Author: Hakobian Adrine

U.S. Values Role Turkey Plays in Region: Philip Crowley

Tert.am
13:24 – 13.02.10

In a February 11 news conference, the U.S. Department of State said
that they valued Turkey’s role in trying to help resolve regional
issues including Iran.

According to the official U.S. Department of State website, when
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Philip Crowley was asked about
Turkey’s efforts in playing a role with Iran on the nuclear issue, he
said:

`Well, I think we value the role that Turkey plays as a bridge between
the West and the region. It is obviously a country – Iran is a
neighbor to Turkey, so it has to develop its own relationship. And we
will – we are – we have ongoing dialogue with Turkey regarding issues
with respect to Iran, also with respect to Syria and efforts more
broadly towards peace in the region.’

NEWLYWED COUPLES TO BE BLESSED ON TIRARN’NDARAJ

Aysor
Feb 12 2010
Armenia

On February 14 on the feast of Tiarn’ndaraj, the Armenian Apostolic
Church will realize blessing ceremony of the newlywed couples after the
Liturgy, the Press Office of the Holy See of Mother Echmiatzin informs.

The blessing of newlywed couples has become a tradition which is
realized by the Karekin II Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
all-Armenians.

HETQ EDITOR PARTICIPATES IN DUBLIN HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE

2010/0 2/12

World

Hetq Editor-in-Chief Edik Baghdasaryan is in Dublin, Ireland, to
participate in a three day conference of human rights activists
organized by the Dublin-based organization Front Line.

The biannual conference brings together activists and campaigners
working on issues ranging from the rights of women, indigenous people
and sexual minorities, to environmental protection and land rights.

Yesterday’s session heard testimony from human rights defenders
who have been threatened, harassed, jailed and tortured because of
their work.

The Front Line Dublin Platform, as the conference is dubbed, issued
a report noting that, "Despite the high level of commitment given to
the protection of human rights defenders in theory, the sad reality
is that the effective space for human rights defenders to work is
steadily shrinking."

Launching the report yesterday, Margaret Sekkagya, the UN special
rapporteur on human rights defenders, said that "those who fight every
day for the full respect of human rights continue to be oppressed".

REMEMBERING A MOTHER AT THE TATE
By Louise Jury

The Evening Standard (London)
February 9, 2010 Tuesday
UK

Two haunting paintings of artist Arshile Gorky and his mother can be
seen together for the first time at the Tate.

They are a highlight of the first retrospective of Gorky’s work in
Europe in 20 years, and were inspired by a treasured photograph.

Both are entitled The Artist And His Mother. Born around 1904 in what
is now Turkey, he and his family were forced out during the Ottoman
Empire’s 1915 genocide of its Armenian population. His mother died
of starvation in 1919 and he left for America in 1920, to become a
key Abstract Expressionist. The paintings are normally in New York
and Washington. They are at Tate Modern from tomorrow until 3 May.

Haunting: Arshile Gorky’s The Artist And His Mother, and his photo

ARMENIA AND POLAND EXPECTED TO SET UP INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION

ArmInfo
2010-02-11 12:55:00

ArmInfo. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Karine Ghazinyan
left for Poland on a two-day working visit on February 10, the Armenian
Foreign Ministry press-service told ArmInfo.

On the first day of the visit, Deputy Minister Ghazinyan met with
Deputy Minister of Economy of Poland Marcin Korolec. The two parties
came out for promotion of the Armenian-Polish economic cooperation
which will be coordination by an intergovernmental commission. M.

Korolec welcomed Armenia’s proposal to set up an intergovernmental
commission and proposed Yerevan to host the first meeting of the
commission in 2010 given the circumstance that the second meeting may
be held in Warsaw in 2011 when Poland assumes the EU chairmanship. The
same day, Karine Ghazinyan met with members of the inter-parliamentary
friendship group of the Polish Seim and the Armenian National
Assembly. Head of the deputy group Lukas Abgarovic presented the
group’s activity and highlighted the importance of the upcoming visit
to Armenia at the invitation of Armenian colleagues. Members of the
deputy group believe that the visit of Polish Prime Minister Donald
Tusk to Armenia in 2010 will become a serious mpetus for further
development of bilateral relations and friendship of the two peoples.

CZECH SENATOR ANGRY ABOUT CROAT’S LAWSUIT

Croatian Times
Feb 10 2010
Croatia

Czech Senator Jaromir Stetina has sent an explosive letter to "American
colleagues" on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The letter is a reaction to a suit against the Czech Republic by a
Croat who claimed national discrimination.

The Czech Republic is charged with human-rights violations at the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Snjezana Pelivan, a Croat who has resided in Prague since 1995, claims
the Czech Republic failed to safeguard her rights to non-discrimination
and a fair trial.

Pelivan was employed as a marketing manager by American Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). After several years of work, her
employment was terminated in June 2005 without any reason, prior
warning or previous disciplinary measures and without severance pay.

Stetina warns in his letter that Prague RFE/RL employees are divided
into three castes. The first includes American citizens who enjoy the
protections provided by the Federal Equal Employment Opportunities
Commission. Czech citizens are protected by the Czech Labour Code.

Unfortunately, employees from third countries "enjoy" zero protection.

He said RFE/RL hires its foreign employees using labour contracts
that explicitly deny them protections and guarantees automatically
granted to any employee in the country by Czech labour laws.

In fact, foreigners employed by RFE/RL in Prague may be fired at any
time, for any reason and even without severance pay.

Pelivan and Armenian citizen Anna Karapetian refused to accept
"shut-up" money and took RFE/RL to court. Thus, for the first time,
nationally discriminatory labour policies and actions practiced by
American RFE/RL in the Czech Republic were publicly exposed.

Accusing the Czech Republic as the RFE/RL host country of having
violated the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, Snjezana Pelivan took her case to the Strasbourg court.

Stetina added: "The Czech Republic was and remains a very hospitable
country to American RFE/RL. However, the Czech Republic definitely
does not deserve the price it is now paying for its hospitality to
RFE/RL. Legal gimmicks and court tricks aside, it is patently indecent,
unfair, cynical and hypo-critical to exploit for bureaucratic ends
the sad fact that many highly- qualified foreign professionals working
for RFE/RL are stateless persons, dissidents, political refugees who,
being cut off from their native countries, are existentially dependent
on their employment with RFE/RL. Placed by RFE/RL in a legal vacuum
in the Czech Republic, they simply don’t risk protesting their status
of having no rights."

Stetina asked US Senators to stop the harmful lawsuits. He believes
RFE/RL should be instructed to make a peaceful offer to the plaintiffs,
Snjezana Pelivan and Anna Karapetian, and to abandon its discriminatory
employment policies.

GARNIK ASATRYAN: TURKEY AND IRAN SHARE A COMMON THREAT, KURDISH PROBLEM

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.02.2010 16:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There is a problem Tehran and Ankara have common
interests in its solution: the Kurdish problem, head of the Department
for Iranian Studies at Yerevan State University professor Garnik
Asatryan told a press conference today. "Both countries treat the
Kurdistan Workers Party (CRE) the same way: the Kurdish problem is
a common threat to these countries and is a unifying factor," the
scholar said.

In relation to Iran’s position to the regional activity of Turkey,
the professor said, that Iran and Turkey have always been rivals in the
region. With regard to the Turkic-speaking population of Iran, Garnik
Asatryan stressed, that there are around 33 ethnic groups in Iran.

"Iran is a multiethnic country. There are no national minorities.

Turkic-speaking population reaches 9-10 million in the country. All of
them are Iranians, but they speak Turkish dialect, " Garnik Asatryan
said. According to him, the Western forces, as well as Azerbaijan,
often used this factor to encourage separatist moods in Iran.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, best known as PKK, is a Kurdish
separatist organization which launched an armed struggle against
Turkey which claimed over 45,000 lives within a 20 year long activity
period. The group was founded in the late 1970s and led by Abdullah
O"calan. The PKK’s ideology is founded on revolutionarysocialism
and Kurdish nationalism. The PKK’s goal has been to create an
independent, Kurdish state in Turkey. Kurdistan is a geographical
region that comprises parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq,
northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran, where the Kurdish population
is the majority. This goal has now been moderated to claiming cultural
and political rights for the ethnic Kurdish population in Turkey.

Since 1978, the PKK has been engaged in armed conflict with the Turkish
state. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally
by a number of states and organizations, including the United States,
United Nations, NATO and theEuropean Union. The organization is
listed as one of the 12 active terrorist organizations in Turkey as
of 2007 according to the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department
of the Turkish police. Turkey labeled the organization as an ethnic
secessionist organization that uses terrorism and the threat of force
against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving
its political goal.

Kurdish politician Abdu"lmelik F?rat claims that Democratic Society
Party (DTP) was founded by PKK, and that 80 percent of Kurds do not
vote for this party. However, senior DTP leaders maintain that they
support a unified Turkey within a democratic framework. Aysel Tug(luk
published an article in Radikal in May 2007 as the co-president of DTP,
to prove that claim.

THE PRIME MINISTER LAID FLOWERS IN THE PANTHEON ON VAHAN TERIAN’S BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

On Vahan Terian’s 125th birth anniversary, RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan laid a wreath at the great poet’s memorial in the Pantheon
after Komitas of Yerevan.

Said commemorative event just marks the start-up of a long series of
jubilee action organized by the government’s jubilee commission on
Vahan Terian’s 125th birth anniversary. The Prime Minister chairs this
commission which consists of scholars and top-ranking officials. The
planned jubilee events feature traditional Terian Days to be held at
the poet’s native village and Orenburg (Russian Federation), as well
as release of a jubilee issue of Grakan Tert periodical, expositions
and book fairs, nationwide contests between schools, publication of
Vahan Terian encyclopedia, establishment of Vahan Terian scholarship,
stamp release and so on.

ARMENIA SHOULD DEVELOP SERIOUS DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY ON TURKEY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
08.02.2010 16:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ankara and Baku’s interest have split, said prof.

Ruben Safrastyan, director of RA NAS Institute of Oriental Studies.

"With the launch of football diplomacy, relations between Azerbaijan
and Turkey have strained. The countries can’t agree the price for
gas to be imported to Turkey," he told a news conference on Monday.

Prof. Safrastyan also emphasized that Armenia should develop a serious
diplomatic strategy on Turkey. "There is a need for new initiatives
on our part," he said, adding that the RA NA should not debate the
Protocols ahead of the Turkish parliament.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.

On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.

PROBLEMS IN JAVAKHK CAN BE PARTIALLY RESOLVED WITH ESTABLISHMENT OF SEPARATE AAC DIOCESE THERE

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.02.2010 15:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The central committee of the New National
Conservative Movement of Armenia sent an open letter to Catholicos
of Cilicia, His Holiness Aram I.

"The Armenian-inhabited region of Samtskhe Javakheti is in spiritual
blockade over the anti-Armenian policy pursued by the Georgian
government. Armenian churches are being destructed or appropriated,
with no reaction from the RA authorities. We believe that problems
in Javakhk can be partially resolved with establishment of separate
AAC diocese there," the letter says.

"We have requested Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II
to address the issue but received no response yet. So, we call on You
to visit Javakhk and inspire hope in the Armenian population," it says.

Javakhk is first mentioned under this very name in "Armenian History"
by the V c. historian Movses Khorenatsy in regard to the administrative
reforms realized by king Vagharshak. Regardless of the different
interpretations of the list of the kings of the pre-Christian period,
all the researchers agree that the aforementioned events date as far
back as the II c. BC. In the IV c.

BC Javakhk was the summer residence of the Georgian king Parnavaz,
"In autumn and spring he lived in the city of Mtskhet , in summer in
Javakhet and in winter in Ganchenk". About 185 BC, Artashes I annexed
the province to Metz Hayk Kingdom , while in 37 AD it became part of
Georgia .

In the IV c. AD Javakhk is mentioned in the description of St. Nune’s
journey to Mtskhet,"… and in June I came to Mount Javakhet, and to
the Parnava Sea, and when I came there I saw fishermen by the sea and
shepherds on the seashore…". When Armenia was first divided between
Byzantium and Sassanid Persia, Javakhk was annexed to the Georgian
Province headed by the Marzpan (the governor) of the province, along
with the other provinces of Gugark Region.

The Armenian-Georgian war for Javakhk started on December 5, 1918 and
was stopped after British interference on December 31. An agreement
signed in Tiflis in January 1919 stated that the northern part of
Borchalinsky district passed on to Georgia, the southern part passed
on to Armenia while the middle (Lori and Zangezur) was announced a
"neutral zone" and was under control of British governor-general.

In 1921, Turkish troops intruded into Javakhk, meeting no resistance
from the Georgian army. As a result of the intrusion, half of the
region’s population died.

After establishment of the soviet rule in Georgia, Javakhk issue
was raised again. Overwhelming majority of the province stood for
joining Armenia. A final decision was taken at the plenary session
of the Caucasus Bureau and was forwarded to consideration of the
Georgian Communist Party’s Central Committee, which decreed that
"taking into account Akhalkalaki’s political and economic ties with
Tiflis, the proposals of our Armenian comrades is unacceptable."