Author: Varosian Antranik

FILM PROJECT ON TOLERANCE WINS PRIZE

A1+
17 July, 2008

Plans for a film called "A Shepherd’s Song" by Vahram Mkhitaryan
won a tolerance film prize awarded by the OSCE Office in Yerevan and
partners in a ceremony held at the Armenian Foreign Ministry today.

The prize of about 5,000 euros will sponsor the production of the film,
which will tell the story of the challenges facing a blind shepherd
and his family.

"Culture and cinema in particular are one of the most effective ways
and means to raise tolerance awareness in society. This special award
aims to attract attention to the significant role of tolerance,"
said Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

The ceremony during which Mkhitaryan received the prize in the
"Tolerance without Borders" competition, was part of the Golden Apricot
International Film Festival, held in Yerevan from 13 to 20 July.

The prize was awarded for the second consecutive year. Last year’s
winner, "The Third Rider" by Gor Baghdasaryan, was to be screened
today in a Yerevan cinema.

The Office, United Nations Development Programme Armenia and the
Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation sponsored the prize,
which was awarded in co-operation with the Golden Apricot Fund for
Cinema Development.

DECISION ON TURK-ARMENIA GAME RESTS ON DEVELOPMENTS

Hurriyet
July 16 2008
Turkey

Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s attendance at a soccer match
in Armenia will depend on developments that occur between the two
countries between now and the match date, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
said in a televised interview on Wednesday.

"Such participation would depend on the developments between today
and the match date," Babacan told NTV.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan has invited Gul to visit Yerevan
for a soccer match in September, marking "a new start" in relations
between the two states. Turkey is due to play Armenia in a World Cup
qualifier on Sept 6.

"Until now we, as Turkey, took unilateral steps… This (match
invitation) is the result of the one-sided steps we took," Babacan
said.

Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it
declared its independency. However there is no diplomatic relations
between two countries, as Armenia presses the international community
to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey’s
call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent
of Azerbaijani territory despite the U.N. Security Council resolutions
on the issue.

Babacan also warned that any decision of Washington to accept
the so-called "genocide" claims would "greatly harm bilateral
relations". U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama had declared if
elected, his administration would accept the claims to woo Armenian
voters.

"This is why a thorough assessment needs to made. Such a decision
could lead to serious and negative consequences…We have seen this
in the previous campaign terms. Their approach to issues during the
campaign term differs from that shown after the elections," he added
when asked about Obama’s view on the 1915 incidents.

Armenia, with the backing of the Diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when the Armenians
took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

PERVERTED SENSE OF POWER
Zaman Online
July 16 2008
Turkey

DOÄ~^U ERGÄ°L [email protected] Columnists

One really wonders how in the world a bunch of people get together
and decide that the country is going down the drain and that they have
the moral authority to stop it by staging a coup and to start running
the country contrary to popular will, the state of the economy and
the international conjuncture.

Are they bereft of intelligence or does their lust for power overwhelm
their intelligence? Whatever the case may be, it is a pathological
phenomenon and both military education and the Turkish political
culture have to be rapidly cleansed of the need and right to stage
coups whenever the system actually is or is perceived to be in entropy.

The military cadets must be raised with a sense of professionalism
just like the professionalism of other vocations. They must not be
inculcated with the feeling of sacrifice and that they are doing a
favor for their nation just by performing their duty. Lieutenants
graduating from the war academy must not be conditioned to act as
statesmen and "saviors," while being soldiers at the same time, as
they are today. Additionally, the nation must not be conditioned to see
the armed forces as the "triumphant cavalry" riding in to deliver the
nation from bad politicians when the political system falters. The
elite of this country must rapidly reach a consensus to rid the
popular culture of extra-legal interventions during times of crisis
and to stand up together against such assaults on the popular will.

The intellectual and political elite of this country have neglected to
perform a thorough analysis on what the reasons behind the entropy in
the system are. That is why they could not develop viable solutions to
problems that have lingered on for decades and become gangrenous. In
fact they wanted to draw dividends from political polarization. Due
to elite consensus on the principles of living together in peace
(pluralist democracy) and economic progress by increasing the
productive capacity of the workforce and efficient use of natural
resources, Turkey missed the progress that many countries achieved
in the 20th century and faces the danger of missing a part of the
present one. That is a pity because the country has never fallen under
the stultifying yoke of communism or theocracy. Thus there must be
substantial flaws in its legal and administrative system as well as
in the vision and deeds of its ruling elite, who uphold each other
in a tutelary system.

The Ergenekon case is a window on these flaws. A group of people whose
value is measured by their own egos have amassed to run the country
at will by relying on military power that they would provoke to bring
order to the chaotic country they want to create by assassinations
and mass murders. These are retired generals, academicians and
businessmen who have befriended leaders of organized crime gangs like
"nationalist mafia"! The ideology with which they try legitimize their
illegal actions is Kemalism (named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk). Any
student of Turkish politics knows that Kemalism is a combination
of nationalism, Westernism and authoritarian pragmatism. With the
assassination of Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in Trabzon and
prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Ä°stanbul and
other crimes directed against foreigners and non-Muslim minorities,
the nationalism of this bunch has become a criminal affair rather
than an effort of exalting their nation. Due to their hatred for the
West, just because it stands for democracy and rule of law (their
worldview’s antithesis), they have dropped the Western orientation
of their ideology, further deviating from Kemalism. In fact in their
coded writings they have substituted the EU and the US for "coyote" and
"scorpion," which expose how alien they have become to the realities
they have been living in.

What remains is not even an ideology; it is sheer hunger for power and
lust for an authoritarian form of administration in khaki color. Their
pragmatism has no correspondence with either the realities of the
nation or of the contemporary world. In the absence of anything or
any group that would support them in their quest to run the country
in total disregard of its people, they fell into a schizoid state
of mind in which being saviors and criminality to come to power have
blended into each other.

Now that their caper is exposed and they face litigation, we will
observe whether the judiciary will judge them by their criminal actions
rather than view the case as an offensive defense of the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) to prevent its closure. If the judiciary
demonstrates the maturity to distinguish the two phenomena, a giant
step will be taken toward establishing rule of law in this country.

–Boundary_(ID_H/KD3Lsdyb0EBXG1Sv/1JA)–

MARIE YOVANOVITCH: OUR EMBASSIES TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO ENCOURAGE DIALOGUE BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.07.2008 17:37 GMT+04:00

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara is committed to working with the Government
of Turkey on ways in which the atrocities of 1915 can be studied,
U.S. Ambassador-Designate to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch said in
her response to Senator Obama’s question "What steps is the State
Department taking to encourage greater study and recognition of the
Armenian Genocide in Turkey?"

"As a recent example, the Administration is currently laying the
groundwork for an International Visitor Program that would bring
archivists from the Turkish State Archives to the U.S. to look at
the ways in which we do historical research. As a confidence building
measure, the USG has contacted Armenian archivists to participate in
the program, in the hope that, upon return, the archivists from both
countries could work together on a joint program that would study
the issue.

In addition, our Embassies take every opportunity in meetings with the
Governments of Armenia and Turkey, and with civil society leaders from
both countries, to encourage improved dialogue between them. Since
2006, the USG has provided over $700,000 in support of initiatives
to increase people-to-people connections between Armenia and Turkey,
including research projects, conferences, documentary production,
and exchange and partnership programs with the goal of increasing
cross-border dialogue and cooperation. These programs are focused on
bringing together Armenian and Turkish NGOs, think tank researchers,
academics and business leaders at the grass roots level by creating
opportunities for them to work together on common projects that will
benefit both countries," Amb. Yovanovitch said, the ANCA reports.

Asked "How will you work with your counterparts in Ankara to
decriminalize discussion of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey? Is the
Department satisfied with recent modifications to Article 301 of
Turkey’s Criminal Code that allowed individuals such as Hrant Dink to
be prosecuted for speaking about the Genocide? Why or why not?" she
said, "The Administration has made clear to the Turkish authorities
on many occasions that such prosecutions violate free expression,
run counter to Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union, and
undercut Turkey’s strategic significance as an example of a secular
democracy that can inspire reform throughout the broader Middle East
and Central Asia.

The scope for free expression in Turkey, including on the Armenian
issue, has expanded significantly in recent years, but clearly there
is much more to be done. In May 2008, Turkey amended Article 301
of its Penal Code, under which individuals have been prosecuted
for "insulting Turkishness." While the Administration would have
preferred to have seen the repeal of Article 301, the amendments
reduce the maximum possible sentence from three to two years and,
most importantly, require the Minister of Justice to determine
whether to accept the case for prosecution. The Minister’s role
should help to reduce significantly the number of cases brought by
zealous prosecutors. The Administration has encouraged the Turkish
authorities to continue this progress and to end legal action against
citizens for expressing their views."

"We remain troubled by Ambassador Yovanovitch’s evasive answers,
her outright non-responses, and her refusal, in her replies to
Senator Obama and other Senators, to offer anything approaching
a reasonable or factually supportable explanation of the reasons
behind Administration’s misguided policy on the Armenian Genocide,"
said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA.

"This being said, it appears as though Ambassador Yovanovitch and
her colleagues have learned from the disastrous Hoagland experience
and are coming to understand that the U.S. Senate will not accept –
and the Armenian American community will never allow – an Ambassador
to Armenia who denies the Armenian Genocide."

Messing with History

m07120801.htm
Volume 74, No. 27, July 12, 2008

By Garen Yegparian

As those who have tried to change history can attest, it doesn’t work.
Check with Holocaust deniers, ex-Soviet leaders (and their counterparts
in Animal Farm), and even Turkey.

Serge Sarkisian’s statement during his visit to Russia should have been
informed by this knowledge, but was not. Alas. Not only did he come off
as being ready to negotiate away the genocide, but it seemed like he
was brownnosing to the genocidal state. How demeaning! I was going to
critique just this gaffe, but he’s made it worse, as you’ll see below.

As a contrast, take the LATimes’ reporting on the example of Israel’s
Wiesenthal Center (for two consecutive days as of this writing). It has
put up a $450,000 bounty for Aribert Heim, Dr. Death (not to be
confused with the good guy of the same moniker, Jack Kevorkian, of
assisted suicide fame). The guy, if alive (his family says he died in
1993), would be 94. Nazi hunters have landed in Chile to look for him
in Patagonia. It’s 63 years after World War II and the Holocaust ended,
and these guys are intently pursuing the guilty. That’s dignity.

Interestingly, one of our SpitRain Award winners, Abe Foxman of ADL
infamy, after a visit to Turkey, remarked that he thought the fallout
(with Turkey) from the c
ontroversy over his `tantamount to genocide’
and related comments is `behind us.’ He also reported advising the
Turkish leaders he met with to focus on current issues with Armenia
(including opening borders) as a way of creating relationships that
will ease the way to dealing with more sensitive issues. I read this as
`divide and conquer’ and nothing else. Is the timing just coincidence,
I wonder?

But, back to Sarkisian, who had an op-ed piece in the July 9 Wall
Street Journal (WSJ). Here, he seemingly corrects his gaffe, but really
digs the hole deeper by avoiding calling Turkey’s border closure by its
proper name, a blockade. He focuses instead on the allegedly beneficial
economics of open borders. Think of what NAFTA has done to Mexico’s
peasantry and lower middleclass workers in the U.S. before you buy that
pile of hooey.

Then Sarkisian seems to laud the circuitous (via Georgia) trade that is
ongoing between Armenia and Turkey. He seems to miss the point that the
increased cost of this routing enables Armenia’s fledgling economy to
produce some goods. Were trade direct, agriculture and small
manufacturing products wouldn’t stand a chance against Turkey’s
industrial/agricultural juggernaut. By implementing its pan-Turkic
policy of assisting Azerbaijan, Turkey has actually helped Armenia with
the blockade. We should be making it politically more difficult, not =0
D
easier, for them to relent and open the border. I have to wonder if,
given the pervasive corruption in Armenia, some fatcats have come to an
agreement with their Turkish counterparts that, if successful, would
lead to the further fleecing of Armenia’s people.

Then Sarkisian makes a ridiculous analogy of our situation with the
ping-pong diplomacy of the early 1970’s. How can that
pre-Nixon/Mao-meeting goodwill-building phenomenon be compared to the
Armenia/Turkey situation? Had either China or the U.S. committed
genocide against the other and persisted in denying it? How absurd! He
almost seems to beg for normalized relations with Turkey, once again
demeaning his office, our landlocked country, and our whole
world-dispersed nation.

Of course there’s the invitation for Turkish President Abdullah Gul to
join Armenia’s president in watching the Armenia-Turkey soccer match.
On its own, that’s not such a bad idea. It could have been on our turf,
on our terms. If nothing else, it would have provided an opportunity to
organize a massive protest. But in the present context, it’s enough to
make even the most stolid person squirm with unease.

What’s going on? Serge Sarkisian is the guy who stood up to and fought
Turks to our east. Why is Sarkisian being so accommodating of the (even
more directly genocidal) Turks to our west?

By the way, you can, and should send comments to the WSJ
. I did, and it
was posted, though I know of at least one person whose submission was
not accepted. This is what mine read, and it has already been
criticized as being too weak, though a foremost concern of mine was
appearing in WSJ space about the genocide while tying Turkey legally to
the Ottoman Empire:

`President Sarkisian seems to be back-peddling from his earlier
comments (during a visit to Russia two weeks ago) regarding the matter
of a `commission.’

`Turkey has sought the establishment of such an entity as a means of
forever delaying admission of its culpability for the Armenian Genocide
committed 1915-23 by its legal predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire.

`Sarkisian’s more nuanced and broadened approach to this matter is a
welcome correction, though still suspect to most Armenians worldwide.’

Is something cooking? It’s very fishy. Sarkisian’s comment in Moscow
followed by Gul saying they’re evaluating the invitation,
contemporaneous with Abe Foxman’s comments and capped with the WSJ
piece. If he’s running a deft ruse, Sarkisian should at least come
clean with our leadership. Similarly if he’s just trying to divert
external pressure. Regardless, we should keep up the public heat on
him. This simply enables his game, strengthening his bargaining
position. Conversely, if it’s simply a matter of poor judgment on his
part, our
outcry will drive him back to more appropriate policies. The
very possibility that something has been cooked up to ease pressure on
Turkey is proof of the value of the heat we maintain on Turkey through
our genocide recognition and other Turkey-oriented actions in the
Diaspora. Given Matthew Bryza’s recent visit to the area, Foxman’s
Turkey trip, the lame-duck period of Bush’s presidency with its
traditional focus on foreign policy, and the op-ed’s publication in the
WSJ (a bastion of the U.S. establishment’s right wing), makes me
suspect intense U.S. activity.

Write the WSJ, Armenia’s consulates and embassies, expressing your
dismay and opposition to the dangerous path Sarkisian has started
following.

ARMENIAN NPP BOOSTS ELECTRICITY OUTPUT 3.6% IN H1 2008

Interfax News Agency
July 11 2008
Russia

Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP)

in January-June 2008 boosted electricity output 3.6% year-on-year
to 1.529 billion kilowatt hours, the NPP’s general director Gagik
Markosian told Interfax.

Transfer of electricity rose 3.7% to 1.408 billion kilowatt hours.

He said that the NPP’s electricity production exceeded an earlier
forecast by 6.3%, transfer – by 6.5%.

Markosian added that the NPP plans to shut down for a period of 85
days as of September 1, 2008 for the implementation of capital repairs
and refueling.

In September 2003, Armenian NPP was transferred to CJSC INTER RAO
UES for a financial management period of five years.

Armenian NPP is installed with two reactors with a combined capacity
of 815 megawatts. The first reactor came online in 1976, the second
– 1980. At the start of 1989 the station was shut down. In 1995 the
second reactor was restarted with 404 megawatts of capacity.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
July 11 2008

Ankara welcomes Sarksyan’s proposal for gradual normalization

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan’s open call to Turkey to launch "a
fresh start" in relations between the estranged neighbors has found a
positive response in the Turkish capital.

"The time has come for a fresh effort to break this deadlock, a
situation that helps no one and hurts many. As president of Armenia, I
take this opportunity to propose a fresh start — a new phase of
dialogue with the government and people of Turkey, with the goal of
normalizing relations and opening our common border," Sarksyan said in
an opinion piece published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. In
response to a question at a weekly press conference held in Ankara,
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Ã-zügergin said
firstly that Ankara has received Sarksyan’s formal invitation to
President Abdullah Gül via official channels to visit Yerevan
for a soccer match in September.

"We will assess the invitation," Ã-zügergin said.

Armenia and Turkey will play against each other in the Armenian
capital of Yerevan on Sept. 6 in a qualifying match of the 2010 FIFA
World Cup, scheduled to be held in South Africa.

"We are heeding normalization concerning relations with Armenia. The
Armenian president has had certain statements resound in the
international community," Ã-zügergin said when reminded
of the content of the opinion piece by Sarksyan.

"We have learned that he said that there is no other alternative than
normalization of the two countries’ relations. If this [statement] is
so, we agree with these suggestions. As a matter of fact, there had
been exchange of letters right after the elections in Armenia. These
elements are also in those letters. Accordingly, if it [the statement
by Sarksyan] is true, then we are responding with pleasure these
statements by Sarksyan," Ã-zügergin said.

"There is no real alternative to the establishment of normal relations
between our countries. It is my hope that both of our governments can
pass through the threshold of this new open door. ¦ We
cannot expect tangible progress without such structured
relations. Only through them can we create an effective dialogue
touching upon even the most contentious historical issues," Sarksyan
said in his opinion piece.

The Associated Press
July 8 2008

Jack Kevorkian’s congressional bid moves forward

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) ‘ Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian has
collected enough signatures to be on the November ballot as a
congressional candidate in Michigan.

Joe Rozell, director of elections for Oakland County, says Kevorkian
had about 3,200 valid signatures. Kevorkian needed to collect 3,000.

The 80-year-old in March announced plans to run as an independent for
the 9th Congressional District seat held by Republican Joe
Knollenberg. Democrat Gary Peters, a former state lottery
commissioner, also is in the race.

Kevorkian, nicknamed "Dr. Death," was released from prison last year
after serving eight years for helping an Oakland County man with Lou
Gehrig’s disease die in 1998.

PROBLEMS OF PLURALITY OF OPINIONS MAINLY CONNECTED WITH LOCAL LEGISLATION, COE REPRESENTATIVE SAYS

armradio.am
08.07.2008 15:27

The issues of ensuring plurality of opinions in mass media are mainly
connected with the local legislation, representative of the Council
of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs
Franziska Klopfer said.

Speaking at the international conference on "Plurality of opinions in
Armenian media," Franziska Klopfer noted that the lack of plurality
in Armenian broadcast media is mainly associated with the fact that
members of the National Television and Radio Commission are appointed
by the authorities.

Vice-Chair of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Science,
Education, Culture, Youth Affairs and Sport Naira Zohrabyan noted that
the expected legislative changes envisage a new procedure of forming
the National Television and Radio Commission on the competitive basis
to ensure the independence of the body.

NA AD HOC COMMISSION EXPECTS TO RECEIVE ANSWERS TO ITS QUESTIONS FROM FIRST RA PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF POLICE

NOYAN TAPAN

Ju ly 8

Samvel Nikoyan, the Secretary of the RPA faction, the Chairman of the
NA ad hoc commission on study of events that happened on March 1-2 in
Yerevan, on July 7, applied to RA Police Head Alik Sargsian asking him
to provide a certificate on a number of preliminary questions of the
commission. The range of the latters was confirmed at the commission’s
July 4 working consultation, "in the atmosphere of mutual consent." The
answer of the Police Head is expected in a ten-day term established by
the law. S. Nikoyan reported this at the commission’s July 8 sitting.

He said that commission members considered it expedient to single out
questions regarding the events that happened at dawn of March 1 in
Liberty Square, after which to ask additional questions to receive
explanations and new information. At that, the commission has asked
the Police Head to provide information on the actions done by the
RA Police at 07:00, March 1, their goals and legal motivation, legal
documents compiled, technical and special means used, the number of
representatives of law enforcement bodies involved in the actions, the
head of the actions, as well as the actions done by the demonstrants
and actions done by police troops aimed at their hundering, legality
and proportionality of special means used.

Besides, the commission inquired whether besides special means,
fire-arms was also used to the action participants or not, and with
what legal motivation, whether preliminary medical aid was provided
to those who suffered.

The next group of questions will regard the events following the
March 1 dawn.

S. Nikoyan also informed the commission that he has sent another
letter to first RA President, former presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian asking him to answer a number of quesitons and in case
of having proper factual materials also to provide the copies of the
latters. The commission, in particular, asked the opposition leader
whether before the morning events the Police informed about the goal
of their arrival, whether the Police provided information about the
approximate number of demonstrants being in the square at that moment,
the approximate number of policemen that arrived in the square,
the kinds of ammunition, actions done by the police and the actions
of demonstrants in response. According to the commission chairman,
the confronation of the two sides’ views will give the commission a
possibility to have a "many-sided, balanced approach."

S. Nikoyan also said that they should also apply to the Ministry of
Health to receive the copies of forensic expertise of ten victims and
people who received fire-arms injuries. According to him, they should
also apply to investigation bodies that carried out investigation
on the spot straight after the events demanding the copies of the
protocols compiled by them.