Agence France Presse — English
September 28, 2006 Thursday 9:28 AM GMT
EU enlargement chief to visit Turkey ahead of key report
ANKARA, Sept 28 2006
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn is scheduled to visit Turkey
next week ahead of a crucial report on the country’s struggling
membership bid, officials said Thursday.
Ankara has faced increasing warnings that its bid may be derailed,
only a year after accession talks started, if it fails to ensure
freedom of speech and grant trade privileges to EU member Cyprus
under a customs union accord with the bloc.
Rehn, who will arrive here late Monday, is expected to have talks
with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator, Economy Minister Ali Babacan, and
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek on Tuesday and Wednesday, a spokeswoman
for the EU Commission told AFP.
He is also expected to visit the Turkish parliament, address a
conference on union rights organized by one of Turkey’s biggest trade
unions, Turk-Is, and make a speech at Ankara’s Middle East Technical
University, she said.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will issue on
November 8 a report on Turkey’s progress towards membership, which is
widely expected to be critical.
“The momentum for reform has slowed down in Turkey in the past year,”
Rehn said Tuesday.
Last week, Brussels slammed Ankara for failing to ensure free speech
after best-selling novelist Elif Shafak went on trial for insulting
the Turkish nation in a book about the massacres of Armenians under
the Ottoman Empire.
Even though Shafak was swiftly acquitted, the European Commission
said “a significant threat to freedom of expression” remains in
Turkish law and urged amendments in penal code articles that have
landed a string of intellectuals in court.
In another major sticking point, Ankara insists that its sea and air
ports will remain closed to Greek Cypriot use unless Brussels
delivers on promises to ease trade restrictions imposed on the
breakaway Turkish Cypriots in the north of the divided island.
The dispute stems from Ankara’s refusal to endorse the Greek Cypriot
administration in the south, which is internationally recognized as
the government of the Republic of Cyprus.
Babacan said earlier this month that the EU was making “serious
efforts” to find a formula for a “provisional or partial” solution to
the row.

Business Wire
September 28, 2006 Thursday 3:25 PM GMT
Jane Fonda to Deliver Keynote Address at 2006 COAF ‘Save a
Generation’ Awards Dinner
NEW YORK
The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) is pleased to announce that Jane
Fonda, Oscar-winning actress and humanitarian, will deliver the
keynote address at the annual Save a Generation awards dinner, to be
held Friday, October 20, 2006, at Cipriani 42 Street in New York.
COAF will honor outstanding individual and corporate leaders, and
celebrate the success of COAFs unique formula for poverty alleviation
through village revitalization, education, health care and
development. Emmy award winner Andrea Martin will serve as Master of
Ceremonies and Ms. Fonda will appear along with honoree George
Pagoumian, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Napco, LLP.
In addition, COAF will recognize Pierre Michel Fattouche of VivaCell
and Eduardo Eurnekian of Zvartnots International Airport and Tierras
de Armenia as two organizational leaders fighting poverty in Armenia
through long-term economic development. Actress and humanitarian Jane
Fonda has enjoyed tremendous success as a stage and screen actress in
such well known films as Coming Home with much of her work devoted to
the program she founded in 1995, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent
Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP). She chairs this statewide effort to
reduce the high rates of adolescent pregnancy in Georgia through
community, youth and family development, sustainable economic
development and legislative advocacy. In 1994, Ms. Fonda was named
Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. She is
also a member of the Women & Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the
Council on Foreign Relations, the Grady Health System Board of
Visitors, the Screen Actors Guild Advisory Board, the Advisory Board
of the Native American Rights Fund, and sits on the V-Counsel of
V-Day: Until the Violence Stops. In May 2005, Random House published
Ms. Fondas memoirs, The New York Times , her first film in 15 years,
also reached number one at the box office, making Ms. Fonda the first
person to simultaneously have a number one book and number one movie.
Founded in 2000, the Children of Armenia Fund is an independent,
nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (501(c)(3)). COAF seeks to
reverse the impoverished conditions affecting significant numbers of
Armenias villages and implementing projects that provide immediate
and sustainable benefits to children and youth. For further
information, please visit .
The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) is pleased to announce that Jane
Fonda, Oscar(R)-winning actress and humanitarian, will deliver the
keynote address at the annual “Save a Generation” awards dinner, to
be held Friday, October 20, 2006, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New
York. COAF will honor outstanding individual and corporate leaders,
and celebrate the success of COAF’s unique formula for poverty
alleviation through village revitalization, education, health care
and development.
Emmy(R) and Tony(R) award winner Andrea Martin will serve as Master
of Ceremonies and Ms. Fonda will appear along with honoree George
Pagoumian, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Napco, LLP. In
addition, COAF will recognize Pierre Michel Fattouche of VivaCell and
Eduardo Eurnekian of Zvartnots International Airport and Tierras de
Armenia as two organizational leaders fighting poverty in Armenia
through long-term economic development.
Actress and humanitarian Jane Fonda has enjoyed tremendous success as
a stage and screen actress in such well known films as Klute and
Coming Home. Ms. Fonda now focuses her time on activism and social
change – with much of her work devoted to the program she founded in
1995, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention
(G-CAPP). She chairs this statewide effort to reduce the high rates
of adolescent pregnancy in Georgia through community, youth and
family development, sustainable economic development and legislative
advocacy.
In 1994, Ms. Fonda was named Goodwill Ambassador for the United
Nations Population Fund. She is also a member of the Women & Foreign
Policy Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the
Grady Health System Board of Visitors, the Screen Actors Guild
Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Native American Rights
Fund, and sits on the V-Counsel of V-Day: Until the Violence Stops.
In May 2005, Random House published Ms. Fonda’s memoirs, My Life So
Far, which secured a first-place position on The New York Times
Bestseller list. That same spring Monster-in-Law, her first film in
15 years, also reached number one at the box office, making Ms. Fonda
the first person to simultaneously have a number one book and number
one movie.
About COAF
Founded in 2000, the Children of Armenia Fund is an independent,
nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (501(c)(3)). COAF seeks to
reverse the impoverished conditions affecting significant numbers of
Armenia’s children by revitalizing Armenia’s villages and
implementing projects that provide immediate and sustainable benefits
to children and youth. For further information, please visit

CONTACT: Sunny Uberoi, 212-994-8206Anna Sargsyan,
212-994-8234CONTACT: Sunny Uberoi, 212-994-8206
[email protected] or Anna Sargsyan, 212-994-8234
[email protected]

IRNA, Iran
Sept 28 2006
Iranian energy minister expected in Armenia today
Tehran, Sept 28, IRNA Iran-Armenia-Energy Energy Minister Parviz
Fattah is to begin a visit to Armenia today to participate in the
Iran-Armenia-Georgia trilateral meeting as well as follow up joint
border projects and a bilateral agreement for supply of electricity
to Armenia.
On the two countries’ energy cooperation, he said a third
230-kilovolt transmission line being set up by the Iranian Sanir
company in Armenia is one of their ongoing projects and is to become
operational by year-end.
Electricity networks of Iran, Armenia and Georgia will be linked in
the near future so that Iran can have greater access to international
networks through Geogria, the minister told IRNA.
Construction of a dam on their joint Aras river is another
Iran-Armenia ongoing joint project, he said, adding that talks are
underway for construction of another dam in Armenia.
The 235-km Aras river forms an international border between Iran,
Azerbaijan Republic and Armenia.

Thursday, September 28, 2006
****************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
He who asks a rude question neither wants nor deserves an honest answer.
*
Two frequently used phrases in English that are never used in Armenian: “Speak truth to power,” and “The buck stops here.”
*
“The buck stops here,” and the blame-game are mutually exclusive concepts.
*
Sometimes the hardest word to pronounce is no.
*
Last night on CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] an interview with a Turkish novelist who was taken to court because in her latest book an Armenian character from San Francisco refers to Turks as “butchers.” The Turks, it seems, are so eager to achieve membership in the European Union that even a single word in a work of fiction bothers the hell out of them.
*
In the same way that we are brought up to believe we are a nation of heroes and martyrs, the Turks are brought up to believe they are a nation of empire builders and noble warriors, even if most of their so-called warriors were not Turks but brainwashed and castrated Christians.
*
People who give others ulcers, heart attacks, and cancer, die of natural causes.
*
I repeat myself because I consider it my duty to reassert the truth against ceaselessly repeated lies.
*
Bernard-Henri Levy (contemporary French philosopher): “Israeli writers are better politicians than Israeli politicians because imagination is a necessary ingredient of good politics. By using their imagination, writers are in a better position to understand what it means to be and feel like a Palestinian.”
#
Friday, September 29, 2006
**************************************
HOW NOT TO BE A WRITER
**********************************************
Misery likes company they say and they are right. If I encouraged anyone to adopt literature as a career, I have done so for purely selfish reasons.
*
Anyone who can write a sentence these days thinks he can also write a paragraph, a page, and a chapter. Result: an unlimited supply of trash most of which will never see the light of day. According to a recent statistic, only one in a thousand manuscripts is accepted for publication. That’s because for every honest man there are probably a thousand self-assessed geniuses, in the same way that for every authentic man of faith or servant of god there are a thousand mullahs, shamans, gurus, televangelists, fornicators, and child molesters; and for every statesman there are a thousand wheeler-dealers whose number one concern is number one.
*
It is said that writers are appreciated only after they die. What unmitigated nonsense! What unadulterated rubbish! I can name a hundred Armenian writers who are neither appreciated nor read even by the overwhelming majority of their fellow Armenians. As for courses in creative writing, how-to books, lectures, seminars, and symposia that have been mushrooming hiroshimally: the most practical advice you will get from them is of the kind that tells you to “stand still and wave a white handkerchief, this should confuse the elephant.”
*
Did anyone in Homer’s or Dostoevsky’s time even speak of such a thing as “creative writing”? My favorite advice, or rather anti-advice is: “Are you sure you are doing the wrong thing?” Because to do the right thing nowadays means to conform by saying “Yes, sir!” even when the right thing to do is to bellow “No!”
#
Saturday, September 30, 2006
**********************************************
THE MEANING OF MEANING
********************************************
James Joyce once bragged that some of his puns have as many as five meanings. It is said of Saadi (13th-century Persian poet) that each word of his has as many as seventy-two meanings. Can you guess the number of meanings in an autumn leaf, a raindrop, an atom, a massacre?
*
Julien Green (1900-1998): “The young and not so young today speak platitudes, write platitudes, think platitudes. From one end of the world to the other – music, painting, architecture – it’s the triumph of mediocrity.”
*
“Your negativity is killing us,” a reader complains. Translation: Critics, no! Brownnosers, yes!
*
The only reason I concentrate on our failings is that we are in a position to do something about them. As for the failings of the rest of the world: what’s the use of bitching?
#

ARMENIA CANNOT BE SERIOUS FACTOR FOR EU ACCEPTING OR NOT ACCEPTING TURKEY
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.09.2006 18:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia and Armenians themselves cannot be a serious
factor for EU accepting or not accepting Turkey, political science
doctor, historian Armen Ayvazyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In
his words, it is a problem of Europe, not the Armenians.
“The Armenians are lately raffled off as small change for the sake of
interests of European countries. Even the countries, whose parliaments
recognized the Armenian Genocide do not observe norms according to
the laws adopted. E.g. France, which recognized the Genocide in
a special law. No conclusions are made out of it to apply to the
current situation, the government, which committed the Genocide,
is not indicated. Even largest information agency as Agence France
Presse never utilizes the word “genocide”. They write “massacre and
slaughter,” the Armenian political scientist remarked.
“Turkey even today pursues a hostile policy regarding Armenia:
the blockade, full support to Azerbaijan in all fields.” Ayvazyan
is convinced that one should leave euphoria from recognition of the
Armenian Genocide by various countries. “I believe that one should
deal with this issue more seriously and in a more balanced manner. The
resources and actions of Armenia and the Armenians should be aimed,
first of all, at improvement of the geopolitical situation of Armenia,
rather than participation in the European games with Turkey at our
expense”, he said.

CHIRAC: I STRESSED NEED TO OPEN ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER MANY TIMES
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.09.2006 13:39 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “I believe that the prospect of EU accession
is an important element for keeping Turkey on a way, linking that
country with the West, which Turkey chose itself,” French President
Jacques Chirac stated in an interview to the Hayastani Hanrapetutyun
(Republic of Armenia) newspaper. In his words, the accession to EU
itself provides for necessary reforms.
“This is a long way. I am sure that seeing Turkey declined towards
European values, human rights, peace, democracy in interests of both
EU and Armenia,” the French President said. He emphasized that he
had urged Turkey to open the border with Armenia many times.
“However, evidently the issue is closely related with solution of the
Karabakh conflict and progress in the Karabakh settlement may have huge
importance for solving that issue. I believe it is possible today,”
Chirac said. As of the Armenian Genocide the French leader said that
European values provides for working for reconciliation, peace and
respect. “I believe in Turkey’s ability to pay historical tribute,
as the spirit of Europe lies in that,” Chirac underscored.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY READY TO GUARANTEE OF KARABAKH PEACE ACCORD
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.09.2006 13:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Many times in Paris, Key West, Rambouillet I saw
the closeness of attaining peace over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
and today OSCE MG proposals seem fair, weighed and reasonable. I told
this to Armenian and Azeri Presidents Kocharian and Aliyev,” French
President Jacques Chirac stated in an interview to the Hayastani
Hanrapetutyun (Republic of Armenia) newspaper. “I would like to see
Yerevan and Baku displaying courage for attaining peace,” he added. “I
was involved in the solution of the Karabakh issue myself, as I am
aware with the suffering caused by the conflict and as peace is the
only way to build a democratic and prospering future,” Chirac said. In
his words, economic dynamism, geostrategic location of Armenia will
be fully useful only provided that borders are open and relations
are settled with neighbors. “Today G8 countries and the international
community are ready to become guarantees of a peace accord over the
Karabakh issue. This apt moment should not be missed,” the French
President added.

ARMENIAN NATION SHOULD NOT FEAR TAKING THE ROAD OF FUTURE
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.09.2006 14:00 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “France is ready to assist Armenia in political
modernization,” French President Jacques Chirac stated in an interview
to the Hayastani Hanrapetutyun (Republic of Armenia) newspaper. In his
words, an old nation like Armenian should not fear of taking the road
of the future. At that he remarked that between the Armenian and French
people there is a certain internal commonness. Chirac underscored
similar preferences of the two peoples, specifically independence,
spiritual wisdom in art and culture, beauty of the languages and their
being sacral,” Chirac underscored, adding some half a million French
of Armenian origin “conveyed their courage, talent and magnanimity
to France.” The French President underscored they preserved ties
with their historical fatherland and promote strengthening relations
between the two peoples. Addressing the Armenian youth, Chirac said,
“Belonging to such an old people, simultaneously having an opportunity
to build a new country is happiness.” “Armenia deserves its people
being devoted to it,” Chirac stressed.

INDEPENDENCE DAY OF ARMENIA MARKED IN STAVROPOL REGION
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.09.2006 14:08 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ September 24 within the Year of Armenia in
Russia a holiday concert, marking the Independence Day of Armenia,
was organized in the yard of St. Sargis church of Pyatigorsk. As
reported by the Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia, the
event was organized by Round Table Coordination Council of Armenian
communities and Pyatigorsk Armenian National-Cultural Autonomy. Members
of Armenian communities of Kislovodsk, Budyonnovsk, Zelenokumsk,
Edissia village and stanitsa Suvorovskaya took part in the event as
well. St. Sargis church pastor Ter Khachatur opened the event with
prayer and congratulated those gathered on the holiday. Chair of
Pyatigorsk Armenian National-Cultural Autonomy David Lazaryan and
Round Table and Urartu Armenian community Chairman Mikhail Manvelov
addressed participants of the event. Folklore amateur performance
groups of Stavropol Region were in the concert program of the holiday.

FRENCH PRESIDENT ARRIVING IN ARMENIA SEPTEMBER 29 ON STATE VISIT
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.09.2006 14:21 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ September 29 – October 1 French President Jacques
Chirac will pay a state visit to Armenia on an invitation of Armenian
President Robert Kocharian, reports the Press Office of the Armenian
leader. The official welcoming ceremony will take place at Zvartnots
international airports September 29. Then Kocharian and Chirac will
meet in the Armenian President’s residence. The French leader will
visit Tsitsernakaberd complex, will lay a wreath to Memorial of the
Armenian Genocide Victims, will visit the Genocide Museum within the
framework of his visit.
Chirac is also scheduled to meet with Catholicos of All Armenians
Garegin II and will visit the French Embassy in Yerevan. The Square
of France in the center of the Armenian capital will be opened with
participation of the two presidents. Besides, they will be present
at Aznavour and Friends concert, which will open the Year of Armenia
in France, titled “Armenia my friend.”