Author: Khoyetsian Rose

EU, US WANT TO BREAK UP TURKEY, SAYS AZERBAIJANI ANALYST

Aysor
March 16 2010
Armenia

The European Union and the United States are conducting policy of
breaking the Greater Middle East states into pieces, said Azerbaijani
political scientist Rasim Musabekov in an interview with correspondent
of Azerbaijan-News agency.

"The U.S. and EU efforts are aimed at dividing and separating the
Greater Middle East-located states. Look at their attempts, made
against Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan. As for Azerbaijan and Georgia,
these states are already broken into pieces, while Americans make
believe that nothing happened, and everything is okay, and all the
issues will be solved," said Rasim Musabekov.

"The EU and U.S. are trying to break up Turkey, using Kurdish, Iraqi,
Armenian factors as well as domestic situation of confrontation
between Turkish government and Army.

"In addition, there is a great influence from outside, for example,
pressure by Americans who wish for bringing Turkey under control like
it was in 1945-1990s. Besides, the U.S. is punishing Turkey for move
towards Russia," he added.

GERMANY GIVES 105 MILLION EUROS TO YEREVAN

EurasiaNet
March 16 2010
NY

German has set aside 105.5 million euros (roughly $145 million)
to help cash-strapped Armenia promote an economic recovery.

On March 16, German Ambassador Hans-Jochen Schmidt signed an agreement
with Armenian Finance Minister Tigran Davtian covering the terms
of the assistance, the News.am information service reported. The
aid is meant to underpin community infrastructure development,
upgrade hydropower facilities, buttress mortgage markets and promote
environmental projects.

Armenia has displayed feeble signs of recovery after the 2009 crash
of its real estate market and a serious dip in Diaspora remittances
from abroad. Russia, the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund have all channeled millions of dollars to Yerevan to soften the
impact of the economic crisis.

ALL THE COLOURS AND WARMTH OF THE SPRING IN THE PARLIAMENT

National Assembly
March 16 2010
Armenia

On March 15 the Green Hall of the parliament was filled with spring
warm and bright colours: the occasion served the paintings of Honored
Painter of the Republic of Armenia, professor Hrant Tadevosyan,
which decorated the walls of the hall.

Honored Painter of the Republic of Armenia, professor Hrant Tadevosyan
was born in the village of Arevshat of Artik region. He is a member
of the Painters’ Union of Armenia and Art International Association
and Professional Painters’ Union. The painter had a lot of individual
exhibitions in Yerevan, in a number of foreign countries, as in France,
Germany, Argentina and Russia. He took part in collective exhibitions
in Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, Lebanon and Syria.

His many works are kept in different collections of the world. The
painter lives and creates in Yerevan.

RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrhamyan, NA deputies, representatives of
NA staff, the schoolchildren being in the parliament within the
framework of the Open Lesson programme, journalists and students
attended the exhibition.

The exhibition, which was organized within the Open Doors policy
framework, opened the Rector of Yerevan State University of
Architecture and Construction Hovhannes Tokmajyan. He noted that
the exhibition, which opened on this important solemn day for the
university, the painter dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the
All-Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanian.

Considering a great honor the exhibition organized in the parliament
Mr. Tokmajyan noticed that the Open Doors policy framework, initiated
by the NA Speaker brings closer the parliament to the people.

The painter addressed those present his warm greeting, informing them
that his paintings were exhibited in the Painters’ Union of Armenia
recently. In Mr. Tadevosyan’s word, in the selected best works Armenia
is shown from the north to the south. "I would like very much that
being in contact with the nature people will become warmer, kinder,
and love with their whole heart our Little Armenia. It seems to me that
if I see a little smile on your faces while looking at the paintings,
it means I have reached my aim. Thank you very much," he said.

OSCE PA PRESIDENT JOAO SOARES MEETS WITH MEMBERS OF "NAGORNO KARABAKH’S AZERBAIJANI COMMUNITY" PUBLIC UNION

APA
March 15 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku -APA. "The people displaced from Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh and
the adjacent regions must return to their native lands. This is their
sacred right," it was said at the meeting of OSCE PA president Joao
Soares with the members of "Nagorno Karabakh’s Azerbaijani Community"
Public Union, the parliament’s press service told APA. The sides
exchanged views on the solution to the conflict.

Head of the community Bayram Safarov, members Farhad Badalbayli,
Vagif Farzaliyev, parliamentarians Rovshan Rzayev, Havva Mammadova
called on the organization to take steps for the restoration of the
violated rights of the refugees and IDPs.

OSCE PA president said return of the Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs
to their native lands was one of the main issues. At the same time
this is their sacred right. The sides, as well as the international
organizations should unite their efforts in order to restore the
violated rights of these people and solve the conflict.

DI CAPRIO’S JEWISH SWEETHEART AND INTERFAITH EFFORTS IN JERUSALEM

The Times
March 15, 2010
UK

Bess writes: Two Jewish stories caught my eye today: the first, a
positive inter-faith story for once, amid the dearth of reports on
religious groups who take a tribal pride in faith, rather than living
its spirit of love.

In Jersualem, reports Ha’aretz a liberal Orthodox group are campaigning
to stop some Ultra-Orthodox Jews from an unpleasant habit of spitting
on Christians. It’s already been roundly condemned as "a desecration
of God’s name" by the Haredi Community Tribunal of Justice, and a
special meeting was held last month to tackle the problem involving
Christian leaders and Israel’s Foreign ministry.

Incidents – though still occurring – of spitting have now decreased,
though there is still work to be done to eradicate it altogether,
says Archbishop Aris Shirvanian, from the Armenian Patriarchate
of Jerusalem. He’s been spat upon about 50 times in 12 years. A
liberal Jewish group are hosting a lecture today between various
representatives of faith groups in Jerusalem as a step to ending
this altogether.

The group’s organiser, Andrea Katz, 57, felt she had to protest.

The second, lighter story, from the LA Times involves the supermodel
Bar Refaeli (see above) currently dating Leonardo di Caprio, a source
of some concern to Baruch Marzel, a Jewish ultranationalist.

"It is not by chance that you were born Jewish" he told Refaeli in a
letter sent to the model via her mother, that somehow ended up soon
afterwards in the press.

"Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their
descendants would one day remove the family’s future generations from
the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies
of the Jewish people,."

Marzel’s appeal was made on behalf of a Hebrew organisation whose
name Lehava is apparently an acronym for "Preventing Assimilation in
the Holy Land" which apparently has a Facebook page in Hebrew that
"provides assistance to Jewish girls in relationships with non-Jews,
especially Arabs." Slightly scary.

TURKEY RECALLS SWEDISH AMBASSADOR OVER RESOLUTION

Christian Broadcasting Network
h/Turkey-Recalls-Swedish-Ambassador/
March 12 2010

ANKARA – One week after Turkey recalled its U.S. ambassador over
passage of a resolution acknowledging the Armenian genocide of 1915,
Turkey’s prime minister sent the Swedish ambassador packing on Thursday
after Sweden’s parliament passed a similar resolution.

"We strongly condemn this resolution, which is made for political
calculations," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in
a statement.

"It does not correspond to the close friendship between our two
nations. We are recalling our ambassador for consultations," he said.

Erdogan also canceled a summit between the two countries scheduled
for March 17.

The Turkish prime minister made similar remarks to the U.S. after
the House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved a resolution calling
on President Obama to "characterize the systematic and deliberate
annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide."

Both the U.S. resolution and the Swedish vote passed by narrow margins.

Efforts by the White House and U.S. State Department to dissuade the
committee from voting on the resolution failed.

Earlier in the week during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Erdogan said
he would not return Turkey’s U.S. ambassador until the situation
is clarified.

"As long as we don’t see clarity in the situation about the Armenian
bill, we will not send our ambassador [back]," Erdogan said.

Survivors of the genocide, who for years have lobbied the nations of
the world to acknowledge the genocide, lauded the decision.

The forced death-march into the Syrian desert and subsequent murder
of hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians, which has been
historically documented, has become a political minefield today.

While Turkey admits that tens of thousands of Armenian Christians
were killed by Ottoman Turks in 1915, it rejects applying the term
"genocide" to the slayings.

Both France and Canada have acknowledged the genocide, while neither
Britain nor the U.S. has.

Turkey has played a key role in Western interests in Middle East
affairs, especially in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria, and is
strongly opposed to labeling the massacres as genocide.

MASS ACTION OF PROTEST TOOK PLACE IN FRONT OF US EMBASSY IN BAKU

Azerbaijan Business Center
March 11 2010

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. A mass action of protest in front of the residence
of the US Embassy in Baku has been conducted in fact for the first
time in the history of independent Azerbaijan.

Today Student Youth Organization protested against the US Department
of State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)
for 2010 saying that 30-35% of Azerbaijani students use drugs.

The action involved about 100 students who chanted slogans "Unfair
report", "We say ‘No’ to the report!", and "We are not drug addicts".

Then the rally resolution was transferred to the Embassy.

The action of protest was conducted under surveillance of Nasimi
district police.

Last week Milli Majis suggested discussion of this report but then the
debate developed into a statement with condemnation on the occasion
of US House of Representatives Committee’s decision on recognition
of genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-17.

AZERBAIJAN TO DEMAND INTENSIFICATION OF PACE SUBCOMMITTEE ON KARABAKH

news.az
March 11 2010
Azerbaijan

The issue of the revitalization of the PACE subcommittee on Nagorno
Karabakh will be discussed in Paris at a meeting of the PACE Bureau
on March 11.

According to Samad Seyidov, head of the parliamentary delegation of
Azerbaijan in PACE, taking part in the event, he intends to require
the revitalization of this structure.

‘There is a need for the active discussion of this issue in PACE. In
my speech, I will touch upon this issue, because the solution of the
Karabakh problem is important for Azerbaijan. The more objective
the Karabakh issue is presented in various European structures,
the better for us’, he said.

Asked whether the election of a new chairman of the subcommittee will
be discussed, Seyidov noted that the answers to these questions can
be given only after completion of the Bureau session.

ASHOT GULYAN: SETTLEMENT IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT KARABAKH’S PARTICIPATION

Yerkir
12.03.2010 14:56

Yerevan (Yerkir) – President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Joao
Soares met with the Chairman of the NKR National Assembly Ashot Gulyan
in Yerevan. The NKR Parliament speaker told reporters that the meeting
was useful.

"We cannot imagine the resolution of the Karabakh issue without the
participation of Karabakh," Ashot Gulyan said.

Asked to comment on Goran Lenmarker’s words that it’s necessary to
solve the conflict as soon as possible, Ashot Gulyan said: "I would
also like to ask him the same question. Perhaps, you have noticed that
Lenmarker declares every year that the Karabakh issue will be solved,
but the process neither benefits not suffers from this."

"We wanted to tell the OSCE PA that we do not expect the conflict to
be solved soon without the full participation of the Karabakhi side
in the talks. When we speak about rapid resolution of any conflict,
not only Karabakh, we should take into consideration that the risk
of making mistakes is great," Ashot Gulyan noted.

SWEDEN. MPS RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Ottawa Citizen
March 12 2010
Canada

The Swedish parliament on Thursday recognized the massacres of
Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Turkey quickly denounced the vote
and cancelled a visit to Stockholm by Prime Minster Recep Tayyip
Erdogan next week. Armenians say up to 1.5 million were killed by
their Ottoman rulers in a planned campaign of extermination, a stance
that is supported by several other countries. The Swedish foreign
minister announced his government will continue to support Turkey’s
entry into the European Union.