Author: Boshkezenian Garik

HOVIK ABRHAMYAN: "I EXPRESS MY CONDOLENCES TO THE PEOPLE AND AUTHORITIES OF POLAND WITH REGARD TO THE TRAGEDY THAT OCCURRED IN KAMIEN POMORSKI"

National Assembly of RA
April 15 2009
Armenia

On April 14, 2009 the President of the National Assembly Mr Hovik
Abrzhamyan received the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador
of Poland to Armenia Mr. Tomasz Knothe.

The President of the Armenian Parliament asked the Ambassador
Mr. Knothe to convey his condolences to the people and authorities
of Poland with regard to the tragedy that occurred in the town of
Kamien Pomorski, where the day before the fire killed several dozens
of people in the hostel for homeless.

During the meeting the interlocutors also discussed the issues
connected with the official visit of the President of the National
Assembly Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan to Poland to be held from April 20 to
April 23.

Krikorian Marketing Group

PRESS RELEASE
Greg Krikorian, Glendale School Board
April 15, 2009

For more information contact:
John Krikorian
818-240-7088
[email protected]

Krikorian wins in a landslide with over 12,000 votes!!!!!

Glendale, CA. Greg Krikorian was Re-elected to the Glendale School
Board in a landslide victory on April 7th 2009. In a field of seven
candidates, Krikorian once again was the top vote getter from the
community at large. In an election where the Teachers Union, the local
Assemblymen, State Senator and other political organizations choose not
to support the first Armenian-American ever elected to the Board of
Education. Krikorian’s victory demonstrates that his record as a
member of the Board of Education transcended the usual pettiness of
local politics. His overwhelming victory was a true vote of confidence
from all sectors of the Glendale community,

Greg Krikorian and his wife Christine, came to Glendale in 1989 from
Hartford, Connecticut and Detroit, Michigan. Both were former active
Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) members and attended Camp Haiastan, in
Franklin, Mass, where they first meet as campers. Greg was the first
president of the Hartford-New Britain AYF Junior chapter and a past
counselor at Camp Haiastan of the AYF. Their five children have all
attended Glendale Unified District Schools and have been involved in
the local Armenian youth community, from the AYF to the Camp to
participating in the Navarsatian Games.

Krikorian has a long list of accomplishments, not only for public
education, but also for the over 10,000 Armenian-American students
attending Glendale and La Crescenta schools. "During my tenure my
colleagues and I have added Armenian language classes to Glendale High
School, and our schools recognize Armenian Christmas as an official
holiday. We have also incorporated curriculum on the Armenian Genocide
into our 10th Grade world history classes, district wide", stated
Krikorian. `Christine and I can’t thank the community enough for your
support! I’m deeply humbled by the voters of Glendale and La Crescenta
having trust in me to serve another four years on our Board of
Education.’

"Volunteers from all parts of the community participated in
[Krikorian’s] campaign sending out a message that resonated with
voters. The two candidates supported by the teachers union received
over $80,000. We didn’t have even close to that amount of money. What
we had was the confidence of our community on the ability of Greg to
serve their children" said Sevan Serafino, Krikorian’s Campaign
Manager.

"I’m going to miss the campaign and the volunteers. We’re truly like
family everyday we were phone banking and on weekends precinct walking.
Our team loved and believed in Greg. This feeling of love was passed
on the voters’, added Volunteer Coordinator, Argishd Parsekhian.

"Greg Krikorian brings a stability and leadership quality to our
community and our youth that is tireless. I’ve served with Greg on
Little League for over 8 years and you can’t find a more committed
person," said supporter, Tony Lezza.

As he embarks on another four years on the Board of Education,
Krikorian says he looks forward to the road ahead and is committed to
continue the fight and face the many challenges, for our families and
schools and for the community as a whole. We welcome you to visit
for more information regarding Greg Krikorian’s
biography, accomplishments, and endorsements.

ARMENIA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY IS NOT DEVELOPED ENOUGH IN RESPECT OF USING IT TOOLS

Noyan Tapan
Apr 14, 2009

Yerevan, 14 April, Noyan Tapan. A workshop devoted to IT Solutions
for tourism industry was organized on April 14 in Yerevan by the USAID
funded Competitive Armenian Private Sector Project. According to Artak
Ghazarian, deputy director of CAPS, the aim of the event is to raise
the awareness about of new IT products and services applied in the
tourism industry. This goal of the workshop is will foster closer
cooperation between Armenian Information Technology and Tourism
industries, told A.Ghazarian.

Today IT solutions have wide application in the world. For instance,
in the global travel industry we can see online ticketing, payments
and check-in for airline businesses, vehicle tracking systems for
car rental companies, hospitality reservation and room management
applications for hotels, management solutions for general tourism
enterprises, etc, told Ghazarian.

According to him, online market of tourism industry reached 125
billion USD, and within coming five years this figure will grow by
another 100 billion USD.

In A.Ghazarian’s opinion, Armenia’s tourism enterprises, however,
are not developed enough in terms of using IT tools and solutions in
their daily operations. According to him, improvement is expected in
terms of computer usage in Armenia.

According to IT concept, the government projects to increase the number
of computer users over the next 9-10 years to reach 70 per cent,
90 ?per cent in educational institutions, and 100 per cent in state
and local municipal bodies. It means the demand for the new on-line
solutions in the sphere of tourism will grow, told Ghazarian. He
mentioned also, that according to the data of the International
Telecommunication Union, the number of Internet users in Armenia
reached only 6 per cent in 2008. ?With IT having a growing impact on
the global travel industry, and with global tourism arrival numbers
expected to decline in 2009 due to the financial crisis, the need to be
technologically advanced to improve cost-effectiveness and productivity
is as important as ever, Zachary Rozga, CAPS international expert in
IT solutions for the tourism sector says.

TURKEY BLUNTS OBAMA’S DIPLOMACY

The National
April 14 2009
UAE

Less than a week after Barack Obama’s historic visit, Turkey has
denied plans to open its border with neighbouring Armenia any time
soon, thereby dropping one of the president’s key requests.

Reacting to pressure from ally Azerbaijan and the opposition at home,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, indicated at the weekend
that the border will not be opened in the foreseeable future.

"We will not sign a final agreement with Armenia as long as there is
no agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia concerning the Nagorno
Karabakh issue," Mr Erdogan told reporters, referring to a quarrel over
an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that led to a war in the early 1990s.

He said his government was only conducting "preparation work" that
depended on progress between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Yasar Yakis, a former Turkish foreign minister and member of Mr
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said the opening
of the border with Armenia was part of a "big package" that also
contained a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh question.

In an address to the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Mr Obama said last
week that both Turkey and Armenia would benefit if the border was
open. "An open border would return the Turkish and Armenian people
to a peaceful and prosperous coexistence that would serve both of
your nations," the president said.

But by binding the border issue to a resolution of the long-running
conflict surrounding Nagorno Karabakh, Ankara has in effect abandoned
any effort for a speedy reconciliation with Armenia.

In the absence of any concrete steps in that direction, Turkey also
risks new tensions with Washington and an official recognition of
the Ottoman genocide against the Armenians in 1915 by Mr Obama’s
administration, something that Ankara wants to avoid at all cost.

Turkey rejects the term genocide for what happened to the Armenians
during the First World War.

Up to 1.5 million people died in death marches and massacres during
that time.

While Armenia and most scholars say the violence was part of a plan
by the Ottoman government to annihilate the Armenian population in
Anatolia, Turkey maintains the deaths were the consequences of a
resettlement plan under wartime conditions.

A recognition as genocide by the United States would be a big blow to
Ankara’s efforts to keep governments around the world from officially
adopting that term in reference to the events of 1915.

Mr Obama is to issue a statement on the plight of the Armenians on
the anniversary of the start of the massacres on April 24.

During his visit to Ankara last week, Mr Obama said his views had not
changed since he called the massacres a genocide during his election
campaign, but that he wanted to encourage the process of rapprochement
between Turkey and Armenia that started last year.

The president also hinted that major developments were in the
offing. "I want to be as constructive as possible in moving these
issues forward quickly," Mr Obama said.

"And my sense is that they are moving quickly."

One week on, things do not look that way any more.

"Normalisation with Armenia is left for some other time," Semih Idiz,
a foreign policy columnist, wrote in yesterday’s Milliyet newspaper.

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliev, demonstrated his displeasure
about a possible Turkish-Armenian reconciliation last week by staying
away from an Istanbul meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations,
a UN-sponsored initiative headed by Turkey and Spain and aimed at
strengthening dialogue between the West and the Islamic world.

As a close traditional ally of Turkey, Azerbaijan had been expected
to send its president to take part in the meeting.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest against the
Armenian occupation of parts of Azerbaijan’s territory during the
war between those two states over Nagorno Karabakh.

A ceasefire has been in place in Nagorno Karabakh since 1994, but
the conflict itself has not been resolved.

Azeri officials said the close relationship between Turkey and
Azerbaijan, which are routinely described as "one nation in two states"
by Turkish politicians, could suffer. "If the border [with Armenia]
is opened, Azerbaijan may look again at its relations with Turkey,"
Hasan Zeynalov, the Azeri consul general in the eastern Turkish city
of Kars, told Turkish newspapers.

Other officials from Azerbaijan indicated that there may be negative
consequences for Turkey in the energy sector. In recent years,
Turkey has become an important transit country for oil and gas from
Azerbaijan to world markets.

In Ankara, the Turkish opposition lost no time in criticising
the government’s overtures to Armenia. An opening of the border
would be tantamount to a recognition of "the Armenian occupation in
Azerbaijan", Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican People’s Party,
or CHP, Turkey’s main secularist opposition party, told reporters.

Mr Erdogan’s government is also dragging its feet on another issue
raised by Mr Obama during his visit to Turkey last week.

In his speech to parliament, the president also said the reopening
of a school for Greek-Orthodox priests on an island near Istanbul
would be an "important signal" for democratic reform.

The fate of the school, which has been closed since 1971, also came
up during a meeting of the president with the Greek-Orthodox patriarch
Bartholomew I in Istanbul.

But just days after Mr Obama’s visit, Turkish newspapers quoted Mr
Erdogan as saying there were no plans to reopen the school.

The state minister in charge of religious affairs, Said Yazicioglu,
said the fact that the US president had called for the reopening of
the school "does not change anything".

YaLibnan, Lebanon
April 12 2009

Lebanon’s defense strategy – Release 2

Published: Sunday, 12 April, 2009 @ 8:11 PM in Beirut
By: Karim Ghaoui
Special to Ya Libnan

The Lebanese Armed Forces’ primary mission is defending Lebanon and
its citizens against aggression, confronting threats against the
country’s vital interests, maintaining internal stability and
security, engaging in social development activities and undertaking
relief operations in coordination with public and humanitarian
institutions.

The LAF consists of roughly 72,000 active personnel with the Ground
Forces consisting of approximately 70,000 troops, the Air Force
consisting of about 1,000 personnel and another 1,000 in the
Navy. Lebanon has the 6th largest percentage of military expansion in
terms of personnel recruitment. What has triggered this trend? Could
it be the very few other employment options available? How many of
those individuals could contribute more productively without having to
lay dormant for months at a time, awaiting the next bloody conflict?

Lebanon’s equipment is severely outdated due to an intentional lack of
funds. But why is it that the availability of foreign funds that
should determine Lebanon’s possession of arsenal? For an unknown
reason, a local plan to develop hardware to cater for Lebanon’s
tactical and geographical needs is presently an inconceivable
idea. How is it that Israeli minds can, whilst we are so incapable?
How is it that we can’t even include a USD$10 million fire-fighting
aircraft in the national budget whilst our politicians have
transferred our airport into a private jet pit-stop?

Any levelheaded person will admittedly agree that Lebanon’s
frustratingly unique internal politics has been marked with distrust
and corruption. This has been the reason Lebanese governments have
purposefully kept our armed forces small and weak. Our fear of each
other, Christians of Muslims or vice versa is why we are so vulnerable
to relatively unopposed invasions by our neighbors. We have always had
the fear of using our weapons against our own. Aside of the two major
conflicting views, prominent Lebanese politicians of differing
religious denominations have been feudal warlords commanding their own
private militias and fearing that a strong army would endanger their
personal power. For this reason, Lebanon has never spent more than 4%
of its GNP on the military budget. Our political and religious
problems have remained unchanged throughout modern history, so what
makes us think that we can increase the capability of our defense
force now?

Lebanon’s strength and pride lies in its ground forces and it is by
far the largest of Lebanon’s military branches. Our ground forces are
equipped with 11 or 12 Mechanized Brigades divided into our 5 regional
commands. The Lebanese Forces are excessively proud of their commando
regiments, airborne regiments, and navy SEALS regiments as part of the
Lebanese Special Forces. All which receive specific and intensive
training in harsh mountainous and snowy terrain. Some receive more
advanced training in the US or France. It’s encouraging to hear of
such bravery and dedication yet how many of Lebanon’s battles have
involved engaging an enemy in our snowy terrain? What is it that the
US and France can provide in terms of physical training that Lebanese
individuals cannot? Is it possible that Lebanon’s defense budget may
one day account for this so that vital funds are not wasted on
overseas trips but rather on more pressing needs?

85% of Lebanon’s hardware is US made whilst the rest is contributed
mainly by the French, British, or the Russian governments. The
Lebanese Army still uses old and outdated equipment, mostly received
through donations. Lebanon’s pride is the M113 which is commonly found
with every regiment and brigade. A list of awaited equipment is
continually growing and includes Leopard 1/A5 tanks, M60 Patton tanks,
and M198 Howitzers. All are deemed useless considering the form of
aggression the Lebanese nation has faced in recent history. A Russian
promise to supply Lebanon with T-90 tanks has been in
discussion. Other hardware in the pipeline includes 10 modified Soviet
MIG-29s. The question remains, how worthwhile are they compared to the
hundreds of Israeli fighters, or is this simply another cold-war PR
act on behalf of the Soviets?

The navy, which currently lacks the suitable amount of equipment, has
a number of approximately 50 vessels of various sizes and roles;
however, the navy is trying to modernize itself, and increase its
size. The Lebanese Air Force currently has a number of helicopters
including the UH-1H Bell Huey, Gazelle, and various others. In 2008,
the Lebanese Army started establishing the Special Operations command
in order to group the Army’s elite units. These Special Operations
forces will include the key Regiments, and the Counter-Sabotage
Regiment of the Military Intelligence. The initial size of the force
will be less than two brigades, around 5,000 troops, but the plan is
to enlarge it up to three brigades.

Despite all these cosmetic upgrades, the week-long clashes that
occurred at the beginning of the month of May 2008 in Lebanon, the
army did not prevent rival Lebanese groups from fighting each other
because this would have resulted in a division of the military along
sectarian lines, something that happened during the civil war.

Traditionally, when fighting stops in an area, the LAF deploys to
enforce peace. On May 13th 2008, the Army threatened that if fighting
did not end by the next morning, it would have intervened and used
force to stop the clashes. Unfortunately, this had already been too
late for many unarmed young lives, protecting their livelihoods,
villages and families. How does such a defense force maintain
integrity and expand despite the current deplorable political
constitutions and structures?

Let’s look at Israel’s defense structure. They do not simply acquire
obsolescent hardware. They employ Israeli citizens in Israeli public
and private industry. Surely they draw international contracts and
treaties, but who doesn’t? What contracts are the LAF going to draw
upon receipt of our MIG-29s? Will Lebanese be servicing those
aircrafts? Can Lebanese manufacturing develop spare parts? Will there
be any contracts to advance Lebanese industry? Israelis at least,
primarily seek self-sufficiency. They also recognise there
differences. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has striven to be a
unique army striving to fit Israel’s specific requirements. The IDF
uses several technologies developed in Israel, specifically to match
the IDF’s needs, such as the Merkava main battle tank, Uzi submachine
gun, and the Galil and Tavor assault rifles. It has close military
relations with the United States by whom it is heavily financially
aided. This has fostered development cooperation, such as on the F-15I
jet, and the THEL laser defense system. Meanwhile, Lebanon bargains
with the US over petty quantities of M16s. Israel spends 9% of its GDP
on defense. That amounts to over USD$10 billion per annum whereas we
rarely exceed USD$0.5 billion. It is also blaringly obvious that Arabs
are incapable of developing military alliances as nations so how do we
plan to defend Lebanon from an invading aggressor alone?

Israel has compulsory national military service for all its minority
groups. Most are glad to participate in protecting their homeland. How
do Lebanese-Armenians help defend Anjar and the southeast? Why is it
that the Armenian presence in parliament far exceeds their
representation in the defense force? This is not an attack on
Lebanon’s Armenian community, but simply a typical example regularly
seen across the board.

Can their not be a specific battalion that the local communities can
trust and support and can be made entirely of its ethnic population?
Can Lebanon’s Hezbollah supporters not defend their south if they are
being asked to by a Lebanese Military Commander In Chief rather than a
Hezbollah figurehead? Why do we not construct an LAF managed border
police structure where former Hezbollah militants and their stores are
integrated into the LAF and armed by the LAF where they may be
responsible for security in heavy urban areas such as the boundaries
of the notorious Ain El-Hilweh? Or will that simply ease the flow of
illegal weapons into our refugee camps? Why does the country think I’m
insane at the last proposition, or does our distrust of our fellow
citizens make us dismiss such ideas? Why is it that we are so
detracted to bring such matters out into the open?

Israel has a structure where overseas volunteers, young, Non-Israeli
Jews, who can be trained in combat units. There are over 15 million
Lebanese dispersed world-wide, many also unemployed and very
willing. Hypothetically speaking, will Lebanon’s new defense strategy
devise plans to train those that are willing to contribute in times of
need?

More recently, a promise has been made by the new US cabinet to supply
Raven Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to patrol our borders. Is that our
country’s Early Warning System? Who and what will those crafts be
monitoring exactly? What is it that UNIFIL do then? Who will be the
first to shoot down those UAVs, I wonder? Here’s an idea! Wouldn’t we
provide a better a service to the population if we developed more
effective means to defend our power plants? We all know where Israel
aims first when targeting Lebanon’s infrastructure. Or have we learnt
nothing from the last 30 years?

I won’t even begin to compare military arsenal as Israel may possess
close to 400 nuclear warheads. I do not write this article in aim of
humiliating my own. But how do we defend ourselves without
contemplating the bare facts. Our military structure and the politics
surrounding it are pre-Napoleonic. Much needs doing before flaunting
the idea of defending our borders militarily. I am sure that our
`Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty’ to our Lebanon is true. It is true however
in everyone’s unique ways. Stripping Hezbollah of their artillery is
another topic for another day. For now however, we are far from
creating a united defense structure that truly exists to defend
Lebanon’s borders, integrity, and its people as a whole. One thing is
for sure, buying random military hardware without a national objective
does not comprise a defense strategy.

04/lebanons_defens_2.php

ARMENIANS FROM INDIA TO URGE OBAMA TO RECOGNIZE 1915 GENOCIDE

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KOLKATA: Armenians of the city are going to write to US President
Barack Obama, urging him to recognize the massacre of Armenians in
Turkey on April 24, 1915, as genocide’.

11:47:03 – 10/04/2009
LRAGIR.AM

Students of city’s Armenian College have collected photographs and
historical data about the genocide after a year-long research. The
data they have gathered has been collated in the form of a film, which
too will be presented for President Obama’s consideration. Senior
members of the city’s Armenian community, like Peter Hyrapiet, Suzanne
Reuben and Gulnaar Gilhooly have worked alongside the students to help
them with data collection and film-making.

Outside Armenia, the US has the largest concentration of
Armenians. While the country has offered refuge to the community in
its hour of crisis, it has never accepted the mass killings of
Armenians on that fateful day as genocide. There are about a 100
countries that have pledged acceptance of the term in the United
Nations.

About a fortnight ago, even Australia accepted the massacre as
genocide. We just hope that the US also follows suit. Recent comments
by President Obama have encouraged the community across the world. We
hope that this year on April 24, he actually declares his country’s
acceptance of the darkest episode in the history of the community as
genocide,’ said head of the Armenian Church in India, Oshagan
Gulgulian, who has also spent a sizable part of his clerical life in
the US.

While every year, a part of the community in some part of the world
takes upon itself to take up the cause of the genocide forward, this
year it is the turn of Armenians based in India. The 200-strong
community in the city has tied up with the German consulate for a
public programme. ‘Since the largest concentration of Armenians in
this country is in Kolkata, we have taken the initiative here. We want
the people of Kolkata, who have always been very receptive to our
community, to share our pain. On that fateful day, 250 of our
intellectuals were murdered by the Ottoman empire in
Constantinople. Throughout that year, there were more than a million
murders. The genocide can be compared to the Jewish holocaust,’
Gulgulian said.

The Armenian community wants that Turkey must cease to be the only
major country in the world to deny the Armenian Genocide. Turkey must
allow American aid to present-day Armenia to pass through unhindered
and that it must cease to train Azerbaijani soldiers for the purpose
of attacking Armenia. These issues will also be raised in the charter.

Jean Eckian / Paris

SARGSYAN TO REIGN AFTER NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT IS SETTLED

Interfax
April 8 2009
Russia

If the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is settled, Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan will resign.The day when Azerbaijan recognizes the right of
the Nagorno- Karabakh people to self-determination and Nagorno-Karabakh
is declared either an independent country or joins Armenia will be
happiest day in my life. I will resign at once then, Sargsyan told
German sociologist Tilman Alert, the Armenian Public TV reports.

There is the possibility of resolving the conflict peacefully,
he said. I am sure of this, otherwise I would not have run for the
presidency, Sargsyan said.

Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
districts in a bloody conflict in the 1990’s. Around a million Azeri
nationals became refugees. The UN Security Council condemned the
occupation of the Azeri territories and demanded that Armenian troops
be withdrawn.

Today mediators in the settlement are the co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group from France, Russia and the United States.

OBAMA’S HOME STATE HAWAII RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Hakob Chaqrian

AZG DAILY
09-04-2009

Armenian Genocide

On April 7, while the US President’s visit to Turkey was continuing,
the State House of Representatives of Hawaii unanimously recognized
the Armenian Genocide.

Barack Obama’s home state Hawaii became the 42nd state of the
United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide. The State House of
Representatives adopted a formal measure (HR192) condemning this crime.

The legislation, HR192, states that, "approximately 1.5 million
Armenian men, women, and children living within the Ottoman Empire’s
borders were killed in a brutal genocide," and that, "the Armenian
Genocide remains unacknowledged by the Republic of Turkey to this
day." The measure also notes that, "this body joins with Hawaii’s
Armenian-American community and all Armenians worldwide in recognizing
and honoring those who were killed and persecuted during the Armenian
Genocide, and urging people throughout the world to never forget
these horrific crimes against humanity."

April 24 is declared in Hawaii as a Day of Remembrance in Recognition
of and Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

HYPOTHECARY FUND TO BE SET UP

LRAGIR.AM
17:33:14 – 08/04/2009

On April 8, at the Novosti news centre, the president of the Armenian
Central Bank Artur Javadyan stated that a hypothecary fund is scheduled
to be set with 5 billion drams of capital. "At the present stage,
we are negotiating with the government, I think the government
will get involved and we will enhance the capital. As well as we
are negotiating with the representatives of the private sector. I
hope the capital of the fund will be more than 30 billion drams by
the end of the year and it will convey an impulse to our markets",
stated Artur Javadyan noting that a tangible increase of constructions
will be registered in this result.

Artur Javadyan said that they are negotiating with the German KFW Bank
and, probably, in June Armenia will be allocated 20 million euros,
for hypothecary loans.

Artur Javadyan noted that in general there is a decrease in connection
with the bank loaning in the country. "In comparison with the last
march, when the scale of loaning was 78 billion, this year we had
only 52 billion. But the bank must present stricter conditions in
this global crisis state, and they should be more conservative and
cautious," says Artur Javadyan.

TURKEY CONFIRMS TALKS WITH ARMENIA TO NORMALIZE TIES

Xinhua General News Service
April 7, 2009 Tuesday 9:41 PM EST

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan confirmed Tuesday that his
country has held talks with Armenia for months to normalize ties,
the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The problems between Turkey and Armenia were discussed in detail
during this normalization process, Babacan told a press conference
following the Second Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations which
opened Monday in the largest Turkish city of Istanbul.

"We are working on a comprehensive solution and our talks are going
well. We have made significant progress so far and both parties have
declared satisfaction over the process several times, " said Babacan.

"I think third countries should act sensitively during this ongoing
process," he added.

Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama said after hour-long talks with
Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara that he was encouraged by the
dialogues between Turkey and Armenia aimed to improve ties, promising
Washington will be as constructive as possible in this regard.

He said as Turkey and Armenia are having "serious negotiations" that
could bear fruit quickly, "I will be as encouraging as possible,"
adding the world should also encourage them.

Armenians claim that more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in
a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World War
I before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

But Turkey insists the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos
and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in
the years before 1923.