SCHUMER CALLS ON HOAGLAND TO CLARIFY POSITION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 07 2006
WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On the
eve of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee consideration of
Richard E. Hoagland as America’s next Ambassador to Armenia, Senator
Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Hoagland criticizing the
Administration’s policy on the Armenian Genocide and urging the
nominee to clarify his position on the matter. According to the
Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), in his letter, Schumer also
expressed concern that the current Ambassador, John M. Evans, is
being prematurely replaced for properly recognizing the Armenian
Genocide. “I am concerned that the Senate is reviewing your nomination
for this post as a result of Ambassador Evans’ departure, possibly
because of statements he made which, in my view, accurately describe
the Armenian Genocide as such,” Schumer wrote. “We commend Senator
Schumer for his critical examination of Ambassador-designate Hoagland
and his strong support of reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide,”
said Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. “We have a fundamental
policy disagreement with the Administration. The U.S. should squarely
affirm the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide.”

TURKEY AND PEACEKEEPING INCOMPATIBLE CONCEPTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 12:39 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey and peacekeeping are incompatible concepts
and this is not only Armenian point of view, Chair of In Defense of
Liberated Territories NGO, native of Lebanon Zhirayr Sefilyan told
a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, Lebanon has been under the
Ottoman Empire for a long time and knows well who are Turks. “Adding
to it the Turkish-Israeli alliance against the countries of the
region, it will become clear that Lebanese resistance and the people
of Lebanon will never recognize Turkey’s right for participation in
the UN peacekeeping operation,” he noted.
Sefilyan underscored that instead of discussing the issue of Turkey’s
participation, Armenia should think of participation of Armenian
peacekeepers in the mission in Lebanon. “I am sure that the people
of Lebanon will take that step very positively.
Authorities say the mandate is not made clear.
Actually everything is made clear, specifically it is known that the
peacekeepers will not have a right to take part in force operations
to unarm Hezbollah.
Participation of Armenia and other friendly countries to Lebanon
will ensure that in the future Israel will not have an opportunity
to lay illegal claims against Lebanon. In case this happens and
the peacekeepers are ordered to unarm the Lebanese resistance, the
withdrawal of the Armenian contingent will be a serious support to
Lebanon,” said Chair of In Defense of Liberated Territories.

LEBANESE ARF PARTY MEMBERS CONSIDER COUNTRY GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTEMPTUOUS ATTITUDE TOWARDS ARMENIAN COMMUNITY
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 07 2006
BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The ARF
Dashnaktsutiun Lebanese Central Committee considers ignoring of the
Lebanese Armenian community’s demand, thus, not involving Turkish
forces in the UN peace-keeping mission “an evident contempt towards one
of the seven main communities of Lebanon.” According to the September
5 statement of ARF Central Committee of Lebanon, the above-mentioned
event shakes the community oath which is the basis of Lebanon as well
as impede efforts of strengthening the national unity the start of
which is all parties’ participation in decisions of national content.
“The Government of Lebanon ignored calls of all authorities and
representatives of the Lebanese Armenians as well as messages of
complaint on this occasion of Aram I Catholicos of the Great House of
Cilicia, the Lebanese Armenians’ three religious compessions leaders
and three Armenian parties,” is said in the document published by the
“Azdak” Armenian daily of Beirut. In Lebanese ARF members’ words,
“all the statements made by government sources may not justify the
Government’s unfair attitude towards the Armenian community: factually,
the Government fostered a direction, ignoring Lebanese Armenians’
posture refusing placing of Turkish forces in Lebanon with principal,
moral and political argumentations. “The Government is responsible
for this injustice and contemptuous attitude towards the Armenian
community. Lebanese Armenians will continue to demand proofreading
of this weighty mistake made towards the whole community,” the ARF
Lebanese Central Committee states.

HIGH FEST THEATER FESTIVAL TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN IN OCTOBER
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 12:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Fourth High Fest international theater festival
will be held in Yerevan October 4-14.
As the festival’s organization committee told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter, companies from England, France, Romania, Israel, Russia,
India, Kazakhstan, Holland, Albania, Spain, the Czech Republic and
other countries will arrive in Yerevan.
Art managers, theater specialists and chairs of international theater
festival from 35 countries will arrive in Yerevan as well.
Among the organizers of the festival are the Association of Armenian
Actors, Alfa-L producer center and the Caucasian Bureau of Cultural
Programs. High Fest is held under the patronage of the Armenian PM
Andranik Margaryan.

ARMENIA IS EXPECTED TO BE GRANTED STATUS OF FREE MARKET ECONOMY BY LATE 2006
Noyan Tapan
Sept 07 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN. It is expected that Armenia will be
granted status of a free market economy by late 2006. The RA Deputy
Minister of Trade and Economic Development Tigran Davtian told NT
correspondent about it.
According to him, the required voluminous package of documents
necessary for being granted the indicated status has already been
submitted to the appropriate bodies of the European Union, and this
package is now under consideration.
T. Davtian said that Armenia is “one of the first countries in the
queue” to receive status of a free market economy. He noted that
the European commission promised to consider the issue of granting
status to Armenia until late 2006. “In my opinion, we’ll receive a
positive answer by the end of this year, otherwise – by early 2007
as the negotiations on the documents submitted are proceeding quite
well, and there is mutual confidence between the two sides that the
problem of Armenia’s status will be solved,” he underlined. The deputy
minister said that only two CIS countries have the status of a free
market economy.

UN AGAIN POSTPONES DISCUSSION OF DRAFT RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN KARABAKH
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The discussion of the draft resolution on the
situation in Nagorno Karabakh at the UN General Assembly (GA)
is postponed till September 7. Representatives of all UN member
states, including Azerbaijan and Armenia work over the final version
of the document, which will be submitted for consideration by the
Assembly. The resolution will be adopted based on consensus, which
means the accord of all UN GA members over the issue, including
Armenia.
OSCE MG co-chairs hold consultations with interested parties to work
out a coordinated version of the resolution language for adoption
by the UN GA session, reports Leader Azeri TV channel. We note that
earlier the discussions of the situation in NK at the UN GA were
postponed from September 5 to 6.

ARMENIAN AND AZERI YOUTH MEET IN ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:23 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian and Azeri youth had a meeting at Gugark
children’s and youth camp in Lori region of Armenia. The event, called
Mutual Trust Camp, was organized with participation of Helsinki Civil
Initiative organization. Young people from Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh participated in the initiative.
Within the framework of the project, Azeri participants visited an
Azeri cemetery not far from Vanadzor town, which was lately restored
by the Vanadzor branch of Helsinki Civil Initiative NGO.
Within a few days the Azeri participants learned to Armenian Kochari
and make a declaration of love in Armenian, while Karabakh residents
got an opportunity to taste pilaf and traditional tea, reports Day.az.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US SENATE RESUMES HEARINGS ON NOMINATION OF AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On September 7 the US Committee on Foreign
Relations will resume hearings on nomination of Richard E. Hoagland,
of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of
Armenia. Besides, the meeting will consider nomination of John
Robert Bolton, of Maryland, for the Representative of the United
States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of
Ambassador, and the Representative of the United States of America
in the Security Council of the United Nations, says a release placed
at the US Senate website.
We note that US incumbent Ambassador in Yerevan John Evans
has completed his diplomatic mission and is leaving Armenia in
mid-September. We remind that 9 out of 18 members of the Commission
were against recall of John Evans in August 2006. They also
considered that Hoagland’s candidacy does not fit for the position
of the Ambassador to Armenia, as he does not acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.

BUSH RECOGNIZED EXISTENCE OF CIA SECRET PRISONS
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ US President George Bush has recognized the
existence of CIA secret prisons. He reported that 14 prisoners, kept
there on suspicion in complicity in terrorist actions, are sent to
an American base in Guantanamo in Cuba and they will appear before
the court. Among them is Halid Sheik Mohammed, considered one of the
organizers of the September 22 attacks on New York and Washington.
In the President’s words, he reported about the CIA prisons, as the
interrogation of the prisoners is complete. Another cause is that the
US Supreme Court has banned using military tribunals for considerations
of cases of people suspected of terrorism.
This spring the European Parliament commission has established
that governments of some European countries had helped the CIS to
secretly transport suspects. Human rights organizations stated that
US authorities took suspects to countries, where they were tortured.
Dick Marty, who being commissioned by the CE studied the issue of
secret prisons, stated that European governments should make public
the information they have on the CIA secret program, reports the BBC
Russian Service.

PEOPLE IN TURKEY PROTEST AGAINST TROOP DEPLOYMENT IN LEBANON
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 14:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 15 thousand people throughout Turkey had taken
to the streets on Tuesday to protest against the government motion,
which allowed deployment of Turkish troops in Lebanon. Anti-war
activists protesting against the troop deployment in Lebanon clashed
with anti-riot police in Ankara on Wednesday as Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was receiving UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Some 300 leftist activists gathered at crossroads and closed the
traffic to march to the Prime Ministry on Wednesday afternoon. Police
set up a barricade and did not allow the protestors to march to the
Prime Minister’s House where PM Erdogan was receiving Annan.
Rejecting to end their protest, masked activists began to clash with
police who later used tear gas to disperse the protestors. Police
chased the activists down to the side streets and detained dozens
of them.
Some protestors threw stones to the Ankara office of the ruling
Justice and Development Party, headed by the country’s PM, reports
Cihan News Agency.