ANKARA: Linden: Reconciliation needs more freedom of _expression

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 27 2006

Linden: Reconciliation needs more freedom of _expression

The New Anatolian / Ankara

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Rene
van der Linden yesterday strongly criticized France’s lower house of
Parliament for passing a controversial bill that aims to ban
questioning of Armenian genocide claims.

"This is not in line with one of the basic principles of human
rights, freedom of _expression," Linden said during his visit to
Ankara yesterday. PACE head underlined that reconciliation efforts
among countries need more freedom of _expression among all involved
parties, not unconstructive moves to restrict people’s free
_expression of their ideas. Van der Linden also criticized those in
Turkey who are using the French bill as a pretext not to change
controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) which sets
out penalties for "insulting Turkishness." The PACE head clearly
stated yesterday that the Turkish government has to amend the
article, which has been used to bring charges against dozens of
journalists, publishers and scholars.

Van der Linden, during his visit to Ankara yesterday, met with
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Turkish deputies. Before
his departure from Ankara, the PACE president spoke to journalists.

Recalling his support for Turkey’s EU membership process and
highlighting the importance of continuation of the reform process,
Van der Linden underlined that this was in the interest of both
Europe and Turkey. He said that the second phase of the reform
process, the implementation was understandably much more difficult,
since it necessitated the change of mentalities and convincing
people.

Saying that Turkey seems overly frustrated by the criticisms of
Europe, Van der Linden said that most of these criticisms were in
fact aimed at assisting Turkey in the reform process. In a move to
further encourage Turkey on its EU accession process, he said that
Turkish people should not overestimate current discussions in Europe
and see that it will be EU in 15 years later which Turkey will join.

On the debates of so-called Armenian genocide, PACE head stressed the
necessity for all countries to come into terms with its history for a
better future, but he criticized France’s lower house of Parliament
passing a controversial bill to ban questioning of Armenian genocide
claims. "This is a back-step from the freedom of _expression, a bad
example," Van der Linden told reporters, and expressed hope that the
controversial bill will not be passed by the upper house.

On the possible "train crash" between Turkey and EU late this year
due to the Cyprus problem, Van der Linden said that this is in no
one’s interest and continuation of Turkey’s EU process was in the
interest of both Europeans and Turkey.

The PACE president will attend a roundtable discussion with legal and
human rights experts at Bilgi University in Istanbul today. On
Saturday he will lay a wreath at the Gallipoli War Memorial and visit
the war graves there as well as meet with a delegation from the
Canakkale Provincial Council.

Western Prelacy News in Brief – October 27

October 27, 2006

PRESS RELEASE
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Website: <;

PRELATE TO CONDUCT HOLY MASS AND PRESIDE OVER CELEBRATIONS ON THE 40TH
ANNIVERSARY OF ST. GREGORY CHURCH

On the afternoon of Friday, October 27, 2006, H.E. Archbishop
Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, departed for San Francisco to join the
Pastor, Board of Trustees, Ladies Association, and parishioners in
celebrating the 40th anniversary of St. Gregory Church.
The festivities will begin with dinner on Friday evening at the
Saroyan Hall of the Khachaturian Armenian Community Center, and continue
with a gathering organized by the Ladies Association at the same hall on
Saturday.
On Sunday, the Prelate will conduct Holy Mass and deliver his
sermon at St. Gregory Church. On Monday morning, the Prelate will visit
Krouzian-Zakarian-Vasbouragan School, where the students have organized a
performance in honor of Armenian Cultural month, following which he will
meet with the school principal and staff.

PRELATE ATTENDS RECEPTION IN SUPPORT OF SENATOR CHUCK POOCHIGIAN

On the evening of Thursday, October 26, a private reception and dinner,
hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Kosti and Marion Shirvanian, took place in support of
Senator Chuck Poochigian’s campaign for Attorney General of California.
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, was in attendance to offer
the invocation.
The evening began with welcoming remarks by Kosti Shirvanian,
who greeted the guests and welcomed special guest and keynote speaker the
Honorable Governor George Deukmejian. The emcee of the evening was former
District Attorney of Los Angeles County Robert Philibosian.

RELATE REPRESENTED AT THE AGBU SYMPOSIUM

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian General Benevolent
Union, a one-day symposium will take place at USC on Saturday, October 28.
Very Rev. Fr. Barthev Gulumian will represent the Prelate.

PRELATE CONVEYS HIS BLESSINGS TO THE ARMENIAN SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES

On the evening of Saturday, October 28, the Armenian Society of Los Angeles
will celebrate its 50th anniversary at Brandview Collection in Glendale.
Very Rev. Fr. Muron Aznikian will represent the Prelate and
present his letter of blessing and best wishes.

http://www.westernprelacy.org/&gt
www.westernprelacy.org

BAKU: Armenian Armed Forces Fired On Azerbaijani Positions

ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES FIRED ON AZERBAIJANI POSITIONS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 26 2006

Armenian Armed Forces continues to violate the ceasefire, APA Garabagh
bureau reports.

Armenian Armed Forces’ units in occupied Talish village of Terter
region fired on opposite positions of Azerbaijani Armed Forces with
machine and submachine guns since 00.00 to 01.30. The enemy was
silenced by response fire. No casualty was reported.

Armenian Armed Forces’ units in occupied Bash Gervend village of
Aghdam region also fired on opposite positions of Azerbaijani Armed
Forces this night.

Yerevan Brandy Company Increases Grape Purchase By 21.7% In 2006

YEREVAN BRANDY COMPANY INCREASES GRAPES PURCHASE BY 21.7% IN 2006

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Oct 23 2006

Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) has increased grapes purchase volume
by 21.7% in 2006 to 28,000 tons as against 23,000 tons in 2005,
YBC Director General Herve Caroff says in an interview with ArmInfo.

He says, in addition, YBC purchased materials equivalent to 2,000
tons of grapes in Nagorny Karabakh Republic. This year, the purchases
in Ararat region were by 500 tons less than envisaged. The harvest
ripened earlier than usually and the company was late for 2-3 days to
open its purchase point in the region, the director general explains.

However, this shortage was successfully compensated in Tavush region,
where about 3,000 tons of grapes were gathered. In the north of Armenia
another sort of grapes with low sugar and high acidity content are
grown. Due to this, another quality of spirit is made, which is notable
for its special taste. We’ll think over increasing the reserves of
these spirits, he says. If the sugar content in grapes grown in Ararat
is some 20%, in Tavush this figure ranges between 16-17%. Herve Caroff
says grapes purchases in 2006 amounted to $10 million as against last
year’s $8.5 million. At the same time, the purchase prices for Armenian
farmers were left at last year’s level – 130 AMD per kg in Ararat, 123
AMD per kg in Tavush. In addition, the farmers the company has dealt
with for long years received bonuses (additional 15 AMD per kg for
last year’s purchases). The director general thinks it is a good price
given the appreciation of the Armenian dram within the year. However,
the company has suffered losses as its incomes and expenses are in
terms of U.S. dollar. H. Caroff says the company is ready to further
suffer losses without reducing the payments to farmers.

In addition, the company invested about 1 million EUR in the technical
modernization of the purchase points in Aygevan and partially in
Armavir. Due to these investments, the company purchased by 4.5
thousand tons of grapes more than in 2005. The novelty are electronic
scales that weight grapes more precisely, which is, undoubtedly,
within the interest of farmers. The company also took other measures
that allowed it to purchase up to 1,000 ton of grapes in one purchase
point instead of the 300-500 tons two years ago. Due to it, there
were no lines in front of the purchase points.

Herve Caroff says the purchases were increased to secure further growth
of brandy sales volumes in the long-term outlook in such traditional
markets as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Baltic states. The
company tries to boost sales in the USA, England, to enter the Asian
market, particularly, China. He assures that the spirit reserves of
YBC are replenished. The situation was difficult only in 2002-2004
when there was grapes deficit due to the poor harvest. However,
the situation has radically changed during the recent years and the
company controls over the sales volumes comparing them with spirit
reserves. The brandy to be made of the grapes we purchase now will
be sold only 5 and even 20 years ago, Herve Caroff says.

YEREVAN BRANDY COMPANY CONSIDERS POSSIBILITY OF RESUMING PRODUCTION OF
"OLD YEREVAN" WINE

Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) is considering a possibility of resuming
the production of "Old Yerevan" wine.

In an interview with ArmInfo, YBC Director General Herve Caroff
says talks are underway with the YBC shareholder, French Pernod
Ricard, for this purpose. The idea of resuming the production of
"Old Yerevan" wine belongs to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan who
visited the company two weeks ago together with Romanian President
Traian Basescu. H. Caroff says the president stressed the importance
of YBC’s work with Armenian winegrowers, which enhances the given
economy branch. He says Armenian wines are highly in demand in the
Russian market now due to ousting of Georgian wines from the Russian
market. However, the problem rests upon the high quality grapes
necessary for production of red wine. He believes it necessary
adopting the standards of the Armenian wine like it was done in
the case of brandy in 1999 on the initiative of YBC. A wine can be
called Armenian if it is produced from the grapes grown in Armenian,
while many wineries in the country import wine materials from other
states and pass the wines made of these materials for Armenian,
H. Caroff says.

YEREVAN BRANDY COMPANY TO CELEBRATE ITS 120TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2007

In 2007 Yerevan Brandy Company will officially celebrate its 120th
anniversary, says Herve Caroff, YBC Director General, in an interview
with ArmInfo.

He says that next year the company intends to issue a book telling
about the history of the Armenian brandy production launched in 1887.

Throughout the year 2007, YBC intends to make surprises for
consumers. The production of 50% strong 10 year-old ultra premium
brandy "Dvin" will be timed to the 120th anniversary of the company.

It is a good chance to show the old product in a new packaging, he
says. The packaging is currently prepared. It will be an exclusive
and very expensive brandy, Herve Caroff says.

In ANM Board Chairman’s Words, Levon Ter-Petrosian Will Nominate His

IN ANM BOARD CHAIRMAN’S WORDS, LEVON TER-PETROSIAN WILL NOMINATE HIS
CANDIDATURE AT NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. RA first President Levon
Ter-Petrosian is going to nominate his candidature at the next
presidential elections.

Armenian National Movement (ANM) Board Chairman Ararat Zurabian said
this at the October 20 meeting with journalists presenting his personal
opinion. Assuring that L.Ter-Petrosian will return to political life
soon, which, in A.Zurabian’s words, will fully change the situation
in Armenia, he mentioned: "I am sure that L.Ter-Petrosian’s return
and a few words to be said by him will be more weighty than the
whole activity of a number of current forces." In response to the
question, did he discuss this intention with L.Ter-Petrosian, as ANM
was also convinced of the same before the 2003 elections, the party
Board Chairman said: "My personal impression is that L.Ter-Petrosian
will nominate his candidature." In A.Zurabian’s words, in any case,
ANM will nominate his own candidate at the coming presidential
elections. "If Vano Siradeghian returns to the country today and
nominates his candidature, I think he will gain a brilliant victory,"
ANM Board Chairman declared. In his words, every second person he
meets says that "a Vano is needed in this country."

Prime Minister of Belarus to arrive in Armenia October 22

Prime Minister of Belarus to arrive in Armenia October 22

ArmRadio.am
21.10.2006 11:22

Governmental delegation headed by the Prime Minister of Belarus
Sergey Sidorsky will pay a visit to Armenia October 22-24, Head of the
Information Department, Belarus MFA Spokesman Andrey Popov informed. In
his words, in the framework of the visit talks with RA Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan and President Robert Kocharyan are expected. The
delegtion will be received by the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin
II. Discussions will focus on humanitarian and regional cooperation,
expansion of trade and economic ties, specifically increase of
supplies of Belarus automobile and agricultural equipment," Popov
underlined. Presentation of innovation technologies of Belarus and its
High Technologies Park is planned. A scientific and practical seminar
on new Belarus developments in medicine production is to be held.

BAKU: Azeri and Armenian Defense Ministers Meeting

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 20 2006

Azeri and Armenian Defense Ministers Meeting

Source: Trend
Author: Trend

20.10.2006

On October 20, the Defense Ministers of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev
and Armenian Serj Sarkasyan met at Ijevan-Gazakh section of
Azerbaijani-Armenian border, the Press-Secretary of Armenian Defense
Minister Seyran Shlahsuvaryan told Medimaks Agency.

He stressed the meeting was held with the initiative of the personal
representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andzey Kasprzyk – in the
context of strengthening the confidence-building measures between
the conflict sides.

"The meeting focused on the issues linked with the cease-fire regime,"
the Press-Secretary said.

The Human Cost of the Iraq War

AZG Armenian Daily #201, 21/10/2006

World press

THE HUMAN COST OF THE IRAQ WAR

The final indignity, if you are an Iraqi who was shot for accidentally
turning into the path of a US military convoy (they thought you might
be a terrorist), or blown apart by a car bomb or an air strike,
or tortured and murdered by kidnappers, or just for being a Sunni
or a Shia, is that President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony
Blair will deny that your death happened. The script they are working
from says (in Mr Bush’s words last December) that only "30,000, more
or less" have been killed in Iraq during and since the invasion in
March, 2003.

So they have a huge incentive to discredit the report in the British
medical journal "The Lancet" this week that an extra 655,000 Iraqis
have died since the invasion in excess of the natural death rate: 2.5
percent of the population. "I don’t consider it a credible report,"
said Mr Bush, without giving any reason why he didn’t. "It is a
fairly small sample they have taken and they have extrapolated it
across the country," said a spokesman of the British Foreign Office,
as if that were an invalid methodology. But it’s not.

The study, led by Dr Les Roberts and a team of epidemiologists from
the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, was based on a survey of 1,849 households, containing 12,801
people, at 47 different locations chosen at random in Iraq. Teams
of four Iraqi doctors — two men and two women — went from house
to house and asked the residents if anybody had died in their family
since January, 2002 (fifteen months before the invasion).

If anybody had, they then inquired when and how the person had
died. They asked for death certificates, and in 92 percent of cases
the families produced them.

Then the Johns Hopkins team of epidemiologists tabulated the statistics
and drew their conclusions.

The most striking thing in the study, in terms of credibility, is that
the pre-war death rate in Iraq for the period January 2002-March 2003,
as calculated from their evidence, was 5.5 per thousand per year.

That is virtually identical to the US government estimate of the death
rate in Iraq for the same period. Then, from the same evidence, they
calculate that the death rate since the invasion has been 13.3 per
thousand per year. The difference between the pre-war and post-war
death rates over a period of forty months is 655,000 deaths.

More precisely, the deaths reported by the 12,801 people surveyed,
when extrapolated to the entire country, indicates a range of between
426,369 and 793,663 excess deaths — but the sample is big enough
that there is a 95% certainty that the true figure is within that
range. What the Johns Hopkins team have done in Iraq is more rigorous
version of the technique that is used to calculate deaths in southern
Sudan and the eastern Congo. To reject it, you must either reject the
whole discipline of statistics, or you must question the professional
integrity of those doing the survey.

The study, which was largely financed by the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’s Center for International Studies, has been reviewed
by four independent experts. One of them, Paul Bolton of Boston
University, called the methodology "excellent" and said it was
standard procedure in a wide range of studies he has worked on:
"You can’t be sure of the exact number, but you can be quite sure
that you are in the right ballpark."

This is not a political smear job. Johns Hopkins University, Boston
University and MIT are not fly-by-night institutions, and people
who work there have academic reputations to protect. "The Lancet,"
founded 182 years ago, is one of the oldest and most respected medical
journals in the world. These numbers are real. So what do they mean?

Two-thirds of a million Iraqis have died since the invasion who
would almost all be alive if it had not happened. Human Rights Watch
has estimated that between 250,000 and 290,000 Iraqis were killed
during Saddam Hussein’s twenty-year rule, so perhaps 40,000 people
might have died between the invasion and now if he had stayed in
power. (Though probably not anything like that many, really, because
the great majority of Saddam’s killings happened during crises like
the Kurdish rebellion of the late 1980s and the Shia revolt after
the 1990-91 Gulf War.)

Of the 655,000 excess deaths since March, 2003, only about 50,000 can
be attributed to stress, malnutrition, the collapse of medical services
as doctors flee abroad, and other side-effects of the occupation. All
the rest are violent deaths, and 31 percent are directly due to the
actions of foreign "coalition" forces.

The most disturbing thing is the breakdown of the causes of death. Over
half the deaths — 56 percent — are due to gunshot wounds, but 13
percent are due to air strikes. No terrorists do air strikes. No
Iraqi government forces do air strikes, either, because they don’t
have combat aircraft. Air strikes are done by "coalition forces"
(i.e. Americans and British), and air strikes in Iraq have killed
over 75,000 people since the invasion.

Oscar Wilde once observed that "to lose one parent…may be regarded
as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." To lose 75,000
Iraqis to air strikes looks like carelessness, too.

By Gwynne Dyer

Solution #1 for Holding Legitimate and Fair Elections in Armenia

AZG Armenian Daily #201, 21/10/2006

Home

SOLUTION #1 FOR HOLDING LEGITIMATE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA

Hovhannes Hovhannisian, Chairman of the Liberal Progressive
Party, touched upon the rating of Armenia from the viewpoint of
the international community at yesterday’s press conference at
"Pastark" club. He believes that Armenia’s rating has considerably
decreased. Hovhannisian added that the only solution to the current
problems of Armenia is to hold legitimate and fair elections. He added
that the society has a brilliant opportunity to shape new authorities,
meaning the coming parliamentary and presidential elections. "In
case these elections are also violated, your generation will have to
struggle for independence," he said.

Hovhannisian also said that his party has about 5500 members and they
are determined to participate in the coming elections.

As for the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh issue, Hovhannesian stated
that he expects certain progress to be fixed in the negotiation
process this year.

Moreover, he believes that the settlement may be achieved in the
course of the October 24 meeting of the Armenian and Azeri Foreign
Ministers in Paris.

By Gohar Gevorgian

Belarus PM To Arrive In Armenia October 22

BELARUS PM TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 22

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.10.2006 17:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A governmental delegation, led by Belarus PM
Sergey Sidorsky will pay a visit to Armenia October 22-24, Head of the
Information Department, Belarus MFA Spokesperson Andrey Popov stated at
a news briefing for the media. In his words, within the framework of
the visit talks with Armenian PM Andranik Margaryan and meetings with
President Robert Kocharian and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin
II are scheduled. Humanitarian and regional cooperation, expansion
of trade and economic ties, specifically increase of supplies of
Belarus automobile and agricultural equipment will be considered,"
Popov underscored. Presentation of innovation technologies of Belarus
and its High Technologies Park is planned.

A scientific and practical seminar on new Belarus developments in
medicine production is to be held, reports IA Regnum.