Author: Chakrian Hovsep

MEETING OF THE ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI DELEGATIONS TO THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE TAKES PLACE

ARMENPRESS
Apr 29, 2010

YEREVAN, APRIL 29, ARMENPRESS: Meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
took place April 28 in Strasburg. NA public relations department
told Armenpress that at the meeting conducted with the participation
of the PACE chairman Mevlut Cavushoglu, David Harutyunyan and Samed
Seidov exchanged ideas over the Karabakh conflict settlement process.

It was decided to conduct the next parliamentary consultations in June,
in an extended format with the involvement of one representative of
opposition of the delegations.

UKRAINE’S VERKHOVNA RADA URGED TO PROCLAIM APRIL 24 AS THE COMMEMORATION DAY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Panorama.am
19:33 29/04/2010 " Politics

Kiev city council deputies have called on Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada
Thursday to officially proclaim April 24 as the Commemoration Day of
the Armenian Genocide victims. The decision has been taken at a city
council sitting, with 100 con votes, Regnum reports.

According to the source, the city council deputies particularly said,
"The Armenian Genocide has been condemned by many states, including
Russia, US, France, Belgium, etc. However, Ukraine has not stated
its disposition over the international crime yet."

ARMENIA TO EXPORT ELECTRIC POWER TO TURKEY?

Balkans.com Business News
mber=55727
April 29 2010

Despite suspension of ratification procedure of the Armenian-Turkish
Protocols because of inactivity of the Turkish Government, Armenia
has enough potential to export electric power to Turkey and transit
it to Middle East countries, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said
at the 11th session of the Nuclear Energy Safety Council, an advisory
body to the Armenian President, on Tuesday.

The president said that Armenia has made certain steps to normalize
relations with Turkey. Opening of the last closed border in Europe
would give an opportunity to establish economic ties, also in the
energy sector. At present, he said, the electric power market in
the region is at the stage of establishment and implies creation of
a ring energy system of the Black Sea countries and synchronization
of the energy systems of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and others.

Sahak Abrahamyan, Director General of High Voltage Electric Networks
of Armenia CJSC, told ArmInfo the company has made contracts with
two Turkish companies, Unit International and Birenerji , for supply
of electricity to Turkey. S. Abrahamyan said that Armenia is now
expecting a proposal from Turkey with a request for the date and
volume of Armenian electric power supply to Turkey. Earlier Minister
of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan said that in 2010
Armenia would be able to start electric power supply to Turkey via
the operating power transmission lines Guymri-Kars (200MW). Armenia
supplied electricity to Turkey in Soviet times. At the initial stage
Armenia will supply 1.5bln kWh electricity to Turkey yearly. In future,
the supply volume may be increased to 3.5bln kWh yearly.

ARE YOU WITH US OR NOT?
By Hussein Shobokshi

Asharq Alawsat (The Middle East)
&id=20761
April 29 2010

Armenian communities around the world recently marked an anniversary
that is important to them all; the anniversary that marks the loss
of large numbers of relatives in various battles at the end of
the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians believe that the number of those
killed by the Ottomans is one and a half million and they consider it
"genocide" just like the Holocaust of the Jews at the hands of the
German Nazis. However, the Turks insist that the number of Armenians
who lost their lives is no more than 500,000 and that the Armenians
also killed tens of thousands of Turks.

Over the past few years, the Armenians have intensified their campaigns
against the Turks on the local level in Turkey and also in the US by
having a law passed in US Congress to condemn Turkey and to declare
that what happened to the Armenians was "genocide." [In the past]
the Armenians resorted to destructive violence and formed terrorist
organizations that carried out bombings and assassinations.

The most notorious organization was the Armenian Secret Army for the
Liberation of Armenia (Asala) that assassinated 42 Turkish diplomats
in the 1970s and 1980s.

Present-day Turkey has taken important steps towards building bridges
and having mutual interests with Armenia and improving the standard of
living of the Armenian community in Turkey. Nevertheless, the doubts
and concerns of the Armenians are still prevalent and Armenia failed
to take similar steps towards Turkey in return. The historic step
taken by the Turkish President Abdullah Gul by visiting Armenia and
agreeing on some important treaties is still fresh in the memory of
many people. Nevertheless, Armenia obstructed the implementation of
the agreements signed when it reopened the age-old issue of genocide.

Turkey is not the Ottoman State in the same way that Germany is not
Hitler or Nazism to Israel. The problem today is that amid excellent
Arab-Turkish rapprochement and the building of important and serious
mutual interests, Armenian voices can be heard from the Arab world,
particularly Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, condemning and warning against
rapprochement.

Many Armenian politicians and businessmen make "odd" statements that
cast doubt over the history of the Turks and their ties with others.

There is no room for Armenian weeping in the Arab world. The Armenians
have turned the issue into one with no ending. Turkey today is
a responsible state that solves the problems of its factions and
communities such as the Jews, Christians, and Kurds, in a balanced
and rational manner and even the rational Armenians have testified
to that. But to turn Armenian "lamentation" into a trench between
the Arabs and the Turks and to exploit this before the international
community in such a low manner (that will only benefit Israel) is
completely rejected. The Armenian community in the Arab world is an
honourable one that has integrated with its population and achieved
successes in the fields of sport, literature, business, politics
and arts. It has rightly gained people’s trust and respect. Yet
today Arabs are apprehensive about the "timing" and the intensity
of Armenian statements, as well as the audacity of such statements
that were made in such an irresponsible manner. This is an issue
that will definitely have an impact on intentions and objectives of
the Armenians as a result, especially as they have long preferred to
remain silent about the Israeli massacres against Arabs (even though
they have a well known separate district in East Jerusalem and have
been directly harmed by the oppressive Israeli occupation).

The Armenians should decide whether they are a deep-rooted part of
the Arab world or not. Rapprochement with a respectful and strong
country like Turkey is in the Arab world’s best interest.

ON 24 APRIL PRESIDENT OF THE ARTSAKH REPUBLIC BAKO SAHAKYAN

Azat Artsakh Newspaper
April 24, 2010
Nagorno Karabakh Republic

sent an address in connection with the 1915 Genocide victim day.

The address runs as follows: "Dear compatriots, 95 years ago
a monstrous and unprecedented crime, the Armenian Genocide, was
committed. It was the first genocide of the 20th century; millions of
Armenians fall a victim to this, thousands of Armenian churches and
monasteries, schools and colleges were plundered, a unique civilization
was destroyed. The Armenian nation was deprived from the great part
of its historical Motherland and spread all over the world.

For our people these 95 years have been the years of struggle and
creation, survival and restoration of historical justice. However,
we have not been alone in this struggle; the progressive mankind
has been standing side by side with us. We are grateful to all
those who gave a helping hand and shelter to the refugee Armenians
having escaped from slaughter. Many countries have recognized and
condemned the Genocide. It is important both for us and the whole
mankind because in this way future massacres could be prevented and
excluded. Impunity is an evil in itself generating new crimes. The
Jewish Holocaust organized by the Nazis, Armenian pogroms in Sumgait,
Baku and a number of other crimes are just a few testimonies of that.
Dear friends, Today be bow our heads to the memory of innocent
victims of the Genocide. The best way to immortalize their memory is
to build independent and powerful statehood, to further strengthen
the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity realizing nationwide programs
and goals. Every single Armenian must do everything possible to make
our Motherland powerful and invincible, flourishing and prosperous".

CENTRAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE ARTSAKH REPUBLIC
PRESIDENT

ARMENIAN LAWMAKERS PASS IN FINAL READING CHANGES TO GAMBLING LAW

ARKA
APRIL 27, 2010
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, April 27, /ARKA/. Armenian lawmakers have passed today in
the second and final reading a set of changes to the Law on Gambling
and Casinos as well as a package of changes to the laws on state dues,
fixed payments, VAT and income tax.

According to a deputy finance minister Vartan Aramian, from 2013
January all casinos will be allowed to operate only in three
communities of Kotayk, Gegharkunik and Vayots Dzor provinces,
Tsakhkadozr, Sevan and Jermuk respectively. He said the changes
are made to simplify the relevant legislation as well as to prompt
gambling business to consolidate which will help step up control over
their financial operations.

Particularly, the amount of the basic duty for organization of gambling
games will rise from the current 5 million Drams to 50 million, for
casinos it will grow from 25 million to 400 million Drams. The proposed
changes eliminate fixed payments for tables and plying machines. Last
year casinos paid 4 billion Drams in different taxes and duties. ($1 –
390.31 Drams).

Report: Bryza for Baku

Politico (Washington, DC)
April 23, 2010

Laura Rozen On Foreign Policy

The outgoing Bush administration recommended that a U.S. diplomat
heavily involved in U.S. policy to Georgia and the Caucasus during the
2008 Georgian-Russian war Matthew Bryza become the next
U.S. ambassador to Baku.

But the nomination didn’t materalize, and the U.S. has had no
ambassador in Baku since last fall. Until now, former Wall Street
Journal and New York Times Caucasus and Central Asia correspondent
Steve LeVine reports on his blog:

I’ve received confirmation that — after the clearing of a couple of
remaining administrative hurdles — the White House will officially
nominate Bryza as U.S. ambassador. He will then be scheduled for a
nomination hearing in the Senate.

The hearings should be lively. For starters, Bryza himself has been
something of a lightning rod of attention. This blog has written about
his time as deputy assistant secretary of state for European and
Eurasian affairs.

Over recent years, I received fairly frequent emails griping about
this or that impolitic (read: anti-Russian) speech that Bryza
delivered on his journeys, and his inexhaustible supply of rationales
for building the ill-fated Nabucco natural gas pipeline. Bryza seemed
to rub the Foggy Bottom crowd the wrong way when he made no secret of
his desire for the Azeri post, and when it seemed he might get it
since he was a favorite of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Getting past these intramurals, the 2008 Georgian-Russian war is
likely to be a key subject of the confirmation hearings. Bryza was
extremely close to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and Bryza’s
critics assert that he helped to mislead Saakashvili into thinking he
could expect U.S. military assistance should he run into trouble while
he attacked South Ossetia in August 2008. As we know, no such
assistance arrived as a considerable swath of Georgian territory was
overrun by the
Russian military. The fiasco was an enormous blow to U.S. prestige,
because it led governments throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia to
understand that, contrary to what at least some of them believed, they
couldn’t expect U.S. help in a confrontation with Russia.

In his own defense, Bryza will deny that he led Saakashvili to any
such conclusion. It was the opposite — Bryza will point to numerous
occasions in which he told Saakashvili not to use force in his
conflict with South Ossetia.

In the end, Bryza has been watching and working on the region’s most
important topics for more than a decade from the inside. He can hit
the ground running, the first order of business being smoothing over
the tension over the Turkey-Armenia accord, which itself appears to be
in trouble. The likelihood seems that all the topics will be aired,
and Bryza will be confirmed.

zen/0410/Report_Bryza_for_Baku.html

BOXING: KAREN TONAKANIAN AT YOUTH BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP

Aysor
April 26 2010
Armenia

Armenia’s boxer Karen Tonakanian (in the 57 kg) has lost to Henry
Thomas and had to leave the contest at the Youth Boxing Championship,
which is taking place in Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku.

The Championship is acting as the only qualifier for the inaugural
Youth Olympics in Singapore in August. Boxers reaching the semi-finals
in Baku will qualify for Singapore.

ACA DISAPPOINTED OVER BARACK OBAMA’S ANNUAL STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net –
April 25, 2010 – 00:16 AMT 19:16 GMT

On April 24th, the Armenian Council of America (ACA) and the Armenian
American community received, with great disappointment, United States
President Barack Obama’s annual statement on the Armenian Genocide.

Although the President has gone further than previous U.S. Presidents
in recent history and continuously states his "personal views have
not changed," the President, yet again has reneged on his pledge to
clearly and precisely characterize the actions by the Turkish Ottoman
Empire against their own ethnic Armenian citizens ninety five years
ago as Genocide.

While Senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged "As
President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." Now President
Obama avoided his commitment to utilize the word Genocide and instead
characterized the historical reality as "one of the worst atrocities
of the 20th century" and "the terrible events of 1915" yet again.

While the Armenian Council of American is grateful that the President
sees it "in all of our interest to see the achievement a full,
frank and just acknowledgment of the facts," recently, the Turkish
government has used the signing of the Protocols as a pretense of
harmony and good-will towards Armenia and a tool against genocide
recognition. It is vital that the President and his advisors realize
that Turkish-Armenian relations can never be normalized without Turkey
coming to terms of what occurred to the 1.5 million Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire which constitutes Genocide. "It is truly regrettable
that President Obama has yet again faltered on acknowledging historical
truth by its rightful name, Armenians throughout the world, along
with Turkish citizens struggling to change the propagated Turkish
revisionist history, would obtain moral support in their endeavor if
the President candidly spoke of the Armenian Genocide as genocide,"
stated Sevak Khatchadourian, ACA board member.

"Historical truth that is the Armenian Genocide can never be put
into question, the lack of undoubtedly identifying it as such caused
great disappointment victims of genocides and advocates of humanity
throughout the world," ACA statement said.

JAPANESE COMPANIES WILL COME TO ARMENIA IF ITS INVESTMENT CLIMATE IS ATTRACTIVE

ArmInfo
2010-04-26 11:50:00

ArmInfo. The Japanese-Armenian relations are at a rather good level at
present. At the same time the economical relations have been developed
not so much, Minister of Japan’s Embassy in Armenia Hiroshi Minami
told Arminfo correspondent.

He also added that the delegation of private Japanese companies visited
Armenia in 2005, but unfortunately after that none of them entered
the Armenian market. This is the necessary reason for development of
the economical relations between Armenia and Japan, he said.

‘The Japanese government cannot make private companies do something,
for instance, join the Armenian market. For this reason, the Armenian
party should first of all improve its investment climate for Japanese
companies arrive in Armenia. Moreover, I think it is necessary to
show to the Japanese companies that it is beneficial to arrive in
Armenia and work here’, – the diplomat said and added that the new
energy block at Yerevan power plant, built by means of the credit
funds of the Japanese government, is a successful example of the
mutually beneficial cooperation.

‘I think it is a very good power plant especially from the ecological
point of view. I was surprised that only two years were necessary
to finish all the construction works. I am very happy for the
Armenian party having worked so successfully over the project’, –
the minister said and added that at present fulfillment of the new
projects in Armenia is not foreseen, but he hopes that the joint work
will continue.