Pan Armenian News
ICRC REPRESENTATIVES VISITED ARMENIAN CITIZENS DETAINED IN AZERBAIJAN
24.09.2005 05:18
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Representatives of the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) have visited “Armenian citizen Albert Abrahamyan, who was
detained in Azerbaijan a few days ago”. As ICRC Baku Office reported, the
organization controls the issue and expresses interest to the fate of
detainee. It should be noted that “according to the reports of
law-enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan Abrahamyan was detained September 20 in
a forest near Chilyagir village in Gusar region. He had presumably come to
Azerbaijan having crossed the Russian-Azeri border. Soon it was cleared out
that he is resident of Zavajugh village of Marni region of Armenia. In a
conversation with journalists Azeri Minister of Internal Affairs Ramil
Usubov reported investigation over the case is under way. According to the
Minister, A. Abrahamyan wrote in his explanation that he had arrived in
Azerbaijan to visit his brother”, reported the Caucasian Knot.

Pan Armenian News
RUSSIA’S EXPERIENCE IN PENSION SYSTEM REFORM USEFUL FOR ARMENIA
23.09.2005 08:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with
Chairman of the Russian Pension Fund Gennady Batanov, who is in Yerevan on
working visit, RA President’s press center reported. During the meeting the
parties discussed the issues referring to the reformation of the pension
system. Gennady Batanov stated that the Russian party is ready for active
cooperation and that the signing of a corresponding agreement will become an
advance. Robert Kocharian welcomed the initiative and noted that Russia’s
experience in pension system reform will be useful for Armenia.

AZG Armenian Daily #171, 24/09/2005
UN-region
UN FAVORS KARS-AKHALKALAK RAILWAY PROJECT
UN Deputy Secretary-General Advarul Choudhuri stated in New York that the UN
approves of the negotiations between Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan over
construction of Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway. Radio Liberty quoted
Choudhuri as saying that the railway will allow the countries of the Caspian
basin to transport passengers and goods to Europe through Turkey. Director
of the UNDP in CIS and Eastern Europe, Kalman Mijei, also highlighted the
railway as an important

The Guardian, UK
Protesters Denounce Conference in Turkey
Saturday September 24, 2005 9:16 PM
AP Photo IST107
By BENJAMIN HARVEY
Associated Press Writer
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – Scholars held the first-ever public discussions in
Turkey on Saturday about the early 20th-century massacre of Armenians,
choosing words carefully, avoiding emotional language and picking apart
history year by year at a gathering that nationalists denounced as
traitorous.
The European Union called the academic conference a test of freedom of
expression in Turkey, which is hoping to begin talks for membership in the
bloc next month.
The academic conference had been canceled twice, once in May after the
justice minister said organizers were “stabbing the people in the back,”
and again on Thursday when an Istanbul court ordered the conference closed
and demanded to know the academic qualifications of the speakers.
“This is a fight of ‘can we discuss this thing, or can we not discuss this
thing?”’ Murat Belge, a member of the organizing committee, said at the
conference opening. “This is something that’s directly related to the
question of what kind of country Turkey is going to be.”
The Armenian issue stirs deep passions among Turks, who are being pushed by
many in the international community to say that their fathers and
grandfathers carried out the first genocide of the 20th century.
“There are so many documents in hand with respect to the destruction of
Armenians,” said Taner Akcay, a Turkish-born professor at the University of
Minnesota, and author of books on the subject including, “A Shameful Act:
The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility.”
Dozens of officers in riot gear kept hundreds of shouting protesters at bay.
Some protesters pelted arriving panelists with eggs and rotten tomatoes.
Inside, the audience of more than 300 people was restrained, as only those
invited by the organizing committee and preapproved members of the media
were allowed past security.
The issue has been a taboo for many years in Turkey, with those who speak
out against the killings risking prosecution by a Turkish court. But an
increasing number of Turkish academics have called for a review of the
killings in a country where many see the Ottoman Empire as a symbol of
Turkish greatness.
The panelists, all Turkish speakers, carefully avoided any emotional
language during the first day of the two-day conference.
“Everyone waits for you to pronounce the genocide word – if you do one side
applauds and the other won’t listen,” Halil Berktay, program coordinator of
the history department at Sabanci University, said at the conference
Saturday.
Several governments around the world have recognized the killings of as many
as 1.5 million Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire as genocide.
Turkey vehemently denies the charge, admitting that many Armenians were
killed, but saying the death toll is inflated and that Armenians were killed
along with Turks in civil unrest and intercommunal fighting as the Ottoman
Empire collapsed between 1915 and 1923.
After the conference was shut down Thursday, Turkey drew condemnation from
the European Commission.
Organizers skirted the court order by changing the venue of the conference.
The court-ordered cancellation Thursday was an embarrassment for the
country’s leaders, who are set to begin EU negotiations on Oct. 3.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul lamented that “there’s no one better at
hurting themselves than us,” and sent a letter wishing the organizers a
successful conference. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also condemned
the court’s decision, saying it did not befit a democratic country.
The participants were all Turkish speakers and included members of Turkey’s
Armenian minority like Hrant Dink, the editor in chief of Agos, a weekly
Armenian newspaper in Istanbul. There are some 70,000 Armenians living in
Istanbul.
,1280,-5300221,00.html

BBC
Saturday, 24 September 2005, 13:45 GMT 14:45 UK
Turks protest at Armenian forum
Hundreds of Turkish nationalists have been protesting outside a
controversial conference on the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman
rule.
They chanted slogans and booed delegates entering Istanbul’s Bilgi
University for the two-day event.
The conference had been due to open on Friday, at another venue, but was
stopped from doing so by a court order.
Debate of the killings has been taboo in Turkey but there is outside
pressure for greater freedom of speech.
“Treason will not go unpunished” and “This is Turkey, love it or leave it,”
shouted the demonstrators.
“The Armenian genocide is an international lie,” read a huge banner carried
by members of the minor left-wing Workers’ Party.
Taped mouths
Armenians worldwide have been campaigning for decades for the deaths –
thought to have been more than a million, around the time of WWI – to be
recognised universally as genocide.
The conference discussing the issue was due to be held at Istanbul’s
Bosphorus University, but it was banned by an Istanbul court after
complaints by nationalists that the historians behind it were “traitors”.
The historians challenge official Turkish accounts of the killings, which
give a much smaller death toll and link Armenian losses to civil strife in
which many Turks also died.
The court ruling brought emotionally charged scenes on the Bosphorus campus
on Friday, said the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul.
Students, angry that the conference was cancelled, taped their mouths while
small groups of nationalists gathered to condemn plans for the forum.
EU condemnation
Bilgi University stepped in “in the name of freedom of expression and
thought”, said its president, Aydin Ugur.
Government leaders regretted the court ruling which “cast a shadow on the
process of democratisation and freedoms”, according to Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.
“If we have confidence in our own beliefs, we should not fear freedom of
thought,” he told separate gathering of academics on Saturday.
EU enlargement commissioner Krisztina Nagy said Brussels strongly deplored
the court’s “attempt to prevent the Turkish society from discussing its
history”.
Turkey begins talks on joining the EU in two weeks’ time.

Pan Armenian News
ORGANIZERS OF SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN ISSUE IN TURKEY SURE IT WILL
BE HELD
24.09.2005 03:11
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The scientific conference to discuss the Armenian
Genocide, which was canceled at Bosphorus and Sabanci Universities by a
court decision, will nevertheless be held, however at another Istanbul
university, hold organizers of the event. CNN-Turk TV company reported that
the leadership of Istanbul Bilgi University had agreed to host the
conference. The Turkish court ban to hold the conference was censured by the
Turkish Government and the European Commission, reported RFE/RL.

A1+
| 14:22:59 | 24-09-2005 | Politics |
PRE-ELECTION KILLING
Today at about 10 a.m. local time Mayor of Armenian town of Nor Hajn Armen
Kelishyan shot dead head of the town electric network Ashot Mkhitaryan.
To remind, the election of the Mayor in Nor Hajn will be held in two weeks.
The incumbent Mayor put in his nomination. Ashot Mkhitaryan supported his
rival.
It should be noted that Kelishyan fired the pistol presented to him by Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan.

A1+| 14:00:10 | 24-09-2005 | Politics |
PROGRESS UNSATISFACTORY
‘The draft constitutional amendments adopted in the second reading needs
further elaboration’, Chairman of the Christian Democratic Party Khosrov
Harutyunyan.
According to him, the document should be formulated more precisely and give
no reason for debate. The CDP informed that he has submitted 14 proposals to
the National Assembly and hopes that they will find reflection during the
third reading. The proposals mostly refer to property, government system,
juridical power and local self-government.
As for the formation if independent bodies at the constitutional level and
their regulations Kh. Harutyunyan noted, «The Constitution mentions of one
body – the Liberal Democratic Party. The formation of other bodies can be
regulated by separate laws depending on the opinion of the political
majority. In Harutyunyan’s words, the fact that the NCTR was included in the
Constitution testifies that mass media has exclusive political role.
The formation of the body is not ideal but a far-sighted deed, since the
body is formed with the participation of the National Assembly. On the other
hand, in the course of time we will have to regulate the activities of the
body within the law to prevent excessive dependence of the NCTR on any state
body.
The CDP leader considers that the NKTR should bear responsibility to the NA
and the mechanisms this responsibility should be fixed precisely. «It is
obvious that the body really exists. It has become a constitutional norm and
is formed by the President and the NA», he says.
Board member of the Armenian Liberation Movement Aram Manukyan also gives a
positive estimate to the item fixing the formation of the NCTR in the
Constitution, however he thinks that formation of other independent bodies
should also find place in the Organic Law of the country. The NCTR should
become an independent body, which will guarantee the independence of mass
media.
Victoria Abrahamyan

euobserver.com
23.09.2005 – 17:42 CET
By Mark Beunderman
Brussels clashes with Turks on free speech and Cyprus
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Harsh words were fired from Brussels on Friday as
the commission reacted strongly to a Turkish court’s suspension of a
conference on the Armenian massacre. Meanwhile Turkey has slammed an EU
counter declaration on Cyprus.
The decision yesterday (22 September) by an Istanbul court to cancel a
conference on the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman empire in 1915,
sparked a commission spokeswoman to speak of “yet another provocation”.
The term “provocation” was also used last week by enlargement commissioner
Olli Rehn when criticising a separate Turkish court decision on the filing
of charges against the author Orhan Pamuk – who had also raised the Armenian
issue.
Both the Turkish prime minister and the Turkish foreign minister were quick
to condemn Istanbul’s court decision to cancel the conference.
“To prevent a meeting which has not yet happened and where it is not clear
what is to be discussed has got nothing to do with democracy”, prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul referred to the scheduled opening of accession
talks by Ankara in just over a week (3 October), by saying “There is no one
better than us when it comes to harming ourselves”.
Until recently it was illegal in Turkey to publicly talk about the tabu
topic of the massacre of the Armenians, which most international historians
have classified as genocide.
The new penal code which Ankara had to adopt following pressure from
Brussels ended this restriction on free speech.
But prosecutors in Turkey are still repressing debate on the Armenian
massacre under the reformed penal code.
The commission signalled on Friday that the “provocations” by Turkish
prosecutors will not interfere with Ankara’s bid to start entry talks on 3
October.
But the commission will raise the issue in a “progress report” on Turkey,
due in November.
Turkey blasts counter declaration
The atmosphere between Brussels and Ankara was already tense on Thursday, as
the Turkish foreign ministry rebuked the EU for issuing a “counter
statement” earlier this week in response to Ankara’s refusal to recognise
Cyprus.
The EU in its counter declaration stated that “recognition of all member
states is a necessary component of the accession process” – meaning that
Ankara should recognise Nicosia before Turkey can itself enter the bloc.
According to press reports, a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said “we
regret the counter-declaration that the EU issued on September 21”.
“This declaration contains some unfair approaches and some new elements that
do not conform to the traditional spirit of cooperation that has been
continuing between Turkey and the EU for more than 40 years”, he stated.
The spokesman added that the statement ignored the “rights and expectations
of the Turkish Cypriot people” which he termed as a “serious injustice”.
Turkey says the EU should end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots in the
North of the island as quickly as possible.
A commission proposal to open trade with the North, linked to a financial
aid package, is being blocked by the Cypriot government.
Direct trade with the north of the island would, in Nicosia’s view, mean the
de facto recognition of the North as a separate state.
Abdullah Gul said “There is no one better than us when it comes to harming
ourselves”

Armenpress
UNICEF, GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA SEAL MEMORANDUM ON CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM
REFORM IN LORI REGION
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: UNICEF, the Ministry of Labor and
Social Issues and the Governor’s Office of Lori region signed today a
Memorandum of Understanding, laying a foundation for the comprehensive
reform of child protection system in the region.
“The existing child protection system relies heavily on a system of
institutions, that instead of strengthening capacities of families to care
for and protect their children, pulls children into residential care
institutions, where they live isolated from the broader familial and social
network that is essential for their healthy development,” Sheldon Yett,
UNICEF Representative in Armenia stressed. The Memorandum of Understanding
acknowledges the commitment of the authorities of Lori region to take up a
more holistic approach to services designed to protect the welfare of
children. “The current child protection system is not designed to
systematically identify, report and refer cases of abuse, neglect and
exploitation of children to relevant authorities in the health, education
and law enforcement sectors. Consequently, these violations go unreported
and children are not systematically referred to appropriate services,” Yett
said.
Reform of the child protection system in Armenia is one of the major
strategic pillars of the ten-year National Plan of Action for the Protection
of Child Rights adopted by the Government in 2003 and closely linked to the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. “It’s a long term process that centres on
helping institutions to reach out and support the core role of families in
the care and protection of children. It involves strengthening monitoring
systems and the links between both national and local institutions, the,”
UNICEF Representative noted, adding, “such reform is likely to take a number
of years before being completed.”
The child protection system reform in Lori region started in 2004 with
the introduction of the so-called “Human Rights Based Approach to
Programming (HRBAP)”, an approach that involves not simply identifying
needs, but a process of enabling and empowering those not enjoying their
rights to healthcare, education and other social and economic rights, to
claim them. The approach helps to assess and identify gaps and priority
areas and draw up strategies to address them. UNICEF trained twenty experts
from national, regional and community on the practical application of the
HRBAP tools. With UNICEF support, these experts then conducted a situation
analysis of children in Lori region. Based on the findings of the situation
analysis, a “proposal for change” addressing gaps in the child protection
system has been developed.
The implementation of this “proposal for change” will help to make
services for children more comprehensive, consistent and targeted as well as
will enable the development of mechanisms to prevent, identify and respond
to cases of child rights violations at all levels.