Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

FRENCH, AZERI MINISTERS DISCUSS KARABAKH, "GENOCIDE" BILL

Turan News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2006

Baku, 24 October: Talks between French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov were
held in Paris yesterday [23 October]. A Turan correspondent learnt
from the head of the press and information policy department of the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Tahir Tagizada, that the talks had
lasted over one hour. The ministers discussed three subjects.

Mammadyarov spoke about the implementation of energy projects as well
as public and political reforms in the country. In turn, Douste-Blazy
said that Paris’s attitude to the reforms in Azerbaijan was positive.

The Karabakh settlement was the second subject of the talks.

Mammadyarov spoke about the negative role of the Armenian diaspora
in the settlement of the conflict and the situation in the region.

Douste-Blazy hoped for a speedy settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict.

The third subject, according to Tagizada, was raised by the French side
and had to do with the adoption by the French National Assembly of a
draft law criminalizing the denial of "the genocide of Armenians". This
decision, according to Douste-Blazy, causes official Paris’s "regret
and bewilderment". Douste-Blazy assured Mammadyarov that the French
government would do its best this draft not become a law.

GEORGIA WILL SOON IMPORT ELECTRICITY FROM IRAN THROUGH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.10.2006 18:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgia will soon start importing electric power
from Iran through Armenia. A respective agreement between the
Ministries of Energy is already attained. As the Ministry of Energy
of Georgia reported, the Iranian energy will be imported via Armenia
as barter. Georgia will receive electric power from Iran in winter
and will return it in summer, reports Gruzia-Online.

Opinion: The Planting of Ideas
By Carolyn Mugar and Jeff Masarjian

Boston Globe
October 24, 2006

"THE PLANTING of trees is the planting of ideas," says Dr. Wangari Maathai,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and environmentalist. But what does she mean?

Hosted by Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition, she will address this question at
Faneuil Hall today.

In a world faced with such weighty problems as global warming, dwindling
fossil fuels, and the gap between rich and poor nations — the planting of
trees may seem of little importance. Yet, as the founder of the Green Belt
Movement, Maathai has taught us that tree planting is a critical step toward
helping to protect the environment and fight poverty.

A Kenyan, Maathai has dedicated herself to fighting two of her country’s
starkest problems: poverty and deforestation. With less than 2 percent
forest coverage, Kenya is well below the UN recommended minimum of 10
percent. Maathai’s movement has held fast against these daunting challenges,
forging an ingenious path forward — one that simultaneously addresses both
crises. It is an approach built upon education and direct engagement with
local communities.

Led by Maathai, the Green Belt Movement organizes poor rural women in Kenya
to plant trees. Each new tree yields multiple benefits in their lives —
reversing the tide of deforestation, restoring Kenyan’s main source of
cooking fuel, and strengthening the community.

The Green Belt Movement has incorporated education on women’s rights into
its environmental programs, empowering disenfranchised Kenyans to fight for
a sustainable and viable economic future. All these actions make clear what
Mathaai means by comparing the planting of trees with the planting of ideas.

And she is not alone in that view. All around the world, NGOs and other
concerned parties are taking comparable steps to protect the environment and
combat poverty. In Armenia today, estimated forest cover is less than 8
percent; a dramatic decrease from a healthy 25 percent at the turn of the
last century. Moreover, its environment, one of the world’s most
ecologically diverse with seven different climate zones, is in grave
jeopardy.

Currently, due to lack of alternative energy sources, the 40 percent of
Armenians living below the poverty line are overreliant on wood for fuel. If
the trend of poverty-driven deforestation continues, much of Armenia will
become a desert in just 20 years. Like Kenya, deforestation threatens to rob
Armenia of its natural beauty and resources.

That’s why, similar to the Green Belt Movement’s efforts, an organization
called the Armenia Tree Project offers public education programs. We
recently developed a new interactive environmental curriculum, "Plant an
Idea, Plant a Tree," which offers instruction on how the health of Armenia’s
ecosystem is closely tied to its economic future. We have introduced this
curriculum in all 1,400 of Armenia’s public schools. In rural villages, our
staff trains and works with subsistence farmers on planting and forestation
techniques. At our large-scale nursery and environmental educational center,
we instruct college students and professionals on environmental stewardship.
In our 12 years, Armenia Tree Project has made enormous strides, planting
and restoring more than 1,250,000 trees and creating hundreds of jobs in our
backyard nursery micro-enterprises for Armenia’s rural poor.

In the 30 years of the Green Belt Movement’s existence, an astonishing 30
million trees have been planted and 30,000 Kenyan women trained in forestry,
food processing, bee keeping, and other trades. Their example inspires our
work.

Such accomplishments suggest that in a world overwhelmed by seemingly large
and unsolvable issues, the long-term solutions may well lie in simple but
practical actions, taken on the local level.

Carolyn Mugar is the founder and Jeff Masarjian the executive director of
Armenia Tree Project.

© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

CHARLES AZNAVOUR: THE OTHER GENOCIDE SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN

AZG Armenian Daily
24/10/2006

French-Armenian world famous singer Charles Aznavour expressed
his opinion about the passage by the French National Assembly of
the bill penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, Agence France
Presse reported.

Aznavour thinks that the bill should be applied to all genocide and
not only the crime against the Armenians.

He thinks that it’s great that the lawmakers have considered this
issue but the other genocide should not be forgotten either.

The 82-year-old singer also expressed joy over awarding Turkish
novelist Orhan Pamuk with the Nobel Prize. Aznavour thinks that Pamuk
is justly discussing the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide
by Turkey.

VLADIMIR YAKUNIN’S OPINION NEGATIVE ABOUT CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY BYPASSING ARMENIA

Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 23 2006

President of the "Russian railways" OJSC Vladimir Yakunin considers
that the project of construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi
railway is an attempt to exert pressure over Armenia.

Yakunin told "Echo Moskvi" radio station that his attitude toward
the construction of the railway bypassing Armenia is negative,
Mediamax reports.

"It divides the unity of the railway network that remained from the
Soviet Union," Vladimir Yakunin said. Moreover, he noted that it is
an attempt of exact states to exert pressure on our friendly country."

ARMENIA: MUSEO DEL GENOCIDIO,UNA FIAMMA PER RICORDARE/ANSA
dell’ inviata Eloisa Gallinaro

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
18 ottobre, 2006

CAPO CHIESA ARMENA,SENZA AMMISSIONI TURCHIA SEMPRE IN PERICOLO

(ANSA) – EREVAN, 18 OTT -‘Mets Eguer’n’, il grande crimine: cosi’
gli armeni hanno definito per anni lo sterminio di un milione e mezzo
di persone da parte dei turchi tra il 1915 e il 1923. Il termine
genocidio non c’era ancora. Sarebbe nato insieme all’ Olocausto,
e solo dopo e’ stato usato anche per gli armeni: ma in molti, all’
estero, hanno continuato ad ignorare "il grande crimine", prima che la
decisione francese di punire per legge, come reato, la negazione del
genocidio armeno, scatenasse in mezzo mondo rivendicazioni e polemiche.

In Armenia il negazionismo non e’ nemmeno preso in considerazione e il
ricordo e’ doloroso: tra i quattro milioni di persone che vivono nella
piccola repubblica ex sovietica quasi tutti hanno perso congiunti
e hanno avuto famiglie decimate in quei terribili anni a cavallo
della Prima guerra mondiale. C’e chi ne parla in maniera ferma, ma
sommessa, come il viceministro degli Esteri Armen Baiburtian, che
vorrebbe vedere riaperti quei confini che la Turchia tiene chiusi,
strangolando economicamente il Paese. E chi lo grida forte, come il
Catholicos Gareghin II, capo spirituale di tutti gli armeni.

A parlare per tutti, senza retorica, e’ il Museo del genocidio,
spartano memoriale in cemento grigio che domina Erevan dalla ‘Fortezza
delle rondini’, una collinetta alla periferia sud-ovest della capitale
armena. Accanto alla fiamma eterna, che arde al centro di un cerchio
delimitato da lastroni ricurvi, come a proteggerla, uno spiazzo erboso
ospita le targhe che ricordano i visitatori illustri. Vicino a ogni
targa un piccolo abete. C’ e’ quella di Romano Prodi, venuto qui il
19 settembre 2004 da presidente della Commissione europea. Quella
di Papa Giovanni Paolo II, giunto in pellegrinaggio il 26 settembre
2001, che ricorda "come i figli e le figlie di questa terra hanno
sofferto". E quella, recentissima, del presidente francese "Jacques
Chirac e Signora", passati qui il 30 settembre 2006.

Altre lapidi, allineate lungo un muro, celebrano i ‘Giusti’, come
Anatole France; come l’ italiano Giacomo Gorrini, dal 1911 al 1915
Console d’ Italia e Trebisonda e testimone oculare dei massacri,
denunciati in un’ intervista al Messaggero il 25 agosto 1915; come l’
ambasciatore americano in Turchia Henry Morgenthau, ebreo, che il 10
luglio 1915 scrive in un telegramma da Costantinopoli al segretario
di Stato che "le persecuzioni degli armeni hanno raggiunto limiti
senza precedenti".

Come l’ appello di Papa Benedetto XV, datato 10 settembre 1917,
a Mohammed V Sultano degli Ottomani perche faccia qualcosa: il
documento originale e’ stato donato al museo e portato personalmente
da Papa Woytila.

All’ interno del museo, oltre ai documenti, le gigantografie dei
massacri: gli impiccati nella piazza di Aleppo nel 1916, il corpo
scheletrico di una donna e dei suoi due bambini morti di fame nel
deserto siriano di Ras-el-Ain, i teschi ammucchiati, gli orfani nel
deserto della Mesopotamia nel 1917.

Immagini uguali a quelle piu’ note della Shoah, "contro l’ oblio e
per la memoria", come ricorda la ragazza che ci fa da guida.

Il panorama, di fronte al Museo del genocidio, e’ mozzafiato: il
massiccio dell’ Ararat coperto di neve e’ a soli 30 chilometri, ma e’
oltre il confine sigillato, in territorio turco. E gli armeni devono
accontentarsi di una gloria nazionale dallo stesso nome: il pregiato
cognac Ararat, uno dei preferiti da Winston Churchill.

Non lontano da qui, nella evocativa Santa Sede di Echmiadzin, il
Catholicos Gareghin II fa sentire senza esitazione la sua voce:
"L’ Armenia e’ pronta ad aprire le frontiere con la Turchia senza
condizioni. E’ la Turchia che pone condizioni: che il Nagorno Karabahk
resti azero e che l’ Armenia rinunci a denunciare il genocidio. Noi
non possiamo cedere su questi due punti. Fino a quando i turchi non
riconosceranno la responsabilita’ del genocidio, il popolo armeno
vivra’ nel pericolo di diventare di nuovo vittima di una azione
simile".

Nel monumentale edificio che ospita il ministero degli Esteri, nella
centralissima Respubliki Plosciadi, il vice ministro degli Esteri
Armen Baiburtian scandisce: "La Turchia ha rifiutato di stabilire
relazioni diplomatiche con noi, tiene i confini chiusi. Ma se vuole
arrivare a far parte dell’ Unione europea deve rispettare le minoranze,
i vicini, le nazioni piu’ piccole.

E’ importante riconoscere l’ identita’ del mio Paese e il genocidio
fa parte di questa identita’". (ANSA).

A PRIZE AFFAIR: TURKEY AND THE ARMENIANS

The Economist
October 21, 2006
U.S. Edition

A Nobel winner

Orhan Pamuk, the French parliament and the Armenian massacres

WAS it for his writing or his commentary? The question has consumed
the country since Orhan Pamuk became the first Turk to win the Nobel
prize for literature (or indeed any Nobel). The comments, about the
mass slaughter of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, led last year to
Mr Pamuk’s prosecution on charges of insulting the "Turkish identity" .

The charges were later dropped on a technicality, but not before they
had attracted a storm of international criticism.

Ascribing to him the Byzantine wiles displayed by some of his
characters, Mr Pamuk’s enemies are now saying that he engineered his
own trial so as to win the Nobel. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the mildly
Islamist prime minister, urged fellow Turks to "put aside polemics"
and congratulate Mr Pamuk, but the (pro-secular) president remained
pointedly silent.

The novelist’s detractors were given a boost, hours before the
award was announced, by the French National Assembly, when it voted
overwhelmingly for a bill to criminalise denial that the Armenians
were victims of a genocide. The bill is unlikely to become law, but
it still sparked a wave of anti-French demonstrations and vows that
France would somehow be made to "pay" for its misdeeds. Why not boot
out some 70,000 illegal workers from neighbouring Armenia, suggested
Yasar Yakis, a former minister from the ruling AK party?

The European Union enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, said that the
French bill "instead of opening up the debate [on the Armenians in
Turkey] would rather close it down." Mesrob Mutafyan, the Armenian
Orthodox patriarch in Istanbul, voiced fears that his 80,000-member
flock might now become targets for ultra-nationalist vigilantes.

Happily, no Armenian has been hurt (or deported) so far. Nor
have efforts to break the ice between ordinary Turks and Armenians
stopped-an exhibition by Turkish and Armenian photographers depicting
daily life in Istanbul and Yerevan is to open soon.

There may even be a silver lining to the French cloud. Basking on
the moral high ground, Mr Erdogan said he would not be trapped into
responding to France’s "assault on free speech" in kind. The justice
minister, Cemil Cicek, is hinting that Turkey’s article 301, under
which Mr Pamuk and scores of fellow writers and academics have been
prosecuted, may be scrapped. If it is, Turkey’s EU hopes would be
resuscitated-and future award-winning novelists could then claim to
have been judged solely by their works, not their deeds.

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383, x118
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
Website:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, October 20, 2006

AGBU Breathes New Life Into Gyumri School for Children With Special
Needs

On September 1, 2006, Gyumri Boarding School #3 for students with
special needs, in the northern Armenian province of Shirak, welcomed
this year’s student body to its newly renovated and refurbished
building. Funded by AGBU London and with the contribution of volunteers
from AGBU France, this is the first time this school, which has been
operating for 15 years and enrolls 132 children, has been renovated.

AGBU London provided funds in excess of $10,000 for this comprehensive
renovation project, paying for construction materials and hiring
contractors to complete some of the more specialized tasks. The Chapter
specifically sponsored the construction of new lavatory facilities,
replaced dormitory mattresses and beddings, and installed new flooring
throughout the institution. AGBU France Summer Camp volunteers,
who visited Armenia this past August, participated in the renovation
effort by painting school walls and bringing a much-needed touch of
color and vitality to the facility.

This project is a continuation of AGBU’s commitment to the
reconstruction and expansion of Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city,
which was nearly obliterated in the devastating 1988 earthquake. As
part of the organization’s dedication to resuscitating the rich
cultural, educational, and artistic life of the city, AGBU has also
constructed the Gyumri Art Academy, which houses the local campuses of
the Armenian Movie and Theater State Institute, the Music Conservatory,
and the Academy of Fine Arts. In the past, AGBU’s support also made
possible the reconstruction of Gyumri Secondary School #7 destroyed
by the earthquake, and the playground of Lord Byron School. Now,
the organization’s generosity has revived Gyumri Boarding School #3,
and promises an exciting start to the new academic year that began
this month.

Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City
with an annual budget of $34 million, AGBU preserves and promotes
the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and
humanitarian programs, annually serving some 400,000 Armenians in
375 countries.

Vardan Oskanian to resign

Azer Press Agency
Oct 19 2006

[ 19 Oct. 2006 16:18 ]

Armenia Foreign minister Vardan Oskanian said that he will resign
before presidential elections in 2008, APA reports quoting Arminfo.

Vardan Oskanian said that it will be 10 years in 2008 that he occupies
this position and it will not be right to do it during the next five
years. The minister denied the information that he wants to nominate
to presidency and said he has not decided yet what he will do after
the resignation.

"I do not know what I will do. What I know exactly is that my children
and I want to see Armenia as a normal state," he said.

Oskanian said that he was engaged in external policy for many years
and now wants to talk about internal problems now.

"The elections come up and I see serious problems," the minister said.

Osdkanyan also said that it is important to lift the barrier between
the government and society. /APA/

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
October 20, 2006 Friday

NATO SETTLES IN THE CAUCASUS;
NATO claims that Russia haad better learn to live with it

: Sohbet Mamedov

NATO functionaries and delegations in Azerbaijan; NATO officials are
frequent guests in Baku, Azerbaijan these days. On his visit to Baku,
President Trajan Besescu of Romania offered assistance in promoting
Azerbaijan’s integration into the European Union and NATO.

NATO officials are frequent guests in Baku, Azerbaijan these days. On
his visit to Baku, President Trajan Besescu of Romania offered
assistance in promoting Azerbaijan’s integration into the European
Union and NATO. His visit was followed by that of Robert Simmons,
NATO Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Caucasus and Central
Asia. A delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly headed by Vahid
Erdem turned up in Baku earlier this week. Erdem met with the Azeri
foreign and defense ministers.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedjarov, in a brief statement for the media,
described the level of Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation as high.

Asked if Baku planned "an intensive dialogue with NATO (like
Tbilisi)," Mamedjarov replied that the matter was "too delicate"
to be rushed. Defense Minister Safar Abiyev briefed Erdem on the
military-political situation in the southern part of the Caucasus.

The impression was, however, that Erdem was more interested in the
structure of the Azeri Armed Forces, their budget, and nature of
cooperation with NATO.

This conclusion was drawn by some participants of the meeting between
the visiting delegation on the one hand and representatives of the
national parliament and non-governmental organizations on the other.

The meeting was mostly centered around military cooperation between
Azerbaijan and NATO, human rights, democratization of society, and war
on corruption. Neither was Russia’s attitude towards NATO’s interests
in the southern part of the Caucasus was forgotten. "Russia takes part
in our peacekeeping programs. NATO includes a permanent committee for
Russia. There are contacts between NATO and Russia at the levels of
their heads, foreign and defense ministers, and parliaments. It will
therefore be wrong to speak of any serious objections on Russia’s part
to the rapprochement between NATO and countries of the southern part
of the Caucasus," Erdem said. "And yet, Russia is not going to like it
in the least. It will certainly react to the even closer rapprochement
between countries of the southern part of the Caucasus and NATO. Still,
Moscow learned to live with membership of the Baltic states in NATO. I
don’t think that there are any problems with that nowadays. I’d
say that an even closer rapprochement between the countries of the
southern part of the Caucasus and NATO is possible, particularly
since the process of mutual integration will be quite long."

Erdem added that Armenia, as close as it was with Russia, did not
"ignore NATO. There are politicians in this country who wish for
closer relations with NATO." "Observations show, however, that Armenia
is more interested in the European Union. It doesn’t view NATO as a
close partner," Erdem said.

Some analysts say that NATO needs to be present in the region and
that frequent visits of its representatives study the position of
the population (that of Azerbaijan included).

Erdem said that results of the meetings in Azerbaijan this week
would be mentioned in the final report "NATO’s Role in the Southern
Caucasus."

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 20, 2006, p. 6

Translated by A. Ignatkin