4 RUSSIAN OFFICERS ARRESTED FOR SPYING IN GEORGIA
Makfax, Macedonia
Sept 27 2006
Four Russian officers have been arrested on suspicion of spying in
Georgia, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said.
“Four Russian military intelligence officers and 12 citizens of Georgia
have been suspected of spying in Tbilisi, Batumi and other part of
Georgia. They were arrested in special operations,” Merabishvili said.
Hundreds of police vehicles sealed a district in Tbilisi, where the
headquarters of the Russian military bases in Georgia, Azerbaijan
and Armenia are stationed.

ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN ADDRESS ISSUE OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH IN UN DEBATE
NewsBlaze, CA
Sept 27 2006
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on the fifth day of
its annual high-level debate, the foreign ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan expressed their views on the Nagorno-Karabakh region
of Azerbaijan.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said on Monday that “the
people of Nagorno-Karabakh chose long ago not to be represented by the
Government of Azerbaijan. They were the victims of state violence, they
defended themselves, and succeeded against great odds, only to hear
the State cry foul and claim sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Mr. Oskanian said that last December Azerbaijan destroyed or removed
thousands of hand-sculpted mediaeval Armenian tombstones.
“Such destruction, in an area with no Armenians, at a distance from
Nagorno-Karabakh and any conflict areas, is a callous demonstration
that Azerbaijan’s attitude towards tolerance, human values, cultural
treasures, cooperation or even peace, has not changed.”
He added that “one cannot blame us for thinking that Azerbaijan is
not ready or interested in a negotiated peace.”
Elmar Mammadyarov, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, told the Assembly
that a recent joint environmental operation between the two countries
to tackle major fires inside Nagorno-Karabakh has been “the only
positive development so far.”
“The occupying forces have to withdraw from the occupied territories
and necessary conditions have to be in place to allow secure
and dignified return of the Azerbaijani displaced persons to the
Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding territories of Azerbaijan,”
he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s status can only be defined “through peaceful,
democratic and legal process with direct participation and consent
of both Azerbaijani and Armenian communities,” he said, adding
that the region’s economic development must be strengthened and its
inter-communal relations enhanced.
But “it is difficult to hope for a breakthrough in the negotiations
when Armenia rejects face-to-face meetings and refuses to take a
constructive approach to solve existing problems.”

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CRITICISES ARTICLE 301 OF TURKISH PENAL CODE
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Sept 27 2006
The recently passed article of the Penal Code covers the crime of
“insulting Turkish identity”.
Guncelleme: 17:30 TSÝ 27 Eylul 2006 CarþambaANKARA – Amnesty
International (AI) has criticised the latest court case opened against
journalist Hrant Dink, chief editor of the Armenian paper Agos,
by Turkish prosecutors.
AI issued a statement Wednesday saying that article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code was targeting journalists using their freedom of expression.
The rights organisation voiced its concerns over the article being
used to stiffle writers expressing their dissident views peacefully.
AI said that article 301 should be abolished and be replaced by an
article that is clear cut and that would not to lead to any arbitrary
practices.
Dink has been charged over a statement he gave to the Reuters news
agency concerning the so-called Armenian genocide. Dink was given a
suspended six months prison term after being found guilty of insulting
Turkish identity earlier this year. In the event Dink is found guilty
in his present case, he would have to serve his previous sentence as
well as any penalty handed down by the court.
–Boundary_(ID_VJcnjce0kfCXgU6uJh1cQA)–

EP PASSES REPORT ON TURKEY
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Sept 27 2006
The report said that Turkey had slowed the pace of putting in place
reforms required for the country’s accession to the European Union.
Guncelleme: 16:52 TSÝ 27 Eylul 2006 CarþambaSTRASBOURG – The European
Parliament on Wednesday approved a report criticising Turkey for not
doing enough to meet the membership criteria of the European Union.
After a lengthy debate, 429 EP deputies voted in favour of adopting the
non-binding report prepared by Dutch parliamentarian Camiel Eurlings,
while 71 voted against. A further 125 parliamentarians abstained.
The report calls on Ankara to increase the pace of reforms especially
those dealing with freedom of expression, religious rights, minority
rights, women’s rights, labour unions, cultural rights and independence
of the jurdiciary.
Turkey was also called on to open its ports and airports to Greek
Cypriot ships and planes, with the report saying that Turkey’s
recognition of all EU countries including Greek Cypriot administration
is a compulsory part of EU negotiation process.
Earlier Wednesday, the EP voted to withdraw a requirement for Turkey
to accept allegations that the Ottoman Empire committed an act of
genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War One as a
pre-condition for membership of the European Union.
Most of the EP’s Socialist, Liberal and Green deputies voted in favour
of an amendment to a report on Turkey’s progress in meeting the EU’s
membership criteria removing the making it a condition of Turkey’s
accession that it recognise the so-called genocide. The motion was
carried by 320 votes in favour to 282.
–Boundary_(ID_vJ53zxL/imA2DYpd1NgPYg)–

OSKANYAN: AZERBAIJAN LOST EVEN MORAL RIGHT TO PROPOSE PROTECTION TO NKR
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2006
YEREVAN, September 26. /ARKA/. Azerbaijan has lost even a moral
right to propose its protection and guaranteed future to the people
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), RA Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan stated at the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations
(UN) in New York.
He stressed that Azerbaijan treated the NKR population, citizens of
Azerbaijan, in an immoral and irresponsible way.
Far from the NKR, in public places, Azerbaijan allowed Armenian pogroms
to be committed, shelled Armenians and caused over 300,000 of them
to leave their homes, unleashed a war and, after being defeated and
signing a cease-fire agreement, began obliterating all the signs of
Armenians’ presence in Azerbaijan’s territory, Oskanyan said.
And the fact that, a decade after the cease-fire regime was
established, the Azerbaijani side annihilated Armenian cultural and
historical monuments in Nakhichevan, where no Armenian can be found
now, testifies that Azerbaijan has not changed its policy during this
period, Oskanyan said.
He also stated that no one can accuse the Armenian side of being
biased – Azerbaijan is not ready for interested in the negotiations.
Nevertheless, having turned down two previous proposals for a
compromise made over the last right years, Azerbaijan will not assume
the responsibility for rejecting a peace program on the negotiating
table. This is the reason why they are resorting to any means to
force Armenians into turning this program down. However, Armenian
clearly stated its consent to each of the fundamental principles of
the document on the negotiating table.

“MASS MEDIA AND INTERSTATE RELATIONS IN CAUCASUS” CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA ON SEPTEMBER 29
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2006
YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA/. Organizational committee of the “Mass
Media and Interstate Relations in Caucasus” conference informed
ARAK News Agency that the conference would be held in Armenia on
September 29.
Armenian Ambassador in Russia Nikolay Pavlov, Alexander Babinsky,
deputy chief editor of RIA Novosti, as well as Rector of
Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) university Armen Darbinyan will make a
speech welcoming the participants of the conference.
During the plenary session the following people will make speeches
as well: namely a member of the Scientific Council of the Moscow
Carnegie Center Alexei Malashenko with a report on the theme of “Media
Community: Overcoming Xenophobia”, author and presenter of “Special
File” program on TVC TV-channel Leonid Mlechin – “Russian television:
Formation of National Stereotypes”, Director of Russian and Asian
programs of the U.S. Institute of World Security Nikolay Zlobin –
“Caucasus Theme in the Context of the World Politics and Security”,
head of scientific projects of the Association of Researchers of
Russian Society Gennady Bordyugo and others.
Representatives of the mass media, political scientists and
conflictologists from Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan will
take part in the conference.
The event is organized by RIA Novosti and Russian-Armenian (Slavonic)
university.

NKR PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR OF CIS INSTITUTE DISCUSS NK SETTLEMENT
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2006
YEREVAN, September 26. /ARKA/. President of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR) Arkady Ghukasyan held a meeting with the Director
of the Institute of the CIS countries, member of the RF State Duma
Konstantin Zatulin.
The NKR presidential press service reports that the sides discussed
the present stage and prospects of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement
under the OSCE Minsk Group’s auspices.
The sides stressed the necessity of a peaceful settlement and
inadmissibility of propaganda of hatred and intolerance.

GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL EXTENDING TIME FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SUITS
By Kenneth Ofgang, Staff Writer
Metropolitan News-Enterprise, CA
Sept 27 2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation giving victims
of genocide in Armenia and their heirs and beneficiaries another 10
years to sue for the loss or theft of assets deposited in European
or Asian banks.
SB 1524, which the governor signed on Monday, extends the limitations
period for such claims to Dec. 31, 2016. The bill is similar to prior
legislation allowing additional time for victims to sue for unpaid
insurance proceeds or restitution of misappropriated artworks.
A group of plaintiffs earlier this year sued Germany’s Deutsche Bank
and Dresdner Bank. The putative class action complaint filed in
the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in
Deirmenjian v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., CV 06-00774, alleged the banks
wrongfully held Armenian assets and froze Armenian bank accounts
during the period of the Armenian Genocide.
The plaintiffs are represented by three attorneys of Armenian descent,
Brian Kabateck, partner with Kabateck Brown Kellner; Mark Geragos,
partner with Geragos & Geragos; and Vartkes Yeghiayan of Yeghiayan
and Associates.
“Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank were approached by Turkish leaders to
store Armenian artwork, gold and other valuables that were illegally
seized by the Turks during the Armenian Genocide,” Kabateck explained
in a release. “The assets and the money deposited by Armenians in
these banks mysteriously disappeared and were considered lost for
decades. With most of the rightful owners massacred, these banks
apparently thought they could get away with stealing family assets
from an entire generation of Armenians. A new generation of Armenians
has set out to right this wrong.”
The class action plaintiffs estimate that the banks took more than
$22.5 million in looted assets, based on 1915 dollars.
Schwarzenegger also signed AB 424, permanently designating April 24
as the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.
He explained in a statement:
“Between 1915 and 1923, a systematic and deliberate campaign of
genocide by the Ottoman Turkish government resulted in the deaths
of over 1.5 million Armenians and the exile of a people from their
historic homeland. During this period, tens of thousands of displaced
Armenians took refuge in the United States, many in California. These
survivors embraced this country and this state. Among them and their
descendents emerged leaders in business, agriculture, sports, academics
and the arts. Today, a few survivors remain as a living testament to
the horror that took place 90 years ago. We must recognize crimes
against humanity if we are to prevent them; silence in the face of
genocide effectively encourages those who would commit such atrocities
in the future.”
The Turkish government has called the 1.5 million figure “grossly
erroneous” and has attributed the deaths of Armenians in that period to
“intercommunal” political, rather than ethnic and religious, conflict.
Schwarzenegger earlier signed a bill directing the state’s public
employee retirement funds to divest from companies that do business
in Sudan, where the government persists in denying reports that
an estimated 200,000 black Africans in the Darfur region have been
killed and many times that number displaced as a result of attacks
by Arab militias.

HUGE PARLIAMENTARY MAJORITY FOR CRITICAL EU TURKEY REPORT
By Lucia Kubosova
EUobserver.com, Belgium
Sept 27 2006
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Parliament has voted strongly
in favour of the critical report on Turkey’s EU accession progress,
in a Strasbourg plenary vote on Wednesday (27 September).
The 732-strong chamber supported the controversial report by the
Dutch centre-right MEP Camiel Eurlings with 429 votes in favour,
71 against and 125 abstentions.
The document criticises the human rights shortcomings of the EU
hopeful but refrains from calling for a historical recognition of
Armenian genocide as a pre-condition for Turkey’s accession.
The controversial idea of the genocide clause was originally introduced
to the draft report in the parliament’s foreign committee earlier
this month by Belgian socialist MEP Veronique de Keyser – but she
herself later signed the amendment scrapping the clause.
On the other hand, a number of centre-right deputies expressed
their disappointment after the genocide clause was dropped, with
German MEP Renate Sommer pointing out that nobody could imagine that
Germany would refer to the Holocaust “in quotation marks” or as the
“so-called Holocaust.”
Critics however argued that while a historical study into the World War
I mass killings of Armenians is needed – as suggested by a preserved
passage in the report – it should not become a new condition for
Turkey to join the EU.
Czech centre-right MEP Jan Zahradil for example pointed out “We can
no longer accept a manipulation with distant historical events and
their use as a political instrument in the current context.”
He added that the Czech Republic has its own negative experience with
the retroactive abuse of its past – referring to the so called Benes
decrees, post-World War II laws which led to the expulsion of Germans
and Hungarians.
MEPs did, however, back another last-minute amendment introduced to
the report only last week, on the forthcoming visit of Pope Benedict
XVI to Turkey.
The Pope clause expresses the hope that the visit will “contribute
to strengthening inter-religious and intercultural dialogue between
the Christian and Muslim world.”
Open-ended talks Speaking in Ankara on the day of the parliament’s
report, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government
is ready to keep up the reform process aimed at joining the EU but
would not agree to any extra conditions by the bloc.
“We’re not seeking anything exclusive from the EU in the process ahead,
in return, we naturally cannot accept bringing in new criteria,”
he told a press conference in Istanbul.
The MEPs’ report stressed that Turkey’s negotiations with the EU are
of an “open-ended” nature and would not “a priori and automatically”
lead to accession.
They pointed out that to achieve the country’s membership, both
Ankara and the EU need to make an effort, while noting that Europe
would consider the issue of its own capacity to “absorb Turkey while
maintaining the momentum of integration.”
The European Commission is expected this autumn to come up with a study
into the ability of the EU to take in new members, with the bloc’s
leaders set to discuss the issue at their December meeting in Brussels.
Turkey is set to be the hot topic of this autumn with Ankara unlikely
to change its view and lifts its embargo on Cypriot ships and aircrafts
by the EU’s end of 2006 deadline.
The parliamentarians pointed out in Wednesday’s report that a lack of
Turkish progress on the Cyprus issue “will have serious implications
for the negotiation process, and could even bring it to a halt.”

EU ASSEMBLY BACKS TURKEY REPORT
EUPolitix.com, Belgium
Sept 27 2006
MEPs have approved a controversial report on Turkey – but dropped calls
for Ankara to formally recognise Armenian genocide as a condition of
EU entry.
In a vote in Strasbourg on Wednesday, the Eurlings report was adopted
by 429 votes in favour and 71 against. There were 125 abstentions.
Crucially, parliament dropped calls for Turkey to recognise Armenian
genocide before it can join the EU.
“The recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey is no longer
presented as precondition for EU accession,” Green MEP and chair of
the EP Turkey delegation, Joost Lagendijk explained in a statement.
“This is a crucial point as it would have strengthened the hands of
those in Turkey opposed to reforms.”
Rapporteur Camiel Eurlings expressed his delight that his report had
received the backing of his parliamentary colleagues.
But he said Turkey still needed to come to terms with its past.
“It is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come
to terms with and recognize its past,” his report reads.
Eurlings insists it was never intention to force Ankara to formally
recognise this chapter in its history.
“This amendment was added when my report was being debated in the
parliament’s foreign affairs committee, and it is an amendment I
regret” the Dutch MEP declared.
“And the amendment was actually proposed by the Socialist MEP Veronique
De Keyser. I think the Socialists need to get together to work out
what their line is on my report.”
The report also stresses the need for progress on freedom of
expression, minority religion rights and also raises the Cyprus issue.
But Liberal MEP Andrew Duff argues that by backing the report, the
parliament has taken two steps forward and one step back.
“It is good news that MEPs have dropped their demand that Turkey
recognises Ottoman ‘genocide’ against the Armenians as a precondition
of accession,” he said.
“It is a pity, however, that we have missed our chance to add value
to the search for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.
The EU still needs to fulfil its commitment to ending the isolation
of the Turkish Cypriot community.”
German right winger Elmar Brok warned that Turkish progress has
“ground to a halt” since negotiations with the EU opened last year.
“I am glad EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn now shares the
parliament’s concerns and sees progress in the same critical light,”
he said.
“The political accession criteria have to be accomplished at the
beginning of the negotiations – not at the end,” he added.
On Tuesday Rehn told MEPs he is pressing Ankara for “a more resolute
reform process.”