Author: Jalatian Sonya

CELEBRATION OF HOVHANNES TUMANYAN’S JUBILEE KICKED OFF IN DSEGH
Karen Ghazaryan

"Radiolur"
19.02.2009 18:16

The arrangements dedicated to Hovhannes Tumanyan’s 140th jubilee
kicked off in Dsegh, the poet’s birthplace.

President Serzh Sargsyan delivered a speech at the opening
ceremony. The President noted that it was a good opportunity to
remember and pay tribute to the great poet’s memory.

Serzh Sargsyan added that his visit was symbolic also because exactly
one year ago he was elected President of the Republic of Armenia.

"I think it was my duty to work so as to bring closer the day when
we will be able to call the Motherland of Hovhannes Tumanyan and
Motherland of all of us "My new Motherland, my strong Motherland,"
Serzh Sargsyan said in his speech following the visit to Tumanyan’s
home-museum.

Within the framework of the visit Serzh Sargsyan also familiarized
with the socio-economic situation in Lori marz. He visited Tashir
textile factory, talked to the employees and familiarized with the
problems of local producers.

The President also visited Vanadzor school #1 and participated in
the solemn ceremony of opening of the monument to tehCatholicos of
All Armenians, Vazgen I.

Later President Sargsyan visited the newly constructed Chess House
of Vanadzor.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: CONFISCATION AND SALE OF BJNI PLANT BRIGHT EVIDENCE OF UNDECLARED WAR OF ARMENIAN RULING REGIME AGAINST BUSINESS-ENVIRONMENT

ArmInfo
2009-02-19 10:17:00

ArmInfo. Armenian National Congress (ANC) has harshly criticized the
sale of Bjni mineral water plant. The plant was confiscated from the
family of Khachatour Sukiasyan, businessman and parliamentarian,
who is currently in hiding. Sukiasyan is accused of complicity in
March incidents in Yerevan in 2008.

ANC declares that the public sale of Bjni was held with many
violations, and the grossest violation was the circumstance that the
proceedings in the case of confiscation and sale of the plant have
not been over yet. ‘The regime has demonstrated one more time that
it neglects any provision of the Constitution including the property
right and inviolability. Hereby the regime has ruined the institute
of property and broken the trust of small and medium-sized business
in property and future’, the ANC statement says.

The authors of the statement are surprised that there are supporters
and executors of the regime’s will among big businessmen who do not
understand that under the present regime they may prove in the same
situation tomorrow.

PARUYR HAYRIKIAN AGAIN PROPOSES MARKING FEBRUARY 18 AS ARMENIAN PEOPLE’S LIBERTY DAY AT STATE LEVEL

Noyan Tapan
Feb 18, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. February 18 is a too symbolic
day for the Armenian people: in 1920 on that day, when Armenia
was under the Bolshevik dictatorship, the people revolted
and liberated Yerevan. Paruyr Hayrikian, the Chairman of the
National Self-Determination Union, said at the February 18 press
conference. Thus, according tom him, February 18 became a day
symbolizing a victorious fight for freedom.

"It seemed there was no force that would be able to prevent the red
terror of the Bolsheviks. However, on that day the Armenian people
drew away Bolsheviks from Yerevan and released from prisons hundreds of
intellectuals, national-state figures sentenced to death," P. Hayrikian
said adding that it was the first victory over Bolshevik dictatorship.

P. Hayrikian said that years running they have proposed marking
that day as Armenian people’s Liberty Day at the state level. "The
very years made us understand that for having Liberty Day society,
especially the authorities should understand the price of liberty,"
the party leader said.

ARMENIAN ECONOMIC EXPANSION IN ABKHAZIA

Messenger.ge
Feb 18 2009
Georgia

The Georgian media has reported that businessmen from Armenia are
buying vacated properties in Abkhazian territory, particularly the
Gagra region. Armenians are buying the houses of expelled Georgians
along the sea coast and at the sites of tourist infrastructure
development prospects. Many tourists from Armenia could now start
entering Abkhazia instead of Adjara via Russia.

MP Paata Davitaia thinks that Russia is encouraging these Armenian
businessmen to buy property in Georgia (Abkhazia). He says this is
yet another attempt by Russia to implement a divide and rule policy,
because obviously Georgia will not be happy with the Armenians’
conduct in the breakaway region.

Armenian expansion is not welcomed by the ethnic Abkhaz population
either. Abkhaz nationalist Professor Rikirba for instance insists
on the urgent resettlement of Turkey’s ethnic Abkhaz population
in Abkhazia because the Armenian population threatens to swallow
the Abkhaz.

Davitaia sees in this process an attempt to unite Abkhazia with Russia.

GOVERNMENT DENIES RUMOR ABOUT BANKS BEING WARNED OF CHANGE IN ARMENIAN DRAM’S EXCHANGE RATE

Noyan Tapan
Feb 18, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Both the Armenian government and
the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) on February 18 denied the press
rumors that the government and CBA have warned the banks about a
change in the exchange rate of the Armenian dram against the dollar
soon. NT correspondent was informed by the press service of the
government that there could not even be such a warning to banks by
the government. In the words of spokeswoman for CBA Zaruhi Barseghian,
this is false information and has a political implication.

It is noteworthy that in the February 18 issue of Armenian Time daily,
it was written: "The Armenian government and the CBA have informed and
warned all the banks operating in Armenia that the exchange rate of the
dram against the dollar will rise up to 420-450 drams in the next two
months. The aim of this warning is that the banks will take it into
account when making their plans for the near future and thus avoid
unexpected situations. The problem is that the CBA is not able to keep
the dram’s exchange rate any more. Only during two days of this week,
the CBA carried out an intervention of more than 20 million dollars".

ARMENIAN DEPUTY FINANCE MINISTER: TOO PREMATURE TO SPEAK ABOUT JOINING RUBLE ZONE

ARKA
Feb 17, 2009

YEREVAN, February 17. /ARKA/. Armenian Deputy Finance Minister Vardan
Aramyan, speaking Tuesday before Yerevan State University’s students,
said he found it too premature to speak about joining ruble zone.

He thinks a full legislative and economic harmonization is needed
for that.

The deputy minister denied rumors going around about Armenia’s possible
entry in ruble zone.

He said that before forming euro zone, European countries passed a
long way of legislative harmonization.

They have established free trade, formed common customs zone, common
economy and ensured free movement of capital before introducing.

Aramyan said Armenia has no such agreement with Russia.

"We can’t join ruble zone, because our countries haven’t reached
necessary degree of integration yet".

Azerbaijan displaced await end of conflict
By Martin Vennard
BBC News, Baku

Tazagul moved with her family in 1993 into a room in the students’
residence at the Technical University in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
Sixteen years later, she is now a widow and still living in one room
in the residence.

She shares it with her three grown-up children – two of whom have
mental disabilities – her daughter-in-law, and a grandchild.

Tazagul and her family are internally displaced people (IDPs) within
Azerbaijan – victims of its conflict in the early 1990s with Armenia
over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – an
Armenian-controlled enclave within Azerbaijan.

`People live in very bad, unbearable conditions’
Elsevar Agayev
UNHCR Azerbaijan consultant

According to the Azerbaijani government and the United Nations, there
are 570,000 IDPs in Azerbaijan out of a population of around 8.5
million – one of the highest concentrations of IDPs in the world.

As well as the IDPs, more than 200,000 ethnic Azeris came to
Azerbaijan from Armenia as refugees during the conflict, while most
ethnic Armenians left Baku and other parts of Azerbaijan.

Make-shift facilities
Some 4,000 of the IDPs are living in the former student complex,
alongside Tazagul and her family. Many of them have been there for at
least 15 years.

There are dozens of such centres in Baku, which house around a third
of the country’s IDPs.

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, says IDPs have problems accessing
health and education services, but that their main problem is their
living conditions.

ElsevarAgayev, a consultant for the UNHCR in Azerbaijan, recently
travelled to see IDPs in the west of the country.

"In collective centres, I saw people living in very precarious
conditions," he says.

"It is the same in Baku, in Sumgayit and other places where IDPs
live. People live in very bad, unbearable conditions," he adds.

The IDPs in the former Baku student residence have make-shift cooking
facilities in the corridors outside their rooms or on the balconies,
while the hygiene facilities are communal.

With her grandchild tied to her back, Tazagul says that every morning
the family members have to pile up the mattresses on which they sleep
during the night.

She says she used to work in a bakery, but that the family now lives
solely on benefits.

` Few people work in official and regular jobs ‘ Tazagul An employee
at the centre tells me that the IDPs who do find jobs generally work
in the black economy.

"Sometimes they find jobs, but sometimes they could wait weeks to find
a job. Few people work in official and regular jobs," she says.

Many of the IDPs came from rural areas where agriculture was the
dominant industry and have difficulties finding work in an urban
environment.

The buildings at the centre are in urgent need of repair, while
outside the road is more like a muddy track. It is lined by wooden
stalls and shacks, set up as shops by the IDPs.

Just a short distance away in central Baku, Azerbaijan’s oil wealth is
ostentatiously displayed in the form of expensive cars and shops.

Negotiations
The government’s aim is for all the IDPs to be able to return home to
Nagorno-Karabakh, or the areas around it that are internationally
recognised as being part of Azerbaijan but controlled since the war by
ethnic Armenians.

One of the heads of the group which is trying to help find an
agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed Caucasus
territory recently told the BBC he was more hopeful of success than at
any time in the past.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, co-chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group, said the recent meetings between the Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents had given new momentum to the process.

One of the main issues being discussed is the fate of the IDPs, but
none of those I spoke to at the Baku centre had even heard about the
talks.

The government has built houses for some IDPs, such as Zulfugar Agayev
and his family.

They fled the Azerbaijani district of Agdam, near Nagorno-Karabakh, as
Armenian forces advanced in 1993.

"My father, mother, two brothers and a sister moved back to Agdam
where the government built new houses for IDPs," Mr Agayev says.

"But this new village is very close to the ceasefire line and you can
hear when shooting breaks out. I think it’s very dangerous to live
there now, but people have no other choice."

Oil revenues
A ceasefire was signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in
1994. However, sporadic fatal clashes continue to break out around
Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas.

Critics say
the government could have acted quicker and used more of its oil
wealth to re-house the IDPs.

But the authorities reject that and say the last of the camps for IDPs
were dismantled some time ago.

"The government tries its best to help them. There is not a single
refugee or IDP shelter camp today," says foreign ministry spokesman
Khazar Ibrahim.

"We have used budget money. We have also used money from our oil fund
to build temporary houses for them," he adds.

But IDPs, such as Tazagul, living in collective centres do not believe
that their situation will improve significantly until a resolution to
the dispute is found and they can return home.

Storyfrom BBC NEWS:
/7892486.stm

Published: 2009/02/18 00:11:17 GMT

© BBC MMIX

ANALYST ARMEN AGHAYAN: NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT HAS NO NEGOTIATIONS SOLUTION

Noyan Tapan
Feb 16, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement has no negotiations, diplomatic solution. Analyst
Armen Aghayan expressed such an opinion at the March 16 press
conference. According to him, indeed not the negotiations format has
been exhausted, but they were useless from the very start. "They could
not but be a failure, as in 1994 the Artsakh war was interrupted
and not finished," A. Aghayan said adding that the view is spread
in Armenia that the Karabakh war has been finished, at that, with
Armenians’ victory. However, according to him, Azerbaijan has not been
defeated finally and is not going to conciliate with the losses the
Armenian people considers its victorious achievement. "For Azerbaijan,
the sense of the negotiations is the continuation of the war,"
A. Aghayan said.

According to him, analyses show that RA President Serzh
Sargsyan is ready to solve the Nagorno Karabakh problem through
concessions. However, in A. Aghayan’s opinion, to achieve his goals
S. Sargsyan should overcome two great obstacles, Azerbaijan’s
bellicose disposition and Armenian people’s national-historic
self-consciousness. And they, according to him, are insuperable.

GEORGIAN AUTHORITIES CREATED A NEW HOTBED OF CRISIS IN JAVAKHK

AZG Armenian Daily
17/02/2009

Javakhk

Interview with the President of Yerkir Union of Public Organizations
on Repatriation and Settlement Sevak Artsruni

– Mr. Artsruni, how do you assess the situation in Javakhk today
taking into account the recent arrests in Akhaltskha, the continuous
suspension of Vahagn Chakhalian’s court procedure and delay in
registration of Armenian-French attorney Patrick Arapian?

– From the first hours of the arrests in Akhaltskha, it was clear to us
that because of the day-by-day increasing interest of the international
community in problems of the Armenians of Georgia and Javakhk, the
Georgian authorities would create a new hotbed of crisis in Javakhk. It
is clear that it will be easy for them to speculate on Akhaltskha
arrests trying to depreciate the demands of the Georgian Armenians.

– Could you make detailed comment on the two directions of the pressure
that Georgia tries to exert?

– If we speak of the influence on the Republic of Armenia, in this
field the Georgian authorities aim at converting the all-Armenian
little-by-little increasing interest in protection of the legal rights
of the Armenians of Javakhk into a subject of Armenian-Georgian
negotiations and demanding the Armenian authorities to neutralize
the process.

– In case of the international community, under the conditions
of Russian-Georgian crisis in the South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
the aim of the Georgian authorities is to provide the neutrality
of the geopolitical partners of Georgia in final destruction of
the public-political structures of the Armenians of Javakhk and to
silence them.

What do you think, Mr. Artsruni, what must be done in this case?

– As we told before, not the official Armenia but the Armenian NGOs
and the Armenian Diaspora should return an answer to it. Javakhk
issue is an all-Armenian issue, and like the issue of recognition of
the Armenian Genocide, the whole nation and the Republic of Armenia
can pursue different strategic directions in it.

There are precise international mechanisms for protection of the rights
of the Armenians of Georgia and Javakhk as ethnic minorities. And
the Georgian authorities cannot leave them out of account in case of
corresponding pressure of the Armenian and Diasporan NGOs.

Besides, since the summer of 2008, an atmosphere of fear and
disappointment has been created in Javakhk because of series of
arrests, terrors, court procedures and other arranged and planned acts
carried out by the Georgian state structures. The court procedures of
the leader of the United Javakhk Democratic Alliance Vahagn Chakhalian
and other Armenian political activists of Javakhk took place and go
on with disgraceful infringements of the law.

In case of systematized and consistent presentation of the
above-mentioned facts to the corresponding international offices, we
will succeed in binding the Georgian authorities to stop this process
of silencing the Armenians of Georgia and taking into consideration
the rights of the Armenian minority.

Taking the opportunity, we again and again call on all the Armenians
and especially the Armenian Diaspora not to be disorientated and
to demand from Georgia by all lawful means to solve all the issues
raised by the Armenians of Javakhk and Georgia.

Turkmen TV Altyn Asyr channel, Asgabat, Turkmenistan
Feb 11 2009

Turkmen, Armenian officials discuss energy ties

The first meeting of the joint Turkmen-Armenian inter-governmental
commission on economic cooperation was held in Asgabat today.

The delegation members headed by Armenia’s energy and natural
resources minister, [Armen Movsisyan], then had a meeting with the
deputy chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan. During
the meeting, the Armenian guests were provided with a detailed
information on achievements made under the leadership of the esteemed
president in the country’s oil and gas sector.

They also were closely familiarized with the implementation of
construction projects in Turkmenistan. They were briefed about the
work of major power generating facilities operating in the country and
on the distribution of electricity among domestic consumers as well as
on its sale to foreign countries under bilateral agreements.

In this regard, the guests explored the possibility of purchasing
Turkmen electricity and importing it into Armenia.