arrogantly
and blindly by assuming that the Iranians are acting purely with
malicious intent. "The Americans are conducting a disastrous war of
aggression in Iraq," says an architect, "and we are supposed to be
the axis of evil?"
Sharpened its tone
In the wake of Ahmadinejad’s most recent verbal attacks on Israel and
the United States, Washington has indeed sharpened its tone and begun
an ominous game of saber rattling in the region. In December, after a
hiatus of several months, a US Navy unit led by the aircraft carrier
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower began cruising in the Persian Gulf once
again. The unit will be joined in late January by the USS John C.
Stennis, which led a group of aircraft carriers in November maneuvers
to simulate "the support of a newly elected government against an
ongoing insurgency." According to the USS Stennis Web site, "the
operations are taking place against the background of growing
internal and global tension resulting from a neighboring country’s
nuclear ambitions."
A buildup of US aircraft carriers in the Gulf has happened five times
in the last 15 years: at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf war; leading
up to the "Operation Desert Strike" in 1996; prior to "Operation
Desert Fox" in 1998; in the spring of 2003; and today. In only one of
these cases was a buildup on this scale not followed by a military
strike: in early May 1998, when the Iraqi regime temporarily accepted
the conditions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.
The replacement of army General John Abizaid, a staunch opponent of
military action against Iran, as the commander of US forces in the
Middle East was announced in early January. And in mid-January, the
Pentagon announced that it had supplied US allies Kuwait and Qatar
with the latest version of its Patriot air defense system. The US
Navy Expeditionary Strike Group 2, or ESG 2, will be deployed to
Bahrain in February.
"Material support for attacks on American troops"
Observers in the Middle East are worried about the US’s growing
unwillingness to compromise when it comes to Iran and its ally Syria.
In explaining his new strategy for the Middle East, President Bush
said that the regimes in Tehran and Damascus are allowing terrorists
and insurgents to enter Iraq, and that Iran, in particular, is
"providing material support for attacks on American troops."
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Bush’s tough talk has been followed by action. US troops have
arrested Iranians in Iraq four times in the space of three weeks,
including arrests made inside the residential compound of influential
Shiite leader Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim. Two weeks ago they stormed an
Iranian liaison office in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish
Autonomous Region.
What exactly the Iranians are suspected of having done remains
disturbingly vague, especially when measured against the political
significance of arresting Iranian diplomats. Washington, though,
suspects Iran of helping finance, train and arm terrorists inside
Iraq.
The Americans aren’t the only ones with such suspicions. As early as
the autumn of 2005, the British in southern Iraq found two unexploded
bombs that could be traced to Iran. The British claimed that the
bombs’ infrared-guided, armor-piercing warheads were developed by
Hezbollah in Lebanon and delivered to Shiite militias in Iraq via the
Iranian revolutionary guards. The British were also convinced that
the Iranians were training large numbers of Iraqi fighters in camps
across the border in Iran.
Mortal enemies of the Sunnis
However, the assertion that Iran is not only supporting Shiite
militias in Iraq’s religious war, but is also responsible for the
deaths of American soldiers raises a question. The US military
continues to face its heaviest casualties in the Sunni triangle,
where it is primarily fighting against the al-Qaida terrorist
organization and supporters of the regime of former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein. Why should Iran be providing both of these groups
with weapons? After all, they are both Sunni groups and as such are
the mortal enemies of Iran and its Shiite allies.
US Vice President Richard Cheney has said that Iran is simply
"fishing in troubled waters." Outgoing US Director of National
Intelligence John Negroponte told the US Senate last week that Tehran
"regards its ability to conduct terrorist operations abroad as a key
element of its national security strategy."
No one denies that weapons of Iranian origin are constantly turning
up in Iraq. The Kurds, in particular, are doing a steady trade with
Iran, including illegal weapons shipments across the border. How much
of that trade consists purely of smuggled goods and how much of it is
deliberate support for the insurgency is a matter of speculation.
But even Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has wondered aloud why
Iranians would want to incite unrest in Iraq given that Shiites are
already in power. His comments hinted at the dilemma into which
Washington has maneuvered itself, caught as it is between Baghdad,
Tehran and Riyadh. Iran was the first neighbor to recognize the Iraqi
postwar government, which it supports officially to this day. It is
America’s Sunni allies in the region who are most adamantly opposed
to Shiite dominance in Iraq.
AFP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to back down in the
face of American and United Nations pressure.
This opposition was reflected in the half-hearted reaction by the
foreign ministers of the six Gulf states, Egypt, and Jordan to Bush’s
speech on Iraq last week. The communique they issued after meeting
with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Kuwait is a study in
Arab diplomacy. It supports the "principle of non-interference" in
other countries’ internal affairs and, without directly naming Iran
or the United States, warns against turning Iraq into a "battleground
for regional and international powers."
The Arab Sunnis, though fearful of Iran’s aggressive posturing, no
longer seem to trust their American protectors.
"Storm warnings"
But what does the Bush administration’s strategy on Iran amount to?
While commentators in the region are issuing what Dubai’s Gulf News
calls initial "storm warnings," Americans still try to sell their
military buildup as an attempt to intimidate the Iranians. The White
House hopes to unnerve Iran and encourage realists in Tehran to
oppose President Ahmadinejad. The Americans’ message to their
archenemy is that even a weakened United States will not leave the
region without a fight.
But is the message being heard? Mohammed Atrianfar, publisher of
Tehran’s leading reformist newspaper Shargh and a close associate of
former President Mohammed Khatami, says that American threats have
forced Iranians into a "trap between the fury of their own government
and the fury of the Americans. There is not a single Iranian who is
not in favor of the peaceful use of nuclear energy. We are all behind
that."
According to Atrianfar, the country — and the government — is not
nearly as unified as it appears to be under President Ahmadinejad. "A
government is like an iceberg. You don’t see most of it," says
Atrianfar.
He could be right. Something unusual happened in Tehran during
Ahmadinejad’s recent trip to South America. A number of newspapers
allied with the country’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, voiced their criticism of the president’s unwillingness to
compromise, both on the issue of nuclear energy and with respect to
the UN. Ahmadinejad’s intransigence, they wrote, is hurting the
country economically.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
UAR Doesn’t Refer Martirosyan Killing to Xenophobia
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2007 13:52 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Union of Armenians of Russia doesn’t see reasons
to speak of xenophobia growth. "The situation in Russia tends to
improve… One Armenian has been killed through national hatred since
last September," said UAR Vice-president Vyacheslav Galustayn. "All
murders through national hatred were revealed and those responsible
taken into custody," he added.
Galustyan did not refer the killing of Moscow schoolboy Artur
Martirosyan to xenophobia. The UAR leadership will closely watch the
investigation, he said, reports the Echo of Moscow.
The dead body of 16-year-old Artur Martirosyan was found Friday
morning. The boy was registered in Tomilino (Podmoskovie) and resided
in a rented flat with his parents in Moscow since 2003. A criminal
case was initiated in compliance of Article 105 (murder) of the
Russian Penal Code
Le Figaro, France
20 janvier 2007
Ce génocide arménien qui hante encore les esprits turcs un siècle
plus tard
THIERRY OBERLÉ
LA RÉSURGENCE d’un nationalisme turc virulent vient de prendre une
tournure tragique, avec l’assassinat de Hrant Dink. Préoccupant, le
phénomène s’était traduit l’an dernier par plusieurs agressions
contre des religieux chrétiens, des tentatives de lynchage de Kurdes
et le meurtre d’un prêtre catholique à Trabzon, lors de l’affaire des
caricatures de Mahomet. Face à ce phénomène, les magistrats, garants
des dogmes de l’État turc, paraissaient souvent plus prompts à
poursuivre des intellectuels pour des délits d’opinion, telles des
allusions au génocide arménien de 1915 ou des insultes supposées à
l’identité turque, qu’à condamner les auteurs de violences contre les
minorités. Les écrivains et les universitaires qui cherchent à ouvrir
le débat sur l’épisode le plus sombre de la fin de l’Empire ottoman
se sont ainsi heurtés autant aux réticences des autorités, qu’à
l’hostilité des mouvements nationalistes. Ces crispations ne les
avaient pourtant pas empêchés d’ouvrir un débat sur une question
jusque-là occultée. En septembre2005, un colloque inédit s’était tenu
à Istanbul malgré des pressions et des menaces à l’origine de
plusieurs reports. Bravant les interdits, les chercheurs avaient osé
ouvrir une brèche dans le mur des vérités officielles en proposant
des analyses contradictoires sur le sujet. Les nationalistes, de
droite et de gauche, avaient riposté en leur lançant des oeufs. Ce
n’était qu’un début. Enhardis par le rapprochement entre Ankara et
l’Europe, quelques esprits éclairés tentent depuis de faire sauter le
tabou arménien. Il y a parmi eux des figures emblématiques comme le
Prix Nobel de littérature, Orhan Pamuk, mais aussi des historiens et
des journalistes soucieux de regarder la réalité en face. Réputé pour
son indépendance, le journal Bügûn estime, par exemple, que seule une
introspection sans complaisance permettra à la Turquie de sortir du
cauchemar arménien. « Ne serait-il pas plus sain de crever maintenant
l’abcès? », s’interrogeait en novembre le quotidien. Les extrémistes
ont apporté hier leur réponse. L’héritage d’Atatürk
Ultramajoritaires, les tenants du dogme récusent le terme de
génocide. Selon eux, 300000 Arméniens – et non pas 1,5million sur une
population de 2millions de personnes comme l’affirment les Arméniens
– ont péri dans la répression d’un soulèvement organisé avec le
soutien des Russes. La plupart des victimes seraient mortes de
maladie et de faim, ou d’actes de brigandage, lors de l’exode des
populations civiles. Il n’y a donc eu ni ordre, ni programme
d’extermination: critères d’un génocide. Et le nombre de tués doit
être comparé avec les 400000 soldats turcs tombés au champ d’honneur
durant la Première Guerre mondiale. Couverts d’honneurs, une partie
des responsables des tueries fut à l’origine de la création de la
Turquie contemporaine aux côtés de Mustafa Kemal. Cette lecture de
l’histoire est inculquée dès le plus jeune ge à l’école dans le
cadre d’un système hérité d’Atatürk qui privilégie l’acquis de
connaissances sans chercher à développer l’esprit critique. Elle
conduit l’immense majorité des Turcs à assimiler toute remise en
cause à une trahison. Et peut pousser des illuminés au meurtre. Un
rôle de modérateur Souvent critiqué pour son « aveuglement » dans les
pays occidentaux, Ankara rétorque que le pays est prêt à ouvrir ses
archives et à réunir des commissions d’historiens turcs et arméniens.
Mais les relations entre la Turquie et l’Arménie restent gelées. Plus
flexible que les représentants de l’État kémalisme, le gouvernement
de Recep Tayyip Erdogan joue la carte d’une ouverture prudente. Mais
son souci de coller à une opinion publique lasse des difficultés
rencontrées dans les négociations d’adhésion avec l’Union européenne
le pousse sur la voie du repli identitaire. Connu pour sa modération,
Hrant Blink s’était toujours déclaré favorable à l’Europe sachant
qu’un tel ancrage serait la meilleure protection pour l’avenir des
minorités. Conscient que chaque nouvelle crise arménienne relançait
les convulsions nationalistes, il s’efforçait de calmer le jeu et
appelait ses interlocuteurs et détracteurs à la sagesse et à la
réflexion. Son assassinat en plein coeur d’Istanbul vise à briser ce
rôle de passerelle. Plus de quatre-vingt-dix ans après le génocide
arménien, la Turquie n’a toujours pas vaincu ses vieux démons.
Armenpress
ARMENIAN DM SHRUGS OFF REPORTS ABOUT APPOINTMENT OF
TURKISH GENERAL TO TOP POSITION IN AZERI ARMY
YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS: Armenian defense
minister Serzh Sarkisian shrugged off today media
reports that Azerbaijan has launched a project to
elevate its military to NATO standards and is planning
to recruit a Turkish general as its deputy defense
minister to promote the plan.
According to news reports in the Azeri press a
Turkish general will assume the post in mid-2007.
Speaking to a news conference today Serzh Sarkisian
said the appointment of a top military of one country
to a top position in another country’s armed forces is
not a right decision, but he added that even if this
happens it is hard to say whether it will have any
effect on Azerbaijan’s army.
A news story in an Azeri daily earlier this month
wrote that Baku will grant the Turkish general
significant authority and permit him to work with his
team from Turkey. The partnership is planned to
continue until 2011, during which time several Turkish
generals will be selected by the Turkish Armed Forces
consecutively to occupy the post.
"Turkish military officers have been instructing
the armed forces of Azerbaijan since 1992-1993, but I
can not say whether their instruction has improved its
army. I cannot either say what it would have been
without Turkish military instructors," Sarkisian said.
Serzh Sarkisian pointed out that Azerbaijani
authorities have cut drastically their war rhetoric
saying it indicates that the official Baku has
eventually realized that any attempt to solve the
Karabakh issue by force will be condemned by the
international community.
Concerning Azerbaijan’s allegations that Armenia is
violating the balance of arms the minister said,
‘Armenia must have an army with modern weapons…
Without these weapons we will not have an effective
army,’ he said.
COUNCIL OF ELDERS OF FORUM OF INTELLIGENTSIA CALLS FOR PASSING FROM SPEAKING TO ACTING
Noyan Tapan
Jan 18 2007
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Starting 2003 the authorities have
been actively preparing for the parliamentary elections of 2007 and
presidential elections of 2008. Garnik Margarian, Chairman of Homeland
and Honor Party, declared this at the January 18 sitting of Council of
Elders of Forum of Intelligentsia. He said that during the past year
the authorities made laws necessary for them, created puppet-parties,
such as Bargavach Hayastan ((Prosperous Armenia). And the political
forces saying that the opposition will pass to the parliament have
a secret agreement with the authorities. In G.Margarian’s words,
it is time of undertaking actions for formation of legal power and
taking the country out of the current crisis.
Council members – Academicians Rafael Ghazarian and Lenser Aghalovian,
People’s Artist of Armenia Khoren Palian, publicist Hrach Matevosian
made appeals for unification of opposition and all sound forces.
At the sitting, it was mentioned for many times that "they should pass
from speaking to acting." Such an appeal was also voiced by Toros
Sefilian, elder brother of Zhirayr Sefilian who is currently under
custody. He is the Chairman of the Defence of Liberated Territories
committee founded in Beirut.
The statement of the National-Democratic Union was read at the
sitting. The statement mentioned the necessity to create a Council of
Opposition, which "should include people anxious about the country’s
future."
AKP AND CHP RECONCILIATE OVER THE U.S.
Sabah, Turkey
Jan 17 2007
The AKP and the CHP have come into action as the democrats, who have
seized the majority seats in the U.S Congress, prepare to bring up the
so-called Armenian genocide bill issue in the House of Representatives.
According to information obtained by the ANKA news agency, CHP’s
vice president Onur Oymen andthe CHP group executive vice president
Ali Topuz gathered together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gul
yesterday and discussed the so-called Armenian genocide bill.
Stating that the issue is a "national problem," the CHP Committee
has emphasized the importance of lobbying. Minister Gul has informed
both CHP deputies about the attempts the Ministry made with the U.S
Congress members. Gul said he would be glad to work jointly with the
CHP Group on the matter.
The Armenian lobby continues to exert pressure on the House of
Representatives to pass the bill. It has been learned that the majority
of members have already promised Armenians that the bill will pass.
ARMENIAN BASKETBALL-PLAYERS TO PARTAKE IN AN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT
ArmRadio.am
18.01.2007 11:16
In April Armenian basketball-players will participate in a prestigious
international tournament to be held in the French city of Martigue. The
teams of Russia, France, Italy, Canada and others are expected to
participate in the competition. Every team will hold four games in
the framework of the tournament.
President of the Basketball Federation of Armenia Hrachya Rostomyan
told Armenpress that the tournament is rather serious and it will be
a good experience for Armenian sportsmen.