Author: Kamalian Hagop

MOBILE PHONE SALES DECREASED BY 13% IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2009

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2009 17:02 GMT+04:00

Mobile phone sales decreased by 13% in the first quarter of 2009
compared with 2008 results. The result became an anti record of
the last 8 years. According to Strategy Analytics research company,
245 million mobile phones were sold worldwide in the first quarter
of 2009. Global financial crisis is cited as a reason for sales
slump. Nokia mobile market leader has registered a slump of 19%
over the quarter. Finnish company’s market share decreased to 38%
(previously: 41%). Motorola, most inflicted by crisis, has registered a
slump of 46% in sales, and 4% in market share (6% instead of previously
registered 10%) Motorola ceded it’s previously occupied 3rd place
to LG, which currently has 9% of mobile market share. SonyEricsson
still holds the 5th place. Yet, the company’s sales fell by 40% and
the market share is fixed at 5,9% (previously: 8%). Apple became the
only company to register significant growth in sales. Still it hasn’t
been included on the list of top 5 mobile phone manufacturers.

ARFD DASHNAKTSUTYUN INTRODUCED ITS PRE-ELECTION PROGRAM

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2009 18:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In a public meeting held today in Moscow cinema, ARFD
Dashnaktsutyun introduced its pre-election program for the upcoming
elections of Mayor. The party’s main areas of concern are related
to the spheres of town building, as well as financial-budgetary,
economic, social, cultural, educational, healthcare, transportation
and youth issues.

In his public speech, ARFD parliamentarian Armen Roustamyan
particularly notes, "We consider these elections not only an
administrative but also a political issue. Some forces overvalue
while others undervalue their significance. We must be the force
maintaining a balance between these two extremes."

IN ORDER TO KEEP HIS HOLD ON POWER, SERGE SARGSYAN HAS SOLD THE GENOCIDE AND HIS NEXT STEP IS GOING TO BE TO SELL KARABAKH: LEVON TER-PETROSYAN

ArmInfo
2009-05-01 18:10:00

ArmInfo. The unprecedented shifts in the Armenian-Turkish relations
that we see today deserve a special assessment since they concern one
of the most vital issues of the development of the Armenian statehood,
the first president of Armenia, the leader of the Armenian National
Congress Levon Ter- Petrossyan said during an opposition rally today.

The press service of the Armenian National Congress quotes
Ter-Petrosyan as saying: "I should stress immediately that with the
exception of one of its member- organizations, the Armenian National
Congress is in favor of a speedy normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations, and is ready to support all the positive steps of the
Armenian authorities with regard to this issue. We only object to the
creation of a special commission of Armenian and Turkish historians
to study the Genocide, which we think can only mean denial of the
Armenian Genocide.

Now let us see how the aforementioned shifts are manifested. It is
clear that as a result of the contacts between Armenian and Turkish
diplomats a working document has been created, which contains the
following items:

– The establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey;

– Mutual recognition of borders;

– Opening of the Armenian-Turkish border;

– Creation of a commission consisting of Armenian and Turkish
historians.

Subsequently this document was branded a "roadmap," and some of its
details were made public. Whatever its name, it seems that we are
dealing with a serious intention to normalize the relations between
the two states, especially when we take into account the impression
that Turkey seems to have relinquished its unconstructive policy of
making the resolution of the Karabakh conflict a precondition for the
ormalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. But there are two issues
that are casting a dark shadow over that impression. The idea of a
commission of Armenian and Turkish historians was obviously going to
create certain difficulties for the Armenian side, so in the end it has
succeeded in renaming the commission as intergovernmental. But that is
only a way of pulling a veil over the issue and using a euphemism that
intends to placate the Armenian people, because the intergovernmental
commission is also going to have a unit of historians, which leaves the
essence of the problem unchanged. The Turkish side also cannot ignore
the pressure from the Azerbaijani public and its own opposition, and
therefore it is going to have to return to its prior position. In
other words, despite the optimistic predictions, the relations
between Armenia and Turkey are not going to get normalized and the
Armenian-Turkish border is not going to be opened as long as tangible
progress has been made in the efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

We have to wonder then what the purpose of all this noise was.

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is going to have a bitter
taste for the Armenian people. The whole problem is that aside from
the general disposition to normalize the relations, Turkey had another
minimal and specific aim, which was to prevent the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide by the US President Barak Obama and the American
Congress at any cost. Turkey has reached its goal, Armenia has been
left empty-handed, and the Diaspora has been disillusioned. The
first half of the football diplomacy has ended with a score of 1:0
in Turkey’s favor.

Turkish leaders presented Barak Obama with the aforementioned document
worked out by Armenian and Turkish diplomats, and as could be expected,
easily convinced him that serious process has been launched to
normalize the Armenian- Turkish relations. With praiseworthy candor
Obama declared that he has not changed his view on the Armenian
Genocide, but as is fitting to a statesman, explained that he is not
going to impede that process, implying that the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide is being pulled out of the US agenda for now.

Is it appropriate to accuse Turkey and the US in hypocrisy? Not at all.

Turkey achieved its main goal at this stage, displaying enviable
diplomatic dexterity. And the president of the USA acted as any
responsible leader would have acted in the circumstances. If there
is any need to look for targets for our accusations, the Armenian
authorities of the last 11 years represented by Robert Kocharian,
Vardan Oskanyan, Serge Sargsyan, and Edward Nalbandian should be
those targets, since they are the ones who have desecrated the sacred
memory of the Genocide turning it into an object of political auction
and bargaining.

And they did that not in the name of some lofty national goal or
in order to strengthen our state, but exclusively for the pitiful
purpose of gaining Diaspora’s favor and earning certain dividends in
our internal politics.

In this regard it is quite interesting to trace the evolution of
their utterly bankrupt and harmful policy:

– The first thing the Kocharian administration did was to declare
as treasonous the previous administration’s policy of establishing
normal relations with Turkey without any preconditions.

– The international recognition of the Genocide was declared as the
cornerstone of Armenia’s foreign policy, which was also boastfully
submitted to Turkey as a rational basis for normalizing the relations.

– When after resisting for a long time they realized that the road
they chose led to a deadlock, they returned to the same policy of
establishing normal relations with Turkey without preconditions,
which they had declared treasonous, inadvertently exposing Armenia’s
weakness and giving Turkey an opportunity to harden its position.

– Both as a result of this objective reason, and in order to solve
the problem of his legitimacy, Serge Sargsyan went to an even more
dangerous extreme of agreeing to an almost forgotten proposal made by
Recep Erdogan years ago about establishing a commission of Armenian
and Turkish historians to study the Genocide.

It is this string of political wanderings, myopic steps, and
irresponsible actions that produced the results of Obama’s visit to
Turkey. Of course, one cannot insist that had it not been for the
aforementioned process launched to normalize the Armenian-Turkish
relations, Obama already as president of the USA would have uttered the
word "genocide" in his 24 April address, or that the American Congress
would have passed a resolution recognizing the Genocide. Situations
like this have existed in the past, but things never got to that
point. But the situation is substantially different this time, because
unlike in the past, this time the formal excuse is Serge Sargsyan’s
ill-fated initiative to have a rapprochement with Turkey at any cost,
including the cost of renunciation of the Genocide. Thus without a
shred of exaggeration we have to conclude: In order to keep his hold
on power, Serge Sargsyan has literally sold the Genocide. Without
a doubt his next step is going to be to sell Karabakh, after which
naturally he will be the first Armenian to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

I am being kind. I am sure Sargsyan’s behavior is going to attract
much more ruthless assessments from the radical circles in Armenia,
and especially in the Diaspora. Justice demands, however, that we
apportion at least part of the blame to the chiefs of the Diaspora, who
not only never warned the Armenian authorities about the dangers and
harmfulness of putting the issue of the international recognition of
Genocide on the state’s official agenda, but encouraged the latter’s
efforts and praised their "heroics" in the end getting what they
got. The enormous effort and financial resources invested by the
Diaspora for the cause of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide
thus were wasted in one day. It is difficult to imagine how the
situation can be remedied and the loss recovered.

Even with all this, even with the sad result with which the current
process of normalizing the Armenian-Turkish relations has ended, it
is not at all devoid of positive elements. Turkey’s natural interest
in the normalization of the Armenian- Turkish relations on the one
hand, and the linking of that normalization to expected shifts in the
Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, on the other, creates a certain impetus
for pushing the process settling the Karabakh conflict forward. The
fact that the circumstances have forced President Obama to assume moral
responsibility is also a positive development, which obligates the
country he governs to get more actively and impartially involved both
in the process of normalizing the Armenian-Turkish relations and in
the process of finding a resolution to the Karabakh conflict. Barak
Obama is an idealist in the best sense of the word. It is well
known that although the world is usually governed by pragmatic and
cynical people, civilization moves forward thanks to the occasionally
appearing idealists. And by idealist I do not mean ideologues, but
rather the rare statesmen, who have firm principles of morality,
honor, and justice."

TURKEY GOES COLD ON EU

AsiaOne
BNews/World/Story/A1Story20090429-138226.html
Apri l 29 2009

ANKARA, Turkey – Many Turks wonder whether their country will ever
get a chance to join the European Union and experts say they are
increasingly disappointed at the slow pace of talks with the EU.

Five years after the EU took in 10 extra members on May 1, 2004,
Turkey’s own accession talks, which started in 2005, hinge on resolving
a trade row with Cyprus and overcoming deep reservations in France,
Germany and other members about letting in the mainly Muslim nation.

Cyprus has been divided between ethnic Turkish and Greek sides
since 1974.

Turkey refuses to open its air and sea ports to the pro-Greek Republic
of Cyprus, a country it does not recognise.

That prompted Brussels in 2006 to suspend talks on eight of the 35
policy chapters on joining the EU.

"The Cyprus question is blocking the progress Turkey could
make. Without a solution to this problem, we will not see the end of
the tunnel," Sinem Akmese of the Economic Policy Reserach Foundation
of Turkey (TEPAV) said.

Ankara has vowed to bar Cypriot vessels from its ports unless the EU
honours a promise to ease trade restrictions on the breakaway Turkish
Republic of Cyprus.

Greek Cypriot objections have held up this move.

Now the clock is ticking on an end of 2009 deadline set by the EU
for Turkey to meet its obligations.

"We may not see a deadlock, but a freeze in bilateral ties is probable
unless the EU gives Turkey one more year" to respect its commitments,
said Mehmet Ozcan, director of the Centre for European Union Studies
at the Ankara-based think-tank USAK.

Concessions on Cyprus could easily be branded by Turks as a sell-out
and would sap dwindling public appetite for the EU bid, which has
become something of a national cause.

Turkey is hoping for a breakthrough in UN-led peace talks held between
Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders on reunifying their island.

A deal there would allow it to move on the Cyprus row without
attracting public ire. "For the time being Turkey is not ready to
move" before results in the Cyprus peace talks, Turkey’s chief EU
negotiator Egemen Bagis said at a recent press briefing.

Turks are increasingly disappointed with the slow pace of the EU drive,
said Ozcan.

They felt that the bloc was keeping them hanging on even though Turkey
has passed a "great number" of reforms to align itself with the EU,
he added.

The latest was the introduction in January of a Kurdish-language
channel by Turkey’s public broadcaster in response to EU demands to
improve minority rights.

Until the early 1990s, the Kurdish language was banned in the
country. "Turks have a real problem seeing the light at the end of
the tunnel," Ozcan said.

"The public is asking itself what they got in return for all these
efforts."

Since the launch of membership talks, Turkey has so far only opened
10 of the 35 required chapters.

Its reform programme has been almost at a standstill since 2007,
paralysed by political tensions between the Islamist-rooted government
and secularist opposition forces, as well as elections.

"Ankara is not going to open the EU door without democratic reform,
but discouraging statements from European leaders do not please the
Turks," Ozcan said.

France and Germany have been vocal opponents of letting Turkey into
the EU.

Despite the problems, US President Barack Obama’s strong support for
Turkey’s EU bid – voiced at an EU summit in Prague and a visit to
Turkey just after – has created a "dynamism" in favour of Ankara,
said one Turkish diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Last week, Turkey announced it had agreed on a roadmap with Armenia
to mend ties poisoned by allegations of an Ottoman-era genocide
against Armenians.

That could also be a "trump card" for Ankara in its dealings with
Brussels, he added. -AFP

LIBERAL TURKS CALL POGROM A ‘GENOCIDE’
By Iason Athanasiadis

Washington Times
liberal-turks-call-pogrom-a-genocide/
April 30 2009

Lend credence to the stance of Armenians about history

ISTANBUL | A group of Istanbul’s liberal intelligentsia clustered
outside the Tutun Deposu gallery, an old tobacco warehouse in a
working-class neighborhood of Istanbul to mark the anniversary of a
1915 pogrom.

Inside the renovated building, an all-female choir performed a
selection of folk songs from the musical traditions of minorities
persecuted during the last spasms of the Ottoman Empire.

"The reason we call what happened a genocide," said Eren Keskin, a
Turkish lawyer with a history of challenging the state, "is because the
destruction wreaked on these lands was not just to the Armenians, but
to their culture, too. Buildings, churches and cemeteries were razed."

One of the most emotional issues bedeviling Turkish society today
is what exactly happened in 1915 to Turkey’s Armenian minority. The
Ottoman Empire was collapsing as a new republic emerged. Newly released
files of Ottoman official Enver Pasha reveal the disappearance of
almost a million ethnic Armenians from population records between
1915 and 1916.

The Istanbul-based think tank European Stability Initiative issued a
report on the eve of the April 24 anniversary criticizing the Turkish
government for spending considerable political capital on fighting
pro-genocide campaigns. "This is a battle Turkey cannot win," the
report said.

The day before the anniversary, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced
it was moving to end its 16-year blockade of Armenia that was imposed
as a gesture to fellow Turkish ally Azerbaijan resulting from a 1993
war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

However, bad blood between Turkey and Armenia goes back further,
to the Cold War that pitted Turkey against Armenia, which was then
part of the Soviet Union.

During his election campaign, President Obama promised America’s
Armenian community to recognize the 1915 pogrom as genocide.

He backed away from his pledge after a successful visit to Turkey
in April, during which he is credited with helping to broker a
breakthrough in Turkish-Armenian relations.

Turkish society has largely ignored the events of 1915, which
go untaught in public schools. Children hear little about the
disappearance of their Armenian compatriots on forced marches across
the Ottoman Empire’s former Arab provinces of Syria and Iraq.

Inside the anniversary ceremony, black-and-white images were broadcast
on a screen of some of the 250 Armenian notables detained in Istanbul
in 1915, at the beginning of the persecution.

"Turkish society has been led to think that on 24 April, Armenian
terrorists and criminals were arrested," said Ayse Gunaysu, one
of the organizers. "But they were lawyers, jurists, publishers,
intellectuals."

The event organized by the Turkish Human Rights Association (THRA)
is only the second public commemoration of the 1915 events in the
Turkish Republic’s 86-year history.

"Twenty years ago, this would have been impossible," said publisher
Rober Koptas, pointing at the activity around him. "In the long run,
what we’re doing today will give us a space to talk about issues such
as the Armenian question, democratization and freedom of speech."

About 150 participants crowding into the art gallery knew well not
to tread on red lines in a country where "insulting Turkishness"
is a punishable crime.

In 2007, a prominent Armenian newspaper publisher was assassinated
by right-wing extremists, sparking mass protests.

"As long as it’s not seen as a straightforward political meeting,
it doesn’t upset the nationalists," said Adnan Eksigil, the owner
of Tutun Deposu and director of a cultural organization involved in
resuscitating the cultures of Anatolia.

Turkey admits that hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished in
1915 but presents its own actions as legitimate self-defense. It
blames the killings variously on the fog of war or on the purported
collaboration of its Armenian citizens with an uprising sponsored by
czarist Russia. Nationalist circles sometimes support the ethnic
cleansing of Turkey’s minorities as an essential component in
constructing an ethnically homogeneous modern state.

In December, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul publicly stated that the
deportation of Greeks and Armenians was a "very important step"
in the construction of a Muslim national bourgeoisie.

"If there were Greeks in the Aegean and Armenians in most places in
Turkey today, would it be the same nation-state?" Mr. Gonul asked.

"I don’t know what words I can use to explain the importance of the
population exchange, but if you look at the former state of affairs,
its importance will become very clear."

Kerem Oktem, a research associate at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford
University, said that Mr. Gonul’s remarks, while racist, also
reflect a widely held consensus "that the emergence of modern Turkey
was predicated upon the removal or destruction of its non-Muslim
communities."

Today, there are signs that Turkish society is opening up to the
idea of debating its past. Two films have been released in the past
year that challenge the official narrative: an examination of a 1955
state-sponsored pogrom against the Greeks and a biography of Turkish
leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that breaches historical taboos, such
as his drinking habit.

In December, 200 Turkish intellectuals launched an Internet petition
titled "I Apologize."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted angrily, saying there was
"no reason" to apologize. Sixty former ambassadors rallied to publicly
call the petition an act of betrayal.

However, such debates hardly percolate beyond elite intellectual and
political circles. In the working-class neighborhood around Tutun
Deposu, none of the locals accepted there had been a genocide.

"I don’t think the Turks were involved in a genocide," said Mustafa
Ozel, a worker in a print shop. "Since the Ottoman period, we Turks
have been peaceful and based our behavior on justice and a peaceful
society."

Feyzi Atak owns the Bahceli Cafe next to the Tutun Deposu gallery. His
exclusively male clientele gathers throughout the day to play cards,
drink tea and smoke cigarettes. The often unemployed locals from the
surrounding area were poles apart from the sophisticated crowd inside
the gallery.

"I’m against the debate of what our grandparents did to each other,"
said Mr. Atak as he sat alongside two friends, one of whom wears
a lapel pin of the Turkish flag. "It just clouds our children’s
judgment."

"The Armenians are wrong to make such a fuss about it," said Fatma
Ciftci, a passer-by. "The Armenians maintained very good historical
records while the Ottomans didn’t, and that was the gravest historical
mistake we made."

Turkey recently announced that it has opened up its Ottoman-era
historical archives to inspection. Though the term "genocide" had
not been coined yet in 1915, the U.S. ambassador at the time found a
more-graphic term to describe the events in his urgent reports to the
State Department, describing the systematic slaughtering of Armenians
as "race murder."

Iason Athanasiadis is reporting from Turkey on a grant from the
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

ANOTHER ORIENT

Al-Ahram Weekly

April 30 2009
Egypt

Eva Dadrian looks at the variety of life of Armenians resident in Egypt
today and the multi-faceted nature of the jobs they undertake from
archaeology to Egyptology, and contemporary Armenian studies to history

The Centre for Armenian Studies (CAS) at Cairo University was created
in 2007 to foster the interdisciplinary study of the Armenian language,
literature, civilisation and history through academic research,
workshops and seminars.

Despite the historical ties between the Arab countries and Armenians,
there has been no previous attempt to create such a centre. Housed
in the Faculty of Arts, CAS is indeed the first and only academic
nucleus totally dedicated to Armenian studies in the entire Middle
East region. It took many years for the Armenian community and the
Egyptian authorities to realise the importance of setting up such an
academic institution. "This shortcoming should be shared by both,"
admits Zeinab Abu Senna, the centre’s first director and a specialist
in Turkish language and literature. She explains that the Armenians,
who arrived in Egypt and in the rest of the Arab world after World
War I, were mainly concerned with survival, family reunion, educating
their children and building a decent life for their offspring, "so
we cannot blame them for not having envisioned the setting up of such
an institution."

On the other hand, she also admits that the authorities in the region,
who had welcomed them, have only recently come to realise that
"within the context of such sustained Armenian presence in the Arab
world and in view of the expansion of the inter-communal relations,
a centre was an inevitable requirement to know more about the other
civilisation and reinvigorate relations. A journey of one thousand
miles starts with the first step."

In less than two years, CAS has become a hub of intensive academic
activities, organising lectures, seminars and also publishing research
papers and conference proceedings. Three books have already been
published and soon, says Abu Senna, the centre will publish a book
about Nubar Pasha, the Armenian Egyptian statesman who served three
times as prime minister of Egypt, once under Khedive Ismail, and
then twice under Khedive Tawfiq, and who is revered by all Egyptian
intellectuals and academics. For the time being, the centre has only
one room but its director hopes that it will be allocated more space
in the near future, "to expand our academic activities and house a
larger library" she adds. A week ago, a visiting group of librarians
and officials from the US Library of Congress promised to donate a
variety of books and publications to enhance the small but already
growing library.

A core component of the centre’s outreach work involves organising
seminars and workshops. These are attended by students, researchers and
lecturers from the faculties of history, arts and various departments
of Oriental languages. Two international conferences organised since
the CAS was established have brought together researchers, scholars
and specialists from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Armenia, all
working in the field of Armenian history, language and literature. The
proceedings of the conference on "Arab-Armenian Relations, Past and
Present" held in April 2008 have just been published, and "this year,"
says Abu Senna, "we had the pleasure of welcoming the former Armenian
ambassador to Syria. He is a highly qualified academic and his modesty
surprised us all because he attended our conference in his capacity
as a researcher and not as a diplomat. His contribution was greatly
appreciated by all present and especially by me."

In line with its interdisciplinary approach, a regular series of
lectures and seminars bring together specialists from different
Egyptian faculties and academic institutions. "Our aim is to hold
these events in conjunction with an academic programme focussing mainly
on Armenian language, civilisation and history," says Abu Senna. The
seminars and lectures are unique in their intensive cultural immersion
and the enlightening educational forays which challenge students
and researchers to reach new levels of intellectual curiosity and
achievement.

By inviting Professor Nicolai Hovhanissian, director of the Institute
of Oriental Studies of the University of Yerevan, Armenia, to
its first international conference, CAS has given a new impetus
to Armenian-Egyptian relations. There is no doubt that this will
encourage the establishment of official and stronger ties between
the two academic institutions. Wider cooperation will increase
understanding and appreciation on both sides. With the backing of
the Armenian Embassy in Cairo, an official visit to Armenia has
been arranged for the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Abu Senna to
meet their Armenian counterparts next September. The week-long visit
will strengthen ties between the two countries and launch a wave of
exchanges and academic collaboration.

photo: Nubar Pasha, the Armenian Egyptian statesman; one of the three
main gates of the city built by Badreddin Al-Jamali between 1807 and
1902; Bab Zuweila is a treasure of the Islamic Fatimid architecture
in historic Cairo

OPPOSITION MEETING BEING HELD IN YEREVAN (PHOTOREPORT)

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.05.2009 16:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At this moment, ANC -organized Opposition meeting
is being held in front of Matenadaran Ancient Manuscripts’ Institute.

Armenian police did not try to interfere with the meeting, though
the rally has not been sanctioned by city authorities. Police
representative announced that May Day rally will be allowed only in
case rally organizers could guarantee the order.

ANC coordinator Levon Zurabyan informed journalists that they have
been given a notice about suspicious groupings in Yerevan, though
police ignored their warnings about the fact . When questioned by
PanARMENIAN.Net about grouping participants identities, Zurabyan
cited his unawareness, but believes they could pose a threat to ANC
rally participants.

ANC MP David Shakhnazaryan said that the authorities do their best
to prevent villager’s entrance to Yerevan, often stooping to threats.

All of ANC leaders headed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan participated in the
rally, involving 7 to 8 000 people.

Enjoy a better web experience. Upgrade to the new Internet Explorer
8 optimised for Yahoo!7. Get it now.

PanARMENIAN.Net 01.05.2009 16:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At this moment, ANC -organized Opposition meeting
is being held in front of Matenadaran Ancient Manuscripts’ Institute.

Armenian police did not try to interfere with the meeting, though
the rally has not been sanctioned by city authorities. Police
representative announced that May Day rally will be allowed only in
case rally organizers could guarantee the order.

ANC coordinator Levon Zurabyan informed journalists that they have
been given a notice about suspicious groupings in Yerevan, though
police ignored their warnings about the fact . When questioned by
PanARMENIAN.Net about grouping participants identities, Zurabyan
cited his unawareness, but believes they could pose a threat to ANC
rally participants.

ANC MP David Shakhnazaryan said that the authorities do their best
to prevent villager’s entrance to Yerevan, often stooping to threats.

All of ANC leaders headed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan participated in the
rally, involving 7 to 8 000 people.

SCHOLAR PRESENTS ON AZERI DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN HERITAGE TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
4/28/2009_1

BRUSSELS–A leading expert on the destruction of Armenian monuments
in Azerbaijan presented his research to the European Commission last
week, detailing the Azeri government’s systematic campaign to erase
any trace of the historic Armenian presence in the country, reported
the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy.

Presenting his new book, "The Invention of History," Professor Rouben
Galichian spoke the European Commission on the worsening situation
in Nakhichevan, an Armenian province placed under Azeri control by
Joseph Stalin. He detailed the government’s campaign to destroy more
than 4000 cross stones of an Armenian cemetery in Julfa, Nakhichevan.

The operation, which in 2004, effectively destroyed the centuries-old
cemetery, mimicked similar campaigns by the Taliban in Afghanistan,
Galichian said.

The book, while providing a report on the destruction of Armenian
monuments and churches, also details how the Azeri government has
modified its maps, changing names of historic Armenian towns, cities
and cites in Nakhichevan to eliminate any historic evidence of the
Armenian presence in the province.

Members of the European Commission responded to Galichian’s
demonstration by noting their familiarity with the issue and asking
instead for him to elaborate how the Azeri government is continuing
its anti-Armenian propaganda within its schools.

Also discussed were concerns by the European Commission over
Azerbaijan’s repeated refusal to allow European officials access to
the areas where cultural monuments have been reported destroyed.

"We are glad to note a certain knowledge from members of the European
Commission about these heritage and historical misappropriations"
said Hilda Tchoboian, the president of the European Armenian
Federation. "The Commission seems to understand that Armenia accepts
with difficulty the quarrelsome attitude of its neighbor Azerbaijan
which desires war and encourages its population to hate Armenians."

Tchoboian said that Azerbaijan needs Europe more Europe needs
Azerbaijan. "The EU should be more assertive with Baku taking based
on the principles of the European Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern
Partnership" she added.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PLEDGES ITS PARTNER-STATES ‘TO SHARE PEACE, STABILITY AND PROSPERITY’ WITHIN THE FRAMES OF EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY

Arminfo
2009-04-28 12:52:00

European Commission pledges its partner-states ‘to share peace,
stability and prosperity’ within the frames of European Neighbourhood
Policy, Head of the Delegation of European Commission to Armenia,
ambassador Raul de Luzenberger said at today’s scientific conference
‘Caucasus-2008’ held in Yerevan.

He also added that taking part in the discussions about the South
Caucasus conflicts he always feels shortage of discussion on the role
of the democratic institutions, regional cooperation, opened borders
and respecting minorities in building the long-term peace.

At the same time Luzenberger said that at present European Union is
the most successful sample of ensuring peace in the whole world. He
also added the present cooperation in European Commission is based on
general resources, open and stable market relations and respecting
minorities. ‘We have come to conclusion this is the only way to
durable peace in the region’, – he concluded.

Scientific conference ‘Caucasus-2008’ is held in Yerevan on
28-29 April. Scientists, journalists and politicians from Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Russia and some European countries are
taking part in the conference, organized by ‘Kavkaz’ institute. The
conference is20a part of the programme Building Capacity for Policy
Debate in Armenia, financed by European Union as well as Swiss
Foundation for Development and International Cooperation and Henry
Bell Foundation.

AZERBAIJAN CLOSES TURKISH MOSQUE IN BAKU

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.04.2009 10:39 GMT+04:00

Azerbaijan, which is reacting to Turkey’s rapprochement with Armenia,
closed a Turkish mosque in Baku, Turkish Vatan newspaper reported.

Also, Azerbaijan decided to raise the price of natural gas it is
selling to Turkey.

Azerbaijani police met religious officials after noon prayers
at the Baku Martyrs Mosque, built by Turkish Religious Affairs
Directorate. Then, they hang a note on the door of the mosque saying,
"The mosque is closed for restoration."

Besides, the head of the Azerbaijani oil company said, "the raised
natural gas prices will be valid as of April 15." Therefore, Azerbaijan
will ask Turkey to pay the retrospective difference.

The mosque was built on 28 June, 1995 beside the "Turks cemetery"
(Martyrdom) erected in Baku in honor of 1130 Turkish soldiers died
fighting within "Caucasian Islam Army" against Armenian and Russian
soldiers that occupied Azerbaijan in 1918.