JACQUES CHIRAC NEVER APOLOGIZED TO TURKISH PRIME MINISTER
Public Radio of Armenia
16.10.2006 16:25
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.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PARLIAMENT TO TACKLE FRANCE PASSAGE OF ARMENIAN BILL
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 16 2006
Ahead of the Seker Bayram recess starting next weekend, Parliament
has a busy schedule this week as it’s set to counter its French
counterpart passing a controversial Armenian “genocide” bill as well
as the contentious foundations bill.
The repercussions of the French Parliament passing a bill to heavily
penalize those who deny an Armenian “genocide” will dominate the full
Parliament as a special agenda issue.
On Tuesday, after Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul briefs Parliament
on the issue, political parties will then voice their concerns and
opinions.
The controversial 93-article foundations bill will be assessed by
Parliament as a basic law in three different parts.
The bill, after significant changes, paves the way for community
foundations to officially register what they own.
Under the bill, foreigners would be able to establish foundations in
Turkey or be in the administration of existing foundations.
Foundations would also be entitled to open offices abroad. The
implementation of the regulation depends on the principle of
international reciprocity.
Deputies debating the seeds legislation — which aims to increase
the efficiency and quality in seed production and to restructure the
sector as called for in the latest European Union progress report —
are expected to submit their report to Parliament on Tuesday.
The same day the Justice Commission will debate a bill submitted
by a group of ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party deputies,
led by Yozgat Deputy Bekir Bozdag. It proposes amendments to seven
laws in line with the adaptation of basic penal laws.
The only commission to meet on Wednesday is one probing the threat
of cancer posed by industrial waste in Dilovasi, Gebze.

KERINCSIZ SET TO SUE SWEDES OVER PAMUK’S NOBEL
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 16 2006
Following the acquittal of novelist Elif Safak and her fictional
characters, Turkish ultranationalists have found a fresh target:
The Swedish Royal Academy, which just awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature to Turkey’s own Orhan Pamuk.
Kemal Kerincsiz, a high-profile ultranationalist figure known for
filing complaints against any who fall short of his strict patriotic
standard, said over the weekend that he will sue the academy.
The academy made it public on Thursday that renowned Turkish writer
Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a decision which stirred
feelings of the Turkish people as reflected by the coverage of the
Turkish media.
But Pamuk had angered Kerincsiz’s crowd last year when he told a Swiss
newspaper that “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in
these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”
Pamuk was subsequently tried on charges of “public denigration of
Turkish identity” but his case, heard under intense international
scrutiny, was dismissed on a technicality.
Now the academy may face a legal challenge for the first time in its
history for its prize choice.
Kerincsiz said he was issuing the challenge since the academy’s
criteria are political.
Kerincsiz first introduced himself as a guardian of self-declared
“Turkishness” last year when he filed a complaint against an academic
conference on Armenians. His endeavor continued with several lawsuits
against journalists and authors who allegedly insulted Turkishness
either in their writings, be it fiction or non-fiction, or by their
remarks.
“Both Orhan Pamuk and his prize are flawed for us,” he told the news
channel NTV on Saturday.
Arabaslik: Legal avenues unclear
However, he said that neither he nor his colleagues have studied the
Swedish legal system but added that they’re determined to sue the
academy. “We will work on the legal system, the regulations of the
academy. I believe the regulations of the academy set criteria for
the determination of winners, which should be focusing on the literary
and linguistic skills of the candidates, not their political profiles.”
He claimed that the prize was given for Pamuk’s political personality
and due to efforts of the Armenian diaspora. “It’s proven with the
French Parliament’s decision which came on the very same day,” said
Kerincsiz referring to the Parliament decision which would make it
an offense to deny Armenian genocide in France.
Arabaslik: ‘I can’t stand his books’
Kerincsiz also said that Pamuk’s books were worthless works of a
third class author. “As a person, don’t I have the right to express
my individual view on the literary value of his books?” he asked.
He also explained that he could read “Kar,” the latest and, as Pamuk
said, his only political novel, to the very end but that was all.
“I started to read a couple of his books, but believe me I couldn’t
continue after 50 pages as I thought I was wasting my time,” Kerincsiz
told NTV.
He rejected any suggestion that he had inadvertently helped Pamuk
to win the prize, saying that if he hadn’t denounced Pamuk, he would
have won the prize anyway. “He was also among the strongest candidates
last year,” he added.
According to several commentators, the lawsuits against prominent
authors and journalists under the controversial penal code Article
301 drew international attention to them and may have helped writers
to receive support and prizes for their efforts for freedom of thought.
Asked about his personal fight against authors, he said that he was
encouraged by the writers. “I’m not their nightmare. I’ve read several
columns about me and my struggle, and almost all see my efforts an
advertising opportunity,” he added.
Arabaslik: ‘Nobel not for Turkey, besides it’s no prize’
Another drubbing of the prize came from the Kemalist Thought Foundation
(ADD), which said in a written statement that Pamuk’s Nobel Prize
isn’t an honor for the Turkish nation.
Foundation head Ali Ercan called both the French Parliament’s
controversial bill and the Royal Academy honoring Pamuk show how
“grave acts of treason” are being faced by the Turkish Republic.
Several other civil groups called on Pamuk to fix his “mistake”
with a new speech to tell the world that the Turks didn’t kill 1
million Armenians. Independent Teachers’ Labor Union said that they
will award him a 2006 honor prize if he does so.
People’s Ascent Party (HYP) leader Yasar Nuri Ozturk, rejecting the
Nobel as a prize, said that the academy rewards those who slander
Turkey.
Democratic Leftist Party leader Zeki Sezer on Saturday also urged
Turkish authors not to resort to speaking against Turkey to win the
Nobel Prize.
Arabaslik: Mocking newspapers
While the reactions of the majority, including the press, could be
summed up as “we’re proud of Pamuk, but…,” two Turkish papers,
both ultranationalist, went so far as to unleash words that could be
taken as insults.
Daily Yenicag published a photo of Pamuk laughing on Saturday edition
with text saying: “Orhan Pamuk, who grasped the prize due to his
abject insults to the Turkish nation, became rabid after winning the
prize and frothed at the mouth.”
Likewise, daily Tercuman, on its front page on Friday, published the
same photo and called on its readers to convey their ideas about Pamuk:
“Readers, tell us your feelings about this smirking opportunist.”
And on Sunday, daily Vatan published an anonymous open letter
calling on Pamuk to refuse the prize and offered him to give him
money in return.
“If you heed my call, you’ll be an author without a prize but an
immortal man in the eyes of the great Turkish nation,” said the letter.

TURKISH TERRITORY WASN’T FIRED FROM ARMENIAN SIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 17:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish territory was not fired from the Armenian
side, Vardan Karapetian, the spokesman of the frontier department of
Russian Federal Security Service (FSS) told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
According to him, the information spread by Turkish media with
a reference to the Turkish General Staff is false. To note, the
Armenian-Turkish border is guarded by the FSS frontier troops.
The other day some Turkish media spread information according to
which the Turkish General Staff accused Armenia of firing upon the
Turkish territory. The General Staff said the military of the frontier
forces have made two gunshots in the direction of the Turkish side
on October 11.

ROMANIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA COMPLETING MISSION
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 17:55 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian received
Romanian Ambassador to Armenia Nicolae Iordache, who is completing
his mission in Armenia, reported the RA leader’s press office. The
parties thanked each other for joint work and voiced assurance that
the Armenian-Romanian ties will be developing and strengthening in
future. They also referred to the Romanian President’s visit during
which a number of agreements on further cooperation were signed.

POPE TO VISIT TURKEY
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 18:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Vatican on Monday officially confirmed that Pope
Benedict XVI will visit Turkey at the end of November, a trip that
had been put into doubt by Muslim anger over controversial comments
he made about Islam. The confirmation of the Nov 28-Dec 1 trip to
the predominantly Muslim nation came in an advisory to journalists on
accreditation and a separate announcement that he was making the trip
at the invitation of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The main purpose
of the visit is to meet in Istanbul — the former Constantinople —
with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world’s
Orthodox Christians. It should be noted that the sharp statements of
the Pope aroused a wave of indignation within the Muslim world and his
visit to Turkey remained undecided during the recent several weeks,
reports Reuters.

RA FM TO VISIT CANADA, U.S. AND FRANCE
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 18:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 17 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
is departing for Canada, reported the RA MFA press office. October 18
he will meet in Ottawa with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay,
members of the Armenian-Canadian parliamentary friendship group and
the local Armenian community. October 19 Minister Oskanian will leave
for Toronto to address an international conference titled “Creation
of possibilities for development and peace. The role of Diaspora”
initiated by the UN University for Peace.
October 21 Vartan Oskanian will head for Washington to give a report
at a solemn event dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Armenia’s
independence. The next day he will depart for France, where he is
scheduled to meet with Azeri FM Elmar Mammadyarov and the OSCE MG
Co-chairs.

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO OSCE JULIE FINLEY ARRIVING IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 17
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 18:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 17-19 U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Julie
Finley will be paying a visit to Armenia, the press office of the
U.S. Embassy in Yerevan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. The details
of the visit will be known tomorrow. As reported by Mediamax, when
addressing the OSCE Permanent Council in summer Ms. Finley said that
“one-sided decision on suspension of legal travel of people and
commodity circulation at the Russian-Georgian border conflicts with
economic and humanitarian interests of the peoples of the region,
including Armenia.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE OBSERVER: GENOCIDE BILL ADOPTION MADE FRANCE ENEMY OF FREEDOM
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 19:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ British daily The Observer commented on Sunday
that making denial of the Armenian Genocide a criminal offense is
“wrong and bad,” describing the French move as an “enemy of free
speech.” The daily underlined that quite apart from limiting free
speech, and therefore legitimizing a desirable debate on historical
questions, the French are “surely obliged to remember more distinctly,
and more publicly, the collaboration of so many of their own people
with the Nazi transport of Jews before starting on the business of
criminalizing remoter cases of denial.” The Observer also stated that
the Armenian bill was designed to complicate Turkey’s application to
join the EU. “It is a bewildering reality that France sees Turkey’s
refusal to acknowledge what happened to the Armenians as an obstacle
to membership, while at the same time continuing to regard its own
wartime behavior as somehow irreproachable,” it was added.

CIS LEADERS TO MEET FOR SUMMIT IN LATE NOVEMBER
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.10.2006 13:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ CIS leaders will meet for a summit in late November,
Russian FM Sergey Lavrov stated in Minsk after the session of the
Commonwealth Council of FMs. “The time of holding the summit is being
specified,” he remarked. “A rich exchange of views was held in Minsk,
which reaffirmed the CIS inclination to enhance effectiveness in
compliance with the commissions of the CIS Presidents,” the Russian
FM said. Lavrov also reported that “a report on the course of work of
the high level group on enhancing CIS effectiveness was also heard,”
reports ITAR-TASS.