Author: Kalashian Nyrie

President of Armenia may turn out to be the only head of state to take
part in the gas summit in Moscow.

2009-01-17 12:31:00

ArmInfo. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan may turn out to be the
only head of state to take part in the gas summit in Moscow.

Russian mass media report that most probably the summit will turn into
a gas conference as mostly energy ministers will take part in it.
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has invited the heads of all
states receiving gas from Russia or ensuring its transit to other
countries. However, none of the European leaders has yet confirmed his
visit to Moscow. The President of France has refused to come. The
President of Moldova will send his Prime Minister. Serbia will send
energy ministry as most of the other participant states will most
probably do.

The European Union will send the Minister of Industry of the Czech
Republic and the European Commissioner for Energy.

As regards Ukraine’s participation, President Yuschenko will not come
to Moscow. Interfax quotes him as saying that he will not take part in
the summit because Russia, as a conflicting party, has no right to
host such a meeting. Today, prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine
Vladimir Putin and Yulia Timoshenko will meet for the first time since
the start of the gas conflict.

KEY ERGENEKON SUSPECT SAYS MILITARY HIRED HIM

Hurriyet
Jan 13 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – A former police chief and suspect in the trial of the
alleged Ergenekon gang told an Istanbul court Sunday that the military
had called on him to form a 300-strong anti-terror team and collect
information on Armenians in Turkey.

Ä°brahim Å~^ahin, who had previously been convicted of forming and
heading a criminal gang in 2000, used to be the acting head of the
anti-terror squad in the 1990s and was convicted when his illicit
relations with the mafia came to light during the Susurluk scandal. Of
the 33 people detained last Wednesday, Å~^ahin was one of 17 to be
charged by the court over the weekend.

Among those charged along with Å~^ahin, were socialist writer Yalcın
Kucuk, two colonels, one retired colonel and two lieutenants, as
well as former Higher Education Board, or YOK, president Kemal Guruz,
retired generals Kemal Yavuz and Tuncer Kılınc and the son of former
Istanbul Mayor Bedrettin Dalan.

The charges involve membership in a criminal gang accused of
plotting to overthrow the government. The media has called the
gang Ergenekon, which comes from a legend of the same name. As the
legend goes, pre-Islamic Turks were able to recuperate from a heavy
defeat to overcome their enemies under the guidance and cunning of
a gray wolf. Most of those arrested or charged are known for their
nationalistic sympathies.

The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades
in June 2007 in a shanty house in Istanbul’s Umraniye district that
belonged to a retired noncommissioned officer. The grenades were
found to be the same as those used in the attacks on Cumhuriyet
daily’s Istanbul offices in 2006.

The findings led to scores of detentions, putting more than 100
journalists, writers, gang leaders and politicians under arrest. The
alleged gang is accused of trying to instigate the military to topple
the government in 2009 by initially spreading chaos and mayhem.

The earlier bombings of daily Cumhuriyet, the murder of journalist
Hrant Dink, the murder of a top judge of the Council of State and
the alleged plans for the assassination of high-profile figures in
Turkish politics are sometimes associated with the case.

The list of detainees includes retired generals Å~^ener Eruygur and
HurÅ~_id Tolon and retired Maj. Gen. Veli Kucuk. Many detainees
are retired officials who gathered in associations linked to the
ultra-nationalist Kuvayi Milliye (National Forces) Ä~^ a reference
to irregular forces that led the Turkish war for independence back
in the early 1920s.

Å~^ahin says it is his official duty Å~^ahin, in his testimony to
the prosecutors and the court over the weekend, said he was invited
to a meeting with the Chief of General Staff three months ago by
Lieut. Gen. Bekir Kalyoncu, the current commander of the seventh corps
based in Diyarbakır in the southeast. There he was told to form a
300-strong anti-terror team and would be appointed undersecretary
of a new intelligence department. "I prepared a list of 300 former
anti-terror officers and that is the list found in my home," Å~^ahin
told the court.

He was told to conduct an investigation on Armenians in the central
Anatolian Sivas and Kayseri provinces.

When asked about his relationship with another suspect, Fatma Cengiz,
he said Cengiz had given him intelligence about Armenians working
for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP.

He also denied ownership of the map found in his home that led police
to a large buried weapons cache. "If it is checked, you will realize
the writing on it is not mine," he said. If it were up to him, he
would not have hidden the weapons in GölbaÅ~_ı, where it was found,
but in less conspicuous Elmadag nearby.

Å~^ahin was seen as one of the rising princes of Mehmet Agar, a former
police chief and interior minister, and was appointed as the acting
head of the police anti-terrorism squad in 1993.

He established the police department’s Special Forces School, graduates
of which formed the basis of later anti-terror squads.

After the Susurluk accident in November 1996, when a right-wing
mafia leader, a police chief and a former beauty queen died and a
parliamentarian was severely injured, his descent began. The Susurluk
scandal showed illicit links between the mafia, police and politicians,
with Å~^ahin’s anti-terrorism squad implicated.

Newspapers later printed photos of Å~^ahin together with the fugitive
right-wing militant and mafia boss Abdullah Catlı, who died in
the accident.

He was suspended and then investigated for protecting anti-terror
squad members implicated in the murder of Omer Lutfu Topal, who owned
gambling establishments, and the kidnapping of National Intelligence
Agency, or MİT, officer Tarık Umit.

When a court ordered his arrest, he fled before surrendering and then
serving six months in jail. He was released in September 1997.

He was again charged in March 1999 in connection with weapons given
to the police department that had gone missing.

In 2000, he was severely injured in a traffic accident and he was still
in hospital when he was sentenced to a year in jail for dereliction
of duty.

He was also found guilty in the so-called Susurluk case, found guilty
of forming and leading a criminal gang together with former MÄ°T
member Korkut Eken, each being sentenced to six years in jail.

He was pardoned in August 2002 due to bad health. There were also
photos of him showing his close relationship with retired Maj. Muzaffer
Tekin, who is also currently being tried in connection to the so-called
Ergenekon gang.

Eken, a former MÄ°T member and retired lieutenant colonel, told
daily Hurriyet over the weekend that he could not understand how an
experienced person could leave the map of a weapons cache at home to
be found.

Eken, who worked as a teacher at the Special Forces School in the
1990s, also said the weapons found by police were not linked to the
missing weapons in the Susurluk case. "Those were sent overseas for
an operation. There were 10 guns. However, with the advent of the
Susurluk case, we couldn’t bring the weapons back."

He said he still could not understand why Å~^ahin was convicted and
sentenced to six years in the Susurluk case. He served 2.5 years in
jail before being released.

PM defends probe

Last October, 86 people went on trial, accused of belonging to a
terrorist organization and of plotting to topple the ruling Justice
and Development Party, or AKP, government. The trial will expand to
include suspects retired generals Eruygur, and retired Major Gen. Kucuk
and the others.

The probe initially received support for countering the so-called
"deep state," a term used to describe security forces acting outside
the law, often in collusion with illegal factions, to protect what
they see as Turkey’s best interests.

But the probe’s credibility has been increasingly questioned after
it began targeting journalists, academics, intellectuals and retired
generals who are all known to be vocal government critics. Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday called on the Republican
People’s Party, or CHP, which has been critical of the probe, to let
investigators do their work. "There are in this country magistrates
and prosecutors who have a free conscience," he said. "Nobody should
think of themselves above justice," he told a party meet.

Cicek denies

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said yesterday he had no knowledge of
Ä°brahin Å~^ahin being offered to head the new anti-terror department.

In response to questions during a remembrance ceremony held
in Parliament for former Labor Minister Necati Celik who died
Sunday, Cicek said: "That’s his testimony. We can’t know if it
is true." Å~^ahin told a court that senior military officers had
approached him three months ago.

They asked him to form an anti-terrorism squad and told him that
he would head it, Å~^ahin said. Cicek, spaeking after a Cabinet
meeting two weeks ago, said the government would be forming a new
anti-terrorism department. The Office of the Chief of General Staff
released a statement yesterday, dismissing Å~^ahin’s claim that the
military had offered him the head of the new anti-terror department.

–Boundary_(ID_zpqEIG91MyGWfCfZbmVdtA )–

HRANT BAGRATYAN: THE CRISIS PHENOMENA IN ARMENIA AND CIS NOT LINKED TO THE WORLD CRISIS
Lusine Vasilyan

"Radiolur"
14.01.2009 14:38

The crisis phenomena in Armenia and the Commonwealth of independent
States are not connected with the world financial crisis. The world
financial crisis simply stimulated the trends that speak about
the structural deviations of economy in Armenia and CIS countries,
economist Hrant Bagratyan told a press conference today.

Bagratyan added that the second phase of the world economic crisis is
expected within the coming months. According to him, Armenia will not
be able to avoid deflation of the national currency and the growth
of unemployment rate.

ZHARANGUTIUN HAS LITTLE EXPECTATIONS FROM ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS’ JANUARY 29 MEETING

Noyan Tapan

Jan 13, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The Zharangutiun (Heritage)
party has little expectations from the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’
visit to the region and the January 29 meeting of Azeri and Armenian
Presidents. RA NA Zharangutiun faction member Vardan Khachatrian
stated this at the January 13 press conference, commenting upon the
current stage of Nagorno Karabakh settlement.

"We are still very far from the final settlement agreement. Moreover,
we consider that there is too little room for a compromise, as one
can see from Azeri authorities’ statements that they wish to see all
of us slaughtered.

In consideration of Azerbaijan’s this position, there cannot be verges
of consent today," he said.

As to Azerbaijan’s position voiced repeatedly, to solve the Nagorno
Karabakh problem by war, V. Khachatrian said that there are countries
where general well-being does not affect army’s fighting ability.

Ha’aretz, Israel
Jan 11 2009

Where have our friends gone?

By Zvi Ba’rel

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked to speak with his
Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert just before the start of Israel’s
offensive in Gaza. Olmert avoided Erdogan because he did not want to
tell the Turkish premier about the coming attack. He did not want to
be in Menachem Begin’s situation when Begin spoke to Egyptian
president Anwar Sadat one time in 1981 and did not tell him Israel was
about to attack Iraq’s nuclear reactor. As a result, Erdogan was
enraged and insulted. Turkish sources say Erdogan’s campaign of
insults against Israel in recent weeks is a reaction to this.

"Israel is the biggest provoker of terror in the world," the Turkish
justice minister accused. Erdogan no longer wants to talk to Olmert,
ties between Ankara and the Israeli ambassador have been cut off, an
Israeli basketball team was attacked by fans in Ankara and Israeli
tourists are advised to hold off on trips to Turkey. "Being in Ankara
feels like being in a hostile Arab country," an Israeli official
stationed in Turkey told Haaretz.

In Jordan, Prime Minister Nader al-Dahabi gave a speech in parliament
asking to "re-evaluate ties between Israel and Jordan," the first time
this has happened since the two countries made peace. No denials or
corrections were issued. "Jordan and Israel have important mutual
interests," an Israeli foreign ministry official said
indifferently. Do they? Does that argument take into account Jordan’s
delicate position regarding the Palestinians, Hamas or its general
public? How does that official respond to the Jordanian ambassador’s
return to Amman?

Qatar, which is on the list of moderate countries, still allows in
Israeli representatives and holds talks with Israel, but it is now
closer to the Syrian-Iranian axis than the Saudi-Egyptian one. Of all
the cease-fire initiatives, Qatar favors the one by Syria, which
supports Hamas. Qatar favors this over the Egyptian proposal. Saudi
Arabia, another moderate, has started to talk about "turning its back"
to its peace initiative unless the international community stops
Israel.

Just three weeks ago the regional leaders were euphoric. Turkey spoke
about continuing mediation between Israel and Syria, and its president
was about to visit Jerusalem; Syria talked about direct negotiations
with Israel; Jordan was steadfast in its traditional position of
guaranteed friendship with Israel; the foreign ministers of Qatar and
Israel acted like best buddies; and Saudi Foreign Minister Saud
al-Faisal said his country had no intention of abandoning the Saudi
peace initiative just because the Israeli right was benefiting from
it.

Such scenes have disappeared. Even our friendly partner, Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has cut his ties. Israel is again
in a familiar situation: a threatened state, not speaking to any of
its neighbors and not willing for anyone to waste its time with talks.

Short-term tactics – that’s all Israel is capable of. On the issue of
relations with Turkey? They’ll need us when the U.S. Congress debates
the massacres of the Armenians. Upset Jordanians? They get water from
us and signed a free trade agreement with the United States thanks to
us. Qatar? It leans on our U.S. ally for support. Now it wants to join
the axis of evil? And Syria too is turning its back on us? We’ve told
everyone there is no partner for peace. Our key industry is war, not
peace or talks with our neighbors. We want only want Arabs as enemies.

For a moment it seemed like we convinced ourselves that ties with the
Arabs were not important until it turned out we needed Egypt’s help to
solve our "problems" with Hamas, and that Qatar helped solve the
crisis in Lebanon. And Jordan is able to keep the border safe and
until only recently we wanted so badly to meet with the Saudi king.

And there’s one more small, pestering problem keeping us from enjoying
our indifference toward our neighbors. Who has gained so far from the
situation? So far it is Hamas, which can claim to have undermined
greatly Israel’s ties with Turkey, Jordan and Qatar. And it has only
just begun.

5.html

Press Association Newsfile
January 6, 2009 Tuesday 2:45 AM BST

AUTHORS CELEBRATE AWARDS SUCCESS

by Vicky Shaw, Press Association Arts Correspondent

Authors Sebastian Barry, Sadie Jones, Diana Athill, Adam Foulds and
Michelle Magorian have been named as category winners of the Costa
Book Awards.

Barry triumphed in the Novel Award category for The Secret Scripture
after missing out on the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in October.

Athill won the Biography Award for her memoir, Somewhere Towards the
End, and at 91 is the oldest-ever category-winning author in the
history of the awards.

Magorian, the author of the hugely successful Goodnight Mr Tom, won
the Children’s Book Award for Just Henry, her first new book in 10
years.

The Costa Book Awards recognises the most enjoyable books of the last
year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The five books are now eligible for the Costa Book of the Year – and
bookies William Hill placed Barry at 2-1 favourite to win.

Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread, Costa took over the
sponsorship of the prize in 2006.

“The Costa Book Awards have an excellent track record of recognising
and celebrating some of the very best current British writing, and
books that can be enjoyed by everyone,” said John Derkach, managing
director, Costa.

“We’re very proud to be announcing such an outstanding collection of
books which we know people will enjoy reading.

“Our final judges will have a tough time selecting just one from
these five for the title of Costa Book of the Year – but it makes for
a very exciting awards ceremony later this month.”

The winners, each of whom receive £5,000, were selected from 616
entries, the highest number ever received.

The Costa Book of the Year will be selected by a panel of judges
chaired by columnist and broadcaster Matthew Parris and including
Rosamund Pike, Michael Buerk, Alexander Armstrong and Andrea
Catherwood.

It will be announced at an awards ceremony hosted by Mariella Frostrup
at the Intercontinental Hotel in central London on January 27.

Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has
been won eight times by a novel, four times by a first novel, five
times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by
a children’s book.

The 2007 Costa Book of the Year was won by AL Kennedy for Day.

Here are the five successful authors who will compete for the Costa
Book of the Year, selected by different groups of judges, and their
books:

Sebastian Barry triumphed in the Novel Award category for The Secret
Scripture.

The book centres around Roseanne McNulty, perhaps nearing her 100th
birthday – no one is quite sure – who faces an uncertain future, as
the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she’s spent the best part
of her adult life prepares for closure.

Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her
psychiatrist Dr Grene.

Dublin-born playwright and novelist Barry has won many awards
including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle
Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize.

Judges said: “This exquisitely written love story takes you on an
unforgettable journey – you won’t read a better book this year.”

Diana Athill won the Costa Biography Award for her memoir, Somewhere
Towards the End.

Looking back on a life well lived and the stories, events and
relationships that have peppered it, Athill offers reflections on the
lessons she has learned – lessons that it is said will strike a
universal chord with readers in any stage of life.

She writes with intimate honesty about friendship, love, sex, and sore
feet.

Athill worked for the BBC throughout the Second World War and helped
establish the publishing company Andre Deutsch.

She has written five volumes of memoir including the acclaimed Stet,
and one novel. She lives in London.

The judges described the work as: “A perfect memoir of old age –
candid, detailed, charming, totally lacking in self-pity or
sentimentality and above all, beautifully, beautifully written.”

Sadie Jones wins the First Novel Award for The Outcast.

The book, set in 1957, centres around Lewis Aldridge travelling back
to his home in the South of England. He is straight out of jail and 19
years old.

His return will trigger the implosion not just of his family, but of a
whole community.

Jones was born in London and grew up in a creative environment. Her
father is the Jamaican poet Evan Jones.

The Outcast was shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize, selected as a
Richard & Judy Summer Read, has been serialised on Radio 4’s Book at
Bedtime and won the Good Housekeeping Best Debut Award. Jones is
married to the architect Tim Boyd, has two children and is currently
working on her second novel.

The judges said: “This book’s portrayal of pain makes it a riveting
and heartbreaking read – it’s rare for a first novel to be this
assured.”

Michelle Magorian wins the Children’s Book Award for Just Henry.

Set in post-war Britain, Just Henry is the story of a young boy who
escapes the bleakness of life through his passion for cinema.

His stepfather, whom he despises, will never compare with his dead
father, a war hero.

Magorian was born in Southsea, Portsmouth, of a Welsh mother and Irish
father with an Armenian surname, and began writing regularly while
studying at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent.

Having studied mime with Marcel Marceau, she went on to work in
theatre, television and film, and toured her one-woman mime show in
Italy and England.

Her first novel, Goodnight Mister Tom, won numerous awards and has
sold more than 1.2 million copies in the UK alone.

The judges said: “This is a master storyteller at work with the sort
of descriptive writing that is a joy to read.

“Just Henry is a soaring, uplifting warm bath of a book – a wonderful
roller-coaster of a story which we all absolutely loved.”

Adam Foulds wins the Poetry Award for The Broken Word.

The Broken Word is a “delicate and powerful” poetic sequence that
charts a young man’s progress through a dark period in British
colonial history – the Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya.

Foulds lives in South London and is a graduate of the Creative Writing
MA at the University of East Anglia. His poetry has appeared in a
number of literary magazines.

He wrote his first novel, The Truth About These Strange Times, while
working as a forklift truck driver in a warehouse.

He went on to win The Sunday Times Young Writer of The Year Award in
April 2008. The Broken Word is Foulds’s first work of poetry.

The judges said: “It is a rare achievement to write a poetry book
that the reader simply can’t put down.

“Readers of poetry and fiction alike will be swept along by its
chilling narrative.”

Security Council of Nagorno Karabakh held a meeting

2008-12-30 15:54:00

ArmInfo. On 27 December at the Security Council of the Nagorno Karabagh
Republic held a meeting at the chairmanship of NKR President Bako
Sahakyan.

Issues related to the course and results of the 2008 telethon organized
by the "Armenia" All-Armenian fund, key events in 2008 and their
influence on the Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict, as well as realization
of the settlement program in the republic were discussed at the
meeting, the Central Information Department of the Office of the NKR
president told ArmInfo.

ITALIAN PRIEST’S ATTACKER SENTENCED IN TURKEY

Reuters
Dec 29 2008
UK

ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish court sentenced a man to four years in
prison Monday for stabbing an Italian Catholic priest in 2007 in a
case that has highlighted attacks against Christians in Muslim but
secular Turkey.

A court in the coastal city of Izmir in western Turkey passed the
sentence against Ramazan Bay for stabbing Adriano Franchini, Anatolian
news agency reported. Franchini survived the attack.

Bay told the court he had been influenced by media reports of other
attacks against Christians, including the shooting death of Andrea
Santoro, another Italian Catholic priest, in the Turkish Black Sea
city of Trabzon in 2006.

Turkey’s small Christian community has been targeted in a spate of
attacks over several years, prompting concern among human rights
groups and the European Union, which Ankara hopes to join.

Three Christians, two Turks and a German, had their throats slit by
youths who burst into their Bible publishing house in the southeastern
town of Malatya last year.

Turkish Armenian writer Hrant Dink was also slain last year in Istanbul
by a young nationalist gunman. A prosecutor on Monday indicted a
colonel for failing to provide protection to Dink, who had received
several death threats, Anatolian said.

Christians in Turkey number barely 100,000 in a total population of
nearly 75 million.

KAZAKHSTAN, ARMENIA CAN LAUNCH DIRECT RAIL COMMUNICATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.12.2008 15:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An agreement to build a railway connecting
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran has been already signed, a Kazakh
Embassy official said.

"The construction will be over in 2011. If Iran and Armenia agree
to build a link, direct communication will be establishment between
Kazakhstan and Armenia. Given Russia’s interest in the project,
I think it will be implemented," said Kartay Khairov, advisor on
economy at the Kazakh Embassy in Yerevan.

"As far as I know, the Armenian government has assigned $1 million
for the purpose," he said.

ACP ARMENIAN COMPANY MAY RECEIVE FIRST TRANCHE TO $50 MLN FROM RUSSIAN VTB IN 2009

ArmInfo
2008-12-24 14:56:00

Armenian metallurgical company Armenian Copper Programme (ACP) may
receive the first tranche to $50 mln from the Russian VTB Bank in 2009,
ACP Director Gagik Arzumanyan told ArmInfo.

He said the Company is currently negotiating with the bank for
attraction of the first tranche. "We hope the credit mastering will
start from 2009", G. Arzumanyan said. He also said it is scheduled
to direct the funds to preparation and exploitation of the Teghut
copper-molybdenum deposit in the north of Armenia.

To recall, the credit agreement between the Russian VTB and ACP
Company to the sum of $249,5 mln was signed in Yerevan on May 27,
2008. The credit has been extended for 12-year period and, according
to President-Chairman of VTB Board of Directors Andrey Kostin, "it has
an increased degree of risk for the bank". It is scheduled to start
exploiting the deposit in 2011. The ore reserves at Teghut deposit
make up 450 mln tons, copper reserves – 1,6 mln tons with 0,355%
average content and molybdenum reserves make up 99,000 tons with
0,021% average content. It is also envisaged to mine 25-30 thsd tons
of copper and 800 tons of molybdenum annually that will assure 40-
50% of the total copper mining and to 20% of molybdenum mining over
the republic in general. The license for exploitation of the deposit
was given to the company in 2001 for 25-year period. To note, 81%
shares of the Armenian Copper Programme CJSC belong to the Vallex
F.M. Establishment and 19% shares – to the Russian citizen Valery
Mejlumyan. Upon the results of 2007, the turnover of "Vallex" Group
made up $160 mln and the profit – $20 mln.