FILM “YOL”: A MONUMENT TO HUMAN ENDURANCE
By Jalal Jonroy
KurdishMedia, UK
Sept 9 2006
Yilmaz Guney (1 April 1937 – 9 September 1984)
When shown at the Cannes Film Festival ’82, YOL received a standing
ovation and won the coveted first prize. YOL is a Kurdish drama made
by Yilmaz Guney -a Kurd- while serving 19 year prison sentence in
Turkey. Y. Guney escaped prison and now lives in Paris where he and
other Kurdish artists in exile have formed (The Kurdish Institute)
to help save the Kurdish culture – a much neglected and maligned
treasure of mankind’s cultural heritage.
On the surface, YOL relates the sufferings, the loves, and the hope
of five Kurdish prisoners while on temporary leave. On the way -YOL-
to their homeland Kurdistan, occupied by fascist military Turkey,
the film slowly and sensitively reveals the terrible operation
and hardships of the Kurdish nation. YOL is a long harsh road into
Kurdistan -deliberately kept backward socially and economically, by
successive Turkish governments. Poverty, bad transportation, luck
of schools and hospitals (witness the dentist’s scene), deprived
children smoking cigarettes, villagers crammed in tiny mud houses,
and farmers still having to work with antiquated tools are all shown
in dramatic contrast to the purity and natural beauty of Kurdistan.
The only signs of 20th century progress the Kurds see daily are the
machine guns of Turkish soldiers!
The five prisoners soon find themselves in the greater and more
oppressive prison of Kurdistan. Through lack of education, the Kurds
are held under and old feudal system with its blood feuds and complex
codes of honor -for example with the respect to adultery. Today,
this medieval web coupled with religious ignorance, and compounded by
Turkish political and economic oppression, reduces much of Kurdistan
to a rigid backward social structure with both men and especially
women trapped as victims. (Witness during the snow scenes the unspoken
painful dilemma of husband and wife who had “betrayed” him martially.)
To ease its exploitation, Turkey dupes the people with confused
brand of religious and archaic moral standards, hence, for example,
the mass hysteria and the tragic scene of the train.
YOL is a compassionate journey through Kurdistan kept under a permanent
state of siege by Turkey since the dawn of this century.
Here, over one and a half million Kurds (and similar numbers of
defenseless Armenians) have been massacred. Persecution, tortures,
gallows, mass deportations, aerial bombardments, napalm, poison
gas, mass trials, organized terror, forced assimilations, and total
destruction of towns and villages are marked in blood on Kurdish
mountains as the unwritten history of Kurdistan. To talk about basic
human rights would be futile, when Turkey, in order to add insult,
calls the Kurdish nation “Mountain Turks”.
To this date, mere speech in Kurdish or Kurdish costume carries a
mandatory prison sentence! Of course, since twelve million Kurds in
Turkey are not supposed to exist, any mention of even the word Kurd
is banned, let alone Kurdish culture! (Last March, a non-Kurdish
sociologist, Ismail Besikci, was sentenced to ten years for merely
describing the Kurds as a separate ethnic group.)
Turkey, a member of NATO, receives over one million dollars a day from
the United States as military aid. The corrupt fascist Turkish junta
uses much of this to destroy Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, and liberal
Turkish people. As recently as last May, Turkey in conspiracy with
Iraqi military fascists staged a back-handed attack on Iraqi Kurdistan,
and burned Kurdish villages. Two thousand Kurds were captured, most
of whom are now under torture in the already over-crowded Turkish
prison camps.
Robbed of its oil, food produce, and other natural resources by its
more powerful neighbors, Kurdistan lies in a singularly strategic
position -between the Middle East, Russia, and Europe. Due to this
quirk of fate, Kurdistan has always been the battlefield of aggressors
with Kurds used as worthless pawns in a brutal game of greed and power.
Today, the fascist governments of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq are
shamelessly ganging up to exterminate the Kurdish nation -something
no one has been able to do for 3000 years from Alexander the Great,
the Mongols, the Persian and Ottoman empires, to the British. The
Kurds are some 40 million people. Descendants of the ancient Medes,
they have lived in Kurdistan long before the Turks existed.
YOL is a monument to human endurance; to the sick and wounded
in Kurdish mountains; to thousands of lost orphans and homeless
families. YOL is a poem of tears and flowers dedicated to the bereaved
women and weeping mothers of Kurdistan.
If you add up the hardship of the freedom-loving peoples of El
Salvador, Vietnam, South Africa, Afghanistan, Palestine and Poland, it
may not equal the plight of the Kurdish nation whose very existence is
endangered. Yet ironically because Kurds are being massacred by Iran,
Turkey, and Iraq, and not directly by “white” or “big” powers such
as Russia or America, the Kurdish cause, though a unique tragedy,
does not get the media exposure of the support automatically given
to other national causes. How apt, even today, is the sad, age old
proverb: “Kurds have no friends”!
YOL is hymn to the unsung heroes of the Kurdish nation, who against all
odds and modern destruction machines, fight alone for the preservation
of their dignity, and identity. Form the heart of Kurdistan, YOL
is a gift of spirit and hope to the oppressed people everywhere in
the world.
Outside links KurdishMedia.com does not take the responsibility for
accuracy of the outside sources.

EP’S TURKEY REPORT RADICALLY ACCUSES TURKS
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Sept 9 2006
The European Parliament (EP) late Monday approved a sharply critical
report on Turkey, calling on Ankara to recognize the Armenian genocide
claims before becoming a member of the European Union.
The report entitled “Turkey’s Progress Towards Accession,” which
was prepared by the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs Rapporteur and
MEP Camiel Eurlings, was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee
with some amendments which made it harsher towards Turkey than
it had been. It also criticized a number of issues, including
Cyprus, a slowdown in the EU reform process, the situation in the
southeast, problems with religious minorities, cultural rights and
civilian-military relations.
The report, which was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee,
isn’t binding but plays a role in making recommendations for Turkey
and will be put to a vote by the EP’s full 732-member assembly during
Sept. 25-28 meetings.
Taking note of a Turkish proposal to set up a bilateral committee of
experts to deal with controversial past incidents and of Armenia’s
position on the proposal, the report urged the Turkish and Armenian
governments to continue their process of reconciliation leading to a
mutually acceptable proposal and asked Turkey to take the necessary
steps, without any preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good
neighborly relations with Armenia and open their land border as soon
as possible. Armenia does not recognise Turkey’s eastern borders and
Turkey keeps its territorial borders with Armenia closed since the
Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
The report also claimed that Turkey committed “genocide against the
Pontic Greeks and Assyrians.”
Turkish experts argue that the genocide claims are added by the
Greek and Armenian lobbies to prevent Turkey’s EU process. Dr. Sedat
laciner from USAK, Ankara-centred Turkish think tank told the JTW
that there is no condition of recognition of any genocide claim:
“Turkey has fulfilled all main conditions for EU membership. That’s
why the anti-Turkish groups add new condition to stop the process”.
Dr. Laciner also claims that the EP report is so biased and accuse
only the Turks:
“The Armenian claims are historical claims. The Armenians believe
in that the 1915 Relocation Campaign was a genocide. It means the EP
gives great importance to the events happened almost a century ago.
Yet the same EP mention nothing about the Armenian occupation in
Azerbaijani territories. Yerevan does not recognise the Kars Treaty.
According to Armenians the Eastern parts of Turkey is Western
Armenia. I mean EP should also see the Armenian irredentism.Similarly
the Pontus and Assyrian genocide claims are baseless and not serious.”
EU rebukes Ankara on pace of reforms
In Eurlings’ report, EU lawmakers sharply criticized Turkey over its
‘slow pace’ of reforms and warned that failure to make progress on
the Cyprus dispute risks bringing entry negotiations to a halt.
Ankara Government does not accept the slow pace critics.
Turkey’s reservations about opening its airports and harbors to the
Greek Cypriots will have serious implications for the EU process and
could even bring it to a halt, warned the draft report, calling on
Turkey to take steps towards the recognition of the Greek Cypriot
administration during its accession process. It also raised the idea
of an early withdrawal of forces from the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC). It also called on the European Council to renew efforts
to implement trade regulations with Northern Cyprus.
The EU accepted only the Greek part of the Cyprus island as the
EU member.
Report urges progress in human rights
The toughly worded report also called on Ankara to take steps towards
making progress on freedom of expression and raised concerns about the
country’s treatment of religious minorities, the Kurdish population
and women.
Noting that certain progress has been made in women’s rights after
the revised Turkish Penal Code (TCK) came into force last year,
the report however then stressed that a lack of respect for women’s
rights in Turkey remains a matter of serious concern.
The EP report also urged Ankara to take concrete steps to remove
obstacles facing Christian religious minorities related to, in
particular, their legal status, the training of clergy, and their
property rights, and called for an immediate stop to all seizures
and selling off of property belonging to religious communities by the
Turkish authorities and the immediate reopening of the Greek Orthodox
Halki seminary and public use of the “ecclesiastical title of the
‘ecumenical’ patriarch.”
It also called for the protection and recognition of Alevis, including
the recognition of cemevis as religious centers, and for all religious
education to be voluntary and not cover just the Sunni branch of Islam.
Taking into consideration the amendment requests of MEPs Joost
Lagendijk and Cem Ozdemir, the report also called on Ankara to find
a solution to the headscarf ban in Turkish universities.
Solidarity with Turkey in fighting terror
The EP also condemned a resurgence of violence in the southeast by
the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and stressed that there
can never be an excuse for violence against Turkish citizens in any
part of the country. The report also expressed solidarity with Turkey
in fighting terrorism. The PKK is on the terrorist organizations list
of the EU and the US.
Turkish media however find the report unbalanced and radical. Many
Turkish newspapers blamed the report as ‘Armenian’ or ‘Greek-made
report’.
Dr. Mehmet Ozcan argued that the EP report should have been more
realistic to be taken consideration in Turkey. “The EU loses its
seriousness in the eyes of many Turkish people” Dr. Ozcan claimed.
Similarly Dr. Ihsan Bal says that the EU names all the political
problems regarding Turkey as ‘genocide’. He continued: “Armenian,
Greek, Assyrian, Kurdish, they name all of these issues as genocide.
What is the next, no one knows. According to the EP reports Turks are
the champion on genociding other peoples, but the reports never mention
Algerian genocide or many more genocide committed by the EU nations
in Europe and Asia. The report is not realistic and constructive. The
report undermines the Turkish people’s trust towards the EU”.

FRENCH MINISTER SARKOZY DECLARES ‘WAR’ AGAINST TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP
By Melahat DUZGECER, Jan SOYKOK, ANKARA and PARIS (JTW)
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Sept 9 2006
* French Minister Sarkozy Says That Turkey Should Never Be EU Member
* Turks accuse him of being racist and religionist
French Interior Minister and chairman of the centre-right UMP Nicolas
Sarkozy argued that Turkey should never be part of the European
Union. Turks accuse Mr. Sarkozy of being racist and religionist.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected by many
to win the French presidency in 2007, reiterated his opposition to
Turkey’s E.U. membership, saying that membership talks with Turkey
should be suspended. “For many reason, the E.U. should deepen relations
with Turkey but without going as far as full membership,” Sarkozy
said in a speech delivered to a Brussels think tank on Friday. Sarkozy
proposes a privileged partnership to Turkey instead of full membership.
In a speech to the Friends of Europe think-tank setting out his
“vision” of the EU’s future, Mr Sarkozy urged the creation of ad
hoc groups of countries (“an open avant-garde”) empowered to forge
ahead with common policies, leaving others behind; the formation of
pan-European political parties; and handing powers to the European
commission president to choose his own team of commissioners.
Demanding a watertight definition of Europe’s frontiers, he made plain
that Turkey should never be allowed to join and current accession
talks should be frozen until Ankara opened its ports and airports to
(Greek) Cyprus, in effect recognizing the EU’s 25th member.
Prof. Dr. Sedat Laciner, director of the USAK, told the JTW that Mr.
Sarkozy abuses Turkey’s EU membership process for his presidential
campaign. “The Greek and Armenian voters with other anti-Turkish
groups give great importance to the Turkish issue and the French
politicians simply abuses the problems with Turkey” Dr. Laciner added.
Similarly Dr. Nilgun Gulcan accused Mr. Sarkozy of being racist
and religionist:
“There is no difference between his understanding and the Nazi
understanding. The only difference is the new Jews are Turks. Mr.
Sarkozy and his party do not want to see Turkey in the EU though
Turkey is an European country because Turkey is a Muslim country.
There are many Muslim countries on the European continent, yet none
of them is EU member. Mr. Sarkozy is talking about the Cyprus issue.
They fully accepted the Greek side as the only state on the island
and now they only accuse the Turkish side. The French minister is not
sincere and racist. He fully supports the Greeks against the Turks
because they are Christian. He also supports the Armenians against
Turkey and Azerbaijan because the Armenians are Christian. Mr. Sarkozy
is one of the supporters of the clash of civilizations in Europe.”
One of the Turkish diplomats in Ankara told the JTW that the Greeks
were accepted as full EU member though they rejected all peace plans
in 2004. “The EU did not keep its words in Cyprus issue and now they
blame Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots for the problems regarding the
Cyprus issue” he added.
Many in Turkey believe in that the EU will never accept Turkey as full
member because the EU is a Christian club. Most of the Middle Eastern
countries, including Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia,
Algeria, Jordan and Iran, declared that they fully support Turkey’s
EU membership.
Sarkozy: Turkey is not European
Nicholas Sarkozy had opened his anti-Turkish campaign on the eve of
the critical EU constitution referendum in France in May 2005.
“Israel and Lebanon have more European values than Turkey,” Sarkozy
had said, meeting with university students in Paris. Describing Turkey
as an “Asian country,” Sarkozy had said, “I’m not against the Turks
or Muslims, but I’m not for the EU membership of an Asian state.”
“I don’t want to see the Kurdish, Hizbullah and Palestine problems
become European problems,” Sarkozy, who is touted by many as the next
French president, continued. “I don’t want a Europe, which will be
neighboring Iraq or Iran.” However Mr. Sarkozy have been champion of
French involvement in Kurdish and Lebanon issues.
More than 100 million Muslims live in Europe yet no Muslim country
has been accepted as the full member to the EU including Turkey,
Azerbaijan, Albania, Bosnia and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC).
php?id=38109

NO, MINISTER WE ARE NOT FREE OF TERROR
Canberra Times, Australia
September 9, 2006 Saturday
I T WAS somewhat disturbing to hear someone as eminent as
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock claim on television on Monday that
there has never been a terrorist attack on Australian soil. The
reality is there have been many terrorism incidents, although the
number of deaths is quite low.
The first recorded act of terrorism in Australia was the shooting in
1868 of the visiting Duke of Edinburgh at Clontarf beach in Sydney.
This caused great embarrassment, as he was the first royal visitor
to NSW.
The perpetrator, Henry James O’Farrell, was an Irishman from Victoria
and an alleged Fenian (predecessor organisation to the Irish Republican
Army).
This incident led to acrimonious exchanges between the NSW and Victoria
governments and, some claim, to today’s adversarial relationship
between NSW and Victoria.
Fortunately, the Duke of Edinburgh did not die and Australia has
been relatively fortunate in the number of deaths attributable to
politically motivated violence (PMV). (This includes terrorism. The
term “politically” also embraces “ideologically”, “sociologically”
and “religiously” motivated violence.) The bloodiest incident occurred
during World War I, in January 1915, when two Muslims, Mulla Abdullah
and Gool Mahomed, opened fire on a picnic train near the town of
Broken Hill in NSW.
They were members of a religious sect headed by the Sultan of Turkey
who apparently objected to Australia’s military operations against
Turkey. Six died, including the two attackers.
There is little data about the period 1915 to the 1960s, although
there were undoubtedly violent incidents that were not recorded as
politically motivated.
During the 1960s and ’70s, there were regular bombings and firebombings
involving the Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood (HRB) and members
of the Serbian community – who in turn were backed by the Yugoslav
intelligence service. The HRB was a terrorist organisation formed in
Australia in the early 1960s by Croatian immigrants to Australia. It
was responsible for more than 120 terrorist acts in Australia and
Europe. Surprisingly, there were no resultant deaths in Australia.
In 1966, the Leader of the Federal Opposition, Arthur Calwell, was
shot in his car at Mosman, Sydney, by Peter Kocan, shortly after an
anti- Vietnam conscription meeting at the Town Hall. Calwell’s lower
face was cut by flying glass, but he was not otherwise injured.
In February 1978, the next most significant incident in terms of loss
of life occurred outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. It has generally
been believed that members of Ananda Marga were responsible for an
improvised explosive device that detonated in a garbage truck, killing
a policeman, Constable Paul Burmistriw, and two garbage collectors,
William Favell and Alec Carter.
A Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting was taking place
at the hotel at the time.
The suggested intent of the attackers was to kill Indian Prime Minister
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai, whose government’s policies were detrimental
to Ananda Marga.
There are several books about this incident, such as Tom Molomby’s
Spies, Bombs and The Path of Bliss, but there has never been any
certainty as to who was responsible.
If members of Ananda Marga were responsible, they could have been
acting without the sanction of the organisation.
Conspiracy theorists make the unlikely claim that Special Branch or
ASIO were responsible in an attempt to gain additional resources.
In June 1980, David Opas, a Parramatta family court judge, was shot
dead at the front door of his Woollahra, Sydney, home by a person or
persons unknown.
Then in December 1980, two members of the Justice Commandos of
the Armenian Genocide shot and killed Sarik Arijak, the Turkish
Consul-General, and his bodyguard, Engin Sever, at Dover Heights
in Sydney.
The perpetrators were believed to have flown into Australia to
undertake the operation with local support, and left after the
attack. No-one was ever prosecuted.
In December 1982, two members of the Palestinian group, 15 May, flew
in to Sydney and with local support bombed the Israeli Consulate-
General in Sydney and the Jewish Hakoah Club at Bondi. No one was
killed. The police case against the local supporters fell apart when
the key witness left the country.
In July 1984, Pearl Watson, the wife of a Parramatta Family Court
judge, Ray Watson, was killed by an improvised explosive device at
their Sydney home.
In November 1986, the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
struck again. This time, two members resident in Sydney attempted
to bomb the Turkish Consulate in Caroline Street, South Yarra, in
Melbourne. The only person killed was Hagop Levonian, one of the
bombers. Levon Demirian, the other bomber, was arrested as he was
about to leave the country for Lebanon. He served 10 years in jail.
In 1989, David Locke, a member of the right-wing Australian Nationalist
Movement in Perth, was killed by two other members of the group,
who suspected him of being an ASIO or police informer.
In 1990, David Noble, a member of the right-wing group National Action
was murdered with an axe by two other members of the group after a
party to celebrate Hitler’s birthday.
In April 1991, unknown assailants shot dead the chairman of the Coptic
Human Rights Commission, Dr Makeen Morcos, in Sydney, after he gave
a radio talk criticising Islamists and the Egyptian Government for
harassing and murdering Coptic Christians in Egypt. It is thought
that he was assassinated by agents of the Egyptian Government or one
of the Islamist groups in Australia.
Another National Action member, Wayne Smith, was murdered in April
1991 in Sydney because of suspicions that he was an ASIO or police
informant. This time, ASIO had a covert sound-activated microphone
at the site and the recording of his murder was later used to convict
an National Action member.
In 1993, the Reverend Doug Good, a pastor in Western Australia,
was stabbed to death just before going to officiate at a marriage
between a Christian man and an Iranian woman who had converted from
Islam to Christianity.
Good’s attacker, an Iranian Muslim, killed the pastor at his home,
claiming he was defending himself from a homosexual advance.
In September 1994, John Newman, a Cabramatta politician, was shot
in the chest and killed. Seven years later, a jury found a bitter
political rival, former Fairfield city councillor Phuong Ngo, guilty
of masterminding the murder.
In 1996, suspected Islamic extremist Mohammad Hassanein entered
Australia with the possible intention of attacking, with local support,
Jewish targets. There is some dispute as to whether Hassanein was a
dangerous terrorist or simply a deluded individual.
The facts are that he did have past connections with an extremist
group in Egypt, he did travel here on a false passport, and he was in
Melbourne in the lead-up to a Jewish congress. As far as is known, he
had no access to weapons or explosives. ASIO and the Australian Federal
Police decided not to take any chances; he was arrested and deported.
In July 2001, anti-abortionist Peter James Knight shot and killed a
security guard, Steven Rogers, at a Melbourne abortion clinic.
In October 2002, Dr Margaret Tobin, the South Australian Director
of Mental Health, was shot four times in the back and killed in
her Adelaide office building. A deregistered Sydney psychiatrist,
Jean Eric Gassy, was found guilty of her murder. Dr Tobin had been
involved in his removal from the medical register.
By my count, the current death toll for PMV incidents in Australia
is at least 22 – 13 by shootings, five by improvised explosive
devices and four by stabbing or unknown circumstances.There have
been other well-known violent incidents in Australia, such as the
murder of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay in 1977 in Griffith,
or the Russell Street police headquarters bombing in Melbourne in
1986, but the primary motivation in those cases was criminal rather
than political.
A concern now is Islamist extremist “sleeper cells” in Australia that
could one day be responsible for much more deadly attacks than those
we have suffered in the past. This issue is complicated by the large
numbers of people who are here illegally and who have disappeared into
the general community. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs estimates there are 60,000 people unaccounted for. If correct,
this presents ASIO and other national security agencies with a
near-impossible monitoring task, despite the good work they have
done in the past. A further concern now is “cleanskin” (no police or
security record) self-starter Islamist extremists, probably born or
brought up in Australia, who may act with little or no outside support.
The most likely cause of death would be from multiple improvised
explosive devices, similar to the bombings in Madrid, London and
Mumbai. We could then easily end up with numbers of dead and injured
far surpassing the total of all previous incidents in Australia.
Clive Williams is a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence
Studies Centre, ANU.

AZERI PRESSURE GROUP DENOUNCES VISIT TO ARMENIA
ANS TV, Baku
9 Sep 06
The Karabakh Liberation Organization [KLO] is protesting about a
meeting between young people from Azerbaijan and Armenia at a Gugark
camp in Lori Region. A statement from the KLO says that a group of
young men, led by rights activist [head of the Azerbaijani National
Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly] Arzu Abdullayeva,
is attending the event designed to contribute to friendly relations
between Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Karabakh residents.
This runs against Azerbaijan’s national interests, the statement said.
Because many Azerbaijanis were killed at the same Gugark camp in 1988
and 32 people were murdered in a welded pipe. The KLO believes that
the Azerbaijani delegates of the so-called people’s diplomacy are again
serving Armenian policy and justify Armenia’s policy of occupation.
The KLO is urging them to end the people’s diplomacy and to reject
steps which run counter to Azerbaijan’s interests, the statement said.

NKR PRESIDENT MET WITH CATHERINE PORTER
Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
09 Sept 2006
On September 5 NKR President Arkady Ghukassian met with Catherine
Porter, Chair of the Council of Leaders for Human Rights,
Washington. During the talk Ms. Porter told about the project of
the organization to present the cultural values of Artsakh to the
international community. The guest mentioned that the monuments of
the Christian period and the rich pre-Christian heritage may greatly
foster tourism in Nagorno Karabakh, and international scholars will
get to know the country. The president commended the initiative of
Ms. Porter and expressed the willingness of the NKR government to
cooperate. On September 5 NKR President Arkady Ghukassian met with
the delegation of the Moldavian Republic of Transdnyestr visiting
Stepanakert on the 15th anniversary of independence of NKR. They
discussed the policy on economic development in both states and
questions of peace settlement of conflicts in the post-Soviet space.
Acting Press Secretary Of NKR President
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESIDENT GHUKASSIAN CONGRATULATED THE CREW OF THE CILICIA
Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
09 Sept 2006
On August 5 NKR President Arkady Ghukassian congratulated the crew
of the Armenian sailing ship Cilicia, which finished its voyage. In
his telegram the president of NKR pointed out that thanks to the
patriotic mission of the crew the Old World got a better idea of the
ideas and values we uphold, as well as the truth about the struggle
for liberation in Artsakh. The president also emphasized the symbolic
coincidence of the end of the voyage and the 15th anniversary of
Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

IRANIAN SPEAKER TO VISIT ARMENIA ON 10 SEPTEMBER
Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran
9 Sep 06
The Majlis Speaker [Gholamali Haddad-Adel], heading a parliamentary
delegation, will visit Armenia tomorrow [10 September]. Mr Haddad-Adel
will meet high-ranking Armenian officials during the two-day visit. The
expansion of bilateral ties and discussions over regional issues are
among the items on the Majlis Speaker’s agenda.
He is also scheduled to visit to the Yerevan State University and
Yerevan Blue Mosque during this visit.

ARMENIAN ARMY CARRIES ON ARSONS IN AZERI LANDS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Sept 9 2006
Starting from last afternoon the Armenian Armed Forces continued
to commit malicious arsons in the Azerbaijan territories occupied
by Armenia.
APA’s Karabakh bureau reports strong fires committed in the Paprevend
village of Aghdam were easily observed from the frontline overnight.
Borderers say they witnessed Armenians having committed arsons
here before.
Observation shows that Armenians now set fire to the places which
had been used as shelters before.

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON RA COOPERATION WITH EUROPEAN UNION TO BE CREATED
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Government made a decision
at the September 7 sitting to create a National Council on the
RA cooperation with the European Union as well as a commission
coordinating that cooperation. According to information submitted
to Noyan Tapan by the RA Government’s Information and Public
Relations Department, regulations of the mentioned national council
and commission as well as the staff with the RA Prime Minister’s
chairmanship were affirmed by the same decision. It was defined
that representatives of the civil society are involved in the staff
of the national council on the RA cooperation with the European
Union. Standards for choosing representatives are the experience of
the organization they represent and goals of the regulations. The
RA Government’s staff head-minister was instructed to affirm the
individual staff of the national assembly civil society representatives
created by a decision, based on the civil society representatives’
applications.