Venice Commish: 15 years of const. expertise from Romania to Iraq

Venice Commission: 15 years of constitutional expertise from Romania to
Iraq

Strasbourg, 07.07.2005 – Addressing the Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the
European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the
Venice Commission, the Commission’s President Antonio La Pergola
declared:

“Our role, and along with it our work-load are steadily increasing. One
of the principal reasons for this development […] is that the Venice
Commission has always tried, […] to engage in matters of immediate
relevance to the countries concerned, and that it has thus made all the
contribution it could to implement within the member states the shared
and cherished values of which the Council of Europe is the guardian”,
adding that “in the new democracies basic questions of constitutional
law remain crucial for the democratic stabilisation of these countries”.

Most recently, the Commission reached an agreement with the Armenian
authorities on constitutional reform that should contribute to the
country’s democratisation and might pave the way for the return of the
opposition to parliament.

Mr La Pergola also informed the Committee of Ministers about ongoing
work notably in Kyrgyzstan and Iraq: “Upon the invitation of the German
Friedrich Naumann Stiftung we participated in a seminar on
constitution-making with members of the Constituent Assembly of Iraq in
Amman. A follow-up seminar on federalism will take place in Germany in
mid-July. We sincerely hope that these activities, which are entirely
funded by the German foundation, will contribute to the emergence of a
peaceful, stable and democratic Iraq”.

In 15 years of activity, the Venice Commission has played a key role in
promoting European constitutional heritage and bringing constitutional
texts in Central and Eastern European countries into line with the
fundamental norms of modern democracies. Romania was the first country
to request the cooperation of the Commission in 1990. Since then, nearly
all the new European democracies, together with other countries such as
South Africa, have benefited from its expertise. The Venice Commission
is also active in the fields of elections and constitutional justice.

A consultative body of the Council of Europe composed of independent
experts in the field of democracy and constitutional law, the Venice
Commission currently has 48 member states(*).

For more information, see

——————-
(*) Argentina, Canada, Korea, the United States, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Mexico, the Holy See and Uruguay have observer status, Belarus has
associated member state status, and South Africa has a special
cooperation status. The European Commission and OSCE/ODIHR also work
with the Commission.

Press Release
Council of Europe Press Division
Ref: 384a05
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60
Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11
[email protected]
internet:

To receive our press releases by e-mail, contact :
[email protected]

A political organisation set up in 1949, the Council of Europe works to
promote democracy and human rights continent-wide. It also develops
common responses to social, cultural and legal challenges in its 46
member states.

www.venice.coe.int
www.coe.int/press

NK – Illegally deported Armenian JW conscientious objector jailed

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

================================================
Thursday 7 July 2005
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: ILLEGALLY DEPORTED ARMENIAN JW CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
JAILED, NO PROGRESS IN KARABAKH BAPTIST CASE

An Armenian citizen, Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Armen
Grigoryan, who was illegally deported from Armenia to the unrecognised
republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, has been jailed in Karabakh for two years
and sent back to Armenia to serve the sentence, Forum 18 News Service has
learnt. Armen Grigoryan joins eleven other Jehovah’s Witness conscientious
objectors who are currently jailed in Armenia, despite the country’s broken
promise to the Council of Europe that it would free all these prisoners of
conscience and introduce civilian alternative service by January 2004. In
another Nagorno-Karabakh case, that of Baptist conscientious objector
Gagik Mirzoyan – a Karabakh native who has already spent 10 days in a
military prison – the Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry has told
Forum 18 that no case has yet been formally brought against him. His
congregation were expecting him to be tried in June.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: ILLEGALLY DEPORTED ARMENIAN JW CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
JAILED, NO PROGRESS IN KARABAKH BAPTIST CASE

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Jehovah’s Witness Armen Grigoryan – sentenced on 9 June in Stepanakert,
capital of the unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South
Caucasus, to two years’ imprisonment for refusing military service – was
returned to his homeland of Armenia on 5 July to serve his sentence,
Albert Voskanyan of the Stepanakert-based Centre for Civilian Initiatives
told Forum 18 News Service on 7 July. Grigoryan, an Armenian citizen, was
forcibly deported to Nagorno-Karabakh against his will, after being seized
in the Armenian capital Yerevan in June 2004 (see F18News 6 January 2005
).

In the case of Baptist conscientious objector Gagik Mirzoyan – a Karabakh
native – Leonid Martirosyan, chief of staff of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Foreign
Ministry, said that no case against Mirzoyan has yet reached the
Nagorno-Karabakh prosecutor’s office in Stepanakert in readiness for a
trial. “This means either no case has yet been lodged against him or
that the investigation is still underway,” he told Forum 18 from
Stepanakert on 7 July.

Armen Grigoryan, who is from Yerevan, was sentenced under Articles 362
part 1 and 364 part 1 of the criminal code (Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted
Armenia’s criminal code). These respectively punish desertion with a
prison sentence of up to four years and “refusal to perform one’s
military duties” with detention of up to 3 months, disciplinary
battalion of up to 2 years or imprisonment of up to 2 years. Voskanyan, of
the Centre for Civilian Initiatives, said Grigoryan was returned to Armenia
under an agreement between the Armenian and Karabakh authorities that
Armenian citizens imprisoned in the enclave are to be returned to serve
their sentences in their homeland.

Armenia’s human rights ombudsperson Larisa Alaverdyan, denied to Forum 18
in May that Grigoryan had been illegally deported as “there’s no such
term,” but admitted that “it might have been illegal
removal.” She defended what she claimed was the right of the Armenian
Defence Ministry to send Armenian citizens to Nagorno-Karabakh, which
international law regards as part of Azerbaijan (see F18News 17 May 2005
). She has also
previously denied to Forum 18 that jailing Jehovah’s Witness conscientious
objectors breaks Armenia’s Council of Europe and OSCE commitments, blaming
the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves for the problems they face at the hands
of the Armenian government (see F18News 3 August 2004
).

Another Jehovah’s Witness, Areg Hovhanesyan, a Karabakh native, was
sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on 16 February (see F18News 22
February 2005 ). He is
now being held in prison in the town of Shushi, Jehovah’s Witnesses told
Forum 18. Voskanyan reported that he visits Hovhanesyan in prison every
few weeks as part of a prison monitoring programme. “I was with him
two weeks ago,” he told Forum 18. “Areg seemed well.”
Voskanyan added that he also speaks regularly to the prison governor.

Baptist conscientious objector Gagik Mirzoyan, also a Karabakh native, was
called up last December and refused to serve with weapons or to swear the
military oath on grounds of religious conscience. Since being conscripted
he has been beaten up in two different military units and served 10 days
in military prison (see F18News 6 January 2005
and 15 April 2005
=544 ).

Ashot Yegonyan of the public prosecutor’s office of Hadrut region of
south-eastern Nagorno-Karabakh told Mirzoyan’s mother in May that charges
have been laid against her son under Article 364 part 1 of the criminal
code. His fellow Baptists reported in May that they were expecting a trial
in June, with the possibility of beuing sentenced to jail or forced labour
for two years (see F18News 20 May 2005
).

However, a member of the Council of Churches Baptists, to which Mirzoyan’s
congregation belongs, confirmed to Forum 18 on 7 July that no trial has yet
taken place, but said they are expecting one soon. The Council of Churches
Baptists refuse on principle to register with the state authorities in
post-Soviet countries, and Mirzoyan’s congregation has faced harassment
from the Karabakh authorities (see F18News 27 September 2004
).

Martirosyan of the Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry defended the
continuing imprisonment of conscientious objectors. “Karabakh law
requires all young men to serve, and refusing this duty represents
breaking the law,” he told Forum 18 from Stepanakert. He stressed
that the war with Azerbaijani forces has not yet finished and no peace
treaty has been signed. “We have to look at the specifics of our
situation. War could revive at any moment.” He told Forum 18 that the
government has recently considered the possibility of introducing an
alternative to compulsory military service. “But there was no
result.”

Voskanyan of the Centre for Civilian Initiatives admitted that
conscientious objection is a “thorny issue” in Nagorno-Karabakh,
which provokes “great arguments”. While stressing that freedom of
conscience is a right guaranteed by the constitution, he warned that
“society must be prepared carefully so that we can take this
step”. He told Forum 18 that his centre will soon hold a roundtable
to discuss alternative service, with politicians, officials, human rights
activists, local Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics and Baptists, members of
the Armenian Apostolic Church and representatives of international
organisations. “We want this roundtable to be well-prepared,” he
insisted.

Now back in Armenia, Grigoryan joins eleven other Jehovah’s Witness
conscientious objectors currently serving prison terms. The most recent
sentences were of Sarkis Karapetyan and Tatul Gogjanyan in April (see
F18News 17 May 2005 ).
Armenia has continued to unashamedly break its promise to the Council of
Europe that it would free all these prisoners of conscience and introduce
civilian alternative service by January 2004 (see F18News 19 October 2004
).

A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
;Rootma p=azerba
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.

A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
;Rootmap=armeni
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

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Montreal Gazette Recognizes Armenian Genocide

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected]
Website;
* * *

Montreal Gazette Recognizes Armenian Genocide

The Congress of Canadian Armenians announced on Wednesday, July 6,
2005 that The Gazette, Montreal’s leading English language daily
newspaper, has issued a policy statement to their editorial staff
recognizing the Armenian genocide, and providing editorial guidelines.
This recognition is in line with recent policy statements issued by
leading North American daily newspapers such as the Boston Globe and
New York Times. The text of the statement, signed by The Gazette’s
Editor-in-Chief, includes the following:

“It seems clear from the historical record that what took place in
Turkey around 1915 amounted to a genocide, as defined in the 1948 UN
convention on genocide: killing or harming people “with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious
group”. As a result, reporters and editors are free to use the word
genocide, without quotation marks, in relation to the Armenian tragedy
and should avoid using qualifiers such as “alleged,” “disputed” or
“what Armenians call”. We may report Turkish denials of such a claim
when they are relevant, but we should not feel obliged to include such
denials with every reference to the Armenian genocide.”

“We were encouraged by the sincerity of The Gazette’s senior
management when we met with them in June”, said Taro Alepian,
President of the Congress of Canadian Armenians. “They now join the
growing number of respected newspapers across North America who accept
that the events which took place in Turkey around 1915, which resulted
in the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians, was in fact genocide as
defined by the United Nations. Armenians across Canada extend their
thanks to the editorial staff of The Gazette for ensuring that
editorial content will henceforth reflect historical fact. We hope
that other Canadian newspapers will adopt similar policies on the
Armenian genocide.”

The Congress of Canadian Armenians serves as a united voice to present
Armenian issues to the Canadian public, carries out projects to
preserve and strengthen Armenian life in a multicultural Canada, and
provides a forum where its member organizations can coordinate their
activities. It enjoys the auspices of the Armenian Holy Apostolic
Church Canadian Diocese, and its member organizations include many of
the major Armenian organizations in Canada the largest of which are
the local chapters of the international Armenian General Benevolent
Union and the Tekeyan Cultural Association.
From: Baghdasarian

www.armenianchurch.ca

Over 75 US Reps Sign Document Calling White House to Recog. Genocide

MORE THAN 75 MEMBERS OF U.S. CONGRESS SIGN TO DOCUMENT WITH CALL TO
WHITE HOUSE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

YEREVAN, JULY 7. ARMINFO. The American Assembly of America today
commended the Armenian-American community for rallying congressional
support for H. Res. 316, a bipartisan resolution that would reaffirm
the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide. To date, more than 75
Members of the House have signed on as cosponsors to the bill, which
was introduced by Congressmen George Radanovich (R-CA), Adam Schiff
(D-CA) and Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank
Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ).

ARMINFO was informed in AAA, the four sponsors introduced the
resolution in the House of Representatives on June 14 with the strong
backing of the pan-Armenian community. H. Res. 316 calls upon the
President to “ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding” of the “Armenian Genocide” and to
“accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of
1,500,000 Armenians as genocide” in the President’s annual message.

Prior to the congressional July Fourth recess, Congressman Schiff
introduced an alternative measure without the support of the Armenian
Caucus that would also reaffirm the U.S. record on the Armenian
Genocide.

Azeri President Accuses Europe of Hypocrisy and Illegality

AZERI PRESIDENT ACCUSES EUROPE OF HYPOCRISY AND ILLEGALITY

YEREVAN, JULY 7. ARMINFO. IN an interview to Turkish journalist Ardan
Zenturk Azeri President Ilham Aliev complains of Europe’s double
standards with respect to Baku and Ankara.

He calls hypocrisy and illegality the EU’s urging Turkey to open its
border with Armenia in the context of the lack of pressure on the
latter. But this is reality. Even rejecting it we have to accept
it. The world is unfair and this approach has once again proved
that. “We should be stronger and get together to attain our goal.”
“The Armenains have occupied our lands for over 10 years while some
still say that we should reach agreement with them. But how? They do
not want to give back our lands and demand Karabakh’s independence,”
wonders Aliev.

“We cannot do that as Karabakh is a native Azeri land and cannot be
separated from Azerbaijan,” says Aliev noting that the different
approach of the international community to the Karabakh conflict as
compared with the other Caucasian conflicts is due to the Armenian
lobby.

He says that the situation over Turkey’s admission into the EU is also
a dual standard policy.

‘Atomic Truth’ in Karlovi Vari

AZG Armenian Daily #124, 07/07/2005

Cinema

‘ATOMIC TRUTH’ IN KARLOVI VARI

At the 40th international film festival in Czech health resort of Karlovi
Vari Armenian-American film director Atom Egoyan represented his “Where the
Truth Lies” new film. In his speech that followed featuring, Egoyan said
that his film has been already shown at the Cannes Festival but only to
journalists. In fact, this was the first public featuring. “I was deeply
touched to see through the window of Termal Hotel young men running into the
hall”, Egoyan said to a press conference the next day. The scenario of the
film is based on the novel by Nero Wolf, which received best American novel
prize in 2004. The film is the story of Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and
Vincent Collins (Colin Firth), the hottest showbiz duo of America in 1950s.
It is built on the contrast of private and public lives and discloses wicked
sides of show business, explores the dark, beguiling, and inevitably
destructive side of fame and fortune. The film was shown on the sidelines of
Horizons program separately from the festival agenda. It received the
spectators’ wild applause, and the daily newspaper of the festival dubbed it
and “atomic truth”.

By Hakob Asatrian in Karlovi Vari

Transport & Comm. Min. Asks “Armentel” to Explane Quality of Comm.

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION MINISTER APPLIES TO “ARMENTEL” TO GET
EXPLANATION ON BED QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION

YEREVAN, JULY 7. ARMINFO. Armenia’s Transport and Communication
Minister Andranik Manukyan sent a letter to “Armentel” company’s
administration with the claim to comment failures in the communication
system of Armenia’s main telephone operator, Manukyan himself informed
journalists today.

In his words, the second operator of vehicular communication –
“K-Telekom” company “for any reason” has no the same problem. At the
same time, minister noted that such state of affairs is not in
interests of “Armentel” as it suffers damage because of bad
communication.

To note, the administration of “Armentel” declared Jul 2 that after
starting the second operator of vehicular communication (Jul 1) in
Armenia failures has started for some reason under normally
functioning equipment. The Company has invited free experts from
abroad to determine reasons of failures in networks of “Armentel”.

FACTBOX-Foreign military forces in Iraq

FACTBOX-Foreign military forces in Iraq

LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush was in Denmark on
Wednesday in part to thank Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for his
support in Iraq.

Denmark was among the 36 countries to join the United States and Britain in
post-war Iraq.

Here is a table by country of military forces in Iraq. Some countries have
sent combat troops, others take up non-combat support roles such as logistics
and reconstruction. Some have said they wish to pull troops out because of
the danger.

In Iraq? En route or Withdrawn

alerted? or intend to pull

out??

United States 140,000

Britain 8,930

OTHER COUNTRIES:

Albania 73 47

Armenia 50

Australia 1,370

Azerbaijan 150

Bulgaria 400 (By end 2005)

Czech Rep. 92

Denmark 530

Dominican Rep. 300

El Salvador 380

Estonia 55

Georgia 850

Honduras 370

Hungary 300

Italy 3,160

Japan 550

Kazakhstan 30

Latvia 120

Lithuania 105

Macedonia 28

Moldova 25

Mongolia 180

Netherlands 800

New Zealand 60

Nicaragua 115

Norway 10 140

Philippines 51

Poland 1,700 (By end 2005)

Portugal 4 127

Romania 730 100

Singapore 200

Slovakia 105

South Korea 3,500

Spain 1,400

Thailand 460

Tonga 44

Ukraine 1,000? (By October 2005)

NOTE: Many figures are rounded or estimated

? As of April 2005

?? No date set or confirmed

? Precise figure not known

Sources: Reuters news reports/GlobalSecurity.org.

07/06/05 12:16 ET

Super-Minister in Moscow

A1plus

| 20:21:56 | 06-07-2005 | Official |

SUPER-MINISTER IN MOSCOW

Today the delegation of Hovik Abrahamyan, Minister of Regional Government,
left for Moscow.

The Minister has met the head of the RF President’s staff Dmitri Medvedev.
The course of organizing events in connection with the Russian year in
Armenia has been discussed and a wide circle of events has been envisaged.
The draft project of the events of 2006 – the Armenian year in Russia was
also discussed.

The Minister has also met the RA Minister of Regional Development Vladimir
Yakovlev. Issues of cooperation between the two Ministries have been
discussed.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Reduction

A1plus

| 19:21:19 | 06-07-2005 | Official |

REDUCTION

>From now on in the Republic of Armenia the elections will be held in 41
electoral districts. Today the Central Electoral Committee reduced the
number of electoral district to 41 from 56, led by the amendments to the
Electoral Code. According to the CEC decision, the number electoral
districts in Yerevan have been reduced to 13 from 18.

Let us remind you that the amendments to the Electoral Code entered into
vigor on July 1.