Author: Dabaghian Diana

ACTING MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT SAYS WILL NOT ATTEND MOSCOW VICTORY DAY CELEBRATIONS – PAPER

RIA Novosti
April 25
MOSCOW

The acting Moldovan President Mihai Ghimpu said he will not come
to Moscow for this year’s Victory Day celebrations as he does not
associate himself with the winning side of World War II, a Russian
respected daily said on Monday.

Russia will mark the 65th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany
on May 9 with its biggest ever post-Soviet demonstration of military
hardware. This year is the first time that troops from other countries
will take part in the parade.

Kommersant daily said Ghumpu had previously accepted an invitation
from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and said he would find time
to participate in the events. But he changed his mind at the end
of last week, despite concerns from other members of the Moldovan
ruling coalition.

"I have no ties with Moscow. Only the victorious are going, what
will the defeated do there?" he said on Moldovan TV, adding that
participation of Moldovan troops in the parade would be enough.

Ghumpu has also said that the 70 Moldovan guards of honor due to
take part in the parade are used to marching on asphalt rather than
pavement, and so might lag behind the other columns or even faint if
they took part in the parade.

Russia has so far dismissed concerns by the Moldova’s Finance Ministry
that the country cannot afford to participate due to a shortage
of funds.

"They were talking about sending a delegation of eight people,
including four war veterans," a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry
earlier told Kommersant. "Russia is preparted to pay for all travel,
accommodation and eating expenses."

A source in the Moldovan government told Kommersant the economic
situation was only an excuse and Ghimpu’s hesitation was due to the
Moldovan government’s policy of improving ties with Romania, which
has not been invited to the celebrations because of its cooperation
with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Moldova and Romania signed on March 29 an agreement on air force
cooperation and discussed the future development of bilateral military
contacts.

A source in Moldova’s ruling alliance said that by "demonstrating his
principles and inflexibility in the face of the all-powerful Kremlin,
Ghimpu has become a hero of the nationalist electorate."

It said Ghimpu would attend an informal Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) Summit in Moscow on May 8 and then return to Chisinau.

During the summit, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Ukraine are expected to address World War II veterans
and workers of the home front.

Some experts say that Ghimpu also has personal motives for not
attending. His family home was confiscated shortly after the war and
his two bothers and father were deported to Siberia.

"I can not forget the misery, deportation and hunger citizens of the
Republic of Moldova went through in the Soviet Union," Ghimpu has said.

Experts said whatever the motives, Ghimpu’s refusal will not do
Moldova any good. Russia can easily block recently recovered exports of
Moldovan wines to Russia or impose tougher sanctions against Moldovan
guest workers.

Other countries to have confirmed their leaders’ participation in the
victory celebrations include Armenia, France, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Germany, Serbia, Ukraine and Vietnam. Some sources said that late
Polish President Lech Kaczynski confirmed his participation shortly
before he died in a plane crash in western Russia on April 10.

Aysor, Armenia
April 24 2010

Address by Armenia’s President Sargsyan to Armenian nation

On the 1915 Genocide Memorial Day, which is being marked on April 24,
the Press Office of the State Administration of Armenia has released
the Address by county’s President Serzh Sargsyan.

`Dear fellow countrymen,

Today is the April 24 Day; this day 95 years ago a monstrous and
brutal crime was committed under the state plan, a crime, which hadn’t
have a precedent not only in the history of the Armenian nation, but
in the world history as well.

By dint of its all state structures, which were acting under the
orders, the state administration of the Ottoman Turkish Empire
implemented a plan of killing of Armenians. The Armenians’
thousand-year march was divided into two pieces – before and after.

1,5 million deaths, a nation, who was expelled from its homeland, the
holocaust of the ancient culture ` these are the consequences of the
state policy, which contained the wild wish to wipe off the last
traces of Armenians.

That plan’s goal was that those, who rid of the death marches of the
Mets Eghern (Genocide), will never recover from the wounds and will
get lost between the five continents, never being again a nation and a
political force.

However, we survived as a nation, and we returned to the world stage
to declare ` we are continuing our perpetual moving and we are
strongly committed to the prevention of such kind of crimes.

We are grateful to all those in different countries, including Turkey,
who accept the importance of the prevention of the crimes against
humanity and join us in this fight. This is a process, which will
increase in the nature of things.

Dear fellow countrymen,

Today along with the entire Armenian nation I bow my head,
commemorating and mourning for the innocent victims of the 1915
Genocide.

Their behest was: live and create in the name of good, beauty, in the
name of our homeland, our national goals and in the name of the
humanity. We will never betray their memory and behest.’

Fiji Times Online
April 25 2010

TV-Witness Special
Sunday, April 25, 2010

Last week Witness Special, which allows viewers to travel share the
experience of a person’s journey, brought you The Secret of Deva – the
Romanian city which is famous for its medieval castle, the legendary
gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and for its poverty.

The intimate and moving film told about two of Deva’s promising stars,
one eight years and another nine, who are enrolled in a sport boarding
school which for decades has been training world class gymnasts. It
was about innocent dreams and harsh realities that would give viewers
a different perspective on what physical exercise really means for
some.

This week though, Witness Special, lets you in on the journey of
director Ani King-Underwood.

She is Armenian by birth but grew up in Lebanon and the UK after her
family were driven from Turkey during the mass slaughter of hundreds
of thousands of Armenians in 1915.

Now she is taking her mother and aunt, respectively 84 and 86 years
old, to visit for the first time the family home they were forced to
flee.

Almost the entire family of their father was massacred and their
mother’s family survived by paying off the military.

The two old ladies have never set foot in Turkey since their parents
fled but are determined to find the old family house, the church where
her parents were married and to find out what they can about their
family’s history.

* An Armenian Homecoming can be seen on MaiTV at the following times:

Tomorrow: 7am, 3.30pm.

Tuesday: 2am, 11.30am.

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TODAY ARMENIA IS COMMEMORATING 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ArmInfo
2010-04-24 11:03:00

ArmInfo. Today Armenia is commemorating the 95th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Flows of people – local residents, guests, students, school-children –
have been moving to the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex since early
morning. The traffic in the area is shut down. Despite rain people
are going to the memorial to pay tribute to the memory of 1,500,000
innocent victims.

WHILE DEBT LEVELS OF ARMENIA ARE MANAGEABLE UNDER THE CURRENT POLICY SCENARIO, THE OUTLOOK IS SUBJECT TO RISKS

ArmInfo
2010-04-23 11:25:00

ArmInfo. While debt levels of Armenia are manageable under the
current policy scenario, the outlook is subject to risks, says
the International Monetary Fund’s Third Review under the Stand-By
Arrangement. Since the onset of the global crisis, Armenia’s debt
dynamics-driven by external debt, which accounts for 95 percent
of public debt-have evolved, and its rapid accumulation calls for
initiating fiscal consolidation over the medium term.

The external debt stock, which was only 13 percent of GDP at end-2008,
had almost tripled by end-2009, reaching 34 percent of GDP and is
expected to peak at about 45 percent of GDP in 2011, before gradually
declining over the medium term. The projected debt-to-GDP levels do
not appear excessive, and standard stress tests show that Armenia’s
debt remains sustainable. However, rollover risk is high, mainly due
to the short maturity of Fund financing with repurchase obligations
during 2012-14.

The standard bound tests show that the combined shocks lead to an
increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio by several percentage points,
to almost 50 percent of GDP. However, the effect of a real exchange
rate shock is particularly pronounced, reflecting the rising weight
of external debt in total public debt.

To recall, as of the end of December 2009 the gross external debt of
Armenia amounted to 5023,8 mln USD, net external debt – 2499 mln USD.

BURAK OZUGERGIN WITHHELD COMMENTING ON ARMENIAN RULING COALITION STATEMENT

news.am
April 22 2010
Armenia

Turkish Foreign Ministry press secretary Burak Ozugergin renounced
to answer NEWS.am reporter’s question on Armenian ruling coalition
today’s statement. It offered to suspend Armenia-Turkey reconciliation
process and remove Protocols’ ratification issue from the National
Assembly agenda.

Ozugergin just hung up, hearing that the caller is an Armenian
journalist. Our further attempts to contact with Turkish Foreign
Ministry press secretary were doomed to failure.

Thereafter, Turkish press announced that Ozugergin said the following
on the matter: "We have not received the message yet. As soon as
information is clarified, we will make a relevant statement. To date,
Turkey’s stance on Armenia-Turkey Protocols is unchanged."

ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVES US KARABAKH MEDIATOR

news.az
April 21 2010
Azerbaijan

Ilham Aliyev Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received the
American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group mediators, Ambassador
Robert Bradtke.

The meeting yesterday focused on the current state of and prospects
for the talks to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, state-run news agency AzerTaj reported.

Azerbaijani MPs yesterday criticized the US role as a mediator on
Karabakh and accused it of supporting Armenia.

AZERBAIJANIS TO APPEAL TO GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT FOR GENOCIDE DENIAL

news.am
April 21 2010
Armenia

On April 22, the Azerbaijani Congress of Georgia is holding a protest
action in support of the Turkish people in front of the Turkish
Embassy in Tbilisi.

The Congress appealed to the Georgian Parliament for not considering
the issue of the Armenian Genocide.

On April 19, the Armenian Assembly of Tbilisi made an appeal to the
Georgian authorities for recognizing the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey in 1915.

The Assembly addressed official letters to Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili, President of the Georgian Parliament David Bakradze,
as well as to each Georgian parliamentarian and leaders of a number
of political parties. The Assembly gathered 1,915 signatures.

The Armenian Genocide has been recognized and denounced by many
states and influential international agencies. In France, Belgium and
Switzerland the law provides for criminal responsibility for denying
Armenian Genocide.

Russia adopted two resolutions denouncing the Armenian Genocide —
on April 14, 1995 and April 22, 2005.

DRINKING FOUNTAIN BOWLS STOLEN FROM REPUBLIC SQUARE

A1Plus.am
21/04/10

Three of the seven bowls of a drinking fountain in Yerevan’s Republic
Square have been stolen. The bowls designed by jeweler Nur were added
to the fountain in 2008.

An ice-cream seller told A1+ that the theft was committed on the
night of April 17.

According to the night watch, the thief drove to the drinking fountain
late at night in a red dustcart owned by the City Hall. The watchman
noticed the fellow breaking the nearby dustbin, hence he was the one
who stole the bowls.

The police turned out to be unaware of the theft.

10-POINT DOCUMENT TO TEACH TURKISH OFFICIALS TO REACT TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE QUESTIONS

armradio.am
21.04.2010 16:16

Turkey has prepared a 10-point document, which says how Turkish
officials and embassy workers should react to the Armenian genocide
related questions, BBC’s Russian service reports.

The document prepared by the Foreign Ministry of Turkey has ten points,
which list the rules and recommendations that the Turkish embassy
workers can use to address questions about the Armenian Genocide.

According to BBC report, Turkish officials should emphasize the
importance of Turkish-Armenian relations, as well as focus on Turkey’s
proposal to establish the historical commission to discuss the mutual
history between Armenia and Turkey.

These guidelines are also meant for the Turkish officials that will
make foreign trips while on a government assignment.

According to Hurriyet, the directive consists of 10 points:

1) Contact and maintain ties with representatives of the Armenian
lobby in your country of residence. Invite them to your events

2) Visit their events and try to explain Turkey’s position

3) Representatives of the Armenian diaspora abroad are divided into
three groups. The first has made business on the issue of genocide
and the second group includes people who arrived from Turkey and
still have ties with our country and the third group is a category
of people who are hostile against Turkey. Contact the representatives
of all these groups and invite them to visit Turkey.

4) In the country of residence also contact Armenian diplomats and
invite them to your events

5) Do not avoid contacts with the Armenian and pro-Armenian press
and try to explain them Turkey’s position in your statements

6) Also contact the community of your country of residence to explain
the 1915 events,

7) Be in a constant contact with the diplomats of the Balkan, Middle
Asian, Middle Eastern and other countries close to Turkey and try to
resist Armenian propaganda through joint efforts.

8) Concentrate on the protocols signed with Armenia and remind the
point of creation of the historical commission to study genocide.

9) Also explain the essence of the Turkish policy in the Caucasus
which wants to establish peace in this region.

10) Speak of the need to settle the Karabakh conflict to establish
peace in the region in your country of residence.