Le Figaro, France
24 juillet 2004
EUROPE
La marche turque
SYLVIE PIERRE-BROSSOLETTE
C’est une histoire étrange : une majorité de Français sont hostiles à
l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’Union européenne, les partis de la
majorité ont pris officiellement position contre, l’UMP a même fait
du rejet de l’adhésion turque un thème de campagne lors des élections
européennes de juin et… Jacques Chirac accueille à bras ouverts le
Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lors de sa visite à
Paris, il lui a renouvelé son soutien à l’intégration future de la
Turquie. Malgré toutes les réticences, les jeux semblent donc faits.
Le 5 octobre, la Commission de Bruxelles remettra son rapport sur la
candidature de la Turquie. Remplira-t-elle les fameux «critères de
Copenhague» qui autoriseraient l’ouverture rapide de négociations ?
On sait déjà que l’exécutif européen va répondre oui. Il restera aux
chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement à acter l’affaire lors du Conseil
européen du 17 dé-cembre. Il faudra alors un vote à l’unanimité, mais
seule l’Autriche continue de manifester son hostilité à la
perspective d’une adhésion turque. Le suspense semble bien mince :
dans cinq ans, dans dix ans, Ankara sera probablement membre à part
entière de l’Union. Cette perspective fche beaucoup de monde en
France. Pas seulement la droite qui sur ce point, à l’UMP comme à
l’UDF, ne cache pas son clair désaccord avec le chef de l’Etat. A
gauche aussi : car si le PS prône un «oui, si» – dont un des «si», la
reconnaissance ou non du génocide arménien, pose un gros obstacle sur
la route de l’intégration de la Turquie -, certains leaders
socialistes disent, en privé, leur opposition nette au projet. Au
premier rang, Laurent Fabius, qui redoute le poids démographique de
la Turquie (71,3 millions d’habitants) au sein de l’Union («En
introduisant le premier pays par son nombre, on rend encore plus
difficile l’organisation de coopérations renforcées») et rejette
l’idée d’une «frontière commune» de l’Europe avec l’Irak. C’est dans
ce contexte que va se dérouler la bataille du référendum sur les
institutions européennes, annoncé par Jacques Chirac pour l’automne
2005. Les discussions avec la Turquie seront alors sans doute bien
engagées. Comment réagiront les électeurs français mis devant le fait
accompli ? Plus que jamais la question : «Quelle Europe voulez-vous
?», aura un sens.

TURKISH PRESS TO SPREAD DISINFORMATION ABOUT VIENNA MEETING
President of the Armenian Studies Institute in Ankara is No Exception
Azg/am
24 July 2004
In Azg Daily’s July 20 and 21 coverage we said that documents on the
Armenian Genocide were exchanged by Turkish and Armenian scientists
during the Vienna meeting. This information was based on Anatolu news
agency as well as Turkish Miliet, Eni Shafak and Radical publications.
Though Azg Daily gave no comments to those issues (but only
translated), it is not hard to guess that the Turkish newspapers and
Anatolu news agency are prone to mar documents. But the fact that the
president of the Armenian Studies Institute in Ankara Hasan Okta stood
beside the press in document distortion came as a surprise.
Hasan Okta in his interview to Radical ventured to declare that the
Armenian side is represented by the president of the Armenian Genocide
institute-museum and a professor of the National Academy of Sciences
of Armenia. It is simply not true.
The fact that scientists from Armenia were absent from the meeting
doesn’t necessarily mean that there was no one from the Armenian
Diaspora. There were such cases in the history. But we understand that
the primarily role in these meetings belongs to the scientists from
Armenia but not the ones unwittingly having another citizenship.
In other words, we do not exclude the probability that scientists from
the Diaspora participated in the Vienna meeting, which enabled the
Turks to call the meeting “Armenian-Turkish” and enroll the president
of the Armenian Genocide institute-museum and a professor from the
National Academy into this list without even mentioning their names.
Though Hasan Okta haven’t mentioned the president of the Institute of
History of the National Academy Dr. Ashot Melkonian among the meeting
participants, the latter informed Azg Daily: “The last two days the
Armenian press constantly writes about the Vienna meeting. Meanwhile
it is a brazen lie, and Lavrenti Barseghian, president of the Armenian
Genocide institute-museum spoke of this in `Hayastani Hanrapetutyun’
(Republic of Armenia) July 22 issue. This fact comes to prove that it
is unacceptable to have dialogue with the Turks. I still hold to a
view that we should not participate in any conference on the issue of
the Armenian Genocide till Turkey gives up its denialist stance. It is
especially true for the Vienna meeting as the Turkish side violated
our precondition according to which we should have discussed not the
fact of the Genocide but the issue of overcoming its consequences.”
The situation causes apprehension in so far as the Turks may go on
blaming the Armenian side for the refusal to participate in the
meeting and for not having documents proving the Armenian Genocide.
Therefore, accepting Ashot Melkonian’s words, we should also consider
the probable outcomes of our refusal. Perhaps Lavrenti Barseghian,
president ofthe Armenian Genocide institute-museum is right saying:
“We are ready to leave for Vienna. No matter how hard Turkey tries to
hold us back we are ready to assault. Let no one doubt that we’ll
stand despite all the traps that our ideological enemy sets. In May of
2005 we’ll be at the arranged place.”
By Hakob Chakrian

Armenian president, army chief of staff discuss improving armed forces
Arminfo
23 Jul 04

Yerevan, 22 July: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan had a working
meeting with Col-Gen Mikael Arutyunyan, deputy defence minister and
chief of the general staff of the Armenian armed forces, today.
Arutyunyan told reporters today that he discussed with the president
the current situation in the region, the conclusions of the general
staff of the Armenian armed forces drawn up on the basis of the
analysis of the current situation and operational and tactical
training in the Armenian armed forces.
Moreover, the sides discussed issues of logistical supplies to the
armed forces, their funding, discipline, law and order in the armed
forces, as well as the results of the work of the intergovernmental
Armenian-Russian commission on the activities of the 102nd Russian
military base in Armenia.
“The president set several tasks to improve operational and tactical
training in the armed forces, especially organizational issues of
conducting in the near future major events in a unit of the Armenian
armed forces operating in the eastern (Azerbaijani) sector,”
Arutyunyan said.

Armenian leader, coalition parties discuss constitutional reforms
Arminfo
23 Jul 04
YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and the leaders of the political
parties of the government coalition today discussed issues of
implementing constitutional reforms in the country, the presidential
press service told Arminfo news agency.

Another Armenian defector turns up in Azerbaijan
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
23 Jul 04

[Presenter] Another Armenian citizen has arrived in Azerbaijan. Ispirt
Kazaryan came yesterday by a Moscow-Baku flight and said that his
visit’s objective was to express his protest against the Armenian
government from Azerbaijan.
[Correspondent over video of Kazaryan at a briefing and archive
footage of two other Armenian defectors, Roman Teryan and Artur
Apresyan] Another Armenian has joined those Armenians who arrived in
Azerbaijan two months ago to protest against the unbearable living
conditions in Armenia. This is Ispirt Kazaryan, 65. He was born in
1939 in the town of Leninakan in Armenia. He is currently living in
Armenia and working at a plant there. The reason he ran away from
Armenia seems unusual at first glance.
He said that the town authorities did not let him sell his house in
Leninakan and wanted to take it from him. When his appeals to the
Armenian president, prime minister and other bodies remained
unanswered, he decided to head for Azerbaijan which is regarded as an
enemy of his country.
[Kazaryan speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over] I came here to
tell the entire world about the deplorable situation in Armenia. There
is no law and order there. I have no position or opportunities. I can
only tell them to leave me alone.
I treat the Azerbaijani people very well and this is why I chose to
come here to talk about my problems.
[Correspondent] It is interesting that Kazaryan who came here to talk
about his problems admits that he was once employed as a mercenary in
the Karabakh military operations. However, he said that although he
received money for going to Karabakh he did not shoot at Azerbaijanis.
[Kazaryan speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over] I can no longer
recall how much money I was paid, but it was very little money. I was
doing some other work and did not take part in fighting. I heard there
that there were mercenaries from the Middle East and France, but I
personally did not see them.
[Correspondent] His views on the Karabakh problem are also
interesting. He once went to those lands as a mercenary, but regrets
the occupation of Karabakh now like most of the Armenians.
[Kazaryan speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over] Many people
regret that they fought. Nowadays everyone is leaving
Armenia. Everybody knows that sooner or later, Azerbaijan’s lands will
be returned. These lands have to be returned.
[Correspondent] Kazaryan says that the Armenian people do not want
another war. He no longer thinks about his fate or the fate of his
relatives. I only want them to leave me alone, end quote.

Armenian NGOs recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
Trend news agency
23 Jul 04

Baku, 23 July: Twenty-three Armenian NGOs recognize the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan and Georgia and have therefore been elected
members of the Confederation of Nongovernmental Organizations of the
Caucasus (CNGOC), the chairman of the board of the CNGOC, Sahriyar
Rasulov, said today, Trend reports.
He said that the confederation was set up two years ago and comprises
272 NGOs, of which 203 are Azerbaijani, 23 Armenian and the rest
Georgian.
Rasulov added that the confederation could be joined by organizations
which recognize and respect the territorial integrity of regional
states on the basis of international legal norms. Of many Armenian
NGOs which applied for membership of the organization, 23 accepted
these conditions and were therefore admitted to the CNGOC.
[Passage omitted: minor details about the structure of the CNGOC]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia shakes up Prosecutor’s Office
Arminfo
23 Jul 04
YEREVAN
Armenia replaced 70 per cent of its prosecutors in the first half of
2004.
All the prosecutors of Yerevan have been replaced, Arminfo has learnt
from the Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office.
Moreover, five of them are new appointees. Two department chiefs of
the Prosecutor-General’s Office have also been substituted. Moreover,
27 employees of the Prosecutor’s Office were sacked for various
reasons in the first six months of the year.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
July 23, 2004, Friday
FEATURE: Spiridon Louis delights Greece at the first Olympics
By John Bagratuni, dpa
Hamburg
When Spiridon Louis was taken from Athens to Marathon on April 9,
1896, he was a poor shepherd from the village of Maroussi near the
Greek capital. But a day later the 23-year-old was the biggest hero
of the first Olympics of the modern era – winning the marathon race
by more than seven minutes and with it a place in sports history. The
legend has it that he drank a glass of wine en route and that Greek
King George I. and Crown Prince Constantine accompanied him on the
final metres to the finish line in the Panathinaikon stadium. Apart
from the official prizes – a silver medal, olive branch and diploma –
Louis received a goat, a donkey cart, a pension and a small piece of
land for his heroics. The marathon race had its tradition in ancient
Greece, but was in fact never part of the ancient Olympics which were
outlawed in 393 A.D. by Roman Emperor Theodosius because he
considered them pagan. The idea to revive the Games came from French
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who later become president of the
International Olympic Committee, in the early 1890s. Originally due
to take place 1900 in Paris, the first edition was brought forward to
1986 in Athens (the ancient site of Olympia was remote and
undeveloped) due to huge support from Greece. Prince Constantine’s
organising committee raised the necessary funds through the sale of
souvenir stamps and a donation from a businessman allowed the
renovation of the Panathinaikon stadium to become the first Olympic
stadium. It was there on Easter Monday, April 6, 1896, that George I.
officially declared open the first modern era Olympics which brought
together 245 athletes (all men) from 14 countries in 43 events. James
Connolly of the U.S. became the first Olympic champion by winning the
triple jump – 1,527 years after Varasdates, Prince of Armenia, was
the last recorded Olympic winner in 369. Connolly, 27, left Harvard
University to compete at the Games and was thrown out of the elite
university for this move. He was not rehabilitated until 1949.
Compatriot Thomas Burke won the 100m and 400m races and American
brothers John and Sumner Paine finished first and second in the
revolver shooting event. German Carl Schuhmann was the most
successful athlete, winning three gymnastics events, the wrestling
competition, placing third in weightlifting and fourth in the shot
put. Rowing and yachting events had to be cancelled owing to bad
weather while the swimming took place in chilly Mediterranean Sea
water in Piraeus. The first modern era Olympics lasted 10 days and
set the stage for the Games’ huge success. They now return to Greece
for the first time in 108 years and run August 13-29. The marathon
will end in the Panathinaikon stadium again, but the real centre of
the Games including the Olympic stadium are in Maroussi – Louis’
former home which has for a long time become part of Athens.

US experts on visit to Nagornyy Karabakh
Mediamax news agency
23 Jul 04
YEREVAN
A group of influential US experts arrived in the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic (NKR) today.
The experts represent the Project on Transitional Democracies and the
German Marshall Fund of the USA, Mediamax reports. These two
organizations implement the “Project on the Resolution of Europe’s
Frozen Conflicts”.
The president of the Project on Transitional Democracies, the head of
the US Committee on NATO, Bruce P. Jackson, the former deputy
assistant to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Ronald
D. Asmus, the director of the Foreign Policy of the German Marshall
Fund of the USA, Daniel C. Twining, who held the post of Senator John
McCain’s adviser earlier, Orion Strategies company president Randy
Scheunemann, who held the post of adviser on national security of the
leader of the Republican majority in the Senate Bob Dole in the 1990s,
arrived in Nagornyy Karabakh.
During a one-day visit to Stepanakert, the US experts will meet NKR
President Arkadiy Gukasyan, Foreign Minister Ashot Gulyan, Minister of
Production Infrastructures Development Boris Alaverdyan,
representatives of the Defence Ministry and the republic’s civil
sector, foreign businessmen, who invest in the NKR’s economy.
Mediamax recalls that this is the second visit of Bruce Jackson to
Nagornyy Karabakh. He first visited the NKR last October.
On 22 July, the members of the joint mission of the Project on
Transitional Democracies and the German Marshall Fund of the USA met
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan in Yerevan.

Federal News Service, Inc.
FNS DAYBOOK
July 23, 2004 Friday
EVENT: DISCUSSION – CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
(CSIS)
SUBJECT: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) holds
a discussion, “Armenia’s Opposition: The Next Steps.”
LOCATION: CSIS, B-1 Conference Level, 1800 K Street NW, Washington,
D.C. — July 23, 2004
PARTICIPANTS: Stepan Demirchian, Armenian People’s Party
CONTACT: Mark Schoeff Jr., 202-775-3242; e-mail, [email protected];
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress