Author: Nahapetian Lilit

Karabakh Open
Oct 13 2007

Why Chair of Supreme Court was dismissed

NKR President Bako Sahakyan signed a decree on dismissing the chair
of the Supreme Court Vladimir Osipyan. According to the news release
of the head information office of the NKR president, the powers of
the judge of the supreme court were suspended. We tried to find out
why the judge had been dismissed, but the information office declined
to comment and referred to the information they had provided.
Meanwhile, in accordance with the legislation, courts are independent
from the government. According to Article 110 of the Constitution, a
judge cannot be dismissed, and remains in office until age 65. A
judge is released of duties only in the cases and by the procedure
provided for by the Constitution and the law.
According to the article on president, the head of state nominates
the judges of the Supreme Court, according to Article 116 the head of
states appoints the judges of the district courts, the Court of
Appeal, and other courts, dismisses a judge, approves proceedings,
arrest or administrative proceedings against a judge. According to
Article 113, the top judicial body in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is
the Supreme Court. The chair and the other judges of the Court are
nominated by the president and affirmed by the National Assembly.
It is not clear why the chair of the Supreme Court was dismissed,
whether he had committed an offense or had reached age 65.

Arkansas News, AR
Oct 14 2007

Political Notebook: Arkansas step ahead of Congress on genocide
recognition
Sunday, Oct 14, 2007

By Rob Moritz and Aaron Sadler
Stephens Media

In contrast to the quickening controversy in Congress over
legislation to condemn the killings of Armenians in the early 20th
century, an action by Arkansas’ governor denouncing the deaths drew
little notice six years ago.

Turkey has recalled its U.S. ambassador and vehemently objected to a
bill approved Wednesday by a House panel to declare the Armenian
deaths at the hands of Ottoman Turks as genocide.

The Bush administration also opposes the bill, worried it would
fracture a fragile relationship with Turkey, a Middle East ally.

Then-Gov. Mike Huckabee on March 7, 2001, signed a proclamation in
Arkansas declaring a "Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide."

The proclamation was requested by the Armenian National Committee of
America.

The document stated that at least 1.5 million Armenians were killed
between 1915 and 1923, and that the Armenian people have not received
reparations for their losses. It also said the current Turkish
government "engages in a campaign of ‘denial of the Armenian
Genocide.’"

Leo Stepanian of Fort Smith, the son of Armenian immigrants, said he
requested Huckabee sign the recognition in advance of Armenian
Martyrs Day on April 24 of that year.

In what was perhaps an attempt to "keep the peace," as Stepanian
said, in Arkansas, Huckabee also proclaimed April 23 as "Turkish
Heritage and Children’s Day" and April 24 as a "Day of Remembrance of
the Turkish and Armenian Tragedy."

Stepanian, indignant over the other proclamations even six years
later, said: "It was not a tragedy. It was a genocide."

Huckabee is now a Republican candidate for president.

"The 2001 proclamations were like many proclamations requested by
Arkansas citizens and there was no intention to make a political
point at all," said Alice Stewart, Huckabee’s press secretary, on
Friday.

The proclamations were also signed by then-Secretary of State Sharon
Priest. When contacted Friday, Priest said she did not recall the
details of the gubernatorial proclamation, one of hundreds issued by
Huckabee during his decade in office.

Stepanian said 39 other states had condemned the Turks’ actions as
genocide.

"It took me about five or six months to get Gov. Huckabee to do
this," said Stepanian, who said his mother lost four brothers and his
father nearly his entire family in the killings.

The Turkish government denies that Armenians were killed in an
organized genocide, but instead said the deaths were because of
massive problems related to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"I’m not blaming the present Turkish government, but they continually
deny the Ottoman Turks did something like this," Stepanian said.

The bill in Congress cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee and
advances to the full House.

0/14/WashingtonDCBureau/343639.html

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Oct 13 2007

Turkish Foreign Ministry, US officials hold talks on Armenian bill

Ankara, 13 October: US Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried and US
Undersecretary of Defence Eric Edelman held talks at the Turkish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Ankara on Saturday [13 October]
.

Following their meeting with MFA Undersecretary Ertugrul Apakan and
the other officials, Edelman said that they came to Ankara to express
their regret over the House vote on the resolution (regarding
Armenian allegations on the incidents of 1915) and to display their
administration’s determination to oppose the bill at the Congress.

Noting that they held constructive talks with Turkish officials,
Edelman said that the Turkish party expressed its disappointment with
the approval of the resolution.

Meanwhile, Fried said that the resolution could harm efforts to
improve the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Asked about his opinion on Turkey’s likely reaction in case of
passage of the resolution by the full House, Edelman said that it is
evident that Turkey will display its reaction in some way.

He stressed that the parties should concentrate on their long-term
and common interests. Edelman highlighted importance of the
determination of the US administration to prevent passage of the
resolution.

Upon a question about a likely cross-border operation into north of
Iraq, Edelman said that Turkish officials expressed their concerns
over recent developments in the southeastern city of Sirnak and
terrorism, and added that the United States shared those concerns.

Edelman said that they will convey Turkey’s unease to the relevant
parties, adding they will especially inform Iraqi authorities that
Turkey’s patience is about to come to an end.

He said that they might return to Turkey for more discussions after
the weekend.

New Europe, Belgium
Oct 13 2007

Turkey angry with US over Armenian genocide bill
13 October 2007 – Issue : 751

Photo: Turkish Workers Party, IP, leader Dogu Perincek speaks with
journalists in front of the Palais de Justice during a break of his
trial on denial of the Armenian genocide, in Lausanne, Switzerland,
March 6, 2007 after several public appearances

ANA/EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON

A US congressional panel approval of a resolution calling the
slaughter of more than one million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
`genocide,’ a move President George W Bush warned could jeopardize
US-Turkish relations, and which immediately drew the wrath of Turkish
leaders.
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted 27-21 in favour of the
bill despite Bush’s strong opposition over concerns its will
undermine US policies in the Middle East and the war effort in Iraq,
where US troops depend on the shipment of equipment and supplies
through Turkey.
`This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a
key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror,’ Bush said.
`We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people
that began in 1915,’ Bush said, Deutsche-Presse-Agentur (dpa)
reported. Bush has previously called the slaughter `forced exile and
murder’ but has not used the term `genocide.’
He called past events in Turkey one of the greatest tragedies of the
20th century. However, historic scholarship had to show whether or
not the term genocide was appropriate, he said.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul sharply criticised the resolution, the
Anadolu news agency reported Thursday. The resolution was not
acceptable, Gul was quoted as saying by Anadolu. Gul said politicians
in the United States had sacrificed important issues for internal
political games. Turkey vehemently denies the genocide accusation.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top US lawmaker, plans on bringing the
resolution for a full vote before the House of Representatives, but
no date has been set, a spokesman from her office said. The Senate is
considering a similar resolution to label as genocide the killing of
up to 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923.
Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California whose district
includes a large number of Armenian-Americans, introduced the bill.
`How can we take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if
we lack the will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it
occurs?’ he said.
The Bush administration made a late push to defeat the resolution. US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert
Gates privately met with lawmakers to urge them to drop the measure,
and spoke to reporters hours before the vote.
The bill also comes as the United States seeks to prevent Turkey from
taking military action in Iraq against Kurdish rebels responsible for
a recent ambush on a convoy that left 13 Turkish soldiers dead.
`The passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be very
problematic for everything that we’re trying to do in the Middle East
because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally,’ Rice
said.
Gates said the bill would undermine the US war effort in Iraq because
Turkey is a transit point for most of the military equipment and
supplies shipped into Iraq.
`Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would be
very much put at risk if this resolution passes and the Turks react
as strongly as we believe they will,’ Gates said. About 70 percent of
air cargo into Iraq and 30 percent of the fuel used by the US
military goes through Turkey, Gates said.
The bill has enjoyed broad support in the House. Lawmakers believe
the United States has an obligation to speak truthfully and condemn
acts against humanity.
`The sad truth is that the modern government of Turkey refuses to
come to terms with this genocide,’ Representative Christopher Smith,
a Republican from New Jersey said. `The Turkish government
consistently and aggressively refuses to acknowledge the Armenian
genocide.’
Representative Robert Wexler said there is no dispute that the
massacre was one of the `darkest chapters’ of the last century but
said a resolution labeling it genocide could complicate the
reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia.
`I strongly believe this resolution will further divide these two
nations and these two peoples … and will inflame a region of the
world already under great duress,’ he said.
Bush telephoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier
to express his strong opposition to the bill. At the same time, Bush
administration officials have emphasised their opposition to the bill
does not deny the tragedy of the mass murders.

The Guardian, UK
Oct 12 2007

Turks threaten to ‘play hardball’ with US after genocide vote

· Armenians row could hit supply links to Iraq
· Bill may come before full house today

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday October 12, 2007
The Guardian

Turkey yesterday recalled its ambassador in Washington and warned
that it would "play hardball" to persuade the US Congress to abandon
a bill recognising the historic persecution of Armenians. The
diplomatic rebuke to Washington came amid furious lobbying by Bush
administration officials to try to roll back the bill.
The measure, which was endorsed by the House of Representatives’
foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, in defiance of warnings from
administration and Turkish officials, would recognise the 1915
massacres and forced deportations of Armenians as genocide.

A house vote on the bill could come as early as today, although the
resolution’s future in the Senate is far less certain.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday the ambassador,
Nabi Sensoy, would stay in Ankara for about a week or 10 days. "We
are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations," the spokesman, Levent Bilman, told
reporters.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was summoned to
the foreign ministry in Ankara, where officials expressed their
"unease".

In Washington a visiting adviser to the Turkish prime minister,
Tayyip Erdogan, suggested there would be more such manoeuvres to
come. "I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball," the
adviser, Egeman Bagis, told reporters.

The anti-US backlash comes only days before the Turkish parliament is
expected to vote for broader intervention in northern Iraq following
Wednesday’s air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel positions. Such a
move is opposed by the Bush administration and the EU, which fear
disrupting the relative peace in northern Iraq. The EU foreign policy
chief, Javier Solana, told reporters in Brussels yesterday: "Any
possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq
is something that should not be welcome." However, widespread anger
over both Kurdish rebel attacks and the genocide bill could push
Turkish legislators into supporting military strikes.

The response from Ankara yesterday to the vote in the house committee
was predictably harsh. In a statement on his website the Turkish
president, Abdullah Gul, called the resolution "unacceptable", and
said it would harm US-Turkish relations.

The sentiments were expanded in a statement from the Turkish foreign
ministry which said: "The committee’s approval of this resolution was
an irresponsible move, which at a greatly sensitive time will make
relations with a friend and ally, and a strategic partnership
nurtured over generations, more difficult."

Bush administration officials were almost as scathing, and said
yesterday that they feared Turkey would cut vital supply lines to
Iraq. About 70% of US air cargo for Iraq goes through Turkey. The
Turkish press also condemned the US Congress, with the Hurriyet
newspaper describing the measure as a "bill of hatred".

Public anger at the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) rebels is high,
after the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers on Sunday. However, Mr
Erdogan said there would not necessarily be an immediate intervention
against the rebels, believed to be based in northern Iraq. "There
have been 24 operations so far. Assessments have shown that they
haven’t yielded that much of a result. We are taking this into
account," Mr Erdogan told CNN’s Turkish language service.

TER-PETROSYAN MET BAKO SAHAKYAN

A1+
[07:30 pm] 11 October, 2007

The RA first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan met the NKR President Bako
Sahakyan and congratulated him. The parties talked separately for
about an hour. We learnt about this from the head of the NKR office
Avetis Avagyan. But we have not received any detailed information
about the meeting.

On his way to Yerevan Levon Ter-Petrosyan communicated with the people
gathered the square in Lachin. The meeting was very friendly. As to
the meetings with the political powers in Armenia, the office of
the first President has no connection with them. The meetings are
organized by the political powers that support Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

PELOSI TO BRING UP ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL

Gulf Times, Qatar
Oct 12 2007

WASHINGTON: House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said
yesterday she would present an Armenian "genocide" bill to the
Democratic-led chamber despite US and Turkish anger over the measure.

"It has come out of committee and it will go to the floor," she told
reporters after the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday
to label the wartime massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as
"genocide."

However, bringing a legislative measure to the floor does not guarantee
that it will proceed to a full vote, a step that the White House
warned could cause "great harm" to relations with Nato ally Turkey.

Pelosi did not specify a date for the floor debate on the non-binding
resolution, but reports said she was considering November. Asked
whether she was concerned a heated House debate could damage the
crucial military and diplomatic alliance between the US and Turkey,
Pelosi said she had been hearing such talk for 20 years.

"Why do it now? Well because there is never a good time," she said.

The US and Turkey have a very strong relationship, it is based on
mutual interest.

"This isn’t about the Erdogan government, this is about the Ottoman
Empire."

Authored by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, whose California
district contains the country’s largest ethnic-Armenian community,
the measure has already won support from at least 226 co-sponsors in
the 435-seat House.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said meanwhile the
administration would maintain intense pressure on lawmakers, in an
attempt to thwart the resolution.

"We are going to be continuing to work with Congress on this and
try and see if we can keep it from passing on the floor," Casey
told reporters.

According to the Armenians, 1.5mn of their kinsmen were killed
from 1915 to 1923 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation
and murder.

Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.

US COMMITTEE APPROVES ANTI-TURKISH RESOLUTION

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Oct 11 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that approving the resolution
"would be very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the
Middle East".

WASHINGTON – The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of
Representatives on Wednesday adopted a resolution describing the
killing of Armenian’s by the Ottoman Empire during World War One as
an act of genocide.

The resolution, passed with a vote of 27 in favour to 21 against, was
adopted despite strong lobbying from Turkey and senior officials of
the Bush Administration. Both have warned that passing the resolution
could harm Turkish-US ties.

Turkey has strenuously rejected Armenian claims that the Ottoman
Empire committed an act of genocide during World War One, though does
acknowledge that up to 300,000 Armenians died during civil unrest in
the eastern provinces of what is now modern Turkey. However, it also
points to the fact that up to half a million ethnic Turks also died
during the strife.

Prior to the vote, President George W Bush said that adopting the
resolution "would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in
NATO and in the global war on terror".

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

NESIB LAHHOUD VISIT CATHOLICOS ARAM I

Late on the evening of October 10, His Holiness Aram I received one of the
main candidates of the upcoming presidential elections in Lebanon, Nesib
Lahoud in Bikfaya. The Pontiff and his guest held talks on the current
situation in Lebanon and the presidential elections.

Earlier that day the Catholicos had met with the spiritual Head of the
Maronite community, His Beatitude Patriarch Sfeir.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CALLS ON TURKEY NOT TO RESPOND WITH DAMAGING COUNTERMEASURES

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.10.2007 14:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. Department of State said it regrets
approval of the Armenian Genocide Resolution by the House Committee
of Foreign Affairs.

"We regret that the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved
House Resolution 106 and sent it on for consideration by the full
House. The Administration continues strongly to oppose this resolution,
passage of which may do grave harm to U.S.-Turkish relations and to
U.S. interests in Europe and the Middle East.

Nor will it improve Turkish-Armenian relations or advance
reconciliation among Turks and Armenians over the terrible events of
1915," said a statement issued by the U.S. Department of State.

"The United States recognizes the immense suffering of the Armenian
people due to mass killings and forced deportations at the end of
the Ottoman Empire. We support a full and fair accounting of the
atrocities that befell as many as 1.5 million Armenians during World
War I, which H.Res.106 does not do," it said.

Assistant Secretary of State Nick Burns said the department was
communicating to Turkey its unhappiness with the vote and its desire
to keep working closely with Ankara.

He said he hopes Turkey would not respond with damaging
countermeasures.

"We hope very much that the disappointment can be limited to statements
and not extend to anything concrete that would interfere with the very
good way that we have been working with the Turks for so many years."