Armenian News...Last news until 3rd week in November

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT IN YEREVAN FOR AN OFFICIAL VISIT
armradio.am
21.10.2008 10:16

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Armenia on a two-day
official visit. At "Zvartnots" airport the high guest was welcomed
by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

Following the welcome ceremony the two Presidents headed for RA
President's Office, where an official dinner was served in honor of
Dmitry Medvedev.

Today the Presidents of the two countries will meet tête-a-tête,
following which the negotiations will continue in an enlarged
format. At the end of the talks the leaders of Armenia and Russia
will give a joint press conference.

The two presidents will participate in the solemn ceremony of opening
of the Russian Square in Yerevan.

This morning the Russian President visited Tsitsernakaberd, where he
will laid a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims,
left a note in the Guest Book and planted a fire tree at the Memory
Square.

TURKEY 'COUP PLOTTERS' FACE CHAOTIC SCENES IN COURT
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Daily Telegraph
9:43PM BST 20 Oct 2008
UK

Dozens of opposition activists accused of seeking to bring about the
collapse of the Turkish state went on trial in Istanbul yesterday as
their supporters massed in the streets in protest.

Chaotic scenes surrounded the opening of the trial of 86 people
including high-ranking officials alleged to be involved in a
conspiracy designed to create social turmoil. Prosecutors unveiled
a 2,500-page indictment that detailed activities that ranged from
murder and terrorist plots to schemes to plant black propaganda in
popular newspapers.

However the trial was quickly adjourned as the court was overwhelmed
by sympathisers who sought to disrupt the proceedings.

The alleged conspirators include a retired general, the leader of a
small Leftist and nationalist party, a newspaper editor, a best-selling
author and a former university dean. Two more retired senior generals
have been questioned in connection with the plot.

Prosecutors said that the ultimate aim was to depose the Islamic AK
party, which has ruled Turkey since 2003. The conspirators were said
to believe the party was bent on destroying Turkey's secular state
system, which replaced the theocratic Ottoman empire in 1923.

One defendant spoke out against the charges as a politically inspired
charade. "An imaginary group has been invented," Muzaffer Tekin,
a retired army captain, told the judges. "I see this as a political
plot."

The existence of the so-called "deep state" underground plot has held
the public in thrall for months and judges were forced to suspend the
opening session after the courtroom on the outskirts of Istanbul was
mobbed. The plotters are alleged to have adopted the name, Ergenekon,
from a legend of a lone wolf of the Central Asian steppe and the
leitmotif of Turkish nationalism.

Although senior military figures were said to be central to the plot,
the group also allegedly planned the assassination of the chief of
the Turkish general staff. But it was Turkish minorities that are
said to have suffered most. Posing as radical Islamists, the group
was said to have carried out the murders of prominent Christians,
including the ethnic Armenian writer Hrant Dink, a Roman Catholic
priest and a group of missionaries.

The prosecution also alleges the suspects planned to kill the prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Nobel literature laureate Orhan
Pamuk and prominent Kurdish politicians.

Human rights campaigners welcomed the trial as an opportunity to expose
the powerful position of groups with military links and strengthen
the country's democracy, which has been interrupted by four coups
since the country was established.

"This case gives Turkey a chance to make clear that it will hold
security forces accountable for abuse," said Benjamin Ward of Human
Rights Watch.

"But that can only happen if the investigation follows the evidence
wherever and to whomever it leads."

SWISS COURT FINDS TURKS GUILTY FOR DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Canada.com
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Canada

GENEVA - A Swiss court on Tuesday ruled that three Turks were guilty of
racial discrimination after having claimed that the Armenian genocide
was an "international lie."

Ali Mercan, the Europe-based representative of the Party of Turkish
Workers, was sentenced to pay a fine of 4,500 Swiss francs ($3,900)
by the district tribunal of Winterthur.

Two others were ordered to pay 3,600 Swiss francs each for complicity
in the racial discrimination.

During a demonstration in June last year, Mercan had denied that
the Armenian genocide had taken place. The other two Turks were
co-organizers of the demonstration.

All three said during the court case that they were ready "at any time"
to organize a new demonstration and to take the same line.

In April, Armenia's president vowed to redouble efforts to have mass
killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire recognized as genocide,
a label staunchly rejected by Turkey.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey says 300,000 Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks
were killed in civil strife when the Christian Armenians, backed by
Russia, rose up against the Ottomans.

THE DAREDEVILS OF SASUN APPEAR IN LONDON, ENGLAND
Armenian News Network / Groong
October 20, 2008
By Eddie Arnavoudian
LONDON, UK


`Daredevils of Sasun: Poetics of an epic' (263pp, 2008, Mazda,
translated into English by Peter Cowe) is a timely and erudite study
of the Armenian epic born of the 7/8th century resistance to Arab
occupation. On Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 October its English
edition was launched first in London and then in Oxford by its author
Professor Azat Yeghiazaryan Director of the Manuk Abeghyan Institute
of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

With reference to European, Russian and Eastern epics Azat
Yeghiazaryan set an international context for appreciating the
singularity of the Armenian epic. A tale of solidarity, patriotism,
courage and honour `Daredevils of Sasun' was, uniquely, created,
developed and preserved as an oral tale and survived for a thousand
years with no connection to official Armenian literature. It was
written down only in the 19th century. In this aspect `Daredevils of
Sasun' is a genuine people's epic, a reality evident the epic's
history, its art, democratic sensibility and its moral compass.

The Daredevils of Sasun are like the heroes of other epics are indeed
kings, princes and knights. But they are so only formally. Their
palaces are cottages little different from those of the common people.
They live their daily lives among the people. They are extraordinary
individuals but they are simultaneously from and of the common
people. They do not regard themselves different from or opposed to the
common people and they put their extraordinarytalents to the
collective interest, primarily the battle against foreign oppression.
In their epic fights for freedom there is no glorification of violence
that one finds elsewhere. They slay, but only in self defence and
readily spare ordinary Arab soldiers sent to war against their will.

Discussing these and numerous other ways in which the `Daredevils of
Sasun' differs from other international epics, Azat Yeghiazaryan
revealed how this epic preserves a mode of human existence which has a
great deal to say to us today.

To obtain copies please contact Abril Bookstore (http://www.abrilbooks.com/)
in the USA or the Armenian Institute in London
(http://www.armenianinstitute.org.uk/).

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