ON OCTOBER 18, ART-LOVERS TO BID LAST FAREWELL TO SINGER VARDUHI VARDANIAN
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 16 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. 30-year-old well-known singer,
laureate of a number of international competitions, Varduhi Vardanian
died on October 15, in a car accident on the Sevan-Martuni-Getap road.
In 1993 the singer finished the music school of Armenian Chorus
Company, in 1994 Yerevan State Institute of Foreign Languages after
V.Brusov and in 2003 Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas. In 1994
V.Vardanian took part in the international competition in Sverdlovsk
with the Jazz Pop ensemble and received Grand Prix. Since 1995 she
had been working at the Armenian State Theater of Song. In 1996 the
singer participated in the Yalta-Moscow-Transit international contest
of young singers where she received a special prize for the best
performance. In 1999 V.Vardanian was recognized the best singer of the
year. In the same year she participated in the Zolotoy Shlyager contest
in Belarus and gained the second prize. In 2000 she received Grand
Prix and Spectator’s Sympathy special prize at the Discovery Bulgarian
contest. V.Vardanian also received Grand Prix at the competition held
in Macedonia in the same year. In 2002 she took part in the Slavyanski
Bazar international competition and received the second prize.
The art-lovers will bid their last farewell to the singer on October
18, at the Aram Khachatrian concert hall.

CE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CONSIDERS FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA AS POSSIBILITY TO CONTINUE DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENTS
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 16 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On October 14,
RA National Assembly Speaker Tigran Torosian received Council of
Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Tommas Hammarberg.
According to the report submitted to Noyan Tapan from RA NA Public
Relations Department, NA Speaker informed the guest about the
parliament’s work. It was mentioned that the reforms of the Electoral
Code will be completed by the end of the year, which will become a
good legislative basis for holding the forthcoming state elections
in accordance with democratic standards. In this respect tolerance
of political forces towards one another and their cooperation was
mentioned as especially important, as the elections are not only a
way of forming the power, but also are an indicator of the state of
democracy and a possibility of its further deepening.
In addition to another issues, the meeting participants also touched
upon the possibilities for human rights protection, reforms in court
and legal and local self-government systems, creation of reserving
mechanisms and counter-balances among state government wings created
as a result of the constitutional reform.
The sides mutually attached importance to reforms in the court and
legal system in the respect of weakening of political influence and
prevention of corruption.
Touching upon the forthcoming elections, Mr Hammarberg considered
them as a possibility to continue democratic developments. He attached
importance to full fledging of ombudsman’s institution, civil society
and freedom of media in the country for the latters to be able to be
unbiassed when covering the events.
Boyana Urumova, Special Representative of CE Secretary General,
and Ambassador Christian Der-Stepanian, Resident Representative of
Armenia to PACE, also took part in the meeting.

ZAVEN ANDRIASIAN WINS TITLE OF WORLD CHAMPION
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 16 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Chess World Youth Championship ended
on October 16 in Yerevan. 17-year-old Zaven Andriasian (Armenia) gained
9.5 out of 13 possible points and won the title of world champion
in competition among 83 boys. The following 2 places were taken by
Nikita Vityugov (Russia) and Yuri Krivoruchko (Ukraine), respectively.
Delegates from China Shen Yang, Hau Hi Fan and representative of
Georgia Salome Melia gained 9 points each and took the first three
places in accordance with their coefficients at the tournament with
participation of 57 ladies. The best of Armenian lady chess-players
was Siranush Andriasian who was the 19th with 7 points.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN MIKA-YEREVAN LADIES’ CHESS TEAM THE BEST IN EUROPE
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 16 2006
INNSBRUCK, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Chess Europe Club Teams
Championship ended late in the evening of October 14 in the Austrian
city of Innsbruck.
Mika-Yerevan Armenian ladies’ team gained 5 victories, ended 2 games
in a draw, gained 12 points and took 1st place among 11 teams winning
the title of the champion. On separate chess-boards Maya Chiburdanidze
gained 5 out of 7 possible points, Elina Danielian 3.5, Nino Khurtsidze
6, Nelly Aghinian 3 points.
The Bank King Armenian team gained 4 victories, drew 2 games, was
defeated in 11 games, gained 10 points and shared 5-12th places in
competition among 56 teams. With its coefficients the Armenian team
took 11th place.
The chess-players’ results on separate chess-boards are the following:
Karen Asrian 3.5 out of 7 possible points
Smbat Lputian 4 – 2
Rafael Vahanian 7 – 4
Artashes Minasian 7 – 4
Ashot Anastasian 7 – 5
Tigran L.Petrosian 7 – 5.5
Arsen Yeghiazarian 3 – 1

SITTING OF PACE MONITORING COMMISSION HELD IN YEREVAN
Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 16 2006
Sitting of PACE Monitoring Commission was held in RA National Assembly
today. Greeting the participants, NA Speaker, Head of the Armenian
delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Tigran Torosyan thanked members of PACE Bureau and Commission for
accepting the invitation to hold the sitting in Yerevan. Noting that
parliamentary elections are expected in seven months, Mr. Torosyan
expressed the hope that the fact of holding the Commission’s sitting in
Armenia will endorse the efforts directed at conducting the elections
in compliance with CoE standards and requirements.
Turning to the changes that took place in Armenia after Constitutional
amendments, Mr. Torosyan particularly emphasized the abolition of
administrative detainment, granting to the National Assembly the
right to elect the Ombudsman and expansion of the circle of those
who are eligible to apply the Constitutional Court.
NA Chairman expressed the regret that representatives of two member
countries – Georgia and Azerbaijan – did not participate in the
sitting. He is confident that the only chance for resolving the
problems member countries face is the joint discussion of issues,
including within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

NOBEL WINNER PAMUK SLAMS FRENCH PARLIAMENT’S GENOCIDE LAW
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 14, 2006 Saturday 9:56 AM EST
DPA POLITICS Turkey Diplomacy France Pamuk Nobel winner Pamuk slams
French parliament’s genocide law Ankara Turkish Nobel Literature Prize
winner Orhan Pamuk has hit out at a French parliament decision to
make it a crime to deny the massacres of Armenians during the First
World War,
describing the move as a blow to freedom of speech.
Speaking to the private NTV television station, Pamuk said late
Friday the move was not in the French tradition – but that Turkey
should not overreact.
“We all know of the French traditions which defend freedom of
speech… We have all been affected by this. This move however does
not fit with the traditional French ideals,” Pamuk said.
Pamuk was awarded the Nobel prize on Thursday, the day the lower
house of the French parliament passed a bill making it a criminal
offence to deny that a genocide took place in Turkey by Ottoman Turks
on Christian Armenians.
While Turkey admits that massacres took place, it vehemently denies
that the deaths of Armenians during the war were part of a planned
genocide.
Earlier this year Pamuk was has himself on trial for “insulting
Turkishness” for his comments on the matter.
He was tried, but found not guilty on a technicality, for having told
a Swiss newspaper “30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians were killed
in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it.”
While no official sanctions have been announced by the Turkish
government, public campaigns have already begun to boycott French
goods.
Pamuk though warned that Turkey should not go too far in reaction to
the French move, saying “one should not burn the whole quilt for the
sake of a single flea”.
Pamuk’s winning the Nobel prize has been widely welcomed by Turks
although nationalists have claimed the prize was awarded not for
his writing but for his politics, in particular his comments on the
killings of Armenians.

JACQUES CHIRAC NEVER APOLOGIZED TO TURKISH PRIME MINISTER
Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 16 2006
In a phone talk with the Prime Minister of Turkey Rejeb Tayyib Erdogan
the President of France Jacques Chirac repeated the words about the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide he uttered during his state
visit to Armenia, Press Service of Elisee Palace told “ArmInfo.
The press service refuted the information disseminated by Turkish
media, according to which President Chirac had apologized for the
adoption of the bill penalizing the negation of the Armenian Genocide
by the lower house of the French Parliament. According to Turkish
media, Chirac had promised to block adoption of a corresponding law
in future.
“The phone talk really took place, but we do not confirm the
information disseminated by Turkish media. During the conversation
with the Turkish Prime Minister Chirac repeated the words he said in
Yerevan, emphasizing the necessity of acknowledgement of the Armenian
Genocide by Ankara if Turkey wants to join the European Union,”
the official source of the Elisee Palace noted.

ESTABLISHING HISTORY IS NOT A JOB FOR POLITICIANS
by Steven Edwards, National Post
National Post (Canada)
October 14, 2006 Saturday
All but Toronto Edition
French bill making it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide ‘is
just silly’
The European left has been among the first to denounce America’s
anti-terrorist security measures as a threat to the West’s traditional
rights and freedoms.
While the U.S. courts and Constitution will eventually weed out
excesses, the same cannot be said in Europe, where there is a growing
tendency to legislate history.
The latest example is unfolding in France, where the Socialists have
put forward a bill that would make it a crime to deny that Turks
committed genocide against Armenians in the final years of the
Ottoman Empire.
There are other “official histories” in France and across Europe. The
most prominent involves the Holocaust, which is illegal to deny or
downplay in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany,
Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland.
This is one European trend that should stay on the other side of
the Atlantic.
Not that there is any question that the Holocaust saw the Nazi-led
extermination of six million Jews and other disfavoured minorities.
But at the heart of democracy’s success is the premise that truth
and reason will triumph in free debate. So why outlaw deviations from
historical fact?
“Either there is a legitimate question about whether the Armenian
genocide occurred or not. If there is, then people should be free
to argue both sides. If not, and if you deny it, then you are just
going to look ridiculous,” says Wayne Sumner, a University of Toronto
philosophy professor and author of The Hateful and the Obscene:
Studies in the Limits of Free Expression.
“In both cases, legislation is not required.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, comes across as an
inveterate anti-Semite when he questions the overwhelming evidence
for the Holocaust.
But limiting his right to free expression hands him and other critics
of the West an opportunity to justify their own warped interpretations
of history.
“When we’re criticizing other countries for the restrictions they
place on free speech — especially Islamic states such as Iran —
it does weaken our moral position because they can reply that we’re
imposing restraints on what we regard as illegitimate forms of speech,”
Mr. Sumner says.
The French bill, which was passed by the lower house, provides for
the same maximum punishment mandated for someone convicted of denying
the Holocaust: a year in jail and a 45,000 fine ($64,000).
It builds on a 2001 law declaring the 1915 Turkish killings of
Armenians as genocide. France has also legislated that the trade in
African slaves was a crime against humanity.
“First we have a law that says a historical fact happened, which is
just silly,” says David Boaz, executive vice-president of the Cato
Institute and author of Libertarianism: A Primer.
“Either the event happened or it didn’t, but we ask historians to
make that determination, not legislators and politicians, because
establishing official history is something that belongs behind the
Iron Curtain, not in the West.
“But then you go a step further when you say it is illegal to deny
the official history. That really is looking into men’s souls, trying
to impose truth through a prison term — and that’s what we don’t do
in the West, which is founded on the notion of free inquiry and open
debate, and the right to believe as you choose.”
Limiting debate inevitably drives the subject into the shadows,
where people who promote truly sinister theories are more likely to
claim legitimacy.
“If you are not able to have a serious debate with historians
presenting papers or newspaper columnists challenging each other’s
arguments, then you will get offshore Web sites and flyers handed out
by the kind of people who really ought to be excluded from society,”
Mr. Boaz says.
Turkey has always denied the Armenian charge that the Young Turks,
the dominant party in 1915, systematically killed or deported 1.5
million Armenians.
Ankara says as many as 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks
died in the eastern part of the country as inter-ethnic violence
raged during the First World War.
Turkey has always banned debate on the subject and last year began
prosecutions under a law criminalizing a notion called “insulting
Turkishness.” France and the rest of the European Union have said
this law has to go if Ankara holds out any hope of admission to the
bloc of democracies.
The hypocrisy of the French bill, which needs Senate and presidential
approval before it becomes law, was pointed out yesterday by Turkish
novelist Orhan Pamuk, who stood trial for “insulting Turkishness”
this year over his questioning of the official line on the Armenian
massacres.
“France has a very old tradition of liberal and critical thinking,
and I myself was influenced by it and learned much from it,” said Mr.
Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for literature this week.
“But the decision they made constitutes a prohibition.”
Pundits explain the Socialists’ move as having more to do with winning
votes among France’s 450,000-strong Armenian expatriate population
than any desire to ensure the historical record is accurate.
Which makes the move even more despicable. When France’s voters
realize the truth, one can only hope it will trump the politicians’
cynicism and see them defeated in next year’s election.
GRAPHIC: Black & White Photo: John Schults, Reuters; Members of
France’s Armenian community attend a demonstration near the National
Assembly in Paris after the lower house approved a bill making denial
of the Armenian genocide a crime.

STUDENTS HAIL FRENCH BILL ON TURK GENOCIDE DENIAL
Windsor Star (Ontario)
October 14, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition
YEREVAN, Armenia – About 1,000 students rallied in the Armenian capital
Friday to thank France for backing a bill that would make it a crime
to deny that Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in the
early 20th century.
“Thank You, France!” and “Hail French Justice!” read two of the
placards held up by the students from a nationalist youth group,
who waved flags of Armenia and France as they marched through central
Yerevan.
The French parliament on Thursday approved on first reading a bill
that would make it a crime to deny that the 1915-17 massacres of
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks constituted genocide.
Turkey slammed the vote, saying France had dealt “a heavy blow”
to longstanding bilateral relations.

STATUE COMMEMORATING WORLD WAR I ERA MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS STOLEN
The Associated Press
October 14, 2006 Saturday 4:24 PM GMT
A statue commemorating the World War I-era massacre of Armenians in
Turkey was stolen, an official said Saturday, two days after French
lawmakers approved a bill that would make it a crime to deny that
the killings amounted to genocide.
The bronze monument, installed in front of the train station in the
Paris suburb of Chaville in 2002, disappeared between Friday night
and Saturday morning, said authorities for the Haut-de-Seine region.
The police have not ruled out the possibility that the statue, which
weighs several hundred pounds, was stolen to be sold as scrap metal,
said Stephane Topalian, who serves on the board of the local chapter
of the Armenian church.
However, Topalian stressed the timing of the robbery, which came
after France’s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a bill
that make it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks around the time of World War I amounted to genocide.
Under the bill, those who contest it was genocide would risk up to
a year in prison.
The legislation, which infuriated Turkey, passed 106-19.
President Jacques Chirac’s government opposed the bill, although it
did not use its majority in the lower house to vote it down. Instead,
most ruling party lawmakers did not vote on the text that was brought
by the opposition Socialist Party.
It still needs to be approved by the French Senate and the president
to become law.
Armenia accuses Turkey of massacring Armenians during World War I,
when Armenia was under the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says Armenians
were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the empire, and
strongly objects to the killings being called genocide.