Author: Zargarian Hambik

OMBUDSMAN OF HUNGARY: "RAMIL SAFAROV HAS NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT HIS DETAINMENT CONDITIONS"

Today.Az
s/society/45844.html
June 20 2008
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with Hungarian human rights activists Sanfor Fulop
and Attila Peterfalvi.

– How do you assess prospects of Azerbaijan-Hungary cooperation,
particularly, in the sphere of human rights?

S.Fulop: Cooperation in the political sphere between our countries,
including in the sphere of human rights is on a good level I think. I
would be remind that President of Azerbaijan has recently paid a visit
to Budapest and this was a successful visit. By the way, the President
of Hungary plans to pay a response visit to Azerbaijan. Therefore,
I consider that cooperation between our countries is developing and
it is really on a good level.

– We are proud that I.Aliyev’s visit has become an impetus in expansion
of bilateral cooperation, for unfortunately, in the recent years
average Azerbaijanis associate Hungary mostly with the detainment
place of officer of Azerbaijani armed forces Ramil Safarov, sentenced
for life imprisonment for killing an Armenian military man, with whom
they were attending NATO trainings. By the way, what about conditions
of R.Safarov’s detainment? Did he have any complaints on this issue?

S.Fulop: I thow that Safarov has no complaints about the detainment
conditions.

A.Peterfalvi: This issue is being regularly monitored. I would remind
you that ombudsman observed the court trial. Some time ago we met
with Safaov’s parents in Azerbaijan’s ombudsman office.

– Are talks held between Baku and Budapest about Safarov’s extradition
to Azerbaijan?

Fulop: This is a political issue. We have no information on it. At
least, I have not heard about it, but it does not mean there is no
such issue at all.

– The court has been presented materials on mitigating circustaces
in Safarov’s case. Don’t you think the life term imprisonment was
too tough a punishment?

Peterfalsi: In line with Hungarian legislation, the issue was a
crime. This was a normal court without any specifics.

Fulop: I consider the verdict to be in line with the Hungarian
legislation. In comparison with other similar cases, I see no
differences here. Therefore, I consider that the verdict complied
with the law.

ARMENIAN-FRENCH BUSINESS FORUM OPENED IN FRANCE

ARKA
June 18
YEREVAN

An Armenian-French business forum was opened in France. The Grant
Thornton Company (France) reports that, in cooperation with Grant
Thornton Amyot, it founded an Armenian Business Center to assist
Armenian and French business communities in establishing closer
contacts and implementing investment programs in Armenia.

Applying the experience of Armenian and French specialists, the Center
offers assistance at the very first stages of investment programs.

A business forum was held in Paris yesterday. The forum was organized
in cooperation with the Armenian-French Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. A similar business forum is to be held on Marseilles on
June 19. The business forums allow Armenian French political figures
and businessmen to get acquainted with the Center’s activities and
discuss possible joint projects.

This September-October, an economic tour of Armenia is to be organized
for French businessmen interested in investing their funds in Armenia.

The Grant Thornton Company launched its activities in Armenia as far
back as 1991. In 1994, the Grant Thornton France company established
a branch in Armenia. Later, the branch was transformed to the Grant
Thornton Amyot auditing and consulting company.

Grant Thornton Amyot is a full member of the Grant Thornton network. It
unites 521 auditing and consulting companies in 113 countries.

Inn 2007, the GTI’s annual profit totaled $3.5bln.

ARMENIAN DELEGATION VOTES FOR COMPROMISE OPTION RATHER THAN FOR AZERBAIJAN’S PROPOSALS AT BSEC PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SUMMIT

Noyan Tapan

Ju ne 17, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The information that the Armenian
delegation voted for the Azerbaijani proposals at the recent 31st
summit of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC)
Parliamentary Assembly in Athens does not correspond to reality, the
head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation in the BSEC PA, chairman
of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee on Financial, Credit and
Budgetary Issues Gagik Minasian told reporters on June 17. According to
him, this information was published in the interview of the Azerbaijani
delegation’s head Asef Hajiev with Regnum news agency.

G. Minasian said that as early as at the Yerevan meeting of the BSEC
PA Commission on Political and Legal Issues, Azerbaijan’s delegation
had proposed making amendments to the text of the Report "The Role
of the Parliaments of the BSEC Member States in the Fight against
International Terrorism" to be discussed at the summit, while the
Armenian side had considered these amendments as unacceptable. The
Azerbaijani side had proposed to indicate that the manifestations
of extremism and separatism in ethnic relations create a fertile
ground for regional and off-regional terrorism and that along with
the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the CIS, the
BSEC Parliamentary Assembly also attaches importance to the approaches
of the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly to the problem of terrorism. It
was said in the amendments proposed that extremism and separatism
must be condemned based on the recently adopted resolution of the UN
Security Council.

G. Minasian informed those present that during the summit the
Azerbaijani delegation once again presented the proposals which were
rejected at the above mentioned meeting in Yerevan. However, as a
result of discussions, these proposals were modified into a compromise
option, and both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides voted for it.

Agence France Presse
June 11, 2008 Wednesday 3:44 PM GMT

Armenia heeds European call to ease protest curbs

YEREVAN, June 11 2008

Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday approved a law easing restrictions
on public demonstrations, meeting a demand from Europe’s leading human
rights watchdog.

The Council of Europe had called for Armenia to loosen restrictions
imposed after violent post-election clashes between riot police and
opposition protesters in March that left 10 people dead.

The revised law will allow protesters to hold spontaneous rallies
without government permission, as long as they are limited to six
hours.

It also requires local authorities to prove that a potential
demonstration creates a direct threat of violence in order to deny
permission for it to be held and allows for judicial appeals of
refusals for permission.

Armenia’s opposition denounced the changes as "cosmetic."

"If local authorities want to deny permission for opposition protests,
they can always find reasons. We see these changes as purely
cosmetic," said Arman Musinian, a spokesman for opposition leader and
former president Levon Ter-Petrosian.

The violence in March broke out after police moved in to clear
thousands of protesters who had rallied for 11 days to protest the
victory of prime minister Serzh Sarkisian in a February 19
presidential election.

They alleged that the ballot had been rigged in Sarkisian’s favour and
that Ter-Petrosian was the real winner. Dozens more protesters were
injured, many from gunshot wounds.

A mountainous country of about three million people — wedged between
Iran and Turkey — Armenia has experienced repeated political violence
since gaining its independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
Union.

ARMENIA, KAZAKHSTAN SHOULD STRENGTHEN BILATERAL COOPERATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.06.2008 17:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanian
and his Kazakh counterpart Nurlan Danenov met in Astana to discuss
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement and a number of regional
issues the RA MFA press office reported.

The diplomats also referred to the Armenian-Kazakh relations and
stressed the necessity to deepen cooperation.

Gegham Gharibjanian is in Astana to attend Asian Society international
conference.

THERE WILL BE NO PROGRESS UNLESS KARABAKH JOINS TALKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.06.2008 16:14

Any negotiation process has two aconstituents – maintenance of peace
and provisions of settlement, said Shavarsh Kocharian, head of National
Democratic Party of Armenia.

"There will be no progress unless Karabakh joins the talks," he said
during Yerevan-Moscow-Baku TV space bridge.

"Even if we view independence in the light of international law, as
Azerbaijan proposes, I would like to remind that Nagorno Karabakh’s
independence was proclaimed in the framework of USSR operating
legislation in 1991. Seven regions Azerbaijan is talking about form
the territory of Nagorno Karabakh and security zone," Mr Kocharian
said adding that all disputable issues should be addressed to the
leadership of Karabakh, the principal party to conflict.

ONE MORE HIGH-RANKING OFFICER CONFESSES IN DINK MURDER

Turkish Daily News
June 11 2008

The former head of the intelligence unit in the Black Sea province of
Trabzon where Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murderer came
from testified he was aware of plans to kill the prominent journalist,
but that he did not learn about crucial subsequent developments in
the case until much later, a Web site reported yesterday.

Noncommissioned officers Okan Å~^imÅ~_ek and Veysel Å~^ahin claimed
they had informed their superiors about the murder during a trial in
January on charges they had covered up intelligence about a plan for
the murder.

Dink was killed in 2007 in front of the building of multi-lingual
weekly newspaper Agos in Istanbul’s central district of Å~^iÅ~_li. A
juvenile suspect was arrested after the murder while trying to flee
to his hometown Trabzon. Later other suspects, including those who
are alleged to have planned and incited the murder, commonly known
as the "big brothers" of the crime, were arrested as well. However,
it was alleged that the roots of the murder go deep into the state and
that the so-called bigger brothers have still yet not been arrested.

Intelligence head of the Black Sea province of Trabzon’s Gendarmerie
Commandership, Captain Metin Yıldız, said in his testimony in a
court in Bolu yesterday, "Å~^ahin had said that (alleged gendarmerie
informer) CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci told him that Dink will be murdered and Yasin
Hayal was planning this. Later I told Gendarmerie Commander Ali Oz that
Hayal is planning to kill Dink. ‘We will discuss this issue later,’
he said," as reported on private NTV news site yesterday.

Claiming that the police chief, smuggling branch chief and organized
crimes branch chief were also at the meeting, Yıldız said he had a
detailed private discussion with Å~^imÅ~_ek, and confirmed that Ä°gci
was not an informer for the Gendarmerie. "Two days later I brought the
issue to the agenda one more time in the room of Oz and told that I
gave the order to Å~^imÅ~_ek to confirm [Ä°gci’s situation]," he said.

Learned about the gun after the murder

According to Yıldız, he later asked Å~^imÅ~_ek in private whether
he should transfer the information to the department dealing with
radical-right wing activities, adding that he ordered the junior
officer to follow up on the issue himself as it was not related to
Yıldız’s department’s special area.

Yıldız alleges that he did not receive any further information
on the issue. After Dink was murdered, Å~^imÅ~_ek said in a meeting
with high-ranking officials that Hayal had tried to make a homemade
gun. When Yıldız asked why he was not informed about the gun,
Å~^imÅ~_ek said the team had not learned about the gun from Ä°gci
until after they had met with the Yıldız team, the captain said in
his testimony.

–Boundary_(ID_HbJgEgiAsVQIDyzYWtR38w) —

EDITORIAL: MCCAIN, OBAMA SHOULD HELP REVIVE DREAM ACTL

Sacramento Bee,CA
June 11 2008

High school students such as Arthur Mkoyan are an asset to this
country. He came to Fresno as a 2-year-old from Armenia and graduated
Tuesday from Bullard High School as valedictorian. He has been accepted
to the University of California, Davis, where he would like to major
in chemistry.

But there’s a catch. He’s about to be deported to Armenia, a country
he doesn’t know and whose language he hardly speaks.

Mkoyan (whose case is also discussed in Peter Schrag’s column today)
is among about 65,000 students – 25,000 of them in California –
who graduate from high schools each year in a similar situation:
They were brought here by their parents and have grown up here,
but they are prevented from a path to citizenship.

Mkoyan’s parents fled the old Soviet Union, but their appeals
for asylum ran out this year. Arthur’s father is being held at a
detention center in Arizona; his mother was released to care for
the children. Arthur’s U.S.-born brother, now 12 years old, is a
U.S. citizen.

Friends and family are urging Sen. Dianne Feinstein to introduce a
private bill to allow Arthur to stay in the United States. But this
is not just a private matter. This case shows why U.S. immigration
policy needs a fix.

Last year, Congress considered the DREAM Act, which would have given
temporary legal status to kids who arrived in the United States before
age 16, have lived here for five years, graduated from a U.S. high
school and have no criminal record. The bargain is that if they go to
college or join the U.S. military, they can get a green card within
six years – putting them on a path to citizenship.

But a filibuster killed it. Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain
of Arizona and Barack Obama of Illinois should revive that bill. McCain
originally was a co-sponsor. Obama, a supporter, said he would "fight
to bring this legislation back for another vote as soon as possible."

Now is the time. Students such as Mkoyan have been trained here and
brought up as Americans. We should do everything we can to tap their
talents for the United States.

RA PRESIDENT VISITS RF EMBASSY

Noyan Tapan

Ju ne 10, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 10, NOYAN TAPAN. On the occasion of the RF national
holiday, adoption of a Declaration On State Sovereignty, on June 10,
RA President Serge Sargsian visited the RF Embassy in Armenia. Noyan
Tapan was informed about it by the RA President’s Press Office.

In his congratulatory speech he expressed satisfaction with the
current high level of political dialogue and economic cooperation
between the two countries. S. Sargsian expressed confidence that
the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership will continue developing
successfully in the future for the sake of the two states and peoples.

SPEAKER KAREN BASS AFFIRMS SUPPORT OF ANC AT INAUGURAL CEREMONY

armradio.am
10.06.2008 10:43

Thousands of people gathered at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College
to take part in the Inaugural Ceremony of California Assembly Speaker
Karen Bass. Several members of the Armenian National Committee –
Western Region (ANC-WR) attended at the Speaker’s invitation to
witness the historic event as Bass became the first ever African
American woman to lead a legislative body in U.S. history.

In attendance were Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,
Congresswoman Diane Watson, Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez,
Assemblymember Paul Krekorian as well as several other notables. Mayor
Villairagosa presided over the oath as Bass swore in to become the
67th Speaker of the California State Assembly. During her inaugural
speech Bass stated "As Speaker, I want to help the people of Los
Angeles to be able to deliver on their dreams. To quote my candidate
for President – Los Angeles let’s go change the world!"

Following the ceremony, the ANC had the chance to sit down with the
Speaker and discuss issues of importance to Armenian Americans. Bass
affirmed her support of the ANC and stressed the significance of
recognizing the Armenian Genocide in order to end the atrocities that
are being committed in Darfur today. The Speaker also reiterated
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s strong support of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
announced its endorsement of Obama in January 2008.

"Karen Bass is an inspiration to women everywhere and serves as a
great role model," remarked Souzi Zerounian, ANC-WR Board member. "Her
efforts in advancing important state issues such as education are
truly commendable and the Armenian American community congratulates
her on this very important occasion," she added.

Karen Bass represents the 47th Assembly district of California and
has been a member of the State Assembly since 2005. Bass has been a
staunch supporter of several important issues including education and
foster care reform. She has also served as a California Co-chair of
Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign as well as California African
Americans for Obama.