Author: Frangulian Shushan

AZERBAIJANI MP: U.S. WILL PUT PRESSURE ON ARMENIA TO REALIZE ITS GEOPOLITICAL INTERESTS IN THE REGION
A. Hasanov

Today
4148.html
March 16 2010
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with member of Security and Defense Committee of
Azerbaijani Milli Majlis (Parliament) Zahid Oruj.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has accepted an invitation to visit
the U.S. to participate in Global Nuclear Safety summit to be held
in April. What are your comments on this fact?

Simple analysis of recent U.S. actions in our region indicates that the
world’s superpower wants to withdraw Armenia from Russian influence
and strengthen its position in the South Caucasus. Inviting Armenian
President to the United States will become just another link in the
chain of U.S. actions to achieve this goal. It should be noted that
the U.S. position in the South Caucasus region is weakening due to
the inactivity of the United States.

A simple monitoring can reveal absence of recent intensive visits by
high U.S. officials to our region. The United States makes its best
with main emphasis on Armenia. Therefore, the United States initiated
the process of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations and the Committee
on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Congress passed a resolution on the
so-called "Armenian genocide".

In the meantime, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says adoption
of a resolution on the so-called "Armenian genocide" by the Committee
on Foreign Relations was a mistake. Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton during a visit to Guatemala also said that the U.S.

Congress will not consider a resolution on "Armenian genocide". In
your opinion, are these statements consistent with the latest U.S.

actions in relation to Armenia?

As you remember, Turkey and Azerbaijan have warned the U.S. that it
is a wrong move to bring resolution on so-called "Armenian genocide"
to the agenda of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Both Turkey and
Azerbaijan have stated that the adoption of such a resolution would
severely damage the U.S. position in our countries casting doubt on
objectivity of this superpower. Despite this, the Committee on Foreign
Relations adopted a resolution on the so-called "Armenian genocide".

This decision is dangerous and it opens opportunity for both the U.S.

and a number of other countries to pass all kinds of resolutions aimed
at putting pressure on Turkey. The move by the Swedish parliament to
recognize the "Armenian genocide" is an example.

After analyzing Turkey and Azerbaijan’s reaction to such steps,
the U.S. leaders are beginning to realize implications this negative
move and attempts to exert pressure on Turkey have for position of
the United States in our region.

Are the U.S. actions based solely on geopolitics?

I don’t think so. The fact is that certain circles in the United
States openly hinted that both Turkey and Azerbaijan also spent their
money to create own lobby in the face of Representatives and other
structures that are important in the American political hierarchy.

Thus, the theme of so-called "Armenian genocide" is becoming some
sort of trade-off as any product on shelves of American hypermarkets.

How do you see future of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and settlement
of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

Turkey has every reason to refuse further steps to normalize relations
with Armenia. In particular, after the scandalous decision by the
Constitutional Court of Armenia, who made reservation to the protocols
contradicting letter and spirit of the accords, it became clear that
Armenia does not cease to pursue an immoral policy ignoring its own
commitments. Under these conditions, Turkey may refuse to ratify the
Turkish-Armenian protocols and to show the world that the policy of
pressure and blackmail against Turkey will not work and that such
steps cannot make Turkey to open land border with Armenia ignoring
interests of friendly Azerbaijan.

In other words, it became clear for the whole world that the process
of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations can only run in parallel
with the process of settling the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Consequently, the fate of these processes depends entirely
on willingness and ability of the U.S. to exert pressure on Armenia
on both these issues. I believe that the U.S. will put pressure on
Armenia, because it suits geopolitical interests of the U.S. in our
region that are not implemented solely because of Armenia.

ANSAmed , Italy
March 12, 2010 Friday 10:16 AM CET

TURKEY: ARMENIAN MASSACRES; DIPLOMATIC CRISIS WITH SWEDEN;
STOCKHOLM CONSIDERS IT ‘GENOCIDE’;ANKARA SUMMONS AMBASSADOR

ANKARA

(ANSAmed) The Swedish Ambassador in Ankara, Christer Asp, has been
summoned this morning to the Turkish Foreign Ministry following a
diplomatic crisis which yesterday exploded between Ankara and
Stockholm after the Swedish Parliament approved a motion in which the
Armenian massacres are recognised as "genocide."

The news was reported by private television broadcaster NTV, quoting
sources at the Foreign Ministry. Yesterday Ankara decided to call its
Ambassador to Sweden to return to Turkey for consultations.

Exactly a week after the vote by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
US Congress which recognised the massacres of the Armenians at the
time of the Ottoman Empire as "genocide", the same vote of
condemnation came from the Swedish Parliament yesterday, provoking an
immediate and aggravated reaction from Ankara, which has cancelled the
planned visit by Premier Tayyip Erdogan for the intergovernmental
summit between the two countries scheduled for March 17.

A few minutes after the Anadolu agency released the news of the
Swedish MPs’ decision (131 votes in favour and 130 against, decisive
were four MPs from the majority who ignored indications from the
Government and voted with the left-wing opposition), a statement
attributed to Premier Erdogan appeared on the Turkish Cabinet Office
website which read: "We strongly condemn this decision which has been
reached for political reasons and which does not correspond with the
close friendship that links our two countries." In addition,
Ambassador Zergun Koruturk, who took up office in Sweden on November 1
last year, was immediately recalled.

Ankara has always denied that the Armenian massacres were premeditated
genocide and maintains that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians (and
not the one and a half million as maintained by Yerevan) were killed
in a civil war which also caused the loss of Turkish lives. On
Thursday, immediately after the approval of the resolution by the US
Congress committee, Ankara recalled its Ambassador, Namik Tan, who
took up office on February 25. Now Ankara, as Erdogan has recently
said, is waiting to know what the administration in Washington intends
to do, letting it be understood that the Turkish diplomat will only
return to Washington when Turkey has guarantees that the resolution
will not be brought to a vote of the Congress plenary assembly.

But now the problem has also arisen with Sweden, despite Foreign
Minister Carl Bildt hastening to describe "the politicisation of
history" as an error and to say the line of the government, which is
in favour of the Turkey’s entrance into the EU, "remains unchanged."

Nalbandian Was Not Yet Born When ARF-D Was Conducting Negotiations

15:34 – 13.03.10

A statement made by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has
disgruntled Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or
ARF-D) Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisyan.

`The minister, in his typical style, said that those forces requiring
his [Nalbandian’s] withdrawal are irresponsible and that they would
have understood how difficult it was to carry negotiate, should they
have ever tried to conduct negotiations,’ said Hovhannisyan at a press
conference today.

`I want to mention that Dashnaktsutyun was conducting negotiations and
was doing it successfully before Nalbandian was born or when he was
born but was still attending school. There is no need to teach us how
to carry negotiations. The minister thinks he has such special skills
to conduct negotiations that others do not. While American colleagues
have said during meetings that there are preconditions in the
Protocols, which is acceptable for Armenia. If the skill to conduct
negotiations is just saying `come here, please’ or `yes’ to
everything, then we do not have that skill, we would’ve carry out
negotiations in another way,’ explained Hovhannisyan.
He also recalled that it was due to efforts by the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau’s Hay Dat (`Armenian Cause’)
that the international approach to the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide changed in Armenia’s favour.

Tert.am

People’s Daily Online , China
March 13 2010

Turkish ambassador to Sweden returns home in protest of genocide resolution
12:53, March 13, 2010

Turkish Ambassador to Sweden Zergun Koruturk returned to Turkey on
Friday, noting that the resolution passed in Swedish parliament
Thursday recognizing the Armenian genocide was groundless.

Local CNNTurk television quoted Koruturk, who arrived at Istanbul’s
Ataturk airport, as saying that it was not befitting of Sweden to pass
such a resolution for the sake of its own elections.

The Turkish ambassador had been called back to Ankara for consultation
shortly after the Swedish Parliament on Thursday approved a resolution
on Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 incidents with 131 votes
against 130.

Koruturk said the resolution "is groundless," adding that " Sweden is
to hold elections in September. This resolution was brought up in 2008
but delayed until now. This is going on because of the election
period."

She said Turkey and Sweden had enjoyed a perfect relations and Sweden
had been the greatest supporter of Turkish membership in the European
Union.

On March 4, Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassador to the United
States following a U.S. congressional panel approved a resolution
labeling the incidents of 1915 as "genocide."

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide allegations and regards the
events as civil strife in wartime which claimed lives of many Turks
and Armenians.

Source: Xinhua

Today, Azerbaijan
March 13 2010

Azerbaijani MP: Azerbaijan’s increasing military capabilities is
matter of serious concern for Armenia

13 March 2010 [14:00] – Today.Az

Day.Az interview with member of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis
(Parliament) Aydin Mirzazade.

In his interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said that ostensibly Armenian side does not fear
resumption of war with Azerbaijan. In your opinion, why did the
Armenian President raise this question again?

The Armenian officials have often touched upon the issue of renewed
hostilities lately. They call Azerbaijan not to build up its military
power, give advice on use of the military budget or say that not
quantitative but qualitative indicator of the combat capability of the
Armenian army is important.

All this shows that increase in Azerbaijan’s military capabilities is
indeed a matter of serious concern for Armenia. It is concerned with
Azerbaijan’s determination to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by
any means, including military. It is also concerned with the combat
readiness of the Azerbaijani army. Sargsyan’s statements testify to
this.

Sargsyan’s statement indicates that the Armenian side has nothing to
lose. In extreme case, it will lose the Azerbaijani territory it has
seized. The fact that lately the Armenian authorities have often
touched upon this issue shows they realize that it is time to return
occupied lands. But nanationalist sentiments and claims to neighboring
states prevent them to do this.

In his interview Sargsyan reiterated that Armenia may withdraw its
signature from the Ankara-Yerevan accords. May Armenia really take
such a step? Can we say that the process of Armenia-Turkey
normalization has reached a complete impasse?

Possible, Sargsyan thinks that such statements will scare Turkey and
the world. Who will lose in case these protocols will no longer exist
and the issue of opening the borders will be closed for a long time?

Today, Turkey does not need to open borders with unpromising and poor
country like Armenia. Armenia does need opening of the borders. It
needs to use Turkey’s economic opportunities. It needs Turkish
investment, communication and involvement of the Turkish capital. But
Turkey is not in a hurry to do that (open borders) until Armenia
withdraws from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

I think the point is that the Armenian leadership does not really care
about opening of the borders. Only simple population of Armenia, who
is unable to find work and a piece of bread at leaving the country in
search of income, suffers from this. But former field commanders in
Karabakh dressed in ties and epaulettes are political figures today.

Recently, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. House of
Representatives voted for the resolution on "Armenian Genocide". This
week the Swedish Parliament also approved a similar bill. In your
opinion, what is the reason for increased efforts to recognize the
"Armenian genocide" in the world?

During both votes, the bills were approved by majority of only one
vote. I think that both decisions were politically motivated.
Unfortunately, there are people both in the U.S. Congress and in the
Swedish Parliament who do not respect interests of their state. They
have become captives of the Armenian diaspora and Armenian
organizations. There is only one goal – to put pressure on Turkey to
deprive it of freedom of action to impose an option unacceptable for
the country. But, as it is evident from Turkey’s reaction, these
people will unlikely will be able to achieve their goal. Turkey will
continue to pursue its independent policy and defend its national
interests.

Forces who started by this dirty game will be losers in this game. The
Armenian diaspora in this matter has nothing to lose, but Sweden, as a
nation, will lose much in the political, economic, military and
cultural cooperation with Turkey after this ecision.

N. Abdullayeva

URL:

AZERBAIJANI FM: UPDATED VERSION OF MADRID PRINCIPLES GIVES OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS LARGE AGREEMENT

Today
/63828.html
March 12 2010
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said an updated
version of the Madrid principles makes it possible to discuss a
large agreement.

"For me personally, Armenia should accept the updated version of
the Madrid principles as well. But they say they cannot as there are
some options they do not agree with. Now negotiations are underway
on these options."

Mammadyarov said several international organizations and countries
emphasized that it was high time that the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
was solved.

"Both heads of the OSCE Minsk Group`s co-chairing countries, Kazakhstan
which chairs the OSCE as well as Spain which heads the European Union
have declared the year 2010 will be crucial from the point of view
of finding a solution to the conflict. Similar statements were made
by President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Joao Soares and the
assembly`s special representative on the dispute Goran Lennmarker. And
it means the whole international community awaits progress in the
problem, and hopes the occupied lands will be liberated and refugees
will return to their homelands," said the Azeri FM.

ARMENIA READY TO IMPLEMENT ENERGY PROJECTS WITH TURKEY

news.am
March 12 2010
Armenia

Armenia is ready to participate in pipeline construction projects,
said RA Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Areg Galstyan
at the 73rd NATO PA Rose-Roth seminar in Yerevan.

According to him, if the mains will go through Armenia, tax payers of
EU states will save several hundred million dollars. "Armenian side
has repeatedly stated this during the energy projects implementation
back in 1990s, but no positive response followed, as the decision
was made by politicians, who displayed no economic reasonableness,"
Deputy minister declared.

He outlined that Armenia implements joint energy projects with Iran
and intends to deepen that cooperation. Some projects are carried
out also with Georgia, and joint one is scheduled to launch shortly
with Iran and Georgia. In particular, for energy supply to Georgia a
power line of 400kWt and 2 hydropower plants with Iran on Arax river
will be built.

Armenia is ready to implement similar projects with Turkey, Galstyan
said adding that functioning in soviet times power supply line of
220 kilowatt in Turkey is already restored.

TURKISH PRESIDENT CRITICIZED SWEDISH PARLIAMENT’S DECISION

armradio.am
12.03.2010 11:40

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Thursday that the resolution
on the Armenian Genocide approved by Swedish Parliament did not have
any credibility.

"We know how this decision was made. It is ineffective from the point
of our view", said Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Those who made this decision and who voted in favor of the resolution
were not historians, Gul said.

SHEIKH-UL-ISLAM: I WISH GAREGIN CAME TO BAKU AND SAW AZERBAIJAN’S TRUTHS WITH HIS OWN EYES

APA
March 11 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku. Elbrus Seyfullayev – APA. The date of the summit of the world
religious leaders in Baku has been fixed, APA reports.

Chairman of Caucasian Muslims Office, sheikh-ul-islam Haji Allahshukur
Pashazadeh said Baku summit will be held on April 27-29. He said
holding such an event in Baku is of great importance.

"About 150 religious leaders will attend the event. Each of them
brings together millions of people in a state. 11 patriarchs from
the Catholic Church will attend the summit. The representatives of
the traditional religions will attend the summit," he said.

Allahshukur Pashazadeh did not exclude that Armenian Catholicos
Garegin II will be invited to the summit.

"CIS Interreligious Council includes the religious leaders of all
countries. I am the co-chair of the council. As far as I know,
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill will visit Armenia soon.

During the visit he will probably invite Garegin to the Baku summit. I
do not see anything unusual in this invitation. I wish Garegin came to
Baku and saw Azerbaijan’s truths with his own eyes. But I do not think
Garegin will attend the summit in Baku even if he is invited. Maybe
events on the so-called Armenian genocide will be held in Armenia
simultaneously with the summit in Baku," he said.

VARTAN OSKANIAN: THE DIPLOMATIC PROTOCOLS AWAITING RATIFICATION BY THE TWO COUNTRIES’ PARLIAMENTS HAVE FALLEN VICTIM TO MISCALCULATIONS ON BOTH SIDES

ArmInfo
2010-03-10 12:19:00

ArmInfo. The diplomatic protocols awaiting ratification by the two
countries’ parliaments have fallen victim to miscalculations on both
sides, ex-Foreign Minister of Armenia, Chairman of the Civilitas
Foundation Vartan Oskanian said in his article published at the site
Project Syndicate.

In his opinion, the Armenians came to believe that Turkey would find
a way to reconcile Azerbaijan’s interests with the Turkish opening to
Armenia, and would open the border with Armenia regardless of progress
on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. "The problem is that Turkey
initially closed the border precisely because of Nagorno- Karabakh,
rather than any bilateral issue. Turkey believed that by signing
protocols with Armenia and clearly indicating its readiness to open
the border, the Armenians could somehow be cajoled or pressured
into resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh problem more quickly or cede
territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. But this has always been
unlikely in the absence of a comprehensive settlement that addresses
Armenians’ greatest fear – security – and fulfils their basic political
requirement, namely a definition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status",
V. Oskanian said.

Both sides seem to be somewhat surprised by the other’s expectations.

Indeed, there is a growing fear that a settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is more distant now, because Turkey’s public
backing has raised Azerbaijan’s expectations, while some Armenians fear
collusion between neighbors out to railroad them into an unsustainable
agreement.

V. Oskanian thinks that this is Turkey’s moment of truth. "The
Armenia-Turkey diplomatic process has stalled, and the Turkish
government’s effort at reconciliation with the country’s large
Kurdish minority has soured. Just as a loss of confidence among
Kurds and Turks in eastern Turkey will rock the shaky stability that
they have recently enjoyed, a loss of hope for a settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute may end the tentative military calm between
Armenians and Azerbaijanis. But the situation is not irretrievable.

Endless public sparring between Turkish and Armenian officials
through the media is not helping. It is time for both countries’
leaders to speak privately and directly with each other, with an
understanding of the instability that could result from any failure
to complete the diplomatic opening that the two sides initiated",
ex-foreign minister emphasized.

"So, even as Turkey tries to deal with the consequences of its history
at home, and redefine the army’s role in society, it must reset its
tortured relationship with Armenia. The recent resolution passed by
the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Congress, which called
upon President Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an
"appropriate understanding and sensitivity" concerning the Armenian
Genocide, should serve as a wake-up call to both Turkish and Armenian
governments that Armenians are not about to question the historical
veracity of the genocide. After all, if France and Germany can face
their tortured history, Turkey should be able to do so as well. The
two sides must step back, look at the situation dispassionately,
acknowledge the deficiencies in the protocols, address the other side’s
minimum requirements, and bear in mind that a single document will not
heal all wounds or wipe out all fears. The international community
must support this effort. The problem should not be dismissed as
a mere settling of old scores. What is at stake is the future of a
region critical to Eurasia’s peace, Oskanian resumed.