Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

Turkey: US envoy says USA committed to fighting terrorism

Milliyet website, Istanbul
8 Feb 07

Text of a report by Sami Kohen: "Are we not on the same page as the
United States?" published by Turkish newspaper Milliyet website on
8 February

Talks between Turkey and the United States, especially with respect
to overcoming the different points of view regarding northern Iraq,
the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and the Armenian problems, are
intensifying.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s current visit to the United States
is one link in this chain of meetings. Just recently Defence Minister
Vecdi Gonul was in Washington. A delegation of Turkish lawmakers has
just returned from the United States and Chief of Staff Gen Yasar
Buyukanit is off to Washington next week.

Meanwhile, there are people who regard these talks as "actors not being
on the same page". Really, as far as the public has been made aware to
date these meetings have failed to produce anything visible, at least
nothing in the way of meeting Turkey’s expectations. The Turkish side
is telling its American counterparts what it wants, what it expects
and what its complaints are. Similarly, the American side is telling
its Turkish counterparts where they stand and what the problems are.

Can it go any further than this?

Foreign Minister Gul says: "I saw an attentiveness in Washington I
had not seen last year. They feel compelled to do something. I will
not talk much about this but there is some commitment."

When?

What we heard US Ambassador Ross Wilson say when he spoke with a
group of columnists in Istanbul yesterday was along those lines.

We spoke with him about two "critical issues" in particular. One was
about the situation in northern Iraq, the PKK presence there and the
future of Kirkuk.

When we reminded him that the Turkish-US talks that have been going
on regarding this topic for some time had turned into a "dialogue
between deaf people" Wilson objected to this. "Speaking as somebody
who has attended most of these meetings I can say that this is not a
‘dialogue of the deaf’." But he did state that he was aware of Turkey’s
expectation and disappointments. He emphasized that despite this their
efforts were still continuing and that "visible" results would soon
be achieved.

When and like what, for example? Echoing Foreign Minister Gul,
Ambassador Wilson said he would "not divulge much more" and added,
"You cannot announce in advance what your counter-terrorism plans are."

Despite this, Wilson stated that some results were being achieved
right now as a result of the counter-terrorism envoy’s efforts. He
linked the raids against the PKK in France and Belgium and the arrests
made to these efforts.

We also asked this of the ambassador: What will the United States
do if Turkey mounts a cross-border operation? We know that certain
official voices in Washington have noted their opposition to this
eventuality. Wilson preferred to leave this question unanswered.

In fact, Turkey has always expected the United States to make an effort
to put an end to the PKK presence in northern Iraq. Is this a case
of "not putting in the right cc’s?" Should Baghdad and northern Iraq
also be cc’d? Ankara is trying to resolve this business "exclusively"
through Washington.

What if it gets passed?

The second important topic of our interview with the US ambassador
concerned the "Armenian genocide bill" being submitted to the House
of Representatives.

Wilson emphasized that this was not a "law" only a "ruling" and that
it was not binding on President Bush or his administration.

Frankly, the American officials and diplomats are afraid that this
ruling will get passed this time. In fact, Wilson is planning to go
to Washington next month to do some "lobbying".

He is aware that if this ruling is passed it will have a very adverse
impact on Turkish-US relations. But despite this he says: "But there
are so many other issues out there: Iraq, the PKK, Cyprus, the EU,
Iran, the Middle East etc, we need to work on these together. Any
breakdown in relations will be harmful for both sides. We need each
other more than ever before."

SCREAMING TO BE HEARD
By Richard Duckett Telegram & Gazette Staff

Worcester Telegram, MA
Feb 8 2007

Rockers partner with newswoman for documentary about genocide

Just before he ordered the invasion of Poland in 1939, Hitler,
in justifying launching World War II and the pending horrors and
Holocaust, reportedly said "Who, after all, today remembers the
(slaughter of) the Armenians …"

He was referring to the Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915 during
World War I and saw 1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey killed at
the hands of the authorities of the Ottoman Empire.

It would be the 20th century’s first genocide.

But as the 21st century steadily gathers momentum with its
distinctive noises, the memory of the Armenian Genocide is still
loudly reverberating.

In the documentary "Screamers," which opens at Showcase Cinemas
North tomorrow, a U.S. metal band, System of a Down, passionately
protests the refusal of even the current government of Turkey to
recognize the events of 1915. The documentary intersperses concert
footage of the band with archive film from the Armenian Genocide,
the Holocaust, and recent tragedies such as Darfur. There are also
several interviews, including one with the 96-year-old grandfather
of one of the band members of System of a Down, who is a survivor of
the Armenian Genocide.

"Screamers" director Carla Garapedian also interviewed Turkish-Armenian
editor and writer Hrant Dink, who had been outspoken in Turkey about
the Turkish government’s "denial" of its past.

Dink had been condemned by the Turkish government, even receiving
a six-month suspended jail sentence in 2005. He speaks out in
"Screamers." But his voice was silenced last month when he was shot
to death outside his office in Turkey by a lone gunman.

The Turkish government condemned the shooting, but the 92-year-old
genocide obviously still rattles with the sound of gunfire.

"He (Dink) was talking exactly about the issues that made him a
target," Garapedian said. "He knew his life was in danger. He knew
he was on a hit list because he was in our film."

Garapedian well recalls the time she spent with Dink for the film.

"We had a really nice day. That was a day I’ll always remember. He
was fun, so full of life, a big bear of a man. Very tall with a big
smile. When I saw pictures that he had been shot from behind, it was
so undignified to see someone you knew shot from the back and felled
like a tree …

"He was killed for his beliefs. There is no other way."

During a telephone interview last week, Garapedian said she plans to
be in Worcester this weekend for the local opening of "Screamers."

"I’m very aware of the significance of opening there."

Worcester has an important historical place in the annals of
Armenian-American history. It was the city where many Armenians
first settled in the United States after fleeing their homeland, and
the first Armenian church in North America was built here. A vital
Armenian-American culture remains. Garapedian said she has visited
Worcester several times.

Herself the granddaughter of a survivor of the Armenian Genocide,
she grew up in Los Angeles but is now based in England. She said she
went to the London School of Economics initially for a one-year term
of study, and ended up staying there. Then she stayed in England,
working both for the BBC and ITV’s Channel 4.

Still, she has also traveled the world making documentaries,
including the Emmy-award-winning "Beneath the Veil" about women in
Afghanistan. Her work has also taken her to Chechnya, North Korea
and Equatorial Guinea.

However, "Screamers" is Garapedian’s first film to tackle an issue
from her own heritage.

"I had very little to do with the Armenian issue, except that I was
the grandchild of an Armenian survivor," she said. "It’s very much
part of my DNA. You grow up with that. But to actually make a film
about that – it felt too personal." That would change when she went
to a System of a Down concert in 2004.

"I didn’t know their music really well. What impressed me was that
the fans already knew about the Armenian Genocide. That really shocked
me. Most Americans don’t know about it, and here is this band that’s
doing it." The band is not only speaking out, but is a multiplatinum
selling outfit famous for such diverse numbers as "Holy Mountains"
and "P.L.U.C.K."

As Garapedian met and talked with band members, the idea of a
documentary began to take shape.

"The rage and passion of the music lends itself to the subject,"
she said of the Armenian Genocide.

With its mix of music, history and message, "Screamers" sounds like a
highly ambitious film. Some critics have suggested that it is perhaps
overly over-reaching. A reviewer in the New York Post did not seem
to get the film at all. Another reviewer said there is too much music.

Garapedian has been monitoring the rottentomatoes.com movie review
site, and noted that the film has a 75 percent approval rating so far.

"I think that’s not bad for a rock and roll documentary about a very
tough subject. The intent is to reach young people. I made that choice
very consciously. We had a screening at a temple in L.A. and 700
kids showed up. The rabbi said he had never seen anything like it,"
Garapedian said.

"It’s the young people who are gonna make the difference. I wanted to
be a bit more academic, but I knew if I did that I’d bore people. I’m
prepared for some reviewers not buying into that."

Last month "Screamers" was shown at the U.S. Library of Congress.

After the screening, Garapedian said a Turkish woman stood up and
commented, "That was very powerful, but you only showed one side."

"I responded by saying, ‘You’re in the Library of Congress, where
there are archives. Down the road is the Holocaust Museum. Why don’t
you ask the Turkish government to open up its archives?’ "

Turkey, Garapedian said, has "never resolved the Armenian issue,
let alone the Kurdish issue."

But the issues won’t go away or be forgotten.

"My hope with the film is not that we change this overnight, because
we’re not going to, but that we have an open and honest debate about
it," Garapedian said.

Renowned glass artist and Holden native Donna Eicholtz was commissioned
to design a piece of commemorative jewelry for use by "Screamers." Her
pendent is a symbol of an "eternal spiral."

Eicholtz, who lives in England, said, "The spiral symbolizes power
and independent movement. This commemorative piece focuses on movement
of awareness and action, with the spiral flowing into a fire. … As
glass never deteriorates, this film burns on eternally."

s.dll/article?AID=/20070208/EWORCESTER/302080001/- 1/eworcester

BRYZA: YEREVAN AND ANKARA CANNOT REACH RECONCILIATION VIA POLITICAL DECISIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.02.2007 13:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Political or diplomatic statements are not proper
to solve the problem of determining the tragic events of 1915, stated
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, OSCE MG Co-Chair Matthew
Bryza to journalists on the eve of Turkish foreign Minister’s visit
to Washington. He assured that "we all are united in the opinion
that the events in 1915 are terrible tragic." "It is horrible. But
this problem has so much sides and there are a lot of views on this
problem that political leaders cannot provide justice just giving it
a determination. We’d like educated people, professors, philosophers,
historians to be given possibility to carry out positive and impartial
discussions on the causes of what happened, which will allow Armenian
and Turkish communities to reconcile with their past and with each
other. You cannot reach it via political decisions," Matthew Bryza
stated, adding, "We’d also like to see Armenian-Turkish relations
improved." "As a CO-Chair of OSCE MG I understand how much it is
difficult. I realize the role of Nagorno Karabakh in this problem
very strongly. Despite it, we’d like to see corresponding steps aimed
at improving relations between Armenia and Turkey, since it proceeds
from interests of all sides.

It proceeds from interests of Turkish businessmen, it is also a good
chance for long term regional stability and peace. But I realize how
all this is difficult," the American diplomat stressed.

Speaking on possible steps of improving Armenian-Turkish relations
Matthew Bryza reminded that Armenian and Turkish governments "speak
about historic commissions and diplomatic debates." After Hrant Dink’s
tragic murder discussions over 301st article of Turkish Penal Code got
more intensive character. We understand that it is difficult for the
Turkish government to declare invalid this article because of political
realities. But it would be fine if the issue of 301st article would
be removed from the agenda, since it allows to condemn Turkey. We are
friends for Turkey. We hope Turkey considers us as one of the closest
friends in the world. And we want to do everything possible to assist
traditions of tolerance and co-existence of all ethnic and religious
communities in Turkey. 301st article yet hampers this problem. It
has magnetic influence on Europe’s mentality and makes everyone
concentrate on that problem and not on the whole Turkish history,"
stated Mathew Bryza, Mediamax reports.

ARMENIAN CB TO IMPLEMENT NEW ELEMENTS OF SUPERVISION OVER THE BANKING ACTIVITIES

Mediamax Agency, Armenia
Feb 5 2007

Yerevan, February 5 /Mediamax/. The Central Bank of Armenia intends
to have the Armenian commercial banks secure transparent activities,
CB Chairman Tigran Sarkisian stated in Yerevan today.

Mediamax reports that speaking at a news conference in Yerevan today,
Tigran Sarkisian noted that in 2007 the CB will implement new elements
if supervision over the banking activities.

Corresponding legislative changes will be presented to the Armenian
parliament, according to which the banks will have to be open not
only for the Central Bank, but also for the society.

Tigran Sarkisian noted that the Central Bank commits itself to
gathering all the tariffs and the services of commercial banks into
one single document and present it to the society.

In 2007, the Central Bank will also publish all the administrative
measures towards this or that bank and the reasons for using those
measures. Tigran Sarkisian believes that this will allow increasing
the trust of the population towards the banks and will make their
activities more predictable and open for the society.

ARMENIAN CITIZENS ARRESTED FOR CONTRABAND WITH CIGARETTES

Yerevan, February 5. ArmInfo. The press-service of the Federal Tax
Service (FTS) has spread an information about the completion of a
"multimonth international operation " for suppression of activities
of a group of contrabandists who had been supplying the Russian
cigarettes to Europe.

According to the information of FTS’s press-service, "the
contrabandists were dealing with illegal export of tobacco production
to the Western European countries within 2004-2006". The group "had
an inter-ethnic character and supported stable relations with natives
of Georgia and Chechnya, permanently living in EU countries. They
were entrusted with a task of selling the illegal goods in Europe.

The system was worked out in details. According to the data of FTS,
the investigation even suspected "regarding a possible use of these
means for financing of illegal armed formations in Caucasus".

Panorama.am

20:12 01/02/2007

YOUTH WING OF ORINATS YERKIR BELIEVES NEW QUALITY ELITE IS NEEDED

Samvel Faramanyan, chairman of youth union of Orinats Yerkir (OY),
shared his opinions on the role and mission of the parliamentary
elections. In his words, `The election may help the society to regain
faith in its own power. In the political terms, it will open an
opportunity to build democratic institutions in Armenia. In the
international terms, it may step up the credits of Armenia in the eyes
of the international community.’

Samvel Faramanyan believes the parliamentary elections have one more
important function. He said, `Many challenges of Armenia are connected
with the quality of political elite.’ Therefore, the elections may
help to produce a political elite with new qualities.

Source: Panorama.am

DEAL FOR TAKEOVER OF DEAL FOR TAKEOVER OF <ARMENTEL>OJSC, CARRIED OUT BY
HSBC, ENTERED

Yerevan, February 1. ArmInfo. The deal, carried out by the British
HSBC investbank (for takeover of Yerevan, February 1. ArmInfo. The
deal, carried out by the British HSBC investban&A-Intelligence
analytic group of "Merger and Takeover " journal.

As the BizTorg.ru reports, according to the rating, the deal is in the
seventh position. The first place in the rating of financial
consultants was taken by Deutsche UFG investbank due to the
participation in the deal for merger of AAs the BizTorg.ru reports,
according to the rating, the dea As the BizTorg.ru reports, according
to the rating, the deal is in the seventh position. The first place in
the rating of financial consultants was taken by Deutsche UFG
investbank due to the participation in the deal for merger of Glencore
Companies , consulting of ???-BP during sale of OJSC to Sinopec
group. The result of 2006 for the second one also looks well – sev "As
of today, the Deutsche UFG is an absolute leader both by quantity and
the volume of deals in the Russian market of M&A. The volume of deals,
in which we took part in 2006 ????, exceeded $25 bln., that is about
21% of the market, the President of Deutsche UFG, Ilya Scherbovich,
says. We have succeeded to achieve such results due to our command,
which is the strongest in the Russian market of investment-banking
services".

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Jan 29 2007

ARMENIAN FM, SECRETARY OF POLISH FOREIGN OFFICE DISCUSS BILATERAL
RELATIONS

YEREVAN, January 30. /ARKA/. Ra Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan held
a meeting with a Polish delegation headed by State Secretary of the
Polish Foreign Office Pavel Kovalev, who is in Yerevan to prepare the
Polish Foreign Minister’s visit to Armenia scheduled for February.
The Press and Public Relations Department, RA Foreign Office, reports
that Minister Oskanyan welcomed the polish delegation in Yerevan,
pointing out the importance of the visit for the development of
bilateral relations.
He expressed hope that the Polish Foreign Minister’s forthcoming
visit to Armenia will facilitate the specification of the agenda of
bilateral relations, discussion of issues related to the current
state of Armenian-Polish cooperation and further steps.
Minister Oskanyan pointed out a high level of bilateral relations,
which is, to a great extent, due to the lack of disagreements on
numerous international problems. The sides discussed issues of
bilateral cooperation, considering the opportunities under the
Armenia-EU program of action.
In this context, Minister Oskanyan stressed that the European
orientation is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy, and
in this aspect Armenia considers Poland to be an important partner.
The sides also discussed regional problems, problems of energy
security and the current stage of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

Armenian-Polish political consultations were held at the RA Foreign
Office. The Armenian delegation was headed by Ra Deputy Foreign
Minister Armen Baiburdyan. P.T. -0–

PanARMENIAN.Net

Turks and Armenians commemorated Hrant Dink in Paris
29.01.2007 20:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Over a thousand Turks and Armenians marched together
in Paris on Saturday to commemorate Agos editor Hrant Dink, who made
great efforts for a dialogue between the two people. Three Armenian
organizations and the Turkish Citizens Unity Association (Racort) held
a silent march in honor of Dink in the capital of France, a country
that has a strong anti-Turkey lobby. The Armenian Diaspora Research
Center, the Armenian Audiovisual Association, the Armenian cultural
Association (J’APPEL) all accepted Racort’s invitation to participate
in the march. However, the Armenian Case Defense Committee (CDCA) and
the Committee for Coordination of Armenian Associations of France did
not respond to the invitation, reports Cihan News Agency.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Kocharian-Aliyev meeting this year theoretically possible
29.01.2007 14:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The meeting of the Armenian and Azeri Presidents
this year is theoretically possible but there is no exact agreement
yet, RA leader’s Spokesman Victor Soghomonian told reporters in
Yerevan. Quoting the President he said activation in the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement talks is not expected during the election
period.

At that Soghomonian remarked that during the regional visit the OSCE
Minsk Group Co-chairs referred to the possibility of a presidential
meeting.