Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

GERMAN AND FRENCH WARN TURKS FOR ATTEMPTS TO RENOUNCE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Panorama.am
14:09 20/03/06

On March 18 about 20 demonstrations were expected to take place in
Berlin, about 1500 policemen had to do overtime work to protect the
demonstrators from indiscipline.

Turkish nationalistic organizations had planned a great demonstration
on March 18 in concern with 85th anniversary of death of taleat
pasha. And about 4 million Turks living in Germany were to “take
their flags and come to Berlin” to take part in “the great event of
the year” in order to prove that the Turks are “innocent” and that
there was no Armenian Genocide in Western Turkey.

That impudent announcement infuriated even Berlin Police and the
demonstration was banned. Yet, the slimy organizers got the right to
hold the demonstration by a Court resolution. On March 16 the police
appealed to Berlin-Brandenburg Departmental Court with the demand to
ban the demonstration as “taleat pasha” was one of the main organizers
of Armenian Genocide”.

Yet the Supreme Court of Democratic Germany couldn’t uphold the
claim and passed a resolution rather important for the Armenians:
“Allow the demonstration on a strict stipulation: any poster, speech,
picture or opinion denying the Armenian Genocide will be condemned
by 189 article of Criminal Code (reviling of memory of victims).”

About 1700 participants of the demonstration on March 18 were watched
by the police from Urania to Charlottenburg. They demanded from
the demonstrators to show all the posters and pictures. Turkish
demonstrators demanded that the Bundestag should call beck the
resolution of July 16, 2005 according to which Germany adopted the
fact of Armenian Genocide.

On the other hand the German Right Extremists (NPD) had organized a
demonstration of protest against the Turks. They warned the Turkish
demonstrators with posters and appeals like “No Parisian situation
in Berlin”, “Berlin is a German city”.

German Left Party (PDS) had also surrounded Charlottenburger
Chlosschtrassen as a sign of protest against Turkish demonstrators.

Christian Democratic and Christian Social (CDU/CSU) parties condemned
Turkish nationalists strictly.

It should be mentioned that the demonstration turned in favor of the
Armenians. As it is known, demonstrations were held in French cities
Lion and Marsalis. And here the French defended the Armenian Trial.

The procession of Turkish nationalists organized in Lion had a
dramatic end. Yet, French (!) demonstrators stood on the way of the
Turkish demonstrators and the police had to use tear-gas to calm the
demonstrators.

TALAT PASHA RALLY BEGINS IN BERLIN

Anatolian Times, Turkey
March 19 2006

Turks In Lyon Protest Erection Of So-Called Armenian Genocide Monument

BERLIN/LYON – The “Berlin Talat Pasha Movement” rally to protest the
decision of the German parliament on the so-called Armenian genocide
has begun today in Berlin.

Over 5,000 Turks attended the Berlin rally.

Meanwhile, Turks living in Lyon, France have protested the erection
of a monument on the so-called Armenian genocide in Lyon. Turkish
demonstrators held Turkish and French flags in their hands.

SWISS GROUP OFFERS A $200 MILLION INVESTMENT PROPOSAL

Armenpress

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS: Deputy urban minister Karlen Gevorkian
said the government was considering an investment plan proposed by
a Swiss National Recycling Group (NRC) that wants to start a refuse
cycling business in Armenia.

The deputy minister said the Swiss company said it was ready to settle
the refuse problem of all Armenian settlements with 10,000 and more
population. The investment plan, assessed around $at 200 million,
envisages construction of five refuse cycling plants and import of a
great deal of equipment. Gevorkian said the ministry and the Yerevan
municipality have received some other proposals, particularly, from
Russian companies which want to take up the business of garbage
collection and recycling. He said all these proposals were being
examined.

He said a grant pledged by the government of Japan will be used for
constriction of a biogas collector in Nubarashen dump. Part of the
gas will be used for production of electricity. He said similar tests
are going on in Vanadzor and Gyumri dumps.

U.S. Negotiators Say Peace Talks Stall but Not Dead

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

17/03/2006 19:12

A senior American diplomat believes there is still an opportunity
for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make a breakthrough in the Karabakh
settlement process.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried said in Yerevan on Thursday that he is convinced that
negotiations can be continued despite the lack of progress at the
latest round of high-level talks at Rambouillet.

“Both governments express their countries’ interests and take the
Karabakh settlement process seriously,” Fried said, sharing with
the media his impressions of the meetings with officials in Baku
and Yerevan.

On the last leg of his regional tour in the Armenian capital, Daniel
Fried met with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

Fried, who had visited Azerbaijan and Georgia, said the goal of his
trip was to study the situation in the region after the Rambouillet
meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as
to discuss a number of issues pertaining to the future of the region,
including energy security.

OSCE Minsk Group Cochairman from the United States Steven Mann, who
accompanied the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs in his tour, said: “It is a difficult fact that we
did not move ahead at Rambouillet. But the two countries’ presidents
are willing to move forward.”

On Wednesday, Fried and Mann had dinner with a dozen politicians
representing Armenia’s pro-government and opposition forces.

Fried said the U.S. Government is also interested in the democratic
situation in Armenia.

The American diplomats left Yerevan for Istanbul later on Thursday
to attend a meeting of the Minsk Group cochairmen due to be held there.

NKR SECURITY COUNCIL SITTING

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
16 March 2006

On March 13, President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Arkady
Ghukassian summoned an enlarged sitting of the NKR Security Council
in the course of which issues related to the current stage of the
negotiations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement were, in
particular, discussed. Getting acquainted with the activity carried
out in the frames of the process of working out the NKR Constitution,
the President instructed to call a sitting of the Constitutional
Commission in the current week for summing up the results of that ac
tivity. The participants of the sitting discussed also a number of
issues of social-economic development of the republic.

LEAVES OR NOT…

A1+
05:32 pm 16 March, 2006

Today in the USA Embassy in Armenia the journalists tried to find out
whether the rumors about George Avans’ already handing the documents
of his return to Robert Kocharyan correspond to the reality. Does it
mean that the USA president George Bush’s policy contradicts to the
use of the word “genocide?”

The question made Mr. Avans get irritated. “I serve the USA president,
that’s all,” he said. The Vice Secretary of the State Department Daniel
Fried came to help him. “The position of the USA Administration is
clear. Every year George Bush makes announcements and he considers the
latest actions against the Armenians in the territory of the Osmanian
Empire a real tragedy. Such announcements will also be heard this
year. I have been working with the Ambassador Evans for 20 years and
we shall go on our work while he is in Armenia.”

ARMENIAN CB PERMITS COMMERCIAL BANKS TO TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT AND ACCOUNT SYSTEM WESTERN UNION

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 14 2006

YEREVAN, March 14. /ARKA/. The Council of the Central Bank of Armenia
permitted Armenian commercial banks to take part in the international
payment system Western Union. The CBA Press Service reported that
this decision was made at the sitting of the CBA Council presided
by the CBA Chairman Tigran Sargsyan. Permission was granted to 14
commercial banks of Armenia.

In February 2006, the CBA Council made a decision to refuse the right
of participation in Western Union money transfer system to commercial
banks due to discrepancies in the WU regulation, revealed during the
examination of commercial banks’ applications, submitted to the CBA.

The CBA Board’s decision is to take effect from March 15, 2006.

Banks were granted the opportunity to submit new applications
for participation in the WU payment system in conformity with the
contractual amendments. The WU system started cooperating with Armenian
banks on a probation basis in 1995. The system has officially been
working in Armenia since 1996.

During the period under review 14 Armenian banks joined the WU
system. In 2005 money transfers effected by Armenian banks by means
of the system amounted to AMD 44.4bln. In 2005 the share of the WU
system in the total amount of money transfers was 16.04% and 19.85%
of their number. ($1 – AMD 452.94).

Armenia Fund, Inc.
111 North Jackson St. Ste. 205
Glendale, CA 91206

T | 818-243-6222
F | 818-243-7222
E | [email protected]

Contact : Sarkis Kotanjian
For Immediate Release
March 15, 2006

Armenia Fund Rebuilds Water Main System for Marmarashen
Lebanese Affiliate Finances Project

Yerevan, Armenia – Armenia Fund’s Lebanese Affiliate – Armenia Fund
Lebanon – will finance the implementation of the Marmarashen water
main system in the Ararat Region of the Republic of Armenia. The
Ararat region is home to the most fertile soil in Armenia and accounts
for the republic’s fruit, vegetable, and grain based products and
exports. The region has become the breadbasket of the republic.

Over the past years, due to a lack of funds and maintenance, the
Marmarashen town’s water main has ceased to operate properly. This
has resulted in the exodus of the local population to neighboring
regions. Responding to this water crisis, Armenia Fund will design
and install a new water main system. The new plan will include the
placement of pipes and a special internal network designed to meet
the potential needs of the town and region.

Presently, only twenty families reside in the Marmarashen town, as
a result of the water crisis. According to urban planning experts
working for Armenia Fund, the town will be able to properly sustain
100 families, after the water problem is solved.

This marks a milestone for the Lebanese affiliate, being a newly
revived branch of the Fund and embarking on a major project in the
Republic of Armenia.

Armenia Fund, Inc., is a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation
established in 1994 to facilitate large-scale humanitarian and
infrastructure development assistance to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
Armenia Fund, Inc. is the U.S. Western Region affiliate of “Hayastan”
All-Armenian Fund. Tax ID# 95-4485698

S. GRIGORYAN: NO PROGRESS IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT CAN BE MADE IN 2006

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.03.2006 00:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Optimism of the US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group Steven Mann is ungrounded, as before Rambouillet and after
there seemed to be optimism, but it was not supported by certain
prerequisites, expert, political scientist Stepan Grigoryan stated
in an interview with a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, at
present the settlement of the NK conflict is delayed. “Optimism in the
Karabakh issue is due to OSCE MG co-chairs and US State Department
officials having incorrect notion of political processes in the
region. I know for sure that no progress can be made in the Nagorno
Karabakh settlement in 2006: neither the society, nor the authorities
of Armenia and Azerbaijan are ready even to intelligent dialogue,
to say nothing of compromises,” he remarked. In his opinion, world
developments display new processes, which coincide with Armenia’s
interests, e.g. Kosovo or Transnistria. “In different specific cases
we should find our own field and play in it,” the expert emphasized.

When commenting on the latest statement of the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism of Azerbaijan, the political scientist remarked that
hysteria over the cultural and historical legacy is inappropriate. He,
nevertheless, recognized certain diplomatic success in propaganda
war against Armenia. “Unfortunately, we still yield to the adversary
in international organizations. Armenia should find new ways for its
propaganda,” Grigoryan said.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan had sent a letter
to Eurovision organization committee, expressing outrage with the
official site of the contest publishing information that Andre, a
singer from Armenia, was born in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. “The
fact should be viewed as disrespect of the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan, provocation and support of Armenia’s aggressive policy,”
the letter noted.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE
March 8, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

REP. PALLONE CALLS FOR PARITY IN
ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN MILITARY ASSISTANCE

— Speech on House Floor Also Urges Increased
Economic Aid to Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh

“It is incredibly important to… send a
message to Azerbaijan and Turkey that
ethnically charged genocides, illegal blockades
of sovereign nations, and the constant
harassment of the Armenian people will not be
tolerated.” — Rep. Frank Pallone

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Co-Chairman of
the Armenian Issues Caucus, took to the floor of the U.S. House of
Representatives yesterday to criticize the Administration’s “breach
of an agreement struck between the White House and Congress in 2001
to maintain parity in U.S. military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan,”
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Bush Administration recommended last month, in its Fiscal Year
2007 budget, that Azerbaijan receive significantly more military
training and hardware than Armenia. The President also proposed
cutting U.S. economic aid to Armenia from last year’s appropriation
of $74.4 million to $50 million, a nearly 33% reduction.

The New Jersey Congressman explained to his House colleagues that,
“a lack of military parity would weaken ongoing peace negotiations
regarding Nagorno Karabakh. Furthermore, I believe that any
imbalance will contribute to further instability in the region if
military parity is not achieved.” He added that, “failing to
respect the parity agreement undermines the role of the U.S. as an
impartial mediator of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.”

Representative Pallone closed his remarks by noting that, “in the
coming weeks I will advocate to the Foreign Operations Subcommittee
to restore military parity, to increase economic assistance to
Armenia, and to provide for humanitarian aid to the people of
Nagorno Karabakh. It is incredibly important to reward our allies
and to send a message to Azerbaijan and Turkey that ethnically
charged genocides, illegal blockades of sovereign nations, and the
constant harassment of the Armenian people will not be tolerated.”

“We want to thank Congressman Pallone for his longstanding
leadership in educating his colleagues about the important U.S.
interests served by our assistance program to Armenia, direct aid
to Nagorno Karabagh, and the other Armenia-related provisions in
the Foreign Operations bill – most recently and notably – the need
for maintaining parity in U.S. military aid to Armenia and
Azerbaijan,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We also
want to express our appreciation to Congressman Knollenberg for his
work, within the Foreign Operations Subcommittee itself, generating
vital support for maintaining military parity and other key
provisions of special concern to the Armenian American community.”

The President’s proposal for Freedom Support Act aid is $50 million
for Armenia, $28 million for Azerbaijan, and $58 million for
Georgia. His Foreign Military Financing proposals are $3.5 million
for Armenia, $4.5 million for Azerbaijan, and $10 million for
Georgia. The White House’s recommendation to Congress for
International Military Education and Training is $790,000 for
Armenia, $885,000 for Azerbaijan, and $1,235,000 for Georgia.

The Foreign Operations Subcommittees of the Senate and House
Appropriation Committees are currently reviewing the President’s
proposed budget and are each drafting their own versions of the FY
2007 foreign assistance bill.

The agreement to maintain parity in U.S. military aid to Armenia
and Azerbaijan was struck between the White House and Congress in
2001, in the wake of Congressional action granting the President
the authority to waive the Section 907 restrictions on aid to
Azerbaijan. The ANCA has vigorously defended this principle,
stressing in correspondence, at senior level meetings, and through
grassroots activism, that a tilt in military spending toward
Azerbaijan would destabilize the region, emboldening the
Azerbaijani leadership to continue their threats to impose a
military solution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict. More broadly,
the ANCA has underscored that breaching the parity agreement would
reward the leadership of Azerbaijan for walking away from the
OSCE’s Key West peace talks, the most promising opportunity to
resolve the Nagorno Karabagh conflict in nearly a decade. Finally,
failing to respect the parity agreement undermines the role of the
U.S. as an impartial mediator of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.

The full text of Congressman Pallone’s remarks are provided below.

#####

CONGRESSMAN FRANK PALLONE, JR.
FLOOR STATEMENT

Foreign Operations Request:
March 7, 2006

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the President’s budget request for fiscal
year 2007 proposes 20 percent more military aid to Azerbaijan than
to Armenia. This request is a clear breach of an agreement struck
between the White House and the Congress in 2001 to maintain parity
in U.S. military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan .

Mr. Speaker, the parity agreement is unfortunately a battle that
the Armenian people have had to fight in the past. The fiscal year
2005 Presidential request was similar in that it called for more
military funding to Azerbaijan .

However, the Congress reversed the President to ensure military
parity in the fiscal year 2005 Foreign Operations Appropriations
Act. After that battle and the President’s 2006 budget request that
included parity , I thought the President’s fiscal year 2007 budget
would continue that policy. But unfortunately that was not the
case. A lack of military parity would, in my opinion, weaken
ongoing peace negotiations regarding Nagorno Karabakh, among other
things.

It will also contribute to further instability in the region,
and it undermines the role of the United States as an impartial
mediator of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Mr. Speaker, the
government should not be rewarding the Government of Azerbaijan for
walking away from the organization for security and cooperation in
Europe’s Key West peace talks, the most promising opportunity to
resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in nearly a decade.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the administration’s budget also
calls for drastic cuts in economic assistance to Armenia. I was
discouraged to see that the President requested a 33 percent
decrease in economic aid from $74.4 million last year to $50
million this year. Technical and developmental assistance and
investment is essential to Armenia. This funding is key to
democratic stability and economic reform in the country.

Mr. Speaker, is this the message we want to send to our friends
in Armenia? Do we want to cut economic aid to a country that is
terrorized by its neighbors and is shut off on its eastern and
western borders due to an illegal blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan?

Mr. Speaker, in the coming weeks I will advocate to the Foreign
Operations Subcommittee to restore military parity , to increase
economic assistance to Armenia and to provide for humanitarian aid
to the people of Nagorno Karabakh. It is incredibly important to
reward our allies and to send a message to Azerbaijan and Turkey
that ethnically charged genocides, illegal blockades of sovereign
nations, and the constant harassment of the Armenian people will
not be tolerated.

#####