Author: Vasilian Manouk

ARMENIAN PM RECEIVES JAPANESE AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA

Armenpress
Oct 25 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian received today newly appointed Japanese ambassador to
Armenia Yasuo Sayitoy (residence Moscow).

Governmental press service told Armenpress that the prime minister
congratulated the ambassador on his new appointment wishing him
success in his high mission.

The prime minister also expressed hope that the ambassador will
continue the effective cooperation with the Armenian government
like the other ambassadors who have exerted great efforts for the
consolidation and development of relations between the two countries.

Margarian pointed out that Armenian authorities underscore the further
development of friendly relations with Japan and said that Armenia
remembers that the Japanese government has been supporting Armenia
for about 10 years.

During the meeting the sides also underscored the cooperation within
the frameworks of international organizations.

THE MECHANICS OF BLESSING
Tigran Avetisian

Aravot, Armenia
Oct 24 2006

We should say from the beginning that what we are going to speak
about has no connection with any version of national anthem. Those
discussions have already been made, and it won’t be serious to speak
about it in the context of newest developments round the RA anthem.

We’d like to speak about the sad reality that not only political
elections are falsified. Everything is falsified in Armenia, which
has a remote connection with "election" or "contest" concepts. The
best proof of these words is the fact that Aram Khachatrian’s written
music for the ASSR epoch won in the contest. Nobody was surprised at
when the commission, which approved Tigran Mansurian’s melody suddenly,
changed its mind and "chose" Aram Khachatrian’s melody.

While it has no connection with the soundness.

There is only an answer, it isn’t interesting in our reality, and
unfortunately it has a lot of explanations. Now it isn’t essential
what the commission members got for that selection. Though it is
unpleasant to think that that the commission may vote with the same
criteria for the most valuable music of the world and for example,
Natasha Koroleva’s song.

The essential is that next important attribute of our state after
Constitution, the national anthem is devaluated. I should also
mention that I wouldn’t stand up for the anthem, which was selected
in that way.

‘VICTIM’ RULES ROME FILM FEST
By Nick Vivarelli

Daily Variety
October 23, 2006 Monday

Film buffs bestow nods at frosh fest

ROME – "Playing the Victim," a black comedy by Russian
helmer-playwright Kirill Serebrennikov, took the top prize at the
first RomeFilmFest, which ended Saturday with organizers pleased,
though event’s debut was far from flawless.

Comic "Hamlet" adaptation, in which a young man learns the truth
about his dead father while working for the police as a crime victim
impersonator, scooped fest’s rich E200,000 ($252,000) pic nod, voted
by a jury of regular Roman film buffs.

"Victim" won Moscow’s Sochi fest in June and has been a minor hit
in Russia.

The Special Jury Award went to "This Is England," the racially charged
skinhead dramedy by Blighty’s Shane Meadows that preemed in Toronto.

Headed by Italo helmer Ettore Scola, the 50-member jury included a
traffic cop, a housewife and a shrink.

French thesp Ariane Ascaride scooped the actress nod for her role
as a gun-toting cardiologist in Robert Guediguian’s "The Journey
to Armenia."

Male thesp prize went to Italy’s Giorgio Colangeli, who plays a
convicted murderer in Italo first-timer Alessandro Angelini’s incisive
prison drama "Salty Air," a festival fave.

Nine-day event drew a copious crowd, with 102,000 tickets issued:
56,000 of those were sold to the public, while 46,000 went to fest
sponsors or the 5,500 accredited fest attendees.

"It’s our first year, (and) I think we can be pretty happy, though
there certainly are some kinks to smooth out," said fest prexy
Goffredo Bettini.

Among areas Bettini admitted fest needs to work on are overall subpar
seat occupancy, as well as overflowing press screenings and snail-paced
press conferences due to clunky interpreting.

But Robert De Niro provided the event with a grand finale when he
attended a public interview and screened footage of his CIA thriller
"The Good Shepherd" Saturday.

Dazzling, if a bit outre, 10-minute trailer of De Niro’s depiction
of the CIA’s origins included a scene in which protag Matt Damon is
urinated upon as he squirms in mud as part of an initiation rite into
what appears to be Yale U.’s Skull & Bones secret society, from which
early CIA agents allegedly were recruited.

"It’s kind of ambitious," De Niro told the more than 1,500 fans packed
into Rome’s Parco Della Musica Auditorium.

Budgeted at a reported $110 million, "The Good Shepherd" goes out
Stateside via Universal Dec. 22. Medusa is releasing in Italy.

De Niro earlier in the day was handed an Italian passport by Rome
Mayor Walter Veltroni. While the honorary Italo citizenship had long
been in the works, process hit a snag in 2004, after a U.S.-based
Italian-American advocacy group complained that the thesp’s mobster
roles gave the country a bad name.

De Niro’s visit to the Eternal City also cemented the partnership
between the RomeFilmFest and the Tribeca fest he co-founded.

He was just one of the many stars who helped the fest secure a spot
on the international map — along with Sean Connery, Nicole Kidman,
Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere, Monica Bellucci and Harrison Ford.

With its mix of crowd-pleasing pics like "The Departed" and more
eclectic fare, the RomeFilmFest now constitutes concrete competition
to the venerable Venice fest a month earlier.

Responding to calls for a Rome date change from some Italo
industryites, Bettini said fest will be holding talks with top local
industry reps to "examine the dates situation." But it’s clear Rome
will fight tooth and nail not to relinquish its October slot, which
is ideal for its Business Street market, as it comes on the heels
of Mipcom.

Mostly geared to European product, mart was attended by some 300
international buyers and sellers. Consensus was it could shape up
into a significant biz booster for them.

Veteran Italo sales agent Adriana Chiesa sold Giuseppe Tornatore’s
noirish "The Unknown" to seven territories right after its Rome
world preem. Having screened in Rome, the Tornatore pic will not be
unspooling at AFM, she said.

"We now have a world-class film event," enthused Rome’s film buff
Mayor Veltroni, who has already secured Sofia Loren to be feted at
next year’s edition.

RomeFilmFest first edition winners: COMPETITION Film "Playing the
Victim," Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia Actress Ariane Ascaride,
"Voyage to Armenia," France Actor Giorgio Colangeli, "Salty Air,"
Italy Special Jury Award: "This Is England," Shane Meadows, U.K.

ALICE IN THE CITY (CHILDREN’S SIDEBAR) K-12 Section "Liscio," Claudio
Antonini, Italy Young Audiences Section "Just Like the Son," Morgan
J. Freeman, U.S.

NON OFFICIAL PRIZES Blockbuster Premiere Award "The Unknown," Giuseppe
Tornatore, Italy Cult Network Award for Documentary "Deep Water,"
Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell, U.K.

L.A.R.A award for Italian Performer Ninetto Davoli, "Uno su Due," Italy

EXPECTING FINAL DECISION OF KARABAKH IN COMING TWO YEARS SENSELESS

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2006 17:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Formally the Minsk process was not stopped. The
OSCE MG is a format created for contribution to the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement. But since 2001 it has been frozen, political
scientist, rector of the Caucasus Media Institute Alexander
Iskandaryan said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net. In his
words, recently attempts to activate the work of the OSCE Minsk
Group can be observed. "The latest visit of the Co-chairs is a
proof. However I do not think that quick resolution of the conflict
is possible. Unfortunately the positions of the sides are rather far
away from each other.

Thus, it’s senseless to expect a final resolution during the coming
year or two," he said

At that the political scientist said that energy essential for
activation of the Minsk process is being accumulated and this can lead
to deepening of useful contacts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. "Thus,
a dialogue between the sides was resumed. However it does not mean
a quick resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Anyway, talks
are better than their complete absence," Iskandaryan underscored.

SWISS MINISTER WANTS TO LEGALISE GENOCIDE DENIERS

European Jewish Press, Belgium
Oct 23 2006

BERN (EJP)— Switzerland’s justice minister has called on the Swiss
government to reverse a law which makes historical revisionism illegal.

Minister Christoph Blocher is on a campaign to change the law,
according to the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper – even if it
will impinge upon the sensitivities of minority groups, including
the country’s Jewish communities.

Blocher claims that freedom of expression is more important than
protecting the sensibilities of minority groups, NZZ wrote.

Blocher just returned from a trip to Turkey where a public discussion
of the Armenian genocide is de facto punishable by a court of law.

Upon his return home, Blocher said that he believes that Swiss laws
needs to be a beacon for other nations.

As far as the minister is concerned, a ban on free speech in Turkey
has made an effective public discussion of the Armenian genocide and
Kurdish issues there impossible. In effect, he claims that widening
the possibilities for freedom of speech in Switzerland might entice
other countries to do the same.

International relations

The minister, however, is also disgruntled because he claims that
such a law is an impediment on Switzerland’s relationship to other
countries.

Article 261 of the Swiss criminal code punishes genocide-denial.

Currently, anybody is punishable in Switzerland if they "deny,
belittle, or relativise genocide or crimes against humanity,"
NZZ wrote.

Because of this law, Swiss lawmakers who travel abroad are required
to discuss this topic with their counterparts in those countries
which have been accused, by the global community, of genocide.

Blocher’s trip to Turkey is a case in point. He believes that his
having been required to bring up the topic of the Ottoman Empire’s
Armenian genocide with his Turkish colleagues will have created
unnecessary friction during his meetings in the Eurasian nation.

However, the minister’s failure to guarantee that two Kurdish
activists, held in Switzerland would be extradited to Turkey has also
put a damper on Swiss-Turkish relations, in recent years.

Holocaust denial

The minister is apparently very much aware that a change in the law
will only entice Holocaust deniers to question the existence of gas
chambers as well. "I do not want that an opinion cannot be uttered
only because someone will be offended by it," the minister said.

According to the minister, the definition of genocide needs to be
decided by historians. "A debate on the subject, however, will have
no basis if diverse opinions are banned," he said.

According to NZZ, the minister made this very point to his Turkish
colleague, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek. In response, Cicek told
Blocher that Turkey would allow an international historian commission
to research the topic of the Armenian genocide and Kurdish matters.

The Turkish government had already announced its intention to form
a commission in the past. However, no commission has been set up,
to-date. Armenia and Turkey do not hold diplomatic relations. The
Armenians fear that a Turkish commission would be mostly composed of
revisionist minded historians, NZZ writes.

Although several of Blocher’s meetings were strained by the talk of
the Armenian genocide, the minister does believe that his meetings
have "created a giant step towards an improvement" in Switzerland’s
diplomatic relationship to Turkey.

The reason for the two nations’ extremely strained relationship is
Switzerland’s blocking of a Turkish request for the extradition of two
activists of the banned Kurdish Communist Party. The Kurds (Turkish
citizens) are protected under Swiss law because their extradition to
Turkey, which has historically curbed Kurdish freedom of expression,
is contradictory to Swiss law – something that Blocher would like to
see changed.

During his trip to Ankara, Blocher did say that he would make
every effort to have the Swiss legal code changed in order to make
an extradition easier. In other words, he hopes that the Turkish
government would eventually follow suit and allow the Kurdish political
opposition the opportunity to speak its mind, publicly.

However, the extradition will certainly not happen anytime
soon – because not only would Swiss codes need to be changed,
via parliamentary propositions and a general referendum. However,
Turkish laws would also need to be amended.

Most political parties have shown their dismay at Blocher’s proposal
– in particular because the Swiss law only went into effect in 1994
after years of debate and compromise.

The Swiss Ombudsman against Racism, Georg Kreis, told NZZ that
Blocher’s statements would make everyone believe that the law
places sole attention on the Armenian genocide. Kreis went further
to criticise Blocher’s promise to his Turkish colleagues in regards
to the Kurdish Communist Party.

Blocher’s visited Turkey in order to commemorate the 80th anniversary
of the Eurasian country’s civil code which was modelled after that
of Switzerland.

ARMENIA AND BELARUS SHOULDN’T INTERFERE IN RUSSIA-GEORGIA AFFAIRS

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2006 14:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Relations between Russia and Georgia are the
internal affair of these two states and I think that Armenia and
Belarus shouldn’t interfere," RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
told a news conference October 23 after the talks with Belarusian
Premier Sergey Sidorsky. However if the Georgian or Russian side
requests mediation Yerevan and Minsk are ready to assist. But no
request of the kind was received yet, said Andranik Margaryan.

ARMENIAN-KAZAKH RELATIONS HAVE POTENTIAL

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 20 2006

YEREVAN, October 20. /ARKA/. Armenian-Kazakh relations have
serious potential, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan stated at
his meeting with the newly appointed Kazakh Ambassador to Armenia
Aimdos Bozdjigitov.

In his turn, the Kazakh Ambassador expressed the confidence that
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s forthcoming visit to Kazakhstan
will give an impetus to the development of bilateral relations in
various spheres, considering the planned meeting of the Armenian-Kazakh
Intergovernmental Commission.

The sides pointed out the importance of encouraging business contacts,
increasing bilateral trade turnover, developing investment policy,
increasing exports and establishing close contacts between the two
countries’ businessmen.

He also pointed out the important mission of the Armenian community
in Kazakhstan, which may play an active role in developing bilateral
cooperation.

Premier Margaryan wished Ambassador Bozdjigitov success, expressing
his willingness to render all possible assistance to him.

OSCE CONCERNED THAT ARMENIA MAY BECOME A "THIRD" CATEGORY COUNTRY IN
TERMS OF TRAFFICKING LEVEL

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 19 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. "We are concerned that Armenia is
on the verge of passing from the "second" to the "third" category of
countries in terms of the level of trafficking. Ambassador July Finly,
the US delegation’s representative to the OSCE, stated this at the
OSCE-organized October 19 seminar on fight against trafficking.

According to her, this circumstance shows that the RA government’s
activities related to the fight against trafficking are unsatisfactory:
"International assistance cannot solve all problems of trafficking,
and the Armenian government must take an active part in this fight,"
July Finly said. She expressed a hope that Armenia in cooperation with
international organizations will be able to deal with these problems.

Valery Mkrtumian, Chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission on Fight
against Trafficking, assured that the fight against trafficking is in
the center of the Armenian government’s attention. He said that there
has been success in such issues as informing the population about
the problem, Armenia’s joining the international documents in this
sphere and the development of the respective legislation. At the same
time, according to him, an efficient fight against trafficking in all
directions, particularly in identifying and punishment of criminals,
has not been conducted yet.

Head of the OSCE Yerevan Office Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin said
that the RA government plans to work out a national program on fight
against trafficking in 2007-2009: "OSCE’s assistance for Armenia in
the country’s fight against trafficking is one of our priorities and
we will continue providing necessary help to the Armenian government,"
V. Pryakhin stated.

Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize throws Turkish nationalists
by Ron Margulies, Istanbul

Socialist Worker, UK
Oct 19 2006

We may have our own views about Orhan Pamuk’s novels, but there can
be no doubt that Pamuk richly deserves the prize both in literary
terms and as a man with deeply-held views which he is not afraid to
express regardless of the consequences.

Watching the Turkish media and political world squirm and agonise has
been as joyful and magnificent as the expression on Pamuk’s face must
have been upon hearing the news.

The prize was announced on the very same day that the French parliament
voted to make it a criminal offence to deny the Armenian holocaust. In
1915, the dying Ottoman Empire drove its Armenian citizens into a
forced migration, which caused one million or more to perish.

Turkish governments have always denied that there was a systematic
attempt at ethnic cleansing, that so many Armenians died and that
this was a holocaust. They admit to a figure of 300,000, claim that
there was killing on both sides and that the whole incident was an
unfortunate but unavoidable sideshow of the First World War.

Pamuk, whose every novel is a literary event and sells hundreds of
thousands in Turkey, was prosecuted last year for simply saying to
a German journalist that a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds had
been killed in Turkey. He was neither the first nor the last writer
to be prosecuted under Law 301 which makes it a crime to "insult
Turkishness", but he was the most prominent internationally. Like
most of those prosecuted under 301, he was acquitted. But he also
became a figure of hate for the right and most of the media.

Normally, a Turk winning an international prize (like a Turkish team
winning a football game abroad) would be cause for jubilation and
nationalistic frenzy. In this case, however, the right didn’t know
what to do! On the extreme right, the response was "Pamuk is a traitor,
he sold his country, and this is his reward".

The more common response, expressed in one particular newspaper
headline, was "I don’t know whether to be glad or sad".

Even those who praised Pamuk and agreed that he deserved the prize
for his novels couldn’t stop themselves from saying that he may not
have been given it if he hadn’t spoken out about the Armenians. Prime
Minister Erdogan telephoned Pamuk to congratulate him, but President
Sezer pointedly did not do so.

But most amusing of all was the sight of politicians and journalists
who have never said a word about any of the many anti-democratic
laws in Turkey rage about the anti-democratic vote in the French
parliament. Having never worried about Law 301 here, they suddenly
became very concerned about the democratic rights of any French
citizen who wishes to say that there was no Armenian holocaust.

In ten years time nobody will remember any of these people. Unlike
Pamuk, who has already taken his place in world literary history.

.php?article_id=9979

Presidnet Kocharyan received the delegation headed by Nikolay Rizhkov

Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 19 2006

19.10.2006 10:05

October 18 RA President Robert Kocharyan received the delegation
headed by Co-Chair of the Armenian-Russian Interparliamentary
Cooperation Commission Nikolay Rizhkov. The guests informed the
President about the work of the 11th sitting of the Commission,
noting that it was held in a positive atmosphere, promoted by
friendly relations between members of the Commission. A broad circle
of questions related to bilateral relations was discussed; special
reference was made to economic ties. The parties appreciated the
active process of Armenian-Russian cooperation.

The interlocutors dwelt on regional developments and the Karabakh
issue.