Author: Babajanian Karo

Kavkas-Press, Georgia
June 15 2011

Swedish FM says Karabakh conflict “on threshold” of resolution

Tbilisi, 15 June: “We are on the threshold of the resolution of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said
at his joint briefing with his Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze in
Tbilisi today.

He stressed that the problem was discussed at his meeting with
Vashadze today. The meeting lasted more than one hour.

“We are paying much attention to this conflict and we hope that major
progress will be achieved during the negotiations,” he noted,
stressing that he pins hopes on the future meeting between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in this regard.

Vashadze made no comments on this statement by the Swedish foreign minister.

news.am, Armenia
June 17 2011

Armenian-Turkish protocols to regain actuality – Turkish MP

June 17, 2011 | 18:06

Newly elected Turkish MP Sinan Ohan does not rule out that ruling
Justice and Development party, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, might push
the issue of ratification of Armenian-Turkish protocols into
Parliament agenda.

‘I do not expect any major changes in Turkish policy towards
Azerbaijan in past-election period,’ said the director of TURKSAM
Centre for Strategic Research Sinan Ohan to 1news.az.

‘But, if the issue of ratification of Armenian-Turkish protocols is
brought into parliament, I would critically oppose its consideration,
at least we should have Karabakh conflict resolved and occupied land
of Azerbaijan liberated.’

Asked what about the standing of Turkish PM in this respect, Ohan
noted that statements of PM about territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
were a part of his election campaign and aimed at winning over the
electorate of the nationalists.

‘But the elections are over now and the Government no longer has its
hand tied. I think the issue of Armenian-Turkish protocols
ratification will regain actuality in certain period.’ said Ohan.

news.am, Armenia
June 17 2011

Armenian Government disapproves draft making amendments to law `On
foreign citizens’

June 17, 2011 | 14:29

YEREVAN. – MPs from Armenian National Assembly Samvel Balasanyan
(Prosperous Armenia Party), Tachat Vardapetyan (Republican Party of
Armenia) proposed to make amendments to the law `On foreign citizen’
for Armenian citizens of neighbor Georgia could arrive in Armenia
without receiving status designed for foreign citizens.

It was also proposed to allow these citizens to come to Armenia by
their own cars, without restrictions under Article 38 of the Customs
Code. According to the MPs, the adoption of the bill aims to improve
relations between Armenians in Georgia and the homeland. According to
them, the bill will provide an opportunity to remove obstacles for a
temporary stay of Armenians in Georgia, in particular,
Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli.

The MPs stressed the adoption of the bill is also conditioned by
foreign political motives, aimed at stemming the outflow of Armenians
from Javakheti.

However, the government disapproved the draft bill. According to
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan such a biased
attitude is unacceptable. Moreover, Armenia’s legislation provides
free stay of Georgian citizens within certain period, whereas
unlimited stay without legal status will create confusion.

news.az, Azerbaijan
June 17 2011

Russian Church working on sheikh’s Armenian trip
Fri 17 June 2011 13:49 GMT | 9:49 Local Time

Azerbaijan’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Allashukur Pashazade, is to
visit Armenia in November to attend a CIS Inter-Religious Council
meeting.
“Now we are preparing a meeting of the Presidium of the CIS
Inter-Religious Council which be held in Yerevan on 28 November. This
will be a historic visit by the sheikh to Armenia, just as Garegin
visited Baku,” Roman Silantyev of the Russian Orthodox Church’s
department for relations between church and society told
Interfax-Azerbaijan.

He described the visit by the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Garegin II, to Baku in April 2010 and Pashazade’s upcoming visit to
Yerevan in November as “truly historic events”.

“Naturally, this requires hard work. It is clear that there could be a
provocation that would be distorted. This has to be dealt with very
seriously in order to minimize the number of possible provocations,’
Silantyev said.

“Hopefully, if all goes well, a new stage in conflict resolution will
begin. The role of religious diplomacy is growing every year, not only
in the post-Soviet area, but also throughout the world. The voice of
spiritual leaders is heard stronger and stronger,” he stressed.

Catholicos Garegin II visited Baku in April 2010 to attend a World
Summit of Religious Leaders.

He met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and visited the Armenian
church in central Baku.

News.Az

Panorama, Armenia
June 17 2011

Ministry of Culture: UNESCO censured Armenian khachkars under
constraint of Azerbaijan and Turkey

Armenian Minister of Culture released a statement to make remarks on
UNESCO censoring the origin of Armenian Khachkars.

UNESCO Paris headquarters hosted on June 15 the official opening
ceremony of `Art of Khachkars’ photo exhibition. The initiative group
is Armenian permanent representation office in UNESCO and Armenian
Ministry of Culture in cooperation with UNESCO.

Culture Ministry press service informs UNESCO also hosts committee
sessions on different Conventions, which serves as a chance to perform
the masterpieces of Armenian culture – khachkars to the
representatives of more than 100 countries.

Special booklets, recordings have been made beforehand and sent to
Paris to share among the visitors. Artist-sculptor Robert Minasyan
departed for Paris to represent the history of khachkars.

Though UNESCO has been beforehand introduced to the materials of the
exhibition, Azerbaijan and Turkey used all the available means to
convince UNESCO to remove from the exhibition those displays which are
located out of Armenia.

news.am, Armenia
June 17 2011

Arthur Abraham came to Armenia to get married

June 17, 2011 | 13:06

YEREVAN.- Arthur Abraham’s visit to Armenia has two objectives:
beneficence and getting married.

The boxer told journalists that his fiancé lives in Yerevan but she is
not a celebrity.

Arthur Abraham, jointly with Adidas company brought 100,000 euro
assistance to the Armenian boxing school where he used to train
himself.

Abraham plans to open a boxing school in Armenia where English and
German languages will be taught. A boxer will hardly achieve success
abroad unless he masters foreign languages, he added.

He stressed that there are a lot of good boxers and coaches in Armenia
but professional boxing is not that developed. It is the reason
majority of young sportsmen leave the country.

Famous boxer said he is proud of being Armenian noting that Armenia is
a paradise for him.

BIAnet.org, Turkey
June 17 2011

No Prosecution of “Trabzon Police” for Dink Murder

The Rize High Criminal Court dismissed the appeal filed by the Dink
family lawyers against the closure of procedures regarding officials
of the Trabzon police. Domestic remedies have been exhausted upon the
rejection of the Rize court.

Rize – BÄ°A News Center17 June 2011, Friday The High Criminal Court of
Rize (eastern Black Sea coast) dismissed the appeal against the
decision to drop procedures related to the assassination of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The joint attorneys of the
family of the slain journalists had filed an appeal with the Rize
Court against the decision given by the Trabzon High Criminal Court.

Accordingly, Faruk Sarı and Engin Dinç, on duty for the Chief of the
Trabzon Police Intelligence Branch; the two former Chiefs of the
Trabzon Police, Ramazan Akyürek and ReÅ?at Altay; Muhettin Zenit who
was responsible for the communication with assistant intelligence
staff member Erhan Tuncel; Ã-zkan Mumcu, Mehmet Ayhan and Onur
Karakaya, Department Chief Inspector Ercan Demir and the Chief of the
Trabzon Anti-Terror Branch, Yahya Ã-ztürk, will not be prosecuted in
the context of the Dink murder.

The Dink family lawyers demanded the investigation of the above
mentioned persons and later on appealed the decision for the closing
of procedures. Both their petition and the appeal put forward that the
officials of the Trabzon police at the time were responsible for the
killing of Hrant Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos
newspaper.

Petition came a long way
Hrant Dink, founder of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was killed in
front of his office in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.

In February 2010, the Dink family submitted a petition to the Istanbul
14th High Criminal Court that handles the Dink murder case. The
plaintiff lawyers petitioned for an investigation about the officials
at the Trabzon Police on duty at the time of the murder.

The Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court forwarded the petition to the
Istanbul Public Chief Prosecution. On 28 May 2010, the Istanbul
Prosecution decided to drop procedures and allocated the investigation
to the Trabzon Public Chief Prosecution.

The Trabzon prosecution announced their decision one month later,
saying that there was “no need for a prosecution”.

On 16 September 2010, the Dink family lawyers appealed the decision
with the Rize High Criminal Court. They requested to lift the decision
of the Trabzon Public Chief Prosecution regarding the abatement of
action.

The plaintiff lawyers requested to launch a trial against the Trabzon
police officers by taking into account the “new evidence” that emerged
from the statements given by Emin Arslan, Levent Yarımel and ReÅ?at
Altay. Yet, The Rize High Criminal Court dismissed their appeal
despite the additional information.

It was stated in the court decision that the Istanbul Police
Directorate and the Intelligence Department Presidency of the Police
General Directorate had been informed by the Trabzon Police about the
murder on 15 February 2006 and about the concrete assassination plot
on 17 February 2006.

With the latest decision of the Rize High Criminal Court, domestic
remedies have been exhausted. (HK/Ã-V/VK)

news.am, Armenia
June 16 2011

Armenian Electric Networks to invest $50 million

June 16, 2011 | 20:04

YEREVAN.- Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission approved on
Thursday the investment program of Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC.

The company’s total investments amounted to about $50 million in 2011.
Investment program of the company has six directions. The most
important directions are reduction in average power outage duration
(AMD 7.3 billion drams), reduction in average duration and frequency
deviation (AMD 655 million), and special programs to attract new
customers ( AMD 7.3 billion drams). This year the company also plans
to replace more than 40,000 electric meters.

Commission’s head Robert Nazaryan said he would personally follow
implementation of the program. The company will be brought to account
unless commitments are fulfilled.

International Business Times
June 16 2011

Armenia Ready To Establish Ties With Turkey: PM

June 16, 2011 3:34 PM EDT

Armenia is prepared to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey
without any pre-conditions, said Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sarkisian.

Turkey, which just re-elected Recep Tayyip Erdoðan to an unprecedented
third term as Prime Minister, should move toward rapprochement, the
Armenian leader added.

Sarkisian also suggested that the border between the Turkey and
Atmenia – closed since 1993 – should be re-opened.

“Having closed borders in the 21st Century is nonsense,” Sarkisian told the BBC.

In 2009, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic pact to re-establish
ties, but that deal broke down after Erdogan demanded that Armenia
resolve its conflicts with its neighbor to the east, Azerbaijan over
the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia and Azerbaijan started a war in 1988 over the disputed land.
That conflict ended un a ceasefire in 1994, but the two nations are
still technically at war (there have been periodic clashes ever
since).

More than 25,000 people dies in the war and one million people became homeless.

It is unclear whether or not Erdogan has changed his stance on this subject.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an area in southwestern Azerbaijan, which is
dominated by ethnic Armenians.

Meanwhile, Sarkisian warned that if Azerbaijan sought to seize
Nagorno-Karabakh by military force he was prepared to launch another
war.

“We have a bellicose partner [Azerbaijan],” Sarkisian said, according to BBC.

“So the only way to ensure there is peace in the region is to be
prepared for war. The balance of power in the region needs to remain
intact.”

A spokesman for the Azerbaijan foreign ministry told BBC: “We are
committed to peace negotiations, and this process is underway, but we
can’t be holding talks for the sake of talks. Armenia has to withdraw
its army from the region first – that will help put an end to
war-mongering rhetoric.”

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in late June in
Kazan, Russia to find a solution to their crisis. Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev will chair that conference.

Aside from the Nagorno-Karabakh affair, Turkey and Armenia have much
bigger concerns – namely, Armenia’s frustration and anger over
Turkey’s refusal to admit that its government committed genocide
against its Armenian population during World War I.

As many as 1.5-million Armenians are believed to have been murdered by
the Ottoman Turks. However, Ankara has long claimed that the deaths
arose from war, famine and disease.

Trend, Azerbaijan
June 16 2011

Deputy PM: Azerbaijan creates legal framework to protect national minorities

16.06.2011 13:27
Azerbaijan, Baku, June 16 / Trend, K. Zarbaliyeva /

A legal framework has been formed in Azerbaijan to protect national
minorities, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for
Refugees and IDPs of Azerbaijan Ali Hasanov said addressing the 9th
International Conference on the topic of “Cultural Rights of National
Minorities and Migrants: Legal Aspects and Their Implementation” in
Baku.

“National minorities have been used to create the majority of
conflicts around the world. Therefore, all countries must take the
issue seriously,” he said.

According to Hasanov more than 380 religious communities and NGOs
operate in Azerbaijan, 31 of them being non-Islamic communities. He
said that this indicates the country’s tolerance.

“Necessary legal conditions and opportunities have been created for
each religious community’s activity. Cultural and historical monuments
of national minorities are protected. There is even an Armenian church
in the center of Baku, which is also protected,” he said.

Hasanov said that though earlier there were problems with migrants,
measures have been taken to address the problems of minority issues,
making the country attractive to migrants since Azerbaijan’s political
and economic development.