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04/12/2006
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1) Kocharian Meets With Two US Congressmen And MCC CEO
2) Baku Objects to Euro Parliament Survey in Nakhichevan
3) Turkish Television to Air Egoyan’s Film about Armenian Genocide
4) Armenian Navy Band Wins World Music Award
5) Two Soldiers, 12 Kurds Killed in Turkey Clash
6) Obituary

1) Kocharian Meets With Two US Congressmen And MCC CEO

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)–US Congressman Jim Kolbe, Congressman Scott
Garrett, and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Chief Executive Officer
John J. Danilovich are visiting Armenia as a part of their regional tour to
review government, economic, and military issues in the South Caucasus. As
part
of their trip, Representatives Kolbe and Garrett, and Ambassador Danilovich
will visit MCC and other United States Government-funded assistance project
sites throughout Armenia.
In their meetings with Armenian government officials, the delegation will
discuss US-Armenian bilateral relations, civil society development, and the
importance of free and fair elections in Armenia in 2007 and 2008.
But the $235 million assistance to be provided under the Bush
administration’s
Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) program was the main focus of
Representatives Kolbe’s and Garrett’s talks with President Robert Kocharian
and
other Armenian leaders. The two lawmakers and Danilovich also met with local
businessmen and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
Kolbe, who chairs the Appropriations Committee of the US House of
Representatives, described the meetings as “very productive.” “We believe that
this is a dynamic new way of delivering foreign assistance to countries that
have shown a commitment to the rule of law and to an open society,” he said,
referring to MCA. “Transformational economic development must go hand in hand
with political democracy, and that’s why Armenia has been chosen [for MCA
funding].”
“We believe this is a country which is moving forward in that area,” he
added.

Speaking to reporters, Kolbe specifically noted that he trusts the Kocharian
administration’s pledges to ensure proper conduct of Armenia’s next
parliamentary and presidential elections due in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
But
he said the United States will closely monitor the entire electoral processes
to see if they meet Yerevan’s MCA commitments. “We would not embark on this
program if we were not confident that the Armenian authorities are
committed to
free elections,” he said.
Kocharian was quoted by his office as assuring the visiting congressmen and
the chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, John Danilovich,
that “Armenia remains committed to strengthening democracy and liberalism.”
Kocharian also thanked the US government for the release of extra US aid to
Armenia within the frameworks of the MCC, saying that Armenia remains
committed
to strengthening of democracy and liberal market relations, for which the MCC
aid is intended for. He noted the importance of the aid, because it targets
mainly rural populations by improving rural infrastructure reconstructing
irrigation systems.

2) Baku Objects to Euro Parliament Survey in Nakhichevan

YEREVAN (PanArmenian.Net)–Top Azeri officials said that they might allow a
European Parliament (EP) delegation to survey the destroyed Armenian cemetery
in Julfa, Nakhichevan, “only with the condition of bilateral survey,” APA
reports.
The EP decided last week that a delegation composed of members of the
Commission on EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation will visit Julfa as part of
their trip to Armenia from April 17-21. The aim of the mission is to
investigate Azerbaijan’s destruction of the Armenian cemetery in Julfa.
Prior to traveling to Julfa, they will need to get the necessary
authorization
from Azeri authorities.
The mission is being sent in accordance with the EP’s resolution “on cultural
heritage in Azerbaijan,” which “demands that Azerbaijan allow missions,
including experts working with ICOMOS, who are dedicated to surveying and
protecting archaeological heritage, in particular Armenian heritage, onto its
territory, and that it also allow a European Parliament delegation to visit
the
archaeological site at Julfa.”

3) Turkish Television to Air Egoyan’s Film about Armenian Genocide

ANKARA (AFP)–A private television station will broadcast a movie about the
Armenian genocide for the first time in Turkey, where the subject still
arouses
nationalistic sentiments, a spokesman for the channel said.
Kanalturk decided to show “Ararat” by Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan
after a survey of viewers revealed that 72 percent of the participants wanted
to see the film, the spokesman said.
“We will show the movie with no cuts or censoring,” he added.
The film’s showing, at prime time on Thursday, will be followed by a
roundtable discussion by Turkish and Armenian intellectuals and historians
about the Genocide, which took place during the last years of the Ottoman
Empire.
Even though the Turkish government did not prohibit the showing of the film,
which was released in 2002, an Istanbul company was forced in 2004 to drop
plans to screen the movie because of potential protests that would have
required police presence in theaters.
Turks have only recently begun to discuss the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923,
one of the most controversial episodes in Turkish history. To this day, Turkey
categorically rejects that genocide took place.
Egoyan’s film deals with the estranged members of a contemporary Armenian
family, who are faced with both Turkey’s denial of genocide and their own
individual plight.

4) Armenian Navy Band Wins World Music Award

YEREVAN (ArmeniaNow.com)–Armenia’s favorite exotic ensemble, the Armenian
Navy
Band won last week the “Audience Award” of the prestigious BBC World Music
Awards. The 12 member Armenian Navy Band was selected as a finalist two months
ago through online voting by fans.
Four groups, including three others from Brazil, Iraq and Italy, were judged
by a panel of music critics and Armenian Navy Band came out on top. The
group’s
founder and percussionist/vocalist Arto Tuncboyaciyan appeared at the BBC
Awards ceremony and gave a 20-minute performance.

5) Two Soldiers, 12 Kurds Killed in Turkey Clash

DIYARBAKIR (Reuters)–Two Turkish soldiers and 12 Kurdish militants were
killed
during a clash in a mountainous part of Turkey’s troubled southeast, officials
said on Wednesday.
The clash, on Tuesday evening in the Sirnak province near the Iraqi border,
coincides with increased tensions in the mainly Kurdish region after recent
street battles between protesters and security forces.
The Sirnak governor’s office said in a statement that the 12 Kurds who lost
their lives–members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)–refused an
army demand to lay down their weapons and opened fire on the troops, killing
two sergeants.
The slain PKK members included two women.
Troops also discovered and destroyed PKK hideouts containing explosive
materials, the statement said.
Military operations in the area, backed up by helicopter gunships, are
continuing, it added.
Tuesday’s clash was the latest in a string of incidents, which have sparked
fears of a return to the kind of large-scale violence that dogged Turkey’s
southeast in the 1980s and 1990s.
That violence, in which more than 30,000 people were killed, tapered off
following the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999. But it has picked
up again since the PKK called off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.
Last week, security forces killed six PKK members in the southeast. On
Monday,
a Turkish soldier was killed by a remote-controlled mine in the region.
Sixteen people were killed and many more injured during recent street battles
between PKK supporters and the security forces in Diyarbakir and other cities
across the southeast.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan discussed the situation with lawmakers from the
region on Tuesday evening, but Turkish media said he rejected a call for a
general amnesty for PKK members.
Erdogan also said he would not talk with leaders of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic
Society Party (DTP) because they would not denounce the PKK as a terrorist
organization.
The European Union and the United States have put the PKK on their terrorism
blacklist.
But following the recent street violence, the EU, which Turkey aspires to
join, has also stepped up its demands for Ankara to improve the economic
conditions and cultural rights of its Kurdish citizens.

6) Obituary

We are saddened to report the death of educator, journalist, and community
activist Kohar Tololian on Tuesday, April 11, 2006. Tololian died in Boston’s
Mount Auburn Hospital after a short illness. The funeral will be held on April
18 in Boston.

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