FIFTEEN MEMBERS OF OPPOSITION BLOC ARRESTED DURING RALLY
Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 3 2005
Baku, 3 October: Fifteen activists of the Azadliq election bloc were
attested during the 1 October protests. They were sentenced to from two
to 15 day’s imprisonment as administrative punishment, the secretary
of the bloc’s election headquarters, Fahmin Haciyev, has told Turan.
Ten of them are members of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party
[PFAP], five from the Democratic Party and the Musavat Party. Among
them are the PFAP chairman, Ali Karimli’s, chief bodyguard, Karim
Mehdiyev, a member of the PFAP executive board, Vaqif Panahov, the
chairman of the PFAP branch in Imisli [central Azerbaijan], Suleyman
Xanmammadov, and the chairman of the branch of the Musavat Party
in Lacin [western Azerbaijan, currently under Armenian occupation],
Faiq Suleymanov.

DESCENDANTS OF OTTOMAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS TO RECEIVE COMPENSATION
By Vitaly Makarchev
ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
PARIS, October 3
France’ Axa insurance company is beginning to pay compensations
to Armenians – the descendants of victims of the Ottoman genocide
of 1915-1924.
The relevant agreement was signed by the Axa leadership and a
California-based firm representing the interests of millions of
Armenians whose relatives died during persecution by the Ottoman
empire.

1,928 TO VOTE FOR ARMENIAN HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE
Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Oct 3 2005
There are 1928 individuals registered in the special voting list of
the Armenian Religious Group, with the right to vote in the by-election
on October 9 for the Armenian Representative at the House.
The number of Armenian voters is 1,218 in Nicosia, 305 in Limassol,
404 in Larnaca and one in Paphos.
Four voting centres will operate, two at the Armenian elementary school
“Narek” in Nicosia for the voters from Nicosia, one at the Larnaca
District Administration for the voters from Larnaca and another at
the Limassol District Administration for the voters from Limassol
and Paphos.
Vahakn Atamyan, Antranig Ashdjian and Parsegh Zartarian are the
candidates for the post.
The new representative will succeed Bedros Kalaydjian, who passed
away on the 1st of September at the age of 71.
The three religious groups — the Latins, Armenians and Maronites
— that belong to the Greek Cypriot community, elect a non-voting
representative each to the House, beyond the 56 parliamentary seats
for Greek Cypriots.

BULGARIAN DELEGATION HEADED BY PRESIDENT’S WIFE TO TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR IN MOSCOW
Focus News, Bulgaria
Oct 3 2005
Moscow/Sofia. A three-day International Book Fair opens today in
Moscow under the auspices of Russia’s first lay Lyudmila Putina,
sources from Moscow told FOCUS News Agency.
Bulgarian President’s wife Zorka Parvanova heads the Bulgarian
delegation. The event will also be attended by the first ladies of
Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Armenia, Kyrgyzia. The fair aims to
promote different ways of arousing the interest of schoolchildren
from primary and secondary schools in books. Many discussions are
envisaged to be held on the topics of children’s books, contemporary
tendencies and Harry Potter phenomenon.

ARMENIA’S GDP UP 11.7% IN JAN-AUG 2005
RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – Armenia’s GDP in
January-August grew 11.7% year on year to $2.5 billion, a government
official said Monday.
According to the National Statistics Service, per capita GDP for the
period was $784.
Armenia’s H1 industrial output grew 6.2% to $906.5 million and
agricultural output increased by 11.8% to $550.5 million.
Estimated GDP annual growth rate is 8% and inflation, 3%.
The country’s H1 trade turnover was almost $1.7 billion, a 31.4%
increase year on year.
The average monthly salary in January-August was $109, up 23.6%
compared with the same period last year.
Unemployment fell by 1.1% to 124,300 jobless.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA SIGNS DEAL TO UPGRADE NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITY
RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – An agreement
to upgrade the radioactive waste management facility at the Armenian
Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was signed Monday, a senior official said.
Gagik Markosyan, the plant’s general director, said the agreement
had been signed by the Armenian NPP and France’s Ñogema Logistic.
“The French company will provide the technology to build a nuclear
waste storage facility using the dry-burial method, along with
consulting services,” he said, adding that the agreement stipulated
the construction of 24 additional modules, each containing 56 cassettes
of spent nuclear fuel.
Markosyan said the project would be funded by the Armenian
government but did not reveal the overall cost, citing the deal’s
confidentiality. He said $1.89 million had been allocated to the
project this year.
The first additional storage facility is scheduled to be operational
in 2007.
The Armenian NPP produces 40% of the country’s electricity and will
remain operational until 2016, according to experts.
In September 2003, the plant came under the five-year trust management
of INTER RAO UES, a subsidiary of Rosenergoatom and Russia’s RAO UES
electricity monopoly.
The European Union has insisted that Armenia shut down the nuclear
power plant, offering 100 million euros in aid. But Armenian experts
have said the construction of alternative power generating facilities
would cost the country about a billion euros.
–Boundary_(ID_NJ9gjyPly5mFEjyRlSA0PA)–

TURKEY-EU: BLOC CAN BECOME ‘GLOBAL PLAYER’ OR REMAIN A ‘CHRISTIAN CLUB’
AKI, Italy
Oct 3 2005
Ankara, 2 Oct. (AKI) – As the scheduled start on Monday of Turkey’s
entry talks with the European Union looked threatened by objections
from some of the bloc’s members, the Turkish premier urged the EU not
to remain a “Christian club”. “Europe can either decide to become
a global actor or it can fence itself off as a Christian club,”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Sunday during a visit
to Turkey’s eastern Anatolia region.
On Monday, an EU emergency meeting in Luxembourg went into a second
day, as Austria clung to a demand that the 25-nation bloc offer Turkey
a “privileged partnership”‘ as an alternative to full membership in
talks due to start at 5 pm local time.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw, told journalists after bilateral
meetings with Austrian foreign minister, Urusla Plassnik, as well
as with the foreign ministers of Greece and Cyprus – who also have
deep reservations over the Turkish bid – that negotiations were
“hard and diffucult.”
Straw added that he “could not be certain ” that an agreement could
be reached.
In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica published on Monday,
Erdogan reiterated the Turkish government’s assertion that it has
complied with all the preconditions set by Brussels for the start of
the talks, and that he was confident that they would go ahead.
“I believe that those who promised to begin this journey will keep
their word,” he said, but warned, that “if today they place before
us different conditions, then Turkey will not swallow such a ruse,
and it will continue along its own path.”
Erdogan dismissed one of the main sticking points to the Turkish bid:
Ankara’s refusal to recognise EU member Cyprus, which was recently
described as an “act of provocation” by the Cypriot foreign minister,
George Iacovu.
“I would like to say only this: Remember 24 April 2004, the day of
the United Nations referendum on Cyprus’ re-unification, accepted by
the Turkish Cypriots but which failed because of a boycott by Greek
Cypriots. One week later Greek Cyprus became a EU member with all of
its border problems… whoever fails to resolve these problmes cannot
claim to represent the whole island [of Cyprus] but can only present
itself as southern Cyprus,” Erdogan said.
Another stumbling block to Turkey’s accession is the country’s refusal
to allow public debate on the so-called “Armenian Genocide,” of 1915
which according to many historians claimed the lives of some 1.5
million Armenians. Erdogan has defended renowned Turkish author,Orhan
Pamuk, who is to stand trial for writing about the massacre in a recent
newspaper article, but the Turkish premier argues his hands are tied.
“The media has to understand that this case [Pamuk’s] does not involve
the country’s executive and legislative powers, but the judiciary. It’s
up to the magistrates to evaluate the facts and we have to respect
their decisions,” Erdogan told La Repubblica.
Turkey would become the EU’s first Muslim member, with a population
of 72 million that would rank it as the EU’s second largest country
after Germany. It would also be the bloc’s poorest country, with
gross domestic product per person at a quarter of the EU average.
Resistance to Turkish entry rose after French and Dutch voters four
months ago rejected the EU constitution, partly out of concern that
the future admission of Turkey would cost jobs and growth in western
Europe.
Only 35 percent of EU citizens favour letting Turkey in, according
to an EU-sponsored poll in September.

EU RESUMES WAR OF NERVES ON TURKEY TALKS
By Marie-Louise Moller and Mark John
Reuters
Oct 3 2005
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers resumed a
war of nerves over terms for the historic start of membership talks
with Turkey on Monday, hours before accession negotiations were due
to begin.
Austria has plunged the launch of the accession process for the vast,
poor, overwhelmingly Muslim country into doubt by demanding Turkey
be offered an alternative to full membership.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, arriving to chair a second day
of talks after only a couple of hours’ sleep, said he was not certain
the negotiations would begin at all on Monday.
“I cannot say for certain that we will be able to make progress,”
he told reporters.
“It’s a matter of if — if we can reach agreement in these discussions
with Austria,” he added before going into a private meeting with
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.
Turkish financial markets weakened on the uncertainty in Luxembourg,
with the main share index down 1.5 percent and the lira down almost
1 percent against the dollar. There was no sense of panic, though
failure of talks could deal a longer term blow to political reform
and foreign investment in Turkey.
A British official said that meeting made some progress towards
finding a formula that could win consensus among the 25 EU member
states, but there was still work to be done.
With Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul cooling his heels in Ankara
awaiting an EU agreement on the negotiating mandate, the planned 5
p.m. (1500 GMT) opening ceremony seemed likely to be delayed.
Several ministers arriving for the talks sounded gloomy. Denmark’s
Per Stig Moeller said: “It’s a big problem.”
Asked how serious the damage would be to the EU if there were
no agreement on Monday, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said:
“It would certainly be a bad day. But we’ve had similar crises before.
We’ve found solutions before and we’ll find one for Turkey.”
CROATIA POSTPONED
Ratcheting up pressure on Austria, Straw postponed a planned review
of Austrian neighbour Croatia’s progress towards EU entry talks until
the Turkey issue was sorted out.
“It is a frustrating situation, but I hope and pray that we may be
able to reach agreement,” Straw told a post-midnight news conference
after five hours of wrangling with Austria.
A Turkish official said nerves in Ankara were “extremely stretched
.. Every minute that passes is making things more bitter and it.
won’t be nice starting negotiations with all these bruises.”
With Austrian voters overwhelmingly hostile to Turkish entry, Plassnik
waged a lone battle on Sunday night demanding that the EU spell out
an alternative to full membership.
Diplomats said the 24 other members insisted they could not make
any change to the central principle that the shared objective of the
negotiations would be accession.
“Isolation and pressure is never going to work in politics. It’s not
going to work inside the European Union, certainly not. The Union
should have and must have a different style,” Plassnik told reporters
in the early hours of Monday.
Asked whether Austria was prepared to veto the start of talks, she
said it took all 25 member states to agree.
WALK AWAY?
Outgoing German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned his colleagues
that Turkey might walk away if the EU watered down the terms on offer
any further.
“If you want to open negotiations, you have to remember we have to
have someone to open them with,” a diplomat quoted him as telling
the meeting.
The EU has already irked Ankara by demanding that it recognise Cyprus
soon and open its ports and airports to traffic from the divided
Mediterranean island.
The European Parliament compounded Turkish irritation last week by
saying Turkey must recognise the 1915 killings of Armenians under
Ottoman rule as an act of genocide before it can join the wealthy
European family.
EU diplomats had hoped Austria would ease its stance after
regional elections in Styria province on Sunday. Chancellor Wolfgang
Schuessel’s People’s Party lost power there for the first time since
1945 despite his brinkmanship on Turkey.
Schuessel has informally linked the Turkish issue to a demand that
the EU open accession talks immediately with Austria’s largely Roman
Catholic neighbour, Croatia.
But those talks have been frozen until Zagreb satisfies U.N. war
crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte that it is cooperating fully in

KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR
Howard Hudson
European Parliament
Tiscali, Europe
Oct 3 2005
Embrace Turkey or “end up a Christian club”
EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg last night failed to
bury the hatchet ahead of accession talks with Turkey. Vienna is
insisting Turkey be offered the next best thing to full membership;
Ankhara says it will walk away if full accession is not on the table.
The impasse is clear and deep: the negotiating mandate has to be
agreed by all 25 member states before entry talks can begin. And
with polls saying 70% of Austrians are against Turkey’s membership,
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel says he wants the EU to admit popular
concerns. And offer “privileged partnership” instead.
After getting the go-ahead to begin talks nine months ago, there’s now
a palpable sense of frustration and increasing feelings of betrayal on
the streets of Turkey. Sensing this, and echoing earlier declarations
made by Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UK Foreign Minister Jack
Straw warned of a “theological-political divide, which could open up
even further down the boundary between so-called Christian-heritage
states and those of Islamic heritage”.
Seeking some kind of diplomatic manna, Mr Straw added: “I hope and
pray that we may be able to reach an agreement”.
In a separate development, the European Parliament has postponed
voting to extend Turkey’s association agreement to the 10 new member
states. MEPs feared that Ankhara’s declaration that the protocol
does not mean any form of recognition of Cyprus would form part of
the ratification process in the Turkish parliament and thus gain
legal force.
However, Parliament did agree: “the Commission and the Council take
the view that Turkey has formally fulfilled the last conditions for
starting the accession negotiations on 3 October 2005”.
During the negotiations, which are open-ended and will not
automatically lead to Turkish EU membership, Turkey should be kept
under permanent scrutiny and pressure to ensure that it maintains
“the pace of the necessary reforms”. Parliament also said it considered
Turkish recognition of “the Armenian genocide … to be a prerequisite
for accession”.
On other issues, MEPs voiced their concern about the criminal
proceedings against Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, about article 305
of the penal code which criminalizes “acts against the fundamental
national interest”, about the restrictions on foreign funding for
associations, and about the “Law on Foundations” concerning religious
communities.
Parliament wants each negotiation session at ministerial level to be
preceded by an assessment of the fulfilment of the political criteria,
both in theory and in practice, “thus exerting permanent pressure
on the Turkish authorities to maintain the pace of the necessary
reforms”. Finally, Parliament stressed that the EU’s capacity to
absorb Turkey remains an important consideration, and needs to be
monitored by the Commission during negotiations.
Accession talks with the Turkish delegation are due to begin at 3pm
GMT. Asked how great the fallout would be if the situation remained
deadlocked, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said: “It would
certainly be a bad day. But we’ve had similar crises before. We’ve
found solutions before and we’ll find one for Turkey.”
;level=preview&content=408028
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BID TO SAVE EU TURKISH ENTRY TALKS
CNN
Oct 3 2005
Draft document sent to Turkey, Austria to try to broker deal
LUXEMBOURG — European foreign ministers were trying to rescue talks on
Turkey’s entry to the European Union after they were forced to postpone
them following a hard line by Austria on full Turkish membership.
EU president Britain presented Turkey and Austria with a revised
draft negotiation mandate for Turkey’s EU membership talks in a bid
to break a diplomatic deadlock and launch the talks, diplomats said.
“Things are at an advanced stage. We are checking with Ankara and
Vienna to ensure that any text we put on the table will meet the
approval of all,” a British official told Reuters.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was waiting in Ankara to fly
to Luxembourg for a delayed opening ceremony late on Monday if the
compromise was accepted, the diplomats said.
But chances appeared slim, with Austria — alone among the 25 EU
nations — sticking to its insistence that predominantly Muslim Turkey
be offered something short of full membership if it cannot meet the
entry criteria.
The postponed ceremony had been due at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) in Luxembourg
and was to have involved Turkey’s Gul.
In the end following Austria’s stand, he did not leave Turkey in time
to attend — and a bid from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
to get the talks started on schedule failed.
Austria was sticking to demands that the vast, poor, Muslim country
be offered an alternative, less-than-full membership if it failed
to meet all the EU criteria. Turkey said it angrily rejected any
second-class status.(Turkish PM: No compromise)
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw — due to chair the talks –said
negotiations were “hard and difficult,” but continuing.
Straw had told reporters after a private meeting with Austrian Foreign
Minister Ursula Plassnik and a telephone call with Turkish Foreign
Minister Gul Monday morning he was not sure the talks would go ahead.
Diplomats told Reuters he had told the 24 other EU foreign ministers
upon resuming talks after only a couple of hours’ sleep: “Yes, we
are near but we are also on the edge of a precipice.
“If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands. If we go the
wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union.”
Diplomats said there were also problems between Turkey, on the one
hand, and Greece and Cyprus, on the other, over a clause in the draft
negotiating mandate demanding that Ankara not block the accession of
EU states to international organizations and treaties.
Turkey was concerned the wording could give a divided Cyprus a lever
to join the NATO defense alliance without a U.N.-brokered peace
settlement on the Mediterranean island.
Turkish hardliners had argued that Turkey could prevent Ankara blocking
a divided Cyprus from joining NATO.
Diplomats revealed how U.S. Secretary of State Rice had stepped in
Monday to try to rescue the talks.
They told Reuters that Rice had spoke by telephone with Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and assured him that the EU’s proposed
negotiating framework for the talks, due to open later on Monday,
would not impinge on NATO.
Cypriot officials denied to The Associated Press that they sought
additional demands.
But the central problem remained Austria’s insistence — alone among
the 25 EU nations, including Cyprus — that Ankara be offered a
status short of accession if it failed to meet the criteria or if
the EU was unable to absorb it.
Straw had urged that all member states had to fulfil their many
promises to Turkey, a long-establish NATO member and strategic ally
of America and Europe, British sources said.
He also warned that pulling the plug now risked widening the divide
between the Christian and Muslim worlds, the UK’s Press Association
reported.
Turkish financial markets weakened on the uncertainty in Luxembourg,
with the main share index down 2.3 percent and the lira down almost
1 percent against the dollar. Although there was no apparent markets
panic, failure of talks could deal a longer term blow to political
reform and foreign investment in Turkey.
“We are not striving to begin negotiations no matter what, at any
cost,” Gul said in an interview published Sunday in Turkey’s Yeni
Safak newspaper. “If the problems aren’t solved, then the negotiations
won’t begin.”
Outgoing German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned his colleagues
that Turkey might walk away if the EU watered down the terms on offer
any further.
“If you want to open negotiations, you have to remember we have to
have someone to open them with,” a diplomat told Reuters he had told
the meeting Sunday.
Cyprus issue The EU has already angered many Turks by demanding that
it recognize Cyprus soon and open its ports and airports to traffic
from the divided Mediterranean island.
The European Parliament compounded Turkish ire last week by saying
Turkey must recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians under Ottoman
rule as an act of genocide before it can join the EU.
EU diplomats had hoped Austria would ease its stance after regional
elections in Styria province Sunday. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel’s
People’s Party lost power there for the first time since 1945 despite
his brinkmanship on Turkey.
Schuessel has informally linked the Turkish issue to a demand that
the EU open accession talks immediately with Austria’s largely Roman
Catholic neighbor, Croatia.
But those talks have been frozen until Zagreb satisfies U.N. war
crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte that it is cooperating fully in
the hunt for a fugitive indicted ex-general.
Accepting the mostly poor, predominantly agricultural Turkey into the
bloc has been met with resistance across the EU. Recent polls show
a majority of French, German and Austrian voters oppose admitting
Turkey, and a majority of Danes would rather see non-EU candidate,
Ukraine, in the EU than an Islamic country.
Turkey has accepted unprecedented conditions to take part in the EU
negotiations, including an open-ended halt to the movement of Turkish
workers into the bloc.
Turkish immigration remains a thorny issue in many EU states and
anti-Turkish sentiment figured in votes in the EU constitution in
France and the Netherlands.
Austrians in particular have some deep-rooted historical mistrust
of Turkey, seeing themselves as Europe’s gatekeepers ever since they
vanquished the Ottoman Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. (Austrians
troubled by Turkey)