LATVIA IS INTERESTED IN DIRECT FLIGHTS BETWEEN RIGA AND YEREVAN
Regnum, Russia
Oct 10 2005
There are many perspectives in financial cooperation between Armenia
and Latvia, we only need to concretize them and make first steps
towards the realization, President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan said
on a business forum of the two countries.
As a REGNUM correspondent reports, according to Kocharyan, to develop
partnership between the two countries, at first a solid legal and
negotiation system should be established. “The second principal
element is the predictability of both countries. There is no such
problem currently. After obtaining independence, Armenia has been
heading towards serious economical growth. Third, we need a healthy
competition. And the last factor is safety. Many crimes such as racket
have been successfully exterminated,” said president of Armenia. The
main problems, according to him, are lack of information and
contacts. However, the new EU policy “Extended Europe: New Neighbors”
will provide both countries with needed partnership possibilities.
In her turn, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga informed,
that during her visit to Armenia, many documents important for
future negotiations have been signed. “We’re impressed by Armenia’s
economic growth and hope that it will continue for the good of both
our countries”, said Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
During the forum, Latvian finance minister Krisjanis Karins noted,
that the Latvian side was interested in direct flights between Riga
and Yerevan. In his turn, Kocharyan said that this could be one of the
components of business and tourism development. The only discussable
question now is the visa question. The Latvian side hopes that it
could be settled by establishing an Armenian embassy in Latvia that
will happen in the near future.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CHURCH LEADER SAYS U.S. CRUCIAL TO PEACE IN THE MIDEAST
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Oct 10 2005
The United States has a big role to play in establishing peace in
the Middle East, where Christians are awaiting peace as eagerly as
are Jews and Muslims, an Armenian church pontiff said Sunday during
his visit to Southern California.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, is based
in Antelias, Lebanon, and speaks Armenian, English, Arabic and French.
More than 500,000 Armenians live outside Armenia in the Middle East
in such countries as Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, along with
other Christians.
“You can imagine that the peace process … for us (is) something of
profound importance,” Aram said. “This is the only way to bring the
region out of what I would say is its centuries-old conflict.”
Aram is on an official visit to California on the 10th anniversary of
his ascension to the head of the Lebanon-based branch of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.
This week he will visit the Armenian-American community in Fresno,
then come back to Los Angeles on Friday to meet with Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa.
Aram said the United States has a role to play in promoting peace in
the Middle East, and he said conflicts in the Middle East are more
than just political.
“I think we should go beyond politics in the strict sense of the word,”
Aram said. “The question is how we can we live together.”
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern
California, has a different view. A political solution to the conflict
must come before religion can play a positive role.
“It’s the folks with the weapons and the oil who are calling the shots,
not the people inside the house of worship,” he said.
Dr. Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern
California, said Christians living in the Middle East have an important
role to play, especially in Israel.
“By virtue of their message and their long history of good relations
with Muslims and the fact that (orthodox Christians) and the Muslims
and Jews were victims of the Crusade(s), will give them that historical
role to act as mediators for peace,” he said.

ARMENIANS PREFER EUROPE
A1+
| 12:05:40 | 10-10-2005 | Social |
Last week the poll question of the internet site “A1+” was “In your
opinion, what line should be a priority of the Armenian foreign
policy?”. 392 citizens participated in the poll. The final results
are as follows: {BR
Relations with the EU – 34.2%
Relations with the U.S. – 32.9%
RA should pursue complementary policy – 20.4%
Relations with Russia – 10.7
Undecided – 1.8%
This week the poll question will be “What do you think the result of
the Constitutional Referendum will be?”. As always, we expect your
active participation in the poll.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OPPOSITION RALLY DISPERSED IN BAKU
Pan Armenian
10.10.2005 12:39 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Azeri police prevented a rally initiated
by Azadlyg opposition bloc in Baku. The National Front Party of
Azerbaijan, Musavat Party and the Democratic Party serving on the
bloc intended to hold a rally on Sunday and urge free and fair
parliamentary election on November 6. The oppositionists were going
to deliver speeches simultaneously in three parts of the city. However
several hours before the beginning of the action police dispersed the
ralliers. The chief police department was reported to have detained
28 participants of the unauthorized rally, Russian media say.

OLD-AGE CLUB IN YEREVAN
A1+
| 13:17:20 | 10-10-2005 | Social |
On the initiative of the benevolent non-governmental organization
“Mission Armenia” which has been taking care of about 18 thousand
lonely old people for the last 15 years since October 1, 2006 an
old-age club will be opened in Yerevan.
The organization will build a 4-storeyed building in the Qanaqer-Zeytun
community, in Sevak 88. The building will have a reception, bathing
rooms, laundry, beauty saloon, cafeteria, dentist’s office, hall,
cafe, and 34 one-room flats for old people to serve them till end of
their lives.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MURDER SUSPECT ELECTED MAYOR
A1+
| 12:48:53 | 10-10-2005 | Politics |
October 9 in the town of Nor Hachin the elections of the local
governing bodies were held. There were two candidates for the post
of the mayor – the present mayor Armen Qeshishyan who is charged with
murder, and Babken Margaryan.
The present mayor Armen Qeshishyan has been re-elected with a
difference of 320 votes. By preliminary data 4437 of the 8553 electors
have participated in the elections. 2160 of them voted for Qeshishyan,
and 1840 – for Margaryan.
Armen Qeshishyan rang up his relatives and the members of the electoral
headquarters from the prison and congratulated them.
We also learned from the Central Electoral Committee that there were
no violations during the whole electoral process.
By the way, there is information according to which the residents of
Nor Hachin have been assured that in case of having many votes the
present mayor will be “saved”.

OSKANYAN IN AUSTRALIA
A1+
| 12:32:24 | 10-10-2005 | Official |
The delegation of the RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has been
in Australia since October 9.
On October 10 in Canberra Mr. Oskanyan met the Australian Minister of
Foreign Affairs and Commerce Alexander Dauner. During the conversation
the sides referred to the perspectives of the development of
the Armenian-Australian relations, and exchanged ideas about the
international situation and the recent developments in the region.
In the margins f the visit the RA Foreign Minister also had meetings
with the other representatives of the Australian Government, as well
as with the representatives of the Armenian community.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANKARA URGES EUROPE TO AGREE THAT TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP IS INEVITABLE
Pan Armenian
06.10.2005 GMT+04:00
At the same time Turkey refuses to fulfill the two main conditions
set by the European Parliament – recognition of Armenian genocide
and united Cyprus.
Immediately after the start of negotiations on the conditions of
Turkey’s EU membership in Luxemburg the Turkish Minister of Foreign
Affairs Abdullah Gul made quite an incorrect announcement which
provoked the anger of many mass media resources. “Europeans have to
resign themselves to the fact that their ears will hear the sound of
Turkish language”. These words of the Turkish politician would not
sound so provocative if Europeans were not worried that much about
the flow of uninvited guests from Anatolia.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The absolute majority of Europeans are categorically
against the membership of Turkey in the European Union. Even the
Scandinavian countries, where emigrants from Asia were treated
quite loyally, now say that Turkey’s EU membership is extremely
undesirable. As for the so called “Old Europe”, here the attitude
towards Turkey’s membership has always been negative. Only 10 percents
of Austrians, 15 percents of Greeks, 20 percents of French, Germans and
Danes are ready to meet Turks in the “Home of all Europeans”. Knowing
this, Gul could not but realize the consequences of his careless
announcement. Today Europeans are afraid of Turkish speech and there
are real grounds for that. The results of recent public surveys show
that 21 percent of Turkish citizens intend to move to some European
country in case Turkey is accepted to the European Union. Another
30 percent of Turks say they do not exclude the possibility of
immigrating to a European country. This means that a huge number
of Turkey’s population will move to Europe and eat European bread
and receive European welfare payment which can bring to undesirable
economic consequences.
In spite of the negative attitude of most of the Europeans, the
foreign ministers of EU member states have agreed to start negotiations
with Ankara.
However, many European politicians disagree with this idea. A number
of influential oppositionists from France, Germany, Austria and
Netherlands have already expressed their negative attitude towards
Turkey’s full EU membership. The decision was harshly criticized by
the former president of France Valery Jiskar D’Esten who is also the
creator of the unified EU Constitution. “The great French project
of creating political Europe has been rejected in favor of changing
European Union to a simple zone of free trade. I am sorry about that”,
Valery Jiskar D’Esten said. Even those who consider the decision on the
start of negotiations reasonable, say that the reached agreement does
not mean that Turkey will be accepted to the European Union. USA is
perhaps the only country that is exclusively positive about Turkey’s
EU membership. It is known that the intervention of Condolisa Rice
became a turning point in consultations held in Luxemburg. This is
why European papers write that “Turkey has received a passport to EU
with a US visa”…
The agreement to start negotiations is qualified as a
compromise. Ankara did not value the good will of Vienna who
withdrew the demand about the necessity to give Turkey the status
of a privileged partner. (Abdullah Gul emphatically refused to shake
hands with the Austrian minister.) However it is still unclear what
compromise the Turks made in return. Rejeb Erdoghan still states that
Ankara excludes the possibility of recognizing Cyprus and the fact
of Armenian genocide. Then where is the compromise if Turkey rejects
the two main conditions set by the European parliament?
“PanARMENIAN.Net” analytical department ! Reproduction in full or in
part is prohibited without reference to “PanARMENIAN.Net”.

SWEDISH PM CONCERNED OVER ANTI-TURKISH SENTIMENTS IN EUROPE
Pan Armenian
08.10.2005 19:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Euriopean Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn
has arrived in Ankara to continue talks over prospects of Turkey’s
accession to the EU. After a meeting with FM Abdullah Gul, Olli Rehn
stated that Turkey needs to continue democratic reforms as never
before. This first of all refers to human rights, national minorities
and religious freedom. Swedish PM Goran Persson expressed concern
over negative attitude of Europeans towards Turkey’s accession to the
EU. Turkey has a long way ahead and opinions of European peoples may
change in the course of time, he stated after a meeting with Czech PM
Jiri Paroubek. “Half of the population in the Czech Republic, as well
as in Sweden, has a positive stand on Turkey’s accession to the EU,”
Jiri Paroubek stated. He also warned one should refrain from hasty
processes in this regard. Over 90% of neighboring Austria’s population
are against Turkey’s accession to the EU, he noted, reported Mediamax.

ARMENIA PROPOSES WORKING-OUT DOCUMENT TO STRENGTHEN CULTURAL LEGACY PROTECTION
Pan Armenian
08.10.2005 18:54 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian yesterday left for
Paris to take part in the UNESCO General Conference that has Education
for All slogan this year, reported the Press service of the Armenian
MFA. The same day V.
Oskanian made a statement at the conference. He specifically noted
that Armenia fully supports the education policy of the organization,
which coincides with Armenia’s strategy. The first university founded
eight centuries ago and a highest literacy index in the world evidence
Armenia’s commitment to education and science. Armenian cultural
values spread worldwide were a way and guarantee of Armenian people’s
survival from Singapore to Lvov, from Moscow to Paris, the Minister
noted. There is no better example than St. Lazarus Island in Venice,
of which both Armenians and Italians are cultural fathers. “We dream
that our immediate neighbor be as tolerant and valuing. However,
thousands of Armenian cultural monuments in Turkey symbolize not only
lost lives, but also lost opportunities. In its turn Azerbaijan does
everything to keep away from us. As no Armenians remained on its
territory, Armenian cultural monuments have become their targets,”
Vartan Oskanian stated. In his words a number of cultural monuments
in Armenia are included in the World Legacy list. Besides, V.
Oskanian said he was content with UN activities. He presented
Armenian delegation’s intention over ratification of the Convention
on Protection and Encouragement of Cultural Diversity. The Armenian
FM also noted that Armenia proposes working out a new document that
would strengthen cultural legacy protection.