Author: Karagyozian Lena

TURKEY’S EDUCATION MINISTRY BANNED SCREENING OF THE DOCUMENTARY "SARI GELIN – TRUE OF THE ARMENIAN PROBLEM" IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

APA
Feb 25 2009
Azerbaijan

Ankara -APA. Turkish education ministry banned the screening of
documentary "Sari Gelin – true of the Armenian problem" about the
false "Armenian genocide" in the secondary schools. The decision was
made after the protests of Armenians living in Turkey and number of
non-governmental organizations, APA reports. The ministry said the
documentary was sent to the school not as the direct, but supportive
training aid. "The minister of education found out that use of
material stepped over the bounds of goal and banned spread of DVDs
in the schools".

Armenian community of Turkey asked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
to ban the screening of the documentary film. "If you see important
usefulness of this film for Turkish children, please ban its screening
in the Armenian schools to protect the Armenian children from the
feelings of oppression, isolation and guiltiness. Please to free
the Armenian children educating in the public schools from watching
this film".

The project of "Sari Gelin – true of the Armenian problem" started in
1999 and lasted for 4 years. The film was shot in Turkey, Azerbaijan
(Baku, Kalbajar), Armenia (Iravan, Gumru), Georgia, Russia, USA,
Germany, Austria, Australia, France, Britain, Italia, Hungary, Lebanon
and Syria. Turkish, Azerbaijani, Georgia. Russian, US, British, German,
Austrian, Italian, French, Lebanese and Syrian archives were used in
the film. The documentary, which is showing how the Armenian armed
formations attacked and burned the Turkish villages in 1915, tortured
and killed the people. The film was shown on TRT in 2003-2004. Turkish
Coordination Council against the groundless genocide claims decided
on March 15, 2007 to send DVDs to the Ministry of Education. The
ministry received 56 388 DVDs on December 17, 2007 and spread the
DVDs among the schools in summer of 2008.

JORDAN WILLING TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSIVE RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

armradio.am
25.02.2009 10:42

Within the framework of his visit to Jordan, the Foreign Minister of
Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, had a meeting with the newly appointed
Foreign Minister of Jordan, Naser Jaude.

Greeting Edward Nalbandian, the Foreign Minister of Jordan noted
that it was his first official meeting as Foreign Minister and this
factor is symbolic with regard to the perspectives of development of
relations with Armenia.

Minister Jaude said Jordan is willing to develop comprehensive
relations with Armenia and asked to convey the warmest greetings of
King Abdullah to the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan.

Congratulating Naser Jaude on appointment, Minister Nalbandian noted
that he is visiting Amman to give new drive to the cooperation between
Armenia and Jordan in bilateral and multilateral formats.

Emphasizing the great potential existing in the field of bilateral
collaboration, Edward Nalbandian attached importance to launching
political dialogue between the two countries and promoting the
development of trade-economic cooperation.

The interlocutors exchanged views on the possibilities of intensifying
the cooperation in the spheres of tourism and trade-economic
cooperation.

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Jordan agreed to hold periodic
consultations between the foreign agencies of the two countries.

Ministers Nalbandian and Jaude discussed questions connected with
the peaceful settlement of issues existing in the Middle East and
the South Caucasus.

During the meeting reference was made to the opportunities of
cooperation between the two countries within regional and international
organizations.

The Armenian Foreign Minister invited his Jordanian counterpart
to Armenia.

In Amman Edward Nalbandian met with representatives of the Jordanian
Armenian community.

Minister Nalbandian left Jordan for Lebanon.

Interpressnews , Georgia
Feb 21 2009

Grigol Vashadze Met with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
21 February, 2009 07:30:00

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Grigol Vashadze met with
president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan today.

Georgian foreign department informs that Vashadze held meetings with
Prime Minster of Armenia Tigran Sarkisyan and foreign minister Eduard
Nalbadyan. Grigol Vashadze gave detailed information to the Armenian
side about situation in Georgia.

He stated that more active and intensive cooperation between the
sides, work on joint documents in political, economic and social and
cultural directions were necessary.

Regular political consultations were held between foreign ministers of
Georgia and Armenia. Vashadze’s counterpart Eduard Nalbdyan
will pay visit to Tbilisi in March.

Armenian side supported Georgian sovereignty and territorial
integrity.

GEORGIAN FM VISITS ARMENIA

Civil Georgia
Feb 20 2009
Georgia

Grigol Vashadze, the Georgian Foreign Minister, is paying an official
visit to Armenia on February 20-21.

After meeting with his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian,
and President, Serzh Sargsyan, on February 20, the Georgian Foreign
Minister will lay a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Memorial and
tour the Genocide Museum in Yerevan on February 21, according to the
Georgian Foreign Ministry.

FRANCE’S ROLE IN HOLOCAUST OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.02.2009 14:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ France’s top judicial body on Monday formally
recognized the nation’s role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps
during the Holocaust – but effectively ruled out any more reparations
for the deportees or their families.

Jewish groups welcomed the ruling by the Council of State, the clearest
legal acknowledgment to date of France’s role in the Holocaust.

Nearly 70 years ago, the Vichy government helped deport some 76,000
people – including 11,000 children – from Nazi-occupied France to
concentration camps during the war. Fewer than 3,000 returned alive.

The council said that the French government of the time "allowed or
facilitated the deportation from France of victims of anti-Semitic
persecution."

"In an absolute rupture with the values and principles notably of
the dignity of the human person … these anti-Semitic persecutions
provoked exceptional damage of extreme gravity," it said, the AP
reports.

ARMENIAN AND REGIONAL ENERGETIC PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT OF INFORMATION SUPPORT
Karen Karapetyan

"Noravank" Foundation
16 February 2009

What should be the basis for regional informational security? What
should be a guide-line for Armenia on the global competitive resource
market where the companies from the countries, which do not have
enough hydrocarbon resources to support their economic development,
are extensively included? What is the place of Armenia on the energetic
map of the region? And finally, what is the role of information support
in the elaboration and promotion of particular projects in energetic?

The answers to these questions play a key role in the process of
elaboration of the efficient policy directed to the real integration
of the countries of the region in the sphere of energetic.

1.Information wars and political nature of a number of projects The
current regional energetic projects "suffer" from the limitation of
transit schemes, which is conditioned by political reasons, and cannot
be regarded as the paragon of multilateral collaboration. The prime
cause of such a situation is the political rivalry, the competition
of energetic "heavy weights" for the oil or gas fields, boreholes,
pipelines.

Such a competition substitutes real collaboration in the region of
South Caucasus and engages our countries in useless and unpromising
dispute around politically and not economically reasoned =0 Aprojects.

Today it is much spoken about the necessity to elaborate new
architecture of security in the world and mainly in South Caucasus. I
think it would be right and appropriate to elaborate new concept of
energy security of the region.

We should admit that the energetic situation in the region is covered
very insufficiently and very often unilaterally on different levels,
including national level. It is not a secret that the political nature
of energetic projects in South Caucasus hits the pocket of every
inhabitant of that region. Meanwhile, the low level of awareness among
the population of the countries of the region causes the elites to
implement political projects, which do not have sufficient economic
verification and thus they put a time bomb under the energetic and
generate further speculative occurrences on international energy
market and this may definitely be the reason of the latest global
and financial crisis.

Therefore, a new quality of information support is needed to bear
the initiatives of the political and business elites. We need
constant "authorities-business" feedback. We need the situation
when creative plans and projects of business-elite have objective
and highly professional informational support and create necessary
"background" and motivation for the regional political leaders so that
those projects were regarded as viable and vital for the development
of the country. The=2 0foregoing collaboration should promote to
the creation of the appropriate convenient medium for the mutual
integration of energetic programs.

At present, unfortunately, the situation is far from the creation
of above-mentioned reference points. Each country, undoubtedly,
chooses its own system and model of energy security ensuring, but at
the same time they do not take into consideration the tendencies and
the projects, which are carried out in that neighbouring countries
(where in our opinion there are ample opportunities for collaboration
and optimization of national energetic sectors).

This happens:

Due to the lack of confidence in political and economic integration of
the countries of the region and on this basis each of the countries
of the region chooses the concept of maximal energy independence
and self-sufficiency.

Due to practically complete political nature of the information
support of all the energetic projects, both national and regional.

In my opinion it is necessary today:

To elaborate by common efforts some kind of "code of conduct" in
information space, mainly for the coverage of regional energetic
projects.

The principles of objectiveness and honesty, pragmatism and
collaboration orientation should lie at the root of that "code"; To use
the informational resources we have to spread progressive forms and
methods of energetic management and actively involve the population
in the discussion of th e issues of energy security of countries of
the region and mainly of Armenia; To raise constantly the proficiency
of the participants of the informational processes. The information
must be professional and of high quality.

Unfortunately at present one can rarely meet the objective and high
quality analysis of the energetic projects and development models [1].

The creation of free energy market in South Caucasus by means of the
integration of national energy systems, service corridors and all the
available scientific and technological potential is one of the basic
terms for the improvement of the quality of life in the countries of
the region.

This is one of the paramount objectives of international diplomacy [2].

"Energy without borders" – this should become a slogan.

2. New quality in the policy of Armenia Today we can state that
Armenia, which does not have any hydrocarbon resources and access to
the sea, can be regarded on the background of complex and ambiguous
political and economic processes going on in the countries of the
region as a striking and potent example of the successful solution
of the problem of maintaining the desired level of energetic security
of the country.

One of the means of further energetic security upgrade of Armenia is
the elaboration of qualitatively new export policy on the state level,
which should be aimed on the creation of unique and very efficient
capabilities for20boosting external economic exchange of the Republic
of Armenia with the neighbouring countries and this will promote to
the energetic security upgrade of the country. Armenia should be very
active in the process of elaboration and consistent implementation of
the new regional projects, which have "common point" for the countries
of our region. Amid the global financial and economical crisis there
is no alternative for regional collaboration, especially in the sphere
of energetic.

Armenia, which possesses two gas pipelines and underground storage
facilities for gas and also additional competitive productive
capacities, has all the chances to become a kind of regional liberal
energetic field.

The solution of this not simple problem supposes the implementation
of the ambitious programs in the near future, either in the economy
of Armenian on the whole or in energetic particularly. The aims and
goals of that problem may be set out in the following thesises.

Energetic security upgrade of Armenia by means of competitive
export market grouping; The elaboration and implementation of state
policy of the RA directed to the real support of export oriented
energetic projects which should be based on flexible price policy; The
elaboration of unified stance of the strategic partners directed to
the extension of the cooperation in the field of regional energetic,
which should include not only the nearest neighbours of Armenian but
=0 Aalso Turkmenistan, Iraq and other countries.

Here are the conditions under which Armenia can turn into energetic
"base" of the region: the further liberalization of external economic
exchange, the enlargement of the access to the innovative achievements,
progressive technical standards and methods of state and corporative
economy management, real shift to the new quality of export policy. The
part of the professional information support in the implementation
of the aforementioned ambitious program is undoubtedly big.

All the aforementioned cannot be fully implemented if all the regional
actors do not realize the importance of consolidating prospects
of the cooperation in the sphere of energetic, of the acceptance
and the observation of the legal status (which is coordinated
with international norms and is not changed at once own will or
unilaterally). Today Armenia regards the new energetic situation as
very positive fact for itself and is conscious of real opportunity
of being involved in big regional energetic projects and it has all
the chances to become one of the key actors on the energetic map of
South Caucasus.

And at the end, we think that it would be much easier to implement
that large-scale task when there is a proper level of information
support of our initiations and projects, on which we reckon in the
course of our activity.

LAVROV: "SAHAKASHVILI TO INFRINGE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF GEORGIA"

Panorama.am
15:20 16/02/2009

"Michail Sahakashvili is the only guilty to infringe the territorial
integrity of Georgia," said the Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey
Lavrov in his interview given to "Shpigel," magazine.

"Georgia treated the two nations joined to it within Soviet Times
chauvinistically. President Sahakashvili himself infringed the
territorial integrity of the country when ordered to bomb the peaceful
city of Southern Ossetia. It was a crime against the people whom he
considered to be the citizens of his country," stressed Lavrov.

Russia announced the independence of Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia
after the President of Georgia announced that "the war is not over,
it will start later", said the Foreign Minister.

According to Lavrov, NATO and UN rejected to study the case and the
West was planning to equip Georgia. "Then we were sure that the only
way to provide security to Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia was the
declaration of their independence," concluded Sergey Lavrov.

Russian builds its new empire with finance, not fear

Times Online
February 5, 2009

From Belarus to the Caucasus and Central Asia, Russian power and
influence is at its greatest height since the Soviet collapse

Tony Halpin in Moscow

Whatever the economic calamities ahead, this year is proving an
excellent one for the political project of forging a new Russian
empire.

A plethora initiatives from the of Kremlin is binding most of Russia’s
former Soviet satellites ever more tightly to Moscow. Only yesterday
the Kremlin created a rapid reaction force with six of the states and
an economic bailout fund with four of them.

The reaction force will be under central command, which will
undoubtedly be in Moscow since Russia is providing most of the troops.
Soldiers from Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan will once again learn to take orders in Russian.

Russia is also putting up $7.5 billion (£5.19 billion) of a $10 billion
mutual rescue fund it established with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
and Kyrgyzstan. Despite growing hardship for millions of Russians at
home, the Kremlin also offered to throw billions of roubles at Belarus
after both countries agreed to form a joint air defence system pointed
at Europe.

He who pays the piper calls the tune as the United States learned
painfully on Tuesday from President Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan, who served
notice t
o quit a key airbase for supplying Nato forces in Afghanistan.
A gleeful Kremlin denied any link between that decision and the $2.15
billion in loans and aid it had given the impoverished republic just
moments earlier.

Washington is flirting with Tajikistan as another potential base for
Afghan supplies. President Rakhmon, enjoying the attention, apparently
felt emboldened enough to cancel his visit to Moscow initially, but
quickly thought better of it.

Having squeezed the US military out of Central Asia, Russia is
determined to prevent the European Union becoming a rival for energy in
its backyard. The EU is desperate to break Russia’s grip on gas by
securing new supplies from the region through the Caucasus.

President Medvedev beat them to Uzbekistan where his Uzbek counterpart,
Islam Karimov, pledged last month to double supplies to Russia, adding
reassuringly that Uzbekistan "sells gas to Russia and to Russia only".

Gas-rich Turkmenistan offers hope but only if the Caucasus remains open
as a conduit for pipelines. Since the war with Georgia last summer and
the de facto annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia has
returned to the region with a bang.

Armenia is little more than a vassal state, having sold most of its
economic infrastructure to Russian companies. The "frozen conflict"
between Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan over the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh gives the Kremlin further leverage.
0D
Moscow denied Azeri claims last month that it had funnelled arms worth
$800 million to Armenia, which is host to a Russian military base. But
both sides understand that Russia could tip the balance of power in
either direction if it chooses.

From Belarus to the Caucasus and Central Asia, Russian power and
influence is now at its greatest height since the Soviet collapse.
While Kremlin ruled its old empire with fear, it is building its new
one on finance.

Only Ukraine remains beyond Moscow’s so-called "sphere of influence"
despite the recent bruising gas war. Presidential elections are just 11
months away, however, offering the Kremlin empire-builders a great
opportunity to avenge the setback of the pro-western Orange revolution.

YEREVAN, BAKU DON’T PREPARE PUBLICS FOR PEACE AGREEMENT ON KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.02.2009 21:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Center for National and International
Studies (ACNIS) Director Richard Giragosian issued a statement today
commenting on a recent report in the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet
claiming that a new "partial agreement" has been reached between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh, brokered by Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. The report alleged that Armenia and
Azerbaijan reached a new agreement on four key points of a draft
peace plan, including the reopening of road and rail links between
Azerbaijan and Armenia and the deployment of an undefined international
peacekeeping force to the region.

The statement says:

"While today’s report in the Turkish media remains unsubstantiated by
any Armenian, Azerbaijani or Turkish officials, the rather sensational
claims of a sudden breakthrough over the unresolved Karabakh conflict
raises several concerns. Most notably, the unconfirmed report reveals
the danger posed by the overall lack of transparency and inadequate
public awareness of the status of the peace process.

By its very nature, the closed and secretive process of mediation by
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk
Group only fosters misunderstandings and misinformation, especially
as neither the Armenian nor the Azerbaijani governments are doing
enough to prepare their constituencies for a possible peace deal.

At the same time, however, there is no viable alternative to the
OSCE Minsk Group as a mediator for the Karabakh conflict. The Minsk
Group is the sole international body empowered to manage the mediation
effort aimed at resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and has been
long engaged in conducting delicate diplomacy toward that end.

But the OSCE Minsk Group format is also structurally flawed by the
absence of the democratically-elected representatives of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic (NKR) which, as a party to the conflict, must be
afforded a more direct and formal role in the peace process.

Moreover, the failure to incorporate Karabakh in the peace talks as
a party of equal standing only questions the viability of reaching
a negotiated resolution capable of meeting the minimum standards of
security and sustainability.

The recognition of the vital and primary role of the OSCE Minsk Group
as the mediator for the Karabakh also means that Turkey can have no
direct role in the peace process. By virtue of its close strategic
relationship with Azerbaijan, and in terms of Turkey’s open diplomatic,
economic and military support for Azerbaijan, including its ongoing
blockade of Armenia, Turkey can not been accepted as a neutral broker
or mediator of the Karabakh conflict.

On a broader level, the lack of information concerning the peace
process only leads to misinformation, endangering the already fragile
and delicate peace talks. For Armenia, the lack of information only
fuels misunderstanding and fosters a deeper sense of apathy among the
population. The Armenian government must do much more to educate and
involve its citizens in the peace process.

Equally important, Azerbaijan has also failed to properly prepare its
public for any possible progress in the peace talks. In addition,
the secrecy surrounding the peace talks has only strengthened the
militant rhetoric of its leadership and has radicalized the discourse
within Azerbaijani society. Although the August 2008 war in Georgia
only reaffirmed the danger of a sudden outbreak of hostilities in
the region, Azerbaijani leaders continue to dangerously promote an
irresponsible language of aggression and threat, tending to exacerbate
regional insecurity.

Therefore, the recent revelations of the Turkish media suggesting a
secret peace deal over Karabakh only serves to complicate efforts to
forge a fair and lasting peace. Most crucially, the lack of information
and transparency encourages a dangerous trend of misinformation and
disinformation that entrenches stereotypes and emboldens more extreme
views. Thus, the failure of all sides to prepare and engage their
publics in the peace process only reveals the deficit of prudent
statesmanship and proper leadership."

WORK BEING DONE TO BUILD SVERDLOVSK TRACTOR PLANT BRANCH IN ARMAVIR REGION

Noyan Tapan

Feb 9, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, NOYAN TAPAN. During the February 9 working
meeting Armavir Governor Ashot Ghahramanian reported RA President
Serzh Sargsyan about the process of work done in the region in 2008
and planned for this year, as well as the work in the direction of
solving problems supposed by the President’s preelection program and
raised by the region’s residents during the election campaign.

S. Sargsyan instructed him to pay a serious attention and to undertake
all-embracing steps to provide residents with drinking water, as well
as to sell the produced agricultural products.

A. Ghahramanian said that he is leaving for Sverdlovsk region soon to
sign agreements regarding sale of agricultrual goods. The Governor also
said that RF Sverdlovsk region’s delegation in its turn is arriving
for Armenia to sign agreements with the local producers. According
to the Governor, work is being done to build Sverdlovsk tractor plant
branch in Armavir region.