Author: Harutyunian Christine

ANTICIPATING A BETTER CULTURE

A1+
07:17 pm | June 04, 2009

Politics

"Our satisfaction in seeing the citizens electing their city council,
has been tempered by deficiencies in the conduct of the vote",
said the head of the Congress observation delegation to Yerevan,
Nigel Mermagen (UK, ILDG).

The Congress delegation welcomed the fact that by these elections,
Armenia proceeded on its way to implement local democracy. The
overall organisation of the elections has been broadly carried out
in compliance with European standards. In this respect, the election
observation mission of the Congress noted a considerable step forward
in comparison to the local elections which took place in Yerevan in
September 2008.

Nevertheless, the Congress delegation found that the political actors
in Armenia should change attitude and behaviour so that the practical
conduct of elections, as well as the democratic culture of the country
could further improve in the future.

"Democracy is not only about the organisational framework of
elections. It is about electoral conduct and culture. Elections have
to be clear, fair and transparent even beyond polling stations",
concluded Nigel Mermagen.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
was the only international observer which monitored the municipal
elections on 31 May in Yerevan. From 3 to 6 May a three-member
pre-election mission was carried out. The actual observation mission
was organised from 27 May to 1 June. It included nine Congress members
and three members of the European Union Committee of Regions from
United Kingdom, San Marino, Poland, Italy, Hungary, France, Estonia
and Belgium.

During both the pre-election and the election observation missions,
the members of the delegation met with representatives of the
government, the political parties and the media as well as with NGOs
and Ambassadors.

SCRW WILL BE OPERATING ON YEREVAN-BATUMI ROUTE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
04.06.2009 14:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ From July 10 – September 15, SCRW will be operating
on Yerevan-Batumi route, SCRW Director General Shevket Shaydulin told
a news conference today.

According to him, cost of tickets for this route will be as follows:
comfort wagon: AMD 21500, compartment wagon: AMD 10600, second-class
sleeping carriage: 6659. The train consists of deluxe carriages.

Also, the company plans to develop passengers’ safety increase programs
in th nearest future.

On June 10 the company will purchase 10 locomotives, total cost:
50 million Rubles.

GRANT TENDER FOR SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF ARMENIAN SCIENTISTS AND RESEARCHERS ANNOUNCED

ARMENPRESS
June 3, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian National Education and
Science foundation established in 2001 by the Fund for Armenian Relief
of America announces a grant tender for scientific works of Armenian
scientists and researchers.

Coordinator of the educational projects of the Fund for Armenian Relief
Eduard Karapetian told Armenpress that the sum of each grant reaches
5,000 USD. The applications of participants should be submitted on
the electronic variant by 31 August 2009. The names of winners will
be issued by the end of December.

E. Karapetian informed that the tender is being implemented since 2001
and by now 208 scientific groups have been recognized winners. During
2008 mostly scientists representing exact sciences have applied for
taking part in the tender.

TURKISH DEFENSE MINISTER: ONE OF THE MAIN OBSTACLES TO NORMALIZATION OF TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS IS OCCUPATION OF NAGORNO KARABAKH

Today.Az
cs/52760.html
June 2 2009
Azerbaijan

"The main obstacles to normalization of the Turkey-Armenia relations
are the occupation of Nagorno Karabakh and inactivity of the Minsk
process.

I think that you jumped to the conclusion", Turkish Defense Minister
Vecdi Gonul told APA US bureau exclusively. Turkey undertook within
the roadmap to improve relations with Armenia. According to some
reports, the final result of this agreement should be the opening
of the borders. However Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in
Baku that the borders wouldn’t be opened. "If Armenia fulfills its
obligations within the roadmap, would you face difficulties to keep
promise to Azerbaijan?" , APA correspondent asked Gonul. The Defense
Minister said: "How can you tell that the borders should be opened
according to the roadmap? Don’t rush to prejudge".

Turkish delegation of leading political and business figures headed
by Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul is attending the 28th US-Turkey
conference in Washington. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Chief of
General Staff Ilker Basbug also joined the three-day conference. The
participants held consultations on energy and defense issues on the
first day of the conference. Vecdi Gonul said in his address to the
conference that the United States lent serious assistance to the
realization of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project. "Turkey insists to carry
out other regional projects due to this support", said Gonul.

The US-Turkey conference is organized annually by the American-Turkish
Council and Turkish-American Business Forum. Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu will address the conference tomorrow.

The foreign minister also attended the UN Security Council meeting
in New York on June 1 where Turkey took the Council Presidency for
a month.

SYRIAN PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO MARK NEW START IN ARMENIAN-SYRIAN RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 16:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On June 2, President Serzh Sargsyan received Syrian
FM Valed Muallem in Yerevan. During the meeting, President stressed
that Armenia attaches importance to development of friendly ties and
bilateral cooperation with Syria. Recalling former Syrian President
Khazef Asad’s visit to Armenia 30 years ago, Mr. Sargsyan noted
that incumbent President Bashar Assad is to arrive in our country
in a fortnight. Parties agreed that the visit will mark new start in
Armenian-Syrian relations. Syrian FM stressed the importance of active
political dialogue and extended cooperation (especially trade-economic)
between Yerevan and Damask.

Parties also discussed issues concerning stability and security in
South Caucasus, attaching primary importance to peaceful conflict
settlement. Serzh Sargsyan welcomed Syria’s balanced approach to
regional problems. In his turn, Valed Muallem introduced situation in
Near East and process of settling existing conflicts, RA President’s
Press Service reports.

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: EXISTENCE OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS IN ARMENIA IS SERIOUSLY ENDANGERED

Noyan Tapan
June 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the National Press Club
June 1 statement, Yerevan Council of Elders elections were accompanied
by violence to representatives of various media.

Recording that the wave of violence to journalists is increasing,

taking into consideration the emphasized indifference of law enforcers
to disclosure of acts of violence and lack of prospect to apply to
them again, emphasizing that the May 31 elections are evidence that
basic human rights and freedoms are constantly violated in Armenia
under the passive position of international structures,

The National Press Club declares that existence of democratic
institutions is seriously endangered in the Republic of Armenia.

SOME CHRISTIANS VOTING FOR HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON
by Adrine Akopyan

AllGov
ting_for_Hezbollah_in_Lebanon_90601
June 1 2009

Last month’s announcement by the Armenian Tashnaq party in Lebanon
of its intention to support Hezbollah in the upcoming parliamentary
elections could provide the crucial votes needed for Hezbollah’s
coalition to inch ahead of the current pro-Western majority. Nearly
160,000-strong, the Armenian voting bloc is the largest and best
organized of the Lebanese Christian communities.

Accused by their opponents of siding with the opposition in order
to protect large Armenian communities in both Iran and Syria, the
chairman of the Lebanese branch of Tashnaq, Hovig Mekhitarian, disputed
all such claims. "We want candidates who represent our community,"
Mekhitarian said. "We are not with the opposition, and not with the
majority." He further emphasized that their decision was not based
on ideology, but rather served a purely local purpose.

With a deep history of political neutrality, the Armenians, much
like other minority ethnic groups, have put their own communitiy’s
interests above those of the Lebanese state’s as a whole. The Hezbollah
coalition offered them complete control over all Armenian-dominated
districts. The pro-Western majority leader, Saad Hariri, attempted
to court Tashnaq leaders, but ultimately proved unsuccessful because
he did not offer enough. "He was really only offering one seat, and
he wanted our support in 15 other seats," Mekhitarian said. Those
who negotiated on behalf of Hariri painted a slightly different
picture. They held that the majority leadership had given into all of
the Tashnaq’s demands for parliamentary seats, but in return wanted
Armenian support before and after the elections. Conscious of their
neutrality and unwilling to appear too close to any single political
group, the Armenians refused the offer.

PRELIMINARY DATA OF ARMENIA’S CEC: RPA WINS ELECTION OF COUNCIL OF ELDERS OF YEREVAN

ArmInfo
2009-06-01 10:58:00

According to the preliminary data of Armenia’s Central Election
Committee, total of 412 464 people voted at the election of the
Council of Elders of Yerevan.

Upon the results of the election, the Republican party of Armenia
gathered 190177 votes or 47,39%, ‘Prosperous Armenia’ party – 91141
votes or 22,71 %, Armenian National Congress – 69871 votes or 17,41
%, ‘Orinats Yerkir’ party – 20959 votes or 5,22 %, ‘Dashnaktsutyun’
party – 18648 votes or 4,65 %, People’s party – 8569 votes or 2,14 %,
Labour-Socialist party – 1951 votes or 0,49 %. A bit more than half
of the citizens, being entitled to vote, took part in the election.

To recall, the election were held on a proportional system. The
first in the list of the party which gains the majority of votes
automatically becomes Yerevan Mayor.

Institute of War & Peace Reporting
May 30 2009

RUSSIA-GEORGIA TENSIONS HARM ARMENIA

Continued closure of Russian-Georgian border crossing leaves Armenia
cut off from its most important market.

By Naira Melkumian in Yerevan

The Armenian economy, already reeling from the global financial
crisis, has suffered a new blow from Georgia’s refusal to re-open a
frontier crossing with Russia ` Armenia’s only link with its major
ally.

The Upper Lars border post, where the road between Tbilisi and
Vladikavkaz crosses the central Caucasus, was closed unexpectedly by
Russia in 2006, a major setback to Armenian exporters.

Now, Russia has re-opened its side of the frontier but Georgia has
declined to allow goods to pass through. Georgia, which fought a brief
war with Russia last year, says it wants Swiss mediation before it
will trust its northern neighbour.

That leaves Armenia, which currently has to use a lengthy export route
via Bulgaria to reach Russia, cut off from its most important market.

`We are desperately keen that this road should operate. Russia has
assured us that on its side all work has been completed. They gave a
high priority to Upper Lars functioning, especially since they have
provided the customs points with all modern facilities,’ said Armenian
prime minister Tigran Sarksian.

The complex geopolitics of the South Caucasus leave Armenia uniquely
dependent on this crossing point. The rest of the Georgian border with
Russia is closed, either being too mountainous, or controlled by
Abkhazia or South Ossetia, which have had their independence
recognised by Russia but not by Georgia.

Armenia and Azerbaijan meanwhile, have not signed a formal treaty to
end their war over the breakaway region of Karabakh, leaving the other
half of Russia’s southern border closed to Armenian exporters. At the
same time, Armenia lacks diplomatic ties with its other main neighbour
Turkey, although relations are thawing and may prove a way out of the
impasse.

`Now the question is one of a political decision, and the problem is
Russian-Georgian relations. I hope that soon relations between Georgia
and Russian normalise and thaw, which will be good for all countries
in the region,’ said Armenian transport and communications minister
Gurgen Sarksian.

The Russians blame the Georgians for the crossing point being closed,
but the Georgians say they cannot trust the Russians to behave
honourably.

`All negotiations in connection with the opening of the crossing point
must take place in the presence of the Swiss, in as far as we cannot
rule out provocations from the Russians,’ said Georgian foreign
minister Grigol Vashadze.

That position, and the inevitable delays that will accompany it, is
not likely to please Armenia, which has already seen its economy slump
disastrously this year and has had to call on funding from the
International Monetary Fund. The country’s central bank has predicted
the economy will contract by 5.8 per cent this year, following a 6.1
per cent decline in the first quarter.

The mining sector has been particularly hard-hit, and several
companies have been forced to shed labourers.

The stand-off has reminded Armenians that their country’s economy is
too dependent on Georgia for its own good. Only in August last year,
when the war interrupted Armenia’s export trade, the country lost
600-700 million US dollars.

At the moment, 70-80 per cent of Armenian exports travel to Russia,
leaving the Georgian port of Poti for Bulgaria, then shipped to
Novorossiisk on Russia’s southern coast. The whole journey can take
eight or ten days, whereas the road through the mountains and Upper
Lars is relatively quick.

`If for a long time our goods go only via ship from Poti, then it will
create financial problems, increase the cost of our exports, and if
you add the economic crisis to this, then you create a situation that
is disadvantageous to Armenia,’ said Vardan Aivazian, head of the
economic committee of the Armenian parliament.

The stand-off has also added impetus to talks to open the Armenian
border with Turkey. The two countries lack diplomatic relations, and
have major differences over whether the Ottoman Empire’s slaughter of
Armenians in the First World War constituted genocide, but the two
sides agreed a so-called road map last month which could kick-start a
normalisation of relations.

Turkish-Armenian unofficial trade via Georgia almost doubled in 2008
to 270 million dollars, although almost all of this consisted of
Turkish textiles, building materials and domestic goods. If the border
was opened, these goods could travel directly into Armenia.

`The opening of the border would legalise the trade, which currently
goes on between the two countries via Georgia, and would reduce the
high transit fees. Currently, Turkish goods are widely used in
Armenia, including foodstuffs and products of light industry,’ said
Aivazian.

However, the idea of opening the border between Armenia and Turkey has
serious opponents, particularly the nationalist Armenian party
Dashnaktsutiun, which fears Turkey could dump its products in Armenia
and swamp domestic producers.

`We have studied the economic policies of Turkey and Armenia, and the
protectionist policies which Turkey conducts in defence of its own
producers clearly bear witness to the fact that we, with our liberal
policy, will not benefit from this,’ said Ara Nranian, a member of
parliament from the party.

Naira Melkumian is a freelance journalist.

WHY THE DEEP STATE TARGETS CHRISTIANS?
By Aris Babikian

AZG Armenian Daily
30/05/2009

International; Turkey

Dear Friends,

I would like to bring to your attention the below article from TODAY’S
ZAMAN (May 23, 2009), one of the biggest-circulation Turkish dailies.

It is a quite disturbing and eye-opening expose of the Turkish
Government’s Big Lie about its so-called policies of minority
tolerance. The article makes it clear that as far as the tolerance of
minorities is concerned nothing has changed in Turkey since 1915. The
same racist and xenophobic policies persist today under different
names and forms.

Regardless of how much money the Turkish Government spends on
international public relation firms, funds ‘academic’ chairs in North
American universities, and hires pseudojournalists and academics to
spread Turkish propaganda, the truth will out: the Turkish Government
can’t hide its real intent of creating an ethnically homogenous
Turkish state where there’s no room for citizens of non-Turkish origin.

This continuum of racism, massacre, genocide and deportation highlights
the existence of a long-term scheme implemented by successive Turkish
regimes from the 1890’s to recent times in order to solve the Armenian
Question and purify Turkey.

Glossary (The Committee of Union and Progress-ÐTC) was the party
in power at the time of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and was the
architect of the genocide. Many of its leaders later became leading
politicians in the new Republic of Turkey.

(Deep State) is the collective name given to some members of the
Turkish army, intelligence services, nationalist journalists and
academics. Deep State is a clandestine and ultra-nationalist group.

(Ergenekon) is a shadowy paramilitary and nationalist organization
and, according to reliable sources, the power behind the ‘throne’
in Turkey. Its leaders are current and former high-ranking Turkish
army officers, in addition to the intelligence services, nationalist
journalists, academics, politicians, jurists, and business people. The
Grey Wolves terrorist organization is closely associated with
Ergonokon. The latter has assassinated liberal-minded journalists,
human rights activists and intellectuals. It has also orchestrated
several military coups, incited hatred towards minorities, and
introduced the notorious article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which
allows the prosecution of any one who dares to challenge the Turkish
government narratives on many taboos including the Armenian Genocide.

Why the deep state targets Christians By ORHAN KEMAL CENGÐZ Father
Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest, was killed in Trabzon in 2006. No
one realized then that this was the beginning of a pattern. The
militant nationalist who killed Santoro was just 17 years old. The
Santoro case was completed with lightning speed.

The youngster was sentenced, but nothing was revealed. Then, in 2007,
Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian and a liberal journalist was shot
dead in front his newspaper, Agos, by another militant nationalist,
who was again a 17-year-old boy from Trabzon.

Three months after Dink’s murder, three missionaries were brutally
killed in Malatya. After the Malatya massacre there were many other
attacks and murder attempts targeting Christians once again. A
Catholic priest was stabbed in the stomach during a service at a
Catholic church in Ðzmir. In Samsun, Diyarbakýr and Antalya, other
murder attempts were prevented by successful operations by the police.

In all these "successful" or attempted attacks, the perpetrators
had traits in common. They were all very young, mostly under 18 and
no older than 19. They all were ultranationalists with very obvious
ties to well-known ultranationalist groups. Some good questions to
ask would be: Are all these murders and attacks connected? Were these
youngsters directed from one single center? And, most importantly, were
these murders somehow linked to the illegal apparatus within the state?

The Ergenekon connection As a lawyer closely watching the Hrant Dink
and Malatya massacre cases (and being directly involved in the latter),
I can say that all signs point to the Ergenekon gang. Some central
suspects in the Ergenekon trial were also indicated in Malatya massacre
and Dink cases. Some suspects had either direct or indirect contacts
with Gen. Veli Kucuk, the retired gendarmerie commander whose name
was always involved in extrajudicial killings (also known as "unsolved
murders") carried out against Kurdish activists in southeastern Turkey.

In both cases other gendarmerie officers were summoned as either
suspects or as witnesses. But if these two incidents, the murder and
the massacre, were planned and orchestrated by the Ergenekon gang,
what could the purpose or motivation behind them be? Without having
an insight into the mental framework of Ergenekon, we can not possibly
answer this question.

Ergenekon and past atrocities Today we have such strong propaganda
against the Ergenekon case (in order to whitewash its suspects) that
it is almost impossible not to lose the sense of direction. The case
is presented as if it were just a fabrication by the government in
order to silence its political opponents. This is absolutely not the
case.I cannot go into all details about the Ergenekon case here, so
I will just focus on its connection to the attacks against Christians
in Turkey. Even if we just focus on this topic, we can see the "depth"
of the organization.

There are many documents in the Ergenekon file produced by the
members of this organization. One of these documents defines the
"Special Forces" (Ozel Kuvvetler) as "the eye of Ergenekon." The
Special Forces, a military unit, is the successor of the Special
Warfare Center (Ozel Harp Dairesi — OHD), another unit in the
Turkish military. According to a retired commander of the OHD,
Sabri Yirmibesoglu, the pogroms against Ðstanbul’s non-Muslims on
Sept. 5-6, 1955 "were the fantastic work of the Special Warfare
Center." Ergenekon and anti-Christian activities This "fantastic"
tradition continues under Ergenekon. Let us start with one of the
organization’s meeting places: the "Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate"
(TOP). TOP was established in the early ’20s with the financial support
of Turkish state to fight against the Greek Orthodox Church. It is a
church with no congregation. Since its inception TOP’s only work was
to fight against Christians in Turkey. Recently though, the main focus
of TOP has been to fight against missionary activity. Sevgi Erenol, who
is the spokesperson of TOP and who is in prison now in connection with
the Ergenekon case, regularly gave briefings to top officials about the
"missionary threat" in Turkey. Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultranationalist
lawyer who was suing liberal intellectuals for "insulting Turkishness"
and who provoked public opinion against Hrant Dink, has also brought
cases against missionaries before the domestic courts. Ergun Poyraz,
who is apparently responsible for Ergenekon’s propaganda war and w!

ho wrote many books about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
President Abdullah Gul, accusing them having non-Muslim roots,
has also published a hate-mongering book titled "Six Months Amongst
Missionaries." This latter book became the bible of the war against
Protestants in Turkey. We now know from the Ergenekon file that
Mr. Poyraz was actively using the archives of the gendarmerie.

The Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) also used to publish regular
paranoid reports about missionary activities. These "reports" were
taken very seriously by the National Security Council (MGK), which
is dominated by generals, and those reports led the MGK to declare
that missionary activities were a real threat to national security
in Turkey. Sinan Aygun, the chairman of the ATO since 1998, is now
one of the suspects in the Ergenekon case.

Ergenekon’s mindset Ergenekon has a long history in Turkey, and it is
not possible to go into all of it in one article. However, if you want
to understand what Ergenekon is and what kind of mentality it has,
just look at the Committee of Union and Progress (ÐTC), which was
responsible for the massacres of Armenians while the Ottoman Empire
was falling apart. Ergenekon has exactly the same mindset; it is the
last inheritor of the ÐTC in Turkey. Since Turkey has never faced
its dark past, it has never dissolved these shadowy structures within
the state. It therefore was no coincidence that when NATO sponsored
"shadow armies" (widely known as Operation Gladio), they developed
very strong and deep roots in Turkey. The country is simply fertile
ground for these kinds of illegal structures. In fact, Turkey has
never attempted to dissolve them. It is the only NATO member country
that has not exposed and dissolved this organization.

When it comes to the question of what the purpose of all these
attacks and propaganda against Christians is, my conclusion would
be as follows: Like its predecessor the ÐTC, Ergenekon also wants to
"purify" Anatolia. With all these murders they were trying to send the
message to the members of Christian communities in Turkey that they
are not welcome in this country. On the other hand Ergenekon wants
to give the impression to Turkey and the outside world that as soon
as an Islamic-oriented government came to power, massacres against
Christians started. Finally, with these and remaining unsuccessful
murder attempts, they aim at creating obstacles to Turkey’s EU path.

Why were they specifically trying to create paranoia about missionary
activity? I think this was aimed at making conservative Muslims more
nationalist. They portray missionaries as the agents of "imperialism,"
which seeks to divide Turkey. In this context, Protestants were used as
a kind of scapegoat to provoke Muslims. The main purpose of Ergenekon,
after all, is to create an obsessively nationalist country cut off
from the rest of the world, and especially Europe.

Turkey’s democratic system and the rights of its non-Muslim minorities
will be only secured if this fascist gang, and its mentality, fails.