Author: Kafian Jirair

ARMENIA ON 113 HORIZONTAL BY FIFA RANKING TABLE

Panorama.am
17:13 17/12/2008

Today FIFA published the ranking table of national teams of different
countries. Compared with the previous month Armenian national team
retreated by three places and is currently on 113th horizontal in
FIFA ranking table.

The leaders of the ranking table are Spain, the Champion of Europe,
then Germany and Netherlands. Hence the top ten of the table is
as followed: 1. Spain (1663 points), 2. Germany (1381 points),
3. Netherlands (1338 points), 4. Italy (1326 points), 5. Brazil
(1246 points), 6. Argentina (1180 points), 7. Croatia (1142 points),
8. England (1115 points), 9. Russia (1103 points) and 10. Turkey
(1016 points).

NAGORNO-KARABAKH AUTHORITIES HAVE RECEIVED NO DOCUMENT

Lragir.am
17:27:31 – 16/12/2008

NKR foreign minister answers the questions of reporters

At the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Helsinki, 4 and 5 December,
the Azerbaijani delegation circulated a document, summarizing
its viewpoints on the principles of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement. What is Stepanakert`s position with respect to those
principles?

The attempts of the Azerbaijani party to impose on the mediators
and the world community in general, using different international
forums, its own vision of both the conflict between Nagorno Karabakh
and Azerbaijan, and the ways of its settlement are not a novelty. In
the framework of this policy, Baku resorts to different techniques,
in particular, presents itself as a victim of its own aggression
launched against the people of NKR and uses slogans for European
values and democracy as a cover for its goals.

Meanwhile, the latest statements by the Azerbaijani leadership, in
particular, the peculiar interpretation of provisions of the Moscow
Declaration by Ilham Aliyev, i.e the political settlement of the
conflict does not exclude use of force, as well as the above-mentioned
Azerbaijani principles of conflict settlement demonstrate all the
hypocrisy of the Azerbaijani diplomacy and thwart all the efforts
of the international community to find ways of peaceful resolution
of the conflict. Moreover, this kind of ac tions by Azerbaijan show
not only disrespect for the international mediators` work, but also
create an impression of Azerbaijan as an improper partner, which is
ready to denounce a previous agreement the very next day.

Have there been any changes in the position of official Baku towards
the settlement of the conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan
since 1988?

At all stages of the conflict development, Azerbaijan has been and
continues to be the main bearer of the idea of military resolution
of the conflict.

Counting on power turned into ethnic pogroms and expulsion of Armenians
from Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad and other parts of the former Azerbaijani
SSR, which was followed by operation "Koltso" (Ring) on deportation
of the population of Armenian villages of the Shahoumian, Hadrout
and Shoushi regions of Nagorno Karabakh. During the military phase
of the conflict, Baku time and again moved away from restrictions and
termination of hostilities, frustrated cease-fire agreements, was the
first and repeated violator of the four UN Security Council Resolutions
on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and did not comprehensively and
promptly fulfill a single requirement of the resolutions. After the
cease-fire, the leadership of Azerbaijan has been actively and in
quantity purchasing offensive weapons, thus promoting arms race,
as well as continues threatening the Nagorno Karabakh Republic with
resumption of hostilities.The readiness to risk regional peace, a
basic precondition for social-economic development and realization
of international investment projects, makes the policy of official
Baku a serious threat not only to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,
but also to regional peace and security.

Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of the intention to impose a fait accompli
based solution.

The current status quo is the result of aggression and consequent
hostilities of Azerbaijan against NKR and its people. As an
initiator of the war, Azerbaijan carries full responsibility for the
consequences. The existing status quo is the minimum that allowed
guaranteeing the security and independence of NKR and its people
under Azerbaijani aggression. The policy of the NKR authorities is
directed to maintaining peace and guaranteeing the irreversibility
of the process of establishment of long-time stability in the
region. Changing the status quo, as we see it, will inevitably lead
to destabilization of the situation and escalation of tensions with
a possible resumption of hostilities.

During the years of Soviet rule, the leadership of the Azerbaijani SSR,
including "national leader" Heydar Aliyev, was trying to make Nagorno
Karabakh not self-sufficient and dependent on Baku, first of all with
their attempts to change the demographic composition of the population.

This was also the case while drawing the borders of the former Nago rno
Karabakh autonomous region. Today, they are trying to return Nagorno
Karabakh into the past. However these attempts are doomed to failure.

Has the Nagorno Karabakh party received the "technical document",
which according to the information, provided by the French Co-chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group, was presented to the parties in Helsinki in
the framework of the OSCE Ministerial Council?

The Nagorno Karabakh authorities have not received this document yet;
however as a party to the conflict, acknowledged as such in accordance
with OSCE basic documents on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, we expect
to get it soon from the Minsk Group Co-chairs.

ARA SARAFIAN: THE DARLING OF DENIALIST TURKISH MEDIA
By Appo Jabarian

Noyan Tapan

Dec 15, 2008

Ara Sarafian, the head of the London-based Gomidas Institute,
has become the darling of the denialist Turkish media. The
November 24 issue of Hurriyet ("Liberty"), a Turkish secular,
conservative-nationalist broadsheet daily newspaper, and notorious for
its Armenian genocide denialism, has made a headline of Mr. Sarafian’s
anti-Armenian comment: "We cannot compare the Armenian genocide with
the Holocaust. Those who were banished from their land suffered a
lot but survived."

Mr. Sarafian sounds more like a denialist than an Armenian that is
devoted to the pursuit of justice for his people. In reality, the
Armenian Genocide does differ from the Jewish Holocaust. While Jews
were killed en masse in foreign lands — Germany and Vichy France —
Armenians were systematically annihilated in their ancestral lands in
Western Armenia and Cilicia. But sadly, that’s not what Mr. Sarafian
is pointing out. He is effectively saying that no Genocide occured
in Turkish-occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia.

If this is the result of his numerous Ankara-funded trips to the
Turkish archives, one can tell what’s in store for Armenians
through the Turkish-promoted joint commission of Armenian and
Turkish historians that Sarafian, a self-proclaimed reconciliator,
so enthusiastically proposes in the Hurriyet article.

Mr. Sarrafian and his likes need to be reminded that Ankara has long
been willing to recognize the Armenian Genocide provided that the
Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora do not demand the return of
the Turkish-occupied Armenian territories.

By "offering" to form a "joint commission" of historians, Turkey is
effectively plotting to undermine the political gains achieved in the
Diaspora and to reduce the international recognition of the genocide
to "he said, she said" type of political dead-end which can reverse
all the achievements by the Diaspora to the benefit of denialist
Ankara. And I am sorry to remark that Sarafian seems to be all too
willing to become a tool in the hands of these denialists.

Sarafian also said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer
to Armenia to establish a commission of historians to resolve the
Armenian issue was positive, but Armenia was the wrong address. The
solution should start from the diaspora.

Denialist Turkish Officialdom knew that, but what they didn’t know
and were pleasantly surprised to know that there is a member of that
"huge and influential diaspora" who would be willing to sell out his
people’s Cause.

For some time, Ankara has been working diligently to recruit certain
elements of the diaspora that are willing to trade their own lands
for a ‘horse.’

A few days ago, just before I left for France, I visited with an
Armenian beef jerky ("abukhd" or "basturma") manufacturer in Hollywood,
California.

The " abukhd" ("basturma") maker joyfully said how proud he was
because the Consul General of Turkey in Los Angeles had visited his
store and bought some beef jerkys and "kissed" his hand. I told him:
"If things continue the way they’ve been evolving in the diaspora,
and the Armenians continue to consolidate their political and economic
power, he would one day kiss other parts of your body as well. "

It seems like Ara Sarafian has already become one of the few Diaspora
recipients of these "kisses."

In contrast to Sarafian’s and his denialist handlers’ actions, just
recently, notable Turkish conservative historians and other professors
have publicly apologized for the Armenian genocide of 1915 but have
fallen short of calling on the state to do the same.

Even then, righteous historian Ayse Hur said apologizing is the duty
of those who were responsible for the act or for those who share
their arguments. "It seems that a very elite group discussed that
petition, because I learnt about this petition from the media and I
was surprised, …

I approach these types of events as a scientist, as a historian,
not as a member of the Turkish nation. For me, all these events
were the fault of Turkish nationalism flourishing at that time, and
personally, I don’t identify with it, so I do not feel the need to
apologize personally." (Daily Zaman, Dec 9).

She also pointed out that the petitioners are concentrating only on
1915; however, she says there were events after and before. "There is
a state tradition which legitimizes all these events and prevents any
discussion about them. Firstly, the state has to ensure a suitable
atmosphere to discuss all these things; then it has to apologize on
behalf of the perpetrators and for itself, because it has legitimized
their actions through the years."

That is why, first and foremost, Turkey needs to form a joint
Turkish-Turkish commission formed by Turkish academicians who already
recognize the genocide and by those that deny it. It is after the
Turks come to a consensus on the genocide that an Armenian-Turkish
joint commission becomes warranted in order to formulate various
settlement options regarding the reparation for the immense real and
personal losses inflicted on the victims and the return of the lands
of Western Armenia by Turkey in compliance with the Treaty of Sevres.

IRAN, ARMENIA EYE MORE ENERGY, DEVELOPMENTAL PARTNERSHIP

Iranian Students News Agency ISNA
Dec 15 2008
Iran

TEHRAN, Dec. 15 (ISNA)-Iran and Armenia eye more energy and
developmental partnership after their gas pipeline was inaugurated
on December 2.

The pipeline with an approximate capacity of 2.3 billion cubic meters
of gas annually will import Iran’s gas to Armenia.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki meeting with Armenian Energy
and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisyan said Iran is ready to
expand cooperation with the neighboring country in developmental and
industrial projects.

Also expressing satisfaction over the cease of negative impact of
Ossetia conflicts on Armenia he added "Tehran and Yerevan are friends
of hardships and merry times."

Movsisyan who is in Tehran for the 8th joint economic commission of
the two countries underlined the progress in bilateral ties.

SOME AZERI FORCES CALL FOR NEW WAR AND EVEN JIHAD

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.12.2008 15:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The League of Nations once rejected Azerbaijan’s
membership bid over its territorial claims. Years later, official Baku
renounced the soviet legal and political heritage, thus recognizing
that it had been forcibly keeping Nagorno Karabakh as a part of its
territory in the course of 70 years, according to an advisor to the
NKR Foreign Minister.

"Azerbaijan’s war against Nagorno Karabakh can be rated to
international terrorism, genocide and ethnic cleansing with a purpose
of total annihilation of NKR population and destruction of cultural
monuments," Ruben Zargaryan wrote in "Karabakh Reconquista" peace of
opinion obtained by PanARMENIAN.Net.

"The genocidal policy of the Azerbaijani authorities against Armenians
in late 1980ies and early 1990ies should be condemned. Azeri war
criminals should stand international tribunal. Instead, Azerbaijan is
building up the military potential; some forces call for a news war
and even jihad. Azerbaijan is as an aggressor state, whose territories
[in compliance with the international practice], can be separated to
prevent a new aggression," he said.

CSTO LEADERS TO GATHER IN ASTANA

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.12.2008 15:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev invited heads
of CSTO member states to Astana to discuss further activities of the
organization, CSTO Deputy Secretary-General Toksatyn Buzubayev told
a news conference today.

"CSTO Secretaries of Security Councils will meet in Yerevan on December
9 and 10 to consider efforts to combat terrorism, extremism, illegal
migration and consequences of emergency situations," he said.

Currently, Armenia holds the rotating presidency in the Collective
Security Treaty Organization which also includes Russia, Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

ARMENIA TO JOIN RUSSIAN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION ON CAUCASUS AS OBSERVER

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.12.2008 17:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia’s council of legislators will approve
formation of a standing parliamentary committee on Caucasus, according
to Alexander Torshin, the first vice-speaker of the Federation Council.

The new structure will deal with the situation in Northern Caucasus
republic develop stabilization plans.

The commission will include South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia,
Azerbaijan and Armenia as observers, Vedomosti newspaper reports.

TURKISH INTELLECTUALS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN OF APOLOGY TO ARMENIANS

Vatan
Dec 4 2008
Turkey

A group of intellectuals, which includes university faculty members
and journalists, is launching a signature campaign regarding the
Armenian deportations of 1915. The name of the campaign, which will
begin on the internet at the new year, is "I apologize."

The things that took place during the 1915 Armenian deportations,
which the Armenians term the "Medz Yeghen", or "Great Catastrophe,"
are coming onto the agenda once again with the signature campaign. Led
by Professor Ahmet Insel, Professor Baskin Oran, Dr Cengiz Aktar, and
journalist and writer Ali Bayramoglu, the campaign, which will begin
on the internet with the new year, is named "I apologize." The text of
the campaign includes the following: "My conscience does not accept
indifference towards the Great Disaster that the Ottoman Armenians
suffered in 1915, nor its denial today. I reject this injustice, share
for my own part the feelings and the pain of my Armenian brothers,
and I apologize to them." A different path from the usual campaigns
will be followed in the campaign, upon which agreement was reached only
after lengthy debate. The goal is to secure as much participation as
possible on the internet over a year. Professor Insel, from Galatasaray
University, describes the campaign as an individual stance in the face
of historical responsibility. Professor Insel said: "We citizens have
the right, independent of official policy, to express our own views
regarding the history of Turkey. The campaign should not be turned
into grist for politics." Dr Cengiz Aktar, a faculty member in the
Economic and Administrative Sciences Faculty of Bahcesehir University,
also spoke with Vatan regarding the campaign.

[Q] How did the campaign come about?

[A] We set out on the basis of the view that the time had come, and
indeed was overdue, for a campaign that stressed the individual, and
individual sensitivity. We aim at making it a very broad campaign,
probably at the new year.

[Q] What is the goal of the campaign?

[A] The things that befell the Armenians are phenomena that are very
little known in Turkey, but were incited, and then people have been
made to forget them. Turks have generally heard about these issues
from their elders, from their grandparents. But the issue has never
been able to become an objective historical narrative. For this
reason, a great many people in Turkey today believe in complete good
faith that nothing happened to the Armenians. The view that this
was a very secondary issue, and indeed proceeded in the form of
reciprocal massacres, and was a sort of "normal affair" explained
by the conditions of World War I, has been repeated endlessly for
years now by official history. But the realities are, unfortunately,
very different. Perhaps there is one sole fact, and that is that,
in the final analysis, there are no longer any Armenians in Anatolia,
but the other elements, the Turks and the Kurds, are still here. The
subject of this campaign is individuals. This is a voice coming from
the conscience of the individual. Those who are sorry will apologize,
while those who are not will not.

[Q] Why is an apology being made?

[A] An apology is being made because throughout all this time, and
it will be almost 100 years, it has been impossible to mention this
topic or speak of it openly.

A First From France: Armenian Draft Not Being Brought Before Senate

The government in France has, for the first time, openly come out
against a draft law being put onto the agenda of the Senate that would
count rejection of the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 events
as a crime. The Minister Responsible for Local Administrations,
Alain Marleix, responding to an oral parliamentary question from
Socialist Party Deputy Rene Rouquet in the Assembly, said that the
government does not want to put the draft law, which was passed in
the Parliament in 2006, onto the agenda of the Senate. The French
Minister called for "parliamentary deputies to avoid interfering in
the work of historians" and pointed out that Turkey would react if
the draft were to be adopted.

ARMENIA ACCUSES AZERBAIJAN OF "IGNORING" MOSCOW DECLARATION ON KARABAKH

Mediamax
Dec 3 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 3 December: The Armenian side believes that the distorted
comments on the Moscow declaration voiced in Azerbaijan and the
attempts to ignore its provisions hinder the efficiency of the
negotiation process and its progress.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan said this at a meeting
with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur on Karabakh, Goran
Lennmarker, the head of the media relations department of the Armenian
Foreign Ministry’s press service, Tigran Balayan, has told a special
correspondent of the Mediamax news agency in Helsinki.

Nalbandyan also said that Armenia attaches importance to parliamentary
diplomacy, considering it an efficient format for overcoming discords.

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS TO ATTEND FUNERAL OF PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA ALEXY II

ArmInfo
2008-12-08 15:51:00

ArmInfo. On December 8 Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II is
leaving for Moscow to attend the funeral of Patriarch of Moscow and All
Russia Alexy II, the press-service of Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin
told ArmInfo correspondent. To note, according to the decision of
the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, the funeral will take
place at Epiphany Cathedral on December 9. Meanwhile, thousands of
Christians continue visiting the Temple of Christ the Savior, where
the service for Alexy II is being held.