Author: Dabaghian Diana

CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA EXPERT: TURKEY DOESN’T GIVE UP OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY "ITS OWN GAME" IN CAUCASUS

Today
66090.html
April 14 2010
Azerbaijan

Interview with political observer and expert on Caucasus and Central
Asia Yuri Sigov.

How do you assess the current state of the Turkey-U.S. relations in
the light of latest developments?

Turkish-American relations are quite smooth and are of partnership
nature, with the exception of the powerful work of the Armenian lobby
on "genocide" and the weakness of the Turkish lobby in the U.S. to
counteract this. The Turks understand that the U.S. needs their
assistance, especially in matters of security in the region and in
the energy sector. Another question is that U.S strategic interests
in the Caucasus are not so significant like that of Turkey, which has
recently been trying to regain some lost political and economic weight.

Turkey sees the United States as a partner profitable in every respect
while not giving up its own initiative and opportunity to play "its
own game" in the Caucasus.

In your opinion, to what degree the United States is likely to
recognize the "Armenian genocide"? Will President Obama do what
Armenians expect him to do on on April 24?

The are still debates regarding the term "genocide" in the U.S. The
Armenian lobby in America is able to competently to influence members
of the White House administration and members of Congress. So, the
solution can be unpleasant for Turkey. But I do not think that the
American president would be interested in maintaining confrontation
over this issue as showed his recent meeting with the Turkish and
Armenian leaders in Washington, where he urged them to cooperate,
rather than continuing squabbles about what happened almost a hundred
years ago.

How do you assess Iran’s effort to contribute to settlement of the
Karabakh conflict?

Today Iran is in a very difficult situation, and any peaceful
activities, including an attempt to act as peacemaker and mediator
in Karabakh conflict resolution, can bring some positive results. In
reality, Tehran has no leverage to resolve this long-running conflict
and is not expected to have one in future. Moreover, Iran, in my
opinion, is not interested in resolving this conflict in favor of
Azerbaijan.

At the same time, Tehran wants Azerbaijan not to assist U.S. in the
event of a sharp aggravation of relations between the two countries.

To achieve this, Tehran put forward some initiatives on Karabakh
problem, a sensitive issue for Azerbaijan as, but is doing very little
in practice.

Ruben Safrastyan: Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation Process Stalled Or Deadlocked
Nvard Davtyan

"Radiolur"
14.04.2010 15:02

In general, the positions of Armenia and Turkey have not changed:
Turkey still pushes forward its preconditions, Director of the Oriental
Studies Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Ruben
Safrastyan told a press conference today.

"Serzh Sargsyan’s statements have once again showed that Armenia
will not make concessions on either of the two issues: recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and the Karabakh settlement. Therefore,
Turkey’s attempts to exert pressure on Armenia have been and will be
ineffective," he said.

"Armenia and Diaspora have always been united and they will continue
working together on recognition of the Armenian Genocide and other
important issues," Safrastyan said.

Director of the Oriental Studies Institute considers that the protocols
will not be ratified by April 24. He says the Armenian-Turkish
reconciliation process is stalled or deadlocked.

TURKEY, ARMENIA TO CARRY ON PROCESS WITH REGULAR MEETINGS

WorldBulletin.Net
APril 13 2010
Turkey

The two leaders agreed to carry on the rapprochement process through
regular meetings between their foreign ministers.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President
Serzh Sargsian who met in Washington D.C. on Monday discussed the
letter Erdogan sent to Sargsian in details.

Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, assigned as
special representative by Erdogan, earlier conveyed the letter to
Sargsyan.

The two leaders got together on the sidelines of the nuclear security
summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama.

During the one and a half hour meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister
Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Nalbandian plus their
undersecretaries were in attendance.

"Regular meetings"

Premier Erdogan put his views on the Caucasus at first hand and
Turkish standpoint on the Upper Karabakh dispute has been expressed
to the Armenian side.

Erdogan and Sargsyan also took up contents of Turkish Prime Minister’s
letter that was handed to the Armenian leader.

Erdogan’s letter expresses Turkey’s uneasiness over revival of
Armenian allegations in parliaments of third countries, also affirming
discomfort with Armenian Constitutional Court ruling.

The document also urges to leave the matter to historians and notes
that tete a tete meetings could accelerate the process.

The two leaders agreed to carry on the rapprochement process through
regular meetings between their foreign ministers.

"Preconditions"

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sargsyan said that Armenia
has not accepted any preconditions.

Sargsian claimed that Turkey talked a language of preconditions with
Armenia and Armenian people in the rapprochement process.

Sargsian who visited the grave of 28th U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
addressed American-Armenians gathered around him.

He told the crowd that Armenia’s position regarding the "genocide"
issue did not change at all, claiming that he did "not believe Turkey
could play a constructive role in the solution of the upper Karabakh
issue."

Turkey and Armenia signed protocols on October 10, 2009 to normalize
their bilateral ties and establish diplomatic relations.

However the rapprochement process was hampered as the Foreign Relations
Committee of the United States House of Representatives adopted a
resolution on March 4 that supported Armenian allegations regarding
the incidents of 1915.

TURKISH PREMIER: DECISIONS MADE BY PARLIAMENTS DON’T BENEFIT ARMENIA

APA
April 13 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on
Monday that the decisions (regarding Armenian allegations on 1915
incidents) that were made by parliaments did not benefit Armenia,
APA reports quoting turkishny.com web-page. Erdogan attended opening
of Ali Vural Ak Global Islam Studies Center established at the George
Mason University in Washington, D.C. and deliver a speech on "the
Alliance of Civilizations as Vision of Global Peace".

In regard to 1915 incidents, Erdogan said historians should deal with
the matter and documents and archives should be studied to reveal the
fact. "Parliaments don’t write history and they don’t judge," he said.

"We put forth our documents and archives. We also said a history
commission should be established to deal with the matter, but we did
not receive an answer to our call," he said.

Recalling that the 3rd forum of Alliance of Civilizations would take
place in Brazil in May, Erdogan said it showed that the Alliance of
Civilizations project has become a global one. The 4th one would be
held in Doha capital of Qatar in 2011, he added.

Turkish government has established friendly relations with all
countries especially neighboring countries in the past seven and half
years, he said.

Erdogan said Turkey and Syria launched a process of full cooperation
and the two countries were exerting efforts to restore peace in the
region. Despite global economic crisis which started in 2008, Turkey
remarkably increased its exports to 22 countries, he said.

IN AN EFFORT TO REPAIR BILATERAL RELATIONS, TURKISH OFFICIALS TO MEET ARMENIAN DELEGATION

TopNews.In
April 13 2010
India

It has been reported that Turkish officials are to meet in Washington
with an Armenian delegation in an effort to repair bilateral relations.

It was also reported that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
is to meet his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan on the sidelines
of a nuclear conference in Washington.

The official Anadolu news agency reported on Monday that Erdogan,
prior to his departure to Washington, dispatched Feridun Sinirlioglu,
an undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Armenia to
discuss bilateral ties.

Claims of genocide during the Ottoman Empire complicated Turkish
relations with Armenia. Recent ties were strained further over issues
regarding the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of dispute between
Azerbaijan and Armenia.

It was also noted by some media reports that Turkey reacted angrily
to a series of measures passed in Sweden and the United States that
described the killing of Armenians in World War I as genocide. The
Turkish envoy to Washington was recalled briefly when a measure
narrowly passed March 4 in the U. S. House of Representatives Committee
on Foreign Affairs.

Leaders from Turkey and Armenia met in October, however, to sign
protocols aimed at restoring bilateral ties following years of
acrimony. (With Inputs from Agencies)

ARMENIAN CENTRAL BANK INCREASES REFINANCING RATE FROM 6.5% TO 7.0%

ArmInfo
13.04.2010

ArmInfo. Central Bank of Armenia increased the refinancing rate by
0.5 percentage points to 7.0% in compliance with relevant decision
made by the CB Council on Tuesday, the CB press-service told ArmInfo.

In March 2010 versus February 2010 inflation totaled 0.8% falling
0.6 percentage points per year to 8.8%. The CB Board announced
that in conditions of the expanding monetary and taxation policies
implemented as part of the anti-crisis measures and against the
background of the upwards trends in the global economy rehabilitation,
the economic growth rates have exceeded the predicted level. In fact,
the current inflation environment was influenced by the above factors,
which meets the goals set by the Central Bank.

The CB Board predicts maintenance of the inflation environment in
the predictable period in conditions of the current macroeconomic
environment and increased tariffs for the main communal services
despite the downward trends of annual inflation.

The CB Board keeps on gradual toughening of monetary conditions aimed
to form real interest rate in conformity with inflation expectations.

Together with the government anti-crisis program, this will create
actual prerequisites for bringing inflation back into target. The
previous change of the refinancing rate was on March 9 2010 from 6.0%
to 6.5%.

TUNCER KILINC CALLED GENOCIDE "NORMAL THING"

news.am
April 12 2010
Armenia

Those speaking at the events in Turkey, aimed at denying Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Empire in 1915, spared no efforts to defend Young
Turks who exterminated 1.5 million Armenians. Two former Turkish high
ranking officials delivered ridiculous speeches at the conference in
Turkish city of Mercin.

Former National Security Council Secretary General Tuncer Kilinc
condemned Armenians for supporting Russians in 1915 and called decision
on forced displacement of Armenians normal.

In his turn, Turkish telecommunication Minister did not negate fact of
Genocide, but was proving that the word "genocide" was adopted in 1948
and events that occurred earlier can in now way be called Genocide.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT EXTENDS CONDOLENCES TO POLISH PEOPLE

ArmInfo
2010-04-12 10:30:00

ArmInfo. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has sent a telegram
of condolence to Polish Sejm marshal Bronislaw Komorowski, Armenian
presidential press service reported.

The telegram says, in particular: "I am deeply shocked by the
air crash, as a result of which the Polish president, his wife,
parliamentarians and high-ranking officials of Poland died. On
behalf of Armenian people, I express my deepest condolences to you,
the families of crash victims and people of Poland. I share the
grief and pain of the Polish people and wish prompt recovery after
his tragedy, as well as courage and buoyancy to the relatives and
friends of those died".

To recall, TU-154 plane carrying President of Poland Lech Kaczynski
together with the Polish official delegation from Warsaw for
participation in the Katyn memorial ceremonies, crashed on April 10
morning in Smolensk region under the town of Pechyorsk on approach to
Smolensk airport in conditions of heavy frog. All 96 people on-board,
including the Polish president and his wife, died.

A 7-day mourning has been declared in Poland in view of the tragedy.

Mourning has been also declared in Russia and EU countries.

news.am, Armenia
April 9 2010

Kocharyan was not off-politics, so there is no return: Serzh Sargsyan

19:05 / 04/09/2010`I consider that Mr. Kocharyan has always been on
politics, and some political circles’ nervous responses are surprising
for me that Kocharyan any move sets off ` tours, visits or expression
of opinion,’ said RA President Serzh Sargsyan in the course of his
April 9 visit to Tavush region.

According to him, it’s okay when Kocharyan voices his opinion on any matter.

In addition, he commented on the rumors of RA Premier’s dismissal,
saying `I do not intend to dismiss him or the government, the rumors
are groundless.’

`I would understand these gossips when the economy registered 15-17%
economic downturn, but our economy team has duly stood up to the
crisis,’ Sargsyan stated. `But today, when the economy revives, there
is no sense in speaking of the team’s incompetence or a need of
change.’

S.T.

If I Defend My Rights, I Will Be a ‘Bad Cop’

16:51 – 10.04.10

One of the reasons the copyrights are violated in Armenia is that both
lawyers and authors in the sector work orally, i.e. without contracts.

In a press conference today Susanna Nersisyan, Director of the Center
for Protection of Copyrights, said that everything should be regulated
by contracts. In her words a new law on copyrights together with the
existing one will make all the parties involved sign contracts before
getting involved in such affairs.

She also said that the bill of the new law will soon be discussed in
the parliament, adding that the existing legislation is enough to
reveal violations, which are numerous in Armenia, and define fines for
the perpetrators.
Armenian composer Martin Aharonyan, in turn, said that the bill would
strengthen the protection of author’s copyrights, should it be adopted
in the parliament.

At the same time, according to Aharonyan, there are some strange
trends here in Armenia.
"In this sector the musicians, the performers are in a very close
relation with the organizers … And if I start defending my rights, I
will turn out to be ‘bad cop’," explained Aharonyan.

Another issue for concern in the sector is that the musicians and
authors do not want to be involved in the court proceedings, and that
they need lawyers support in this field.

Aharonyan also said he himself had come across some fake versions of
his own peaces of music oeuvres.

Tert.am