Author: Varosian Antranik

EU-ARMENIA COMMITTEE CALLS FOR OPENING OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER

Panorama.am
17:43 05/02/2007

During the Jan 29-30 sitting in Brussels Armenia-European Union
Parliamentary Cooperation Committee made a statement, according to
which "it expresses an anxiety regarding the destruction of Jugha’s
cemetery and regrets that fact-finding mission has not been implemented
yet". Armen Roustamyan, Committee Co-chairman, NA deputy, noted that
the committee has begun its activities since 2004, and the January
sitting was the last one for the National Assembly of this convocation,
so he considers necessary to sum up the activities of the committee.

It should be noted that the statement refers to the Armenia-EU,
Armenia-Turkey relations, settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
and the internal situation of Armenia.

According to the statement, due implementation of the European
neighborhood policy will strengthen the Armenia-EU political
dialogue. Committee exhorts Turkey to take steps, without any
pre-condition, towards establishment of diplomatic and friendly
relations with Armenia, to open the land bound and re-launch
Kars-Gyumri railway.

RUSTAMIAN: ARMENIA RAISED ITS RELATIONS WITH EU TO NEW LEVELS

Yerkir
05.02.2007 17:28

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – A proper implementation of the Neighbourhood Policy
Action Plan will further the political dialogue between Armenian
and the European Union, Armen Rustamian, the National Assembly’s
Foreign Relations Committee chairman and ARF Armenian Supreme Body
representative told a news conference today.

He said that the EU-Armenia parliamentary commission met on January
29-30 in Brussels. Peter Semneby, European Commission’s envoy to the
South Caucasus, attended the meeting, which adopted a joint statement
condemning the killing of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Rustamian said that Armenia’s inclusion in the European Neighbourhood
Policy is a great achievement, and the recent actions plan has
raised the EU-Armenia relations to a new level. He also said that
the EU has adopted a policy to help the OSCE Minsk Group to find an
acceptable settlement of the Karabakh conflict. He also said that
it is important the EU thinks any fair settlement should include the
right to self-determination and minorities rights.

The commission has also urged Turkey to establish diplomatic relations
with Armenia without preconditions and open the land border as well as
the Kars-Gyumri railway. The commission also has welcomed Armenia’s
European tendency, reminding that free and fair elections would be
a crucial step towards Armenia’s inclusion in the Neighbourhood policy.

Fury after police pictured posing with Dink murder suspect

· Turkish papers criticise hero treatment of teenager
· Dead journalist’s genocide claims upset nationalists

Agencies in Ankara
Saturday February 3, 2007
The Guardian

Outrage at the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
deepened yesterday after the media showed images of the teenage murder
suspect posing with the Turkish flag and security officials after his
arrest. The government launched an inquiry into the footage, which
newspapers denounced as "hero treatment" of the 17-year-old suspect.

Ogun Samast confessed to the January 19 killing of Dink, a 52-year-old
journalist who had angered Turkish nationalists with assertions that
the mass killings of Armenians around the time of the first world war
amounted to genocide.

The images showed Mr Samast holding a Turkish flag and posing with
officers, some in uniform, shortly after his arrest on January
21. Behind him a poster carries the words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the founder of modern Turkey: "The nation’s land is sacred. It cannot
be left to fate." The Turkish media was outraged. "Shoulder to
shoulder with the triggerman: suspected killer Samast was given the
hero treatment," the Sabah daily reported on its front page.

Ismet Berkan, the editor-in-chief of liberal newspaper Radikal, said
the release of the video images was like killing Dink a second time
and showed nationalism in Turkey was on the rise.

Later Friday, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported that four
police officers in Samsun, where the photographs were taken, had been
dismissed and four military police had been moved to other
assignments.

It was not clear whether the eight officers were the ones who posed
with Mr Samast.

Initial reports said the photographs were taken in a military police
office at the bus station where Mr Samast was captured, but military
police said they were taken at a police station nearby. A statement
urged the media to be cautious in publicising "attempts aimed at
fraying the Turkish armed forces" and expressed concern about the
motives of those who leaked the images.

"We in the police will do everything necessary," national police
spokesman Ismail Caliskan promised at a news conference. "Whoever is
responsible will be given the appropriate punishment."

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Jan 31 2007

Suspect thought Dink murder would remain unsolved

Hayal said he gave the murder weapon and 180 YTL to Ogun Samast, the
man accused of killing Dink.

Güncelleme: 18:17 TSÝ 31 Ocak 2007 ÇarþambaISTANBUL – The man accused
of inciting the murder of prominent Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink has told police he had not thought the crime would be solved.

Private television station NTV aired a report based on the
interrogation of Yasin Hayal, the man alleged to have planned and
incited the murder of Dink, who was gunned down in Istanbul on
January 19.

According to the report, Hayal said he had approached another man,
identified as Zeynel Abidin, to carry out the shooting, but was
rejected. He then approached Ogun Samast, provided his with money, a
gun and information needed to conduct the murder.

Hayal is reported to have said that he had known of Dink since early
2006 and heard about the charges against him on insulting
Turkishness. He had learned that Dink was an Armenian and the editor
of chief of the Agos newspaper on the internet.

Hayal reportedly told police that he sent Samast to Istanbul on
January 17 and spoke to him the next day several times when Samast
told him he was in position.

Hayal in his testimony said that Samast called him on January 19
saying he was in front of the office. Samast said he was feeling
stressed and could go inside to kill a few journalists.

According to the report, Hayal told police that Samast later called
saying he had killed Dink.

Interfax, Russia
Feb 1 2007

Armenia GDP grows 13%, foreign trade up 15% in 2006

YEREVAN. Feb 1 (Interfax) – The Armenian economy grew 13.4% in 2006
to 2.665 trillion dram, or $6.4 billion, a source in the National
Statistics Service told Interfax.

The volume of construction increased 37.1% to 623.1 billion dram, or
$1.5 billion, which was behind the growth in GDP.

Industrial output fell 0.9% to 644 billion dram. The generation of
electricity fell 5.9% to 5.941 billion kilowatt-hours.

Retail trade grew 10.5% to 820.8 billion dram.

Foreign trade increased 15.2% to 1.314 trillion dram, or $3.198
billion.

Pasadena Star-News, CA
Jan 31 2007

Bill would recognize Armenian genocide

By Desmond Butler Associated Press
Article Launched: 01/31/2007 01:53:46 AM PST

WASHINGTON – Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including
co-sponsor Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, introduced a resolution
Tuesday calling for U.S. recognition of the World War I-era killings
of Armenians as genocide. The move will likely anger Turkey and is
expected to be opposed by President Bush.

The lead sponsors in the House of Representatives say they have
commitments from more than 150 other members, who want to add their
names as co-sponsors after the bill is introduced, a strong show of
support in the 435-member body.

The sponsors, who held a news conference Tuesday attended by two
Armenian survivors of the killings, say that the move to Democratic
control in Congress increases chances that the bill will reach the
House floor for a vote. Similar resolutions have been introduced in
the past, but were kept from a full vote by congressional leaders.

Along with Schiff, co-sponsors include Republican George Radanovich,
who represents Fresno. Both areas have large populations of Armenian
Americans.

Charter Communications, which provides cable TV service to many
cities in the San Gabriel Valley, said it would air coverage of
Schiff’s Tuesday press conference in Pasadena and Altadena at 7
p.m. Saturday and Sunday on channel 56. In surrounding cities,
Charter customers can see the program at 8p.m. beginning Monday
through the following Sunday, also on channel 56. The cablecast will
include an interview with a 100-year-old survivor of the genocide.
The bill, which will recognize the deaths of the 1.5 million
Armenians almost a century ago, is likely to touch raw nerves in
Turkey. The Bush administration has warned that even congressional
debate on the genocide question could damage relations with a key
Muslim ally and NATO member.

The resolution’s supporters say that the leader of the House, Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who has expressed support for the
resolution, is likely to come under pressure from the Bush
administration to keep the House from voting on the bill.

"Make no mistake, the speaker will get a call from the president
asking for no vote on the grounds of national security," Radanovich
said.

Turkey has adamantly denied claims by scholars that its predecessor
state, the Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a
planned genocide. The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly
inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest
during the empire’s collapse.

"While there are still survivors among us, we have, I think, the
highest ethical obligation to recognize the losses of their
families," Schiff said.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Trabzon Security Service was aware of Hrant Dink’s preparing assassination
30.01.2007 16:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During the investigation in Trabzon it cleared up
one of suspects of `Agos’ Armenian-Turkish editor-in-chief Hrant
Dink’s assassination Erhan Tuncel warned about the preparing crime the
Trabzon Security Services in advance. According to some reports,
beginning from 2004, when the McDonalds’s café was blown, Tuncel
was intelligencer for police. In regard with the blast in the
McDonalds’s café Erhan Tuncel alongside with Yasin Hayal and other
suspects occurred on the dock. But Trabzon Security Service Chief
Ramazan Akurek offered Tuncel to release him if he agreed to give
information on the terror act. After it Erhan Tuncel visited Trabzon
Security Office often. His last tip contained information on preparing
murder of Hrant Dink. But Tuncel could not give proofs for the
possible attack on the journalist. For this reason the workers of
Security Service did not pay attention to that tip, `Milliet’ reports.

Against intolerance and fascism

30.01.2007 14:38
Alisa Gevorgyan
"Radiolur"

As it is known recently the recurrent murdeer was registered in
Moscow. This time the victim was Armenian teenager Arthur
Martirosyan. The corpse of the 16-year-old Arthur Martirosyan was
found on January 19 at 45, Kastanevskaya Street.

Arthur was registered in Tomilino. Since 2003 the seventh-former lived
in a rented flat in Moscow. A criminal case has been launched in
compliance with Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code. Attorney
Simon Tsaturyan told Radiolur that there at this point there is no
novelty in the case.

`The crime is not disclosed, there are even no suspects. The motives
of this crime need serious investigation, since the information we
possess in very controversial. There is no fact to prove that the
crime was committed on the nationality basis, but it is not ruled out,
the version of robbery is not excluded, either, since Arthur’s
expensive cell phone was stolen. In any case the investigation
continues,’ said the attorney.

It should be noted that tomorrow the `Sargis Tkhruni’ student-youth
union of the Social-Democratic Hnchakian Party plans to organize a
peace demonstration in front of the Russian Embassy connected with the
murder of 16-year-old Arthur Martirosyan and other cases registered in
Russia.

The young people say in their statement that Arthur’s murder proved
once again that the security of citizens of the Russian Federation and
foreign guests is not guaranteed.

Therefore, they call to unite and raise a voice of protest against the
xenophobia in Russia, against intolerance and fascism.

Panorama.am

19:35 29/01/2007

PUBLIC NOTARY MURDERED FOR UNCLEAR REASONS

The colleagues and fellows of Sonia Veranyan, public notary recently
murdered by K. Papyan in her office, say, `She was even-tempered,
devoted to her work and good-natured.’ Papyan has confessed with law
authorities and his case is now under investigation.

Sources say the criminal was not content with a notary dealing not
directly concluded with him. Other sources say Veranyan was not the
immediate notary with who the deal was made. The notary action was
taken 15 years ago and was done by a completely different public
notary.

The law entitles the notaries to have security service but most do not
use it because of presumed no need. Now the public notaries are
seriously considering the security issue.

Source: Panorama.am

PanARMENIAN.Net

Serge Sargsyan invited to give report in Harvard University
29.01.2007 19:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Harvard University has posted the report by
Secretary of the Security Council at the RA President, Defense
Minister Serge Sargsyan on the draft National Security Strategy on the
website of the Black Sea Security Program of the government school
after John Kennedy. Besides, Harvard published the outcomes of the
Intergovernmental Committee on the National Security Strategy
submitted to the open consideration to the RA National Assembly in
December.

As RA Defense Minister’s Spokesman, Colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan, the
letter says in part, `The feedback to your report proves the high
interest of the U.S. and other states to the published material. We
believe that the cooperation existing between the RA Defense Ministry
and the Harvard University can be raised to a new level. It will be an
honor for us if you pay a call to Harvard to make a report during you
recurrent visit to the United States.’