Author: Harutyunian Christine

`WARM’ GIFT TO THE VILLAGE OF ARTANISH

Lragir.am
10:32:57 – 28/02/2009

VivaCell-MTS, a subsidiary of Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (NYSE: MBT),
announces the completion of construction works of a gas pipeline in the
village of Artanish. This AMD 14.2 mln of social investment is the key
to improving living conditions and also to unveiling the potential in
developing Artanish as a tourism destination.

VivaCell-MTS’ social responsibility act marked a new beginning for the
village which has population of 830 and had no access to natural gas
supply. The inhabitants expressed their delight to be given the
opportunity of having much affordable fuel, which will boost private
entrepreneurship, mostly tourism, as the village has resources and
conditions for tourism and resort development. Artanish peninsula is
dominated by unique flora and fauna, and the shore of the lake is very
comfortable for weekend getaways and summer vacations.

`Social investments especially in those habitations of Armenia, which
have unrealized potential for the development of entrepreneurship are
very important, as it is the backbone of economic development.
Hopefully, this will to some extent stop the high rate of immigration
from the region.’, – noted VivaCell-MTS General Manager after burning
the torch of the gas pipeline.

As an addition to the projects announced last year, more projects were
realized in Gegharkunik region: 377.5 m gas pipeline in the village of
Lanjaghbyur (AMD 3 mln); 674 meters-long gas pipeline installed in the
village of Vardadzor (AMD 5.5 mln); 820 meters long drinking water
infrastructure reconstruction in the village of Verin Getashen (AMD 15
mln); 1010 meters-long drinking water infrastructure reconstruction in
the village of Vaghashem (AMD 7 mln), totaling to AMD 30.5 mln.

Overall, during 2008, in the framework of CSR projects, VivaCell-MTS’
social investment in Gegarkunik region amounted to over AMD 170
million.

TURKEY CALLS FOR SUPPORT FOR EFFORTS TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

Anadolu Agency
Feb 24 2009
Turkey

Ankara, 24 February: Burak Ozugergin, spokesman for Turkish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, called on the third countries to support the
process aiming at normalizing the relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Speaking at a weekly press briefing on Tuesday [24 February], Ozugergin
said, "We have been carrying out a series of talks with Armenia in
order to normalize our relations. We think that it is not proper to
send messages to each other through the press during this process."

"We have always objected attempts to distort a certain period in
our history. We cannot accept use of such distortions as a tool of
bargaining. We will continue telling the truth," he said.

Ozugergin called on the third countries to support the process between
Turkey and Armenia since any intervention could have a negative impact
on talks. "We wish to maintain our cooperation and consultation
mechanisms with the new administration of the United States in all
areas concerning our joint foreign policy. We got the impression that
the US administration also intends to cooperate with us," he added.

TURKISH PM DOESN’T BELIEVE U.S. CONGRESS MAY MAKE EMOTIONAL DECISION ON "GENOCIDE"

Trend News Agency
Feb 25 2009
Azerbaijan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not believe that
the U.S. Congress will make an emotional decision on "genocide",
Cihan news agency reported.

According to Erdogan, the U.S. is well aware of Turkey’s
significance. "I don’t think the U.S. will bow to a couple of people
who don’t realize Turkey’s significance," Erdogan said.

Armenia and Armenian lobby claim that Turkey’s predecessor –
the Ottoman Empire – committed genocide against Armenians living
in Anatolia in 1915. Armenians want the genocide to be recognized
worldwide. They intensified propaganda of the so-called "genocide"
around the world and achieved recognition at several countries’
parliaments. Armenian lobby is expected to intensify activities at
parliaments, especially at the U.S. Congress, due to anniversary of
the "genocide" in April.

KHOJALY TRAGEDY AND BAKU CAMPAIGN FEVER

Panorama.am
10:16 24/02/2009

In early 1992, on the night of 26 February Armenian troops neutralized
Khojaly and the operation was successfully completed. Khojaly had
an important strategic geographical occupation – it controlled over
Stepanakert-Askeran roads, as well as the only airport of Nagorno
Karabakh was situated there.

Though the Armenian party informed the Azeris, and the civilian
population was given an opportunity to leave the area through a safe
corridor, thousands of Azeri Turks were dead in the aftermaths of
the military activities.

Khojaly events give birth to many questions. For example, why the
civilian population was not isolated from the area, taking into
account the point that according to Azeri mass media the cattle
was successfully isolated from the area? Another important point
is the fact that many dead people from civilians were found in the
territory of Azerbaijan just next to the Azeri military points. They
keep silence regarding the fact that Armenian troops found many Azeri
who were lost and helped them.

Those dark pages of Khojaly events remained unrevealed and some years
later it was labeled as tragedy and an anti-Armenian campaign launched
all over the world.

Every February-March special events commemorating those victims
are held by Azeri and Turkish communities, different organizations
which have one mission to inform as many foreigners as possible about
"Armenian fascism and terror".

Those activities are well planned to veil Armenian campaign of Sumgait
genocide and Armenian Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan’s murder. During the
year Turkey uses Khojaly as a card opposing to Great Armenian Genocide.

STUDENTS, MENTORS JUMP OVER FIRE TOGETHER
By Zain Shauk

Glendale News Press
09/02/23/news/gnp-fire23.art.txt
Feb 23 2009
LA

PASADENA — Armenian students and their mentorship partners were
sitting around a fire in the middle of a parking lot Sunday at
St. George’s Armenian Church, contemplating the gravity of the
millennia-old tradition they were about to undertake.

The group of more than 70 listened quietly as a pile of burning
wood crackled under the evening sky, while Ara Arzumanian, executive
director of the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s Generation Next
Mentorship Program, explained why the pairs of mentors and mentees,
most of whom were from Glendale, were preparing to take turns jumping
over the flames.

Armenians have participated in the unifying ritual of jumping over
a fire with someone else — a husband, wife, friend or relative —
for thousands of years, as a confirmation of their mutual respect,
Arzumanian explained. The event usually takes place about 40 days
after the start of the new year.

As the group was preparing for the ritual, he urged attendees to be
mindful of their heritage — that the fire was representative of the
same flames each person’s ancestors had jumped over, perhaps as far
back as 6,000 years ago, he said.

"Respect the fire," he told the group.

Then the jumping began, with teenagers grasping their mentors’ hands,
charging toward the flames and leaping to the other side.

After landing, many went to stand in line for another jump.

"It’s a lot of fun," said Anna Dermenchyan, 26, a North Hollywood
resident and mentor for the program. "It’s exercise."

Glendale resident Koryun Petrosyan, 17, was relieved to have completed
the task.

"Everyone was in a circle watching and stuff," said Koryun, a junior
at Clark Magnet High School. "I guess the fire meant something. Jumping
over it got me to be happy for some reason."

Some were surprised by the heat of the flames, and others giggled as
they landed, but most reflected on the meaning of the tradition.

"It shows respect for our heritage and all of our past," said Glendale
resident Karlen Galstian, 13, an eighth-grader at Roosevelt Middle
School.

The activity was part of the Generation Next program, which aims to
help students from middle school through high school by pairing them
up with mentors who are professionals or college students, said Armine
Hovasapian, a case manager for the program.

Arzumanian spends time at middle schools in Glendale and in
other cities, searching for students who might benefit from extra
encouragement or direction from a successful mentor, one to whom each
child can easily relate because they have common cultural experiences
as minorities, Hovasapian said.

"The most powerful thing they gain out of [the program] is their
relationship with their mentor," she said. "They have a role model."

The group does other bonding activities, like rock climbing, and took a
trip to USC last month, where it participated in a scavenger hunt and
heard from successful professionals and graduate students about their
careers and how they got to their current positions, Hovasapian said.

But while the group is meant to encourage students to succeed, it aims
to accomplish that goal by giving students personal support, she said.

Dermenchyan’s mentee, Glendale resident Anaeis Zaghean, 14, was a
recent immigrant to the United States when she joined the program
less than two years ago and felt lost at the time, Anaeis said.

"First I didn’t know anything, anywhere to go; it was so hard,"
she said. "I didn’t know any English."

Things have changed for the better since Dermenchyan became Anaeis’
mentor, she said.

"Now she’s an A student," Dermenchyan said. "She’s doing really well."

Turkey’s turning of the tables
By Amir Oren

Mon., February 23, 2009
Haaretz

A veteran Turkish journalist smiled last week when he read the
commentary in Israel after General Avi Mizrahi’s verbal counterassault
against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the
counter-counterassault by the Turkish government and army over Israel’s
inflicting of civilian casualties during Operation Cast Lead.

In the Israeli debate, the analyst in Istanbul said, two important
points were overlooked. The first is Erdogan’s predilection for sudden
and embarrassing bursts of anger. In Davos, Shimon Peres just happened
to be his next victim; Nicolas Sarkozy or Barack Obama could have found
themselves in the same situation. As proof, one can point to the
restraint shown by President Abdullah Gul, the former foreign minister,
who, like his senior partner in the ruling party Erdogan, is well
versed in the nuances of his country’s relationship with Israel.

More critical is the waning of Israel’s political and military might as
perceived by foreigners, particularly countries like Turkey. For years
Israel was considered a country that could deliver the goods in
Washington, yet in the last decade Turkey has been moving into a
different position – a country needed in Washington, more so than the
other way around. At the same time, Israel is perceived as too weak to
influence the administration and Congress to improve relations with
Turkey.

America’s chilly relationship with Ankara, despite Turkey’s importance
to the NATO alliance and its cooperation in the air embargo against
Saddam Hussein (though there was no such cooperation in 2003, when the
Turks refused to allow the Americans to outflank Saddam from Iraq’s
northwest border with Turkey) did not stem from Washington’s sympathy
with the Armenians or Kurds. It stemmed from the influence of the Greek
lobby. Here is a partial list of politicians and senior officials of
Greek extraction: former vice president Spiro Agnew, former Democratic
presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, Senator Paul Sarbanes, former
prominent congressmen Paul Tsongas and John Brademas, and former CIA
chief George Tenet. The full list of their colleagues of Turkish
origin: not one.

Turkey tried to counterbalance the Greek advantage using its defense
ally, Israel, directly, and AIPAC, indirectly. The image and prestige
of both these players have absorbed severe blows in recent years in the
eyes of the White House and Capitol Hill.

In the Gaza affair, one should also take into account two serious
lapses by Israel’s defense establishment: marginalizing the role of the
Civil Administration and the refusal to allow journalists to accompany
the forces fighting in urban territory. Defense Minister Ehud Barak and
Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi could not agree on a candidate to head
the Civil Administration, which coordinates Israel’s activities in the
territories. Barak could have named a civilian to the job, without
asking Ashkenazi, but instead, the job of coordinating Israel’s
activities in the territories was left without a permanent head ever
since Yosef Mishlav vacated the post. Barak and Ashkenazi also allowed
the previous and successful head of the coordination and liaison
administrative office in Gaza, Colonel Nir Peres, to leave without
lining up a worthy successor, when the Gaza operation was in the
offing.

Liaison officers were left behind and not embedded with the battalion
and brigade commanders, which would have enabled them to warn, even in
the heat of battle, against targeting sensitive buildings not known to
be of military value. Marking the buildings on a map in command
headquarters far from the battlefield did not suffice. The Shin Bet
security service and Military Intelligence pointed to the targets that
needed to be hit, but there was no one to point out which targets were
off limits.

As usual in Israel, the ban on embedding reporters with the forces
yielded a tactical success for the unfettered ground operation, yet it
failed to stem the erosion of Israel’s political standing at the end of
the offensive. Had reliable journalists, both foreign and Israeli,
instead been able to document the booby-trapped streets before the army
took steps to protect its soldiers, this would have made Israel’s
operational needs understandable and helped dull the criticism evoked
by the destruction in Gaza.

The fairy tale of Israel’s control over the global levers of power, in
the spirit of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has repeatedly
cracked in the face of the realities of the 21st century. Against the
backdrop of the rising political influence of Muslim minorities in
Europe, which threatens to create a European equivalent to the Jews’
political strength in America, perhaps it would behoove Israel to stop
denying the situation and start embracing it, in the hope that someone
will start believing in Israel once again.

LEADER OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ARMENIA: IF TER-PETROSYAN SEES NO SUPPORT OF PEOPLE ON MARCH 1, HE WILL GIVE UP FIGHTING FOR PEOPLE’S CONFIDENCE AND JUST LEAVE

ArmInfo
2009-02-19 18:38:00

ArmInfo. "Former president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s behavior
after the presidential election is explained by his nature",- Leader
of the Democratic Party of Armenia Aram Sargsyan said to ArmInfo
correspondent.

"Ter-Petrosyan can’t stay in the political field for a long time,
he is unable to conduct a long political fight",- Sargsyan said and
added that after 10-year silence Ter-Petrosyan wouldn’t have returned
unless relevant conditioned had been formed. According to Sargsyan,
logically Ter-Petrosyan should have actively fought for the release
of defendants on the "Case of Seven" as they were his supporters.

"But we see no actions by Ter-Petrosyan",- Sargsyan said. He added that
the ex- president’s silence was justified again, to all appearances,
he will appear on March 1 again. "Everything depends on how people
will support him this time. If Ter-Petrosyan sees no support of people,
he will give up fighting for the people’s confidence and just leave",-
Aram Sargsyan stressed.

BAKU MILITARIST POLICY UNDERMINES EC EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH STABILITY IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.02.2009 14:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Currently in Prague, Armenian Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian held a meeting with his Czech counterpart Karel
Schwarzenberg to discuss the Armenian-Czech relations, Armenia-EC
cooperation as well as regional and international issues.

Appreciating highly the development of Armenian-Czech relations,
the Ministers agreed on the necessity to expand legal and trade
frameworks to stimulate interactions between the two countries.

In discussing possibilities to strengthen trade and economic
cooperation, the Armenian Minister emphasized that 2008 Armenian-Czech
business forum results have proved that there is a serious potential
for development of cooperation in this field.

For his part, Mr. Schwarzenberg noted that before the Eastern
Partnership Summit to be held in Prague on May 7, European Commission
and the Czech Republic are planning to work out concrete proposals
on the issue.

Briefing on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process, Minister
Nalbandian drew his counterpart’s attention to Azerbaijan’s ongoing
militarist policy, which undermines EU efforts to establish stability
in the South Caucasus.

As to normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the Czech
Minister hailed Armenia’s endeavors to that end, the RA MFA press
office reports.

ARMENIA-EU FREE TRADE AGREEMENT TO FACILITATE ARMENIAN-EUROPEAN MARKET INTEGRATION

ARKA
Feb 18, 2009

YEREVAN, February 18. /ARKA/. An agreement on free trade between
Armenia and the European Union (EU) will facilitate the integration of
Armenian markets with European markets, RA Minister of Economy Nerses
Yeritsyan stated at the opening of a meeting on the activities of a
fact-finding mission to prepare possible negotiations for the signing
of a free trade agreement between Armenia and the EU.

The Minister said that the issue of signing a comprehensive agreement
with the EU will be discussed with EU experts.

"We will raise the issue of integration of Armenian markets and
business environment into European markets. We will elaborate
a full-fledged program and, if we manage to reach an agreement,
a schedule will be drawn up, which will enable us to ensure an
environment in conformity with international standards for Armenian
markets and exporters," he said.

The Minister expressed hope that the negotiations will be completed
soon because the implementation of this agreement will require time.

According to him, the major obstacle to an agreement with the EU
is not in the Armenian laws, but their proper application and the
creation of institutional opportunities.

Yeritsyan pointed out that EU experts indicated a number of areas
that need serious work.

"These are technical barriers – certification, standardization, =0 D
phytosanitary inspections, which require serious investments in the
infrastructure and thorough knowledge," he said.

Yeritsyan also pointed out the necessity for work to protect
intellectual property and economic competition, state purchases and
improvement of competition.

The Minister also stressed that the EU is assisting Armenia in
implementing the New Neighborhood program, with trade and the economic
component forming a major part.

"We will receive prompt and intense assistance from the European side
during the negotiations," Yeritsyan said.

Eva Sinovich, Director of the representative office, Head Directorate
of Trade Relations, European Commission, stressed that the agreement
must be signed only after its possible consequences have been
thoroughly studied so that no damage may be caused to the Armenian
economy.

An expert group of the European Commission headed by Eva Sinovich
arrived on a fact-finding mission to Yerevan on February 18.

The European experts plan to discuss the priority reforms to help
Armenia to prepare for negotiations for signing a comprehensive
agreement on free trade with the EU.

Such an agreement will raise the level of trade ties, provide for
mutually advantageous conditions for integration, facilitate economic
reforms and afford new opportunities to Armenian business.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: POLICY CONDUCTED BY AZERBAIJANI LEADERSHIP NOT ONLY CREATES OBSTACLES TO THE NEGOTIATING PROCESS BUT ALSO SERIOUSLY THREATS REGIONAL STABILITY

ArmInfo
2009-02-17 11:01:00

ArmInfo. The policy conducted by Azerbaijani leadership not only
creates obstacles to the negotiating process but also seriously threats
regional stability, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said
yesterday when meeting teachers and students of the Warsaw University.

As press-service of Armenian Foreign Ministry reported, asked about
resolving of the Karabakh conflict, the minister replied that the
fact that Azerbaijani authorities ignore the points of the documents
signed buy them, their permanent bellicose statements, arms race, the
attempts to justify application of force, propaganda of inter-ethic
hatred not only creates obstacle to the negotiating process but also
threats regional stability and security. This requires reaction of
the world community.