Author: Khoyetsian Rose

MAMMADYAROV BRIEFED DAVUTOGLU ON SARGSYAN-ALIYEV MEETING

Tert
Nov 24 2009
Armenia

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu talked to his Azerbaijani
counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov on the phone and received information
regarding the Munich meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, reports Turkish news agency
Anadolu Ajansi.

Diplomatic sources said that Mammadyarov phoned Davutoglu and gave
information regarding Aliyev and Sargsyan’s meeting Sunday in Munich.

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister informed his Turkish counterpart that
the process will continue in the upcoming term and that the co-chairs
of the Minsk Group may meet in Athens as part of the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) meeting.

During the phone conversation, Davutoglu expressed his happiness
over the developments (between Azerbaijan and Armenia) and renewed
his invitation to Mammadyarov to visit Ankara.

SPEAKER OF THE ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT MEETS HIS TURKISH COUNTERPART IN MOSCOW

ArmInfo
2009-11-24 11:43:00

ArmInfo. While in Moscow the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament had
a meeting with the Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey,
Mehmet Ali Shahin.

During the meeting the parties presented to each other the structure
and the peculiarities of functioning of the Parliaments of their
countries. They exchanged views on the process of establishment of
relations without preconditions.

Mr. Abrahamyan underlined that the Armenian side considers it necessary
to ratify the signed Armenian-Turkish protocols within a reasonable
timeframe.

The Speakers of the two Parliaments highly appreciated the courageous
joint work of the Presidents of the two countries and agreed that it
had prepared a proper ground for the establishment of normal relations
between the two neighbor countries.

SECRETARY OF ARMENIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY: SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS IN CAUCASUS REGION REQUIRES JOINT EFFORTS BY ALL ITS COUNTRIES

ArmInfo
2009-11-24 12:09:00

ArmInfo. Solution of the problems, available in the south Caucasus
region, requires joint efforts by all its countries, Secretary of the
National Security Council of Armenia Artur Baghdasaryan said today at
the opening of a session in Yerevan on a topic "CSTO as a Stability and
Security Factor in the Caucasus". "Our region is complex not only from
geographic but also from geopolitical viewpoint. Therefore, the echo of
the events happening causes a powerful resonance far outside of it. The
current processes in the region raise many sharp problems which must
be solved by joint efforts by all its countries", A. Baghdasaryan said.

According to him, consolidation of these efforts is possible only
in case there is a mutual trust of the countries to each other
and an open dialogue, which take into account the vital interests
of all the peoples leaving there. "In its turn, Armenia has always
consistently advocated assurance of a long peace and establishment of
good neighbourly relations, as well as full partnership will all the
countries of the region without any preconditions", A. Baghdasaryan
said. In this context, he especially emphasized the importance
of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations started by the
Armenian president’s initiative.

ARMENIAN SERVICEMEN NEVER SHELLED CIVILIANS

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.11.2009 12:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The ceasefire was violated at the contact line
between NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces on November 21, 22 and 23,
NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry refuted Azerbaijani media reports about a killed
civilian. "The information disseminated by Azerbaijan is untrue. It’s
nothing but a canard of Azerbaijani propaganda machine," it said.

LET’S DEFEND ST GEVORG CHURCH OF MUGNETSI

Panorama.am
17:11 23/11/2009 " Society

"The activities of Armenian Culture Ministry and Apostolic Church
taken to protect Armenian churches of Georgia are assessed poorly,
not so effective which don’t meet the demands of the time. They
don’t correspond to those problems that our historical monuments
meet, otherwise we would not have to wait 20 years for a definite
status awarded to our churches adopting "law on religion"," Alexander
Ohanyan, the president of Armenian cooperation center to Georgia told
Panorama.am. Regarding to the collapse on 19 November of Armenian
domed St Gevorg of Mugnetsi in Tbilisi built in 1356, the president
of the center told that they have applied to the Georgian Minister of
Culture but they have not received any observation yet as the minister
is absent from the city. He says they don’t know "what the fate of
the collapsed church will be." It might be that they reconstruct it
as it’s located in a residential district. "It’s one of those five
churches which are in a rather disputable field: it’s being discussed
whether they are Armenian or Georgia. It’s under the authorization
of Georgian Ministry of Culture. Yesterday we witnessed an action of
state body against Armenian historical and cultural monuments," the
president said adding that until a definite decisions is made neither
of the churches will be standing. Panorama.am has been seriously
concerned about the collapse of Armenian churches in Georgian territory
(it’s worth reminding that the first collapsed church was St Virgin
of Shamkhoretsots in 1989) submitted a request to Armenian Culture
Ministry. We have requested the ministry and recommended to apply
to the Georgian side to transfer the collapsed church into Armenian
territory and to reconstruct here. Our request remained unanswered
as the deputy ministry was out of office then. Panorama.am applied
to Mother See Holy Etcmiatsin but the result did not differ as much
as the responsible figure to answer our request was absent and the
one we talked to, said such issue has not been discussed as long as
he was informed. It’s worth reminding that yesterday Mother See of
Holy Etcmiadsin hold a council to discuss the issue of collapsing
Armenian Church of Mugnetsi in Georgia. Armenian Apostolic Church
called on Georgian authorities to grant Armenian diocese status of
judicial person, to return Armenian churches back to Armenian diocese
of Georgia and to protect Armenian holly lands.

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Nov 20 2009

Peace processes

Friday, November 20, 2009
CENGÄ°Z AKTAR

Perhaps, it’s better to name all ongoing initiatives under `peace
processes’ without giving any specific ethnic or political status to
them. Because, this is the first time that Turkey is genuinely trying
to pronounce the word `peace.’ It has been either blabbing or failing
to pronounce it correctly or having a hard time to say it or going
back to the only language it knows in view of speaking the language of
peace correctly. Clumsiness is the case everywhere, society, state or
politics. Indeed it is not easy to rid of century-old problems, deep
wounds that are hard to heal and serious heartbreaks. This is a period
when utmost patience, conscience as much as logic are required. But
there is a group refuting the use of the language of peace. That,
languages of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the
Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, in a way to show which is better
in warmongering during the historical plenary hearing in the
Parliament last week about the `Kurdish opening.’

You all heard CHP deputy Onur Ã-ymen’s chilling remarks indeed during
the first hearing held on Nov. 10:

`Unfortunately, mothers in this country have cried a lot. We have lost
many soldiers throughout history. We lost 200,000 in the Ã?anakkale
[Dardanelles] War. None came forward and said `Don’t let mothers cry.
Let’s forget about this war.’ Did mothers not cry during the War of
Independence? Did mothers not cry in the Sheik Said revolt? Did
mothers not cry in the Dersim revolt? Did mothers not cry in Cyprus?
Did anyone say `Mothers should cry no more? Let’s have a deal with the
Greeks. But unfortunately you are saying this because you don’t have
the guts to fight the terror.’ In a sort of disclaimer Ã-ymen announced
in the aftermath of his `historical’ remarks, probably due to his
referral to the Dersim massacre and due to fears of losing votes as he
implicitly targeted Alevis, the CHP deputy said: `As I said in my
speech, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk disagreed with the method of negotiating
with armed terror organizations as the Justice and Development Party
[or AKP] seems to favor. In the Republican period, indeed, Atatürk had
never negotiated with any armed groups revolting against the state.’

CHP’s `political commissioner’ is right though. Despite important
remarks, Mustafa Kemal made at the Ä°zmir Economy Congress in 1923
regarding the process through which human communities move away from
destructive fights to peaceful and productive activities, a peaceful
mindset has had difficulties to settle in this lands. The same goes
for Atatürk’s famous quote, `Peace at home, peace in the world.’ Just
like for Mustafa Kemal and for almighty elites of the time, all wars
Ã-ymen listed in his speech are weighing equally. It doesn’t make a
difference if you fight against the British or French in the
Dardanelles or Alevis and Kurds in Dersim. You are fighting the enemy,
because these were considered as enemies of that community (Turks)
trying to become a nation. Or as Ziya Gökalp said once, `This state
needs a nation,’ every other entity going against the description of
that nation was and is an `enemy.’

War lobby’s stakes

The problem is that the CHP-MHP duo is doing politics today with a
mindset of those years. In fact, they are doing politics as the
representatives of a `war lobby.’ In that sense, they are extremist
political parties. When it comes to peace processes, we have plenty of
signs that they will do everything in their power to prevent steps to
be taken, let alone providing support. We haven’t heard anything new
during parliamentary sessions other than a command like `The PKK must
lay down arms’ and a recommendation other than the CHP’s 20-year-old
Kurdish report, which has been sent to the paper basket long time ago
by the CHP itself. The empire of fear built by the parliamentary
opposition in this country has any place neither in Turkey nor in its
new posture as a regional power, neither in the world conjuncture
today nor in Turkish society’s expectations of peace and calm.

However, attitude of the CHP-MHP duo sets ongoing initiatives to an
extremely sensitive ground and makes public support vital. The AKP’s
move to explain the initiatives to the public is crucially important.
The Interior Minister, during his presentation to Parliament on Nov.12
qualified the ongoing initiative as part of an overall democratic move
intending to bring more freedom to everyone. This new paradigm is
indeed essential to convince citizens who are against the singling out
of Kurds only when the government utters the words `democracy’ and
`freedom.’

Along the same line, steps to be taken abroad are equally critical. We
should read relations newly established with the Regional Kurdish
Administration in northern Iraq in this direction because these
problems are external and cross-border as much as they are domestic.
Since the early days of the Republican period these problems were
usually tried to be solved by war and law enforcement solely. In other
words, if the `Kurdish initiative’ and opening towards Armenia are not
supported by the Greek/Cypriot-Greek initiative, one of three legs of
the trivet will be missing. And there, the imbalance may encourage
those who are eager to block other initiatives. At this point, the
importance of a full fledge initiative, of which we have heard just
rumors so far, to tackle all existing discords between Turkey and
Greece, starting with the Cyprus question, is obviously crucial.

news.am, Armenia
Nov 21 2009

Europeans have two reasons to be concerned about Turkish democracy

10:07 / 11/21/2009`When Nicolas Sarkozy rejects accession for Turkey
on the grounds of Europe’s `natural borders,’ everybody know that he
is speaking of `cultural borders”, reads the article by Jean-Francois
Bayart, the director of National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
published in French Libération. The article is titled `An Islam
Compatible with the Republic’. NEWS.am posts the full text.

`And Turkey’s culture is Islam: It would be incompatible with Europe,
and even with the Republic [France].

Yet Turkey has been a republic since 1924. Islam has democratized in
Turkey. It has appropriated the idea of the nation, republican
institutions, the civil code (introduced in 1926 and modelled on Swiss
legislation), the market economy, education, the mass media and
scientific knowledge. It has adopted the political party as method of
political participation and, because it is as theologically and
ideologically varied as in the rest of the Muslim world, it has given
rise to a pluralist education, the one rivaling the other to a greater
or lesser degree. The believers have also themselves divided up their
votes across the political checkerboard, while non-believers have
voted for Muslim parties.

More than that, Islam has made a decisive contribution to the
democratization of the Kemalist republic. By virtue of the
parliamentary system, successive Muslim parties or conservative
parties with a religious sensibility, close to brotherhoods, have
incorporated within the republican institutions the religious masses
that do not identify with the aggressive secularism of Kemalism and
filled the space that could have fallen to the jidahist groups. They
supported the move of the peasant farmers to the cities during the
rural exodus. They lent a voice to those of the Kurds who sought to
express their defiance of a centralizing state but without joining the
armed struggle of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party]. They also
permitted the rise of the Anatolian elites that the Kemalist
establishment was confining to the periphery.

On the other hand, Kemalist nationalism is less secular than it
claims. It is ethno-confessional, like its counterparts in the Balkans
and Caucasus. In the Kemalist republic nationals of Turkish origin or
Sunnis of the Hanefite rite are implicitly more citizens than the
Kurdish, Alevi, and Christian and Jewish inhabitants. But the origin
of this implicit discrimination does not have much to do with Islam as
a religion. It is political and is part of the unleashing of a
cultural nationalism from the latter half of the 19th century as well
as of the crossed operations of ethnic cleansing that followed, the
genocide of the Armenians being its culmination. The same logic is
found at work for the benefit of Orthodox, Catholics or Jews, or
Shi’is or even Sunnis, depending on the Balkan, Caucasian, or Middle
Eastern country in question. After all, an Arab Israeli is a little
less Israeli than a Jewish Israeli and it is not so long ago that that
religion ceased to be indicated on the identity cards of the Greeks.

The paradox of Turkey is due to the fact that the secular nationalists
are the ones that hold this ethno-confessional conception of
citizenship and the ruling Islamic party, the AKP [Justice
andDevelopment Party], with the support of the conservatives, is
questioning it. Closing the door to Europe on Turkey by claiming it is
a Muslim country is clearly to play the game of this conception. There
is, moreover, a certain coherence in hearing Nicolas Sarkozy, a man so
concerned about &`national identity,’ inadvertently assume the slogan
of the Turkish far right: &`France, you must like it or leave it!’ On
the other hand, many Turks who are not necessarily believers but who
vote for the AKP to oppose nationalist authoritarianism, say to
Europe, along with the left-wing intellectual Murat Belge: &`Do not
allow us to become fascist!’

The Europeans have two reasons to be concerned about the future of
Turkish democracy. It is not in their interest to see the development
of an ultranationalist Moscow-Ankara axis. And they bear a direct
historical responsibility for the development of these
ethno-confessional nationalisms in the Eastern Mediterranean, which
they fuelled ideologically and supported politically, even militarily,
under cover of &`protection’ ‘ a self-interested one ‘ of Christian
minorities. We are still paying the price in Lebanon, in Palestine, in
Iraq, in the Balkans, of the disastrous way the &`Orient question’ was
handled.The failure of negotiations between Turkey and the European
Union would be a continuation of this disaster.’

November 20, 2009
Press Release
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

PRELATE AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS PARTICIPTED IN MEETINGS AT THE
CATHOLICOSATE

As reported last week, on Sunday, November 15th, 2009, H.E.
Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian departed for Lebanon to participate in
meetings at the Catholicosate presided over by H.H. Catholicos Aram I. The
Prelates of the three North American Prelacies, along with Central Executive
and Executive Council representatives, participated in the meetings which
took place from November 18th to the 20th. The Western Prelacy delegation
included Central Executive Council members Mr. Khajag Dikijian and Mr. Vahe
Yacoubian, and Executive Council Chair and Vice-Chair Dr. Garo Agopian and
Mr. Garo Avakian.
During the three-day meetings, the Prelates reported on the
activities, endeavors, and challenges of their respective Prelacies and
received guidance and suggestions from His Holiness based on their
individual circumstances. The Prelates also participated in a joint meeting
to discuss and examine shared concerns and challenges.
During their stay in Lebanon the Prelacy representatives also had
the opportunity to visit the Aztag Daily offices where they met with the
staff and became familiarized with the workings of the newspaper.

LEBANESE INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION

In celebration of the 66th anniversary of the independence of
Lebanon, the Lebanese Consulate General of Los Angeles has organized a
reception to take place on the evening of Sunday, November 22nd, at the
Biltmore Hotel.
Very Rev. Fr. Muron Aznikian will represent the Prelate at the
reception.

ARMENIA FUND GALA BANQUET

On Sunday, November 22nd, the Armenia Fund Gala Banquet will take
place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. The guests of honor are
H.E. Archbishop Barkev Mardirossian, Primate of the Diocese of Karabakh, and
NKR Prime Minister Araik Harutyunyan.
H.E. Archbishop Yeprem Tabakian will represent the Prelate at the
banquet. Executive Council members and Prelacy parishes’ representatives
will also be in attendance.

ARMENIA 4 – IRELAND 1 IT’S DON WRONG! U-21 ‘HORROR SHOW’

The Sun
November 18, 2009 Wednesday
England

DON GIVENS’ Ireland side were torn apart in Armenia yesterday in what
the Under-21 boss called ‘a horror show’.

Winless in six games, Ireland are bottom of Group Two of their UEFA
Championships qualifying group.

The Armenians went into the tie having just picked up their first
point at home to Estonia.

But they were comfortable winners, with striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan
bagging a hat-trick.

Givens can point to the absence of experienced players such as Owen
Garvan, Séamus Coleman and James McCarthy, but he acknowledged the
display was woefully inept.

He said: "It was by far the worst performance I can remember given
the ranking of the opposition. It’s as poor as I’ve been involved with.

Words "Disappointing doesn’t put into words how I feel. It was
unbelievably poor. We were down seven of the original squad but I felt
sure we had players who could step in and perform better than that.

"There were very few players who came out of it with any credibility,
which is difficult to understand. It was a poor performance and I
don’t know where it came from.

"Séamus Conneely, Lanre Oyebanjo and Conor Clifford were the few
players to come out with credit.

"I’ll look at the DVD and see where it went wrong. It would do the
players good to look at it too because it was a horror show. It’s a
team game but they have to look at themselves."

Ireland could have stolen the lead in the 23rd minute when Oyebanjo
fired in a right-wing cross that Cillian Sheridan (below) connected
with but he headed wide. Mkhitaryan grabbed the opener on the
half-hour. Hovhannes Goharyan fed him from the left and the striker
waltzed through the Irish defence before slotting past keeper Shane
Redmond.

Redmond made an impressive double-stop to deny Mkhitaryan, after a
slip by Cian Hughton, and then Karlen Lazarian from the rebound.

Things might have been different had James Collins not fired over in
the dying seconds of the half.

Callum Morris came to his keeper’s aid five minutes into the second
half when he cleared off the line after Edgar Malakyan slipped his
shot under Redmond’s body.

Metalurg Donetsk striker Mkhitaryan made it 2-0 in the 61st minute
after playing a clever one-two with Malakyan to fire past Redmond.

Sheridan grabbed a lifeline when he rose above Edvard Hovhannisyan
to score from a Conneely cross.

But hopes of a comeback did not last long as BATE Borisov striker
Goharyan struck to the top corner.

Mkhitaryan made it 4-1 from the spot after Malakyan was taken down
by Oyebanjo in the 81st minute. Bohemians striker Paddy Madden had
an injury-time chance but shot over with just the keeper to beat.

ARMENIA: Hovhannisyan; Yedigaryan (Khachatryan 73), Arakelyan,
Yuspashyan, Hayrapetyan, Manoyan, Voskanyan (Ghazaryan 76), Lazarian,
Malakyan, Goharyan (Badalyan 90), Mkhitaryan.

IRELAND: Redmond; Oyebanjo, Morris, Dennehy, Hughton, Gleeson,
Conneely, Carey (Clifford 46), O’Shea, Collins (Madden 66), Sheridan.

RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSIAN LEAVES FOR YALTA ON WORKING VISIT ON NOVEMBER 20

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian
leaves for Yalta on a working visit on November 20 to take part in
a regular meeting of CIS Prime Ministers’ Council.

According to RA government’s Information and Public Relations
Department, Head of RA government’s staff David Sargsian, RA Deputy
Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian, Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of RA to Belarus Oleg Yesayan, Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary of RA to the Ukraine Armen Khachatrian, other
high-ranking officials are included in the delegation led by
T. Sargsian.