ARMENIAN FM DOES NOT EXCLUDE POSSIBILITIES OF CONTINUING TALKS WITH AZERBAIJAN
TREND Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2006
The Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan does not exclude the
possibilities of continuing negotiations with Azerbaijan in the near
future, Trend reports quoting ARKA.
In his interview with “Freedom” Radio Station in New York, Oskanyan
stressed that the separate meetings with the Co-chairs of OSCE Minsk
Group regarding Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will always be held.
“Additionally, I do not exclude the visit of Co-chairs to the region,”
he emphasized, adding that after they make an appropriate decision as
a result of the 61st Session of the U.N. Assembly General, Armenia
intends to get into contact with the mediators and define future
steps to be taken.
According to Oskanyan, the renewal of direct negotiations between
Azerbaijan and Armenia with ministers and presidents is possible
and desirable for all. “However, at present this issue is still not
defined as yet,” he underlined.
Presently the Armenian Foreign Minister is in New York to participate
at the 61st Session of the U.N. Assembly General.

FRENCH PRESIDENT REGARDS STATEMENTS BY OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS FAIR & WISE
TREND< Azerbaijan Sept 28 2006 French President Jacques Chirac described the statements by the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as fair, balanced and wise, Trend reports citing Mediamax Agency. On 29 September Jacques Chirac will pay an official visit to Armenia. "I am personally involved in the conflict resolution, as I know the sufferings that it has experienced," the French President said. Chirac said that the parties, Paris, Key West and Ramboulette, were close to signing the peace agreement. "I informed the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan that the proposals by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs seem to be fair, balanced and wise. I would like Yerevan and Baku to demonstrate the courage required for the achievement of peace," the President stated. Chirac said that at present the G8 countries and the international community are prepared to act as guarantee for the peace agreement.

TURKISH FM ASSESSED EU REPORT SATISFACTORILY
Author: A.Aleskerov
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2006
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has satisfactorily assessed the report
confirmed by the European Parliament regarding the co-operation of
this Country with the European Community from the point of view of
“support of expectations in the process of co-operation with the
European Union”.
It was important to exclude a section of formulations from the
report which could causes dissatisfaction and the possibility of
further harming relations between Turkey and the European Union,
Trend Special Correspondent in Ankara reports.
According to the local commentators, the satisfactory assessment of
Ankara towards the document is first linked with the exclusion of
the clause on recognition of “Armenian genocide”.
During the consideration of the report project by the European
Parliament, the clause on the necessity of Ankara’s recognizing the
“Armenian genocide” was excluded from the document.

‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’ HINDERS TURKISH-DUTCH CANDIDATES
By Emre Demir, Basri Doðan, Strasbourg, Amsterdam
Zaman Online, Turkey
Sept 28 2006
As the European Union presses Ankara for a revision of Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code that limits free speech, Turks are facing
their own difficulties in the Netherlands.
Three Turkish-origin candidates were removed from their party lists in
the Netherlands for the Nov. 22 early parliamentary elections on the
pretext that they did not acknowledge the purported Armenian genocide.
Removing the Turkish-origin candidates from party lists was a result of
efforts of the Armenian lobby in the Netherlands, and the move provoked
angry responses from Turkish-origin citizens and Turks in the country.
The Christian Democrat Party received a letter last week from the
Armenian lobby that said there was a strong connection between the
ideas of the Turkish candidates and the policies of Turkish officials
in Ankara.
The three Turkish candidates were expected to win seats in the
parliament, but they were removed from their party lists because
they did not want to acknowledge that there was an Armenian genocide,
reporters said.
Leaders of the Turkish society in the Netherlands categorized the
decision to remove the three Turkish candidates from the election as
“‘a shame” and “racist.”
“Some of the young Turks wanting to be involved in politics here
faced a choice between politics and acknowledgment of the Armenian
genocide. This means that the notions of democracy and freedom
of thought are applicable only to the kind of people who are born
European; in other words, this is without doubt a double standard
and discrimination. What’s more, this is racism,” said Kasim Akdemir,
chairman of the Turkish Islamic Cultural Association Federation.
Officials from the parties that removed the Turkish candidates from
their candidate lists argue that the Dutch government officially
acknowledges the purported Armenian genocide, an argument based on
a recommendation that the Christian Union Party offered on Dec 21,
2004 for parliamentary discussions, and which also received complete
approval from other political parties.
Removal of the three Turkish candidates drew attention to other
Turkish-origin candidates.
The Social Democrat Labor Party has Nebahat Albayrak placed second
on its list, along with three more candidates on the list.
These three other candidates are Keklik Yucel, placed 48th, Ali Sarac,
placed 61st, and Huri Sahin, placed 76th.
Coskun Coruz is another Turkish candidate that the Christian Democrat
Party put on its list, placed 19th.
Derya Bulduk, a Belgian politician of Turkish origin, had to bow to
pressure from her own party when she “denied” the existence of the
Armenian genocide.
“This Incident Violates Freedom of Speech”
Some members from the European Parliament (EP) characterized the
removal of the three Turkish candidates as a violation of the freedom
of expression.
Vural Oger, a Turkish member of the EP, sharply condemned the decision
to stop the three Turks from running for elections. Joost Lagendijk,
chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with Turkey, expressed
unease with the kind of things happening in the Netherlands and further
said that denial of the right to run for elections because of different
ideas was a clear infringement of the freedom of expression.
Cem Ozdemir, another EP member, found neither the Turkish nor the
European approaches correct to the matter at hand and defied the
argument that prohibitions would not work.
News of the three Turkish candidates excluded from their party lists
came when the EP voted on a report regarding Turkey.
The EP has a report on Turkey that sharply criticizes the Turkish
government for allowing the freedom of expression to be violated by
keeping Article 301 in its Penal Code.
“Did the Netherlands account for what it did in Indonesia, Italy
in Libya, France in Algeria, and Spain in South America? Why is
it only Turkey that is pressed to account for what it did in the
past?” asked Oger.
Shocked, Lagendijk said that he had his own system of thinking about
this issue that neither went with Turkey nor Armenia, and backed up
Erdogan’s recommendation to set up a joint commission.
–Boundary_(ID_zEewRk5ySu9qEBQ97T9uLg )–

EU PARLIAMENT WITHDREW PARAGRAPH RELATING TURKEY`S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – PRE-CONDITION FOR TURKEY TO JOIN EU
TREND, Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2006
Yesterday, EU Parliament adopted a report on Turkey. Notably a
paragraph of Turkey`s acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide of
1915 had been a pre-condition for Turkey to join EU, Trend reports
referring to REGNUM.
Instead of that, the report being adopted by the EU Parliament includes
a call to Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
“The Parliament again confirms its call to Turkey to acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide like its previous resolutions did”. At the same
time, the resolution adopted in September 2005 said that Turkey`s
acknowledgement of the genocide is a pre-condition for the Country
to join the EU. “The EU Parliament urges Turkey to acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide, and considers that as a pre-condition for Turkey’s
membership into the EU”.
At the same time, speaking in the name of the EU Executive Body
yesterday, Luis Michelle, EU Commission Commissar, told members
of the EU Parliament that the Genocide acknowledgement issue as a
pre-condition for Turkey to join the EU will become “changing the
rules during play”.
The report adopted yesterday is not of an obligatory nature.
However, it is very critical, and blames Turkey in its non-compliance
with the promise the Country gave the EU. “The EU Parliament expresses
its shame that the process of reforms has slowed”, the report tells. EU
Parliament stresses that 11 months after the beginning of the process
on Turkey`s membership into the EU, “unsatisfactory progress” on the
freedom of word, religious, and national minorities, women`s right
has been fixed, Radio Free Europe/Liberty reports.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VARDAN OSKANIAN WENT INTO HYSTERIC AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Ïðaâî Âûaîða, Azerbaijan
Democratic Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2006
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanian went into
hysterics at the 61st session of UN General Assembly held recently.
Thus, Oskanian said that the Azerbaijan government “is deprived of
a moral right to provide any recommendations relating the future and
security of Nagorno Garabagh, let alone protection of the population
of Nagorno Garabagh”.
Armenian Minister said that the government of Azerbaijan had created
conditions for mockery at the Armenians in cities neighbouring with
Nagorno Garabagh. Oskanian stated that the Azerbaijanians allegedly
destroyed Armenian gravestones dating back to Middle Ages by calling
that “act” “tactless and irresponsible”. Further he noted that
Azerbaijan is not interested in peace settlement of the conflict though
it does not speak candidly about that. “To make Armenia refuse from its
positions, Azerbaijan resorts to various tricks, from state-leveled
tortures to international devices. However, Armenia is categorical
when it says it agrees to every fundamental principle of the document
negotiated”, V. Oskanian stressed.
According to Armenian Foreign Minister, Azerbaijan estimates war as
one of the ways of Nagorno-Garabagh conflict settlement. “The given
variant is one of the more used, however, it does not brings to
fruitful results. The only way of conflict settlement is compromise
and real relation”, Oskanian said. In his opinion, Azerbaijan cannot
deny a 20-year-long way Garabagh has passed. “Attempts to turn back
the time will bring nowhere”.
–Boundary_(ID_Gvime+GLYuByWMAip0P t+w)–

ARMENIA’S STATE BUDGET TO BE ONE-FOURTH OF AZERBAIJAN’S
Azeri Press Agency
Sept 28 2006
Armenian Government has approved the Draft State Budget for 2007 and
submitted it to the Parliament. The incomes and expenditures of the
State Budget are forecasted to be $1.545bn and $1.725bn respectively.
The budget deficit will make at least $180mn.
The Budget will increase by 18.3 and its expenditure will increase
by 15.6% as against 2006’s.
Azerbaijani Government has also approved the Draft State Budget and
submitted it to President Ilham Aliyev.
Azerbaijan’s State Budget for 2007 is forecasted to be $6bn.

READING THE GAS PUMP NUMBERS
by Michael T. Klare
ZNet, MA
Sept 28 2006
What Do Falling Oil Prices Tell Us about War with Iran, the Elections,
and Peak-Oil Theory
What the hell is going on here? Just six weeks ago, gasoline prices
at the pump were hovering at the $3 per gallon mark; today, they’re
inching down toward $2 — and some analysts predict even lower numbers
before the November elections. The sharp drop in gas prices has been
good news for consumers, who now have more money in their pockets
to spend on food and other necessities — and for President Bush,
who has witnessed a sudden lift in his approval ratings.
Is this the result of some hidden conspiracy between the White House
and Big Oil to help the Republican cause in the elections, as some
are already suggesting? How does a possible war with Iran fit into the
gas-price equation? And what do falling gasoline prices tell us about
“peak-oil” theory, which predicts that we have reached our energy
limits on the planet?
Since gasoline prices began their sharp decline in mid-August, many
pundits have attempted to account for the drop, but none have offered
a completely convincing explanation, lending some plausibility to
claims that the Bush administration and its long-term allies in the
oil industry are manipulating prices behind the scenes. In my view,
however, the most significant factor in the downturn in prices has
simply been a sharp easing of the “fear factor” — the worry that crude
oil prices would rise to $100 or more a barrel due to spreading war
in the Middle East, a Bush administration strike at Iranian nuclear
facilities, and possible Katrina-scale hurricanes blowing through
the Gulf of Mexico, severely damaging offshore oil rigs.
As the summer commenced and oil prices began a steep upward climb,
many industry analysts were predicting a late summer or early fall
clash between the United States and Iran (roughly coinciding with
a predicted intense hurricane season). This led oil merchants and
refiners to fill their storage facilities to capacity with $70-80 per
barrel oil. They expected to have a considerable backlog to sell at
a substantial profit if supplies from the Middle East were cut off
and/or storms wracked the Gulf of Mexico.
Then came the war in Lebanon. At first, the fighting seemed to confirm
such predictions, only increasing fears of a region-wide conflict,
possibly involving Iran. The price of crude oil approached record
heights. In the early days of the war, the Bush administration
tacitly seconded Israeli actions in Lebanon, which, it was widely
assumed, would lay the groundwork for a similar campaign against
military targets in Iran. But Hezbollah’s success in holding off the
Israeli military combined with horrific television images of civilian
casualties forced leaders in the United States and Europe to intercede
and bring the fighting to a halt.
We may never know exactly what led the White House to shift course on
Lebanon, but high oil prices — and expectations of worse to come —
were surely a factor in administration calculations. When it became
clear that the Israelis were facing far stiffer resistance than
expected, and that the Iranians were capable of fomenting all manner
of mischief (including, potentially, total havoc in the global oil
market), wiser heads in the corporate wing of the Republican Party
undoubtedly concluded that any further escalation or regionalization
of the war would immediately push crude prices over $100 per barrel.
Prices at the gas pump would then have been driven into the $4-5 per
gallon range, virtually ensuring a Republican defeat in the mid-term
elections. This was still early in the summer, of course, well before
peak hurricane season; mix just one Katrina-strength storm in the
Gulf of Mexico into this already unfolding nightmare scenario and
the fate of the Republicans would have been sealed.
In any case, President Bush did allow Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice to work with the Europeans to stop the Lebanon fighting and has
since refrained from any overt talk about a possible assault on Iran.
Careful never explicitly to rule out the military option when it
comes to Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, since June he has
nonetheless steadfastly insisted that diplomacy must be given a chance
to work. Meanwhile, we have made it most of the way through this year’s
hurricane season without a single catastrophic storm hitting the U.S.
For all these reasons, immediate fears about a clash with Iran,
a possible spreading of war to other oil regions in the Middle East,
and Gulf of Mexico hurricanes have dissipated, and the price of crude
has plummeted. On top of this, there appears to be a perceptible
slowing of the world economy — precipitated, in part, by the rising
prices of raw materials — leading to a drop in oil demand. The
result? Retailers have abundant supplies of gasoline on hand and the
laws of supply and demand dictate a decline in prices.
Finding Energy in Difficult Places
How long will this combination of factors prevail?
Best guess: The slowdown in global economic growth will continue for
a time, further lowering prices at the pump. This is likely to help
retailers in time for the Christmas shopping season, projected to
be marginally better this year than last precisely because of those
lower gas prices.
Once the election season is past, however, President Bush will have
less incentive to muzzle his rhetoric on Iran and we may experience a
sharp increase in Ahmadinejad-bashing. If no progress has been made
by year’s end on the diplomatic front, expect an acceleration of
the preparations for war already underway in the Persian Gulf area
(similar to the military buildup witnessed in late 2002 and early
2003 prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq). This will naturally lead
to an intensification of fears and a reversal of the downward spiral
of gas prices, though from a level that, by then, may be well below
$2 per gallon.
Now that we’ve come this far, does the recent drop in gasoline prices
and the seemingly sudden abundance of petroleum reveal a flaw in the
argument for this as a peak-oil moment? Peak-oil theory, which had
been getting ever more attention until the price at the pump began
to fall, contends that the amount of oil in the world is finite;
that once we’ve used up about half of the original global supply,
production will attain a maximum or “peak” level, after which daily
output will fall, no matter how much more is spent on exploration
and enhanced extraction technology.
Most industry analysts now agree that global oil output will eventually
reach a peak level, but there is considerable debate as to exactly when
that moment will arise. Recently, a growing number of specialists —
many joined under the banner of the Association for the Study of Peak
Oil — are claiming that we have already consumed approximately half
the world’s original inheritance of 2 trillion barrels of conventional
(i.e., liquid) petroleum, and so are at, or very near, the peak-oil
moment and can expect an imminent contraction in supplies.
In the fall of 2005, as if in confirmation of this assessment, the CEO
of Chevron, David O’Reilly, blanketed U.S. newspapers and magazines
with an advertisement stating, “One thing is clear: the era of easy
oil is over… Demand is soaring like never before… At the same
time, many of the world’s oil and gas fields are maturing. And new
energy discoveries are mainly occurring in places where resources
are difficult to extract, physically, economically, and even
politically. When growing demand meets tighter supplies, the result
is more competition for the same resources.”
But this is not, of course, what we are now seeing. Petroleum
supplies are more abundant than they were six months ago. There have
even been some promising discoveries of new oil and gas fields in
the Gulf of Mexico, while — modestly adding to global stockpiles
— several foreign fields and pipelines have come on line in the
last few months, including the $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)
pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, which
will bring new supplies to world markets. Does this indicate that
peak-oil theory is headed for the dustbin of history or, at least,
that the peak moment is still safely in our future?
As it happens, nothing in the current situation should lead us to
conclude that peak-oil theory is wrong. Far from it. As suggested
by Chevron’s O’Reilly, remaining energy supplies on the planet are
mainly to be found “in places where resources are difficult to extract,
physically, economically, and even politically.” This is exactly what
we are seeing today.
For example, the much-heralded new discovery in the Gulf of Mexico,
Chevron’s Jack No. 2 Well, lies beneath five miles of water and rock
some 175 miles south of New Orleans in an area where, in recent years,
hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, and Rita have attained their maximum strength
and inflicted their greatest damage on offshore oil facilities. It
is naive to assume that, however promising Jack No. 2 may seem in
oil-industry publicity releases, it will not be exposed to Category
5 hurricanes in the years ahead, especially as global warming heats
the Gulf and generates ever more potent storms.
Obviously, Chevron would not be investing billions of dollars in
costly technology to develop such a precarious energy resource
if there were better opportunities on land or closer to shore —
but so many of those easy-to-get-at places have now been exhausted,
leaving the company little choice in the matter.
Or take the equally ballyhooed BTC pipeline, which shipped its
first oil in July, with top U.S. officials in attendance. This
conduit stretches 1,040 miles from Baku in Azerbaijan to the
Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, passing no less than six
active or potential war zones along the way: the Armenian enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan; Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia; the
Muslim separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia;
and the Kurdish regions of Turkey. Is this where anyone in their right
mind would build a pipeline? Not unless you were desperate for oil,
and safer locations had already been used up.
In fact, virtually all of the other new fields being developed or
considered by U.S. and foreign energy firms — ANWR in Alaska, the
jungles of Colombia, northern Siberia, Uganda, Chad, Sakhalin Island
in Russia’s Far East — are located in areas that are hard to reach,
environmentally sensitive, or just plain dangerous. Most of these
fields will be developed, and they will yield additional supplies of
oil, but the fact that we are being forced to rely on them suggests
that the peak-oil moment has indeed arrived and that the general
direction of the price of oil, despite period drops, will tend to
be upwards as the cost of production in these out-of-the-way and
dangerous places continues to climb.
Living on the Peak-Oil Plateau
Some peak-oil theorists have, however, done us all a disservice by
suggesting, for rhetorical purposes, that the peak-oil moment is…
well, a sharp peak. They paint a picture of a simple, steep, upward
production slope leading to a pinnacle, followed by a similarly neat
and steep decline. Perhaps looking back from 500 years hence, this
moment will have that appearance on global oil production charts. But
for those of us living now, the “peak” is more likely to feel like a
plateau — lasting for perhaps a decade or more — in which global oil
production will experience occasional ups and downs without rising
substantially (as predicted by those who dismiss peak-oil theory),
nor falling precipitously (as predicted by its most ardent proponents).
During this interim period, particular events — a hurricane, an
outbreak of conflict in an oil region — will temporarily tighten
supplies, raising gasoline prices, while the opening of a new field
or pipeline, or simply (as now) the alleviation of immediate fears
and a temporary boost in supplies will lower prices. Eventually, of
course, we will reach the plateau’s end and the decline predicted by
the theory will commence in earnest.
In the meantime, for better or worse, we live on that plateau today.
If this year’s hurricane season ends with no major storms, and we get
through the next few months without a major blowup in the Middle East,
we are likely to start 2007 with lower gasoline prices than we’ve seen
in a while. This is not, however, evidence of a major trend. Because
global oil supplies are never likely to be truly abundant again,
it would only take one major storm or one major crisis in the Middle
East to push crude prices back up near or over $80 a barrel. This is
the world we now inhabit, and it will never get truly better until we
develop an entirely new energy system based on petroleum alternatives
and renewable fuels.
Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies
at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and the author of Blood
and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency
on Imported Petroleum.
[This article first appeared on Tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation
Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news,
and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, long time editor in publishing and
author of The End of Victory Culture and The Last Days of Publishing.]
cle.cfm?SectionID=56&ItemID=11065

EURLINGS: PKK SHOULD DECLARE CEASEFIRE
BÝA, Turkey
Sept 28 2006
EP calls for more reforms on freedom of opinion, religious and
minority, women and cultural rights, civilian-military relations,
unions and impartiality of justice. Evaluation report adopted by
General Assembly asks Ankara to open ports to Greek Cyprus.
BÝA (Strasbourg) – The European Parliament General Assembly on
Wednesday adopted a report on Turkey prepared by Dutch Christian
Democrat member Camiel Eurlings.
The report was accepted by 429 votes in favor and 71 against, with
125 members abstaining.
According to the BBC Turkish Service, the Parliament report asked for
Turkey to abolish legislation limiting the freedom of expression and
continue its reforms while also calling for the opening of Turkish
ports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes and develop diplomatic
relations with neighboring Armenia.
A previous demand added to the report by the Foreign Affairs Committee
for Turkey to acknowledge an “Armenian genocide” in its history before
it could join the EU was removed from the final report.
An amendment by the Socialist, Liberal and Green lawmakers on the
issue was approved with 320 votes in favor and 282 against.
The final report, however, did say said it was indispensable for
Turkey to come to terms with and recognize its past and called in
Ankara to take steps without conditions to start diplomatic relations
with Armenia and open its border door as soon as possible.
Another point removed from the report passed on Wednesday was a
request for Turkey to recognize a genocide of Assyrians and Greeks.
Instead the report called for positive relations with minorities.
Eurlings: A EU country cannot have an article like 301
European Parliament’s Turkey Rapporteur Camiel Eurlings said that with
the changes made the report had generally turned to its original
shape and in a speech he made after the vote said “We want the
[outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party] PKK to declare a ceasefire. We
also want the Turkish government to start some kind of communication
with Kurdish politicians”.
According to a report the NTV, Eurlings said they expected Turkey to
speed up the process of its reforms and in relation to controversial
article 301 he added, “a country that has entered the EU cannot have
such an article”.
Eurlings also said “I know the report contains hard conditions for
Turkey. I am sorry on this issue. But I must say I am hopeful. I hope
this report is reflected in the correct way”.
“Reforms process needs to speed up ”
The Evaluation Report which places no obligations on Turkey calls on
the country to speed up the process of its reforms.
The areas of reforms highlighted in the report are the freedom of
expression, religious and minority rights, civilian-military relations,
women rights, unions, cultural rights and the impartiality of justice.
The report expresses positive reaction to the Ankara government’s
9th reform package but calls on Turkey for the new Anti-Terror Law
not to contain any elements that would limit basic rights and freedoms.
Asking for government officials as well as military personnel to be
treated equally before law, the report calls on Ankara to amend Penal
Code articles 216, 277, 288, 301, 305 and 318 on grounds that they
allow arbitrary enforcement.
Electoral barrier needs to be changed
Stating that the removal from duty of Van Public Prosecutor Ferhat
Sarikaya was source to “deep concern” the report says events after
the bookstore bombing in Semdinli last year (where military personnel
were involved, caught and prosecuted) showed not that the role of
the army in the Turkish society had revived, but that it continued.
The report also says the 10% electoral barrier should be lowered in
Turkey allowing a larger representation in Parliament, inclusive of
Kurdish parties in reference to parties that cannot meet a nation-wide
10% vote average and are disallowed parliamentary representation.
The report also states that Turkey may require a new constitution that
would reflect the reforms taken in its path to the EU and condemns
a recent attack made by a gunman on members of the Turkish Council
of State.
Alawite Rights must be protected
Under the title “Human Rights and Protecting Minorities” the report
expresses sorrow that no improvements have yet been recorded since
the last EP report in the field of religious freedoms. It asks for
Turkey to tackle wit the obstacles in front of religious minorities
property and education rights.
The report also asks for Turkey to recognize and protect its Alawite
citizens while also approving their religious gathering places as
religious centers. It says religious education at schools should be
voluntary rather than compulsory and that it should not only reflect
the Muslim Sunni belief.
The report lists other appeals to Turkey ranging from “abolishment of
the village guards system ” to “searching for a democratic solution
to the Kurdish issue”, “detentions and arrests to be reformed to
European standards”.
The parliament also called on Turkey to abolish or amend provisions
stifling freedom of expression, which “allow for arbitrary
interpretations by judges and prosecutors leading to judgments
which … constitute a threat to the respect of human rights and
freedoms.”
–Boundary_(ID_j25C5u19YAIkE4 okCnkPHQ)–

NAASR CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Sept 28 2006
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research will host a
gala anniversary banquet, “NAASR Celebrates 50!” on Saturday evening,
Sept. 30, at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge.
The evening will begin at 5:30 with a reception and dinner, with a
keynote address by Dr. Gregory H. Adamian, chancellor and president
emeritus of Bentley College in Waltham, remarks by Paul R. Ignatius,
former secretary of the Navy and assistant secretary of defense,
renowned actress and author Nora Armani, a retrospective video, and
will conclude with music and dancing with the Leon Janikian Ensemble.
The banquet is open to NAASR members and non-members alike.
Adamian is a Charter and Life Member of NAASR and a member of
its Board of Directors since 1956. During more than two decades
as president of Bentley College, the school experienced dramatic
academic, financial and physical growth. His service to the Armenian
community was recognized by Karekin I, Catholicos of All Armenians,
when Adamian was awarded the St. Sahag and St. Mesrob medal in 1998.
He is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from
Boston University.
The NAASR celebratory events of Sept. 30 will commence with a morning
symposium at the Royal Sonesta on “Armenian-Turkish Dialogue and the
Direction of Armenian Studies.” The symposium will take place from
9 a.m. until 1 p.m., and is open to the public at no charge.
The symposium will feature Dr. Taner AkíË of the University of
Minnesota, Rachel Goshgarian, Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University,
Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian of the University of California, Los
Angeles, Dr. Gerard J. Libaridian of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, and Dr. Christina Maranci of the University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee. Dr. Kevork Bardakjian of the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, will serve as panel respondent. Following the presentations of
the panelists, there will be a discussion and question-and-answer
period. Marc A. Mamigonian, NAASR’s director of programs and
publications, will serve as moderator and NAASR Chairman Emeritus
Manoog S. Young will be the honorary chairman of the symposium.
For more information about the event, call 617-489-1610, e-mail
[email protected], or write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
e/view.bg?articleid=583318
–Boundary_(ID_6p5IuU5 kH3xvzuFxchy+NQ)–