Author: Kajoyan Gevork

BELARUSIAN PREMIER LEAVES FOR ARMENIA

Belapan news agency, Minsk
22 Oct 06

A Belarusian government delegation led by Prime Minister Syarhey
Sidorski has left for Armenia, the Belarusian news agency Belapan
reported on 22 October, quoting official sources.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Sidorski is scheduled to
discuss economic and humanitarian cooperation issues at his meetings
with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister Andranik
Markaryan and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, Belapan added.

Sidorski’s visit to Armenia will last till 24 October, the news
agency said.

ACTIVE OPERATION OF TRANSPORT CORRIDORS ONE OF PRIORITIES OF ARMENIAN-BELORUSSIAN

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 23 2006

YEREVAN, October 23. /ARKA/. Active operation of transport corridors
is one of the priorities of Armenian-Byelorussian foreign economic
and trade cooperation, Byelorussian Prime Minister Sergey Sidorsky
stated at a news conference held jointly with his Armenian counterpart
Andranik Margaryan.

"We are closely examining the existent transport corridors from
Belarus to Armenia through Ukraine, Russia and Georgia, and we are
serious about the issues of transportation of Byelorussian goods to
Armenia and Armenian goods to Georgia," Sidorsky said.

"We have attached and are attaching great importance to the
negotiations for active operation of transport corridors between our
countries. This is one of the priorities of Armenian Byelorussian
foreign-economy and trade cooperation," he said.

Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed Frank Zerunyan to the Division of
Medical Quality on the Medical Board of California.

Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lisa Kalustian – Chief Deputy Director
300 South Spring Street, Suite 16701
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213)897-0322
FAX (213)897-0319
[email protected]

Governor Schwarzenegger Announces Appointments

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the following appointments:

Jack Baylis, 49, of Los Angeles, has been appointed to the State Park and
Recreation Commission. Since May 2006, he has served as the chief executive
officer of the west region group for AECOM, a global design, engineering and
program management firm. From 2000 to 2006, Baylis served in a variety of
positions at CH2M Hill, a global project delivery company, including senior
vice president and vice president. Prior to that, he was president and
chief operating officer of the manufacturing firm Linabond. Baylis serves
on the Los Angeles City Quality and Productivity Commission and is a member
of the Heal the Bay Board of Directors and Ph.D. Advisory Board for the
University of Southern California Center for Sustainability. This position
requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Baylis
is a Republican.

Jody Belgard Akimoto, 48, of Watsonville, has been appointed to the Santa
Cruz County Fair Board of Directors (14th District Agricultural
Association). She has served as an account specialist for the Santa Cruz
County Office of Education since 1985. In 1994, Belgard Akimoto co-founded
the Watsonville Road Angels Car Club which benefits local youth charities.
This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary.
Belgard Akimoto is a Republican.

Alberto Bertoli, 68, of San Francisco, has been appointed to the State
Historical Resources Commission. He has served as director and faculty
member at the Academy of Art University Graduate School of Architecture
since 2004 and architect with Patri Merker Architects since 1997.
Previously, Bertoli was self-employed as a design architect and consultant
from 1991 to 1996 and architect with Arthur Erickson Architects from 1981 to
1991. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the
compensation is $100 per diem. Bertoli is a Democrat.

Wayne Bidlack, 62, of La Verne, has been appointed to the State Board of
Food and Agriculture. He has served as dean of the College of Agriculture
at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona since 1995, where he
also serves as a professor in the Department of Animal and Veterinary
Science and the Department of Human Nutrition and Food Science. Bidlack
previously was a professor and chair of the Department of Food Science and
Human Nutrition at Iowa State University from 1992 to 1995 and served as
director of the Center for Designing Foods to Improve Nutrition at the
University. For more than 25 years, he has been a professional member of
the Institute of Food Technologists. This position does not require Senate
confirmation and there is no salary. Bidlack is a Republican.

Bryan Brandes, 36, of Temple City, has been appointed to the State
Historical Resources Commission. He has served the transportation and
shipping company Maersk since 1996, currently as the director of California
regional dispatch. Prior to that, Brandes was dispatch and dock supervisor
for Roadway Express from 1994 to 1996. This position does not require
Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Brandes is a
Republican.

Donald Bransford, 59, of Colusa, has been appointed to the State Board of
Food and Agriculture. He has owned Bransford Farms since 1980, which
includes 1,200 acres of almonds, prunes and rice. Previously, Bransford was
a land manager for Zumwalt Farms where he managed over 30,000 acres of land
from 1983 to 1989. He serves on the Board of Trustees and Governing Board
for the Colusa Unified School District and on the Board of Directors for the
Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District. This position does not require Senate
confirmation and there is no salary. Bransford is a Republican.

Thomas Deardorff II, 35, of Carpinteria, has been appointed to the State
Board of Food and Agriculture. Since 1999, he has served as chair and
president of the fresh produce business Deardorff Family Farms. From 1997
to 1999, Deardorff served as an attorney specializing in real estate law
with the law firm Songstad, Randall & Ulich. He serves on the Board of
Directors for the Western Growers Association and previously served on the
Board of Directors for the Ventura County Agricultural Association. This
position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary.
Deardorff is a Republican.

Loretta Estrada, 63, of Watsonville, has been appointed to the Santa Cruz
County Fair Board of Directors (14th District Agricultural Association).
She has served on the Board of Directors since 1989 and operates a cattle
and timber ranch that has been family owned since 1854. Estrada previously
served as the food service manager for the Pajaro Valley Unified School
District from 1974 to 2002. She has been a member of the Santa Cruz County
Cattlemen’s Association since 1963, and the California Cattlemen’s
Association since 1965. This position does not require Senate confirmation
and there is no salary. Estrada is a Republican.

Eric Frazier, 44, of Riverside, has been appointed to the California
African-American Museum Board of Directors. He has served as vice president
and senior home loan center manager for Washington Mutual Home Loans since
1997. Frazier previously was vice president and community lending regional
manager for Home Savings of America from 1995 to 1997. He currently serves
as the senior pastor at the North Fontana Church of Christ. This position
does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Frazier is a
Republican.

Bruce Oneto, 82, of Boulder Creek, has been appointed to the Santa Cruz
County Fair Board of Directors (14th District Agricultural Association). He
has served on the Board of Directors since 2001. Oneto previously served
the Park Mutual Water Company starting in 1973 and retiring as manager in
1993. Prior to that, he was an attorney in self-practice from 1968 to 1986
and associate then partner with the law firm Ruffo & Oneto. This position
does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Oneto is a
Democrat.

Carlos Rodriguez, 35, of Victorville, has been appointed to the California
Commission on Aging. He has served as senior vice president and director of
public affairs for the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry
Association since 2003. Prior to that, Rodriguez served as a senior account
executive for O’Reilly Public Relations from 2000 to 2003 and a
communications consultant for the State Senate Republican Caucus from 1998
to 2000. He previously was an adjunct faculty member at California State
University, Fullerton and Chaffey College. This position does not require
Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Rodriguez is a Republican.

Jayson Rutherford, 33, of Scotts Valley, has been appointed to the Santa
Cruz County Fair Board of Directors (14th District Agricultural
Association). Rutherford has served the Scotts Valley Police Department
since 1998, where he currently serves as a sergeant. He is a member of the
Scotts Valley Peace Officers Association and currently serves as its
president. Rutherford also is a member of the California Narcotic Officers’
Association and the American Sniper Association. This position does not
require Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Rutherford is a
Republican.

Havard Staggs, 66, of Jackson, has been appointed to the California
Commission on Aging. He most recently served as chief executive officer of
Personal Cellular Services before retiring in 1999. Prior to that, Staggs
was president of subsidiary Circadian from 1991 to 1996 and founded the
Joneonme Corporation in 1987, where he served as president until 1991. He
is past-president of the Triple-A Council of California, member of the Area
12 Agency on Aging Advisory and commissioner of the Amador County Commission
on Aging. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no
salary. Staggs is a Republican.

Stuart Yamamoto, 57, of Aptos, has been appointed to the Santa Cruz County
Fair Board of Directors (14th District Agricultural Association). He has
served on the Board of Directors since 2003 and has served as director of
operations for the Dole Berry Company since 2004. Previously, Yamamoto was
ranch manager for the Coastal Berry Company from 1994 to 2004. He is a Board
member and past-treasurer of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz Japanese American
Citizen League and a member of the alumni council of the California
Agricultural Leadership Program. This position does not require Senate
confirmation and there is no salary. Yamamoto is a Republican.

Frank Zerunyan, 47, of Rolling Hills Estates, has been appointed to the
Division of Medical Quality on the Medical Board of California. Since 2005,
he has served as principal and general counsel for the real estate
development firm, Public Private Community Development. Zerunyan previously
was managing partner with the law firms SulmeyerKupetz from 1995 to 2005,
Yacoubian & Zerunyan from 1992 to 1995 and the Law Office of Frank V.
Zerunyan from 1989 to 1992. Prior to that, he served as vice president of
finance for International Marketing Alliance from 1985 to 1989. He serves
on the Rolling Hills Estates City Council, where he was elected in 2003 and
serves as chair of the City’s Traffic and Safety Committee. This position
requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem.
Zerunyan is a Republican.

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OMBUDSMAN CONCERNED WITH VIOLATIONS AGAINST REPORTERS

Panorama.am
14:35 20/10/06

Armen Harutunyan, human rights ombudsman, made in-depth analyses and
recommendations on the violence against reporters and on limitation
of freedom of speech, Harutunyan said during a seminar on freedom of
speech at the doors of parliamentary elections. The ombudsman stood
against the amendments in the Law on TV and Radio saying H1 should
be equally regulated as private TV companies.

Editor of A1+ is concerned that the air is unevenly distributed among
opposition and pro-government candidates. He said the words of the
opposition leaders are distorted so that the opposite of what they
say is aired. So, ordinary people lose trust to mass media outlets
and start believing street gossips. /Panorama.am/

EU DEMANDS LAYING RAILWAY FROM TURKEY TO EUROPE THROUGH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.10.2006 17:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, who are included
in the TRACECA, support the Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway
project, however EU does not have a positive stance on the matter,"
stated National Secretary of TRACECA inter-governmental commission
Akif Mustafayev. In his words, the EU does not want Armenia to stay
aside of regional projects. The EU demands to lay a railway from
Turkey to Europe through Armenia in exchange.

"However, it is not possible before settlement of the conflict
in Nagorno Karabakh. The unwillingness of individual states to
finance Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars project will not tell on its
implementation in any way. The countries participating in the project
have already indicated their readiness to allocate means for holding
works," Mustafayev states, reports APA.

DEPUTY SAYS ARMENIAN LAND ON AUCTION

Panorama.am
16:53 18/10/06

Viktor Dallakyan, member of parliament, blamed power authorities
today in "putting the Armenian land into auction."

In his words, the Armenian-Georgian committees must have finished
the design of the state border by the end of this year. Dallakyan
cited Armenian deputy foreign minister Gegham Gharibjanyan as saying
that the committees are suggested to be guided by the decisions of
the central executive committees dating back 1938. However, Dallakyan
said Andranik Margaryan refuted this statement saying the negotiations
are not around the map of 1938.

The deputy says 1938 map is unacceptable since there is a danger of
losing Armenian land. He said the point is about giving away land in
former Borchalu region to Georgia.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR?

WaluEurope
Tiscali Europe, UK
Oct 17 2006

New EU poll sheds light on countries from the Caucasus to the Atlas
mountains

The latest Commission survey looks over the fence at countries
bordering the European Union. This ‘Special Eurobarometer’, published
in October, asked the opinions of 30,000 people across the EU25, as
well as accession countries Bulgaria and Romania, candidate countries
Croatia and Turkey, and finally Northern Cyprus.

The questionnaire probed our knowledge and attitudes towards Europe’s
nearest neighbours, as well as EU policy on the ‘arc’ stretching
from the Caucasus to the Atlas mountains. First and foremost, it
revealed that just one in five people across Europe has even heard
of the European Neighbourhood Policy – but they still have opinions
on a wide range of issues.

When asked about Europe’s neighbours, we look first to countries
sharing a land border with the EU (Ukraine 58% and Russia 57%) before
those on the southern or eastern shores of the Mediterranean, also
known as the Maghreb and Mashrek respectively.

Close on three quarters (72%) of those interviewed say they are in
favour of more countries joining the club so long as the process is not
rushed. A similar proportion (70%) also back more special relationships
that stop short of full EU membership – mirroring the views of German
chancellor Angela Merkel and French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

European public opinion is, however, more divided over whether the
EU should treat neighbouring countries in the same way as any other
third countries after the current enlargement process (52% the same
way vs. 36% not the same way).

"Perception is strong and sight weak," said warrior-philosopher
Miyamoto Musashi. And though some capitals do not see eye to eye with
Ankara among others (France last week passed a law banning denial of
the Armenian genocide) the general public tends to have a positive
perception of relations with neighbouring countries. Some 60% of
respondents say these countries do not share the same values as the
EU, but they still believe that cooperation is good for both sides.

THE KURDISH PEN CENTRE CONGRATULATES THE TURKISH WRITER ORHAN PAMUK

Kurdish Media, UK
Oct 17 2006

The Kurdish PEN Centre congratulates the Turkish Writer Orhan Pamuk
with his Nobel Prize Award for Literature

Bremen, Homburg and Cologne (Germany) and London (UK)
15th October, 2006

The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk draws cultures together and underlines
their humane foundation. Therefore, the Kurdish PEN Centre welcomes
the Nobel Committee decision of 2006 for awarding him for his literary
works. We are especially delighted to state that several works of
Orhan Pamuk have been translated into Kurdish becoming available to
Kurdish readers.

Obviously Orhan Pamuk’s daring to portrait the life of Turks, Kurds
and Armenians is en evidence of the Turkish intellectuals’ readiness
to help their people to overcome fear and misunderstandings. The
Kurdish PEN Centre is certain that Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize award
will contribute to a better attention world-wide to the Near Eastern
literatures, cultures and popular hopes. In this case the name and
fame of Orhan Pamuk will strengthen the high principles of Peace,
Democracy, Equality and Freedom of Opinion.

The Kurdish PEN Centre

The Kurdish Centre of INTERNATIONAL P E N – A World Association of
Writers NAVENDA PEN A KURD Kurdisches PEN – Zentrum e.V.

TURKEY, FRANCE: ANKARA SEEKS FRENCH BUSINESSES’ HELP AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Monday Morning, Lebanon
Oct 16 2006

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has asked French companies
to lobby French legislators against a parliamentary bill making it
an offense to deny that Armenians were the victims of genocide

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Istanbul with
representatives of French companies doing business in Turkey in a bid
to enlist their support against a controversial French bill that has
threatened to poison bilateral ties.

The bill, to be debated in the French Parliament, makes it an offense
to deny that Armenians were the victims of genocide under the Ottoman
Empire during World War I.

"Erdogan asked French companies to lobby French legislators to try
to abort the bill", Mustafa Abdullahoglu, an executive with a firm
he did not name, told reporters after the meeting. "He said the bill
would damage bilateral ties if adopted".

Abdullahoglu said he feared a boycott of French goods in Turkey if
the bill was passed.

Representatives of carmakers Peugeot and Renault, the food giant
Danone, the construction materials producer Lafarge and supermarket
chain Carrefour were among the participants in the meeting.

Members of a Turkish-French business group flew to Paris to lobby
against the bill, which calls for a five-year prison term and a fine of
45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) for anyone who denies that the massacres
of Armenians constituted a genocide.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry warned that the adoption of the bill
could jeopardize "investments, the fruit of years of work, and France
will — so to speak — lose Turkey".

The bill was first submitted in May but the debate ran out of
parliamentary time before a vote could be held.

The head of Turkey’s largest business group TUSIAD also condemned
the bill, calling it the reflection of "fears that Turkey’s bid
for European Union membership can materialize" and an attempt at
"disrupting efforts for constructive dialogue and analytical debate".

"I appeal to French politicians: Don’t you see that you are
jeopardizing all the political, economic and social relations that
France has had with Turkey for centuries for the sake of your own
political interests?" Omer Sabanci said in a statement, carried by
the Anatolia news agency.

In 2001 France passed a resolution recognizing the killings as
"genocide", prompting Ankara to retaliate by sidelining French
companies from public tenders and cancelling several projects awarded
to French firms.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917. Turkey rejects the
genocide label, arguing that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many
Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rebelled against Ottoman
rule in Eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops as
the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

TURKISH AUTHOR’S NOBEL A VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH

Arizona Daily Star
Oct 15 2006

Awarding Turkish author Orhan Pamuk the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature
means a $1.4 million prize from the Swedish Academy. It also is an
international statement about free expression.

Pamuk writes about "Turkey’s rich history through modern eyes,"
according to Friday’s Wall Street Journal.

Pamuk’s award comes nine months after the Turkish government
dropped charges alleging that Pamuk insulted the country, the Journal
reported. Pamuk’s charges were not unlike the "insulting Turkishness"
charges against University of Arizona assistant professor and writer
Elif Shafak. She was acquitted last month.

Pamuk’s charges stemmed from comments made to a Swiss newspaper that
criticized Turkey for its treatment of the Kurds and its unwillingness
to address the killing of Armenians during World War I.

The charges were dropped in January.

In our nation, which values freedom of speech and expression and
transparency in government, charging a writer for speaking his mind
is outrageous.

We appreciate Pamuk’s perspective: "My life is a testimony to the
fact that civilizations can combine gracefully and harmoniously if
you have a desire to do so," he told the Journal when responding to
a question about the role of Muslim writers.

Turkey is celebrating: No one from Turkey has ever received a Nobel
Prize before.

We hope that from the celebrations, Pamuk’s attitude of harmony and
tolerance for free expression percolates in Turkey.

In the meantime, we’re saying "thank you" for the First Amendment:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."