Author: Varosian Antranik

BRYZA: NO BREAKTHROUGH EXPECTED IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT IN 2008

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.12.2007 13:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There will be no breakthrough in the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement process in 2008, said Matthew Bryza,
the U.S. Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Presidential elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan will hamper the
settlement process, according to him.

"However, judging from statements made by President of Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the talks should be continued.

We all know that it’s very hard to find common ground and make
concession on the threshold of elections. But I can’t say that the
window is closing. I am hopeful it will remain open during elections,"
the mediator said.

At that he noted that change of the leader in any state can affect
negotiations. "We expect no drastic change from Azerbaijan. The
situation is quite clear there and the name of next President is
already known.

Armenian presidential candidates also support the process. Approaches
can undergo some changes, however.

The package on the table is the most logical formula for the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict resolution and a man of sense will accept all these
principles," the U.S. diplomat said, Day.az reports.

SPECIAL LAW ON A SPECIAL PROCEDURE

Panorama.am
17:43 03/12/2007

The National Assembly session decided today that the draft law on
local self-government and territorial management in Yerevan as well
as relating documents will be discussed on a special procedure. The
main rapporteur on the package will be provided one hour of time for
his speech. Suggestions may be submitted until March 15, 2008. Davit
Harutunyan, chairman of standing committee on state and legal issues,
said parliamentary hearings will be invited to discuss the bill.

The bill defines the peculiarities, principles, structure, powers
and other details of local self-government and territorial management
in Yerevan.

The draft envisages having indirect election order for the mayor of
Yerevan and a two level system for local self-government to ensure
the link between the local self-government and the public. The mayor
will have local self-government and delegated authorities.

The 65 member elders will be the highest body of local self-government
with powers to supervise the activities of the mayor. This body
controls the execution of the budget and approves the annual report
on the performance of the budget. In case one of the participating
political parties receives more than 50 percent of votes of the members
of Yerevan elders, the first person on the party list becomes the
mayor of Yerevan. The bill also is an attempt to clarify the powers
of the heads of the administrative units of Yerevan and the mayor.

GOVERNMENT PROPOSES PROLONGING ARMENIAN PEACEMAKING ACTIVITY IN IRAQ BY ANOTHER YEAR

Lragir
Dec 3 2007
Armenia

The Armenian government proposes prolonging the Armenian peacemaking
activity in Iraq by a year. The minister of defense Mikael Harutiunyan
introduced the president’s proposal to prolong the Armenian peacemaking
activity in Iraq to the parliament today and said the necessity of
the third extension is determined by the importance of the peacemaking
activity of Armenia in Iraq.

Harutiunyan said since 2005 276 Armenian servicemen were sent
to Iraq in six shifts. According to him, no Armenian soldier got
killed in three years. On November 11 Lieutenant Gevorg Nalbandyan
was wounded and got treatment first in Germany then in the United
States. "After rehabilitation and prosthesis Nalbandyan is getting
better and continues service in the Armenian armed force," Mikael
Harutiunyan said.

"Since not participating in the peacemaking activity may create
hindrances for Armenia in terms of promotion of partnership, as the
official representative of the president I consider it expedient to
prolong the Armenian peacemaking activity in the Polish division,"
the minister said.

The first shift of Armenian peacekeepers left for Iraq on January 25,
2005. Currently the sixth shift is in Iraq, which includes 46 people,
including 2 staff officers, a mine clearance team of 10 and 31 drivers.

ANC-WR MEETS WITH "LITTLE ARMENIA" CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMEMBER KEVIN DE LEON

armradio.am
03.12.2007 17:59

Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) Board
Member Souzi Zerounian-Khanzadian and ANCA-WR Community Relations
Director Haig Hovsepian met with CA State Assemblymember Kevin de
Leon at his Los Angeles area district office.

Joining them for the meeting were Armond Aghakhanian, representative
from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s office, and Alana Yanez, a field
representatives with the Assemblymember’s office. In the meeting,
participants discussed the ANC’s recent work in the Hollywood and
greater Los Angeles community as well as its voter registration and
community outreach projects in Little Armenia.

"We appreciated the opportunity to meet with Assemblymember de Leon
once again to discuss how we can reach out to and serve the community,
especially Little Armenia," said Zerounian-Khanzadian. "We look
forward to continuing to build on our strong relationship with him
in the coming year," she added.

This past month, Assemblymember de Leon was a featured speaker at
Rally 106 in Hollywood, an event organized by the Armenian Youth
Federation-Western Region to raise awareness about H.Res.106, the
Armenian Genocide resolution.

In September, de Leon joined the ANC-WR for its 2007 Annual Banquet.

ARMENIA: STEEP PRICE RISES "ARTIFICIAL"
By Naira Melkumian in Yerevan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Nov 15 2007

Experts blame hike in food costs on a heavily monopolistic economy.

Rocketing food costs are angering ordinary people in Armenia and
giving the opposition a cause to rally around ahead of the presidential
election next spring.

Although much of the problem is due to external factors, experts
say that the rises indicate an economy that is excessively dominated
on monopolies.

According to date from the National Statistics Service, the prices of
bread and flour have increased by 24 and 29 per cent, respectively,
since the beginning of the year. Other food products, such as animal
and vegetable oils, have also been recording steep price increases.

"You never know what is going to happen tomorrow," said Anahit
Sarkisian, 40. "You wake up in the morning to find that prices have
doubled overnight. You can’t stay calm when that happens."

The increases have mostly been recorded since the end of the summer.

Armenia has to import most of its food and agricultural products,
making it vulnerable to price rises on international markets that
have also affected other Soviet republics.

However, in Armenia the problem has been compounded by an
anti-competitive arrangements involving numerous local business that
have seen the price of vegetable oil and butter soar by an average
of 80 per cent.

"It’s true that world market prices are growing, but in Armenia prices
have at least doubled," said Armine Akopian, who heads the analytical
department of Armenia’s anti-monopoly commission. "In August, a
litre of sunflower-seed oil was selling for an average of 556 drams
[1.80 US dollars], whereas in October the price reached 950 drams
[three dollars], even though customs levies have remained the same."

Armenia has recorded double-digit growth figures for the past seven
years, following the economic collapse that accompanied the end of the
Soviet Union. However, poverty levels remain high and many complain
that the benefits of growth have not been shared out.

The Armenian opposition says the hike in prices is a disaster for
the whole population. Mher Shakhgheldian, a parliamentarian with
the opposition party Orinats Yerkir, accused the government of doing
nothing to address the problem.

"Of course, price rises are happening all over the world, but many
states have tried to protect their citizens," he told IWPR. "The state
ought to take care of each of its citizens and combat these negative
trends more actively."

Shakhgheldian said big businesses were dominating the domestic food
market and were forcing up prices. He argued that they should be
paying more tax, while the tax burden for farmers should be eased.

The government’s anti-monopoly commission says it has no powers to
regulate the food market, while the only state body with a mandate
to do so, the Commission for Protecting Economic Competition, has no
real leverage and confines itself largely to conducting research into
the status of the market.

After monitoring retail sales of butter and sunflower oil, the
commission uncovered evidence of collusion amongst one fifth of
the market players. It fined 50 businessmen for unjustified price
increases, ordering them to pay a sum equivalent to two per cent
of their income in 2006. The total fine will not be more than 300
million drams (937,000 dollars).

Experts say the penalties being handed out at the moment are too mild.

"The current fines are small and do not remove the incentive for
businesses to do it again, because the profits they earn from
raising prices are far greater than the sums they lose by paying a
fine," said Abgar Yegoyan, head of the Consumer Rights Protection
organisation. "Many importers brought in their goods before world
prices went up, but they took advantage of the trend and their prices
went spiralling upwards."

Yegoyan suggested that the fine for complicity in anti-competition
deals should be increased to five per cent of annual income, and the
deadline for paying the fine should be halved from the current one
month to 15 days.

The price rises are have already caused panic buying by consumers. In
mid-October, Armenians rushed to buy sugar after the price rose,
causing traders to further double or triple prices. Some shops were
selling granulated sugar for 600-700 drams (1.84-2.15 dollars) a kilo.

One company, Salex Group, which is owned by member of parliament Samvel
Aleksanian, imports 84 per cent of the sugar sold in the shops. After
the company cut sugar prices in its chain of supermarkets, popular
anger turned on other retailers for keeping the price high.

"The panic benefited owners of small retail outlets, because in one
day they were able to sell an amount of sugar that otherwise would
have taken them ten days to sell," Ashot Shakhnazarian, head of the
commission, told journalists. He said that country had enough stocks
of sugar to last the next six months.

The Central Bank, which has the task of keeping inflation down, said
it was keeping to its target of holding the rate of consumer price
rises at around four per cent, give or take 1.5 per cent.

The price rises are hurting the Armenian authorities as they gear up
for a presidential election next year in which Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian will be the official candidate.

"The authorities are the first to suffer from an artificially-created
panic on the food market, because it triggers popular discontent,"
said deputy prime minister Hovik Abrahamian.

The government has already pledged to increase pensions next year
by 65 per cent and family benefits by 20 per cent, to reach 21,842
(68.50 dollars) and 21,089 drams (66 dollars) per month, respectively.

Minister of labour and social issues Agvan Vardanian told IWPR the
move was meant to cushion the population from the effect of rising
prices. He said the government hoped in future to make benefits
index-linked, as 24 per cent of the population count as poor and
seven per cent are below the poverty line.

"What’s the use of raising pensions when prices continue to rise?"

complained 65-year-old cleaner Zoya Nikolayevna. "I still have to
work to support myself. The New Year holidays are approaching, when
everything will cost lots of money again, and you want so much to
give yourself a treat now and then."

Naira Melkumian is a freelance journalist in Yerevan.

LEBANON FINDS IDENTITY IN AN UNLIKELY SPORT RUGBY LEAGUE
By Huw Richards

International Herald Tribune
Nov 15 2007
France

The organizers of the Rugby League World Cup next year – the first
since 2000 – could be forgiven for feeling disappointed when Samoa
took the 10th and last place by winning the wild card.

This is not a judgment on Samoa, a powerful and attractive team that
should challenge for a place in the final four when the 13-a-side’s
code championship is played in Australia next October and November.

Too bad, though, that its victim in the final qualifier was Lebanon.

When the Cedars lost, 38-16, to Samoa in Featherstone, England,
on Wednesday night the World Cup lost not only the thousands of
Lebanese-Australians who would have flocked to support their team,
but a romantic story line.

The Cedars represent a nation that, if in not quite as desperate a
state as in the 1980s, is still sufficiently strife-ridden to require
that "home" qualifiers be played on neutral territory. George Elias,
president of the Lebanon Rugby League, explained, "We could have
played in the Lebanon, but we had a duty to the safety of the Irish
and Russian teams."

"Neutral" against Ireland on Nov. 2 meant Dewsbury, not far from
Featherstone, a place far more familiar to the Irish players, most
of whom are based in the north of England. Lebanon had to win, and
was nearly there when Ireland was awarded a debatable penalty. It
was kicked and Ireland secured the draw that took it to Australia
and consigned Lebanon to the wild-card competition.

There, on Nov. 9, it overwhelmed the two-time semifinalist Wales,
50-26, after trailing by 10 points at halftime. By the time it played
Samoa, the Lebanese team was so popular in the city where it has been
based that it was calling itself the "Cedars of Leeds."

In the final playoff it scored four brilliantly contrived tries
but could not cope with the greater power of the Pacific Islanders,
particularly in a first half it finished trailing by 28 points to 8.

"I’m very proud of them," said Darren Maroon, the Lebanon coach.

"They never gave up. This is a young side, and we’ll be back in
the future."

They represent hope not just for a small country and its expatriates,
but for a sport that while constantly hankering after new territory
often struggles to conquer it. The other World Cup qualifiers are:
traditional powers Australia – winners the last six times – New
Zealand, England and France; Pacific islands Tonga, Fiji and Papua New
Guinea; and two teams – Scotland and Ireland – dominated by northern
Englishmen of Celtic descent.

When Lebanon’s team was first launched in the late 1990s it was
regarded as something of a gimmick. It was formed entirely of
Australians, the product of an expatriate community that dates from
the late 19th century and, by happy coincidence, concentrated itself
initially in the Sydney suburb of Redfern, hottest of league’s dominant
city’s hotbeds.

Nick Shehadie, the rugby union player who became Lord Mayor of Sydney,
is of Lebanese descent. So is Steve Bracks, formerly state premier
of Victoria.

Lebanon played in the 2000 World Cup in Britain and was not disgraced.

"After that we were told that if we wanted to continue as a national
team, we had to build some roots in Lebanon," said Elias, who went
to Australia as a child in the 1950s.

The team rose to the challenge. In 2002 Danny Kazandjian – a Londoner
of Lebanese-Armenian extraction and a former colleague of this writer
on a rugby league Web site – was appointed as development officer
and introduced the game into Lebanon’s universities.

Kazandjian, now technical director of the Lebanon Rugby League, told
Al Jazeera television this year: "We enabled them to take the sport,
start it, run it, manage it on a day-to-day basis and develop it.

They’ve taken the idea and turned it into something real and tangible."

Five university-based teams have been playing a twice-a-year
competition since late 2002. Last month the league agreed to a title
sponsorship with Bank of Beirut. A locally based Liban Espoirs squad
complements the main, still overwhelmingly Australian, national team.

There were five Espoirs, three still Beirut-based, in the 20-man
squad for the qualifiers.

Rudy Hachache of Lebanese American University, the domestic
tournament’s all-time leading scorer, told Al Jazeera: "When people
first saw us, they thought we were playing American football. Now
they know it is rugby league."

The game has so far avoided the sectarian tensions that beset Lebanon.

"We have players from the Christian, Orthodox and Muslim communities
and from the start have made it a rule that nobody talks about
religion," Elias said.

Looking forward a decade he dreams of "having a team in the French
or perhaps even the British competition."

Losing a World Cup place won’t help this ambition, but as one player,
Samer el Masri, told Al Jazeera: "We don’t give up. We get knocked
down and we get up and try again. That’s the Lebanese tradition."

Massis Weekly Online

VOLUME 27, ISSUE 41 (1341)
SATURDAY, November 17, 2007

— News Bulletin —

Violence against chairman of SDHP "Sargis Dkhruni" students’ union.

20 year old Narek Galstyan, chairman of the Social Democrat Hunchak
Party’s "Sarkis Dkhruni" students’ union, was beaten at 11:00 am
November 15 2007. While stopping the taxi, assailants forcefully
grabbed the car keys from the driver, making Narek Galstyan get out of
the vehicle before which the assailants subsequently struck him
brutally, causing severe blows to his head.
The assailants warned Galstyan that if he continued giving information
or conducting interviews with the press, they would kill him next time.
The assailants fled the scene in with a license plate number "VAZ-2106."
Narek was taken to the Infection Hospital of Nork where he received
the initial care, and was then transferred to "Saint Grigor
Lusavorich" Hospital for intensive care where he is now in the
rehabilitation division.
As reported in the current issue of Massis Weekly, Narek Galstyan and
another member of the Social Democrat Hunchak Party on November 12th
were arrested and sent to the Police Station for distributing
opposition leaflets. After an interrogation was conducted by the head
of the Police of Yerevan, Nersik Nazaryan, whom Galstyan was assaulted
and battered by, a crowd of supporters had started gathering in front
of the police station, as the detained subjects were set free and
advised not to engage in oppositional political activities any more
and not to tell the media about the detention, otherwise they would be
punished.

————————
– SD Hunchakian Activists Detained and Assaulted By Police
– Armenian To Hold Presidential Elections On February 19
– Serzh Sarkisian Confirmed As The Presidential Candidate Of The
Ruling Republican Party
– Karabakh War Could Flare Again, Warns Western Think-Tank
– Lecture At NAASR On Armenian Genocide By Lemkin Award-Winner Donald Bloxham
– Holocaust Denial in The White House
————————-

– SD Hunchakian Activists Detained and Assaulted By Police

YEREVAN — Narek Galstyan, chairman of ?Sargis Tkhruni? Youth Student
Union of Social Democratic Hunchakian Party and Eduard Makaryan,
member of the party leadership were detained on November 12th at 23.30
p.m. for distributing leaflets advertising upcoming opposition rally
which will be held on November 16. Both activists were taken to the
central department of the police and detained until 3 am. They were
set free when a crowd of supporters had started gathered in front of
the police department.
The Armenian authorities have stepped up their crackdown of activists
and companies owned by a millionaire businessmen who have supported
and are close to former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.
Also alleging government retribution is a television station in
Armenia?s second largest city of Gyumri that broadcast a September 21
speech in which Ter-Petrosian harshly criticized the administration of
President Robert Kocharian. The STS accused the GALA TV on Monday of
evading 26 million drams ($80,000) in taxes over the past two years.
Ter-Petrosian and his allies say the crackdowns on SIL Group owned by
Sukiasian family and GALA are politically motivated and aimed at
stifling dissent ahead of next February?s presidential elections, a
view shared by other major opposition parties. Armen Martirosian, a
parliament deputy from the opposition Zharangutyun party, urged the
authorities on Tuesday to stop the ?tax persecution? of defiant
businessmen. ?It is inadmissible to place restrictions on free media,
citizens and economic entities in the run-up to a fateful event like
presidential elections,? Martirosian said in a speech at the National
Assembly.

– Armenian To Hold Presidential Elections On February 19

YEREVAN — Armenia?s Central Election Commission (CEC) officially set
the date of next year?s presidential election for February 19 thus
marking the beginning of formal processes leading up to the vote.
Following the requirement of Armenian law, CEC Head Garegin Azarian
made a brief announcement in this regard through the country?s public
television and radio on Friday afternoon. ?In line with the Armenian
election law and constitution, I am authorized to declare that the
elections of the republic?s president will be held on February 19,
2008,? Azarian said. According to the Armenian constitution, an
election must take place 50 days before the end of the current
president?s term.
In accordance with Armenia?s election law, the Election Day (Tuesday)
is declared a day-off in the country. The timetable of all stages of
the electoral process is expected to be defined soon after this
announcement. Regardless of whether February 19 election goes into a
runoff or not, the next elected president of Armenia will be sworn in
on April 9.
If adopted in the second reading any time soon, the amendments to the
election law approved by lawmakers in the first reading early this
week will stipulate that only political parties can nominate
presidential candidates, or persons wishing to stand for president in
elections can do so themselves.
So far candidates in Armenia?s presidential elections have been
nominated by political parties and blocs of political parties as well
as by civic initiatives. Critics say the amendment has ?psychological?
implications as it will make impossible the appearance of the names of
several political parties at a time on the ballot-paper next to the
name of a candidate they support. They further claim that it is done
deliberately to contain a possible consolidation of different
opposition parties around a single candidate in the run-up to the
election.

– Serzh Sarkisian Confirmed As The Presidential Candidate Of The
Ruling Republican Party

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian attacked and warned former
President Levon Ter-Petrosian against attempting to change Armenia?s
existing political system over the weekend as he was formally
confirmed as the presidential candidate of the ruling Republican Party
(HHK).
The HHK leadership unanimously backed his candidacy in the upcoming
presidential election at a congress held in Yerevan on Saturday.
Sarkisian was also elected HHK chairman, completing his takeover of a
party which controls most government bodies in the country and claims
to have 135,000 members.
With Sarkisian long seen as President Robert Kocharian?s preferred
successor, the four-hour congress was expected to be a mere formality.
As was the case during the previous HHK gatherings, there were no
discussions on key issues facing Armenia and the party?s electoral
strategy and tactics. The only visible novelty this time around was
the presence of shapely fashion models who helped 650 or so delegates
find their seats in a sports arena in Yerevan that served as the
congress venue.
Sarkisian spent half of his 30- minute acceptance speech responding to
Ter-Petrosian?s harsh criticism of the current Armenian leadership. It
was a clear sign that he considers the enigmatic ex-president to be
his main election challenger.
?They want to break up the state,? the influential premier said of
Ter-Petrosian and his opposition loyalists. ?They won?t succeed. Any
[such] attempt will be thwarted.? Breaking his nearly decade-long
silence, Ter-Petrosian has accused Kocharian and Sarkisian of turning
Armenia into a ?gangster state? where government corruption and
suppression of dissent are the norm. He has urged Armenians to help
him bring down the ruling ?criminal regime? in the election scheduled
for February 19.
?It is pathetic that Levon Ter-Petrosian has lost a sense of reality
to such an extent that he ? advises President Robert Kocharian and
myself to leave the political arena,? said Sarkisian. ?To avoid
staying in his debt, let me give him another advice. He had better
repent and apologize to the Armenian people for, to put it mildly,
mistakes committed by him.?
?I am sure he won?t do that because he is filled with spite and has
Genoirreversibly fallen behind the course of life,? he added.
Sarkisian apparently referred to the first years of Armenia?s
independence marked by an economic slump, mass unemployment and severe
electricity shortages. Ter-Petrosian and his loyalists say much of the
resulting enormous hardship was the result of the wars in
Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia that all but cut off Armenia from the
outside world. Kocharian insisted, however, that the Ter-Petrosian
administration simply ?ruined? the economy.
Sarkisian, who had help key government positions in Yerevan during
most of Ter-Petrosian?s 1991-1998 presidency, would not say if he
thinks he too bears responsibility for the alleged misrule.His
comments were dismissed on Monday by Ararat Zurabian, the nominal head
of the former ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh), one of the
several opposition parties aligned with Ter-Petrosian.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Zurabian stressed that neither Kocharian, nor
Sarkisian have directly commented on concrete accusations leveled
against them by Ter-Petrosian. The HHSh chairman suggested that they
try to disprove those accusations in a live televised debate with
Ter-Petrosian.
Addressing a big rally in Yerevan on October 26, Ter-Petrosian
specifically accused Kocharian, Sarkisian and their close associates
of pocketing billions of dollars in taxes and informal payments
allegedly extorted from local businesspeople.
In his Saturday speech, Sarkisian acknowledged that bribery, nepotism
and other corrupt practices are widespread in Armenia. He indicated
that if elected president, he will make sure that businessmen and
other wealthy individuals close to the government do not get away with
enriching themselves by illegal means.
?Tax evasion and corruption must be regarded as a disgraceful and
condemnable phenomenon,? said Sarkisian. ?We must not take into
account family ties and friendship and must not regard as friends and
supporters those people who will avoid paying taxes and tolerate this
vicious phenomenon.?
The Armenian premier himself has long been accused by his opponents of
sponsoring government-connected entrepreneurs who enjoy de facto
monopoly on lucrative forms of economic activity. Most of the
so-called ?oligarchs? are now affiliated with the HHK.

– Karabakh War Could Flare Again, Warns Western Think-Tank

BRUSSELS – The 20-year-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
could re-ignite into a war that would threaten the region?s oil
exports, an influential think-tank said on Wednesday. The
Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report the
fragile truce is under threat because Azerbaijan is using cash from
oil exports to beef up its military and both sides are refusing to
compromise.
A major oil pipeline linking Azerbaijan?s Caspian Sea oilfields to the
Mediterranean Sea runs a few dozen kilometers (miles) to the east of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Operated by a BPled consortium, it will soon pump
one million barrels of oil a day. ?The international community needs
to take the threat of war seriously,? said Magdalena Frichova, ICG?s
Caucasus Project Director.
?The risk of armed conflict is growing, and the dangers of complacency
enormous.? The report said the riskiest period could be around 2012,
when Azerbaijan?s oil exports are expected to start slowing, possibly
triggering economic problems.
?A military adventure might seem a tempting way to distract citizens
>From economic crisis,? ICG said in a preface to the report. ?Important
oil and gas pipelines near Nagorno-Karabakh would likely be among the
first casualties of a new war, something Europe and the U.S. in
particular have an interest in avoiding.?
The ICG report said the United States and European Union should make
resolution of the conflict a condition of their relations with
Azerbaijan and Armenia. It also said Baku and Yerevan should sign a
document of basic principles to establish ground rules for peace
talks. It said this should be done before elections in both countries
next year which could complicate the search for peace.

– Lecture At NAASR On Armenian Genocide By Lemkin Award-Winner Donald Bloxham

BELMONT, MA — Prof. Donald Bloxham, Professor of Modern History at
the University of Edinburgh and currently the J. B. and Maurice C.
Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in
Washington, D.C., will give a lecture entitled ?The Role of the Great
Powers in the Armenian Genocide? on Thursday, December 13, at 8:00
p.m., at the National Association
for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave.,
Belmont, MA. This lecture, Bloxham?s first in the Boston area, will
take place the same evening as NAASR?s Christmas Open House.
The lecture will be based on Bloxham?s acclaimed book The Great Game
of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the
Ottoman Armenians (Oxford Univ. Press), recently released in
paperback, and for which Bloxham has been awarded the Raphael Lemkin
Award for 2007 by the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
The Great Game of Genocide will be on sale and available for signing
by the author.

– Interaction Between Ottoman Empire and Great Powers
Bloxham has written, ?The project from which the book evolved
originally intended to focus upon Turkish denial of the Armenian
genocide, and Western acceptance of that denial. But it soon
became clear that denial and its accommodation could not be properly
understood without knowledge of how the outside world related to the
deeds of the Ottoman Empire during and immediately after the First
World War ? [and that] it was impossible to explain this pattern of
interaction between the Ottoman state and the ?Great Powers? in the
Armenian Question up to and during the genocide.?
Bloxham is the youngest full professor of history in the UK and the
winner of several prizes and honors for his work in addition to the
Lemkin Award for genocide scholarship. He is also the author of
Genocide on Trial: War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust
History and Memory, The Holocaust: Critical Historical Approaches
(with Tony Kushner), and the forthcoming Genocide, the World Wars, and
the Unweaving of Europe. He is also author of nearly fifty articles
and book chapters, and serves on the editorial board of four journals:
Holocaust Studies, Patterns of Prejudice, Zeitschrift für
Genozidforschung, and the Journal of Genocide Research.

– Holocaust Denial in The White House
The Turks Say The Armenians Died In A ?Civil War?, And Bush Goes Along
With Their Lies
By Robert Fisk
(The Independent, UK)

How are the mighty fallen! President George Bush, the crusader king
who would draw the sword against the forces of Darkness and Evil, he
who said there was only ?them or us?, who would carry on, he claimed,
an eternal conflict against ?world terror? on our behalf; he turns
out, well, to be a wimp. A clutch of Turkish generals and a
multimillion-dollar public relations campaign on behalf of Turkish
Holocaust deniers have transformed the lion into a lamb. No, not even
a lamb ? for this animal is, by its nature, a symbol of innocence ?
but into a household mouse, a little diminutive creature which, seen
>From afar, can even be confused with a rat. Am I going too far? I
think not.
The ?story so far? is familiar enough. In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish
authorities carried out the systematic genocide of one and a half
million Christian Armenians. There are photographs, diplomatic
reports, original Ottoman documentation, the process of an entire
post-First World War Ottoman trial, Winston Churchill and Lloyd George
and a massive report by the British Foreign Office in 1915 and 1916 to
prove that it is all true. Even movie film is now emerging ? real
archive footage taken by Western military cameramen in the First World
War ? to show that the first Holocaust of the 20th century,
perpetrated in front of German officers who would later perfect its
methods in their extermination of six million Jews, was as real as its
pitifully few Armenian survivors still claim.
But the Turks won?t let us say this. They have blackmailed the Western
powers ? including our own British Government, and now even the US ?
to kowtow to their shameless denials. These (and I weary that we must
repeat them, because every news agency and government does just that
through fear of Ankara?s fury) include the canard that the Armenians
died in a ?civil war?, that they were anyway collaborating with
Turkey?s Russian enemies, that fewer Armenians were killed than have
been claimed, that as many Turkish Muslims were murdered as Armenians.
And now President Bush and the United States Congress have gone along
with these lies. There was, briefly, a historic moment for Bush to
walk tall after the US House Foreign Relations Committee voted last
month to condemn the mass slaughter of Armenians as an act of
genocide. Ancient Armenian-American survivors gathered at a House
panel to listen to the debate. But as soon as Turkey?s fossilised
generals started to threaten Bush, I knew he would give in.
Listen, first, to General Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the Turkish armed
forces, in an interview with the newspaper Milliyet. The passage of
the House resolution, he whinged, was ?sad and sorrowful? in view of
the ?strong links? Turkey maintained with its NATO partners. And if
this resolution was passed by the full House of Representatives, then
?our military relations with the US would never be as they were in the
past… The US, in that respect, has shot itself in the foot?.
Now listen to Mr Bush as he snaps to attention before the Turkish
general staff. ?We all deeply regret the tragic suffering (sic) of the
Armenian people… But this resolution is not the right response to
these historic mass killings. Its passage would do great harm to our
relations with a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror.? I
loved the last bit about the ?global war on terror?. Nobody ? save for
the Jews of Europe ? has suffered ?terror? more than the benighted
Armenians of Turkey in 1915. But that Nato should matter more than the
integrity of history ? that Nato might one day prove to be so
important that the Bushes of this world may have to equivocate over
the Jewish Holocaust to placate a militarily resurgent Germany ?
beggars belief.
Among those men who should hold their heads in shame are those who
claim they are winning the war in Iraq. They include the increasingly
disoriented General David Petraeus, US commander in Iraq, and the
increasingly delusional US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, both
of whom warned that full passage of the Armenian genocide bill would
?harm the war effort in Iraq?. And make no mistake, there are big
bucks behind this disgusting piece of Holocaust denial.
Former Representative Robert L Livingston, a Louisiana Republican, has
already picked up $12m from the Turks for his company, the Livingston
Group, for two previously successful attempts to pervert the cause of
moral justice and smother genocide congressional resolutions.
He personally escorted Turkish officials to Capitol Hill to threaten
US congressmen. They got the point. If the resolution went ahead,
Turkey would bar US access to the Incirlik airbase through which
passed much of the 70 per cent of American air supplies to Iraq which
transit Turkey.
In the real world, this is called blackmail ? which was why Bush was
bound to cave in. Defence Secretary Robert Gates was even more
pusillanimous ? although he obviously cared nothing for the details of
history. Petraeus and Crocker, he said, ?believe clearly that access
to the airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would be very
much put at risk if this resolution passes…?.
How terrible an irony did Gates utter. For it is these very ?roads and
so on? down which walked the hundreds of thousands of Armenians on
their 1915 death marches. Many were forced aboard cattle trains which
took them to their deaths. One of the railway lines on which they
travelled ran due east of Adana ? a great collection point for the
doomed Christians of western Armenia ? and the first station on the
line was called Incirlik, the very same Incirlik which now houses the
huge airbase that Mr Bush is so frightened of losing. Had the genocide
that Bush refuses to acknowledge not taken place ? as the Turks claim
? the Americans would be asking the Armenians for permission to use
Incirlik. There is still alive ? in Sussex if anyone cares to see her
? an ageing Armenian survivor from that region who recalls the Ottoman
Turkish gendarmes setting fire to a pile of living Armenian babies on
the road close to Adana. These are the same ?roads and so on? that so
concern the gutless Mr Gates. But fear not. If Turkey has frightened
the boots off Bush, he?s still ready to rattle the cage of the
all-powerful Persians.
People should be interested in preventing Iran from acquiring the
knowledge to make nuclear weapons if they?re ?interested in preventing
World War Three?, Bush has warned us. What piffle. Bush can?t even
summon up the courage to tell the truth about World War One. Who would
have thought that the leader of the Western world ? he who would
protect us against ?world terror? ? would turn out to be the David
Irving of the White House?
(The Independent, UK)

—
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MEMBER OF RPA BOARD BELIEVES OPINION OF FOREIGN ORGANIZATIONS MORE THAN THAT OF ARMENIAN SOCIETY

Noyan Tapan
Nov 14, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. If even extra-parliamentary forces
place orders of participation in the 2008 presidential elections,
the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), having recorded success in
the parliamentary elections, is all the more entitled to take part
in the campaign. This statement was made by Hakob Hakobian, a member
of the Board of the Republican Party of Armenia and a member of the
Republican Party of Armenia faction of the RA National Assembly,
on November 14. In his words, the Republican Party of Armenia goes
to the elections having a big political capital.

In response to a journalist’s question of what attitude Hakob Hakobian
has towards the point of view existing in wide ranges of society on
simulating the results of the parliamentary elections, the MP said
that he believes only the opinion of international authoritative
organizations and not that of the Armenian society.

In response to the question of what attitude he has towards the
statement of international authoritative organizations, for example,
that of "Freedom House", according to which there are political
prisoners in the face of Jirayr Sefilian, as well as towards the
statements that freedom of press is limited in Armenia, Hakob Hakobian
accepted that Armenia, really, has problems with regard to the free
activities of TV companies, of A1+ TV company, in particular, however,
the same cannot be said about the existence of political prisoners.

50-60 CHILDREN BORN WITH SNOUT OF WOLF AND LIP OF RABBIT ANNUALLY

Panorama.am
15:43 14/11/2007

Annually 50-60 children are born with the illness of rabbit lip
and wolf snout in the republic, department head of Yerevan state
medical university, Gagik Kocharyan told Panorama.am. In his words,
40-50 children with such defects are operated annually in the
republic. The illness is transmitted mainly genetically. Besides,
genetic transmission (70 percent), the illness may be caused by some
kind of disease in the first 2-3 months of pregnancy. "During this time
of pregnancy, the facial section of the child is formed, for example,
a child may be born with problems due to serious flue of a woman,"
he said.

Children born with a rabbit lip and wolf snout may undergo operation
starting from 3-4 month old.

Specialists say when a child is 6 and more kgs, they may be
operated. In case for any reason the operation is done after the child
is 7 years old, the operation will be of plastic nature. In case of
such diseases, children may have problems of eating and drinking as
well as other movements.

PRIME MINISTER STATED THAT THE INTERNATIONAL PROCESSES OBLIGE TO CONCRETIZE THE VISIONS ON THE PLACE OF ARMENIA IN THE WORLD ECONOMY

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Nov 13 2007

Yerevan, November 13 /Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian stated in Yerevan today that the "complex international
economic processes have direct influence on the situation in our
country and oblige to concretize the visions on the place of Armenia
in the international economy".

Mediamax reports that the Prime Minister said this, presenting in
the parliament the draft state budget of Armenia for 2008.

"We should get concentrated on the vision of future and not scatter
our possibilities in the discussions of the mistakes, which were made
in the past", the Prime Minister stated.

Serzh Sarkisian noted that the Armenian economy is under the influence
of complex processes in the world economy – the situation on the
secondary mortgage market in the USA, the abrupt decrease of rates,
the abrupt decrease of the dollar rate concerning other currencies, the
cessation of subsidizing of agriculture by the EU, the unprecedented
growth of world prices for fuel and foodstuffs.

Talking about the neighbors of Armenia in the region, the Prime
Minister stated that Azerbaijan positions itself as a country of
raw materials, "and it is obvious that the oil industry considerably
influences all the spheres of the life of the country".

"Georgia, which has a favorable geographic location, forwards ambitious
political and economic development programs", Serzh Sarkisian stated.

"It is obvious that in present geopolitical and economic realities
the main basis for Armenia’s development is the human potential", the
Prime Minister stated, stressing that he implies the human potential
of all Armenians around the world.