PARLIAMENT OF SPAIN CAN DISCUSS ISSUE OF RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE
MADRID, SEPTEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Representatives
of the Armenian comunity of Spain addressed to deputies from Catalonia
Rosa Bonas and Joan Puigcercos with a call to organize discussions at
the Spanish Parliament on the issue of the Armenian Genocide committed
in the Ottaman Empire in the early 20th century. The deputies presented
a corresponding proposal to the Parliament Committee on Foreign
Affairs and persuaded their colleagues to recognize the Armenian
Genocide as a crime against mankind. Later, Rosa Bonas informed the
Turkish “Anatolia” information agency that they made changes in the
draft resolution, taking out the article in which Ankara is called
to recognize the Armenian Genocide. At the same time, Bonas stated
that she has always had special attitude towards communities small
in number, and she heard about the Armenian Genocide only after the
Spanish Armenians’ letter. Turkish Ambassador Volkan Vular said to
the Foreign Ministry and Parliament of Spain that in the case of
holding the proposed discussions, the Turkish-Spanish relations would
be damaged.

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DISCUSSES CITIZEN COMPLAINTS
Panorama.am
17:57 08/09/06
The Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia will hold its first session
ever to discuss applications by citizens, CC Staff Head Arushan
Hakobyan, told Panorama.am. The first application was about social
cards for getting pensions or family allowances, he said.
CC will deliberate on the application of Artak Zeinalyan, board
member of Republic Party, on November 14. Zeinalyan disputes part 1,
article 150 of RA Civil Judiciary Code. The Armenian courts refuse
to consider invalid decrees issued by the president of the republic
and the Armenian government based on this provision. Zeinalyan claims
that the provision contradicts article 18 of the Constitution, which
says that every person has the right for effective legal protection.
Up to this date, 328 citizens have applied to CC and 214 of them have
received legal consultations. Some applications were poorly supported
and were returned for additional information. CC has also received
applications from prisoners who wanted to appeal court rulings. The
President of the Republic, Robert Kocharyan, also applied to the CC
to deliberate the compliance of an international treaty with the main
document of the republic.
Physical entities pay AMD 5,000 and legal entities pay AMD 20,000 as
a state due for applying to CC./Panorama.am/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

YOUNG MEN DEPRIVED OF THEIR RIGHT FOR FREE EDUCATION
Panorama.am
17:40 08/09/06
Dozens of young people gathered today at the building of the ministry
of education demanding their right for free education. Young men, who
had served in the Armenian army, were accepted to higher educational
establishment with a privilege of free educational as ex-soldiers of
the country. After studying for one year, they were told that they
have to pay tuition fee like other students. The universities said they
may be exempt from paying the tuition only if they excel in studies.
“I was accepted in the paid system in 2003 but I did not continue
the education thinking that I may be entitled for free education
after serving in the army,” Vahe Asryan says. Vahe did not know that
he may be shifted to the paid system based on his grades after two
semesters. He learned about it only September 1.
Two hundred other similar young men were disappointed in their
aspiration to receive diplomas in different specializations. They have
applied to different state officials but were mostly refused. Many
students say if they have been warned in advance, they would not
apply for higher education. “We could go to universities on paid
system even without serving in the army,” they say.
Groups of young men managed to meet Levon Lazarian, minister of
education, who advised to apply in writing and promised to raise the
issue at the government. /Panorama.am/

Lebanon’s Air Blockade Lifted but Sea Still Closed
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.09.2006 13:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Israel lifted its air blockade of Lebanon yesterday
after eight weeks, reported AFP quoting Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign
Ministry spokesman. The first airliner from Paris with 150 passengers
aboard landed at Rafik al-Hariri International Airport in Beirut.
Israel did not carry out its pledge to lift the sea blockade at
the same time, citing the inability of a UN-backed multinational
peacekeeping force to deploy enough ships off the coast to guarantee
the arms embargo would remain intact. Prime Minister of Israel Ehud
Olmert said in a statement Wednesday that United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan had assured him that French, Italian, British, and
Greek vessels would monitor the coast until the German Navy deployed
in roughly two weeks.

Armenian ombudsman condemns attack on journalist
Arminfo
7 Sep 06
Yerevan, 7 September: The 6 September attack on the editor of Iravunk
newspaper, Ovanes Galadzhyan, is another attempt on freedom of speech,
Armenian ombudsman Armen Arutyunyan has said in a statement.
According to Armenia’s main rights campaigner, attacks on journalists
and creating obstacles to their work might inflict serious damage on
our country’s standing and threaten the full exercise of freedom and
access to information in Armenia. Arutyunyan called on the Armenian
law-enforcement agencies to be consistent and expressed confidence
that any act of violence against representatives of the media will
not go unpunished and the culprits will be punished with the full
severity of the law.

Armenians of Spain Call upon Parliament to Recognize Armenian Genocide
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.09.2006 17:01 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian community of Spain called upon Spanish
MPs Rosa M. Bonas and Joan Puigcercos to open discussions on the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. The deputies appealed with
a corresponding interpellation to the Foreign Relations Committee
and other MPs to recognize the Armenian Genocide as a crime against
humanity. Later Rosa Bonas told Anatoly Turkish news agency, “We’ll
make changes in the proposal by taking out an article pressing Ankara
to recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
At the same time she said that she always has a special attitude to
national minorities nut learned about the Armenian Genocide only
after the appeal of the Armenian community. For his part, Turkish
Ambassador to Spain Volkan Vural stated that if the discussions open
they will damage the Spanish-Turkish relations.

AZG Armenian Daily #171, 08/09/2006
Middle East
JEWISH MINISTER STATES WAR AGAINST IRAN IS INEVITABLE
Jaakov Edry, Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, said in
the interview to a German newspaper that Iran should
be inevitably attacked. He said that the military
operation could be carried out before the end of the
tenure of US President George Bush.
Thus, the aim of the “limited” military operation will
be the annihilation of the components of Iran’s
nuclear program. Edry stated that USA should spare no
efforts to settle this issue.
“As the Iranian authorities emphasize the importance
of both armed forces and the oil factor, there is no
choice left,” he said.
“The only way out is the military settlement. The
sooner it begins, the better. It will be much more
complicated in the future, as the Iranians will
isolate their nuclear industry and that will be more
difficult to annihilate their weapon,” the Jewish
minister underscored.
By Petros Keshishian

Babacan vows to keep EU process on track
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Sept 7 2006
/ Brussels
Turkey’s chief European Union negotiator Ali Babacan on Tuesday
dismissed the European Parliament’s harshly critical new report on
Turkey, vowing to keep the country’s EU process on track.
Stressing that it’s wrong to say the Union doesn’t want Turkey by
only looking at this or that report, Babacan said, “Such reports may
include mistakes which might be corrected or not. But the important
thing for us is to keep up with the reform process, which is in
Turkey’s interests.”
The EP’s toughly worded report, prepared by Dutch MEP Camiel Eurlings
and approved by the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee, called on Ankara
to recognize the Armenian genocide claims before becoming an EU
member. It also included criticisms on the Cyprus issue, a slowdown
in the EU reform process, the situation in southeast, problems with
religious minorities, cultural rights and civilian-military relations.
Turkey’s chief EU negotiator also underlined that Ankara continues
to be committed to its EU accession process aimed at full membership.
“It will also take some key steps before the European Commission
announces Turkey’s progress report,” he added.
Babacan made the remarks following talks with Dutch Economy Minister
Joop Wijn late Tuesday in the Netherlands, the first stop of Babacan’s
European tour which began as part of an effort to dispel EU criticisms
that he and the Turkish government have become indifferent to the
country’s membership process.
Babacan headed to Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday to meet key European
figures. He met with Belgian Foreign Ministry State Secretary for
European Affairs Didier Donfut and will have crucial talks with EU
Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn today in which Turkey’s EU
prospects and the pace of its reform process will be discussed.
Rehn is expected to urge Babacan to keep up with the reform process and
press Turkey to approve the Ankara protocol which extends the Customs
Union to the 10 new members of the Union, including the Greek Cypriot
administration. For his part, Babacan is expected to brief Rehn on the
latest reforms that have been made in Turkey and underline the future
contribution from and vital importance of Turkey’s membership in the
Union, above all for the creation of a dialogue among civilizations.

Armenian journalists condemn attack on newspaper editor
Mediamax news agency
7 Sep 06
Yerevan, 7 September: A number of journalistic organizations of
Armenia issued a statement today, demanding that the law-enforcement
agencies find and punish the culprits and organizers of the attack
on the editor of Iravunk newspaper, Ovanes Galadzhyan.
“Our colleague, the editor of Iravunk newspaper, Ovanes Galadzhyan,
was attacked and beaten up on the morning of 6 September. Threats
and violence against journalists and the mass media have become more
frequent in the recent period, however, the culprits have not been
found and punished yet. We have repeatedly stated that unpunished
attempts on freedom of speech and the press generate new crimes:
people who are not capable of conducting a civilized dialogue take the
path of intimidating journalists and the media,” the statement says.
“It seems that attacks on the media during a political crisis are a
sad tradition in our country. Such an attitude to the media, which is
gaining momentum in the run-up to the parliamentary election, endangers
the transparency of the electoral process. We condemn another act of
violence against the journalist and demand that the law-enforcement
agencies find and punish those who executed and organized this evil
act,” the statement said. The statement was signed by the Yerevan
Press Club, the Union of Journalists of Armenia, Internews Armenia,
the committee to protect freedom of speech, the Helsinki Committee
of Armenia and the Centre for Law and Freedom.

U.N. Draft Resolution on Karabakh Pursues Precise Political Aims
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.09.2006 16:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The draft resolution at hand addresses an issue,
which we thought had been brought to a close, two weeks ago, through
discussions with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Minsk Group Co-chairs
and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office’s Personal Representative. A decision
was taken to send a mission of experts under the OSCE to assess the
fires,” said Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to
the United Nations, Ambassador Armen Martirosyan at the 98th plenary
sitting of the U.N. General Assembly’s 60th session.
“The authorities of Nagorno Karabagh had already accepted this
proposal, and Armenia was certainly ready to use its good offices to
facilitate such a mission. It was our understanding that Azerbaijan
had also agreed.
Given all this, it was surprising to see a draft resolution circulating
at the UN on this same issue, especially since it called for a parallel
mission under the UN auspices.
This approach was unacceptable. We considered such a step to be an
obstacle to continuing negotiations.
And, since it was clearly intended to pursue other political ends,
Armenia opposed this motion.
However, as a result of our consultations with the Minsk Group
Co-chairs, we have come to agreement on a text that simply reiterates
support for the OSCE mission. In this regard we would like to welcome
the readiness of all the parties to negotiate in the spirit of
compromise under the able and very effective mediation of the Minsk
Group Co-chairs.
Nevertheless, although we support the content of the agreement, we
continue to remain opposed to the general idea of this agenda item
and a UN resolution under it. That is the reason Armenia dissociates
itself from the consensus on this resolution,” he said, reported the
RA MFA press office.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress