Author: Jilavian Emma

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN CONTROL CHAMBERS TO CHECK BORDERLINES

Aysor
Jan 22 2010
Armenia

Armenia’s Control Chamber will check all the loan programs in the
educational system, in particular, at institutes and academies,
Control Chamber’s Chairman Ishkhan Zakarian announced today at the
press conference.

The checking will be instrumental in government’s reform plan helping
to implement all the reorganizations in the system of education,
according to Ishkhan Zakarian. Besides, according to the announcement
by Ishkhan Zakarian, the 35% of the Control Chamber’s 2010 activities
plan will be implemented in the loan programs. "We’ll check all the
loan programs," stressed the chairman.

Control Chamber of Armenia has received from the Asian Development
Bank and the World Bank a geo-radar car for checking the quality of
roads under construction.

"We will soon host a specialist of Germany’s Control Chamber, who
will along-side with Armenian colleagues check the roads," said
Chamber’s chairman.

Besides, along-side with Polish colleagues, Armenian Chamber’s
officials will discuss checkups in the environmental sphere.

Borderline troops will be checked together with Russian counterparts.

RUSLAN FILATOV:THE NEW HEAD OF THE "ARMENIAN DATACOM COMPANY"

Aysor
Jan 20 2010
Armenia

Today the press office of the "Armenian Datacom Company" informed
that on January 1, 2010 the executive director of the company was
appointed Ruslan Filatov.

Ruslan Filatov has a great experience in the telecommunication sphere.

He has headed the company Dixis, has had his professional input in
several famous companies, he has particularly worked as a deputy
director of the "Megaphone" mobile operator in Russia, marketing
director of "MCT Russia" company, marketing deputy director of UMC
mobile operator in Ukraine.

TURKEY CRIES ‘PRECONDITIONS’ IN RESPONSE TO COURT RULING

Asbarez
Jan 19th, 2010

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

ANKARA, YEREVAN (Combined Sources)-In response to last week’s ruling by
Armenia’s Constitutional Court, the Turkish Foreign Ministry Tuesday
issued an announcement condemning Armenia for setting "unacceptable"
preconditions on the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

In a statement issued late Monday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said "It
has been observed that this [Constitutional Court] decision contains
preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and
spirit of the Protocols."

"The said decision undermines the very reason for negotiating these
Protocols as well as their fundamental objective. This approach cannot
be accepted on our part," continued the Turkish statement.

"Turkey, in line with its accustomed allegiance to its international
commitments, maintains its adherence to the primary provisions of
these Protocols," added the statement.

"We expect the same allegiance from the Armenian Government," the
Turkish Ministry said in a statement," concluded the brief statement.

On January 12, Armenia’s Constitutional Court upheld the
constitutionality of the protocols, adding however, that the documents
cannot have any connection with the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
resolution process or impede Armenia of its pursuit of international
recognition of the Armenia Genocide. To reinforce the latter point, the
Court referenced Article 11 of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence,
which states: "The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task
of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey and Western Armenia."

Official Yerevan was quick to react with Foreign Minister Eduard
Nalbandian saying that he will personally phone his Turkish counterpart
Ahmet Davutoglu to "express my bewilderment and clarify where exactly
the Turkish side sees preconditions and just how the decision by
Armenia’s Constitutional Court contradicts the fundamental objectives
of the protocols."

Nalbandian also suggested that the Turkish government was looking
for excuses to delay the process and add further preconditions on
the protocols.

Despite countless arguments by the Armenian President and foreign
minister that Armenia has entered this process without preconditions,
Turkey has repeatedly linked the normalization of relations between
the two countries with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
in favor of Azerbaijan.

As recently as late last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said that the protocols would not be ratified until
a resolution to the Karabakh conflict is reached. These remarks
came after his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
who bluntly said that the processes were separate and could not be
interconnected. The same position was expressed by Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov last week during his official visit to Yerevan.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which has spearheaded vocal
opposition to the protocols both in Armenia and the Diaspora,
rejected Turkey’s statement. The party’s political director Giro
Manoyan told reporters Tuesday that with its statement Turkey proved,
once again, that, aside from its own interpretations, it rejects any
other explanation of the protocols.

Manoyan warned that after this announcement by Turkey, Armenian
authorities should not attempt to weaken the Armenian high court’s
position.

"It is imperative for the Armenian authorities to not seek to weaken
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision," said Manoyan explaining,
"The Armenian government must continue the process in the spirit of
the court ruling."

In a statement issued by the ARF following the Court ruling, the party
expressed its continued rejection of the protocols, but added that the
Constitutional Court provisions referenced above provide an opportunity
for revisions in the next phase of the ratification process.

"We have launched a process of normalization in relations with
Armenia and in good faith taken steps that include the signing of
the protocols," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told the
Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "We have often expressed our
views about what the necessary conditions are for the maintenance of
peace and stability in the Caucasus."

The Turkish government submitted the protocols to Parliament, but
they have not been submitted for ratification because they depend on
the progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, added Hurriyet in its
news report on the matter.

Burcu Gultekin Punsmann, a Caucasus expert at the Turkish think
tank TEPAV, said the diplomatic agreements were a product of
consensus between the states concerned and argued that the Armenian
constitutional court’s reasoning was putting limits on points for which
the sides had already reached an agreement, reported the Hurriyet.

KAZIMIROV FORECASTS NO SERIOUS ADVANCE OVER PRESIDENTS’ TRILATERAL MEETING

Panorama.am
18:16 18/01/2010

Upcoming meeting of the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents
only holds a prospect for small advance over Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement, OSCE MG former Co-Chair Vladimir Kazimirov said during
Yerevan-Moscow TV-bridge today.

"I wouldn’t be surprised to see some progress as a result of the
Presidents’ meeting, though, I feel hard to foresee any serious,
turning advance," the diplomat said.

Panorama.am recalls that President Sargsyan is paying a working
visit to Moscow. The meeting of the three Presidents is due in Moscow
next week.

VLADIMIR DOROKHIN: ‘WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO FIND FAIR SOLUTION TO THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT’

ArmInfo
2010-01-16 10:21:00

ArmInfo. The Karabakh conflict should find its solution based on the
standards and principles of the international law, Russian Ambassador
to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin said, Bakililar.AZ reports.

The ambassador marked the efforts of Russia towards settlement of the
Karabakh conflict. According to him, Russia as OSCE MG cochair-country
takes active part in search of the conflict solution. The Russian
diplomat emphasized that President Dmitry Medvedev is the only among
the heads-mediators of the Karabakh settlement to hold meetings with
the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia. According to Dorokhin,
this emphasizes the significance that Russia attaches to the conflict
settlement. The ambassador said that Russia does its best for the
conflict to be solved based on the standards and principles of the
international law.

RIA Novosti, Rusia
14 Enero 2010

Armenia y Turquà – a no dilatarán la ratificación de los protocolos sobre
normalización de relaciones
14:10 | 14/ 01/ 2010

Ereván, 14 de enero, RIA Novosti. Armenia y Turquà – a se comprometieron
a ratificar los protocolos sobre el restablecimiento de las relaciones
diplomáticas y la normalización de las relaciones bilaterales dentro
de un "plazo razonable", declaró hoy el ministro armenio de Asuntos
Exteriores, Eduard Nalbandián.

"Haremos todo lo posible para ratificar los protocolos dentro de un
plazo razonable", prometió Nalbandián al término de una reunión con su
homólogo ruso Serguei Lavróv, quien se encuentra en Armenia en visita
oficial.

Respecto al conflicto armenio-azerbayano en torno a Alto Karabaj,
considerado por la parte turca como el principal escollo para la
normalización de las relaciones con Ereván, los titulares de
Exteriores de Armenia y Rusia coincidieron en que el proceso del
arreglo del contencioso "no está estancado".

Según el ministro armenio, el proceso de arreglo del conflicto, que se
remonta al año 1988, "tiene una dinámica positiva" debido a la
intensificación de los contactos bilaterales al más alto nivel.

"Los presidentes (de Armenia y Azerbaiyán) se reunieron el año pasado
en nueve ocasiones, incluidos los tres encuentros organizados con
mediación de la parte rusa", concluyó Nalbandián.

Entre Armenia y Turquà – a no existen relaciones diplomáticas y la
frontera entre los dos paà – ses permanece cerrada desde 1993 a
iniciativa de Ankara a raà – z del conflicto en Alto Karabaj.

Bajo la mediación de Suiza, los representantes de Armenia y Turquà – a
comenzaron en 2007 las negociaciones para normalizar sus relaciones
pero Ankara impuso condiciones que fueron rechazadas por Ereván.

Por su parte, Armenia expresó su disposición de normalizar las
relaciones con su vecino turco sin ningún tipo de condiciones previas.

Finalmente, y tras unas largas negociaciones, en octubre de 2009, en
Suiza, los ministros de Exteriores de Armenia y Turquà – a, Eduard
Nalbandián y Ahmed Davutoglu, firmaron protocolos sobre el
restablecimiento de las relaciones diplomáticas y el desarrollo de
relaciones bilaterales que todavà – a penden de la aprobación por parte
de los parlamentos de ambos paà – ses.

El pasado 12 de enero el Tribunal Constitucional de Armenia dictaminó
que los protocolos armenio-turcos no contradicen la Carta Magna del
paà – s caucásico.

AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Jan 14 2010

Turkish PM urges Moscow to step up efforts on Garabagh

14-01-2010 06:28:32

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visiting Russia has
called on Moscow to step up efforts aiming to achieve a speedy
liberation of the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
`Russia could be more active, play a key role in settling the Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh conflict,’ Erdogan said in an address at the Moscow
State University.
He noted that Turkey has taken strides toward establishing ties with
Armenia. However, ending Armenian occupation and finding a way to
achieve a sustainable solution to the Garabagh conflict is vital for
normalizing the situation in the volatile region.
Erdogan said the United States, Russia and France, which are brokering
peace talks through the OSCE Minsk Group, are facing a daunting task,
adding that the issue is high on the agenda of his Moscow visit.*

ISRAEL HITS A HARD ROCK

ael-hits-a-hard-rock-2010-01-14
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Semih Idiz

Politicians often say and do stupid things. It seems part of
their calling. Turkey is a good example in this respect. But when
professional diplomats – whose calling is to diffuse, and not inflame,
crises – start to act stupidly, then this points to a systemic problem.

We always assumed Israeli diplomats to be of the highest caliber. At
least the ones we know are such. Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minsiter
Danny Ayalon has, however, proven this not to be the case every time.

His remarks in Hebrew to the assembled members of the Israeli media,
after he called Ambassador Oguz Celikkol to the Foreign Ministry
earlier this week to protest an anti-Israeli Turkish film, were enough
to make any sensible Israeli shudder with shame and wonder what kind
of people are running their Foreign Ministry.

Ayalon’s remarks, and the theatrical set-up he had prepared for
Celikkol, are part of diplomatic history now, so there is no need to
repeat them. Suffice it to say that even a spokesman for Ayalon’s own
extreme right "Yisrael Beitenu" party told Israeli media that Ayalon’s
political career was over. Others say his diplomatic career is too.

Ayalon’s behavior – obviously given the initial go ahead by Foreign
Minsiter Avigdor Lieberman – was not only amateurish in terms of
the childish theatrics it entailed: there was also a diplomatic
miscalculation involved.

Ayalon also committed the same mistake that Turkey committed at the
time over the rabidly anti-Turkish film "Midnight Express." He called
in Celikkol to protest the anti-Semitism of a Turkish TV series called
the "Valley of the Wolves."

Israel recently lodged a similar protest in Ankara over another
series called "Separation" and achieved partial results then. However,
the "Valley of the Wolves" was shot by a private company, just like
"Midnight Express."

The series called "Separation," on the other hand, which was also
offensive for Israelis, was done for the state-owned TRT. So the
government could intervene there because it has a legal right to.

Given Turkey’s democratic and legal system, there was no way the
government could stop the airing of the "Valley of the Wolves." Only
prosecutors could act. But, considering the new EU-orientated legal
changes and the general sympathy for the Palestinians in this country,
it is unlikely that they would.

By not seeing the subtle difference here, and by going after the
"Valley of the Wolves" the way it did, Israel in fact provided all
the advertisement the series needs. It was exactly the same with
Midnight Express.

When the Turkish government lodged formal protests over that film
in Western capitals where it was being shown, it got the same answer
everywhere: "This is a matter that the government can not intervene
in because of our democratic system."

More to the point, however, when it became public knowledge that
Turkey was protesting the film, public interest in it skyrocketed,
even winning it an Oscar in the end.

The makers of "Valley of the Wolves" are now doubly defiant, saying
that if this part angered Israelis, they should wait for the next
one for which they can start getting angry for already.

Some say they want to dramatize the "Goldstone Report." And why should
they not then want to capitalize on the publicity Israel will provide
them, no matter how reprehensibly racist and anti-Semitic their final
product may be?

For this writer, both the "Valley of the Wolves," and the mentality
that produces such racist rubbish have always been reprehensible.

Whether it is "Midnight Express" or a Turkish production makes no
difference.

But that is beside the point; Ayalon has generated all the publicity
the "Valley of the Wolves" needs.

Even the Americans behaved sensibly when a previous film version
of the "Valley of the Wolves" depicted American soldiers as wanton
killers of women and children in Iraq. They kept quiet and provided
the movie with as little publicity as possible.

In the background of all this is of course Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s continuing harsh salvoes against Israel, which are
beginning to grate badly on Israeli and pro-Israeli nerves. He did
the same last week during the visit of the Lebanese Prime Minister.

Coincidentally, that came just as Ayalon was staging his amateur
theatrics in Israel, which incidentally had nothing to do with
Erdogan’s words, but concerned "The Valley of the Wolves."

Erdogan’s remarks, in which he accused Israel of attacking innocent
Palestinians, supported Iran’s nuclear program and sided with Lebanon
against Israel. The remarks merely made matters worse, of course.

It is clear that Erdogan’s sympathy for the people of Gaza – and his
open sympathy for Hamas – is clouding his judgment here as a leader,
even if his outbursts are causing much pleasure in the streets of
the Arab world.

Neither can one argue anymore that Erdogan is doing all this because
he is emotional. He seems to be pursuing a campaign aimed at reducing
ties with Israel to the benefit of Syria and Iran. Whatever the case
may be, he appears to be not too far away from achieving his aim.

It now remains up to Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense
Minister, Ehud Barak, to try and mend fences. Barak, who is known to
value ties with Turkey, will be in Ankara on Sunday.

The fact is, however, that Ankara has raised its stakes after Ayalon’s
antics. Of course Ayalon still remains defiant, even if he had to
formally apologize to Turkey in the end.

Israeli media quoted his office on Thursday as claiming that "Israel
will benefit from the manner in which Ayalon handled the crisis. The
result is that today Turkey will be more careful with its statements."

If these remarks are true, it is clear that Mr. Ayalon still has no
proper concept of the situation. He has caused a veritable flood
of statements from Turkey hitting at Israel in the hardest manner
possible.

In addition to this, if he thinks that "Turkey will be more careful
with its statements" in the future, then he hasn’t an inkling of a
notion about Erdogan.

At any rate, the whole world is now aware that a formal apology was
issued by him to Turkey.

Rather than continue making remarks that will most likely prove
to be untrue, he should ponder the reasons that forced him to
apologize to Turkey. That was clearly forced on him in order to save
already-strained ties with Turkey.

After all, Alon Liel, a former senior Israeli diplomat who knows
Turkey well, was quoted by the Financial Times on Thursday saying
that Israel needs Turkey more today than Turkey needs Israel.

The simple fact is that an Israel that is increasingly isolated in
the world could not risk loosing Turkey as well.

TURKISH PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION TO DISCUSS PROTOCOLS IN BAKU

news.az
Jan 14 2010
Azerbaijan

Mustafa Kabakchi "Ratification of protocols in the Turkish parliament
will depend on Armenia’s actions in the Karabakh settlement.

We will be looking forward the progress in this issue as we have
repeatedly stated".

Mustafa Kabakchi, head of the Azerbaijani-Turkish parliamentary group,
told the Public Television of Azerbaijan that the Turkish delegation
comprising the Azerbaijani-Turkish parliamentary group members is
expected to visit Baku in late January-early February.

According to Kabakchi, the terms of the visit are now being defined.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY TO INVESTIGATE WHO AND "PANDEMIC" SCANDAL
By F. William Engdahl

AZG DAILY
15-01-2010

Health Care

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will launch
an inquiry in January 2010 on the influence of the pharmaceutical
companies on the global swine flu campaign, focusing especially
on extent of the pharma’s industry’s influence on WHO. The Health
Committee of the PACE, a body representing 47 European nations
including Russia, has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the
inquiry. The step is a long-overdue move to public transparency of a
"Golden Triangle" of drug corruption between WHO, the pharma industry
and academic scientists that has permanently damaged the lives of
millions and even caused death.

The motion was introduced by Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, former SPD Member
of the German Bundestag and now chairman of the Health Committee of
PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe). Wodarg is a
medical doctor and epidemiologist, a specialist in lung disease and
environmental medicine, who considers the current "pandemic" Swine
Flu campaign of the WHO to be "one of the greatest medicine scandals
of the Century." [1]

The text of the resolution just passed by a sufficient number in the
Council of Europe Parliament says among other things, "In order to
promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical
companies influenced scientists and official agencies, responsible for
public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them
squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies
and needlessly expose millions of healthy people to the risk of an
unknown amount of side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines. The
"bird-flu"-campaign (2005/06) combined with the "swine-flu"-campaign
seem to have caused a great deal of damage not only to some vaccinated
patients and to public health-budgets, but to the credibility and
accountability of important international health-agencies." [2]

The Parliamentary inquiry will look into the issue of ~Dfalsified
pandemic" that was declared by WHO in June 2009 on the advice of
its group of academic experts, SAGE, many of whose members have been
documented to have intense financial ties to the same pharmaceutical
giants such as GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Novartis, who benefit from the
production of drugs and untested H1N1 vaccines. They will investigate
the influence of the pharma industry in creation of a worldwide
campaign against the so-called H5N1 "Avian Flu" and H1N1 Swine Flu.

The inquiry will be given "urgent" priority in the general assembly
of the parliament.

In his official statement to the Committee, Wodarg criticized the
influence of the pharma industry on scientists and officials of WHO,
stating that it has led to the situation where "unnecessarily millions
of healthy people are exposed to the risk of poorly tested vaccines,"
and that, for a flu strain that is "vastly less harmful" than all
previous flu epidemics.

Wodarg says the role of the WHO and its the pandemic emergency
declaration in June needs to be the special focus of the European
Parliamentary inquiry. For the first time, the WHO criteria for a
pandemic was changed in April 2009 as the first Mexico cases were
reported, to make not the actual risk of a disease but the number of
cases of the disease basis to declare "Pandemic." By classifying the
swine flu as pandemic, nations were compelled to implement pandemic
plans and also the purchase swine flu vaccines. Because WHO is not
subject to any parliamentary control, Wodarg argues it is necessary for
governments to insist on accountability. The inquiry will also to look
at the role of the two critical agencies in Germany issuing guidelines
on the pandemic, the Paul-Ehrlich and the Robert-Koch Institute.

F. William Engdahl is author of Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian
Democracy in the New World Order. He may be contacted through his
website,

Notes

1. Rainer Woratschka, Schweinerei mit der Grippe,
Der Tagesspiegel, 16 December, 2009, accessed in
l/Schweinegrippe-Europarat;art123,2976433.

2. Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, Motion for a Resolution and a
Recommendation: Faked Pandemics – a threat for health, accessed in