Author: Kharatian Ani

MINISTER OF DIASPORA RECEIVES DELEGATION HEADED BY MAYOR OF VILLEURBANNE

NOYAN TAPAN
MAY 3, 2010
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian Minister of Diaspora Ms.

Hranush Hakobian on April 30 received a delegation headed by Jean
Paul Bret, Mayor of the French city of Villeurbanne, a deputy of the
National Assembly of France. Among the delegation members was Movses
Nisanian, a member of Villeurbanne’s city council.

At the meeting H. Hakobian spoke about the warm friendly relations
between Armenia and France. She attached importance to the fact that
the French Armenians are law abiding citizens which does not prevent
them from remaining true to their national roots.

Expressing a high opinion about the efforts of the French state in
terms recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide at a state
level, H. Hakobian expressed a hope that the international recognition
of the first genocide of the 20th century would rule out such crimes
in the future.

Informing the mayor of Villeurbanne about the intention to create
a complete history of Diaspora Armenian communities, Ms. Hakobian
proposed that J. P. Bret should set up a commission to examine the
history of Armenians in Villeurbanne.

According to the press service of the RA Ministry of Diaspora, the
sides also discussed issues related to the organization of various
cultural events and the implementation of exchange programs.

SOS FROM TRANSDNIESTRIA: JOURNALIST OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN ACCUSED IN ESPIONAGE ASKS FOR HELP
Gayane Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow reporter
03.05.10

Ernest Vardanyan, a journalist of Armenian origin, arrested on May 2,
in unrecognized Republic of Transdniestria, has appealed for help for
his wife and two under-age children, saying Transdniestria National
Security Service employees threaten to "settle a physical score"
with them, and he is being tortured.

Vardanyan, 30, was arrested on April 7, charged with espionage for
Moldova, in Transdniestria, a breakaway Moldova region (in the border
of Moldova and Ukraine) and may face 12-20 years in prison.

"In the name of all saints, please, save my wife and my children. They
make me confess that I have spied and betrayed the homeland
(Transdniestria) in favor of Moldova. They beat me periodically and
threat that they would apply to more ‘inventive’ tortures, which leave
no traces. They threaten to settle a physical score with my wife and
my children," the journalist said.

Vardanyan asks "not to believe in falsely staged interrogation videos,
and the charges with betrayal and espionage ascribed to me. Anyone
can be made confess anything here."

The Armenian journalist has freelanced for the Russian Internet news
agency Novy Region (in Transdniestria) since last year, and because
of financial problems started to work also for the Chisinau-based
newspaper Puls, which caused irritation among Transdniestria
authorities.

Many international media groups have considered the journalist’s
arrest to be illegal, appealing to set Vardanyan free.

Last week Armenia’s opposition political party, Heritage, sent a
letter to Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and a number
of PACE committee chairmen asking to support Vardanyan’s release.

According to MP Zaruhi Postanjyan, the arrested journalist is not
allowed to hire an attorney, and he is provided only with a state
attorney, whom Vardanyan’s family does not trust.

Vardanyan stated that for the sake of his family’s security, he is
ready to "plead guilty and be imprisoned as much as the special bodies
and authorities need."

Nine Candidates Run for Tbilisi Mayor
By Times.am
1 May, 2010, 11:48 pm

Nine candidates have applied to Central Election Commission (CEC) for
registration to run for Tbilisi mayoral race; deadline expired at 6pm
local time on April 30.

Contenders include incumbent Tbilisi mayor, Gigi Ugulava, nominated by
the ruling party; Irakli Alasania, leader of Alliance for Georgia;
Giorgi Chanturia, nominated by Christian-Democratic Movement; Gogi
Topadze, co-founder and leader of Industry Will Save Georgia
(Industrialists); Zviad Dzidziguri, leader of Conservative Party,
nominated by a coalition, which also includes Party of People and
ex-PM Zurab Nogaideli’s Movement for Fair Georgia; Davit Iakobidze,
economy minister in mid-90s, nominated by MP Gia Tortladze’s
Democratic Party of Georgia; Nika Ivanishvili, head of traffic police
in late 90s, nominated by his newly established party; Tamaz Vashadze,
who briefly held Tbilisi mayor’s post 19 years ago and Giorgi Lagidze,
leader of little-known party Future Georgia.

Deadline for submitting list of candidates running for Tbilisi City
Council membership also expired on April 30.

Total of 11 parties and three election blocs submitted list of
candidates for capital city’s council membership.

Although initially applied to CEC for registration, ex-defense
minister Irakli Okruashvili’s party Movement for United Georgia and MP
Jondi Bagaturia’s party, Georgian Troupe, decided not to run in the
elections. Three other parties, which initial requested for
registration, withdrew from the race, as they did not submit list of
candidates for Tbilisi City Council membership.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT TO TACKLE "POVERTY AMONG CHILDREN"

Panorama.am
18:24 30/04/2010

"Poverty among children" will be the primary topic at the hearing
to be held by the Armenian National Assembly Standing Committee on
Social Affairs May 21, the committee informed Panorama.am.

Besides the organizations dealing with the issue, a Professor from
York University will also attend the hearing and will present his
work on the issue.

BRITISH EXPERT: NATO SUPPORTS PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

ArmInfo
2010-04-30 14:03:00

ArmInfp. NATO officials on many occasions have made it clear that
they support the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict, says
Dennnis Sammut, Executive Director of LINKS in an interview with
ArmInfo News Agency.

Commenting on the threats of the risk of war made by officials of
Azerbaijan during their meeting with NATO PA delegation, D. Sammut
says: "Azerbaijan, like Armenia, is a valued member of the NATO
Partnership for peace programme. In that sense it is natural for the
Azerbaijan Defence Minister to meet and express his concerns to a
visiting NATO delegation."

PROTOCOLS NOT DEAD BUT RATHER IN PARLIAMENTARY SHELVES AND WAITING, SAYS MURAD MERJAN

Tert.am
28.04.10

The Armenia-Turkey Protocols are not dead, Chairman of the Committee
on Foreign Affairs in the Turkish parliament, Murat Merjan, said at
an interview with the Turkish NTV TV channel, referring to Armenia’s
decision to suspend their ratification in the Armenian parliament.

"For the Protocols to die, Armenian authorities must withdraw their
signature from those documents. That is to say, theoretically we
can say that the Protocols may die when the Armenian authorities
recall them from the parliament or withdraw their signature from the
Protocols. Besides the term ‘frozen’ is not a proper one. The most
correct characterization for the recent developments in the process
might, perhaps, be to say that currently the Protocols are kind of
waiting in the Armenian and Turkish parliamentary committees. That is
to say, we would not have been mistaken to say that those documents
have been put in the drawer of the Foreign Affairs Committees in the
two parliaments," said Merjan.

Asked what he meant by saying that the Protocols are waiting in
the parliamentary committee, i.e. after what satisfactory steps for
Turkey they might be brought to the parliamentary agenda Merjan said
the following: "For the Protocols to be brought to our [parliamentary]
committee, it is necessary to see such developments which will not run
counter to our people’s conscience. First of all, as we have stated
for several times, Armenia and Azerbaijan should settle the current
problems … as the main reason for the closure of the border with
Armenia were not the disagreements between Armenia and Turkey but
rather Armenia’s seizure of Azerbaijani territories. That is to say,
that Armenia and Azerbaijan should develop a mechanism to resolve the
problems. The second, and equally important, point is the ruling by
the Armenian Constitutional Court over the Armenia-Turkey Protocols."

EUROPEAN COURT RULING ‘NOT BINDING’ ON AZERBAIJAN

news.az
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

The first deputy speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament has described
the European Court of Human Rights as ‘politicized’.

‘International organizations including the European Court accuse
Azerbaijani courts of politicization, while the European Court
is politicized and takes decisions to put pressure on a country,’
Ziyafat Asgarov said at a parliamentary session today.

‘Three years ago Azerbaijani displaced persons from Lachin sent
a complaint to the European Court. The Armenian side also sent an
application there a year ago. As a result, they are scheduled for
consideration in September this year. The aim is to reduce the claims
of the Azerbaijani displaced persons to zero,’ Asgarov said.

‘The decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are not binding
on Azerbaijan, they are only recommendations,’ he claimed.

On 22 April the European Court of Human Rights published its decision
on the case of convicted Azerbaijani editor Eynulla Fatullayev. The
Strasbourg Court ruled that Azerbaijan had twice violated the right to
freedom of expression and information and had violated the right to
a fair trial including the presumption of innocence of the European
Convention on Human Rights. The Court ruled that Azerbaijan should
release Eynulla Fatullayev immediately.

Azerbaijan has said that it will refer the ruling to the European
Court’s Grand Chamber for reconsideration.

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN MEETS CHAIRMAN OF THE NUCLEAR ENERGY SAFETY COUNCIL

armradio.am
27.04.2010 14:57

President Serzh Sargsyan today received the Chairman of the
Presidential Council on Nuclear Energy Safety Adolf Birkhofer
(Germany).

President Sargsyan highly appreciated Mr. Birkhofer’s efforts targeted
at the secure exploitation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP).

The President attached importance to issues of energy security,
in general, and nuclear security, in particular.

Serzh Sargsyan noted that the attention of the international community
towards nuclear security issues was gradually increasing, and the
recent nuclear security summit in Washington was the best evidence
of it.

Adolf Birkhofer hailed the activity of the Republic of Armenia towards
safe exploitation of the ANPP.

The parties discussed issues related to the further operation of the
ANPP and construction of a new energy unit.

KARABAKH STATUS REMAINS ‘MAIN PROBLEM’
Leyla Tagiyeva

news.az
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

Stephan H. Astourian News.Az interviews Stephan H. Astourian, Ph.D.,
executive director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University
of California, Berkeley.

Are you satisfied with President Obama’s speech to the Armenian
community on 24 April?

In view of the current international efforts to bring some form
of understanding and communication between Armenia and Turkey, I
did not expect that President Obama would use the word ‘genocide’
to characterize the 1915-23 events. In this sense, I was not
disappointed. In substance and as a person, however, he is already
referring implicitly to the Armenian Genocide.

What are the prospects for the ratification of the two protocols
between Armenia and Turkey?

As the Republic of Turkey has now made the ratification of the
protocols contingent on substantial progress with regard to the
Mountainous Karabakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] issue, by which it means that
control of some of the provinces surrounding Mountainous Karabakh
should be handed over to Azerbaijan, I do not foresee ratification in
the short to medium term. I doubt such progress will take place soon.

Armenia says it intends to normalize relations with Turkey without
any preconditions and at the same time tries to have the 1915 events
recognized as genocide. Don’t you see a contradictions in this?

The protocols do not mention that Armenia should not pursue recognition
of the Armenian Genocide internationally. As a result, I do not see
any contradiction. What the protocols mention is the creation of a
‘sub-commission on the historical dimension to implement a dialogue
with the aim to restore mutual confidence between the two nations,
including an impartial scientific examination of the historical records
and archive to define existing problems and formulate recommendations,
in which Armenian, Turkish as well as Swiss and other international
experts shall take part.’ This statement does not negate the occurrence
of the Armenian Genocide.

How do you explain Armenia’s rejection of Iranian mediation on the
Karabakh settlement?

I am not quite sure there is a definitive and authoritative Armenian
position regarding Iranian mediation. If there is, I am not privy to
the reasons why Armenia might not favour Iranian mediation. However,
the Mountainous Karabakh issue has such implications that it is
unlikely any single regional power can solve it. This is why the
co-chairs of the OSCE’s Minsk Group are up to now the main conduit for
negotiations. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Iran has good
reasons to be interested in any resolution of the Karabakh conflict,
since some of the provinces surrounding Mountainous Karabakh are
contiguous to its territory, since any deployment of international
peacekeepers might affect its own security, and since it was involved
in conflict resolution as early as 1992. If Turkey, a party to the
conflict of course, wishes to join the co-chairs of the OSCE’s Minsk
Group, there is no reason, from Iran’s perspective naturally, that
it should not be involved in the resolution of this issue.

There is an opinion that it would be easier to solve the Karabakh
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia if there were no interruption
from the Armenian diaspora, who do not accept any compromises. How
would you comment on this point of view?

The Armenian diaspora is in no position to determine the policies of
Armenia and of the ‘Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh’ [the inverted commas
here have been included by News.Az] with regard to this conflict. The
dichotomy between a ‘reasonable’ Armenia and an ‘extremist’ Armenian
diaspora is a theme that emerged in both Armenia and Turkey in the
mid-1990s. The then Armenian leadership wished to dissociate itself
from the diaspora. Turkey has been using this theme until now.

Overall, this dichotomy has little analytic relevance and it is my
sense that the possibility of resolving the Karabakh problem has
little to do with the diaspora.

How realistic is progress on the Karabakh settlement any time soon?

Progress in solving the Karabakh issue appears to depend on a number of
problems. The status of the ‘Nagorno- Karabakh Republic’ [the inverted
commas here have been included by News.Az], and how and when it will be
determined, seems to me to be the main problem. Linkage with Armenia
through the Kelbajar and Lachin corridors appears to be the second
problem. What will be the size and status of these corridors? Will
there be international peacekeepers and, if so, which peacekeepers? The
overall sustainability of the settlement and the security of whatever
entity is formed in Mountainous Karabakh is another important issue. In
other matters, whereas the question of the Azerbaijani refugees seems
to have been treated, I am a bit unclear about the issue of the more
than 350,000 Armenian refugees from Soviet Azerbaijan, as I do not know
whether the pogroms and losses they faced are part of the negotiations.

At this point, the bellicose statements coming from President Aliyev
and his administration do not contribute to building trust. In the same
vein, statements to the effect that Zangezur is Azerbaijani territory,
that Yerevan is the capital of Western Azerbaijan and that Armenia is
actually Western Azerbaijan might not be helpful, even if they were to
amount to nothing but psychological operations. In this context, and
without knowing the details of the ongoing negotiations, I am not sure
the Azerbaijani government wants to settle this issue quickly. I wonder
if focusing the attention of the Azerbaijani masses against Armenia is
a way of deflecting from their concerns about social, economic, and
political difficulties. In this same context, I also wonder why the
‘Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh’ [the inverted commas here have been
included by News.Az] would relinquish a buffer zone that ensures its
survival and gives it some strategic depth and time to better protect
its territory in case of war. Bar significantly new arrangements
among the Minsk Group co-chairs that I cannot predict at this time,
I am not overly optimistic about a quick resolution of this conflict.

Stephan H. Astourian, Ph.D., is executive director of the Armenian
Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley and assistant
adjunct professor at the Department of History.

AZERBAIJAN CALLS ON ARMENIA TO WITHDRAW TROOPS

news.az
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

Edward Nalbandian Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov responded
today to criticism of Azerbaijan by the Armenian foreign minister.

‘If official Yerevan wants lasting peace, it should first withdraw
Armenian troops from Azerbaijani land, thereby creating the right
atmosphere for further peace talks on the conflict settlement,’
Polukhov said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian yesterday accused
Azerbaijan of trying to shift the blame for its failures in the
Karabakh process onto others. Azerbaijani officials have recently
criticized the USA in particular and all the OSCE Minsk Group mediators
for failing to make progress in settling the conflict.

Polukhov responded: ‘Instead of promoting themselves, it would be
better if some Armenian politicians took a rational stance on the
proposals of the neighbouring states for the resolution of the
Karabakh conflict.’