Author: Jilavian Emma

ARMENIA IS IGNORED BECAUSE IT IS CONSIDERED A ROGUE STATE

Today
Feb 10 2010
Azerbaijan

I want to ask readers the following question: Would you invite a
person with no culture to your birthday party along with respectable
representatives of society if he shows no respect for private property
and steals from its neighbours? I am sure you wouldn’t.

Armenia, with its current leadership, is not invited to any major
world forums. It was not invited to the 40th anniversary of the
annual meeting of members of the World Economic Forum to the Munich
Security Conference.

Azerbaijan attended both forums and was an important speaker at
the oil and gas summit. Azerbaijan’s statements were covered by many
global media, triggering a wide response and great interest by leading
world powers.

Meanwhile, nobody invites Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to
international forums. No one writes to him, no one is waiting for him.

In other words, Armenia is in a smooth transition to a rogue state. In
such countries the leadership mistreats its own people, wastes national
resources for gains of rulers, shows disrespect for international
laws, threatens its neighbors, violates international agreements,
assists terrorism and rejects basic human values.

Let’s talk about the abovementioned points.

Firstly, Armenian authorities mistreat their own people and
squander national resources for the gains of rulers. Recently, the
co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) on Armenia John Prescott and Georges Colombier sent a letter
to the Armenian Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan requesting a
comprehensible reforms timetable before the meeting of the Monitoring
Committee in Paris, March 17, 2010. The message posted on the PACE
official Web site underscored the need to implement reforms that will
enable the investigation of the tragic events of March 1, 2008, which
resulted in the killing of Armenian citizens demanding fair elections.

Everything is much clearer when it comes to the waste of national
wealth for personal gains. Armenians themselves are also talking about
it. The Armenian National "Miabanutyun" Club Head Smbat Karakhanian
said that Armenian authorities consist of oligarchs, criminals and
foreign proteges.

"The government owns roughly 85 percent of all assets and companies
in the country, including illegal traffic, and controls almost 90
percent of the financial flows. In this sense, it is easy to imagine
the fate and true purpose of interstate loans," Karakhanyan said.

The disrespect for international laws, threatening neighbors, grossly
violating international agreements is already becoming obvious to
the world community. Recently, Euronews aired a report which said
that besides Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia has occupied seven regions of
Azerbaijan and refuses to withdraw its troops, violating four U.N.

resolutions. The report also spoke about the genocide of Azerbaijanis
in Khojaly and showed pictures of crime against humanity.

The threat to its neighbors and the country’s refusal to leave the
occupied territory of Azerbaijan, whose territorial integrity is
recognized worldwide, may give rise to separatism and terrorism in the
region. Plus, we have heard about Armenia’s new territorial claims to
Azerbaijan, part of Turkey’s territory and that of Georgia (Javakheti).

Well, we all witnessed how cynically Armenia can violate the treaties
it has signed and the Constitutional Court’s decision to change the
Armenian-Turkish protocols proves that.

When it comes to assisting terrorism on a global scale and the
rejection of basic human values, it is appropriate to recall that
the term "Armenian terrorism" first officially used in America’s
State Department monthly bulletin in August, 1982. Also, it is
worth recalling the words of former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
for European Affairs Stephen Oxman who said that the territory
of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, occupied by Armenia, is currently
uncontrolled and international cooperation is needed to prevent the
spread of terrorism.

As for Armenia’s rejection of basic human values, the most telling
evidence of this is the genocide of Azerbaijanis in Khojaly, and
the statement of former Armenian President Robert Kocharian that
Azerbaijanis and Armenians are genetically incompatible. Such openly
fascist rhetoric is another explanation why Armenia is now a rogue
state.

WE DO NOT NEED TO INVENT THE WHEEL: YEREVAN ART DIRECTOR ON NEW PRIMETIME TV BILL

Tert.am
17:04 ~U 10.02.10

The new parameters to be placed on TV programs and films broadcast
in Armenia have stirred up discontent.

In a press conference today, Yerevan Puppet Theatre named after
Hovhanes Tumanyan Art Director Ruben Babayan said there were some
points in the parameters that are typical of Soviet times. In his
opinion, international experience should be followed; there’s no need
to invent the wheel.

"Especially when every bicycle [we invent] has a square seat [meaning,
square wheels]," said Babayan, meaning that the document has a lot
of shortcomings and controversial points.

However, Babayan expressed hope that a new document would be formed
due to discussions on the new parameters.

"There are some things that are necessary to fight against with a
baton. I am not against a culture baton aimed against anti-culture
and I welcome it," said Babayan.

Earlier the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR)
had presented the new parameters of TV programs to the public. The
commission had proposed a new bill which stated that films and TV
programs that have explicit sexual content or explicit scenes of
violence and horror must be broadcast only between midnight and 6 am.

WILL TURKEY’S GUL UNDERSTAND?

Panorama.am
15:21 10/02/2010

Addressing a message to Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul, President
Serzh Sargsyan tried to make it clear to his Turkish counterpart it’s
Turkey’s turn to act, ARF member Vahan Hovhannisyan told reporters
today.

According to him, with this message, Serzh Sargsyan warns that
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process may fail, hence, Turkey should
understand that it can be one of the causes leading to failure.

ARMENIAN, FRENCH MINISTRIES OF DEFENSE SIGN COLLABORATION AGREEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2010 18:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today, Armenian Minister of the Defense, Seyran
Ohanyan, signed a bilateral co-operation agreement with France.

As independent French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net,
following agreement signing procedure a reception was given by French
Minister of Defense, Herve Morin.

The latter expressed satisfaction over agreements signed, voicing
his concern on the issues of Armenian Genocide and Karabakh conflict
settlement.

300 representatives of Armenian Diaspora of France participated in
the reception.

‘OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE PRACTICE TO DECEIVE!’

Panorama.am
16:11 09/02/2010

The title of this article, taken from Walter Scott’s epic poem, the
Marmion, aptly describes the web of deceit weaved by Turkey’s leaders
in seeking to create the false impression of wanting to normalize
relations with Armenia.

Under the guise of opening the border and establishing diplomatic
relations with Armenia, Turkish officials actually intended to:
1) extract concessions from Armenia – returning Karabagh (Artsakh)
to Azerbaijan, forming a historical commission to review the facts
of the Genocide, and blocking territorial demands from Turkey; 2)
prevent the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by third countries,
particularly the United States; and 3) generate a positive image in
order to facilitate Turkey’s entry into the European Union.

If Turkey was sincere in its expressed desire to open the border with
Armenia, it could have done so just as easily and quickly as it did
when closing it in 1993. There was no need for lengthy negotiations,
convoluted protocols, and parliamentary ratification. Furthermore,
rather than demanding concessions, Turks should have offered
inducements to Armenia for agreeing to open the border, because with
closed borders, Turkey cannot join the EU.

Ever since April 22, 2009, when the first concrete step was taken
by the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey by issuing a roadmap
for normalizing their relations, Turkish leaders continued to state
that they won’t open the border with Armenia without first resolving
the Artsakh conflict. Even after signing the Protocols on October 10,
2009 and submitting them to Parliament eleven days later, the Turkish
government still insisted that the border would remain closed until
Artsakh was returned to Azerbaijan.

Since none of the major powers supported the precondition on
Artsakh, Turkey’s leaders used the January 12, 2010 verdict of
Armenia’s Constitutional Court as a new excuse for not ratifying the
Protocols in the last four months. Even though the Court ruled that the
obligations stipulated by the Protocols complied with the constitution,
the Ankara leadership expressed dissatisfaction in order to cover up
its intent not to ratify the Protocols. Turkey demanded that the Court
"correct" its decision, just because it had blocked the unwarranted
interpretations and preconditions of the Turkish side.

Unable to convince Armenia to meet their demands, Turkish officials
approached Russia, the United States, and Switzerland (the mediator
on the Protocols) to apply pressure on Armenia "to correct" the
Constitutional Court’s decision. Once again, the Turks were rebuffed.

Last week, Turkey stumbled on a new excuse not to ratify the Protocols
— the announcement by Cong. Howard Berman (Dem.-CA), Chairman of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that his panel would take up
the Armenian Genocide resolution on March 4.

Even though the genocide resolution is unrelated to the Protocols, a
few days before Cong. Berman’s announcement, Turkey’s new Ambassador
to Washington, Namik Tan, warned the U.S. Congress against such a
move and boldly predicted that such a resolution would not come up
for a vote "this year or anytime in the future." Amb. Tan’s warning
clearly exposed Turkey’s hidden agenda to bury the acknowledgment of
the Armenian Genocide at every opportunity.

Now that the genocide resolution is scheduled for a vote, what would
the Turks do? They are caught in their own web of deceit! If they
rush to ratify the Protocols in order to prevent the adoption of the
resolution, they would antagonize their Azeri ally and create internal
political turmoil. On the other hand, If they does not ratify the
Protocols very soon, there is a high probability that the genocide
resolution would receive congressional approval this year.

Meanwhile, Washington is losing patience with Turkey’s repeated excuses
for dragging its feet on the Protocols. In retaliation, the Obama
administration could use the genocide resolution as a stick to prod
Turkey into ratifying the Protocols. Moreover, Turkey cannot count on
much political support from Israel or American-Jewish organizations in
order to block the genocide resolution, due to the incessant insults
hurled by Prime Minister Erdogan at Israeli leaders over the past year.

By refusing to ratify the Protocols, Turkey has taken away from the
Obama administration its excuse for not acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide. Despite his repeated campaign promises, Pres. Obama
refrained from using the term Armenian Genocide in his April 24,
2009 statement. He had unwisely adopted the duplicitous Turkish line
that third countries should not acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,
while Armenia and Turkey were trying to normalize their relations.

It is noteworthy that when Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary of
State, was asked last week to comment on the likely impact of the
Armenian Genocide resolution on the Protocols, he insisted that they
be ratified without preconditions. Significantly, he did not use the
occasion to express any opposition to the resolution.

Any attempt by the administration to block the congressional resolution
would be highly embarrassing for Pres. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden
and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since all three as Senators
and presidential candidates had issued strong statements in support
of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.

Since Obama administration officials have repeatedly stated that the
Protocols have no preconditions, then there should be no reason for
them to object to the adoption of the genocide resolution.

It should be stated that in normal circumstances there would be no
need for further action by the President or Congress on recognition
of the Armenian Genocide which is already an acknowledged fact. In
1975 and 1984, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted resolutions
recognizing the Genocide and Pres. Reagan acknowledged it in his
Presidential Proclamation of 1981. However, in view of Turkey’s
devious designs to roll back the international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, it is imperative that the United States government
reaffirm its acknowledgment. This would also be an appropriate
response to the deceptive Turkish tactics of using the Protocols to
extract concessions, under the false pretense of opening the border
with Armenia.

By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier

TURKISH MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SLAMS US AMBASSADOR IN ANKARA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
08.02.2010 17:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Burak Ozugergin, spokesman of the Turkish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Saturday the U.S. Ambassador in Ankara,
James Jeffrey, should have refrained from comments on Turkish domestic
politics. The MFA spokesperson’s remarks came after an interview that
Jeffrey gave to a Turkish newspaper recently.

Answering a question, the MFA spokesman said that Ambassador Jeffrey
uttered certain remarks targeting Turkey’s internal policies concerning
Kurdish issue and EU bid while giving an interview to a Turkish
newspaper recently.

Based on diplomatic conventions, ambassadors should not make comments
regarding internal politics of the countries in which they serve,
the MFA spokesman stressed.

Ambassador Jeffrey should approach this matter with greater
sensitivity. Mr. Jeffrey should have refrained from making comments
and remarks on Turkey’s internal political life, the MFA spokesman
underlined, Anatolian news agency reported.

THE "DOSE" OF THE GOVERNMENT

Lragir.am
08/02/10

The release of the draft on the prohibition to show scenes of erotica,
violence, horror as well as other which leave negative influence on
minors aroused notable response. But the response of those subjects
who will be directly affected by this law is interesting. The point
is about TV channels.

The feeling is that the TV channels have been waiting for this draft
of the National Commission on TV and Radio from childhood. None of
the TV channels has serious dissatisfaction about the draft. The draft
of the commission seems to suppose for serous changes in the TV air,
but the TV channels do not have anything to say in this connection.

Perhaps they are happy and content.

The impression is that the airtime policy was not worked out by them
but by someone else and the channels were waiting for the commission
to work out relevant criteria to free them from the forced airtime.

On the other hand, it is quite a possible version. The point is that
the Armenian TV air passed to its current content very sharply.

"Criminal dramas" or "criminal melodramas" began being shot very
quickly, comedy shows became regular very quickly and gathering in
a club and laughing became an important component of the "glamorous"
life.

The synchronization of this and other "metamorphoses" hints that
all this is governed by the same centre because TV channels are not
likely to carry out so harmonious and "team" policy. And the fact
that TV channels are happy and content creates ground to think that
they were forced to agree with that policy.

As to the reason why such a policy could be forced can be only
guessed. For example, such airtime "worshiping criminality" could be
expedient in the period when the opposition of the country managed
to set the difference between the system of civil values and criminal
ones in the social life of the country. The propaganda of the criminal
life by the airtime that has always been equipment in the hands of
the government could have the aim to make that line disappear. Maybe
they tried to convince that criminality is not such a bad thing and
even a good one, a just one.

Apparently, it was supposed that the border is completely blurred,
and there is a need for another broadcast. It is no coincidence that
power thought of "decriminalization" of ether several months ago,
but specific measures have been taken just now. And yet it is not
known how much water will leak while the criteria draft will result
in a public canon. It is possible that months will pass until the
government finally convinces that it was able to form enough sympathy
for the criminal world within the society which will not enable the
formation of a "black-white" differentiation.

Well, in any case, they can always use the option "at the request of
many viewers". Nothing can prevent the start of the same TV series
if suddenly seem that the effect of "dose" weakens.

HAKOB BADALYAN p.s. The absence of dissatisfaction within channels may
be due to other reasons – they have no choice but to be satisfied with
any decision of the authorities because they are not free, not only
in their broadcasting policy, but also in their thoughts and feelings.

RUSSIA’S FIRST DEPUTY PREMIER ARRIVES IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.02.2010 17:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister
will today, February 4 pay a working visit to Yerevan. The visit of
acting national coordinator of Russian Federation for CIS affairs is
timed to the start of Russia’s CIS chairmanship.

Igor Shuvalov will meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan Friday, February 5, press service of
Russian Embassy to Armenia reported.

TURKEY REJECTS MICHEL LEGRAND’S VISA APPLICATION

Aysor
Feb 5 2010
Armenia

Michel Jean Legrand, France’s Oscar-winner composer, arranger,
conductor, and pianist, the composer of famous music for The Umbrellas
of Cherbourg, said on his tour to Russia’s Krasnodar, that Tirkey’s
government denied his entry to Turkey.

Legrand, whose Armenian ancestors come from a village located currently
at modern Turkey’s territory, said he wished to visit his family
village. However, Turkey’s government rejected his visa application.

Turkey’s government mockingly said that Legrand can’t entry Turkey
now; he may be allowed to visit Turkey later, but not now, Turkish
officials said.

Michel Legrand stressed he was denied to visit Turkey as he has
Armenian roots. Besides, Legrand has criticized Turkey. He said in an
interview: "The 1915 mass killings of Armenian population in Turkey
are terrible and crashing. And Turkey’s unwillingness to recognize
Genocide means that Turkey will never join the European community. Now
Turkey-Armenia relations are normalizing; it is good, but it would
be better if Turkey returned Armenian territories which Turkey had
stolen. Although I perfectly know how these all is difficult."

ARF TO HOLD MEETINGS WITH 14 POLITICAL FORCES ON ARMENIA-TURKISH DEVELOPMENTS

Yerkir
05.02.2010 15:48

Yerevan (Yerkir) – Speaking at a news briefing at the National
Assembly today, Artashes Shahbazyan, the secretary of the ARF faction
in parliament, said that the ARF is planning to step up the campaign
against the Armenian-Turkish protocols. Shahbazyan said that his
party will be holding meetings with 14 political forces to discuss
the further actions plan.

He also said that the war with Azerbaijan is not over yet, which means
that it might resume any time. However, he added, the superpowers
that have their interests in our region are not interested in war.

"If the war resumes anyway, it would not be the war we saw in the
1990s. The side initiating the war would suffer enormous losses,"
he said.