Author: Chavushian

Nazret
March 11 2009

Is Sudan’s pain Ethiopia’s pain too?

03/10/09
by nazret.com,

Assta B. Gettu

When a person is in an all self-afflicted or natural pain, his
neighbor feels his/her pains too.

Ethiopia and Sudan have been good neighbors for a long time. I
remember when I was young, I visited Metema and spent about a week
there. The Sudanese town is very close to the Ethiopian town; only a
river separates the two towns. People from each side of the river
exchange their goods freely and friendly. No passport was then
required to cross the river and eat lunch at either side of the two
towns.

However, one night, something awful happened on the Ethiopian side of
the town in the middle of the night: A house caught fire while people
were inside the house; immediately the serenity of the town changed
into chaos: women and children were screaming and the young men were
running to the river to fetch water. It was amazing how fast the
Sudanese on the other side of the river arrived with their donkeys
loaded with containers of water and started helping their Ethiopian
neighbors by extinguishing the fire. In doing so and doing it quickly,
the Sudanese saved many Ethiopian lives of that beautiful town, and
I’m sure if something like this happened to the Sudanese town, the
Ethiopians would do the same kindness to the Sudanese as the Sudanese
did to the Ethiopians.

In general, the Sudanese people are now physically or psychologically
in an excruciating pain after they have been told that their
President, Omar al-Bashir, has received the arrest warrant for
genocide and crime against humanity by the International Criminal
Court.

As a neighbor and a good friend, is Ethiopia also feeling the Sudanese
pain, sharing the Sudanese sorrow, and rallying with the Sudanese
people behind the Sudanese leader, al-Bashir and protecting him from
being arrested or giving him a shelter as the Ethiopian ancestors gave
a shelter to the family of the Prophet Muhammad?

It seems though that the Sudanese are expressing their deep sorrows,
pains and emotional feelings in support of their President al-Bashir
without feeling any sympathy to the 300,00 people perished in Darfur
by the hands of the Janjaweed Afro-Arab Africans from the Northern
part of Sudan supported, perhaps, by the President of Sudan against
these Black Africans ` the Darfuri.

No doubt, Ethiopia loves the Sudanese people, but when it comes to
fairness, justice and the rule of law, what could Ethiopia do in these
agonizing circumstances? Should Ethiopia stand up firmly on the side
of the rest of the Sudanese people, sympathizing with al-Bashir, or
should Ethiopia simply ignore the sufferings and tragedies of the
Darfuri people?

One of the Nobel Peace Prize winners, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has
recently and without any hesitation denounced those African leaders
who tried to protect al-Bashir from being arrested by the ICC because
Tutu reasons that Bashir is a criminal who slaughtered his own people,
and those African leaders who support Bashir should be considered
criminals, too.

In my opinion, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is
absolutely correct in expressing his feelings toward those 300,000
Darfuri whom al-Bashir slaughtered and rendered about five million
Darfuri homeless. It is indeed shameful to ignore the blood of these
innocent Darfuri for the sake of one Sudanese leader, al-Bashir. Even
if the African leaders blindly ignore justice, sooner or later, each
one of them will pay the price from the God of justice, and their
punishment will be heavy.

It is time for the African leaders to rethink about this important
genocide crime committed by one of their friends ` al-Bashir. It is
time to hand him over, not to hide him in Sudan or in other places in
Africa, to the International Criminal Court before it is too late and
absolve themselves from the bloods of the innocent Darfuri shed in
vain by the Sudanese dictator ` al-Bashir.

Of course, it is not new for some African leaders to hide a killer in
their backyards. Such a killer is still hiding and enjoying life with
his family in Zimbabwe and that man is Mengistu Haile Mariam; however,
the blood of those Ethiopians spilt by Mengistu Haile Mariam in the
streets of Ethiopia is still demanding revenge and justice from the
Almighty God. That was few years ago, but the deaths of the Darfuri
people are fresh as these people are still being slaughtered by the
Janjaweed Afro-Arab Africans supported by the Sudanese militia.

Those Ethiopians who lost their loved ones never forget the evil
actions of Mengistu Haile Mariam; in the same way, the Darfuri people
will never forget what their President, al-Bashir, did to the 300,000
of them and too many others who are still unaccountable.

The African leaders lack courage and integrity, and Desmond Tutu has
them all, and for this reason and for speaking out in the name of
justice, Desmond Tutu should be awarded a second Nobel Justice
Prize. Desmond Tutu has shown again the quality of leadership and the
full responsibility of an authentic Archbishop toward the children of
God – the Darfuri people.

Are there any other archbishop, bishop, pope, and a patriarch who care
more for the victims of conflict than the Archbishop of Desmond Tutu
in this world? I don’t think so.

The Organization of the African Union will be carefully judged how it
handles President al-Bashir’s criminal case and the cases of the
Darfuri homeless, motherless, and fatherless children. The eyes of the
world will be on it if it indeed fails to cooperate with the ICC in
arresting al-Bashir and handing him over to the International Criminal
Court to face justice in full measure.

To interfere for the purpose of justice in another country’s criminal
case is morally correct; had the world intervened earlier against the
1915 Armenian Genocide by Turkey, the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda, the
1995 Srebrenica Genocide by Serbia and the 1999 East Timore Genocide
by Indonesia, millions of people could have been saved.

The Organization of the African Union did nothing to prevent the
killings of many African people in the continent of Africa; people are
still being killed and they have no place to go except someone like
Archbishop Desmond Tutu raises his voice in defense of such
defenseless Africans whose leaders have totally neglected them.

So, which way should Ethiopia go, the Desmond Tutu’s way to condemn
the criminal and hand him over to the ICC or the OAU’s way to support
the criminal and to hide him from being handed over to the
International Criminal Court?

The OAU may have a reason why it is rallying behind the criminal
al-Bashir, and the reason is `If I’m quiet now, tomorrow the
International Criminal Court will come after me.’ With such a selfish
motive, the OAU will go down in history with its corrupt dictators; it
will be buried disgraced as its founder Emperor Haile Selassie was
buried unceremoniously.

As for Ethiopia, it is better by far to continue its old friendship
with the innocent Sudanese, not with the criminal ones; it is better
to be an advocate of justice for the poor than to be the friend of a
dictator and at that a number one killer.

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PanARMENIAN.Net

Bakour Karapetyan calls on Ilham Aliyev to stop distorting historical facts
11.03.2009 21:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian writer of political essays Bakour
Karapetyan appealed to the President of Azerbaijan with a direct
letter. In the message addressed to PanARMENIAN.Net it is particularly
stated that the Armenian writer received a warm welcome by the border
guards at Nakhichevan Customs. `Taking the opportunity, I suggest
soothing the passions of your historians and not letting them falsify
or distort the history of the peoples living in the territory of
Azerbaijan, namely: the Talysh, Kurds, Lezghins, Avars, Persians, and
Armenians.’ The falsification of the history as we have all become
convinced of worsens the stability in the region, causes an atmosphere
of intolerance and hostility among the neighbouring countries,’
Karapetyan emphasized. He also said that Azeri people can feel free to
visit Yerevan. `We will show them the medieval sources that give
evidence about the history of the peoples living in the territory of
today’s Azerbaijan. Your people, particularly the Talysh, living in
Azerbaijan and Iran, and also the Lezghins and Avars, part of which
are in Russia now, have the right to know their true history,’ as is
stated in the letter addressed to the president of Azerbaijan.

PanARMENIAN.Net

EC released 3 million in budget support to Armenia
11.03.2009 00:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Commission released EUR 3 million in
budget support to Armenia from the Food Security Programme (FSP). The
European Commission Food Security Programme in Armenia is an
instrument of balance of payments and national budget support. The EC
Food Security Programme has been supporting the State Budget of the
Republic of Armenia since the 1997 fiscal year. Since then 10 annual
Programmes were successfully completed granting ?¬ 96.5 million
for direct budget support and ?¬ 5.5 million for technical
assistance and follow up.

PanARMENIAN.Net learned from Delegation of the European Commission to
Armenia, that with the successfully implemented EC Food Security
Programme 2007-2008, the total FSP contribution to Armenia’s
development sum up to EUR 105 million.

The overall objectives of the EC Food Security Programme for 2007-2008
were in tune with the Armenian Poverty Reduction Strategy and aim i)
to contribute to the overall effort by the Government and the society
to reduce poverty though sustainable economic growth and development,
and ii) to maintain the momentum for reform in agriculture.

The specific objective of the EC Food Security Programme for 2007-2008
was to assist the Government of Armenia to improve the design,
management, delivery and effectiveness of state programmes and
services in agriculture that are aimed at reducing food insecurity,
and particularly to improve efficiency in the area of animal health
and phytosanitary policy.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Trial of Seven resumed today
09.03.2009 14:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The court hearing on the March 1, 2008 events,
so-called Trial of Seven was resumed in the regular court of Shengavit
community today.

The March 4 hearing was interrupted because accused Aleksan Arzumanyan
offended the judge and was removed from the hall.

According to the Armenian National Congress, health state of accused
Shant Harutyunyan is still grave. The ANK insists that Harutyunyan
should be taken to hospital for a check-up.

Meanwhile, after the previous examination the doctors concluded that
Harutyunyan experiences no health problems but `was isolated because
his aggression might have been caused by a mental anguish.’

PanARMENIAN.Net

Ruling coalition: Mayor elections are a chance to exercise abilities
09.03.2009 16:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Yerevan is going to hold elections for the Elders’
and not the Mayor’s. The Mayor’s elections are to be held at the next
stage only. The RA Republican Party is getting seriously prepared for
the elections, we have great expectations, said Galoust Sahakyan ,
head of Republican faction, RA Parliament deputy.’

As he says, Mayor’s elections do not differ from Parliamentary
elections in terms of seriousness and political value. For the first
time both citizens and various Parliamentary and extraparliamentary
political forces will take an active part in the elections.

Galoust Sahakyan emphasized that the Republican Party of RA and the
coalition parties discussed the chances to nominate a single
candidate, but decided to participate separately in the elections as
they think it a very suitable chance to exercise their abilities.

`Every political team has its own measurement format, and I would not
like the opposition to take up the position of a loser at this
stage. During these elections the opposition must show its
determination,’ Galoust Sahakyan said.

When asked by a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter about his attitude towards
the statements made by the deputies of «Heritage»
faction regarding Gagik Beglaryan’s appointment which proves that the
Republican Party is not prepared to face the opposition openly, he
replied that such statements are natural on the part of the
opposition. Today they are already talking of unfair conditions since
they do not have the real chances to overcome the 7% barrier.

When asked whether Gagik Beglaryan’s appointment as a Mayor will help
or, on the contrary, upset Beglaryan himself, he said the Party never
discussed this question. `The Mayor has very powerful structures, and
they are expected to work, Sahakyan added.’

HSBC Bank Armenia forecasts growth in interest rates of AMD deposits
and loans in Armenia

2009-03-08 14:05:00

ArmInfo. HSBC Bank Armenia forecasts growth in interest rates of AMD
deposits and loans in Armenia, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank
Armenia Tim Slater told journalists, Saturday. He added that the rates
of USD deposits and loans will undergo no changes and may even be
decreased.

He said that in 2008 the bank raised the AMD deposit rates by 4.75% at
the mean, and the AMD loan rates – by 3.25%. Thus, the real growth of
AMD deposit rates was by 1.5% higher than that of AMD loans, and the
bank’s clients benefited from this, Slater stressed.

To note, as of Jan 1, 2009, provision of crediting of HSBC Bank Armenia
totalled 73.3 bln AMD ($239 mln) or over 60% of assets, the annual
growth being 42,1%. The volume of fixed-term deposits was 33% of the
total volume of the bank’s obligations, or 35 bln AMD ($114.2 mln), the
annual growth being 32,2%. The shareholders of HSBC Bank Armenia are
HSBC Europe B.V. (70%) and Wings Establishment (30%).

Journal of Turkish Weekly
March 7 2009

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is Visiting Turkey

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting Turkey today. Hilary
Clinton will meet President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan during her visit.

Withdrawal of US’ troops from Iraq, US’ demands on military support of
Turkey in Afghanistan, intermediary role of Turkey on Iran issue are
expected to be the major topics of today’s meetings.

In the meetings, Turkey is expected to demand just stance from the US
concerning the issues of Middle East and conducting dialog with
Hamas. Moreover, Turkey is to deliver demands regarding the President
Obama’s April 24 speech. Since Barack Obama is known with his close
relations to Armenian lobbies, whether he is going to name the 1915
Events "genocide’ or not is a matter of concern for Turkey. Human
Rights Report released by the US Department of State will be another
topic in the meetings. Especially US’s reports’ critiques towards
Turkey respecting the issues of freedom of speech and press are
expected to be brought to table by Turkish officials.

We talked to Mehmet Yegin, USAK expert on US Studies, on Clinton’s
visit to Turkey. Mehmet Yegin shared his analysis on what primary
concerns were laying in this visit and what Turkey can expect from it.
Mr. Yegin stated that "The primary concern for the US administration
is to better the prestige of the US in bilateral relations.’ As a
reflection of the US’ concerns on improving its image in Turkey
Mr. Yegin remarked that Hillary Clinton will take part in a TV program
in which present-day topics are discussed by four women instead of
attending other kind s of discussion programs along with her formal
visits. Mr. Yegin also stated "Clintons have an extensive credibility
in Turkey. We remember Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton’s visit to
Turkey just after the 1999 Earthquake in Turkey which created a
sympathetic image of Clintons. During this visit, as you may recall,
Bill Clinton had a speech in Turkish Parliament which had ceased by
the applauses of Turkish parliamentarians at least ten times.’
Moreover, Mr. Yegin evaluated the meaning of the meeting for the US
side. He said "Hillary Clinton believes in smart power which focuses
on employment of both soft power as well as military power in
politics. Thus, her visit aims to reduce the Anti-Americanism and to
enhace the US-Turkey cooperation on the regional matters. This visit
can be considered in line with Hillary Clinton’s politic discourse and
stance.’

Regarding the political aspects of Clinton’s visit we asked
Mr. Yegin’s thoughts on Turkey’s plans towards US’ strategies and also
its expectations from the US. Mr Yegin said that "The issues at stake
in the meetings are mainly Turkey’s possible meditator role between
the US and Iran, sending troops to Afghanistan, and the Armenian
allegations on 1915 events. Turkey is not so enthusiastic about
sending troops to Afghanistan because of the increasing
insurgencies. Yet, the door is not entirely shut for such
option. Considering Obama’s scheduled speech on April 24, Turkish side
is going to express Turkey’s expectations regarding Obama’s
speech. Although Obama promised his voters to recognize Armenian
allegations and name the 1915 events as "genocide’, there are rumors
that he will not call the 1915 events as expected. Thus, Turkey is
likely to focus on this possibility.’

Mr. Yegin shared his analysis on what is the importance of Turkey for
the US as his conclusion remarks: "As Clinton’s visit points out,
Turkey is important for the US politics. Clinton’s visit can be seen
as the US’ efforts to enhance relations not only at diplomatic level
but also at society level.’

Saturday, 7 March 2009
Dilek Aydemir (JTW)

DRAM FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE WILL NOT JOLT ARMENIAN FINANCIAL …

Interfax
March 5 2009
Russia

The return to a floating exchange rate of the national currency will
not jolt the Armenian financial market, which is stable at present,
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said on television on
Wednesday night.

Commercial banks have $700 million worth of cash, so they can credit
their clients and the economy at large, he said. The capital of
Armenian commercial banks has grown by $120 million in the past few
months, so the banks are prepared for changes on the currency market,
Sargsyan said.

The floating exchange rate will have a positive effect on the
Armenian economy and build up export capacities and competitiveness
of Armenia, he said. Businesses are adjusting their development
plans to the Central Bank’s exchange rate forecast of 360-380 drams
to the dollar. It is important though to avoid sharp fluctuations,
the prime minister said.

On Tuesday, the Armenian Central Bank limited its interference in
the domestic currency market and resumed the floating exchange rate
of the national currency.

The official exchange rate for March 4 was 372.95 drams to the dollar.

Armenia will not change its national currency and will not enter the
ruble zone, the prime minister said.

That is illogical. Naturally, we will not enter the ruble zone because
this is impossible, Sargsyan said.

At the same time, Armenia would like to trade with Russia in rubles
rather than dollars, he said.

This is a way to diversify our foreign assets and currency operations
of our businesses and thus to reduce our susceptibility to external
shocks, Sargsyan said.

PROPERTY REDISTRIBUTION. IS IT TURN FOR TV CHANNELS NOW?

Aravot
Feb 24 2009
Armenia

On 6 November 2008 when the Armenian government took a decision to
"set up a non-commercial state organization called ‘public relations
and information centre’", journalist organizations and leaders of
a several media expressed their concern that this entity will have
the mission of the Glavlit [Main Administration for the Protection
of State Secrets in the Press under the USSR Council of Ministers],
which existed during the Soviet totalitarian regime and was fortunately
dissolved.

Let us remind that the centre to operate under the Armenian
president has been tasked with very pretentious functions, including
"implementation of general and topical monitoring and analysis of
the mass media outlets, carrying out studies regarding the mass media
market, on the number of printed copies, sales volume and coverage,
diversity, transparency and other issues".

The authors of the initiative assured that the centre’s activities
will be rather of scientific-research nature and bear no connection to
the censorship or restriction of mass media activities. It turned out
that the concerns were not groundless. During the "Safe TV environment"
discussion at the Ani Plaza Hotel on 20 February, it became clear from
the words of a representative of the above centre that in future there
will be legislative initiatives with the purpose of encoding topics of
some TV programmes and clarifying the issue of their broadcasting hours
and reasonability of broadcasting/not broadcasting of some programmes.

On the same day, 20 February, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
discussed "the recently recorded public concerns over the quality of TV
and radio broadcasts", the necessity of qualitative changes to those
and issues of legislative reforms in the sphere with Grigor Amalyan,
the chairman of Armenia’s National TV and Radio Commission. It is
significant that the very busy president of the country spent an
hour of his valuable time on discussing with Amalyan, for example,
not the possibilities of carrying out the European Court of Human
Right’s decision regarding the A1plus [a TV which was closed down in
2002 ], but on management of TV broadcasting controlled by himself.

Government set to "redistribute" TV broadcasting – media rep

The chairman of the Meltex Ltd and the director of the A1plus,
Mesrop Movsesyan, tried to guess the cause of the above initiative
and interests of the Armenian president. He told Aravot that this
is an attempt to create artificial conditions to close down some
TV companies, and that the authorities are already working in this
direction. "New owners have emerged in this sphere, new rules of the
game are being developed; and maybe, the authorities believe that time
has come to filter the sphere and to keep only those TV companies,
which are more convenient for them and have "grown" under their wing",
Movsesyan said. He believes that the authentic aim of this initiative
is not cleaning the TV air of topics and street language. This is the
"start" of the game, which has been discussed over the past one year;
and now they try to quickly carry it out for some reasons.

Movsesyan supposes that pressure upon TV companies will start in
May. "It is already being outlined who will suffer from the first
blow", the Meltex chairman said, noting the ALM [Alternative Media],
AR, Shant and Hay TV [private] TV companies are on the list. In
a comment that according to some reports Hay TV belongs to Serzh
Sargsyan’s son-in-law, Mikayel Minasyan, Mr Movsesyan did not rule
it out, saying the TV company will be exchanged for shares of a TV
company with high rating. He said that Kentron TV company can also
experience pressures and its owner, he [Movsesyan] said, "will be
able to survive the pressures".

So what is the real aim of the authorities – censorship or starting
redistribution of the TV business? "The content of all TV channels
is fully beneficial for the authorities. I believe, the issue in
question is about redistribution. The game has already started;
there are already active players in attack", Movsesyan said.

APA, Azerbaijan
Feb 28 2009

Matthew Bryza: A next meeting of Presidents will depend on the result
of our meeting in Yerevan

[ 28 Feb 2009 11:36 ]

Baku. Victoria Dementieva `APA. There are opportunities for the
solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, OSCE MG Co-Chair Mathew
Bryza told journalists, APA reports.

Co-Chair had difficulties to say the period for the settlement of the
conflict. `I cannot say that when the decision can be passed. It
depends on Presidents, negotiation process,’ he said.
Moreover, Mr. Bryza stressed that the compromise was demanded for the
solution to the conflict.
`The compromise is possible and it should be just for Azerbaijan and
Armenia. The sides should be justly coordinated to reduce them to a
common denominator. The question `what does include here `is
applicable to Presidents,’ he said.
Bryza said that he was aware of the fact that Armenia violated the
cease-fire during the recent monitoring of OSCE in contact line.
`I always contact with Andrzej Kasprzyk. We do not know what happened,
only know that there was fighting. We do not want such kind of
developments to continue. Moreover, we want Personal representative of
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk and his field assistants
to conclude investigations ,’ he said.
As regards the next meeting of the Presidents, the US Co-Chairs noted
that it will be determined after Co-Chairs’ visit to Yerevan.
`It is difficult to say the date of the meeting. It will depend on the
result of the meetings in Yerevan,’ he said.