Author: Karabekian Emil

ARMENIA’S SECURITY SERVICES FAILED TO PREVENT OCT 27 TERRORIST ACT BECAUSE OF
LACK OF INFORMATION

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16. ARMINFO. Armenia’s security services failed
to prevent the Oct 27 1999 terrorist act in the Armenian parliament
simply because they had no information about it, the newly appointed
director of the national security service of Armenia, Maj Gen Gorik
Hakopyan says in an interview to Golos Armenii.

One should not forget the fact that the ringleader of the terrorists
Nairi Hunanyan had frequented the parliament and was personally
acquainted with some MPs. The special services of even stronger
countries sometimes fail to get warning information in time. Some
“experts” are now trying to evaluate and criticize the actions of
Armenia’s special services in Oct 1999. “I am saying with full
responsibility that our conscience is clear before the coming
generations,” says Hakopyan.

He notes that were it not for the iron will of Armenia’s President
Robert Kocharyan the situation could have led to some unpredictable
consequences. The special services acted then like in the rear of
an enemy. They were very much worried lest the terrorist might make
ultimatums and the death roll might have been longer. “We did our
best, we did everything any special services would normally do in
a situation like that.” “Our compatriots should understand that at
hard times the interests of the state are above all,” says Hakopyan.

Turkey angered by French statement

15.12.2004 15:30

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Turkey has reacted angrily to a demand by France
that it accept responsibility for a genocide against Armenians,
Armenpress reported citing The Times.

In response, a Turkish government spokesman said: `There was no such
genocide, so there is no question of recognizing a genocide that did
not happen.’

One Turkish official said: `They are just trying to make us angry. It
is their last chance to cause trouble against us.’

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
December 14, 2004 Tuesday

Duma speaker to discuss CIS strengthening in Yerevan

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

“The CIS strengthening and cooperation among the CIS states” will be
prioritized at the talks of State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov in the
Armenian capital. He made the statement upon arrival in Yerevan on
Tuesday evening. Gryzlov pays a three-day official visit in Yerevan
at the invitation of the leadership of Armenian parliament.

“We should discuss interparliamentary cooperation,” Duma speaker
emphasized. He recalled that the committee on interparliamentary
cooperation between the Russian Federal Assembly and the Armenian
National Assembly worked in Moscow early in December. “We will
consider our further ties in elaboration of the then signed
agreement,” he pointed out.

Gryzlov will also discuss trade and economic cooperation at a meting
with the Armenian leadership.

“At our talks we will also pay attention to the situation in Ukraine,
the current situation on the eve of another round of the election,”
the Duma speaker remarked. “I think we have topics to talk about” the
situation in Ukraine, Gryzlov indicated.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Dec 14 2004

Transport Minister says goods exported to Georgia must be checked

Oil products, including food exported from Azerbaijan to Georgia must
be inspected on the border, Minister for Transport Ziya Mammadov told
journalists on Sunday. `Only this way, the delivery of goods, which
are exported from Azerbaijan to Georgia, to Armenia will be
prevented. I think, the process should be continuous and each
carriage be checked,’ noted Mammadov, stressing that the Azerbaijani
President has given relevant instructions on the matter.
`It is necessary to check every carriage on the border unless the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper Garabagh is settled within the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,’ he emphasized.*

Turkish Press
Dec 10 2004

Hopefully In October
BYEGM: 12/10/2004
BY DERYA SAZAK

MILLIYET- In Turkey, the word `ohala’ means `hopefully.’ European
Parliament President Josep Borrel said recently in Brussels, `Turkey
wants to become part of Europe, but it should see the difficulties.
We will accept starting EU membership talks with Turkey. Our
watchword to our Turkish friends concerning membership is ohala.’ The
EP will convene on Dec. 14 in Strasbourg, just three days before the
Dec. 17 EU summit, to approve a decision to start membership talks
with Turkey. The importance of this decision in terms of the leaders’
summit is symbolic, that is, it’s not binding. However, a majority of
votes favoring Turkey might sway European public opinion. Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Turkey’s red lines, and this
might influence the Netherlands’ work reviewing the draft statement
for the summit. However, the latest draft didn’t dispel suspicions
about a date for talks and membership. Paragraphs left blank will be
filled by the leaders during next Friday’s EU summit. If the
screening process begins next April, it’s expected that an
intergovernmental conference meeting will be held in October.
Borrell’s `hopefully’ is based on this. However, if there’s
disagreement among the leaders concerning the nature of Turkey’s
membership or a date for talks, the problem will likely be left to
the European Commission.

Ankara wouldn’t want EU leaders to push the buck to the commission.
This is a worst-case scenario, and Erdogan would freeze the EU
process, as then Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz did during the 1997 EU
summit in Luxembourg. Even if there are certain technical problems in
Brussels, such a conclusion is the least likely scenario. Diplomatic
bargaining will continue until the night of Dec. 17. Obviously
everything won’t end with the beginning of our talks. In Brussels we
might face shocks: demands to de facto recognize the `Cyprus
Republic,’ to find a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue, and to
improve relations with Armenia. Everybody in the EP is saying
different things. Before the vote on Dec. 14, the submission of more
than 500 motions shows this, no?

Reuters
Persian Journal, Iran
Dar al-Hayat, Saudi Arabia
Dec 9 2004

Iran’s mullah-run judiciary arrests three cultural officials

Iran’s mullah-run judiciary has arrested three cultural officials for
organising a festival containing a brief display of dancing by a male
and female theatre group, the government-run Iran newspaper reported
on Thursday.

One hardline newspaper said the festival in the southern city of
Ahvaz contained “obscene and repulsive scenes of lewdness and ethical
violations in the guise of art.”

Physical contact between unrelated men and women in public is
outlawed under Iran’s strict Islamic moral code and female dancers
and singers are banned from performing in front of men.

Social and cultural restrictions have eased somewhat under the
government of moderate cleric President Mohammad Khatami.

But powerful conservatives deeply opposed to Western cultural
influences have stepped up their efforts to stamp out any watering
down of Islamic values in recent months.

Festival organiser Alireza Ajang, head of the Culture and Islamic
Guidance Ministry in southern Khuzestan province, and two of his
colleagues were arrested on charges of “encouraging immorality”. The
three were later released on $19,500 bail.

Deputy Culture Minister Mohammad Haqshenas said the incident had been
blown out of proportion.

“The whole festival should not be questioned due to three minutes out
of an Armenian group’s 70-minute performance,” Iran newspaper quoted
him as saying.

But the hardline Kayhan newspaper in, an editorial, called for the
officials to be sacked.

“The dancing of women in revealing gowns under the light of strong
projectors, the mixed dancing of men and women, and other ugly scenes
… were just some of the scandalous incidents of that day,” the
paper said.

Zenit News Agency, Italy
Dec 9 2004

On Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

“Beacon of Light for Humanity for All Times,” Says John Paul II

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 8, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the
address John Paul II delivered today, the solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception, before praying the midday Angelus with several thousand
pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

* * *

1. “Tota pulchra es, Maria!”

One hundred and fifty years ago, on December 8, 1854, Blessed Pius IX
proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy
Virgin.

The privilege of being preserved from original sin means that she is
the first redeemed by her Son. Her sublime beauty, a reflection of
that of Christ, is pledge for all believers of the victory of the
divine grace over sin and death.

2. The Immaculate Conception appears as a beacon of light for
humanity for all times. At the beginning of the third millennium, she
leads us to believe and hope in God, in his salvation, and in eternal
life. She illuminates particularly the path of the Church engaged in
the New Evangelization.

3. This afternoon, during the traditional homage to the Virgin in
Piazza di Spagna, I will entrust the city of Rome and the entire
world to her, Immaculate Mother of the Word-made-Man. We now appeal
to her powerful intercession, reciting the Angelus with filial
confidence.

[After praying the Angelus, the Pope said the following:]

Yesterday afternoon, in Mosul, in Iraq, a Catholic-Armenian church
and the Chaldean bishop’s palace were destroyed. I express my
spiritual closeness to the faithful, shaken by the attack, and
implore the Lord, through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin,
that the beloved Iraqi people may at last know a time of
reconciliation and peace.

I greet the pilgrims present, in particular the representatives of
the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate, headed by the Lord Cardinal
Andrzej Maria Deskur. Beloved: on this day of celebration I am
particularly close to you. I pray for you and encourage you to
persevere in your devotion to Mary Immaculate.

May the Virgin obtain for all the graces desired.

Armenian opposition secretary predicts election fraud

Arminfo
7 Dec 04

Yerevan, 7 December: “One cannot but call the discord inside the
ruling coalition about reforming Armenia’s electoral code ruckuses,”
the secretary of the parliamentary faction of the [Armenian] opposition
Justice bloc, Viktor Dallakyan, has told Arminfo.

The parties in the ruling coalition have neither a principled
position, nor the interests of the state in mind, he said. “The
issue of the ratio of the number of deputies elected on party lists
and from single-seat constituencies is artificially exaggerated. The
problem is not about the ratio of the number of deputies elected on
any system, but it is about the presence or lack of the will of the
authorities to hold just and fair elections. Under the circumstances,
the elections will be falsified equally both on the party lists and
in first-past-the-post constituencies,” Dallakyan stressed.

He said that the representatives of the three parties are only
concerned about having seats in the future parliament rather than
reforming the electoral code.

[Passage omitted: background]

Armenians Disappointed With Democratic Structures

Centre for Public Opinion and Democracy, Canada
Dec 6 2004

(CPOD) Dec. 6, 2004 – Many residents of Armenia are unhappy with thir
country’s outlook, according to a poll by the International
Foundation for Election Systems (IFES). 69 per cent of respondents
are dissatisfied with the overall situation in their country.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, hundreds of demonstrators
were detained in April and May during a series of protests against
the government. The offices of at least three opposition political
parties were raided.

President Robert Kocharyan was re-elected to a new four-year term in
March 2003 in an election marred by fraud allegations. 52 per cent of
respondents believe Armenia is not a democracy.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region is controlled by ethnic Armenians—who
consider the area an independent republic—but is claimed by
Azerbaijan as part of its territory. A war broke out in the early
1990s between both nations, ending in an unofficial truce negotiated
by Russia in 1994. Kocharyan was born in Nagorno-Karabakh and once
headed its government. Armenia is the only country that recognizes
Nagorno-Karabakh as a sovereign state.

Polling Data

Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the overall situation in the
country?

Satisfied
28%

Dissatisfied
69%

Is Armenia a democracy?

Not a democracy
52%

A democracy
12%

Both
31%

Don’t know
5%

Source: International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES)
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews to 1,606 Armenian adults,
conducted from Aug. 4 to Aug. 19, 2004. Margin of error is 2.4 per
cent.

–Boundary_(ID_cgF5N5x6NtTCm07srHlJrQ)–

VAZHA BARIDZE, FORMER DEPUTY PLENIPOTENTIARY OF PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA TO
JAVAKHK, FORMER HEAD OF BORJOMI REGION, ARRESTED

AKHALKALAKI, December 6 (Noyan Tapan). The arrests of
representatives of the former authorities are continuing in
Samtskhe-Javakheti. According to the “A-Info” Agency, Vazha Beridze,
former Plenipotentiary of the President of Georgia to Javakhk,
former Head of the Bozhomi region, was subjected to a three-month
preliminary detention by the sanction of the Javakhk Prosecutor
David Narimanishvili. According to the accusation, V. Beridze gave
land to an organization unlawfully, causing damage of 600,000 laris
to the state. But Vazha Beridze’s lawyer thinks that there are no
good reasons for Vazha Beridze’s arrest. In his turn, the Javakhk
Prosecutor made the detention conditional upon the considerations of
the effectiveness of the investigation.