NATO PA “ROSE ROTH” REGULAR SEMINAR TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON OCT. 6-9
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The “Rose Roth”
regular seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly will be held at the
“Marriott-Armenia” hotel of Yerevan on October 6-9. Participation
of about 70 deputies of the Assembly as well as of representatives
of international organizations and centers of strategic studies is
expected at the seminar. As Mher Shahgeldian, the head of the Armenian
delegation to the NATO PA, the Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee
on Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs informed the Noyan
Tapan correspondent, security problems of the region will be discussed,
developments of the region as a part of the world being globalized,
reforms of the military sphere will be touched upon. A separate
discussion of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is envisaged.
According to M.Shahgeldian, though an information on the Azerbaijani
delegation’s refusal to participate in the Yerevan seminar was in
the Azerbaijani press, as for October 3 I haven’t been officially
informed about that. The deputy affirmed that guarantees of security
were given to the Azerbaijani side. The NATO heads were also informed
that in Armenia “the atmosphere is just another that in Azerbaijan.”

ARMENIA MUST PROVE ITS ADHERENCE TO EUROPEAN VALUES THROUGH CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
ArmInfo News Agency
Oct 1 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1. ARMINFO. ‘Europe does not force European
integration upon Armenia. It was Armenia that has proclaimed itself
a follower of western values. Thus, Armenia must prove its adherence
to these values through Constitutional reforms,’ said Head of the
Parliamentary Commission for Defense, National Security and Internal
Affairs, Vice Chairman of Orinats Yerkir party, Mher Shahgeldyan at
today’s seminar on constitutional reforms.
He noted the recent interest of Europe in the South Caucasus,
especially the inclusion of South Caucasian states in the
EU-implemented program “Wider Europe: new Neighborhood.” Despite its
traditions and culture, the Armenian people has a European mentality,
Shahgeldyan thinks. Constitutional reforms will be the first step
to bring the political structure of the country in harmony with the
people’s mentality. Each political forces must bear responsibility
for a possible failure of the draft constitutional reforms at
the referendum, Shahgeldyan said. To overcome corruption, social
polarization and other negative phenomena, it is necessary to display
a political will and consistency, Shahgeldyan thinks.

GENOCIDE FINALLY GETS SCHOLARLY INQUEST
by Dorian Jones, Istanbul
The Times Higher Education Supplement
September 30, 2005
Despite death threats, two postponements and the presence of hundreds
of protesters, an academic conference on the mass killings of Armenians
living in Turkey in 1915 went ahead under heavy police protection at
Istanbul’s Bilgi University.
Participants hailed it as a success and pledged to hold more.
Organiser Halil Berktay of Sabanci University said: “It is enormously
important. This has been the most enduring taboo of Turkish nationalist
mythology. Five years ago, hardly anyone was speaking out about this.”
Although he has received many death threats for raising the issue, he
promised: “We will go on to organise a series of books, translations,
pamphlets and future conferences, and we will call for official
spokesmen to join an open debate not just in Turkey but in front of
world historians abroad.”
The Armenian Government accuses Turkey’s Ottoman rulers of killing
1.5 million Armenians. But the Turkish state argues that a civil
war was to blame for the deaths. Until now, the official historical
interpretation has not been challenged in Turkish academic circles.
The conference angered many in Turkey’s academic community: 320
professors signed a petition condemning the meeting. One organiser
said that the careers of young academics linked to the event could
be blighted.
An injunction to stop the event was circumvented by changing the
venue. The decision to proceed was apparently made after the deputy
prime minster intervened.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERI PARLIAMENTARIANS TO RAISE KARABAKH CONFLICT ISSUE AT PACE
ArmInfo News Agency
Oct 1 2005
Autumn Session
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1. ARMINFO. Azeri parliamentarians are going to
raise the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the PACE autumn
session. As “Trend” informs, member of the Azeri delegation to PACE,
deputy Bakhtiyar Aliev says.
He says that they will raise the issue of “elaborating a legal
mechanism for the Political decision on the withdrawal of Armenian
military units “from Azeri territories”, recognizing the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, and returning refugees to their home,
approved at the PACE sub-committee session for the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Jan, 2005″. In his words, a new report on the condition of
refugees and migrants in the South Caucasus is being prepared, based
of the resolution adopted in 2002. “The document notes that Armenia
has no right to settle people in the occupied territories. However,
in fact, Armenia settles Armenian people from other places in these
territories. We will carry a work at the sub-committee sitting to
stop this process’, Aliev says. The PACE session is to be conducted
on Oct 3-7, 2005.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

UN-HOLY ALLIANCE – OBSERVER FROM ANKARA
By Vincent Boland
Financial Times (London, England)
October 3, 2005 Monday
London Edition 1
There can be little doubt that the stakes involved in Turkey’s quest
for EU membership are high for Erdogan and his ruling Islam-tinged
Justice and Development party.
He raised expectations very high – perhaps excessively so – in the
first two years of his administration, ahead of last December’s EU
summit at which Turkey was invited to become a member.
In doing so, some critics say, he made Turkey, and perhaps his own
political future, too dependent on the EU issue.
Still, in going out on a limb for EU entry, Erdogan has won friends
in unlikely places. When a minor court ordered the suspension of
a recent conference on the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
soldiers in 1915, he was quick not only to object to the verdict
(the conference went ahead a day late) but to insist that one needed
to respect opinions with which one might disagree.
The statement was welcomed by the academics attending the conference.
As members of Istanbul’s sizeable chattering class, they are not
automatic Erdogan supporters. Perhaps they recalled that he, too,
has suffered for freedom of speech: he was jailed in 1999 for reciting
a banned Islamist poem when Istanbul mayor.

FOREIGN MINISTER VARTAN OSKANIAN’S MEETINGS IN ABU DHABI
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 3 2005
ABU DHABI, OCTOBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Minister Oskanian
visited Abu Dhabi, on the occasion of the groundbreaking of the
Armenian Embassy building in the United Arab Emirates. Large number of
representatives of the government, together with the diplomatic corps,
and members of the Armenian community from throughout the Emirates
were present.
In a brief ceremony, Minister spoke, followed by Ambassador Arshak
Poladian, and then the first stones were laid for what will be a
7,000 sq. meter building.
As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign Minsitry’s Press and
Information Department, during his visit, the Minister also met with
Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for External Relations,
Sheikh Hamdan Ben Zayed Al Nahanyan. The two discussed bilateral and
regional issues, including Armenia’s having provided suitable embassy
state for the Emirates, which will be opening an embassy in Yerevan.
On the second day of the visit, the Minister also met with Ahmad Bakr,
the Deputy Director of the Abu Dhabi Development Fund. The Minister
described Armenia’s economic development and prospects for growth. The
Minister returned to Yerevan late Monday.

MEETING OF COMMISSION FOR YEAR OF ARMENIA IN FRANCE TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON NOV. 3
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3. /ARKA/. Meeting of Commission for organization
of Year of Armenia in France will be held in Yerevan on November 3,
2005, Press-Secretary of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hamlet
Gasparyan told journalists. He said that the program of events will
be developed and concretized during this meeting. The Year of Armenia
in France will be held on the initiative of the Presidents of France
and Armenia. “It will one of the largest events”, Gasparyan said.
However, he did not concretize the program of events saying that
organizational work have not been finished yet.
2006 will be the Year of Armenia in France and 2007 will be the year
of France in Armenia. A.A. -0–

RA PRESIDENT AND HEADS OF POLITICAL COALITION DISCUSS PROCESS OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues concerning the process of
the constitutional reforms and the draft on 2006 stage budget were
discussed at the September 30 working meeting of RA President Robert
Kocharian with members of the Political Council of the coalition.
As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA President’s Press Office,
the conclusion of the working group created by the RA President
for studying problems of citizens’ saving deposits freezed at the
ArnSavingBank was discussed at the meeting and a decision was made,
within the framework of the strategic program of overcoming poverty,
to solve the problem of compensation of deposits freezed by the
ArmSavingBank of citizens involved in lists of those getting family
benefits.

ARMENIA RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL GRANT TO FIGHT AIDS
ArmInfo News Agency
Sept 30 2005
Yerevan, 30 September: Armenia has received a grant worth 4m dollars
to fight HIV/AIDS within the framework of the project of the Global
Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The recipient of the
grant is the World Vision office in Armenia.
The grant will be used to implement the second stage of the national
programme to combat AIDS, a source in the World Vision office in
Yerevan said. In 2003-2005, the fund allocated 3.2m dollars to
implement the first stage of the project. An official ceremony to
sign the document on the allocation of the grant is scheduled for 5
October this year.
According to the republican HIV/AIDS centre, by 1 September 356
HIV-positive cases had been registered in Armenia and 92 people had
been diagnosed as having AIDS. A total of 70 people have died since
the first HIV/AIDS infected Armenian patient was registered. However,
specialists of the centre say that official figures cannot reflect
the real situation in the country, as the actual figures are 10 times
higher. Specialists of the centre believe that over 3,000 people are
HIV-positive in Armenia.

ARMENIAN PARTY LEADER BLAMES USA FOR BACKING SECTARIANISM
ArmInfo News Agency
Oct 1 2005
Yerevan, 30 September: “We have turned [Yerevan’s] Nork subdistrict
into a base for clearing the city and republic from so-called Jehovah’s
Witnesses and other sects,” the leader of the United Nation Party
[UNP], Gor Tamazyan, said at a press conference today.
He said that the UNP’s tactic of going to the country with
anti-sectarian propaganda, including among sects, has yielded
considerable results in the 1-5th subdistricts. Attempts to continue
anti-sectarian work in the 6th and 7th subdistricts have met with
stiff resistance from “Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
“It is hard to fight sects in Armenia because they receive considerable
financial support from the USA and are puppets in the hands of the US
security services,” Tamazyan said. On this basis, the United Nation
Party, acknowledging a number of positive changes in the constitutional
reforms, is against lifting the ban on double citizenship.
Unlike the chairman of the Nationalist Union, Ruben Gevorkyants,
Tamazyan says that “however good the intentions of US citizens of
Armenian origin, the Washington administration, which is hostile to
Armenia, will use them against us,” he said.