Author: Chmshkian Vicken

GUL PLEDGES TO REMAIN PERSONALLY ENGAGED IN ARMENIA-TURKEY RAPPROCHEMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
11.02.2010 19:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish President Abdullah Gul sent a reply to
President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia.

"We will continue to work for taking our normalization process forward
based upon the understanding reached between our two countries," Mr.

Gul said.

"Our bilateral efforts aimed at the normalization of Turkish-Armenian
relations attracted due attention world-wide by creating a new
hope for peace in our conflict-ridden geography. Overcoming the
long-established prejudices and nurturing mutual understanding
and trust among our two neighboring peoples were indeed our main
objectives when endorsing the process of normalization between our
countries. You should have no doubt that our determination to take
these objectives forward is intact, provided that this resolve and
commitment remains reciprocal," he said. "I also agree with you
that responsible governance necessitates both standing behind words
and supporting words with deeds. Hence, we will continue to work for
taking our normalization process forward based upon the understanding
reached between our two countries. We have to be aware that concluding
this historic process will require honoring our commitments in their
entirety as well as displaying adequate political courage and vision."

Mr. Gul said that "a future characterized by sustainable peace,
security, prosperity and cooperation for all the people living in
the region is their common goal." "I will remain personally engaged
in this process hoping to see it reach a satisfactory conclusion for
both of our countries," he concluded, Anatolian News Agency reported.

RA LEADER: KARABAKH PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS BE READY TO DEFEND THEIR RIGHT TO SURVIVE

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2010 18:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan has exhausted the resources of trust
in terms of autonomous status for minorities within its boundaries,
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated in his speech at Chatham
House, Royal Institute of International Affairs.

"Azerbaijan was not and is not capable of providing guarantees of
even internal security to such autonomies. There was once another
Armenian autonomy in Azerbaijan: Nakhijevan. What happened to it? Not
a single Armenian is left in Nakhijevan. Can such guarantees be
taken for granted? You might say Azerbaijan was different then, and
is different now. During the last 18 years of that "difference" more
Armenian and Christian monuments were destroyed than in the preceding
70 years. The international organizations tasked with protection of
the cultural heritage were unable to do anything: Azerbaijan did not
even permit them to visit and see the obliterated Armenian monuments,"
Serzh Sargsyan emphasized.

"In the meantime, a full-blown race of arms continues in the South
Caucasus. It is extremely dangerous. It is dangerous not only for
the South Caucasus peoples, but also for Europe and the powers that
have a stake in the region, the corporations that have invested
in the Caucasus, and everyone else. Azerbaijan has not faced any
substantial confrontation for having exceeded all the possible caps
on conventional arms. Even if not used in a war against Karabakh, the
weapons Azerbaijan is stockpiling today will shoot somewhere. The only
question is where and when. While spending large sums on purchases of
oil, the advanced states, in my opinion, cannot remain indifferent to
how their moneys are being spent. The fact is that these very proceeds
can become a source of threats, something that has happened elsewhere
in the past.

Armenia and Karabakh have never unleashed and never will unleash
a war. We despise war, as our generation was forced to look death
straight in the eyes, and has seen and lost more than can be imagined.

However, we realize that we must be ready for war in case others
wish to fight. We cannot turn a blind eye to recurrent belligerent
threats coming from a neighbouring state, whose President’s New Year
address to his people sounded no different from the speech of an army
commander motivating his units for a battle.

The irony is that Azeri propaganda, spending hundreds of millions
of dollars, does not miss any opportunity to label Karabakh as an
aggressor, despite the fact that the people of Karabakh had to take
on arms literally to avoid extermination.

The reality is that the people that live in Karabakh are and will
always be ready to defend their right to survive, their values,
churches, and cross-stones," Armenian leader concluded.

PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN SENT A MESSAGE TO ABDULLAH GUL

Noyan Tapan
Feb 9, 2010

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. President Serzh
Sargsyan sent a message to the president of the Republic of Turkey
Abdullah Gul.

The message, reported to Noyan Tapan by The Press office of the
president of the Republic of Armenia, states:

"Excellency, passing thought Turkish airspace, I send my greetings
to you and the people of neighboring Turkey. Our initiative, aimed at
the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, holds attention
of the international community. This is a historic moment, indeed,
and it is recognized not only by us, but also by the global community.

Efforts of the countries engaged in the region, aimed at the
improvement of bilateral relations, are indispensable. I am confident
that it wouldn’t be possible to move forward without their support. At
the same time, I believe no matter how interested friendly states
might be in a positive resolution of the impasse, there are certain
things that can be done only by our two nations.

Mr. President,

I hope you will agree that the Armenian and Turkish peoples assign
the main task of getting rid of the stereotypes regarding each
other and establishment of the atmosphere of mutual trust to their
respective governments. We can achieve results only if there are
trust, resolve, and unfaltering stance. A situation when words
are not supported by deeds gives rise to mistrust and skepticism,
providing ample opportunities to counteract for those, who oppose
the process. We should be mindful of the fact that in this particular
case, the time is working not for but against the process. If until
now we have been able to bring our bilateral relations up to a level
which made the prospects of building normal relations between our
two countries more tangible and discernible, now the time has come
to manifest determination to make next major step and leave to the
coming generations a stable and secure region.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest esteem."

Armenian judo wrestlers to participate in 2010 Dusseldorf Grand Prix
05.02.2010 22:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On February 19-22, Dusseldorf will host Judo Grand
Prix tournament.

As head coach of Armenian judo team Artur Gevorgyan told
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, 5 Armenian sportsmen with participate in the
championship: Armen Nazayan, Hambardzum Tonoyan (66 kg weight
category); Artem Baghdasaryan, Robert Vardanyan (73 kg weight
category) and Hakob Arakelyan (100 kg weight category).

Upon tournament completion, Armenian sportsmen will leave for Czechia
to participate in team practice session.

On February 27-28, Armen Nazayan, Hambardzum Tonoyan, Artem
Baghdasaryan, and Hakob Arakelyan will compete in World Cup due in
Prague.

On March 1, the wrestlers will be back to Armenia to start preparatory
trainings for Armenian Cup to kick off on March 6.

Judo meaning "gentle way", is a modern Japanese martial art and combat
sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its
most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is
to either throw one’s opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise
subdue one’s opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an opponent
to submit by joint locking the elbow or by executing a choke. Strikes
and thrusts (by hands and feet)’as well as weapons defences’are a part
of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata) and are not allowed in
judo competition or free practice (randori).
Ultimately, the philosophy and subsequent pedagogy developed for judo
became the model for almost all modern Japanese martial arts that
developed from "traditional" schools (koryū). In addition, the
worldwide spread of judo has led to the development of a number of
offshoots such as Sambo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Practitioners of judo
are called jÅ«dÅ?ka.

An employee of Armenian Culture Ministry becomes a ‘hero’ of a criminal case

2010-02-06 14:40:00

ArmInfo. An employee of Armenian Culture Ministry becomes a "hero" of
a criminal case.

The press-service of the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office told
ArmInfo that a criminal case been instituted against Areg Hayrapetyan,
the former adviser to the culture minister, and currently the head of
the culture ministry’s legal and control department. It has been found
out as a result of inspection held by the Control Chamber of Armenia
that on 8 May 2007 by the culture minister’s order No223 Hayrapetyan
was appointed authorized member of the commission for control and
technical performance of procurement. Using his position, on 11 May
2007 he came out with an initiative to sign an agreement on provision
of services in elaboration of legal acts worth 19010000 AMD between
the culture ministry and Inorient LLC founded by him in 2004.
Hayrapetyan, as well as culture adviser N.Ter-Vardanyan, who was the
chairman of the given commission signed 4 false conclusions on
technical characteristics of the work, which really was not done, and
as a result, appropriated 19010000 AMD.

The Department for Protection of State Interests under the Armenian
Prosecutor General’s Office has instituted the case under Articles
178, 38-178 and 308 of the Armenian Criminal Code. The case has been
transferred to the Chief Investigation Department of Armenian Police.

Trend, Azerbaijan
Feb 5 2010

FM: World will not recognize "election" in Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 5 / Trend News S.Agayeva /

The international community will not recognize the "election", which
the separatist regime of the Nagorno-Karabakh plans to hold in the
Azerbaijani occupied territories, Baku stated.

Feb.5, Head of the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" (NKR) Bako
Saakyan signed a decree to appoint the next elections to the National
Assembly of NKR May 23, 2010, Novosti Armenia reported.

The international community will not recognize the "election" in the
Nagorno-Karabakh and this will not be accepted seriously, Foreign
Ministry Spokesman Elkhan Polukhov told Trend News.

Armenia’s political elite will put itself in an awkward position and
once again confirm the occupation policy, he added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are
currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.

RESEARCH ON ASTROPHYSICS DISCUSSED BY A.A. HAKOBYAN AND CO-RESEARCHERS

Science Letter
February 2, 2010

According to recent research from Armenia, "With the goal of providing
constraints on the nature of the progenitors of core-collapse (CC)
supernovae (SNe), we compare their radial distribution within their
spiral host galaxies with the distributions of stars and ionized gas
in spiral disks. SNe positions are taken from the Asiago catalog for
a well-defined sample of 224 SNe within 204 host galaxies."

"The SN radial distances are estimated from the deprojected separations
from the host galaxy nuclei, and normalized both to the 25th mag
arcsec(-2) blue-band isophotal radius and (for the first time)
to the statistically-estimated disk scale length. The normalized
radial distribution of all CCSNe is consistent with an exponential
law, as previously found, with a possible depletion of CCSNe within
one-fifth of the isophotal radius (less significant with scale-length
normalization). There are no signs of truncation of the exponential
distribution of CCSNe out to 7 disk scale lengths. The scale length
of the distribution of type II SNe appears to be significantly larger
than that of the stellar disks of their host galaxies, but consistent
with the scale lengths of Freeman disks. SNe Ib/c have a significantly
smaller scale length than SNe II, with little difference between types
Ib and Ic. The radial distribution of type Ib/c SNe is more centrally
concentrated than that of the stars in a Freeman disk, but is similar
to the stellar disk distribution that we infer for the host galaxies.

All CCSN subsamples are consistent with the still uncertain
distribution of H II regions. The scale length of the CCSN radial
distribution shows no significant correlation with the host galaxy
morphological type, or the presence of bars. However, low luminosity as
well as inclined hosts have a less concentrated distribution (with the
scale-length normalized radial distances) of CCSNe, which are probably
a consequence of metallicity and selection effects, respectively. The
exponential distribution of CCSNe shows a scale length consistent with
that of the ionized gas confirming the generally accepted hypothesis
that the progenitors of these SNe are young massive stars," wrote
A.A. Hakobyan and colleagues (see also Astrophysics).

The researchers concluded: "Given the lack of correlation of the
normalized radial distances of CCSNe with the morphological type of
the host galaxy, we conclude that the more concentrated distribution
of SNe Ib/c relative to SNe II must arise from the higher metallicity
of their progenitors or possibly from a shallower initial mass function
in the inner regions of spirals."

Hakobyan and colleagues published their study in Astronomy &
Astrophysics (The radial distribution of core-collapse supernovae
in spiral host galaxies. Astronomy & Astrophysics, UNKNOWN
DATE;508(3):1259-1268).

For additional information, contact A.A. Hakobyan, Byurakan
Astrophysics Observ, Armenian Branch, Byurakan 0213, Aragatzotn Prov,
Armenia.

Publisher contact information for the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics
is: EDP Sciences S a, 17, Avenue du Hoggar, PA Courtaboeuf, BP 112,
F-91944 les Ulis Cedex a, France.

ARMENIAN AND JEWISH COMMUNITY LEADERS OF AMERICA TO LAUNCH GRASSROOTS PETITION FOR U.S. REAFFIRMATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Noyan Tapan
Feb 3, 2010

BOSTON, FEBRUARY 3, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Boston based
coalition of Armenian and Jewish Community Leaders launched grassroots
petition urging all people to sign a letter to President Obama and
Congress that calls for swift passage of H. Res. 252, reported the
Armenian Assembly of America.

The Armenian American Action Committee of Massachusetts (ARAMAC-MA),
Armenian National Committee of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Jewish
community and Assembly anti-genocide coalition partner Investor’s
Against Genocide were instrumental in launching the petition and
resource page.

Herman Purutyan, ARAMAC-MA State Chair and coalition member stated that
was an exciting collaboration of two communities, who have experienced
the ultimate crime against humanity, to stop future genocides wherever
they may occur.

"As two communities, Jewish and Armenian, we ask our fellow citizens
to let the President and Congress know that the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide is critically important, not only because it is
morally the right thing to do, but also it is necessary to prevent
such crimes from happening again."

1.7 PER CENT GROWTH IN CONSUMER PRICES RECORDED IN JANUARY IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.02.2010 18:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 1.7 per cent growth in consumer prices recorded in
January in Armenia compared to December 2009, which is conditioned
with seasonal price changes for some food products.

According to the official data of the Armenian National Statistical
Service, in January 2010 compared with December 2009 prices for food
products (including alcoholic beverages and tobacco) increased by 3.3
per cent. The prices for industrial goods and tariffs for services
decreased by 0,1 per cent.

The consumer price index reached 107 per cent in January 2010 compared
with the last January, the price index for food products (including
alcoholic beverages and tobacco) amounted to 103,2 per cent, while
price index for industrial goods reached 116 per cent and and tariffs
in the service industry made 109,9 per cent.

No Armenian tourist hurt in Egypt road accident, RA MFA says
30.01.2010 15:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 20 tourists and 35 local residents were hurt in
a road accident in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. No one was killed but some
tourists were hospitalized, RIA Novosti reported citing Egyptian
media.

Meanwhile, as RA Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told
PanARMENIAN.Net, no Armenian tourist was hurt in the accident.
`According to the Armenian Embassy in Egypt, none of 6 Armenian
tourists in the bus was injured,’ he said.

Earlier, Masrawi portal reported that 9 Russian, 7 Armenian, 1 Turkish
and 2 Ukrainian citizens were seriously injured in the accident.