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05/17/2006
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1) Karabagh’s Participation in Peace Talks Is Necessary
2) Oskanian to Visit France, Canada, And The US
3) Mkrtchian Appointed Minister of Science And Education
4) Nationalist Protesters Attack Hrant Dink during Trial
1) Karabagh’s Participation in Peace Talks Is Necessary
YEREVAN (Yerkir)–Former Russian Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which
mediates the Karabagh conflict settlement, Vladimir Kazimirov said that he
considers the participation of the Mountainous Karabagh Republic’s (MKR)
delegation essential to the success of peace talks.
According to Kazimirov who co-chaired the Minsk Group from 1992-1996, the
exclusion of MKR’s delegation from the negotiation process started immediately
after the OSCE summit in Budapest in December 1994. He said the exclusion of
MKR was initiated by Azerbaijan.
“Official Baku said that if Karabagh is engaged in the talks, it should be
represented by the Azeri community headed by Nizami Bahmanov as well,” said
Kazimirov.
This offer was rejected both by the Armenian side and the mediators.
“Then Baku insisted on the exclusion of the Armenian delegation of Karabagh.
Nevertheless I consider that the participation of the MKR representatives is
essential,” Kazimirov underlined.
As for the current stage of negotiations, Kazimirov stated that the
responsibility of resolving the conflict should be shared by the Foreign
Ministers and Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that NGO’s should
also engage in the process.
2) Oskanian to Visit France, Canada, And The US
YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will fly to
Strasbourg, France on May 18 to attend a gathering of the Council of Europe
Foreign Ministers Committee, reported the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
Oskanian is scheduled to have an unofficial meeting with Council of Europe
Secretary General Terry Davis. The meeting will also be attended by former
Foreign Minister of Finland, Marti Ahtisaar, a special envoy of the UN
Secretary General for Kosovo talks. According to the ministry, the meeting
will
be about Kosovo’s future status.
While in Strasbourg, Oskanian will also meet with his Azeri counterpart Elmar
Mamedyarov and the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk group.
On May 19 Oskanian will address the gathering of Foreign Ministers and then
head for the US and Canada, where he will meet with the leaders of Armenian
communities of Los Angeles, Boston, and Ottawa to discuss the third
Armenia-Diaspora conference which is to take place September 18-20 in Yerevan.
3) Mkrtchian Appointed Minister of Science And Education
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) boosted its
presence in Armenia’s government on Wednesday when President Robert Kocharian
named one of its leaders minister of science and education.
Levon Mkrtchian, who has led the party’s parliament faction until now,
replaced Sergo Yeritsian as a result of the Orinats Yerkir party’s expulsion
from Kocharian’s ruling coalition.
Kocharian replaced Yeritsian despite his defection from Orinats Yerkir along
with the two other ministers representing the party led by Artur Baghdasarian,
the outgoing parliament speaker. He is expected to be given another, less
important government post.
Orinats Yerkir has controlled the Armenian ministries of education, urban
development, and culture under a power-sharing agreement which it had signed
with Kocharian, the ARF, and Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican
Party (HHK) three years ago. The ARF had been given three other ministerial
posts.
Mkrtchian, who already served as Education Minister in 1998-99 and 2001-03,
emerged as the top contender for the job.
“The idea of taking over [the ministry] for a third time is not quite
attractive to me, but I am the kind of person who complies with party
discipline,” said Mkrtchian on Tuesday.
4) Nationalist Protesters Attack Hrant Dink during Trial
ISTANBUL (BIA)–Ultra-nationalist spectators attacked defendants, their
lawyers, and observers during the court hearing of bilingual Armenian-Turkish
Agos newspaper editor Hrant Dink, the paper’s editor-in-chief Sarkis Seropyan,
and columnist Aydin Engin at the Istanbul 2nd Court of First Instance.
Dink, Engin and their lawyers Fethiye Cetin and Ergin Cinmen said that
tensions in Tuesday’s hearing, where the defendants are on trial for
“attempting to influence the judiciary,” started when they turned up in front
of Istanbul’s Sisli justice hall.
The group arrived at the court building to find its entrance blocked by angry
nationalists shouting “get the hell out of this country” and physically
threatening them.
“We had to enter the court building surrounded by a police cordon,” Cetin
explained.
Dink added, “Thankfully the police officers did everything to get us into the
court building safely. They took us up to the court room in a special
elevator.”
The defendants and their lawyers were then verbally harassed and had to dodge
physical assaults in the corridor before they entered the court room itself.
During the hearing, coins and pencils were thrown at them as a group of
observers believed to be led by nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz shouted
insults.
Nationalist “Jurists Union” lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, Civilian Society
Organizations Union of Turkey (TSTKB) member Ramazan Kirkik, retired general
Veli Kucuk, and Independent Turkish Orthodox Patriarchy spokesman Sevgi
Erenerol were among those at the hearing demanding to be accepted as official
complainants against the defendants.
Agreeing with prosecutor Mustafa Dag’s views, the court decided to reject
three separate appeals by the nationalists to be accepted as complainants on
grounds that they were “not directly affected by the alleged offense” while
judge Yalcin Hayret issued a warning to Kerincsiz and those around him for
repeatedly interfering in the case.
Kerincsiz claimed the judge himself had “lost his objectivity” and asked for
his removal on the grounds that he was preventing the intervention of
complainants. Kerincsiz’s requests for Hayret’s removal were rejected.
The verbal and physical assaults endured by the defendants and their lawyers
were so intense that they were noted in the court’s records and according to
Cetin, the judge almost called the police into the courtroom.
When the hearing came to an end a group gathered downstairs and attacked the
defendants, lawyers, and observers. Two people were hit and the defendants
could only leave the building an hour later under police escort.
Following Tuesday’s hearing the trial was adjourned to July 4.
Hrant Dink is on trial in this case for his article titled “Is democracy
going
to be established with this penal clause?” while Aydin Engin is charged for
his
article “One should touch the justice system.” Both defendants are charged
under Turkish Penal Code article 288 for attempting to influence fair justice.
Dink’s son, Arad Dink also went on trial Tuesday.
Dink, Engin, and Arad Dink refuted the charges brought against them and
maintained they had committed no offense.
Dink: I have been made a deliberate target
Aside from defending themselves to the court, Dink and his co-defendants were
forced to defend themselves to the intervening groups and nationalists that
turned up at the hearing.
“The marginal nationalists are clearly trying to make such cases popular and
are trying to produce a nationalist policy” Dink said after the hearing. “We
should not fall into this trap.”
Dink added, “In all of the cases launched against me up till this day, I have
not asked any support from inside or abroad, from the press or politicians,
because this would mean falling into the trap of the marginal nationalists.”
“I have been deliberately made a target. And they want to use this target
over
and over. By giving the impression that I have committed a crime that I have
not, the impression that I have insulted, they want to isolate me in front of
the Turkish society. At least those who know how to read and who understand
are
standing up against this.”
Aydin Engin said, meanwhile, that justice itself was being lynched.
“A group led by Kerincsiz and his friends have attempted to lynch justice” he
said. “And in a big way they have succeeded.”
He added, “I have seen many trials but throwing coins and pencils at us and
the defense lawyers by those who managed to enter the court room as
complainants is something I have seen for the first time.”
Engin argued that the conditions of a “fair trial” no longer existed in the
case noting, “we ourselves are being put on trial for influencing a fair trial
but in reality today the conditions of a fair trial have been eliminated.”
Defense Lawyer Cetin agreed, explained that the case of Dink and his
co-defenders was launched based on allegations of influencing justice.
“What has taken place today and what is being done in other trials is
influencing justice itself,” she added.
“They are creating such an atmosphere that one cannot talk about a fair
trial.
They are putting pressure on the defendants, the defense, the judge, and
prosecutor. During the hearing they insulted the prosecutor,” she said.
Cetin continued, “The pressure is directed at the court. When [the
nationalists] wanted to be accepted as complainants they said the Turkish
nation is a complainant and we are watching.”
Defense Lawyer Cinmen said the incident at the end of the hearing “reflected
the intolerance toward freedom of expression in Turkey.”
“The number [of protestors] is small but because they are extremely fanatic,
it is a mass that can show itself,” he said.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
