OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS TO HOLD CONSULTATIONS IN BUCHAREST
ArmRadio.am
01.06.2006 14:43
June 3-4 OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs intend to hold consultations
in Bucharest, RF Foreign Ministry group on Nagorno-Karabakh told
“Trend” Agency.
Russian, French and US Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
Yuri Merzlyakov, Bernard Fassier and Steven Mann, as well as
representatives of their Administrations are expected to take part in
the consultations. The meeting will be held June 4-5 in the capital
of Romania in the framework of the dialogue and cooperation forum,
preceding the expected meeting of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2006 NKR GNP ROSE BY 10.5% AS COMPARED WITH LAST YEAR’S LEVEL
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
June 1 2006
In the first quarter of 2006 the Nagorno Karabakh Republic /NKR/
Gross National Product made 9, 8 milliard drams, which is 10, 5 %
more as compared with the same period last year.
NKR Minister of Finance and Economy Spartac Tevosyan informed of the
fact while presenting the implementation of the NKR state budget in the
first quarter of 2006 at the Nagorno Karabakh National Assembly plenary
sitting yesterday, DE FACTO own correspondent in Stepanakert reports.
The volume of industrial production’s output was increased by 7,
4%, making 4, 6 milliard drams, that of the agricultural output was
increased by 0, 6 % and made 1, 5 milliard drams. Capital construction
was done for 2, 1 milliard drams, which is 45, 9% more as compared
with the same period last year. The state budget’s own revenue
surpassed the planned index by 21, 9%, making 2, 3 milliard drams,
the population’s money income rose by 10, 7 % making 10, 2 milliard
drams. The Minister of the NKR Territorial Administration and the
Development of Infrastructures Armo Tsatouryan noted as a result of
the state property’s privatization in 2004 – 2006 the stare budget
received 252 million drams. For that period out of 51 objects that were
subject to privatization only 6 were delivered to private property. The
great enterprises have not been privatized. The sitting’s participants
expressed concern over the privatization’s rates. The National Assembly
Chair Ashot Gulyan stated the issue should be discussed in the course
of the separate Parliamentary hearings.

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CHILD PROTECTION FOSTERS DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION
ArmRadio.am
01.06.2006 15:23
The three-day international symposium on child protection organized
by World Vision in cooperation with USAID and UNICEF was concluded
in Yerevan. The first of its type in Armenia, it brought together
more than 170 representatives of the Armenian Government, NGOs,
international organizations, charity foundations, educational
and healthcare institutions, specialists of special pedagogy and
inclusive education, and child protection experts from Russia, Georgia,
Switzerland, Serbia, and Norway.
This event was aimed at fostering exchange of Armenian and
international practices in child protection, contributing to the
effective synthesis of the latest academic research and practical
experience in this field, and enhancing the dialogue and productive
cooperation among various entities in the child protection system.

ORAN: ‘SOON LAWYERS WILL BE IN ARTICLE 288’S CROSSHAIRS’
New Anatolian, Turkey
June 1 2006
Professor Baskin Oran, the author of disputed report on minorities
now facing allegations of trying to interfere with the judiciary,
warned yesterday that lawyers would soon face similar legal challenges
on the same legal grounds targeting him.
According to Oran, Article 288 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which
he called “tragicomic,” was being used almost every day by the public
prosecutors to start dozens of cases against people.
“Such an attitude has just one aim: to intimidate people,” he added,
explaining how the prosecutor started the probe against him. “I’m
afraid the public prosecutors will soon start charging defense lawyers
too, because they’re also trying to affect judges with their defenses.”
“In February a story appeared in a newspaper (Radikal) quoting my
defense, with the headline ‘The real separatist is the prosecutor’,”
he explained. “In the story, some parts of my defense were quoted. So
the public prosecutor is now charging me with trying to interfere
with the judiciary. But this is tragicomic, because I was cleared of
those charges a while ago.”
According to Oran, there is a dangerous rash of investigations by
public prosecutors, and he cited the case of Armenian daily Agos
Editor in Chief Hrant Dink.
“Those charges are mostly based on Article 288,” he claimed. “The
same thing also happened to Dink. You know he faced the same kind
of charges. In one of his columns in Agos, he used parts of his own
defense, and that led the prosecutors to file further charges against
him. This is ridiculous.”

ALIYEV SAYS NO TO ‘SECOND ARMENIAN STATE’
AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
June 1 2006
President Ilham Aliyev has said Azerbaijan will never come to terms
with the loss of its lands and with the establishment of the second
Armenian state on its territory. Azerbaijan is the victim of Armenian
aggression and has nonetheless made concessions by respecting the
ceasefire agreement signed 10 years ago.
In fact, it is Armenia who has occupied Azerbaijani lands and has
to vacate them now, Aliyev said in an address at the NATO spring
session in Paris on Tuesday. As originally anticipated, Aliyev mainly
focused on the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict. The president cited
specific facts and documentary evidence to support Azerbaijan’s cause
and accused Armenia of breaking international legal norms. Aliyev said
about 20% of Azerbaijani territory was under Armenian occupation and
that the country was home to more than a million refugees and IDPs.
This is a serious problem for Azerbaijan and a threat posed to the
entire region. The head of state added that all countries of the
world apart from Armenia had recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. He stressed that this should serve as a vector for the
conflict settlement. President Aliyev reiterated that Azerbaijan was
interested in a settlement based on the principles of international
law. “Azerbaijan demands that Armenia withdraw its troops from the
occupied territories,” he said, adding that the OSCE fact-finding
mission had established the looting and desecration of cultural
and historical monuments and cemeteries on the Armenian-occupied
territories. Upper Garabagh, which is internationally recognized as
part of Azerbaijan, has both Azeri and ethnic Armenian population. It
was occupied by Armenia in early 1990s, along with seven other
Azerbaijani districts, after large-scale hostilities that killed up
to 30,000 people and forced over a million Azeris out of their homes.
The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but peace talks have been
fruitless so far and refugees remain stranded. The Azerbaijani leader
also drew comparisons between the rapid economic development in
Azerbaijan and the profound recession in Armenia, noting that the gap
would be even more abysmal in a matter of three to five years. Then
the floor was opened for a question-and-answer session. The head
of the Armenian delegation, Mger Shakhgeldian, said Azerbaijan was
continuously saying that it was in favor of a negotiated settlement
and asked the president whether Baku was prepared for compromise.
President Aliyev said Azerbaijan had not occupied any country’s
territories to make any compromises. “It is Armenia which has taken
over Azerbaijani lands. The fact that Azerbaijan has maintained a
ceasefire for 10 years is the biggest compromise we can make.” This
question by the Armenian delegation did not go down well with NATO
Parliamentary Assembly President Pierre Lelouche, who enquired why the
Armenian president was not attending the session. President Kocharian’s
presence could set the scene for the continuation of dialogue between
the two countries, he said and expressed regret at what he described
as timidity on the part of the Armenian leader.

TURKISH LOBBY PRESENTS BILL TO BRITISH PARLIAMENT FOR BELGIUM TO RECOGNIZE CONGO GENOCIDE
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 1 2006
The England Turkish Dialog Committee lobby organization in Great
Britain has drawn up a bill on the Belgium government recognizing
the genocide it committed in Congo (APA).
The bill was signed by British parliament members and has been
included into the agenda for discussions. The bill is about the facts
on massacre of millions of people in Congo, colonized by Belgium,
by government forces in 1885-1908. The bill demands the Belgium
government to apologize to Congo people and the international community
for the genocide.
This month, Belgian parliament is going to pass a law on sentencing
persons refusing to recognize the so-called “Armenian genocide”
to one-year in prison. The bill that the Turkish lobby submitted to
British parliament is a response to this step taken by the Belgian
parliament. The England Turkish Dialog Committee stated that the
Belgian parliament should either refuse passing this law or recognize
the genocide it perpetrated in Congo and apologize to the international
committee for having massacred millions of people.
The bill presented by the Turkish lobby was signed by Bottomley Peter,
Conservative Party member, Lin Brown, Martin Katon, David Cheitor,
AndrewDismor, David Drew, Cliv Grogan, Helen Johns , John McDonnel,
Alan Mill from Labor Party and Andrew Georg and Poll Holms from
Liberal-Democratic Party.

TURKISH, ARMENIAN DIPLOMATS DISCUSS NORMALIZING TIES
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
June 1 2006
Turkish and Armenian officials on Wednesday discussed the possibility
of normalizing relations, despite the fact that the two countries do
not have diplomatic ties.
This is the third round of talks since a dialogue was opened by
an exchange of letters between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharian in April 2005.
A spokesman of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Namik Tan, said Turkey
is determined to pursue a normalization of relations, but also called
on Armenia to show more flexibility.
In 1993, Turkey shut its border with Armenia in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ties have also been strained by Armenian efforts to win international
recognition of the 1915-17 killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey
as genocide.
The day also saw a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul. Lavrov will then
meet with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
The agenda of the talks were expected to include the standoff over
Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
Both Russia and Turkey have trade links with Iran and fear that an
escalation of the crisis could further destabilize the region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TOWARDS DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Written by Houry S. Mayissian (Lebanon)
Newropeans Magazine, France
June 1 2006
Amid a diplomatic row with Turkey, the French National Assembly
debated a draft law last week that makes denial of the Armenian
Genocide punishable by law. Although voting on the bill was postponed,
it remains the first practical step by the international community
towards demanding accountability for the Armenian Genocide from Turkey.
The French bill, the first of its kind in the world, was introduced
by the opposition Socialist party. It proposes up to five years
imprisonment and a 45,000 euro fine for deniers of the Armenian
Genocide. The French government, however, made it clear on several
occasions that it is opposed to the resolution that would undermine
French-Turkish relations.
In the run-up to the debate on May 18, Turkey once again put on
one of its finest shows of diplomatic pressure and threats, usual
reactions to any Armenian Genocide resolution under study by the
international community.
Considering the seriousness of the bill, however, this time Ankara
went as far as threatening France with trade sanctions, threatening to
recognize what they called a “genocide” committed by France in Algeria,
stirring French businessmen involved in Turkey to lobby against the
bill, sending a special parliamentary delegation to Paris and calling
back its Ambassador to Paris for “consultations”; All this apart from
the regular letter and email campaigns, demonstrations and verbal
warnings by Turkish officials.
The Turkish pressures paid off partly but the bill was not scrapped
altogether as Ankara would have wished it to. It was debated, but
the vote was postponed due to alleged time limitations. Even though
the Armenian Genocide resolution was the second issue on the agenda
of the National Assembly’s May 18 session, speaker Jean-Louis Debre
reportedly extended the time limit of the first agenda, not leaving
enough time for discussing the bill.
The move led to an outcry by many French lawmakers. Nevertheless
Debre postponed the vote on the bill after 30 minutes of discussions.
The resolution is expected to return to the assembly’s agenda in
autumn.
Those opposing the resolution in France sighted fears of strain in
relations between Paris and Ankara. French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy was quoted telling the National Assembly: “The Armenian
cause is just and should be defended and respected. But the bill you
have submitted today would, if passed, be considered as an unfriendly
gesture by a large majority of Turks, whether you want this or not.”
After postponing the vote, Debre, in his turn, told France Inter Radio
that laws can’t make history and urged parliaments not to interfere
with the job of historians. Herve de Charrette, the deputy chairman
of the French Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Commission, echoed a
similar statement.
Both reasons might seem justifiable or understandable to some French
lawmakers, but the fact is both are baseless arguments. Yes, if the
law is adopted French-Turkish relations will be strained as they
were in 2001 when France recognized the Armenian Genocide. Yes,
Turkey will cancel contracts with French businessmen, probably call
back its Ambassador for a while, maybe even recognize the so-called
Algerian “genocide”, but the fact of the matter is all this will
only be temporary measures and after a couple of months things will
be back to business as usual as happened 5 years ago.
French lawmakers know well that a Turkey aspiring to become a member
of the European Union can’t afford to boycott France for long, whether
diplomatically or economically, given that the latter is one of the
major players of the EU. It is Turkey that needs to appear favorable
to France and not the opposite.
The second reason is all the more baseless. The Armenian Genocide is
not an issue of the past, it does not belong to history and certainly
not to historians. Historians have long said their word on the issue:
what happened was Genocide. This makes the matter all the more a very
contemporary and political issue that the international community
needs to address.
It is true that more than ninety years have passed since the Armenian
Genocide was planned and executed by Ottoman Turkey during World War
I. However, as a result of that Genocide, the majority of the Armenian
population of the world continues to live outside Armenia; relations,
even diplomatic ties, between Turkey and Armenia still do not exist;
the destruction of Armenian monuments and heritage in Eastern Turkey
continues; and finally Armenians have yet to wait for an official
recognition and reparations by Turkey.
The UN Genocide Convention clearly provisions punishments for the
committers of acts of Genocide and reparations to the victims. Sadly,
despite the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by many countries,
the international community has yet to demand accountability from
Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman Empire that carried out the
systematic annihilation of over one and a half million Armenians,
looting their properties and historically Armenian lands.
It is here that the significance of the proposed French law comes to
the fore. It is the first law ever to go beyond merely recognizing
the Armenian Genocide and to react to the ongoing Turkish denial to it.
An Armenian Genocide recognition law adopted by France in 2001 states:
“France publicly recognizes the Armenian Genocide of 1915.”
It does not mention or condemn the perpetrators, let alone refer to
the continuous denial by Turkey of the Armenian Genocide.
The 2001 law was a historic step in the process for the international
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Yet, recognizing Genocide without
willing to do anything about it is saying: “Yes, we acknowledge you
were subjected to genocide, but we’re not doing anything about it
except saying it out loud”!
It is time that France and the international community realize that
it is specifically this attitude that makes it ok for Turkey to deny
the Armenian Genocide. It is because the international community has
never demanded accountability that Ankara can so freely deny this
historical fact.
A recent example of ongoing, everyday Turkish denial was the attempted
trial of well-known Turkish author Orhan Pamuk on charges of “insulting
Turkish identity” following his comments to a Swiss newspaper that
one million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk
did not even have to use the word Genocide to be deemed a traitor by
many Turks.
And to think that many Turks both in Turkey and France protested
against limitations of free speech by the proposed French bill,
is to witness hypocrisy in its finest forms.
Despite Turkish pressures and threats the French bill will sooner or
later be debated by the French National Assembly. It will present the
perfect opportunity for France to lead the international community
into taking practical steps towards legally demanding accountability
from Turkey for the Armenian Genocide.

ARMENIAN MPS TO VOTE TO ELECT NEW SPEAKER
Mediamax news agency
1 Jun 06
Yerevan, 1 June: “Democratic processes in Armenia have become
irreversible,” [Armenian Deputy Speaker] Tigran Torosyan, who has been
nominated to the post of speaker of the Armenian National Assembly,
said today.
Tigran Torosyan is the only candidate to the post of speaker of the
Armenian parliament, Mediamax news agency reports. His candidacy was
put forward by the faction of the Republican Party of Armenia.
Torosyan is answering deputies’ questions at the moment. The voting
on his candidacy will be held after speeches by political forces
represented in the Armenian National Assembly.

PABSEC 27TH PLENARY SESSION IN YEREVAN
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
June 1 2006
On June 6-8 the 27th plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation will be held in Yerevan.
On June 6 at NA Gilded hall the 34th session of PABSEC Bureau, then
the 27th session of the Standing Committee, the special sitting of
the PABSEC Standing Committee on Economic, Commercial, Technological
and Environmental Affairs.
On June 7 the 27th plenary session of the PABSEC will begin its
activities at NA Chamber. After the solemn opening ceremony of the
Assembly when the welcoming speeches will sound, new procedural
will be debated at the first sitting, the agenda will be approved,
new mandates will be debated, the PA activity report and protocol of
the 26th plenary session the PABSEC’s General Assembly held in Tirana
on November 22-24, 2005 will also be approved. Then the problems of
the power security in the Black Sea region will also be debated. The
same day the organizational, economic, commercial, technological,
environmental, legal and political issues will be debated.
The cultural, educational, social and financial issues are on the
agenda of June 8 debates. At the end of the PABSEC 27th plenary
session the venue and the deadline of the autumn session of the General
Assembly of BSEC will be decided. Presidency rotation will take place,
and the presidency will be transferred to the President of the Milli
Mejlis of the Republic of Armenia.
The activities of the Assembly will be wrapped up with the press
conference for the journalists.