SECOND LEG OF MIKA AND PETRZALKA TEAMS TO TAKE PLACE ON AUGUST 30
Noyan Tapan
Aug 30 2007
YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The second leg of the second
qualification stage of the UEFA’s Cup Tournament between Mika and
Artmedia-Petrzalka teams will be held in the city of Senets in Slovakia
on August 30. It should be mentioned that the Armenian football players
won in the first game, which was held in Yerevan, with a score of 2:1.
KOCHARYAN CONGRATULATES GUL
Panorama.am
14:11 30/08/2007
President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has congratulated the newly
elected President of Turkey Abdullah Gul, Viktor Soghomonyan, press
secretary of the Armenian president told Public TV.
Earlier Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan and the leader of
"Jarangutiun" party had congratulated the newly elected president.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was elected as president of the country
on August 28 in the third round of elections.
ECONOMIST DOUBTS MINISTERS KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN THEIR FIELDS
Panorama.am
14:41 30/08/2007
"The terrible thing is that our respective ministers are not aware
about the state of their field," Eduard Aghajanov, an economist by
profession, told reporters today speaking about the current state
of economy.
"The minister of finance and economy has stated that foreign trade
deficit made up 5 percent of GDP in 2006," he noted also saying the
official statistics has reported 18.5 percent.
In the words of Aghajanov, the minister of agriculture has stated
that agriculture makes up 22 percent of the GDP whereas according
to the same official statistics the share of agriculture in GDP is
17,7 percent.
"Under these conditions I have a doubt if the president and the prime
minister of the country are aware about these data since respective
ministers do not know what is going on in their fields," Aghajanov
summed up.
INVESTIGATION OF MURDER OF LORI REGION PROSECUTOR IS UNDER PERSONAL CONTROL OF ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL
arminfo
2007-08-28 16:34:00
The case on murder of the Lori region prosecutor Albert Kazaryan is
being investigated.
As press-secretary of Armenian prosecutor general sona Truzyan told
Arminfo correspondent, Armenian Prosecutor General Agvan interrupted
his vocation in connection with the incident and came back to
Yerevan on Saturday. ‘The work of the investigation group is under
personal control of the prosecutor general’, – Truzyan said. the
investigation group is headed by one of the crime investigators on
specially important case of the Prosecutor General’s office, but the
press-secretary did not name his name.
TURKEY PRESSURING ISRAEL OVER NEW ADL STANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Aug 27 2007
Turkey is pressing Israel to help reverse the Anti-Defamation League’s
new position on the Armenian genocide. Turkey’s foreign minister,
Abdullah Gul, reportedly told Israel’s ambassador in Ankara, Pinhas
Avivi, that Israel could have done more to prevent the ADL’s shift,
Ha’aretz reported. The ADL described World War I massacres of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks as "tantamount to genocide" last week, after declining
for years to take a position on the question. The Gul-Avivi meeting,
which became "shrill" according to Israeli Foreign Ministry sources,
seemed to confirm the seriousness with which the Turks view the
prospect of a resolution, now under consideration by Congress,
recognizing the genocide. Jewish officials have publicly expressed
concern that such a resolution could impact Israel’s strategic
relationship with Turkey, American interests in the Middle East,
and potentially the security of the Turkish Jewish community. The
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is
now conducting discussions on the matter. The ADL has been under
fire for weeks for its position and its refusal to endorse the
Congressional resolution. After reversing itself last week and calling
the massacres a genocide, ADL almost immediately issued a second
statement reiterating its opposition to the resolution and supporting
efforts by Turkey and Armenia to resolve this issue by themselves.
TURKEY: CREATIVE FOREIGN POLICY IN THE GUL ERA
View By Ihsan Yilmaz
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Aug 27 2007
Turkey is in a very difficult sociopolitical area, full of challenges
and opportunities. It is obvious that isolationism is not an option
for Turkey, which needs a proactive and dynamic foreign policy. Mr. Gul
as president is an excellent chance for Turkey at this juncture.
We desperately need harmonious relations between the president,
the government and especially the Foreign Ministry.
We are surrounded by difficult neighbors and we must use our energies
efficiently. The European Union accession process, democratization
and economic development will hopefully minimize the energy we have to
spend with regards to the Aegean Sea and Cyprus problems. The Turkish
part of Cyprus will no longer be economically deprived in 10 years’
time, even if the status quo continues. As tourism and construction
industries will prosper the country, the Turkish Cypriots will no
longer be harmed by the unjust isolation. Thus we can focus our foreign
policy energies toward the chaotic East, as I assume the EU process
will naturally be an important business of the whole government anyway.
Iraq is becoming Vietnam the Second very fast. Before the invasion,
about half of the British people opposed it. Now almost everyone in
the UK wants the British troops to be withdrawn without severing ties
with the US. We do not know what the post-Bush US administration will
decide, but there are signs that they are losing hope. Iraq will be
our major foreign policy issue and we need to convince the Iraqis
that a divided Iraq is not for the good of the Middle East and that
nobody can win if Iraq is divided.
To convince we need to be credible. To be credible we first need to
treat all our citizens well, including Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Jews
and Turks. A prosperous and fully democratic Turkey with good human
rights record will almost be free of Kurdophobia, Arabophobia and yes,
Islamophobia and thus will be more credible. President Gul can easily
be a "symbol" of this new era with the help of the government and this
symbol, even without any political power, will be an efficient foreign
policy instrument. This is the real "peace at home, peace abroad."
President Gul will also be in constant dialogue with the world’s NGOs
and diaspora –Turkish, Kurdish, Alevi, Jewish, Armenian and Greek —
and will establish close, friendly and sincere ties with them. He
will actively look for ways of peacefully coexisting in the global
village by agreeing to disagree.
The new Turkish foreign policy should also actively deal with the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem so that we can start normalizing our relations
with Armenia in order to speak more easily about the Armenian genocide
allegations. Otherwise many of our allies will increase their efforts
to use this problem as a bargaining chip against Turkey. We have to
face this problem and creatively tackle it.
We also need to be in close dialogue with Israel and the Jewish
diaspora to explain to them that the 70 million people living in Turkey
have also existential priorities, to ask for reciprocal empathy and
to underline that in this telecommunications age, it is no longer
possible not to listen to the people in democratic Turkey.
The recent election results should have shown that the Turkish people
do not like top-down interference, enforced policy and pro-coup
lobbying.
It is obvious that a powerful army is also an important part of the
foreign policy and equally obvious is that to have a powerful army
we need to have a strong economy and this cannot be achieved without
full democracy in Turkey. It is true that Turkey is not Norway,
but it is not China either.
To reach and protect full democracy we also need to have — among
other obvious things — efficient government intelligence apparatus
that will operate at home and abroad.
To summarize, Turkey will need to double its Foreign Ministry and
intelligence budgets and personnel in the Gul era for creative
solutions.
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 27 2007
What Anti-Defamation League statements put at stake
Searching through news articles published and aired by international
media concerning Turkey and Israel would probably yield many results
concerning government or military cooperation between the two
countries, all emphasizing the fact that Turkey is one of the few
Muslim countries with which Israel has diplomatic ties.
Yet this fact changed as of last week when the New York-based
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) decided to label the World War I
killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide, reversing its long-time
policy of approaching the issue in a more balanced way.
Elaborating on certain news articles found in Today’s Zaman’s
archives can be helpful in focusing on what this article will humbly
try to draw attention to: It was only last week that Turkey was the
host country of a live, joint search-and-rescue exercise conducted by
Israeli, Turkish and US naval and air forces in the international
waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, south of the Turkish coast.
"The objective of this exercise is to practice coordinated emergency
search-and-rescue procedures and life safety measures at sea. By
enhancing their interoperability, cooperation and coordination level
during the exercise, elements of the three naval and air forces will
be able to respond more efficiently and rapidly to potential maritime
emergencies as well as to humanitarian assistance in the future," the
Turkish General Staff said at the time.
And it was only earlier this month when a veteran Middle East
commentator’s article posted from the Turkish capital and published
in the influential Israeli daily Haaretz quoted hopeful remarks by
Turkish diplomats who have been trying to jumpstart peace talks
between Syria and Israel.
Recent news articles reflect deep disappointment with the Turkish
capital’s beliefs that calling the 1915 incidents genocide has
neither historical nor legal grounds. Statements made by Turkish
diplomats, independent of the ADL’s announcement in which it reversed
its policy on the Armenian issue, provide strong clues on what kinds
of concerns led the Turkish political leadership to voice such strong
disappointment.
"We consider this statement, which also constitutes fairness to the
unique position of the Holocaust in history as well as to memories of
its [the Holocaust’s] victims, as a misfortune and expect it be
corrected," Levent Bilman said in a written statement, while Turkey’s
Ambassador to Israel Namýk Tan said the ADL’s change of policy is
incompatible with Turkey’s existing strategic relations with both
Israel and the US.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in a
systematic genocide campaign by Ottoman Turks around the time of
World War I, but Ankara categorically rejects the label, saying that
both Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I,
when the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia
and sided with Russian troops that were invading the crumbling
Ottoman Empire.
In a statement published on its Internet site on Thursday, following
its first statement announcing change of policy, the ADL said it was
ready to support reconciliation efforts between Turks and Armenians
after it sent shockwaves through Ankara by recognizing Armenian
allegations of genocide, referring to Turkey’s proposal dating back
to 2005.
Ankara is well aware of the fact that the ADL is solely a
nongovernmental organization based in the United States and has no
official link to the Israeli state. Yet Turkish officials are also
aware of the fact that Turkey’s sensitive public opinion would not
make this distinction between governmental and nongovernmental
institutions, possibly leading to escalation of both anti-Israeli and
anti-US sentiments in society. The ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) and its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan,
known for their firm stance against anti-Semitism, would not be
strong enough to prevent such a reaction from the public given the
fact that the g-word ("genocide") is a nonstarter if Turkey’s friends
are sincerely hoping for Turkey and its people to face bitter
memories of their joint history with the Armenian people. Genocide is
also a legal term and speaking about the tragic events that
transpired in Anatolia during World War I is more than just a legal
matter.
Israel is also well aware of all of these facts given that its
President Shimon Peres felt the need to assure Erdoðan that Israel
has not changed its position on the Armenian issue. During a
telephone conversation with Erdoðan last week, Peres reiterated the
Israeli position that Turkey and Armenia should resolve the dispute
on the nature of the killings of Anatolian Armenians through
dialogue. According to the Israeli media, Peres, during the same
conversation, also noted that Israel does not control US Jewish
organizations, which pursue their own agendas.
Nonetheless, the matter doesn’t seem to be Ankara’s lack of awareness
of what Peres underlined concerning the US based-Jewish organizations
as Ankara considers ADL-like statements to be "seeds of discord"
being planted in strategic Turkish-Israeli relations which will
ultimately have a poisoning effect.
27.08.2007
Emine Kart
AZG Armenian Daily #153, 25/08/2007
Diplomacy
APPOINTMENT OF AMBASSADORS
Arshak Poladian has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Arabic Republic of
Syria (residence Damascus) by the August 23 decree of the RA
President.
It’s worth to mention that Armenia hasn’t had Ambassador to Syria for
a long time and it’s a serious progress in Armenia-Syria relations.
Vahagn Movsisian has been appointed Ambassador of the Republic of
Armenia to the People’s Republic of China (residence Beijing) by the
August 23 decree of the RA President.
V. Movsisian held the office of the principal director of the Armenian
Development Agency from 2000 to 2007.
AMERICAN-JEWISH GROUP READY TO ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS
The New Anatoliani
Aug 22 2007
Turkey
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an influential American Jewish
organization fighting against anti-Semitism, has said that it would
acknowledge Armenian allegations on the 1915 incidents in Ottoman
Turkey.
ADL President Abraham Foxman said in a statement posted on group’s
web-site that his organization had come to share the view that the
incidents "were indeed tantamount to genocide," but adding that the
organization maintained its opposition against bringing the issue to
Congressional floor.
"We continue to firmly believe that a Congressional resolution on
such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at risk the
Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship
between Turkey, Israel and the United States," Foxman said.
The ADL has so far described those events as "massacres and
atrocities."
CHANCE OF AFFIRMATION OF RESOLUTION IS GREAT
Lragir.am
23-08-2007 14:53:57
The chance of affirmation of the resolution on the Armenian Genocide
by the U.S. House is great, stated the head of the ARF Hay Dat
Massachusetts office Sharistan Melkonyan on August 23 at the Friday
Club. She said the house will affirm the resolution 106 if it appears
on the agenda. She said the resolution will be affirmed if 218
representatives vote for it. The resolution has more cosponsors than
is needed to pass the resolution but it is difficult to forecast how
they will vote, she said. Therefore, according to Sharistan Melkonyan,
it is necessary to get more cosponsors of the resolution to ensure that
it will be passed. She said the adoption of the resolution is not an
end in itself for the Armenian community of America for it will impel
Turkey to recognize the genocide and open the border with Armenia.