Author: Basmajian Ani

ARMENIAN CATHOLICOS MADE NO OFFER TO AZERBAIJAN’S ALIYEV OVER THE ARMENIAN CHURCH IN BAKU

Panorama.am
14:08 29/04/2010

Politics

Azerbaijani "Turan" agency spread information Wednesday as if the
Armenian Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II
announced at the meeting with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev in Baku that
"the Armenian side is ready to reconstruct the Armenian Church in
Baku on its own means and asked Ilham Aliyev’s support over the issue."

According to the source, Azerbaijani authorities have given consent
to the request.

Panorama.am tried to inquire over the issue from the Mother See of
Holy Echmiadzin press office.

"The issue has not been talked or discussed there. The information
is false," the head of the Mother See press office Priest Vahram
Melikyan said.

AZERBAIJANI, ARMENIAN MPS MEET AT EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY

news.az
April 29 2010
Azerbaijan

Samad Seyidov The heads of the Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations
to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have
met in Strasbourg.

The delegations met yesterday on the sidelines of the PACE spring
session. The PACE president, Turkish MP Mevlut Cavusoglu, also attended
the meeting, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation, Samad Seyidov
told journalists.

‘I met the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE and we had an
exchange of views. Consideration of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Council
of Europe is very important. As the spring session wrapped up, we
decided to meet again at the June session. We keep on working and our
next meeting will have a broader format. The opposition members in
the Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations to PACE will attend the next
meeting as well. I think this is a very important achievement and we’ll
do our utmost to keep up this kind of discussion with the involvement
of the PACE president. Exchanges of views and consultations must
be held and continued. The current chairman of PACE, the assembly’s
former secretary general, Mateo Sorinas Balfego, and other officials
took part in today’s meeting,’ Samad Seyidov said.

As for restoration of the PACE subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh, Samad
Seyidov said that the process had just started and would continue. ‘As
I noted before, the beginning and continuation of the meeting in a
broader format shows that the process is ongoing.’

The PACE subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh stopped work after the
death of its chairman, Lord Russell-Johnston, in July 2008.

The head of the Armenian delegation to PACE commented yesterday that
the Karabakh subcommittee was still being formed.

‘Consultations are under way on the formation of the PACE subcommittee
on Nagorno-Karabakh. The process is ongoing. As for the committee
chairman, we will deal with the issue later, after we have agreed
on further cooperation,’ David Harutyunyan told NEWS.am, commenting
on PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu’s declared intention to chair
the subcommittee.

Harutyunyan said that Micheline Calmy-Rey, federal councillor and
head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and PACE
Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland had both said clearly in their
speeches that the OSCE Minsk Group remained the body involved in
mediation on Karabakh. ‘We must not replace this process with any
simultaneous process, and PACE must be very cautious not to create
the impression of a simultaneous process,’ Harutyunyan said.

Commenting on a statement issued by 20 PACE members opposing the
parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, Harutyunyan said:
‘The declaration has to do only with the PACE members that made it.

Elections in Nagorno-Karabakh are a democratic procedure. The
Nagorno-Karabakh people is exercising its democratic right.’

ARMENIAN NGOS TAKE INITIATIVE IN ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS

news.am
April 29 2010
Armenia

Four Armenian NGOs signed a memorandum on joint initiatives in the
context of Armenian-Turkish relations.

The Eurasia Cooperation Foundation, Yerevan Press Club, Union
of Manufacturers and Business of Armenia and the International
Center for Human Development put their signatures to the memorandum,
stating their intention to coordinate their projects in the context of
Armenian-Turkish relations, hold unanimous positions on the relevant
issues and combine efforts for Armenian-Turkish reconciliation.

Chairman of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan stated that,
although the first stage of the process is considered to be over,
it is expected to continue, as the states must be in normal relations.

"We are now analyzing the difficulties that prevented us from achieving
the desired results. One of our aims is to analyze the past year and
a half and put forward specific proposals," Navasardyan said.

The leaders of the signatory organizations emphasized that it is
a civil initiative. Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan, Director of the Eurasia
Foundation, reported that the organizations will elaborate a joint
program to encourage cooperation between the two states’ business
communities, mass media, NGOs and education and cultural centers. They
hope the communication between the two states’ NGOs will finally
result in normalization of bilateral relations.

As to whether the Turkish side will take a similar initiative, Tevan
Poghosyan, Director of the International Center for Human Development,
pointed out that the Armenian side’s initiative will encourage the
Turkish side to take a similar step.

AZERBAIJAN KEEPS ON FIRING AT KARABAKH POSITIONS

ArmInfo
2010-04-28 10:35:00

ArmInfo. According to the message of the NKR Defense Ministry press
service, the Azerbaijani party violated ceasefire on April 26 night
in a number of directions of the NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces’
contact line. The enemy went silent after response actions by the
NKR Defense Army’s front subdivisions.

ARMENIAN SCIENTISTS DISSATISFIED WITH PREMIER’S SPEECH

Tert.am
28.04.10

Head of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (NASA), Radik
Martirosyan, expressed his dissatisfaction about the annual speech
Armenia’s Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan delivered recently.

"The prime minister’s speech was a little stricter this year. He
was very much focused on merchandizing scientific achievements,"
said Martirosyan at a press conference today.

However, at the same time Martirosyan tried to justify the prime
minister saying: "What else could the prime minister say? He should
have put it that way given his position"

Earlier Armenia’s Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan had said in his
speech that it was high time for NASA not to raise but rather answer
to some current issues.

Asked whether he agreed with PM’s ideas about the NASA and whether he
was ready to find solutions to those problems with scanty financial
resources, Martirosyan said: "The prime minister did not clarify what
issues he meant."

"Of course, we are ready to resolve those issues, we have a Science
Development Concept," concluded Martirosyan.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Office of Foreign Communications
Tel: +374-10-517163
Fax: +374-10-517301
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website:

Trilateral Meeting Held on Sidelines of World Summit of Religious Leaders in
Baku

On April 26, the religious leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the
Russian Orthodox Church and the Caucasus Muslims Committee met on the
sidelines of the World Summit of Religious Leaders in Baku, Azerbaijan. His
Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; His
Holiness Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; and Sheikh ul-Islam
Allahshukur Pashazade, Grand Mufti of the Muslims of the Caucasus, met
privately and discussed issues related to Nagorno Karabagh.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the three leaders signed a joint
declaration. The text of the declaration appears below, in full:

In the name of Almighty God, and for the fulfillment of the cherished
dreams of peace, welfare and happiness of our peoples, we, the spiritual
leaders of the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, met in Baku through the
high mediation of His Holiness Kirill I, Pontiff of the Russian Orthodox
Church, to testify to our mutual respect and discuss urgent measures
necessary to secure a true peace and an agreement for our peoples and
governments.

Viewing this meeting as part of the peace-making dialogue between the
Armenian Apostolic Church and the Committee of the Muslims of the Caucasus,
begun through the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988, and
faithful to the spirit of previous communiqués, we are hopeful that in the
future as well, we can assist the progress of the principles of peaceful
coexistence for our peoples and the cultivation of mutually acceptable
decisions, exclusively through the path of dialogue. It is pleasing to
witness that meetings of similar formats have significantly contributed to
the cessation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani armed conflict founded on the
issue of Karabagh. Undoubtedly, these meetings have helped to prevent the
conflict from taking on an inter-religious nature.

Today especially, we place importance on the adherence to the spiritual
aspects of collaboration, to overcome the present alienation between our
peoples. The power of religion, which is a calling to goodness, peace,
sympathy and patience, shall become a factor of reconciliation. We believe
that our common efforts will benefit the defeat of inter-ethnic enmity. It
is fundamentally essential to not permit the resumption of military options
as a means to solve the disputed issues. Through our peace-making efforts,
we must support men in their hope to eliminate divisions, barriers and
hostility, since war – if it continues – has no end.

We support international efforts aimed at resolving the conflict. To
attain peace and good neighborly relations, it is necessary to expand lines
of communication, with the goal of reinforcing trust. A lasting peace is
possible only in the presence of good will and honest intentions. By
supporting the efforts of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, we
intend to assist them in their aspirations. In this regard, we consider the
continuation of direct dialogue between the religious leaders important,
with the goal of benefiting the resolution of the conflict, which will
provide the opportunity for people to return to those places from where they
were driven out by war. We welcome the good will on both sides to release
prisoners of war, and call upon political as well as religious workers to
increase their efforts in this noble and humanitarian work. Each of us must
demonstrate that good works, service to kindheartedness, and dedication to
peace and justice, can achieve far more than military conflict. We condemn
acts of vandalism and deem important the preservation of our peoples’
religious monuments and holy sites.

The path to reach peace and consensus is not an easy one – it requires
great efforts and a mighty will. However we have sincere hopes to attain
success, and by joining efforts, we hope to triumph over alienation and
prejudices. The responsibility and the debt we have before the Most High
and before our peoples, impels us, religious leaders, to implement efforts
for the sake of peace, the long-awaited triumph of the ideals of goodness
and the just resolution of present issues. May a strong and just peace be
established on the bountiful land of the Caucasus, and may our peoples
inherit goodness and prosperity.

##

THE CONJOINT MEETING OF ARONYAN AND MOVSISYAN

Aysor
April 27 2010
Armenia

Levon Aronyana and Sergey Movsisyan who have the highest personal
rating in the world make a short conjoint sportive meeting in Yerevan
those days. The famous grand masters are getting ready for the upcoming
most important tournament.

It’s not the first time that Aronyan and Movsisyan, who are also good
friends, train together. Several weeks ago they had organized such
kind of meeting in Berlin too, informs the Armenian Chess Federation.

ARMENIAN EX-PRESIDENT FATHER OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH RECONCILIATION, ANC REP STATES

news.am
April 27 2010
Armenia

Armenian-Turkish reconciliation was initiated by the former Armenian
president Robert Kocharyan and former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
– they were conducting secret negotiations, being actually the authors
of the policy, Levon Zurabyan, Central Office Coordinator, Armenian
National Movement (ANM), told reporters. He pointed out his surprise
at Vartan Oskanian’s criticism against President Serzh Sargsyan.

Serzh Sargsyan has made "a great many" mistakes, and, under the
circumstances, hardly anything could be advised him, Zurabyan said.

"But we are not going to give him any advice," he said, pointing out
that Serzh Sargsyan got involved in the disastrous Armenian-Turkish
process after he had considered all his steps beforehand. "The
President considered he would enlist strong international support. At
present the international community is of high opinion of him, as
Armenia has never made concessions like these," Zurabyan said.

According to him, Serzh Sargsyan is ruling the country due to the
following factors: violence and the international community’s support.

"National unity is the best way of opposing any external challenges.

So the authorities must stop warring against their own people. The
release of political prisoners would be the first step, which would
possibly be followed by negotiations between the authorities and the
Opposition," Zurabyan said.

NEWS.am reminds readers that in addressing the recent developments
in the Armenian-Turkish process yesterday, the former Armenian FM
Vartan Okanian was highly critical of President Serzh Sargsyan. He
pointed out that the Armenian authorities preferred the worst way of
suspending the Armenian-Turkish process.

GAGIK MINASYAN: SUSPENSION OF THE RATIFICATION PROCESS WAS THE MOST LOGICAL DECISION
Liana Yeghiazaryan

"Radiolur"
27.04.2010 17:14

The suspension of the process of ratification of the Armenian-Turkish
protocols was the most logical and correct decision Armenia could
have made, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gagik Minasyan told a press
conference today.

According to him, Armenia had four options: to suspend the process,
recall its signature, ratify the protocols before Turkey would do
that or do nothing at all. "Armenia managed to demonstrate to the
international community which of the parties equates words and deeds,"
he said.

Asked to predict the future developments in the Armenian-Turkish
relations, Gagik Minasyan voiced hope that "the forces that will
come to power as a result of parliamentary elections in Turkey, will
be better prepared to establishing relations with Armenia without
preconditions." He does not believe any new stage will start in
the Armenian-Turkish normalization process before the forthcoming
parliamentary elections in Turkey.

Gagik Minasyan does not mind Iran’s participation in the process of
settlement of the Karabakh conflict, especially considering that that
country has always been demonstrating a balanced position on the issue.

ILLEGAL ARMENIAN FAMILY HAILS TURKEY’S RESIDENCE PERMIT

April 27 2010
Turkey

An Armenian family is glad to stay in Turkey after they were granted
residence permit with direction of Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

Tuesday, 27 April 2010 16:58

An Armenian family is glad to stay in Turkey after they were granted
residence permit with direction of Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

In an interview with the A.A correspondent, Hasmik Manukyan, mother
of 22-year-old Arthur who suffers from moyamoya disease, said that
she was glad that her son could continue his treatment in Turkey.

Manukyan said they came to Turkey in 2005 and Arthur worked at a
jewelery shop in Kapalicarsi and she baby-sat.

"Arthur had chronic headaches and we went to Sirp Pirgic Hospital.

Doctors diagnosed him with moyamoya disease (an inherited disease in
which certain arteries in the brain are constricted)," Manukyan said.

She said they were granted residence permit on Monday and they were
really happy to stay in Turkey. Manukyan said they appreciated Prime
Minister Erdogan’s efforts for their permit.

"We hope that Turkish and Armenian people will live together like
friends. I hope that one day borders will be opened," she said.

Manukyan said she also felt deep sorrow that Turkish flags were burned
in Armenia.

Turkey has granted a five-year residence permit to Manukyan family
on Monday.

Thousands of Armenians are living illegally in Turkey, most of them
in Istanbul. The exact number is unknown but they are usually known
as undocumented Armenians who are working illegally in Turkey.