Author: admin

NEWS ABOUT WAR WITH AZERBAIJAN JUST EMPTY WORDS: MANASYAN

Tert.am
17:06 ~U 06.04.10

"If the news about war are coming from Baku, then they’re empty words,
but if they’re being disseminated from inside [Armenia], then it’s
something unhealthy," said Armenian Academy of Political Research NGO
President Alexander Manasyan at a press conference today when asked
whether he considered the recommencement of war possible.

Manasyan mentioned that Azerbaijan cannot initiate a war unless it
gets permission from the world’s superpowers. And even if it does so,
according to Manasyan, there will be a repetition of what has already
happened before – Azerbaijan will be defeated.

In turn, political analyst Stepan Grigoryan, also present at the
conference, said that there has always been a likelihood of war,
but that probability is periodically growing.

As for Azerbaijan’s bellicose statements, according to Stepanyan,
they are addressed not to Armenia, but to Turkey and aim at hinting
at Ankara that it must not open the border with Armenia.

ARMENIAN FM, EU DELEGATION DISCUSS BILATERAL COOPERATION

news.am
April 6 2010
Armenia

RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian held a meeting on April 6 with
a delegation led by EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European
Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule.

The press service of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed
NEWS.am that the sides welcomed the development of the Armenia-EU
relations and a new quality of bilateral cooperation due to the
European Neighborhood Policy. The sides expressed hope for the
consolidation of European Neighborhood and for the expansion of
cooperation both between the European Neighborhood member-states and
at various levels.

Stefan Fule made a high appraisal of the EU Advisory Group’s activities
in Armenia. According to him, the Group contributes to Armenia’s
integration with Europe.

Mr. Fule also reported that the EU Council is likely to approve the
mandate to hold talks over association agreements with the South
Caucasus states late this month.

At Mr. Fule’s request Minister Nalbandian informed him of the latest
developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

Speaking of the Armenian-Turkish relations, Minister Nalbandian
thanked the EU for its assistance to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process and constructive position. Mr. Fuler expressed hope that
the sides will ratify and implement the Armenian-Turkish protocols
without any preconditions.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH’S RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION TOP PRIORITY, FM STATES

news.am
April 6 2010
Armenia

The recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s right to
self-determination is the top priority of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated at a news
conference held jointly with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and
European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule.

As regards RA Serzh Sargsyan’s interview with Der Spiegel, particularly
his statement that the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is
a matter of hours provided Azerbaijan recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh’s
independence and, on the other hand, that the Madrid principles,
which were published last July, say Nagorno-Karabakh’s status must
be legally regulated by means of national referendum contradict each
other, Nalbandian said that "our position has not changed in any way."

"We have repeatedly stated – and not only we, but the three Co-Chairs
realize as well -that the recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s
right to self-determination, which can actually be exercised, is the
top priority of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. In this context
the President’s statement means this. And if this major problem is
resolved, the others will be easier to discuss and solutions will be
found," Nalbandian said.

OPPOSITION’S PROCESSION OVER IN YEREVAN

news.am
April 6 2010
Armenia

The Armenian Opposition’s procession has been finished in
Yerevan. Thousands of supporters of the Armenian opposition political
forces participated in the action. No incidents were registered
during the event. Specifically, policemen were unusually kind,
looking smart and smiling at journalists. The reason is a conference
of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), which has
been opened in Yerevan. Armenian government officials participated
in the conference as well.

Vice-Chief of the Yerevan Police Department Robert Melkonyan and Chief
of the patrol force Valery Hovsipyan coordinated the policemen’s
actions. The demonstrators were crying out "Levon is President",
"Free and independent Armenia", "Freedom", etc..

The procession was led by young people with uniforms on, with portraits
of political prisoners on them.

The procession was preceded by a rally. Among the speakers were
participants in the FIDH conference, including FIDH President Souhayr
Belhassen.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE NOT FORGOTTEN

New Haven Register
April 5 2010
CT

THERE was a time when American mothers regularly ordered their children
to clean their plates by reminding them of the "starving Armenians."

So thoroughly inculcated in this admonition was I that when I first met
a person of Armenian descent, I blurted that he couldn’t be Armenian,
because he wasn’t starving.

The origin of this phrase was, of course, the elimination of an
estimated 1.5 million Armenians, half of that nation’s population,
by the Turks in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1915
and 1919, there were massacres and death marches and starvation.

It was a tragedy exceeded in modern history only by the Holocaust and
the murder of 2 million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge. It resulted in
the coining of the word "genocide" to describe such a horrific event.

The Republic of Turkey has refused to take any responsibility for
this policy of destruction or to acknowledge that it was genocidal in
nature, despite the fact that history and at least 20 other nations
have recognized it as such.

But, most Americans have little understanding of the phrase once used
to remind their grandmothers and grandfathers that the privilege of
eating is a precious thing that many do not have.

Many Armenians who survived the devastation made it to America and
became among this nation’s most prosperous and productive citizens.

Among them are author William Saroyan and the San Francisco financier,
philanthropist and restaurateur George Mardikian, whose biography,
"The Song of America," became a paean to his adopted country and a
bible of inspiration to tens and thousands of immigrants.

The resistance of the Turkish government to official recognition
of what the rest of the world knows is about to get a jolt from the
American descendents of those who expired nearly 100 years ago. It will
be in the form of a major new museum smack dab in the middle of one of
the most traveled corridors in the nation’s capital, 14th Street just
above Pennsylvania Avenue, where millions of American tourists will be
tastefully but firmly educated about man’s inhumanity to man. About
a half mile further down the street is the Holocaust Museum, where
millions have learned those lessons through the suffering of the
world’s Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany.

The Armenian Genocide Museum of America will be established in an
imposing limestone building that once housed the National Bank of
Washington. The building was erected in 1922, which coincidentally
fits the time frame of the events it will memorialize.

It has been vacant for a number of years. A modern "tower" addition
will be added without disturbing the architectural integrity of the old
building. Money and oversight of the project are under the guidance
of a committee of distinguished Armenian Americans and directed by
Rouben Adalian of the Armenian National Institute. A date for the
restoration and opening is still a ways off.

Those who may think this will be just another memorial and museum in a
city where there are already too many are missing the point. Coupled
in proximity with the Holocaust Memorial and in a location so close
to the White House and Capitol Hill, it will be one of the more
significant punctuations to the ideal of human rights for which this
country always has stood, if not always adhered to in its own dealings
with minorities.

As our mothers knew, it is often necessary to remind ourselves that
there are those less fortunate than we are and that survival is
tenuous, requiring perseverance reached only by digging deep into
the spirit and recognizing the lessons of sacrifice and refusing to
forget the tragedies of the past.

That is pretty heavy stuff, but my mother and millions of others,
even in those harshest days of the Great Depression, distilled it
into two words, "starving Armenians," that instantly reminded us of
our good fortune and warned us not to waste it.

Perhaps if the rest of the world had paid attention to the implications
of Armenia, later genocides would not have occurred. It’s time the
Turks owned up.

Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service,
1090 Vermont Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.

ARTSAKH TO HOST TRIPLE VICTORY DAY CELEBRATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.04.2010 18:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On April 2, NKR President Bako Sahakyan convoked
a consultation dedicated to celebration of the Triple Victory Day.

As NKR leader emphasized, celebratory events should be arranged at
high level.

Bako Sahakyan instructed the heads of corresponding bodies on events
program implementation procedure.

NKR Prime Minister Ara Haroutyunyan and other officials partook
at the meeting, Central Information Department at NKR President’s
Office reported.

4-YEAR-OLD NEEDS BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT
Brian Taff

6abc.com
April 1 2010

BALA CYNWYD, Pa. – April 1, 2010 (WPVI) — Easter Sunday is the
most important day on the Christian calendar and it may prove to be
a life-saving one for a little Montgomery County girl with a rare
blood disease.

Charlotte Conybear is a beautiful 4-year-old girl who, in some ways,
is like so many others. She loves to paint, and to draw and to eat
things as sweet as she is.

But one day, Charlotte’s parents noticed something that just didn’t
seem right.

"We first noticed, about a year and a half ago, that Charlotte had a
lot of bruises, especially on her legs," Ellen Conybear, Charlotte’s
mother, said.

At first, doctors thought it was something called ITP, a common
disorder that often goes away with age. But Charlotte’s didn’t; it
got worse and then came the diagnosis of aplastic anemia, a difficult
to cure blood disorder that can be fatal.

But more than simply the diagnosis, the Conybears were surprised by
the complication of the cure.

Charlotte likely needs a bone marrow transplant, but because of the
rare genetics of her Armenian heritage, not a single person of the
millions on a national list of donors matched. Not one.

But this Sunday, Easter Sunday, when so many Christians celebrate
the resurrection of their Savior, the Conybears will be looking for
a savior and through an extraordinary turn of events, they just may
find one.

"This is now, we have an opportunity to extend a hand, to give
a life for someone," Reverend Oshagan Gulgulian of St. Sahag and
St. Mesrob said.

Hearing her story, through word of mouth, nearly a dozen Armenian
churches from California to ones in our area, are setting out to help
asking their parishioners to take a simple mouth swab this Sunday to
see if just may be a match.

news/local&id=7363209

TURK ENVOY TO RETURN TO US A MONTH AFTER ROW OVER ‘GENOCIDE’

Hurriyet
April 2 2010
Turkey

The strained relations between Ankara and Washington seem to be easing
as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accepts President Barack
Obama’s invitation to a nuclear summit in Washington and announces
his decision to return Ambassador Namık Tan to the US capital

Turkish Ambassador to the US Namık Tan. AFP photo

Turkey has said it will send its ambassador back to the United States
next week, an indication of "positive developments" in an effort to
end the recent spat with Washington.

Ambassador Namık Tan was recalled to Ankara a month ago after a U.S.

House of Representatives committee voted March 4 to label the mass
killings of Armenians in 1915 as "genocide."

As he announced his decision to send Tan back to the U.S. capital,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said he would attend an
international nuclear security summit in Washington on April 12 and
13. The prime minister had previously cancelled the trip after the
House committee’s vote.

Erdogan made both announcements to reporters following a meeting with
party brass in Ankara, stressing "positive developments" in efforts
to ease tensions with Washington.

Relations between the two countries were strained last month when the
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted to recognize Armenian
"genocide" allegations by a margin of one vote. In protest, Turkey
recalled Ambassador Tan to Ankara for consultations.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a phone call to Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu late Sunday, urging Turkey to send Tan
back to his post and reiterating the invitation for the nuclear summit.

"I received an invitation five, six months ago to attend an
international event that other countries will also be attending and
that serves a good cause, to prevent the use and spreading of nuclear
weapons," Erdogan said Friday. "I will be going to the United States."

The phone conversation between Clinton and Davutoglu was a positive
signal, Erdogan said. "I hope these positive developments will continue
during my visit."

Davutoglu expressed his hope Wednesday that U.S. President Barack
Obama might take Turkey’s concerns about recognition of the Armenian
"genocide" into consideration in his April 24 statement commemorating
the 1915 deaths. Resolutions such as the one passed by the House
committee have a negative effect on the process of normalizing
Turkish-Armenian relations, Davutoglu added.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian will also join the nuclear summit
in Washington. Sources in diplomatic circles say Obama is expected
to host a meeting between Erdogan and Sarkisian to provide a boost
to the normalization process.

When questioned on the topic, Erdogan confirmed that he would hold
talks on the sidelines of the nuclear summit and indicated that his
top priority is the "genocide" allegations.

"The nuclear issue is not the only topic on the agenda. There are
many other issues to discuss," he said. "[Talks in Washington] are
important chance and we will make use of this opportunity. We have
taken all the required steps up to now."

Opposition leader criticizes

Responding to Erdogan’s announcement about attending the summit in
Washington, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party criticized
the prime minister for "stepping back like always."

"I earlier said the PM would visit Washington and the ambassador would
go back," Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Deniz Baykal told
reporters Friday. "Now, he has come to the point I indicated earlier.

The PM often steps back."

Erdogan’s earlier pledge to skip the summit was not convincing, Baykal
said. "Everyone smiled at him when he vowed not to go [to Washington].

Within only 25 days, he rotated 180 degrees."

The opposition leader also linked Erdogan’s U.S. trip to police actions
in response to protests in Ankara by workers from the former state-run
alcohol and tobacco monopoly, or Tekel. "The intolerance [toward Tekel
workers] is not understandable," Baykal said. "He [Erdogan] got angry
with bowing to the U.S. and compensated himself on the Tekel workers."

Erdogan became angry upon hearing Baykal’s comments. "Why are you
interested in such a black-hearted comments? Do you really see any
connection?" the prime minister asked. "I think there is no need to
make a comment on this accusation."

ARMENIA’S RULING COALITION IN CRITICAL SITUATION

news.am
April 2 2010
Armenia

The coalition government of Armenia is going through critical times
and needs radical reforms, Hrair Karapetyan, the Chairman of the
Committee on Defense National Security and Internal Affairs, RA
Parliament, member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF),
told a press conference.

He stressed that by the reforms he means government socio-economic
programs, rather than individuals. "The present halfhearted economic
recovery measures are ineffective, and not only people, but also
government officials, are dissatisfied. I think the President should
draw conclusions and take radical steps to improve the situation,"
Karapetyan said. He pointed out that the Armenian Government’s quality
suffered after the ARF withdrew from the coalition. If urgent measures
to improve the socio-economic situation in Armenia are not taken,
Armenia’s national security and the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
will be endangered.

As regards the general political situation, Karapetyan stressed that
"a positive regress" to the national values and ideas has lately
been observed.

"The Government is regressing and facilitating the international
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The only thing that remains is
that this tendency be observed in the socio-economic sector as well,"
he said. Among the negative factors is, according to Karapetyan,
a radically polarized political arena in the country. "At present,
some political figures, mostly representing the ruling coalition,
keep on repeating all the words uttered by the President, doing so
with even greater fanaticism that the President himself, others,
particularly the radical Opposition, are criticizing everything,
their guiding principle being ‘the worse the better’," Karapetyan said.

Commenting on the rumors that the ARF is pushing forward the idea
and policy of the ex-president Robert Kocharyan, Karapetyan said:
"The ideas of neither Robert Kocharyan nor Serzh Sargsyan coincide
with those of ARF one hundred per cent. Everything is clear – Robert
Kocharyan is not an ARF member, and Serzh Sargsyan is a member of the
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). If they shared ARF’s ideology they
would join our ranks," Karapetyan said.

AN EVENING DEDICATED TO GRIGOR GURZADYAN IN "HAYART"

Aysor
April 1 2010
Armenia

On April 2 in the "HayART" cultural center will take place an event
dedicated to Grigor Gurzadyan, academician, painter, writer and
astrophysicist.

On the evening around 60 works of Gurzadyan will be presented. There
will be introduced also the books "The space in the palm", "A love
story", "A cosmic catastrophe", "Thoughts… thoughts…", "My son
on the Top of Ararat", "The mystery of Kakavaberd", will also be
presented the film "The space in the palm".

As the press service of the "HayART" cultural center told to Aysor.am
film "The space in the palm" was shot by Rita Sharoyan who is the
director of the "HayART" culyural center and the auther of many
documentary films. The film lasts for 35 minutes.

The source also informed that "The space in the palm" film is divided
into several subtitles; it has been shot based on the archive materials
of Rita Sharoyan and Grigor Gurzadyan. Exceptional materials have
been used form Moscow. There are also some episodes showing the
establishment of "Orion". The meetings, discussions, debates are
presented in the film.

Born in October 15, 1922 in Baghdad, he became the postgraduate of
Victor Hambartsumian, who had just moved to Armenia.

Being in Hambartsumian’s founding team of Byurakan Observatory, he
later headed a Laboratory, in 1960s became deputy director of the
Observatory for space research.

Then he moved to design space orbital observatories. The highlight
was Orion 2 Space Observatory. It was in April, 1971, when the first
space station Salyut 1 carried into orbit Orion 1 Space Observatory,
the first space telescope with an objective prism.