ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
May 12, 2006 Friday
Bagdasaryan’s party withdraws from Armenia’s ruling coalition
by Tigran Liloyan
The “Orinats Yerkir” (Country of Law) centrist party has withdrawn
from the coalition on which the Armenian government is based. The
decision to withdraw from the coalition was made late on Thursday at
a meeting of the Political Council of the party, which Parliament
Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan heads. It was announced here that he would
come out with a statement on Friday.
The ruling coalition was formed on June 11, 2003, shortly after the
latest parliamentary elections. This was done on agreement between
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and leaders of the Republican
Party of Armenia, chaired by Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, the
“Orinats Yerkir” party, and the “Dashnaktsutyun” party to
cooperate and to pursue a concerted policy.
The “Orinats Yerkir” decision actually disintegrates the ruling
pro-presidential coalition. The 2003 memorandum envisaged, in
particular, that validity of the coalition “may be terminated ahead
of term”, especially “if one of the sides decides to withdraw from
it due to some disagreements of principle”.
The “Orinats Yerkir” party held three ministerial posts in the
Armenian government.
Local analysts are sure that 39-year-old Artur Bagdasaryan, who heads
the “Orinats Yerkir” party and is reputed to be a pro-western
politician, will shortly resign also from the post of parliament
speaker and will join the opposition. They believe he will try to
follow in the footsteps of Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili, who
had first held some key government posts and had afterwards joined
the opposition and indulged in sharp criticism of the authorities.

Le Monde, France
12 mai 2006
Les entreprises françaises s’alarment des menaces de boycott de la
Turquie;
COMMERCE PROPOSITION DE LOI DU PS SUR LE GÉNOCIDE ARMÉNIEN
par Guillaume Perrier
En dessous d’une caricature de Jacques Chirac, sont répertoriés les
produits français à boycotter, secteur par secteur. Cette liste noire
de plus de 400 marques, qui circule sur Internet, a été publiée en
réaction à la proposition de loi du Parti socialiste français sur le
génocide arménien, qui devrait être examinée à l’Assemblée nationale
le 18 mai.
En cas d’adoption, avertissent les milieux économiques franco-turcs,
les conséquences pourraient être catastrophiques. ” L’attitude des
hommes politiques français est irresponsable, clame Guillaume
Rougier-Brière, président des conseillers du commerce extérieur en
Turquie. Cela pourrait nous conduire à l’une des crises les plus
graves entre la France et la Turquie. ”
A la tête d’une délégation de 22 représentants d’entreprises
françaises, parmi lesquelles Renault, Peugeot, Total, Carrefour ou
Alstom, il a été reçu, mardi 9 mai, à Ankara, par le premier ministre
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ” Il nous a avertis que nous pourrions être des
victimes collatérales potentielles “, indique M. Rougier-Brière. Dans
une lettre envoyée à chaque président de groupe parlementaire à
l’Assemblée nationale, les hommes d’affaires français ont expliqué ”
qu’un tel vote viendrait immanquablement décourager – leurs –
efforts. (…) Les marques de défiance sont déjà perceptibles dans
nos activités “.
Le week-end dernier, le président de la commission des affaires
étrangères au Parlement turc, Mehmet Dulger, a déclaré que les
importations françaises pourraient faire l’objet d’un boycott et que
les entreprises pourraient être écartées de procédures d’appel
d’offres.
AREVA, UNE CIBLE CERTAINE
Au premier rang des entreprises visées figure Areva, candidate à la
construction des premières centrales nucléaires turques. ” Il y aura
d’abord ceux qui traitent avec l’Etat ou avec l’armée, prédit M.
Rougier-Brière. Et ensuite un boycott spontané des produits de grande
consommation “, à l’image de Danone ou L’Oréal. La Société générale,
qui prospecte pour le rachat d’une banque turque, est aussi une cible
potentielle.
” Nous serons moins concernés mais nous prévoyons une petite baisse
du chiffre d’affaires, admet quant à lui Esref Hamamcioglu, directeur
de Sodexho. Nous avons un contrat de restauration collective en cours
de négociation avec l’armée et les choses traînent un peu. ”
Les retombées de cette nouvelle crise entre les deux pays seraient
sans doute plus importantes qu’en 2001, après la reconnaissance
officielle du génocide arménien par la France. Des contrats avec
Thomson et Alcatel avaient alors été annulés et les tracasseries
administratives s’étaient multipliées.
Mais le boycott avait été découragé par la grave crise financière
survenue quelques jours plus tard. Aujourd’hui, la situation
économique de la Turquie est plus stable.
” Le marché turc est en pleine expansion et on y investit fortement
“, rappelle Malek Sarmini, directeur général de L’Oréal. La ministre
déléguée au commerce extérieur, Dominique Lagarde, doit se rendre en
Turquie le 14 juin, accompagnée de 40 chefs d’entreprise.
Guillaume Perrier

PanARMENIAN.Net
Azerbaijan Should Wait with Karabakh Conflict Settlement,
Political Scientist Says
12.05.2006 16:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Armenia is awaiting parliamentary and presidential
election after which it will become weaker. Armenians guess about
it. That is why the tough position it held on the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict is growing somewhat uncertain. Due to this reason they admit
the possibility of concessions from their part,’ Director of the
Center of Innovation and Political Technologies Mubariz Ahmedoglu
stated when commenting on the situation in the South Caucasus. In his
words, `Azerbaijan should wait with the conflict settlement until the
completion of elections in Armenia.’
As for the U.S.’s position on the conflict settlement, especially in
the light of Ilham Aliyev’s recent visit to Washington, the political
scientist said the `U.S. sees the settlement of conflicts in the post
soviet space within the framework of territorial integrity.’ `The
U.S. is now thinking over the soonest settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict in order to proceed to the determination of Kosovo’s
status without hindrance,’ Mubariz Ahmedoglu stated, reported Mirror
Baku-based newspaper.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Preparation for A-320 Record Boxes Withdrawal Started
12.05.2006 16:33 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The first stage of search works at the site of
Airbus-320 jet crash is finished. During the period the precise
location of the record boxes was determined. Presently the rescuers
proceeded to the second stage, that is the preparation for the
withdrawal of the record boxes out of the water. As reported Interfax
with a reference to head of the headquarters for technical support of
search works Alexander Davydenko, a deep-diving submersible capable to
take the record boxes out of the water will be sought for throughout
the globe.
To remind, on early May 3 Armavia-owned A-320 crashed into the water
killing all 113 people aboard including 6 children and 8
crewmembers. The jet was conveying 26 Russian citizens, one Ukrainian
citizen and one Georgian citizen; the others were citizens of Armenia.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Orinats Yerkir to Participate in Parliamentary and Presidential
Elections in Armenia

12.05.2006 16:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Orinats Yerkir party will participate in the
forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia, party
leader, RA NA chairman Artur Baghdassaryan stated at today’s press
conference. `Orinats Yerkir’s secession from the ruling coalition
doesn’t mean that we abandon the political arena. We will take part
both in the parliamentary and presidential election,’ he said. At
that, he said, it’s premature to speak of possible political allies at
the upcoming elections.

Thursday, May 11, 2006
********************************************
MARIA IORDANIDOU
**********************************
Ever since I read Lesley’s Blanch’s SABRES OF PARADISE – one of the very few books that I have read three times (the other two being Thomas Mann’s MAGIC MOUNTAIN and Arnold J. Toynbee’s STUDY OF HISTORY(volume xii): RECONSIDERATION), I read everything I can lay my hands on about the Caucasus. Which is why, the only reason I read Maria Iordanidou (an unfamiliar name to me until last week) is that the title of one of her books is HOLIDAYS IN THE CAUCASUS. Immediately after I also read another book by her titled LIKE CRAZY BIRDS.
*
Maria Iordanidou may not be a giant in world literature, but unlike most giants, she is incapable of writing a single boring or unreadable line. She writes about her life in Istanbul at the turn of the last century, an extended stay in the Caucasus during World War I and the Russian Revolution, her residence in Alexandria, and final move to Athens on the eve of World War II.
*
In A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN, Virginia Woolf writes that since women can’t express themselves fully and authentically, they cannot take a rightful place in a literary tradition which has been shaped by men. Reading Maria Iordanidou is discovering the obvious fact that liberation consists in being oneself, and if one is honest, one’s authenticity and originality will shrine through every sentence one writes.
*
Maria Iordanidou doesn’t write as a writer but as a human being. As a result, her humanity speaks louder than any literary tradition you care to mention. And though she writes about Turks, Armenians, Russians, Arabs, and Greeks, she judges no one. Which may suggest that most of our judgments about people are based on hearsay evidence.
#
Friday, May 12, 2006
**************************************
When Canadian writers speak of survival they mean surviving the influence of the United States. There is even a popular brief history of Canadian literature titled SURVIVAL. When Armenian writers speak of survival they mean it literally — surviving first the sultans and commissars, and after them our own mini-sultans and neo-commissars.
*
In his DECLINE OF THE WEST, Spengler tells us only “awake” people make history, the rest exist in subhistory. James Joyce said that history was a nightmare from which he was trying to awake. Whenever we make the Genocide our central concern we betray our unspoken wish to relive the history (or nightmare) that was inflicted on us.
*
By saying and repeating that half of Turkey is probably half Armenian, I hope to reduce by half our hatred of Turks. An absurd hope, because we are capable of hating our fellow Armenians as intensely as we hate Turks. I speak from experience, both as provider and consumer of hatred. As for those holier-than-thou phonies who say they hate no one, they only want justice: I challenge them to explain Gostan Zarian’s dictum, “Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another.”
*
There is an unspoken principle in our post-Genocide literature which goes something like this: “Criticize everyone, including fellow writers, but leave possible sources of income, such as bosses, bishops, and benefactors, alone.” Case in point: In his OLD DREAMS, NEW REALITIES (Beirut, 1982), Antranik Zaroukian analyzes mercilessly the motives of a totally harmless 83-year-old Armenian priest in Moscow who does his utmost to be of assistance to him, but says nothing remotely critical about the Catholicos who allowed Etchmiadzin to be run by KGB agents.
#
Saturday, May 13, 2006
**************************************
THE NATIVES ARE RESTLESS
***************************************
Vassilis Vassilikos: “There is Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold, and there is anti-Midas, whose touch turned everything to crap.”
*
If I knew what I know today, I would have chosen to write for a more tolerant bunch, like the Taliban of Afghanistan or the Sunnis in Iraq.
*
After being exposed to the venom of my readers, I can’t help thinking: If they can be so nasty towards a harmless scribbler, what are they capable of doing to a defenseless Turk? — (in their selfless search for justice, of course).
*
Being honest in a dishonest environment is nothing short of a heroic act. Perhaps one of our greatest misfortunes is that we have produced many more martyrs than heroes, and one party’s hero is another’s…anti-Midas.
*
Somewhere Antranik Zaroukian writes that an Armenian hates tyranny but he considers it a privilege to serve a tyrant.
*
To the hooligans who insult me I will only say, once upon a time I too was young and foolish and said things that I now regret.
#

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT PRESS SECRETARY CONFIRMS REPORT ON MEETING OF
SPEAKER AND PRESIDENT ON THURSDAY EVENING
Yerevan, May 12. ArmInfo. Press Secretary of Armenian President,
Victor Soghomonyan, confirms the report on the meeting of Armenian
Parliametnary Speaker,Leader of “Orinats Yerkir” party, Arthur
Baghdasaryan and President Robert Kocharyan late in the evening on
Thursday.
After the meeting, Arthur Baghdasaryan convened an extraordinary
session of “OY” party Board. In fact, the party adopted decision on
withdrawal from the ruling political coalition and on resignation of
the speaker. the most probable nominees to the post of the
parliamentary speaker are considered Karen Karapetyan, the head of
deputy group “People’s Deputy,” Vahan Hovhannissyan, Vice Speaker a
member of ARFD Bureau, Tigran Torosyan, Vice Speaker, Vice Chairman of
RPA.
In addition, the party resolved to recall its ministers from the
government: Sergo Yeritsyan, Minister of Education and Science, Aram
Haroutunyan, Town Planning Minister, Gevorg Gevorgyan, Minister of
Culture and Youth Affairs. To recap, 10 big businessman-members of
the “OY” parliamentary faction have recently left the party. The party
representatives connect the developments around the party with a
certain pressure by the ruling circles that are dissatisfied with the
recent harsh statements by Arthur Baghdasaryan as well as with his
criticism of the state property privatization program 2001-2003.

NDU OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER BELIEVES WITHDRAWAL OF “ORINATS YERKIR”
FROM RULING COALITION APPROPRIATE
Yerevan, May 12. ArmInfo. The withdrawal of “OY” party from the ruling
political coalition of Armenia was appropriate and expected, Leader of
the National Democratic Union included in the “Justice” opposition
bloc, MP Vazgen Manukyan says in an interview with ArmInfo.
To recap Thursday “Orinats Yerkir” Party Board resolved to withdraw
from the country’s ruling political coalition. In addition, the “OY”
Board adopted a decision on resignation of “OY” Leader, Parliamentary
Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan from his post. Arthur Baghdasaryan intends
to made public the party’s decision today at 2:00 PM. Sources close to
the party report that approximately an hour before the party meeting
yesterday, A. Baghdasaryan met with President Robert Kocharyan and
then convened immediate meeting of the party Board.
Vazgen Manukyan sees nothing surprising in the withdrawal of the party
as it was repeatedly stating about its inability to control over the
situation in the country and was coming against the course taken by
the coalition.
“However, the party has been shaken and split, which was unnatural,”
V. Manukyan says. Withdrawing from the coalition, the party will
automatically become an opposition, but if it will join the opposition
or will act independently will become known over time, he believes. As
regards the probable nominees to the post of the speaker, V. Manukyan
says: “We shall not participate in these games.
There are no elections in Armenia. There is no parliament. There is
only a Plenum of the Central Committee that resolves who will take the
post of the speaker.”

RESIGNATION OF ARMENIAN SPEAKER NOT RESULT OF CONFLICT WITH PRESIDENT:
HEAD OF RPA FACTION
Yerevan, May 12. ArmInfo. “The expected resignation of Armenian
parliamentary speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan cannot be connected with his
interview with the German newspaper ” Frankfurter Allgemeine ” wherein
the speaker tried to specify the priorities of Armenia’s foreign
policy ahead of the country’s president,> Galust Sahakyan, Head of RPA
faction, told ArmInfo.
G. Sahakyan believes that “withdrawing from the coalition, “Orinats
Yerkir” team is settling its own tasks.> He thinks it untimely
forecasting the election of the new speaker. Naming no nominee from
the RPA, G. Sahakyan stressed the role of the party in the election of
the new speaker. “The frames of cooperation with political forces
remain wide enough and our legislative activity will not be
interrupted,> he says.
Commenting on the statement by “Orinats Yerkir” representative
Hovhanness Margaryan, that “OY” displayed readiness to leave the posts
for ideas, hereby gaining new voters, G. Sahakyan says: “We shall only
welcome if they gain new voters.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian minister quits ex-ruling party
Noyan Tapan news agency
12 May 06
Yerevan, 12 May: Armenian Minister of Town Planning Aram Arutyunyan
offered his resignation from the Orinats Yerkir (Law-Governed Country)
Party on 12 May, the press service of the ministry has told Noyan
Tapan.
It was announced yesterday that Orinats Yerkir had quit the ruling
coalition and party leader Artur Bagdasaryan had taken a decision to
resign from the post of speaker of the Armenian National Assembly.