Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

TURKS HAD LEARNED HOW TO BECOME A NATION FROM AZERBAIJAN?

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 20:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Can Turkey’s policy concerning Armenia, which stands
like a knife between Turkey and Azerbaijan, change? Can Turkey come
closer to Armenia by turning a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s interests? Let
us focus on some specific issues. Can the border crossing between
Turkey and Armenia, which was closed down in response to Armenia’s
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, be reopened?

All of these questions can be answered as follows: Turkey’s Armenian
policy may change, but Turkey’s policy regarding Azerbaijan will
not change in the least. Turkey shapes its Armenian policy based on
the Karabakh issue in the first place, as well as on Azerbaijan’s
interests. If it introduces any change to its policy, then it is
also intended to produce benefits for Azerbaijan," Today’s Zaman
cited Mumtazer Turkone, the author of "What is Azerbaijan to
Turkey?" article.

"Recent debates should be assessed from this perspective. Turkey
has launched new initiatives in order to normalize relations with
Armenia. These initiatives are conducted with a very important
assumption in mind: Turkey assumes that the existing status quo
in the Caucasus is detrimental to all three countries –Turkey,
Azerbaijan and Armenia. To maintain this status quo does not serve
the interests of any of these countries. It is not reasonable to
maintain this situation that brings losses to all three sides.

Today there is not a single issue that can be resolved by fighting
between Turkey and Armenia or between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Nuri Pasha, was applying what he had learned from Huseyinzade Ali
and Mehmet Emin Resulzade. Not only Huseyinzade Ali and Mehmet Emin
Resulzade, but also Anatolian Turks had largely learned how to become
a nation from Azerbaijani intellectuals. The national awakening of
Azerbaijani Turks, who were under Russian rule at that time, removed
the hesitation in Turkey resulting from its imperial heritage. In their
quest to ensure the survival of an empire, Istanbul’s intellectuals
were trying to conceal their national peculiarities due to concerns
about disintegration, but Azerbaijani intellectuals provided them
with the sort of inspiration they needed to create a nation out of
an empire in decline," Turkone emphasized in his article.

FAMOUS POLITICAL SCIENTIST: RUSSIA CAN NOT SUPPORT ITS ALLY – ARMENIA

Today.Az
s/52468.html
May 21 2009
Azerbaijan

Armenia, seeing that the options that are profitable for it, are
not accepted, of course, returned to the rhetoric of the past, said
well-known political scientist Fikret Sadigov.

Notably, on Wednesday, during the government hour in parliament,
Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan said that Armenia’s stance
in the negotiations with Turkey will not change. He also noted that
Armenia must take a proactive stance on the issue of recognition of
"Genocide" and that Nagorno Karabakh will be one of the important
tasks of the domestic and foreign economic policy of Armenia.

"That is, there were some bright, optimistic statements that are
totally unsupported by the facts and reality in general, which
characterizes the present political and economic situation in Armenia",
said he, commenting on statements of Armenian Premier.

"The unchanging policy of Armenia has already led to poverty in Armenia
and the stalemate in the political aspect. And if Armenia continues
to pursue such a course, it will remain in complete isolation,
because even Russia is looking for a way out of this situation and
is itself in a difficult economic and financial situation", noted
the political scientist.

According to him, "Russia can not support its ally – Armenia, which
always comes back and does not want to go to any compromises, for long"

"And here, next to it is tolerant Azerbaijan, rich in hydrocarbons,
its high intellectual capacity, partnerships with Russia itself,
with the understanding on many issues. Therefore, it is the way to a
dead end, this is the path to nowhere, indeed, would lead to further
change in the present regime in Armenia, because Armenia’s leadership
will not be able to stay on a wave of belligerent statements that
have no prospects", concluded F. Sadigov.

KARABAKH MEDIATOR BRIEFS NALBANDIAN ON VISITS TO TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN

bakh-mediator-briefs-nalbandian-on-visits-to-turke y-azerbaijan/
May 21st, 2009

BRUSSELS-Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met Wednesday with
the French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk, Berdard Fassier, in Brussels
for talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Turkey’s ongoing efforts
to link its own talks with Armenia to the conflict’s resolution.

The meeting came after Ambassador Fassier warned Turkey on Monday to
drop ongoing efforts to link the normalization of its relations with
Armenia to a Nagorno-Karabakh resolution favoring ally Azerbaijan. The
French diplomat visited Ankara Monday where met with Foreign Ministry
officials on the last leg of a regional tour that included similar
visits to Yerevan and Baku.

Fassier, who co-heads the Minsk Group with Yury Merzlyakov of Russia,
and Matthew Bryza of the United States, briefed Nalbandian on his
meetings in Baku and informed him of a new round of regional visits
set for the end of the month.

The next regional tour will seek to set the groundwork for an upcoming
meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan that will
likely take place in St. Petersburg Russia in June, Fassier said.

The French diplomat on Saturday had expressed concern over the growing
diplomatic traffic between Ankara and Baku centered around the Karabakh
conflict. His visit to Ankara ostensibly aimed to discuss the "many
visits from Turkey to Azerbaijan."

Turkey, a non-actor in the Karabakh conflict, has been seeking to
boost its role in the peace process by linking its own negotiations
with Armenia to those spearheaded by the OSCE Minsk Group between
Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan explicitly reaffirmed his
country’s intention to continue making that link during his visit to
Baku last week.

Despite Erdogan’s insistence, a connection between the two issues
does not exist and that the Turkish Prime Minister’s ongoing attempt
to draw a connection between the two can damage regional relations,
Fassier said, adding that such a condition should not be expected.

"The normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations should not be confused
with the Karabakh conflict," the French diplomat said in Baku. "These
are different and parallel processes."

The Minsk Group met with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in
Prague on May 7 and described those talks as constructive and positive
with the two countries closer than ever to a compromise solution.

Linking the Karabakh peace process with Turkey’s negotiations with
Armenia can jeopardize the new momentum in the talks, according to
Fassier, whose concerns were also echoed by the French Embassy in
Ankara on Tuesday. Armenia has also criticized Erdogan for making
the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on
a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, saying that such statements could
hamper both the Armenian-Azerbaijani, as well as the Armenian-Turkish
negotiations.

President Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian reacted to
Erdogan’s statements as they separately met in Yerevan on May 14 with
Brian Fall, Britain’s special representative for the South Caucasus.

In a written statement Sarkisian said that "any Turkish attempt
to interfere in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem can
only harm that process." While Nalbanidan, in a separate statement
said Erdogan’s stance "precludes further progress in the ongoing
Turkish-Armenian fence-mending negotiations."

CIS TO START OVERCOMING CRISIS NEXT YEAR

ARKA
May 20, 2009

YEREVAN, May 20. /ARKA/. The markets and economies of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) will start overcoming the crisis next year,
but the first positive changes are expected at the end of this year,
stated Azam Usmanov, Vice-Chief of the Currency and Financial Policy
Section, Economic Development Department, CIS Executive Council.

"Recently has been some positive view that the crisis has reached the
bottom, and some stabilization is in progress," Usmanov told reporters
at the 9th sitting of the CIS Council of Heads of government agencies
for securities markets held in Yerevan on May 19-20.

However, he said, that the crisis initially affected the best developed
of the CIS economies, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

"Now we can say that the stock market collapsed in all the CIS
member-countries, and the economies have been serious affected,"
he said.

As regards the issues on the agenda, Usmanov pointed out that the
Council considered the execution of decisions made at its last sitting
and held unbiased hearings of reports made by representatives of the
CIS member-countries.

Responding to ARKA’s question, Usmanov pointed out that the Council
is working at the formulas that can be offered to the CIS securities
markets for them to overcome crisis.

At the end of its sitting, the Council may prepare some recommendations
on how it can influence the measures to temper the impact of the
crisis prepared by the CIS Governments.

Usmanov stressed that "the crisis will end some day, but we cannot
travel too far with our present way of thinking."

"We are now thinking of leading the economies out to innovation ways
of development, and integrated development is of high importance,"
he said.

The Council was formed by the CIS Heads of Government in 2003. At
present the Council includes representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and
Ukraine. The primary task of the Council is economic integration of
the CIS member-states in the securities market, ensure cooperation
in forming international standards of securities market management,
create conditions for further liberalization of capital flow in the
CIS member-states, ensure effective protection of investors’ rights
and effective supervision over the securities market.

WORLD CHAMPION SYUSI KENTIKIAN TO DEFEND HER TITLES ON JULY 4

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
20.05.2009 19:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Undefeated Armenian boxer, WBA and WIBF bantamweight
world champion Syusanna Ketikian (Killer Queen) will be defending
her titles on July 4 at Color Line Arena during Universum Champions
Night in Hamburg.

A boxer to rival WBA and WIBF bantamweight champion Syusanna Ketikian
will be determined within a few days.

Syusanna Ketikyan has won 24 victories, terminating 16 of them with
a knockout. Her last victory was over American Boxer Elena Rid on
March 20 in Hamburg.

RA NSC APPROVES NEW POWER-GENERATING UNIT CONSTRUCTION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
20.05.2009 19:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan chaired Wednesday
a meeting of RA National Security Council, which approved construction
of a new power-generating unit in the republic, the RA leader’s press
office reported.

Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources stressed the
importance of the measure in the long-term outlook and said the
construction will estimate $4-5 billion. The exact figure will be
known after all necessary researches are completed.

Armenia is planning to build a new power-generating unit with 1000
megawatt capacity. WorleyParsons international consortium won the
construction tender on May 12.

To attract foreign capital, the Armenian parliament cancelled the
state monopoly of new nuclear units. Russia, U.S. and France have
already shown interest in the project.

TECH SQUAD TEAM TO REPRESENT ARMENIA AT IMAGINE CUP-2009

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.05.2009 20:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Imagine Cup-2009 Annual International Contest award
ceremony was held today. The winners were awarded with $1500 for the
1st place, 2nd and 3rd places – $1000 and $700 accordingly.

Tech Squad Team, who became the winner of qualifying contest, will
represent Armenia at Imagine Cup-2009 to be held in Kairo. The winner
will offer a program enabling to relieve the strain in hands after
lengthy typing on keypad.

The Imagine Cup is an annual worldwide series of technology
competitions focused around Microsoft technology. The competition
has been running for over 7 years. Each year the World finals were
being held in different countries. There are 9 different directions
to compete with in the scope of Imagine Cup project. One out of nine
directions, Software Design (SD) is executed on regional bases. The
regional finalists are being promoted to the World Final. The rest
8 challenges are online competitions.

This year, for the second time, SD will be executed on regional
bases in Armenia by Microsoft local office and in cooperation with
Ministry of Economy of Armenia, Enterprise Incubator Foundation and
CAPS project. It is a chance for the country’s young professionals to
compete with like-minded peers and to be recognized for the technical
abilities by industry leaders and academics. Further to regional
competition the most successful entries advance to the worldwide
final in Cairo, Egypt in July 2009.

The competition challenges talented teams to develop inventive
projects, by developing innovative software applications, offer
practical applicability to the suggested issues and present real-world
solutions to real-world problems.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT HOSTS CHARLES AZNAVOUR

ARMENPRESS
May 18, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
received today world famous Armenian singer, public figure, Armenian
ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour and his impresario Levon
Sayan.

Presidential press service told Armenpress that the president greeted
with delight the visit of the great Armenian to Armenia and noted the
invaluable contribution of Charles Aznavour to presenting Armenia to
the world.

Charles Aznavour told the president about his visit to Nagorno Karabakh
today after 21-year pause and said that he is very much impressed.

During warm conversation the sides spoke of different issues.

PROSPEROUS ARMENIA RATING GOES UP

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
15.05.2009 00:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Sociometr independent sociological center director
Aharon Adibekyan announced today the results of a survey conducted
among 3310 Yerevan residents. 1110 of them refused to answer alleging
absence of interest in the forthcoming election to the city council.

According to Adibekyan, the people surveyed can be divided in three
groups: those who will participate in the elections and know who they
will vote for, those who will participate in the elections but do not
know who they will vote for; those who have not decided whether they
will participate in the elections.

He also informed that Prosperous Armenia party’s rating has gone
up dramatically.

"Prosperous Armenia and Republican Party stand equal chance to win
city council elections," Adibekyan said.

ANC ELABORATED METHODS TO CONTROL POLICEMEN’S ACTIONS ON ELECTION DAY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
14.05.2009 18:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The elections of Aldermen are a uniqe chance
for starting government shift process in Armenia," Jirayr Sefilyan,
coordinator of "Protection of Liberated Territories" public initiative
told a news conference today. When asked by a PanARMENIAN.Net
correspondent about possible changes in Armenia’s domestic policy in
case of Levon Ter-Petorysan’s victory, Sefilyan answered that the only
reason for ex-President’s becoming Mayor is to clean "Auguean Stables".

Our interlocutor also disclosed some nuances related to opposition’s
action plan for May 31. After elections end, ANC activists will gather
near polling stations to control policemen’s actions . "This time
activists will be more determined in comparison with 2008 elections. In
my estimation, such policy will evidently lead authorities to a dead
end," Jirayr Sefilyan announced.