GENOCIDE DEBATE CASES DISMISSED AGAINST 4 OF 5 TURKISH JOURNALISTS
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 11, 2006, Tuesday
12:12:03 Central European Time
A court in Istanbul on Tuesday dismissed charges laid against four
prominent journalists who had criticised another court’s decision
to ban a conference on the politically-sensitive Armenian question,
the Anadolu news agency reported.
The court was to continue hearing a case against a fifth journalist,
it said.
The five journalists were charged with “trying to influence judicial
process” and “insulting the judiciary” over comments they made after
a court had ordered a halt to a conference on the controversial issue
of the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during and after World
War I.
The conference was later held after lawyers found a loophole in the
original banning decision.
The court on Tuesday found that complaints lodged against four of
the journalists by a group of nationalist lawyers, and later taken
up by prosecutors, were lodged outside of a two-month time limit.
The court decided, however, to continue to hear the case against the
fifth journalist, Murat Belge, as the complaint in his case was made
within the two-month period. If found guilty, Belge faces up to 10
years imprisonment.
The journalists were charged under controversial Article 301 of the
Turkish penal code – the article under which world-renowned author
Orhan Pamuk had been charged.
Those charges, in which Pamuk was accused of “insulting Turkishness”
for his comments on the massacres of Armenians, were later dropped.
The massacres of Armenians are still an extremely sensitive subject
in Turkey.
Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, instead claiming
the deaths occurred after Armenians joined invading Russian forces
during World War I. It also claims that the numbers of people who
died were much lower than the 1.5 million figure often cited.

FOUR TURKISH JOURNALISTS ESCAPE TRIAL, ONE STILL RISKS JAIL
Agence France Presse — English
April 11, 2006 Tuesday 1:14 PM GMT
A Turkish court Tuesday dropped charges against four prominent
journalists, but will continue to try a fifth in a high-profile freedom
of speech case linked to debate over the massacres of Armenians under
the Ottoman Empire.
The five were indicted in December for criticizing a court decision
that briefly blocked a landmark conference in Istanbul on the World
War I massacres, a long-standing taboo that Turks have only recently
began to debate.
The prosecution charged them under articles that penalize insults to
the judiciary and attempts to influence the justice and carry up to
10 years in prison.
The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, has repeatedly
warned Ankara to stop prosecuting intellectuals for exercising their
right to free speech.
“The court dropped the charges against me and my colleagues Hasan
Cemal, Ismet Berkan and Erol Katircioglu, citing the statute of
limitations,” Haluk Sahin, a columnist for the liberal daily Radikal,
told AFP by telephone.
“The judge decided to continue trying Murat Belge because his articles
were published later and do not fall under the scope of the statute
of limitations,” he added.
Like Sahin, Katircioglu and Belge are columnists for Radikal, while
Berkan is also the newspaper’s editor-in-chief.
Cemal is a senior editorialist for the mass-selling Milliyet.
A landmark conference contesting Ankara’s official line on the mass
killings of Armenians was blocked in September when a court, petitioned
by a group of nationalists, ordered the suspension of the event.
The event, already postponed once earlier in 2005, was finally
held with a one-day delay after the organizers changed the venue to
circumvent the court order.
The ruling came under widespread criticism, including harsh words by
the EU and even the Turkish government, which backed the holding of
the conference in a bid to prove its tolerance of dissenting views.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 and wage a campaign for
an international recognition of the massacres as genocide.
Turkey categorically rejects genocide allegations and argues that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia
and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

NATO NOT PLANNING MILITARY INVASION OF IRAN – ALLIANCE REPRESENTATIVE
Central Asia General Newswire
April 11, 2006 Tuesday 5:29 PM MSK
NATO has no plans to stage a military invasion of Iran, said NATO
Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Robert
Simmons.
Speaking at a news briefing in Baku on Tuesday following negotiations
with the Azerbaijani leadership, Simmons said, however, that NATO is
concerned about the situation in Iran and hopes that the negotiating
process involving three of its members, Germany, the UK and France,
will be completed successfully.
Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said Baku is also concerned
by how the Iran crisis will be resolved, due to the geographical
proximity of the two states.
Azerbaijan is following the negotiating process with Iran closely,
he said.
“The problem is currently being discussed at the UN Security Council,
and we hope that it will be resolved at a political, diplomatic level,”
Azimov said.
Azimov also pointed out that, while the Iranian nuclear problem poses
a strategic threat to Azerbaijan, the Metsamor nuclear power plant
functioning in neighboring Armenia is a real threat to Azerbaijan’s
and the entire region’s security, which, he said, has been confirmed
by international experts.

BAKU COMMITTED TO PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO KARABAKH CONFLICT
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
April 11, 2006 Tuesday 2:15 PM MSK
Azerbaijan wants a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
as soon as possible, but warns that its patience is wearing thin, Ali
Gasanov, head of the Azeri presidential administration’s department
for public and political issues, told journalists on Tuesday.
“We have no territorial claims. We only want to get our lands back.
We have the right to it,” he said.
Commenting on a recent statement by a U.S. Department of State official
that a new war in the Nagorno-Karabakh region would make it difficult
for Azerbaijan to earn money implementing regional energy projects,
Gasanov said that other countries involved in such major energy and
transport projects do not want the Karabakh conflict to be resolved
through the use of force.
“We do not want that, either. But what are we supposed to do? We
have our own rights and we cannot allow the occupation of our lands
to continue. Our patience is not endless,” he said.
All the parties involved realize the negative consequences of a new
war in the region and are doing everything they can to find a peaceful
solution to the conflict, Gasanov said. The OSCE Minsk Group has also
stepped up its activities, he said.
“Armenia understands that it will have to liberate Azerbaijan’s lands
sooner or later,” he said.

FRENCH CO-CHAIRMAN OF OSCE MINSK GROUP TO HOLD TALKS IN BAKU
by Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 11, 2006 Tuesday 01:24 AM EST
French co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier will
discuss with the Azerbaijani leadership on Tuesday issues of settling
the Karabakh conflict. According to diplomatic sources, Fassier will
hold consultations in Baku with Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev,
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov and special representative of the
head of state for the Karabakh conflict settlement Araz Azimov.
The sides are expected to discuss possibilities for the intensification
of negotiations within the Prague process. It was launched by the
foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Prague two years ago
with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group for Nagorno Karabakh in
which the United States is a co-chair along with France and Russia.
According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, issues related to the
Karabakh problem settlement will be high on the agenda of consultations
of the American co-chairman of the Minsk Group, Steven Mann in Baku on
April 18. Mann is expected to discuss with the Azerbaijani leadership
certain proposals of the American side on the conflict settlement.
“These proposals are very interesting. Official Baku will study them
and express its view during Mann’s visit,” the Azerbaijani foreign
minister said in an interview to the AzerTaj state news agency. In his
view, the Karabakh conflict is the “largest obstacle to the political
and economic development of Azerbaijan and it is necessary to intensify
efforts in this sphere.”

CHINA’S GDP GROWTH RANKS 6TH IN ASIA
Comtex News Network, Inc.
April 11, 2006 Tuesday 10:47 AM Eastern Time
BEIJING
China saw its growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2005
reach 9.9% and take the sixth place in Asia, according to a report
released by Asian Development Bank (ADB) on April 6.
Azerbaijan ranked first with a record growth rate of 26.4%, buoyed
by production and export of crude oil and natural gas. Armenia and
Afghanistan took the second and third place respectively. Japan,
as a developed country, saw its GDP stand at 2.8%.
The economic growth prospect of developing countries in Asia relies
heavily on the three major economies here, namely, China, India
and South Korea, whose combined economic aggregate accounts for 66%
of the Asia’s total, revealed the chief economist with ADB.
ADB predicted China’s GDP grow by 9.5% in 2006. Previously, Mr. Qiu
Xiaohua, director of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, said
that the country’s growth rate of GDP is likely to hit 9% this year.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

COUNTRY, WHICH RESORTS TO SOLUTION OF KARABAKH ISSUE BY FORCE, WILL BE EXPELLED FROM CE
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2006 22:29 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The country, which resorts to solution of Karabakh
issue by force, will be expelled from the Council of Europe (CE),
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Rene
van der Linden stated today. “In case hostilities resume in Nagorno
Karabakh, I do not consider a country, which uses armed forces to
solve the conflict can stay in the CE,” he said. The PACE President
urged the parties of the NK conflict to give up militant statements
and recognize that the conflict can be solved by peaceful tools
exclusively, reports Mediamax.

COPIES OF SERIES OF TRUE FACTS ON KARABAKH DISTRIBUTED AMONG PACE MEMBERS
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2006 22:47 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Series of True Facts about Karabakh” books
have been distributed by MP Ganira Pashayeva on April 11 at PACE
spring session in Strasbourg at the initiative of the Azerbaijani
delegation. The books have been distributed both among the CE members
and representatives of the mass media.
In Pashayeva’s words, that way members of the Azerbaijani delegation
of PACE keep the attention of the PACE on the issue of “occupation
of part of Azeri territories by Armenia.”
The book being disseminated by the PACE Azeri delegation is only
a small brochure in English with photos, head of the PACE Armenian
delegation, NA Vice-Speaker Tigran Torosyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter. In his words, the brochure comprises isolated facts with
comments in the form of constant accusations against Armenia as an
aggressor. “The brochure concerns Armenian terrorists, occupants –
nothing new, this was many times spoken about by Azeris at the PACE,”
Torosyan remarked.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BAKU OBJECTS TO EUROPARLIAMENT SURVEY IN NAKHICHEVAN
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2006 23:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Official Baku may agree that the European
Parliament mission start a survey at the destroyed Armenian cemetery
in Nakhichevan “only with the condition of bilateral survey,” APA
reports. The mission is composed of 10 persons that are to travel to
Armenia at first.
Speaking at an official conference on April 6th, the President of
the European Parliament was joined by the leaders of its political
parties in strongly approving the body’s decision to send a delegation
in Djulfa, in the Nakhichevan region of Azerbaijan. The aim of the
mission is to investigate the destruction by Azerbaijan of the Armenian
cemetery in Djulfa, a treasure of world architectural heritage that was
effectively destroyed. The EP leaders unanimously decided to entrust
this mission to the Commission on EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation
rather than to an ad-hoc delegation, as it had initially been planned.
The mission is being sent in accordance with the Parliament’s
resolution “on cultural heritage in Azerbaijan,” which was adopted
in February of 2006.
This measure “demands that Azerbaijan allow missions, who are dedicated
to surveying and protecting archaeological heritage, in particular
Armenian heritage, onto its territory.” The delegation will be composed
of ten Members of the European Parliament (MEP) who are members of
the Commission of EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation group. They
are set to travel to Djulfa as part of their trip to Armenia from
April 17th to 21st.

OSCE MG HOPES FOR CREATING “NEW OPPORTUNITIES” IN KARABAKH TALKS
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2006 22:20 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group intend to visit
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict region in May, OSCE MG French co-chair
Bernard Fassier stated in Baku April 11. Co-chairs’ trips to the
region aim at possible rapprochement of the parties to conflict,
the mediator said. He hoped that the visit will convey an impulse
to the new phase of talks. Last year the mediators did much, but
it was not managed to attain progress at the Rambouillet meeting of
the presidents, Fassier remarked. He expressed co-chairs’ hopes for
creation of “new opportunities” in the talks, which will pave way
for new meetings of the presidents.
The French co-chair stated that he had arrived in Baku with specific
proposals, but he could not reveal these. There is nothing especially
new about them, he added. In his words, The MG can only provide new
ideas to help attain peace. The responsibility to find a middle line
at the talks lies on the parties of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
Fassier underscored. In the former half of the day Fassier had talks
with Azeri FM Elmar Mammadyarov. The meeting was held behind closed
doors and no statements were made after it, reports Trend.