Author: Harutyunian Christine

RUSSIAN SKINHEADS ACCUSED OF MURDERING 19 PEOPLE SURE OF THEIR IMPUNITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.11.2008 13:54 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Moscow city court is completing hearings on murders
committed through national hatred by a gang of skinheads led by Arthur
Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky.

Most of the 9 in the dock are underage and are sure of their impunity,
NEWSru.com reports.

Arthur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, who were detained on suspicion of
murder of an Armenian businessman in April 2007, pleaded guilty of 37
crimes. After a meeting with his mother, Ryno renounced his testimony,
although his complicity in the crimes had been already proved.

The gang was running riots during a year after acquaintance in
nationalistic network forums.

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ‘ARMENTEL’: INVESTMENTS IN ‘ARMENTEL’ BY LATE 2008 IN CREATION OF INFRASTRUCTURE TO MAKE UP $90 MILLION

ArmInfo
2008-11-20 20:37:00

ArmInfo. By late, 2008, investments in ‘ArmenTel’ in creation of
infrastructure will make up $90 mln, Director General of ‘ArmenTel’
Neicho Velichkov in an interview with the Second TV channel of
Armenia. As he said, the given figure allows to consider the company
he heads as a serious factor of creation of workplaces in Armenia. ‘I
cannot call a precise number of the people working there, however, I am
sure they exceed the number of employees in our company several times’,
N. Velichkov emphasized. He added that a factor is created, directly or
indirectly, which allows to get a job not only in ‘ArmenTel’. ‘Everyone
working with us gets an opportunity to develop’, N. Velichkov resumed.

ARMENIA’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL MEETS COE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

armradio.am
21.11.2008 17:32

The Prosecutor General of Armenia, Aghvan Hovsepyan, received the
delegation headed by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human
Rights Thomas Hammarberg.

During the meeting the parties discussed the results of the probe
into the criminal cases launched the cases of the mass disorders in
Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008. Reference was made to issues of cooperation
between the ad hoc commission of the National Assembly and the newly
established fact-finding group of experts.

Speaking about the cooperation with the fact-finding group, the
Armenian Prosecutor General assured the Prosecutor General’s Office
has provided necessary information to the newly established group,
as well as to the ad hoc commission of the National Assembly.

Aghvan Hovsepyan expressed hope that the fact-finding group will really
manage to acquire facts that will help the investigation. "Different
persons, forces declare that they posses data about the disorders
in Yerevan. However, they do not provide the information to inquiry
bodies.

There are no reasons to mistrust the inquiry body and I hope those
materials, if there are any, will be provided to the group," the
Prosecutor General said, noting that the Prosecutor General’s Office
will only be grateful if the group manages to reveal facts, since it
will help ensure the completeness of=2 0the inquiry process.

TURKEY-BASED MAGAZINE WRITES "CHIRPINIRDI GARA DENIZ" IS ARMENIAN SONG

Azeri Press Agency
Nov 21 2008
Azerbaijan

Ankara – APA. Turkey-based monthly "Yeni aktuel" magazine wrote that
the music of "Chirpinirdi Gara deniz" belonged to Armenian ashug
Sayat Nova, APA reports.

The magazine writes that Sayat Nova, who lived in the 18th century,
devoted this song to his kamancha. Nationalists in Turkey changed the
words of the song in 1960. The magazine also claims that "Memleketim"
song, which became popular with Ayten Alpman’s performance, after
Turkish Army entered Cyprus Island to save Turks in 1974, was Jewish
song.

The words of "Chirpinirdi Gara deniz" were written by Azerbaijani poet
Ahmad Javad and music by outstanding composer Uzeyir Hajibayli. Ahmad
Javad wrote the poem after Ottoman army under the leadership of Nuru
pasha liberated Baku.

"Yeni aktuel" magazine belongs to Turkuaz Media Group. Calik Holding
holds 75% of the shares in the Media Group. Media Group also includes
ATV TV channel, Sabah newspaper and other newspaper and magazines.

WEIRD TURKEY
by Burak Bekdil

Hurriyet
Nov 19 2008
Turkey

"Weird Turkey" can pop up anytime: while you read newspapers, stroll
down the road, talk to strangers, talk to friends, listen to the
politicians, listen to missionaries of this or that faith, or even
when you lock yourself at home.

"Turkish affairs" are always entertaining, but sometimes they can be
unnervingly entertaining. The Crescent and Star increasingly borders on
various degrees of schizophrenia, paranoia, otherness and polarization.

Sadly, Turkey looks lost in a tiring soul-search; it looks like
an enigma that still chases its lost identity 85 years on. But its
demographic and cultural zigzags never cease to amaze; its social
contrasts never fade.

"Weird Turkey" can pop up anytime: while you read newspapers, stroll
down the road, talk to strangers, talk to friends, listen to the
politicians, listen to missionaries of this or that faith, or even
when you lock yourself at home but suddenly get a call reminding you
of where you live. This was "Turkey" in the last couple of weeks:

1. In Turkey, there isn’t torture but people may die under torture:
When the 29-year-old Engin Ceber who was arrested for distributing
a leftist newspaper died in detention, Istanbul police launched
an investigation and proudly announced that the deceased had not
been tortured. A few days later, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Å~^ahin
publicly apologized to Mr Ceber’s relatives for the torture that had
killed their son. Most recently, a full forensic report confirmed he
had died under torture.

But will any authority investigate why the initial police report
firmly stated that Mr Ceber had not been tortured? Will anyone tell us
what action will be taken against the officials who denied torture in
Mr Ceber’s case? Or will those police officers continue to "protect
our security?" And by the way, will anyone explain if distributing
a leftist newspaper is a reason to be arrested in EU-candidate Turkey?

2. Tayyip Erdogan is a reformist, his good friend Silvio is an
"advocate" of Turkey: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s "good
friend Silvio" was in Turkey last week. Apart from being Mr Erdogan’s
good friend, Silvio is also Italy’s prime minister. And yes, that’s
the man who described President-elect Barack Obama as "tanned" and
boasts of himself as an "advocate" of Turkey.

No doubt, the Italian impolitic has an interesting sense of humor. But
assuming he was not "joking" when he commented on Turkish politics,
Silvio Berlusconi thinks that (a) his good friend Tayyip is a true
reformist, and (b) Turkey’s secular system has been strengthened
under Mr Erdogan’s rule.

I am confident that Silvio "Silviocchio" Berlusconi’s love affair
with Turkey has nothing to do with the love affair his dear friend
Tayyip has for Italian-made military helicopters and other weapons
systems. But talking about Italian-made weapons systems and Silvio
"the advocate of Turkey" Berlusconi, allows me to remind him of the
growing disquiet in the corridors of security offices in Ankara about
a suspected systematic delivery of Italian-made arms to the PKK.

3. Our orphans are well looked after as long as a duchess does
not mingle: Former Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, and her TV crew
secretly filmed orphans in special care houses in Turkey (and Romania)
and exposed the horrifying conditions in which the children were
being kept.

According to Nimet Cubukcu, the minister whose portfolio includes
orphan care, the images were part of a premeditated campaign to
smear Turkey’s image and block its EU accession. But what about
Romania? Were the unpleasant images of Romanian child care houses
part of a premeditated campaign to oust Romania from the EU?

Ms Cubukcu need not worry. The Crescent and Star produces more than
enough material on a daily basis to smear its own image. The minister
can always look at a randomly chosen opinion poll that would tell
her what percentage of the EU populace thinks Turkey is a decent
democracy that deserves full membership.

According to Ali Babacan, Turkey’s foreign minister, the poor orphans
whose images appeared on a British TV station were not upset by the
conditions they had to endure, but by the methods they were filmed. I
bet they were! By the same logic, we can always think that Mr Ceber
was not upset by the torture he had to undergo, but that his soul
was terribly upset by the news coverage of his torture.

4. Barack Obama is a Kurdish villager – by soul: Residents of a
Kurdish village in eastern Turkey sacrificed 44 sheep to celebrate the
election of Barack Obama as America’s 44th president. What an original
thoughtfulness: 44 sheep for the 44th president of the United States
of America! The surviving sheep in the village must have prayed and
thanked God that the United States does not have a history of six
centuries and has not had 156 presidents.

Meanwhile, the placards the villagers held out during the celebrations
read "You are a real hero" and "You are one of us." Perhaps someone
in the White House should remind President-elect Obama that he is
now Kurdish, in addition to Hawaian, Kenyan, Indonesian, American,
French, German, Italian, Greek, Cypriot, Arabic, Jewish, Armenian
and probably Nepalese and Peruvian too.

5. Mr Erdogan’s government has improved gender equality – to ranking
123rd !: The prime minister has often been praised, in addition to
his liberal reformism, for his commitment to gender equality. The
seal of approval for the Turkish men whose wives habitually marry at
child age, must not let their hair be seen by others, and are almost
always housewives, came in the form of a World Economic Forum, or WEU,
report. The WEU’s Global Gender Gap study put Turkey into the 123rd
place among 130 countries.

–Boundary_(ID_LDaWlEvciW0WW5FdZSxQOw) —

A TURNING POINT: ARMENIAN OFFICIALS TAKE THE BOLD STEPS
By Dikran Abrahamian

13 November 2008

Turkey appeared to have the upper hand following the Georgian crisis
and it took advantage of Russia’s interests in the Caucasus. It pressed
Armenia to make concessions both with respect to establishing a joint
commission of historians and relinquishing the lands surrounding
Karabakh as a security zone. In return Turkey promised to open the
borders with Armenia. After much speculation of what Armenia would
or would not agree to, highest officials seem to have taken the
bold step of explicitly announcing what are negotiable and what
are not. Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan and his Minister of
Foreign Affairs Eduard Nalbandian have assured the Armenian people
the commission will not be established. In the previous update of
Keghart.com the respective announcements were posted at the end of
the items: A Letter to a Friend – Why the Silence and Inactivity? and
Nalbandian: "Genocide" resolutions Not a Remedy.

Not too long ago, barely a week, it appeared that the Armenian
authorities were on the verge of being forced to drastically
soften their stand towards Turkey, compared to previous Armenian
administrations. However, following the election of the new president
of the USA there seems to be a new lifeline. It’s hard not to
speculate=2 0 that Barack Obama’s election has shifted the balance
in favor of Armenia. It’s no longer possible to make the argument
that opening the borders is contingent on establishing a commission
of historians, as the new president’s perception of the Genocide is
not a political opinion but a historical fact. Turkey knows this all
too well. Whether the new administration recognizes the Genocide or
not is an independent matter that forces within the congress will
decide down the road.

Another factor that may have played a role in this "conversion"
is the critical appraisal of previous ambiguous announcements made
by the same officials. People in Armenia and the Diaspora made it
clear that the proposed commission was not acceptable – to put it
mildly. Furthermore, giving in to Turkey’s insistence on ceding land
before opening the borders was akin to capitulation.

Turkey may retaliate by making the usual threats that are well known.

Israel may make its case of why Turkey is a crucial ally, and the
Jewish lobby will try to influence the foreign policy of USA. There
is no doubt about these matters. What’s important, however, at this
juncture, the dynamics has changed and Armenia should maintain its most
recent course, and make use of all resources available to drive home
its arguments in all international venues available at its disposal.

Whether Karabakh’s legal right to be a participant in the Minsk
negotiations remains moot. Similarly, which international principle
will be honored in future negotiations is not clear. Is it the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan or the right to self-determination
of Karabakh that will predominate? The former is more likely, based
on remarks made by the co-chairs of the Minsk group. What level of
self-determination will then Karabakh get? In any event Armenia should
not rush to a resolution until the new administration in USA is ushered
in. Meanwhile time is running short for Turkey to impose its will at
whim. Even if individual players in the future administration may not
be so sympathetic to the cause of Karabakh or Armenia, all indications
are that the future commander-in-chief will not be totally insensitive.

Between now and the inauguration of the new president of USA, and
possibly through April 2009, Armenia and its only dedicated ally
– the Diaspora – have a window of opportunity that should not be
lost. Without being forgetful and neglectful of the socio-economic
ills in Armenia, all organizations and parties should re-evaluate
the present circumstances, draw the pertinent conclusions and
support the authorities of Armenia with respect to Turkey and its
machinations. Regretfully, the authorities in Armenia should be kept
on a short leash so that they don’t flip-flop and change course again.

OBVIOUS PROVOCATION AGAINST CO-CHAIRS
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
18 Nov 08
Armenia

Early in the morning on November 16, the special detachment of
the Azerbaijani Defense Army penetrated into the rear of the NKR
Defense Army in the south-eastern part of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani
political-military contact line, violating the ceasefire regime for
the second time in the course of the current year.

It’s well-known to us that over the recent years, especially after
the signature of the Moscow Declaration, Azerbaijan has been doing
its best for making the Karabakh conflict an issue of interstate
importance and representing it as a territorial dispute between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

After the adoption of the Moscow Declaration, which wasn’t signed by
the NKR representative, Azerbaijan’s political stance and propaganda
became more aggressive. Azerbaijan announced that it is now possible
to forget about Nagorno Karabakh’s participation in the further talks.

Therefore, when the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group paid their
regular visit to Stepanakert and remained there for a couple of
days, Azerbaijan had to find at least one reason for showing the
undesirability of the diplomats’ being in the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic. Organizing the special detachment’s penetration into the
rear of the NKR Defense Army, Baku tried to make it clear to the
Co-Chairs that after the adoption of the Moscow Declaration (which
was signed by the Armenian, Russian and Azeri Presidents), the issue
of NKR’s participation in the talks was exhausted, and the mediators
had nothing to do in Stepanakert.

Moreover, since Baku considers Nagorno Karabakh and the liberated
territories as an inseparable part of Azerbaijan, such presence will
hereafter be undesirable for the country.

While the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group were trying to assure us that
they had arrived in Stepanakert for meeting with the country’s top
figures and not just tasting the well-known mulberry vodka of Artsakh,
and that Karabakh’s participation in the talks was inevitable,
Azerbaijan tried to show that such prospect was undesirable for
the official Baku and, what’s even more, the mediators’ visit to
Stepanakert posed a serious threat to the lives of the Russian,
American and French Co-Chairs.

Preparing this provocation, the Azerbaijani party had previously
"safeguarded" itself against the relevant reaction of the international
community. It has invented its own "version" of the above-mentioned
incident, substantiating it with the story on the "feat" of the
hero individual. Several information Web sites of Baku have posted
a release saying that on the night of November 16, a certain Orhan
Shamilov allegedly fled from the military unit located in the southern
part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani military contact line (not far from
Fizuli). According to one of the versions, the serviceman was taken
a prisoner, and according to the other, he was killed by the Armenian
forces while trying to cross the frontline.

Naturally, Shamilov is now being searched, so it’s quite possible that
they may soon "find" the body of a special detachment serviceman who
was killed in the vicinity of the village of Ashaghi Seyidahmedli. Such
primitive "justification" is undoubtedly envisaged for propaganda
purposes because this is not a way of cheating the mediators and
especially, the Armenian party.

Such mode of action which has become common in international practice
usually leads to the three consequences diametrically opposing one
another.

The first is that the high-ranking mediators who have arrived in
the conflict zone, as well as the countries that have dispatched
them decisively condemn the incident, estimating it as an attempt of
using pressure against the international community and undermining
the international peacekeeping efforts.

The second option on which the Azerbaijani party relies is the
mediators’ attempt of initiating long drawn-out and fruitless processes
over the issue of "revealing the discrepancies between the versions"
proposed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

And finally, the third option is to suspend the further operations of
Azerbaijan, the party which has resorted to military provocat ions,
by way of silencing its firing points.

We believe the Co-Chairs who are now visiting Yerevan are obliged to
express their clear-cut attitude towards the incident.

As to the two Armenian parties, they should not satisfy themselves
purely with admitting the coincidence of the Co-Chairs’ visit with the
provocation incited by Azerbaijan. Information in this connection has
already been published in a statement released by the NKR Foreign
Ministry on November the 17th. They are also obliged to clearly
announce that Azerbaijan’s recent attempt of ruling out Karabakh’s
participation in the talks by way of resorting to military provocations
and blackmailing the senior diplomats of the mediator countries comes
to prove that the international community also has its share of guilt
in this matter.

The member states of the OSCE Minsk Group still delay process of
making the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the third signatory to the
1994 ceasefire agreement, a full party to the talks. "Inspired" by
the mediators’ indifference towards its attempt of preventing the
implementation of this principle approved in the Budapest Summit,
Azerbaijan does not even have aversion to the idea blackmailing the
diplomats representing Russia, the United States and France.

ARMENIAN FUND OF FRANCE ALREADY COLLECTED OVER MILLION EUROS TO BENEFIT OF REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA AND NKR

De Facto
Nov 17, 2008

YEREVAN, 17.11.08. DE FACTO. During four days, the Armenian Fund
of France mobilized 600 voluntary for the collection of the European
donations (France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands) to the benefit of
Armenia and Karabakh under directive of Bedros Terzian, its president.

To date the Fund Armenian of France gathered the sum of 1,178,000
euros, including 1,074,000 only by France, an independent French
journalist Jean Eckian told DE FACTO. That is to say an increase of
15,200 euros compared to year 2007, and in spite of the worldwide
crisis.

In thanks of important work provided by Armenian Funds of France,
Michel Tancrez, representing the Karabakh’s government and Armenian
Fund at Stepanakert, handed to Pierre Terzian the gold medal of the
20th birthday of the Liberation movement of Karabakh.

ACCORDING TO AGHVAN VARDANIAN, NA CONTROL CHAMBER HAS NOT SAID ANYTHING NEW ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAM ON ASSISTANCE TO ALUMNI OF ORPHANAGES

Noyan Tapan

Nov 14, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The reference on the violations,
which were revealed by the National Assembly Control Chamber in the
Program on State Assistance to the Alumni of the Orphanages implemented
in 2003 by the RA ministry of labor and social issues, contains no
point which was not discussed by the ministry at the time. The former
minister of labor and social issues, ARF Bureau member Aghvan Vardanian
stated this at the November 14 press conference. In his words, the
NA Control Chamber has not said anything new in this respect.

A. Vardanian said that under the program, assistance was to be
provided to 250 alumni of orphanages. The program envisaged not
only provision of apartments to them, but also giving jobs to them,
supplying them with property and household appliances, as well as
provision of medical, social, legal and other services.

In the opinion of Aghvan Vardanian, the ministry did everything
within its jurisdiction to implement this program. "It was an honor
and good luck for me to head this difficult and responsible sector
in the Armenian government for 5 years. The qualitative changes made
in the system are the result of my work as well," he noted.

A. Vardanian said that the ministry is going to give its explanations
about this issue to the Control Chamber soon.

IMPOSSIBLE INSIDE AZERBAIJAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
12 Nov 08
Armenia

You are from Karabakh. So do you think Karabakh can make part of
Azerbaijan in the status of an autonomous province?

In response to the question of the correspondent of the German
newspaper "FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG" Armenian President Serge
Sargsyan said: "The conversation is about such conditions that will
guarantee the people’s security. History has shown that this guarantee
is impossible inside Azerbaijan. We have never thought that Karabakh
can make part of Azerbaijan by any status."