POISONED LITVINENKO SPOKE ABOUT `OCTOBER 27' TOO

A1+
[02:42 pm] 24 November, 2006

Former officer of the RF Federal Security Service Alexander Litvinenko died last night in a hospital in London where he went on November 17. The doctors never found out what he had been poisoned with.

Litvinenko received political refuge in Great Britain in 2002. During the last few weeks he took measures to reveal the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya; he was sure that Kremlin had a finger in it.

The residents of Armenia learned the name of Litvinenko in 1999 after the October 27 crime in the Parliament when he announced that `It was all organized by Russia'. Litvinenko announced that the RF special services, particularly, the Chief Investigation Administration, have planned the murder of the Armenian politicians.

MARATHON GATHERED ABOUT 14 MILLION USD

A1+
[03:35 pm] 24 November, 2006

The annual TV marathon organized by Pan-Armenian fund `Armenia' titled `I Love Armenia' and `I Love Artsakh' which lasted 12 hours gathered 13.7 million USD. The money will be used for the development of the NKR Hadrout region. Over 12 thousand people reside in the region.

By the way, the sum gathered this year is twice as much as that of last year. The 7 million gathered last year was allotted to NKR Martakert region.

Armenia Does Not Need Foreigners

www.hetq.am
[November 20, 2006]

Pankaj Joshi, an Indian citizen, first visited Armenia in December 2003. He received a three-month visa to Armenia at that time, but stayed for exactly one year, remaining in the country illegally for a number of months. “In December 2004, when I decided to go back to India, Aghajanyan at the Passport and Visa Department (OVIR in Russian) asked me for 900 dollars. They then gave me a three-day visa, and I left Armenia with no problem,” narrated Joshi. The stamps in his passport corroborated his story. Samvel Aghajanyan is the deputy head of the Passport and Visa Department within the police structure, and his job deals with granting foreign citizens permission for entry to Armenia.

Joshi came back to Armenia in April 2005. He received a 21-day visa at the airport. After the deadline he received an extension for a further three months without any difficulty. He then managed to further extend his legal permit to stay, this time up to January 2006. Pankaj Joshi had a job offer, and continues to work to this day at the New Delhi restaurant in Yerevan. He holds a contract with George and Brandon ltd., the company that owns the restaurant, and pays his taxes on accordance with Armenian law.

Om Bahadur Khatri, Man Bahadur Sahani, and Yam Lal Kandel, all citizens of Nepal, are also employed by the New Delhi restaurant. These four restaurant employees have been unable to get visas for the past few months and are now staying in Armenia illegally.

“…Their reason for coming to Armenia was to work at the New Delhi restaurant, owned by George and Brandon ltd. On October 21, 2005, a letter was written by Karen Ghevondyan, president of George and Brandon ltd., to the Passport and Visa Department requesting temporary resident status in Armenia for the four foreign citizens mentioned, but this request was rejected,” noted Alvina Zakaryan, head of the Passport and Visa Department, in a written reply to our query.

[FULL STORY]

President Arkady Ghogasian Attends Divine Liturgy and The Ordination of a Deacon

On Sunday, November 19 at 11:00 a.m., the Primate celebrated the Divine Liturgy and delivered the sermon at the Armenian Church of Burbank (Diocese Headquarters), and during the services he ordained Sub-Deacon Vahan Manoogian as a Deacon. Rev. Fr. Arshag Khatchadourian, Pastor of St. James, participated in the ordination services.

His Eminence Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, Fr.Dajad Yardemian, Fr. Kegham Zarkarian, and Rev. Dr. Fr. Stepanos Dingilian were also in attendance.

Fr. Tavit Zelveyan, Pastor of Burbank Parish, and Fr. Zaven Margossyan, Pastor of Sun Valley and a part of North Hollywood, served at the Holy Altar.

In his sermon, the Primate welcomed the President and wished him success in his mission. At the end of the service, the Primate bestowed upon Jack Hatchikian, a member of St. John Garabed Church of San Diego, the Medal of St. Nerses the Graceful for his dedicated service. Fr. Dajad Yardemian read the Encyclical of His Holiness Karekin II.

Government Agencies Help Convicted Trafficker Escape

www.hetq.am
[November 13, 2006]

In February 2006, Anush Zakharyants, who was serving time at the Abovyan criminal detention center after being convicted of trafficking, “escaped” with collective help from the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor General's office. Border guards helped Zakharyants leave Armenia. It does not matter how much money she paid at the border in order to buy her escape. What matters is that it is possible to buy your way across our borders, even when your passport is expired.

Zakharyants' escape was accomplished in three steps:

The first step consisted of freeing her from the detention center. This was done by the Ministry of Justice. The second step involved obtaining her passport from the Prosecutor's Office. This was done jointly by the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice.

The third step was crossing the Armenian border. This was done by the National Security Service. At each step, these official organs did all that was in their power to help Anush escape from Armenia.

It is difficult to say whether these different organs collaborated with each other, but there is no official body left in Armenia that is authorized to investigate this issue. How can the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor General's office or the National Security Service – under whom the border guards operate - file a case against themselves?

Statement

Anush Zakharyants, a citizen of Uzbekistan, was first convicted of human trafficking (article 132 of the Armenian Criminal Code) in Armenia and sentenced to a four-and-a-half year prison term on May 28, 2004. She had brought nine women from Uzbekistan to Armenia and had subjected them to sexual exploitation. Anush had confiscated their passports and forced them to make money for her through prostitution. All this was proven in court, Anush was convicted, and the victims were repatriated to Uzbekistan.

Step One
The convict was released from the detention center

Anush was serving her term at the Abovyan prison, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. In February of this year, Anush left the center and did not return. Ashot Martirosyan, the Head of the Criminal Supervision Department answered to question we had directed at Minister of Justice Davit Harutyunyan as follows.

“…In accordance with Article 80 of the Armenian Criminal Code, the head of the Abovyan criminal detention center had allowed convict A. Zakharyants a short leave of absence from 01.02.06 to 05.02.06 with the aim of social rehabilitation. However, the convict did not return within the given period to continue serving her sentence. The Abovyan criminal detention center informed the Prosecutor's office of the situation, where a criminal case was then filed against A. Zakharyants.”

As part of the first step, papers were prepared at the prison to allow Zakharyants a short leave of absence. Our source at the Criminal Supervision Department informed us that the order for her absence had been issued by former Head of Department Samvel Hovhannisyan (he was removed from his post four months ago, but the reason for his dismissal reportedly had nothing to do with organizing Anush Zakharyants' escape).

“On January 31, 2006, convict A. Zakharyants went to the head of the medical service at the detention center, Dr. H. Muradyan, regarding some health problems. The latter recommended a specialized diagnostic examination and this recommendation was attached to the convict's personal file.” - This was the reply we managed to elicit, with the help of Anahit Voskanyan, Press Secretary for the Ministry of Justice, from Arsen Afrikyan, head of the Abovyan Criminal Detention Center.

After that, Zakharyants received a five-day leave of absence from the prison. Zakharyants' passport was not among her personal belongings at the Abovyan Criminal Detention Center. By law, it should have been sent to the Justice Ministry facility after she was sentenced, but it was not among her personal belongings.

“The Court of First Instance for the Kentron and Nork-Marash municipalities of Yerevan informed us, replying to our written query, that the convict's passport was missing from her criminal file as well. Therefore, the convict did not have a passport at the time the leave of absence was granted,” stated Arsen Afrikyan.

Afrikyan also said that their search operations had yielded no results, and that they had gone to the Kotayk Marz Prosecutor on February 28, requesting an investigation into the case of A. Zakharyants. Zakharyants was supposed to return to the detention center on February 6. The administration at the Abovyan facility waited 22 days before informing the Kotayk Marz Prosecutor of Zakharyants' disappearance. In all likelihood, this was Samvel Hovhannisyan's initiative as well. He may have been waiting for Anush to reach Uzbekistan and inform him of her safe arrival.

Step Two
Samvel Hovhannisyan gave the convict her passport

Anush Zakharyants left the Abovyan Criminal Detention Center without her passport. In January 2004, her passport was in her criminal file at the Prosecutor's Office. The file was sent to court without the passport, which is against the law. The passport had been removed from the file and kept at the Prosecutor's Office. We tried to find out from the Prosecutor General if the passport was still at the office today, or whether it had been returned to Anush Zakharyants.

Sona Truzyan, Press Secretary for the Prosecutor General's office stated, “On the basis of an official statement by the former head of the Ministry of Justice Criminal Supervision Department, an inspector returned Anush Zakharyants her passport and received a statement of receipt on January 12, 2006.”

The official statement, as clarified by the press secretary, had been a verbal command by which the former Head of the Criminal Supervision Department Samvel Hovhannisyan obtained the passport from inspector Aristakes Yeremyan. But the passport never entered the criminal detention center. It remained “in Hovhannisyan's pocket” and was handed to Zakharyants in early February, when she was outside the center during her leave of absence. It is not clear what remuneration Hovhannisyan received against the passport.

As soon as she received her passport, Anush Zakharyants left Armenia.

Step Three
Armenian border guards got Zakharyants across to Georgia, even though her passport had expired

Hetq wrote two letters to Gorik Hakobyan, head of the National Security Service, to try and find out whether Zakharyants had crossed the Armenia border and how, with which passport, she had done so. We received no reply.

Anush Zakharyants held a Republic of Uzbekistan passport which expired in 2005, which meant that she was not allowed to cross the Armenian border. But that did not keep her from bribing the Armenian border guards and getting across.

But the Georgian guards on the other side of the border noticed that her passport had expired and detained Zakharyants. She pleaded for political asylum with Border Department officials at the Georgian Internal Affairs Ministry. Her application was processed by the Ministry for Refugee Issues in Georgia. The border guards handed Anush over to officials at the Department for Constitutional Security within the Ministry for Internal Affairs.

Our source within the Georgian law enforcement agencies informed us that Anush Zakharyants made a deal with the Georgians and gave them information about Georgians dealing in human trafficking. In return, she was allowed to go to the Embassy of Uzbekistan and receive a certificate of repatriation. For some reason, officials from the Ministry for National Security arranged for Anush's stay in Tbilisi with an organization that provides help to women victims of domestic violence. Anush left for Uzbekistan a week later.

We find ourselves forced to ask the following questions of the agencies that helped Anush Zakharyants to escape once again, in public this time. We would like to ask Minister of Justice Davit Harutyunyan the same question we asked a year ago - How is it that everyone convicted under the trafficking article have all managed to leave prison early? Why are the structures under his jurisdiction so solicitous of convicts of this type? Why were they so considerate this time around in organizing Anush Zakharyants' escape?

We would like to ask Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan – Why was Anush Zakharyants' passport kept for two years at the Office of the Prosecutor General? Why and how was it returned to Samvel Hovhannisyan? Does the Prosecutor General's office keep the passports of other convicts as well?

We would like to receive a reply to this question from Gorik Hakobyan, Head of the National Security Service – How did the convict cross the Armenian border holding an expired passport?

Edik Baghdasaryan

Turkey suspends French military contacts

November 15, 2006

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey has suspended military relations with France in a dispute over whether the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century amounted to genocide, a top army commander said Wednesday.

The move was the latest backlash against French legislation that, if approved by the Senate and president, would criminalize denial that the killings of Armenians in Turkey were genocide.

"Relations with France in the military field have been suspended," Gen. Ilker Basbug said in Ankara, according to state-owned Anatolia news agency.

France's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

France and Turkey are both NATO members, and Turkey has been a buyer of French-made weaponry. The two countries also have participated in military exercises together, and have sent troops to serve in the international peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

But the Turkish military also has blacklisted several French firms in the past in similar disputes over the mass killings of Armenians.

Basbug, commander of land forces, disclosed the suspension of military ties with France in comments to reporters at a reception in Ankara, the Anatolia news agency reported. The French bill still needs approval from the Senate and President Jacques Chirac to become law.

Asked whether any military missions between the two nations had been canceled, Basbug said: "There are no high-level visits between the two countries."

Turkey sees the French bill as a hostile, anti-Turkish move, and has warned that the lawmakers' vote has already damaged Turkish-French relations.

Turkey vehemently denies that it committed genocide against Armenians, though many nations have classified the killings as such.

The United Nation's 1948 Genocide Convention makes genocide a crime, and defines it as killing or injuring people "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died in mass expulsions and fighting, but says the number of dead is exaggerated and that most were killed in interethnic violence that erupted as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Armenians and many nations say some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a genocidal campaign devised and executed by Turkish leaders.

The European Union and European media have criticized the French bill, saying it does not respect the principle of free expression and does not promote dialogue with Turkey, a hopeful EU candidate.

The United States also criticized the French bill, saying that it gets in the way of reconciling the Turks and Armenians.

The Armenian issue is one of the most divisive and emotional in Turkey. Those who classify the killings as genocide are often accused of treason.

KARABAKH ALONE CANNOT RESETTLE LACHIN

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 14 2006

Nobody knows the exact number of people living in Lachin, says Arman Melikyan, adviser to the NKR president, former NKR minister of foreign affairs. He thinks that the reason for this uncertainty is the constant migration to Armenia and back. Arman Melikyan says this is very bad because there must be a permanent population in Lachin, but Karabakh is unable to resolve this problem alone, says the adviser to the NKR president.

"We must realize that Karabakh alone cannot provide conditions for the fast resettlement and prosperity of this territory. This is the problem of both Armenia and the Diaspora, and also the problem of our potential allies, who must be interested in having the Armenians live there," says Arman Melikyan.

NO ONE WANTS THIS TO HAPPEN

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 9 2006

The President of the Republic of Armenia - Mr. Robert Kocharian
The President of the Mountainous Republic of Karabakh - Mr. Arkady
Ghoukassian

We would like to draw your attention to a recent series of reports that have appeared in both the Armenian and diasporan press focusing on the worsening socio-economic situation in the Kashatagh region. As a result, Armenians are leaving this vitally strategic area in increasing numbers.

When the Karabagh war ended, Armenians the world over heaved a collective sigh of relief and jubilation. After years of struggle and much sacrifice, Artsakh was once again delivered into the hands of its rightful owners. So too had Kashatagh (Lachin), the lands once artificially separating Armenia from Artsakh, been liberated.

But Kashatagh needed an influx of Armenians to make the land flourish once again. Therefore, in 1994, Armenia initiated a much-heralded policy of repopulating Kashatagh and its environs. Primarily, Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan and other indigent families from Armenia were encouraged to move to Kashatagh with promises of generous financial and material assistance. Many did heed the call and moved to Kashatagh. Given the fact that Armenia itself was in dire financial straits at the time, this initiative was both commendable and noble. According to various sources, Kashatagh's repopulation reached a peak of about 20,000 in the late 1990s. Today, however, the remaining population has dipped below 10,000. Some say it has reached a low of 7,000. In the last few years, authorities of the NKR have taken over the governance of Kashatagh from Armenia, and yet the situation has continued to deteriorate.

Armenians who initially were encouraged to move there now feel a sense of neglect and isolation. Surprisingly, some news reports cite the fact that many local officials agree that the situation in Kashatagh needs immediate attention. We fear that if conditions do not improve, we soon might be facing an area of land devoid of Armenians. No one wants this to happen.

We the undersigned find it troubling that the responsible authorities in Armenia and Karabakh seem to be indifferent to the unfolding tragedy in Kashatagh. Therefore, we ask that your respective governments analyze the situation and take the necessary measures to ameliorate the conditions faced by the residents of Kashatagh and thus reverse the present exodus from the region.

We also ask that your governments clarify their positions regarding the resettlement policy in Kashatagh. Unfortunately, many Armenians there believe they have been betrayed and are to be used as pawns in future political negotiations. The Armenians of Kashatagh deserve to know where they stand.

As Armenians concerned with the plight of our compatriots in Kashatagh we can no longer remain silent when faced with the inaction, mismanagement, and dare we say, corruption, that is the hallmark of many local officials in Kashatagh. "Business as usual" should not be tolerated and we urge you to take appropriate and quick action.

Respectfully,

Coalition in Support of Kashatagh.

Putting an end to human bondage

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/11/12/10081869.html

11/12/2006 06:55 PM | Gulf News



Part of the West's frequent onslaught against all things Arab has been the charge that human rights are abused. So-called examples are quoted often inaccurate or out of date as proof positive of the allegations, which a gullible public tends to be ready to believe. That a full and proper understanding of the situation and conditions, either in the Arab world or the subcontinent, is never acquired or appreciated is immaterial. It is truly a case of never letting facts interfere with a good story.

However, the damage is done, and once done is very hard to undo regardless of what other good there may be. Bad news takes the fast track; good news gets shunted to one side.

Aware of the perpetuating over-hyped publicity given to the region, and in particular regard to the UAE, President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has issued a decree which tackles the very problem of human trafficking and all its ugly consequential effects. The 16-article law, which comes into effect one month after it has been published in the official gazette, outlines the various punishments that can be incurred by those violating the law. The penalties range from heavy fines to life imprisonment, thereby demonstrating the seriousness with which the problem is viewed by the Government.

Shaikh Khalifa has also instructed his council of ministers to set up a National Committee for combating Human Trafficking. The committee, comprising representatives from several appropriate ministries and organisations, will study and revise human trafficking legislation to ensure protection accords to international standards. All of which is welcome.

Yet consideration must be given to establishing centres where the exploited can seek sanctuary.

Wide publicity of their locations and ways to contact them will go a long way to ensuring the success of the new law.

Murderer Ramil Safarov may be returned to Azerbaijan

Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 11 2006

Judge of the Constitutional Court of Hungary Andrash Bragyova has declared in Baku that Azeri Officer Ramil Safarov who brutally killed Armenian Officer Gurgen Margaryan and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Hungarian Court, may be returned to Azerbaijan. According to the Azerbaijani `Uch Nockta' newspaper, he `expressed
hope that when taking decisions about Ramil Safarov the Supreme Court of Hungary will take into account the complexness of the motives of crime.' He voiced confidence that the Armenian lobby will have no influence on the verdict.