ARMENIAN CULTURE MINISTER TO VISIT CYPRUS
Cyprus News Agency, Cyprus
Sept 29 2005
Nicosia, Sep 29 (CNA) – Armenian Culture and Youth Affairs Minister
Hovik Hoveyan arrives in Cyprus Friday for an official visit during
which he will hold meetings with Cypriot officials.
According to the official programme of the visit, Hovenyan will meet
with his Cypriot counterpart, Minister of Education and Culture Pefkios
Georgiades, House President Dimitris Christofias and Director of the
President’s Press Office Marios Karoyan.

EU DEADLOCK OVER TURKEY’S BID LINGERS
Islam Online, Qatar
Sept 29 2005
If accepted as an EU member Turkey would become the bloc’s first
majority-Muslim nation. (Reuters)
BRUSSELS, September 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
The EU on Thursday, September 29, called an emergency meeting of
foreign ministers to try to end an impasse over Turkey’s entry talks,
as Austria insisted Ankara be offered less than full EU membership.
“The Austrians maintain their reservations about the negotiating
framework,” one EU official told Agence France- Presse (AFP), on
condition of anonymity.
“Their demands involve an alternative or interim solution to membership
should the EU be unable to integrate Turkey or should Turkey not
fulfill all the criteria,” he added.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned that he will turn his back
on the talks if the negotiating framework contains “any formula or
suggestion other than full membership”.
The European Parliament asked Ankara, in its session on September 27,
2005, to officially recognize the massacres that took place against
the Christian Armenians during the First World War and to further
recognize the Republic of Greek Cyprus, in a one-year period, after
officially starting accession talks, concerning Turkey’s membership
to the European Union.
Bandwagon
The European Parliament votes on accession talks with Turkey.
(Reuters)
There are growing signs that Vienna wants to use the Turkey issue to
boost Croatia’s hopes of starting delayed talks.
Despite official denials, some diplomats believe that Austria’s stance
on Turkey could be linked to Croatia’s hopes of starting EU talks,
which depend on Zagreb’s cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal,
reported AFP.
“If we trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia
too,” Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel suggested in an interview
in Thursday’s Financial Times newspaper.
“It is in Europe’s interest to start negotiations with Croatia
immediately” he added.
According to AFP, Austria has been a strong supporter of Croatia’s
efforts to join the bloc and four out of five Austrians oppose
Turkey joining.
The EU official said a special EU task force would meet early Monday
with Carla Del Ponte, the head of the UN war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, to discuss Croatia’s candidature.
That meeting would “probably be followed by a global decision on
Turkey and Croatia during the morning,” he affirmed.
A spokeswoman for the EU’s executive commission said the two
candidacies were not linked from its point of view, but noted: “The
EU is ready to start accession negotiations with Croatia immediately
once it has been established that full cooperation (with the tribunal)
is there,” reported AFP.
European Union leaders and Turkey agreed December 17, 2004, on the
terms on which Ankara will start membership talks with the bloc the
coming October.
Turkey, an official candidate since 1999, has been waiting to join
the euro bloc for decades but its efforts have stumbled over its
civil rights record.
The European Commission on October 6, gave, 2004 gave Turkey a green
light to start talks to join the European Union, but set a series of
tough conditions warning there was no guarantee of success.

AZERI, ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS TO MEET EARLY DECEMBER
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 29 2005
Baku, September 28, AssA-Irada
The next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers
focusing on ways of peacefully settling the Upper Garabagh conflict
may be held in Slovenia early in December.
The Garabagh conflict is to be discussed at a meeting of the OSCE
council of foreign ministers in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana
December 5-6, deputy foreign minister and the President’s special envoy
on the Upper Garabagh conflict Araz Azimov said. The two countries’
foreign ministers are expected to hold a tete-a-tete meeting as part
of the event. Co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group are due to
visit the region prior to the ministers’ meeting, Azimov said.
“The issue was discussed at the OSCE meeting yesterday. A final
decision was not made in this respect, but the co-chairs’ visit
is expected on the eve of the parliamentary elections”, the deputy
foreign minister said.
Azerbaijan’s legislative poll is due on November 6.*

EVENT ON SELF-PROCLAIMED REPUBLIC’S ANNIVERSARY HELD IN US CONGRESS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 29 2005
Baku, September 28, AssA-Irada
An event dedicated to the 14th ‘anniversary’ of the self-proclaimed
Upper Garabagh republic was held at the US House of Representatives
building in Washington on Wednesday, according to Radio Liberty.
Pro-Armenian Congressmen spoke at the meeting attended by Vice-speaker
of the British House of Lords Baroness Caroline Cox.
Commenting on the matter, a source from the US embassy in Baku said
that the United States supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
and does not recognize the self-proclaimed republic.*

SERJ TANKIAN VISITS CONGRESS
artist: system of a down
date: 09/29/2005
category: general music news
Ultimate-Guitar.Com
Sept 29 2005
System Of A Down singer visits Congressman’s office to push Genocide
Bill, as he tries to push for more of a global object and takes a
brake from the tour. He goes on the political path to try and loby
for changes in the Genocide Bill.
Tankian promised his 97-year-old grandfather he would do his best to
convince Congressman Dennis Hastert to bring the Armenian Genocide
Resolution to a vote, an issue long close to System Of A Down. And
he did just that Tuesday outside the Speaker of the House’s Batavia,
Illinois, office.
Tankian joined members of the Armenian National Committee of America,
the Armenian Youth Federation and his own Axis Of Justice organization
in a rally and then read a heartfelt letter he delivered to Hastert’s
office in support of the pending legislation, which would officially
recognize Turkey’s slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915
and 1923.
With the resolution, which overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan
International Relations Committee, Hastert can either bring it to
the House of Representatives for a vote or let it expire.
“It’s all in his hands, he’s the man,” Tankian said of Hastert, who
spoke in support of recognizing the genocide on the House floor in
1994. “The thing is that a similar resolution was going around in
2000 as well and he was the speaker of the House then, but at the
time President Clinton had written a letter asking him not to bring
it up to vote, citing concerns that had to do with Turkey. In 2004
he also had the opportunity to bring another resolution to vote on …
and that didn’t happen either.
“I’m sure that there’s a lot of lobbying going on from the Bush
administration, from the military-industrial complex that sells a lot
of weapons to Turkey, and a whole host of corporate lobbyist firms
that don’t want this thing to pass, but the truth has to come out,
and more so in a democracy than anywhere else,” he continued. “So
we’re fighting the good fight.”

ARMENIAN CANDIDATE PLEDGES TO BRING A BREATH OF FRESH AIR TO THE HOUSE
Cyprus News Agency, Cyprus
Sept 29 2005
Nicosia, Sep 29 (CNA) – Candidate for the position of the Armenian
representative in the Cyprus House Antranig Ashdjian has pledged to
bring “a breath of fresh air” to the way the minority is represented
in the House of Representatives.
Speaking at a press conference, Ashdjian said that the change in
mentality and the way of thinking of the representative of the
Armenians will come with the election of a young person who had
absolutely no involvement in the decision making process the last
years.

TALVITIE ARRIVED IN ARMENIA
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 29 2005
On September 28 the European Union special representative for the
South Caucasus Heikkie Talvitie arrived in Armenia.
According to the information De Facto got at the RA MFA press service,
in the course of the visit he is to meet RA President Robert Kocharyan,
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan,
as well as representatives of NGOs.
H. Talvitie is to leave Yerevan on September 30.

THE OSCE MG AND THE CE WILL SUPPLEMENT EACH OTHER, TIGRAN TOROSYAN BELIEVES
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 29 2005
Commenting on the OSCE MG Russian Co – Chair Yuri Merzlyakov’s
statement concerning the fact that “the OSCE Minsk group can grant a
part of its authorities to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe” in the interview with Aravot newspaper (îò 28.09.05.) RA
Parliament vice speaker Tigran Torosyan said there should be strict
division between the OSCE MG and the CE missions.
Tigran Torosyan noted Minsk group was dealing with the settlement,
while the Council of Europe was preparing the atmosphere necessary
for the settlement.
Answering the question whether Merzlyakov’s statement could result
in the change of the situation around the Karabakh settlement Tigran
Torosyan stated, “The situation has not changed, just vice versa: the
OSCE mission should supplement the Minsk group mission. The settlement
process should go on within the frames of the Minsk group, while the
works on the realization of the resolution for establishment of the
atmosphere of tolerance, cease of propaganda of hatred, militarist
statements, ensuring the atmosphere of the problem settlement by
peaceful means should be carried out within the CE frames “. “It
is not less important than the search for the settlement formula”,
believes Tigran Torosyan.
RA Parliament vice speaker thinks the development of the issue is in
favor of the problem’s just settlement.
–Boundary_(ID_mAtwdzuI8D/uCCJvsBMYlQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GUAM PA ADOPTED A RESOLUTION ON NK CONFLICT
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 29 2005
A resolution on unsettled conflicts on the CIS territory including
Nagorno Karabakh conflict was adopted in the course of the sitting
of the GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) Parliamentary
Assembly in Kishinev.
According to Freedom Radio Station, Azeri parliamentarian Jahangir
Guseynov rendered a report on the current stage of the Karabakh
settlement at the sitting. He called upon the parliamentarians to pay
special attention to the problem. Jahangir Guseynov also said he had
managed to include the issue referring to dislocation of the Russian
military bases from Georgia to Armenia into the GUAM PA agenda.
The next sitting of the GUAM PA is to be held in Kiev in early 2006.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AMBASSADORS FAIL TO AGREE FRAMEWORK FOR TURKEY ENTRY TALKS
AKI, Italy
Sept 29 2005
Brussels, 29 Sept. (AKI) – Just four days before Turkey is due to
begin membership talks with the European Union, ambassadors from
the 25-member bloc have failed to agree on a definitive framework
for the negotiations. Austria refused to give its go-ahead unless
the official negotiating framework includes the possibility that
‘privileged partnership’ may be the outcome of the talks rather than
full membership.
Britain, the current EU president, has convened a meeting of the 25
EU foreign ministers on Sunday to try to find a way forward.
Thursday’s impasse follows Wednesday’s slight to Turkey when the
European Parliament’s approved a resolution in which it supports
the start of membership talks with Turkey but lays down a series of
provisos. The parliament said recognition of the killing of more
than a million Armenians in 1915 as genocide was “a prerequisite
for accession”.
Euro-MPs also postponed a vote on extending Turkey’s customs
agreement to the ten newest member states because of Ankara’s refusal
to recognise Cyprus. The parliament’s decisions do not affect the
start of entry talks on 3 October, but are seen as a further sign of
European reluctance towards Turkey’s bid. The European Commission,
the EU’s executive arm, described the postponement of an important
vote on the trade agreement as “an own goal”.
The decision was motivated by Turkey’s recent declaration that
signing the protocol of the Ankara Agreement did not mean any form
of recognition of Cyprus, which became an EU member last May. Turkey
also refuses to admit naval vessels and airplanes from Cyprus.
The “privileged partnership” for Turkey being pushed by Austria
is also viewed positively by the German centre-right leader Angela
Merkel, while Ankara insists that nothing short of full membership
is acceptable.