Author: Frangulian Shushan

FARHAD BADALBAYLI: "THE MEDIATORS SAID THAT AZERBAIJANIS SHOULD RETURN TO NAGORNO KARABAKH AND LIVE THERE"

APA
[ 06 Oct 2009 16:19 ]

Baku. Lachin Sultanova – APA. OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs met with
the members of the Management Board of the Public Union of Nagorno
Karabakh’s Azerbaijani Community, APA reports. Head of the public union
Bayram Safarov told journalists after the meeting that the mediators
clarified some questions about the returning of the Azerbaijanis to
Nagorno Karabakh. Safarov said now the Azerbaijani community is only
interested in this issue and considers that the status of the Nagorno
Karabakh should be solved after the return of the IDPs.

"The status can be considered after we return to our homes, work,
construct schools, medical facilities, buildings, create normal living
conditions. Maybe then Armenians will not want a special status and see
that living is wonderful in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is an international
country and there are a lot of national minorities here. We are ready
to live together with the Armenians having Azerbaijan’s passports. We
had lived with them before. We are neighbors regardless of our wish
and should live together," he said.

Member of the Management Board, people’s Farhad Badalbayli said he
asked the mediators about the safety of the people that will return
to their homes.

"The people will go there without weapons, Armenians have police and
army," he said.

Badalbayli said the co-chairs could not answer his question.

"Perhaps they do not know who will ensure the security of the people
and are not ready for this question. We are representatives of Nagorno
Karabakh’s Azerbaijani community. Unpleasant processes are observed
there, Armenians sell land plots. How will these problems be solved
after we return? The co-chairs said mines should be cleared off and
the IDPs may return after the process ends. I understood that this
process will last long and I got disappointed," he said.

Farhad Badalbayli considers that there is an improvement in "The
mediators said that Azerbaijanis should return to Nagorno Karabakh
and live there. They did not use to say so before," he said.

MP Rovshan Rzayev mentioned that the two communities had once lived
in Nagorno Karabakh and said Azerbaijanis and Armenians should live
together again.

"Of course this problem will be solved within the framework of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity," he said.

RA OMBUDSMAN IN MANAGEMENT COUNCIL

men-harutyunyan
08:50 pm | October 06, 2009 | Politics

RA Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan was elected as member of the management
council of the European Ombudsman Institute during the institute’s
annual conference held in the Italian city of Florence.

Participating in the elections were representatives from over 60
countries, including Ombudsman of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and
member of the institute Yuri Hayrapetyan.

During elections voters take into account the candidates’ regions,
as well as the nature of their activities on the national, local
and regional levels. The management council members are elected for
two years.

The European Ombudsman Institute was founded in 1988 in Austria. Among
issues of concern are research in human rights defense, defense of
civil liberties, support for Ombudsman institutes and assistance in
research. The Ombudsmen of all European countries are members of the
mentioned organization, as reported by the department of information
and public relations of the RA Ombudsman’s office.

OMBUDSMAN ELECTED

s15436.html
11:22:37 – 07/10/2009

On October 5, in the city of Florence of Italy, the annually conference
of the European Ombudsman Institute took place during of which the
Armenian Human rights Defender was elected member of the Management
Board of the European Ombudsman Institute. Almost 60 countries’
representatives partook in the election including the NKR Ombudsman
Yuri Hayrapetyan.

The European Ombudsman Institute is an association under Austrian
law, domiciled in Innsbruck, Tyrol. The association was founded
in 1988. The European Ombudsman Institute is a non-profit making,
scientific association; its purpose is to adopt a scientific approach
in addressing issues relating to human rights, civil protection an
the institution of ombudsman; to conduct research in those areas; to
promote and disseminate the ombudsman concept; to support Austrian
and foreign ombudsman structures from a scientific viewpoint; and
to co-operate with institutions advocating similar objective. Today
virtually all European ombudsmen are members of the association,
together with professors and other private individuals with a keen
interest in the subject matter.

OBAMA HAILED RA PRESIDENT’S INITIATIVE

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.10.2009 11:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When in Los Angeles, Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan had a phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Barack
Obama.

Mr. Obama hailed Mr. Sargsyan’s initiative to normalize relations
with Turkey and emphasized that United States’ position is that the
reconciliation should take place without preconditions and should
not be linked to Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process.

Commenting on the impressions from the tour, President Sargsyan said
that the concerns of the Armenian Diaspora are understandable.

He also assessed highly the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group and said
that it’s the people of Nagorno Karabakh who should take the final
decision on the issue.

RA PM, OSCE YEREVAN OFFICE HEAD DISCUSS COOPERATION PROSPECTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.10.2009 13:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met Tuesday
with head of the OSCE Yerevan Office Sergey Kapinos.

PM Sargsyan appreciated highly the activity of the OSCE Yerevan Office
and voiced readiness to develop cooperation. For his part, Mr. Kapinos
briefed on the current activities, specifically implementation of
anti-corruption project, human rights and democracy development,
the government’s information center reported.

SCHOLARS FROM ARMENIA TO GET ACQUAINTED WITH PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM OF GERMANY

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.10.2009 21:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On October 6 vice-speaker of Armenia’s National
Assembly and Chair of the Armenia-Germany Parliamentary Friendship
Group Arevik Petrosyan in the framework of qualifying round of the
German International Parliamentary Scholarship will receive the German
Bundestag’s delegation headed by the Bundestag deputy Mrs. Lydia
Westrich. The German delegation will meet with representatives of
political, scientific and educational spheres.

120 fellows of International Parliamentary Scholarship from 28
countries will be able to learn about the German parliamentary system.

The program is aimed at providing immediate participation in democratic
decision-making process. The program is conducted under the auspices
of the Chairman of the Bundestag with assistance of three Berlin
universities.

"EVERYTHING IS OK, BOSS"

/vahan-hovhannisyan
06:54 pm | October 05, 2009

Politics

Today the National Assembly started its four-day session with 109
parliamentarians.

The agenda was adopted with 100 pros, 6 cons and two abstentions.

The NA deferred the discussion of ARF’s draft bill on the formation of
a monitoring group to study the report of the March 1st parliamentary
commission.

"The monitoring group shall supervise the implementation of the
parliamentary commission’s proposals and demands," chairman of the
ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisian told A1+.

"The liabilities of the monitoring group will be decided during
parliamentary discussions."

In reply to A1+ if Serzh Sargsyan’s pan-Armenian tour and protest
actions will affect the Protocols’ signing, Mr. Hovhannisian said:
"I cannot say whether they will affect or not. But all those who give
advice to the Armenian President are deluded. Either the ambassadors
didn’t convey the general moods of Diasporan Armenians or the Armenian
Foreign Ministry presented the information wrongly. The Ministry of
Diaspora was to clarify everything beforehand but as you see their
reports were groundless and wrong. They said "everything is OK, boss,"
and led the president to an awkward situation."

ARMENIA ISSUE ON BACK BURNER FOR PACE: ZARUHI POSTANJIAN

Tert.am
18:40 05.10.09

"I think that presently the Council of Europe has made such a political
decision, putting aside the Armenian leadership and those commitments,
that we have to abide by it. I think the issues related to democracy
in our internal affairs are at the moment on the Council of Europe’s
back burner, and that is why they didn’t discuss our issue in their
plenary session," Heritage Party MP and Opposition Member of the
Armenian delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
(PACE) Zaruhi Postanjian stated to journalists.

According to her, PACE is often guided by political decisions and
not by rule of law.

Postanjian, who recently returned from the PACE Monitoring Committee’s
fall session, got the impression that the surface discussion of the
Armenian issue by PACE is conditioned by the fact that PACE expects
a step forward from Armenia in the Armenian-Turkish process.

Postanjian presented her reports, which she also presented at the PACE
Monitoring Committee session and stated that she put a resolution
in circulation in the mentioned committee, on breach of justice on
behalf of lawyers, journalists and opposition supporters.

Postanjian also spoke on the Teghut issue (Teghut is a forest in
Armenia which is planned to be cut down in order to establish an
open pit mining operation), and informed journalists today that the
Save Teghut Forest campaign’s appeal is already filed at the Court
of Appeal.

Background: Postanjian was elected from the Group of the European
People’s Party member of PACE Monitoring Committee. Armen Rustamyan
from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Party and
Davit Harutyunyan from Republican Party of Armenia from the Armenian
delegation are also included in the committee.

ARMENIA IS A PART OF TURKEY ?

EuropeNews
30 September 2009

Armenia is considered a part of Turkey in new Turkish textbooks,
Turkish Ekolay website reports, posting the map. The CDs with egregious
errors are inserted in manuals of Istanbul schools.

In particular, Armenia, North Iraq (Mosul, Kirkuk), West Thrace
(part of Bulgaria), Greek part of South Cyprus, the part of Georgia,
including Batumi and Nakhchivan found themselves part of Turkey.

The textbooks include other mistakes as well. For instance, Turkish
national holiday — Victory Day was not even mentioned. The books
were handed during the solemn ceremony.

The head of Educational department of Istanbul expressed regrets on
the matter, stating the error occurred.

‘TO PROVE THE CONTRARY IS JUST LAUGHABLE’: HAIK DEMOYAN ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Tert.am
30.09.09

Today a number of Armenian Council members expressed their concerns
with the Armenian-Turkish Protocols during a meeting with President
of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan at the sport-concert complex
named after K. Demirchian in Yerevan. In particular, Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute Director Haik Demoyan expressed his opinions and
raised questions particularly related to the legal terms and conditions
in the Protocols.

Presenting concerns, Demoyan pointed to the clauses related to the
existing borders in the Protocols and to the Treaty of Kars (which
is implicated in the Protocols), saying that the clause on creating
a commission of historians was the most emotional.

"The Armenian Genocide is scientifically researched and proven,
and its legal, comparative and scientific level of examination and
study is so deep that any attempt to prove the contrary, or to find
a new document in some or another archive or on a dusty shelf so as
to prove the contrary, is just laughable," Haik Demoyan said.

Continuing, Demoyan emphasized, "I can assure you, we have all the
means and arguments not only to oppose Turkey but also to propose
certain serious issues to the opposite side."