Author: Harutyunian Christine

ARMENIAN MINISTER OF ECONOMY NERSES YERITSIAN VISITS DUBNA JINR

NOYAN TAPAN

Dec 23, 2008
YEREVAN

The Armenian minister of economy Nerses Yeritsian visited Dubna
(Russia) on December 17-18 in order to familiarize himself with
the activities of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR)
in Dubna and discuss issues related to the creation of a center on
nuclear medicine in Armenia.

A project "Acceleration Technologies of Production of Radioactive
Nuclides for Medicine of Armenia and Regional Countries" has
been developed jointly by Yerevan Physics Institute (YPI) after
A. Alikhanian and JINR, under which it is envisaged creating a
cyclotron nuclear center on the basis of YPI for production of
radioactive nuclides and study of allied sciences.

According to the RA ministry of economy, as a result of discussions
held during the visit, the sides confirmed their willingness to
cooperate on creation of a nuclear medicine center in Armenia. JINR
will take an active part in all the stages of the process: development,
testing, staff training, launching and joint work in new directions.

An agreement was reached to establish a congress center in Armenia
for holding joint conferences, round tables and schools of young
scientists and working out interactive educational programs.

The sides also addressed the prospects of YPI’s further activity and
development and the opportunities of its cooperation with JINR. They
confirmed the expediency of jointly developing applied problems of
mutual interest, as well as their interest in cooperating at the
Dubna special economic zone with the aim of developing the JINR’s
innovation zone and creating an internatinal center of nanotechnologies
of CIS countries.

GERMAN WRITER’S BOOK ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT TRANSLATED INTO ARABIAN LANGUAGE

Trend News Agency
Dec 18 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 18 /TrendNews, N.Vazirova/ A book of the German
writer of political essays on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been
translated into the Arabian language. "The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Short historical essay" by Johannes
Raun has bee published in the Arabian language under support of the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Egypt, the Embassy told TrendNews.

The book includes evidences of Dashnaksutun Party’s pursuit and
terrorism facts against other nations living in Azerbaijan early the
20th century.

The book has been presented to officials of Egypt, government and
non-government organizations, scientific and educational, as well
as cultural centers, international and educational centers and
representations of Egypt.

Translation into the Arabian language has been organized, taking
into consideration the foreign writer’s independent opinion and his
neutral view on the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group (Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.

ARMENIAN VOTING RIGHT WILL BE SUSPENDED IN PACE?

Panorama.am
16:20 18/12/2008

The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) yesterday recommended suspending the voting rights
of Armenia’s delegation to the Assembly, said the Chairman of the
Delegation David Harutyunyan to "Liberty" radio station. Co-rapporteurs
John Prescott and George Colombier made a report on the implementation
process of PACE Resolutions 1609 and 1620.

David Harutyunyan said that the report has had negative colorings
regarding criminal prosecutions, but certain measures taken towards the
mass media, electoral reforms and the creation of fact-finding group
of experts have been positively assessed. "A request was made that
persons could be charged and deprived of their liberty for political
motivation. In principle, the issue needs to be additionally analyzed
and as this was the last session of Monitoring Committee before
the January plenary session, the recommendation was made but the
co-rapporteurs are going to visit Armenia in January to make some
notifications in their decision," said D. Harutyunyan.

Note that as soon as the report has been published the Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandyan took the initiative to interpret it. "I think that
in January some developments will be the evidence of the fact that
Armenia has implemented he majority of Resolutions 1609 and 1620,"
said the Foreign Minister.

MFA: ARMENIA INITIATED GENOCIDE DISCUSSIONS AT THE OSCE MINISTERIAL COUNCIL

armradio.am
17.12.2008 16:57

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. On the occasion of
this remarkable date at the initiative of Armenia a draft declaration
marking the 60th anniversary of adoption of the Convention was
put on the agenda of the OSCE Ministerial meeting held in Helsinki
December 4-5.

"Radiolur" was informed from the Press and Information Department
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that as a result of two-day
discussions the Ministerial Council adopted 11 documents, including
two declarations on the 60th anniversary of adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the 60th anniversary of the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

The adoption of the declaration was the result of continuous and
consistent efforts of Armenia’s policy in the direction of pevention
and punishment of the crime of genocide.

Members of the OSCE Council of Ministers once again confirmed that
genocide is the most serious crime in international law, which has
been denounced by the whole international community and can never
be justified.

In general, the international recognition of the phenomenon of
genocide, in general, and the Armenian Genocide, in particular, is
viewed by Armenia as a reality that should pre vent reoccurrence of
such crimes in the future.

By including the issue of recognition of genocide in its foreign policy
agenda, Armenia launches activity on three main levels: recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by Turkey, in the context of bilateral relations
with third countries and within different international structures.

Armenia remains one of the leading countries concerned with the
agenda of genocide prevention by submitting initiatives to UN bodies,
particularly the Human Rights Council.

ARMENIA IN AN ADVANTAGEOUS CONDITION
Karen Ghazaryan

"Radiolur"
16.12.2008 14:28

"We need to solve the questions connected with democracy and human
rights for ourselves, not for Europe," political scientists Levon
Shirinyan and Alexander Manasyan told a press conference today. They
expressed views on the changes in the world and the issues we are
concerned with, including their possible impact on the Karabakh issue.

The political scientists agreed that Armenia can come out winner of
a number of uncertain geopolitical changes, for which it is first
of all necessary to solve the issue of conformity inside the country
irrespective of Europe’s requirements.

Today’s Zaman
Omer Taspinar

The coming storm with Washington

Last year, shortly after the US Congress decided at the last minute
not to push forward with the Armenian genocide recognition I wrote in
this column that this was a "pyrrhic victory" for Turkey. There was
indeed no reason to celebrate.

Of course, I had no idea that the next US president would be a firm
supporter of recognizing the genocide. Instead, my gloomy article had
much more to do with the fact no one in Washington — except those
with a vested financial or political interest to the Turkish
government — believed Turkey’s side of the story. Whether "the events
of 1915" amounted to "genocide" was not even debated in America.

So why didn’t the US Congress pass the resolution? Charles
Krauthammer, a Washington columnist, summarized it best last year in
his Washington Post column. With characteristic poignancy, he wrote:
"There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian
genocide. (a) Did it happen? (b) Should the House of Representatives
be expressing itself on this now? (c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s
determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked
provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American
soldiers in Iraq, a conscious or unconscious attempt to sabotage the
US war effort?"

And here is how Krauthammer answered these questions: "(a) Yes,
unequivocally. (b) No, unequivocally. (c) God only knows." He went on:
"That between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were brutally and
systematically massacred starting in 1915 in a deliberate genocidal
campaign is a matter of simple historical record. If you really want
to deepen and broaden awareness of that historical record, you should
support the establishment of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial
in Washington. But to pass a declarative resolution in the House of
Representatives in the middle of a war in which we are inordinately
dependent on Turkey would be the height of irresponsibility."

Now do you understand why last year was a pyrrhic victory? The reason
Ankara won the battle was because important newspapers such as The
Washington Post and The New York Times picked up the "genocide" story
and humiliated the House of Representatives with columns and
editorials such as the one written by Krauthammer. Yet, this was not a
sight any believer in Turkey’s version enjoyed. Yes, these articles
opposed the Armenian resolution. But none of them believed Turkey’s
version of history about "the events of 1915."

Turkey won an important battle but ended up losing the war. Just like
Krauthammer’s, most of these articles argued that what happened in
1915 was genocide. But Turkey was geo-strategically too important an
ally to offend in the middle of mayhem in the Middle East. In other
words, the opposition to the genocide resolution had nothing to do
with the sudden discovery of new historical facts proving correct the
Turkish version of history. The discussion was only about Turkey’s
geo-strategic importance and bad timing.

This year we will probably witness the same charade with more
intensity. President-elect Barack Obama, Vice President-elect Joe
Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and, of course, a large majority of Congress are all
in favor of Armenian genocide recognition. The first critical test
will be the US president’s annual letter of April 24, which
traditionally defines what happened to Ottoman Armenians as
"massacres." Will this year’s letter refer to "genocide"?

This first and very critical test in Turkish-American relations comes
within the early months of the Obama administration. There are only
four months between the inauguration in late January and April 24. And
Obama’s presidential agenda will be overloaded with the global
financial crisis and all the very crucial foreign policy issues,
ranging from Iraq to Afghanistan and Iran to a possible India-Pakistan
war. Relations with Turkey will not be an urgent issue.

In such a busy agenda, it is also highly unlikely that the American
media will pick up the story of a potential crisis with Turkey. This
is why even a pyrrhic victory may not be in the cards this time. There
is still a chance Obama will opt for realism in relations with Turkey.
But this means he will have to break his campaign promises. Surely,
this will not be a first for a politician. But what if Obama is really
committed to "change"? Soon, perhaps too soon, we will know.

15 December 2008, Monday

ay.do?haberno=161240

Russia sets condition for normalizing NATO ties

press tv
Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:30:38 GMT

The Russian foreign minister says a review of the Caucasus conflict
will be necessary for the normalization of Russia-NATO relations.

"Before us lies an extremely difficult process of normalization, in
which it will be necessary to return to a discussion of the Caucasus
crisis, which our partners declined to have in August," Sergei Lavrov
said in an interview with the Interfax news agency published on
Saturday.

NATO said in early December the alliance would resume a ‘conditional
and graduated’ dialogue with Russia. The two sides suspended talks
following the August military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi.

An EU-brokered peace deal ended the five-day war, which began when
Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia to bring it back under Georgia’s
control. This prompted Russia to send its troops to South Ossetia,
where most of the residents hold Russian citizenship.

Lavrov said the conflict resulted in ‘the strengthening of the EU’s
role and the weakening of NATO-centrism’.

"It has become clear that NATO cannot aspire to have a solid role in
Europe without productive contacts with Russia…. It seems that in the
North Atlantic alliance they are beginning to understand this," he
added.

Georgia, along with Ukraine, has sought to join NATO, but the alliance
is deeply divided on the subject.

Moscow strongly opposes Tbilisi and Kiev’s ambitions to join NATO, and
some NATO members, such as France, Germany and Italy, fear their entry
would provoke Russia, a key energy supplier.

TURKEY URGES 3RD PARTY COUNTRIES NOT TO INTERFERE ON ARMENIAN RELATIONS

Hurriyet
Dec 12 2008
Turkey

ANKARA – The Turkish Parliament urged the parliaments of third
party countries not to disrupt the process of rapprochement between
Turkey and Armenia with efforts to recognize the 1915-dated events
as "genocide". "Politicians and parliaments cannot judge history,
" said Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan.

"We have always warned the parliaments [of other countries] that
such moves will not help the Turkey-Armenia talks. All responsible
parliaments should now avoid hindering the ongoing process," Köksal
Toptan Parliament Speaker told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic
Review in an interview.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul was in Yerevan in a historic visit
in September, paving the way to normalize relations between the two
neighbors, who have had no diplomatic ties since the early ’90s. Barack
Obama’s victory in the presidential race and his decision to appoint
Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State worried Turkey, who fears a
possible recognition of the 1915 incidents involving Armenian as
genocide by the House of Representatives, because of the strong
support both have voiced towards the Urmenian lobby.

Toptan recalled that France decided to halt discussing historical
events in their parliament and praised the move as positive. "It’s
satisfactory to see that other parliaments have started to share
our views on the matter," Toptan stated. Having already recognized
the Armenian claims, France had been discussing whether or not to
prosecute those who denied the claims for the last two years.

Turkey not prejudiced Asked what the Turkish Parliament could do to
help the reconciliation process with Armenia, Toptan said Parliament
had no prejudices against Armenians and was ready to talk to them. "We
will do whatever we can do in terms of contributing to the ongoing
process," Toptan said.

Though he said they were not prejudiced against Armenians, Toptan
emphasized the fact that Armenia still occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. "I think Armenia’s withdrawal from the Nagorno-Karabagh
will surely have a positive impact on the process," he said.

There are 70,000 Armenian people working in Turkey and many Turkish
products are sold in Armenia, Toptan said, adding, "If we continue
in this direction, there will be no issues left for the Armenian
diaspora to abuse."

Toptan also had messages for his European counterpart who relentlessly
criticized Turkey for slowing down the reform process. Arguing that
the 2007 general elections reduced the country’s motivation but had
no negative impact on technical talks, Toptan said: "We are speeding
up … But the EU is not implementing its own obligations. It would
be unfair to put the blame on Turkey. This country has made enormous
reforms in recent years."

The EU harmonization packet, including 130 new laws, was brought to
the agenda of the Council of Ministers and Parliament discussed the
Turkish Trade Law, Toptan said.

–Boundary_(ID_v6epekTJUs67/JvAcSinog)–

EXHIBITION OF ARMENIAN GOODS HELD IN ALEPPO ON DECEMBER 2-9

Noyan Tapan

Dec 12, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. An exhibition of Armenian goods was
organized in Aleppo on December 2-9 on the initiative of the Chamber
of Commerce and Industry of Armenia (CCI). Products of more than 30
Armenian companies, including alcoholic and soft drinks, foodstuffs,
production of light industry and publishing sector, medicines, and
high technologies were displayed at the exhibition.

The chairman of CCI, member of the RA National Assembly Martin Sargsyan
said at the December 12 press conference that the exhibition aroused
great interest in Aleppo, with over 20 thousand people visiting
it. About 90% of goods presented at the exhibition were consumed,
and Syrians made sure once again that the Armenian products are not
inferior to those produced by companies of other countries.

M. Sargsyan announced that cooperation agreements have been signed
among Armenian and Syrian businessmen. In particular, it is envisaged
exporting products of such companies as Maran, Ashtarak Kat, Atenk,
Jermuk Group and the Artashat Cannery to Syria, and an agreement has
been reached with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Aleppo to
open a permanent show-room of Armenian goods there.

In the words of M. Sargsyan, the products of Elektrasark (Electric
Appliance) company caused considerable interest in Syria. Negotiations
are now being conducted with a big Syrian company on export of
Elekrasark’s products to Syria. Under an agreement reached with
Dominant company, it is planned to establish production of clay tiles
in Syria. It was mentioned that by late 2008 an experimental sample
of carbide made by Vanadzor-Chimprom will be delived to Syria and
an export agreement will be signed. Negotiations have also begun on
export of generators and transformers of Armelectromachine company.

The chairman of the CCI of Armenia said that it is envisaged holding
a show of Armenian books in Syria in March 2009, and an exhibition
of Syrian goods will take place in Yerevan in June.

CONFERENCE ON CORRUPTION

Panorama.am
17:50 09/12/2008

"Corruption is an important problem in Armenia, though it is not only
the problem of Armenia. Even today we have this problem in the USA:
I mean high ranking officials who are involved in this problem,"
said the Ambassador of the USA Marie Yovanovich during a conference
on corruption.

The conference has been organized by the justice department of the
USA in Yerevan. The Ambassador encouraged Armenian officials to prove
the society that those who are busy with corruption are punished
irrespective of position.

The Ambassador said that congressmen, high ranking officials have been
sentenced in America for commiting corruption. She said that people
should believe in justice system if we want corruption to be managed.