Author: Tashjian Arbi

Verheugen Says EU Needs Turkey’s Unity

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Jan 22 2007

BURSA – Vice President of the European Commission Guenter Verheugen
said Saturday that they know the difficulties regarding Turkey`s
accession to the European Union and noted that these difficulties
will be tackled.

Verheugen said EU needs Turkey`s unity in terms of security,
development and especially living in peace.

Guenter Verheugen inaugurated an EU Coordination Center, established
by the municipality in northwestern city of Bursa, where he came to
visit a shelter that was built for stray animals.

After his tour of the shelter, Verheugen said he was extremely
impressed by what he saw today. Verheugen said he had always expressed
that Turkey should harmonize with EU standards but this time he changed
his mind after what he saw today. Ha said EU countries should follow
Turkey this time as the shelter was such a modern facility.

Commenting on Turkey`s membership to EU, Verheugen said he believes
difficulties will be tackled.

Stating that there are misunderstandings and mistakes about the issue,
Verheugen said the only way to overcome those is to tell the truth
all the time.

He said the fact is Turkey normally has a European location, culture
and lifestyle.

Underscoring that Turkey showed improvement on its path to EU
membership, Verheugen stressed that Turkish people should be proud
of it. He said Europe has to admit it as well.

Responding to a question on the murder of journalist Hrant Dink,
editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
Verheugen noted that Turkey is presented very differently to the world.

He said some people want to show Turkey as a country of violence and
hatred. Verheugen said it should not be allowed.

On the other hand, executives of the shelter gave a dog to Verheugen
and his wife as a gift.

The shelter for stray animals cost 3 million YTL and is said to be
the most modern and biggest facility in Europe.

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

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

THE ARMENIAN CATHOLICOSATE OF CILICIA WILL BE REPRESENTED AT THE
FUNERAL OF HRANT DINK

His Holiness Aram I has delegated the Dean of the Seminary
V. Rev. Fr. Shahe Panossian to present the Armenian Catholicosate
of Cilicia at the funeral of Hrant Dink. Yesterday, His Holiness
presided over the requiem service for the soul of Hrant Dink at the
Antelias Cathedral.

Catholicos Aram I had a telephone conversation with His Beatitude
Mesrob II Moutafian, the Patriarch of Constantinople. He strongly
condemned the assassination of Hrant Dink and expressed his condolences
to His Beatitude, to the Dink family and Armenian community of Turkey.

##

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
history and 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.

Agence France Presse — English
January 20, 2007 Saturday

Greece says journalist’s ‘atrocious’ murder means to hurt Turkey’s EU
course

Greece on Saturday condemned the "atrocious" murder" of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink as an intended blow to
Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union.

"The atrocious murder of Hrant Dink, a man who fought for the
fundamental right of freedom of speech, is directly aimed at the
efforts of the Turkish people to win their European future," Greek
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said in a statement.

Greece has publicly supported Turkey’s efforts to join the EU bloc
despite a deep-rooted regional rivalry and tension over the continued
division of Cyprus, whose northern third Turkey seized in 1974 in
response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting
the island with Greece.

Editor of the weekly Agos newspaper, Dink died when an unidentified
gunman shot him three times in the head and neck outside his office
in Istanbul.

The 53-year-old journalist had questioned official versions of
history in Turkey relating to the massacres of Armenians between 1915
and 1918 in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, which drew the
wrath of nationalists and the judiciary.

"CIA and Mossad are Behind the Hrant Dink Murder"
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Jan. 22, 2007

94

DIYARBAKIR – Sevket Kazan, Deputy of the Saadet Party (SP) of Turkey,
argued that the CIA and Mossad planned and organised the murder
against the Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink.

"The boys were used in Trabzon and in Sisli attacks and murders, but
the real murderer are the CIA and the Mossad" Mr. Kazan said. Sevket
Kazan further continued in his Diyarbakir speech:

"Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is a victim of an assasination. Of
course, it is an event to be condemned…. The priest murder in
Trabzon and the Dink Murder, both, were committed by the boys under 18
years old… The CIA and the Mossad are the behinde of all these
murders, yet they use domestic tools for these crimes. Their main aim
is to instablise Turkey."

JTW
22 January 2007

Reuters, UK
Jan 21 2007

Teenager shot editor for insulting Turks: report

Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:31am ET
By Paul de Bendern

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – An unemployed teenager has told investigators he
shot dead editor Hrant Dink because he had insulted Turks,
broadcaster CNN Turk reported on Sunday.

Police caught Ogun Samast, 17, carrying a gun at a bus station in the
Black Sea coastal town of Samsun on Saturday evening, a day after the
Turkish-Armenian Dink was shot in broad daylight outside his
newspaper office in Istanbul.

"I read on the Internet that he (Dink) said ‘I am from Turkey but
Turkish blood is dirty’ and I decided to kill him … I do not regret
this," CNN Turk quoted Samast as saying.

Dink was a respected but controversial figure who promoted
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians but also called on Turkey
to recognize its role in massacres of Armenians during World War One.
Turkish nationalists saw such comments as an insult to national
honor.

Samsun’s chief prosecutor Ahmet Gokcinar confirmed to state-run
Anatolian news agency that Samast had confessed.

Samast and six other suspects are being questioned in Istanbul,
police said. One suspect, Yasin Hayal, served 11 months in jail for
the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, Vatan daily
said.

"The murder was planned in Trabzon and carried out in Istanbul.
Everybody who helped with this has been identified," Trabzon governor
Huseyin Yavuzdemir said.

The affair has shocked Turkey and raised questions about the
country’s tolerance for minorities and freedom of expression as it
seeks to join the European Union. Newspapers demanded authorities
leave no stone unturned in investigating the latest in a series of
politically-motivated murders in Turkey.

MODERATE VOICE

Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent and editor-in-chief of
the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

He was frequently criticized by right-wing Turks, including
politicians and prosecutors, for describing the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide.

The once-influential Armenian community in Turkey has dwindled to
some 60,000 people.

Last year, Turkey upheld a six-month suspended jail sentence against
Dink for "insulting Turkey’s identity" in his writings on Armenians
and Turks. Several other cases related to comments on the massacres
of Armenians were pending against him.

Dozens of intellectuals have been charged with insulting Turkish
identity under article 301 of the revised penal code — passed by the
current AK Party government.

Most, including Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, were taken
to court by nationalist-minded prosecutors for comments related to
the alleged genocide of Armenians.

Turkey denies 1.5 million Armenians died in a systematic genocide. It
says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in a conflict on
Ottoman territory during World War One.

France has made it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide and the U.S.
Congress is to debate a similar bill.

The ruling AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, has
repeatedly promised to revise the much criticized penal code article.
The European Union wants Ankara to change the law.

The government is likely to face pressure to address freedom of
expression and also the country’s dark past as presidential and
parliamentary elections approach.

"Just wait and see how this will resonate outside," wrote leading
columnist Mehmet Ali Birand. "Turkey will be blamed for everything.
Newspapers will write about how Turkish people could not tolerate a
liberal journalist of Armenian origin. Can there be any greater harm
to our country?"

(Additional reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara)

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Jan 19 2007

Turkish interior, justice ministers fly to Istanbul after
journalist’s killing

Istanbul, 19 January: Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu and
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek arrived in Istanbul on Friday [19
January].

Aksu and Cicek immediately flew from Ankara to Istanbul after Turkish
journalist of Armenian descent Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of
bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot dead today.

Meanwhile, the office hours of Istanbul police have been extended
till further notice over assassination of Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief
of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, on Friday.

Personnel of Istanbul Security Department will not leave their
offices till further notice.

Dink was shot in front of his office building in Sisli district of
Istanbul and died instantly at the scene. Police detained two
suspects.

FOUR BABIES BORN IN ARMENIA AT ONCE

Yerevan, January 19. ArmInfo. For the first time within 13 years four
babies were born at once in Armenia. Razmik Abrahamyan, Head of
Republican Centre of Gynecology, told ArmInfo that Meline Mkhitaryan,
27, citizen of Yerevan, gave birth to the children.

Three baby boys and a baby girl weight v 1660, 1700, 1760 and 1560
gr. The babies will be kept some time in the hospital to undergo
therapy.

Turkey’s Most Prominent Armenian Hrant Dink Shot Dead (Update3)
Bloomberg News
Jan. 19, 2007
amp;sid=anPK9roE4CkM&refer=europe
By Mark Bentley and Ayla Jean Yackley

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor who
had received death threats from nationalists for questioning Turkey’s denial
of an Armenian genocide, was shot in the head and killed today.
Dink was assassinated by a gunman outside of the Istanbul office of his Agos
newspaper, a spokeswoman for the publication said in a telephone interview.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the murder as an attack against
the “Turkish nation’s togetherness and peace and Turkey’s stability.”
Turkish stocks fell after the killing.
A Turkish court in July sentenced Dink to a sixth-month suspended prison term
from “insulting Turkishness” for a 2004 article he wrote about the
massacre of Armenians by Turks during World War I. The European Union has criticized
Turkish laws that limit freedom of expression and says Turkey’s denial of a
genocide obstructs its membership bid.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said he was “shocked and saddened” by
the killing and called Dink “a campaigner for freedom of expression in
Turkey.”
Dink had faced several court cases for articles that he wrote about the
massacre of Armenians. The EU has called on Turkey to halt the prosecution of
writers and journalists for expressing opinions, or face the suspension of its
membership bid. Several Turkish journalists and intellectuals have been killed
in the past for expressing controversial opinions. Many of those murders
remain unsolved.
Nationalist Anger
Nationalists, many of whom strongly oppose Turkey’s bid to join the EU, have
been outraged by assertions that the killings were a genocide and accuse
European countries that have recognized the killings as a genocide, like France
and Italy, of trying to tarnish Turkey’s honor.
Just before his death, Dink, 52, had complained of death threats he was
receiving. Dink, editor of the country’s main Armenian newspaper, was well known
in Turkey and had repeatedly appeared on television and had addressed members
of parliament at their invitation.
“My computer is laden with lines filled with angry threats,” Dink wrote in
a Jan. 10 article for Agos. He said he found one letter “extremely
worrying” and said police took no action after he complained.
Police arrested two people in connection with Dink’s death, NTV television
reported. Police believe a male aged 18 or 19 may have killed him, CNN Turk
television reported citing unidentified police officials.
Earlier Convictions
Dink was convicted last year after he wrote about the Turkish government’s
refusal to take responsibility for the massacre of Armenians. He denies that
the remarks were insulting, saying that he was trying to bring Turks and
Armenians closer together. Armenians say 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in
a planned genocide. Turkey says that number is inflated and Turks and
Armenians were killed during ethnic clashes.
Akin Birdal, the former head of Turkey’s Human Rights Association who was
shot six times in 1998 in his office by a suspected nationalist, called the
shooting “an organized attempt by those who want to destroy Turkey’s European
Union aspirations to cast Turkey into darkness.”
Police in riot gear surrounded Dink’s office in downtown Istanbul. Forensic
teams were combing the pavement outside for clues to the murder.
Stocks fell as much as 1 percent in Istanbul following the attack after
rising 1.4 percent earlier. They ended the day down 0.1 percent at 40,201.14.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara, Turkey on at
[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) Ayla Jean
Yackley in Istanbul at [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) .
Last Updated: January 19, 2007 12:23 EST

ARMENIA RECEIVED FIRST BATCH OF "BELAZ" QUARRY DUMP-TRUCKS WITH CARRYING CAPACITY OF 130 TONS

Yerevan, January 16. ArmInfo. Armenia has received the first batch of
"BelAz" quarry dump-trucks with carrying capacity of 130 tons, the
press-service of "BelAz Caucasus Trans Service" Company told ArmInfo.

To note, it is the first time Armenia receives the quarry dump-trucks
with such carrying capacity. Presently, the park of trucks, available
in the Republic, comprises mainly 45- and 55-ton quarry dump-trucks.

The trucks will work in the Sot gold deposit, operated by the Ararat
Gold Recovery Company (AGRC). As of today, a set of 4 dump-trucks
has been received from Belarus. Further, it is scheduled to bring 12
heavy-load dump-trucks more.

To recap, the Contract for delivery of 16 "BelAz"dump-trucks had
been signed between the AGRC and "BelAz Caucasus Trans Service" in
November, 2006. The Contract is a beginning of a long-term project
between the Armenian mining company and the Belarusian manufacturer
of quarry equipment, which have been fruitfully cooperating within
several years. According to the Contract, the AGRC will receive all
the spare parts for the quarry dump-trucks.

Purchase of heavy-load dump-trucks is a constituent part of the
investment program of a big Indian mining and smelting Corporation
"Vedanta Resources" for the development of its Armenian structure of
AGRC. During the last meeting with the RA President Robert Kocharyan,
the owner of "Vedanta Resources", Anil Agarval, said about $100 mln
will be invested into AGRC.

The main partners of "BelAz" in Armenia are the leading mining
enterprises, the Zangezur and Agarak copper- molybdenum industrial
complexes and the Ararat Gold Recovery Company.

MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS

A1+
[05:33 pm] 17 January, 2007

A report aimed at improving the situation of women in the South
Caucasus has just been adopted by the Committee on Equal Opportunities
for Women and Men of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE).

According to the rapporteur, Vera Oskina (Russia, EDG), the
situation is worrying on several counts, the first of these being the
participation of women in political life: the parliamentarians deplored
the current levels of representation in the parliaments concerned
– 4.6% in Armenia, 10.5% in Azerbaijan and 9.4% in Georgia – and
recommended an increase in the minimum rate of female representation.

Concerning discrimination in the workplace, the parliamentarians
have called for a narrowing of the gap in salaries between women
and men for example, particularly in the private sector, as well as
protection for pregnant women against the loss of their job. In the
health field, the parliamentarians called for measures to reduce the
number of abortions and pregnancies among girls, through affordable
or if necessary free contraception.

Finally, the parliamentarians want the authorities of the countries
concerned to realise that violence against women exists, especially
domestic violence, a subject that is still largely taboo. Other
aspects covered include refugee and displaced women, and women in
prison. The committee wants the debate to be put on the agenda of
the PACE spring session.