Author: Nahapetian Lilit

HAYK DEMOYAN: ARMENIA AND TURKEY SHOULD NEGOTIATE THE OPENING OF DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIONS

armradio.am
24.11.2008 18:11

"The peak of development of the Armenian-Turkish relations was
the visit of the Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, to Yerevan,"
Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute of the National
Academy of Sciences of Armenia Hayk Demoyan told a press conference
today. According to him, from that point on certain decline has been
noticed in the relations between the two countries, which do not
depend on the Armenian side.

Mr. Demoyan noted that the Armenian side initiated the meeting, and
the proposal was accepted by the Turkish side. However, we are still
waiting for Turley’s "response pass." According to him, there is a view
that the Armenian side was forced to take the step, which is not the
case. He reminded that Serzh Sargsyan even noted in his interviews with
German media that the meeting was organized without any precondition.

According to Hayk Demoyan, to prove the willingness of cooperating
with Armenia, Turkey should first open the Kars-Gyumri railway at least
within a year. Besides, according to him, bilateral negotiations should
be held on opening of diplomatic representations in Armenia and Turkey.

Hayk Demoyan said the Turkish side should not link any question
connected with the improvement of relations with Armenia with the
Karabakh issue, since the Armenian side does not do that in case
of Cyprus.

Turning to the meeting of the Aremnian and Turkish Foreign Minister
sin Istanbul, Hayk Demoyan said he does not expect serious progress
from that meeting.

SENTENCING SMBAT AYVAZIAN TO IMPRISONMENT IS A CONSEQUENCE OF POLITICAL ORDER, NOR ZHAMANAKNER PARTY STATES

Noyan Tapan

Nov 21, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. Sentencing Smbat Ayvazian, a
Political Board member of the Hanrapetutiun (Republic) party, the
former RA Minister of State Revenues, to two years’ imprisonment
is a consequence of a political order and he is a political
prisoner. According to the statement of the Nor Zhamanakner (New Times)
party, imprisoning and isolating from society a figure having an active
political position purely on the basis of policemen’s evidence is a
bright example of a political retribution.

NZ condemns all anti-legal actions continued against political figures
and demands immediately releasing S. Ayvazian.

It should be mentioned that under the November 19 judgement of general
jurisdiction court of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash communities S.

Ayvazian was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS DOES NOT AFFECT AMOUNT OF INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA’S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

Noyan Tapan

Nov 21, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. According to international experts,
despite the global financial crisis, the amount of investments in
the IT sector is growing. The investments attracted by Armenian IT
companies have also increased as compared with last year, the director
of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation Bagrat Yengibarian announced
at the November 20 press conference.

In his words, it became clear from a conversation with the president
of Macadamian company (Canada) which has a subsidiary in Armenia that
a growth of investments in IT industry was recorded both in Canada
and the U.S. "Macadamian and National Instruments have doubled the
number of employees in their Armenian subsidiaries which means that a
decline in investments is out of the question," B. Yengibarian noted,
adding that the other foreign IT companies have also increased the
number of their employees in Armenia.

The executive director of the Union of IT Enterprises of Armenia (UITE)
Karen Vardanian said the global financial crisis has had a various
impact on IT companies around the world, depending on the extent of
the damage done by the crisis to the sector serviced by the given
company. Engineering centers of foreign companies mainly operate in
Armenia, demand for IT engineering solutions has not declined and so
the crisis has not had a highly negative impact on Armenian IT sector,
while in some subsectors a growth has been recorded.

Nevertheless, K. Vardanian expressed an opinion that with the aim
of withstanding the consequences of the global financial crisis in
Armenia in the next three years, the state and private sector should
develop a strategy with a list of measures, as it was done in a number
of countries. One of the issues on the agenda of the meeting of heads
of Armenian IT sector to be held in Dilijan on December 5-7 will be
dedicated to such a measure. During the event, issues of relations
of Armenia’s IT sector and tax and customs bodies will be discussed,
as, according to K. Vardanian, a slowdown of reforms has been noted
here. Besides, the problem of developing electronic government in
Armenia will be examined. It is also envisaged discussing together
with Georgian experts the opportunity of using Georgia’s experience
in the development of electronic payment systems. The annual amount
of electronic payments makes 20 million dollars in Georgia.

K. Vardanian said that this is the first "without-tie" meeting of
Armenian IT sector’s heads, in which representatives of foreign
companies will take part. The previous 7-8 meetings had 60-100
participants.

ART EXHIBITION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES

Panorama.am
20:21 21/11/2008

By the initiative of Ministry of Culture of Armenia art exhibition
of national minorities of Armenia is opened, said Gayane Durgaryan
the head of information and public relations department of Ministry
of Culture.

According to her 11 national minorities have opportunity to present
their art values in this exhibition. She mentioned that the mission of
the exhibition is to protect and develop the traditions of each nation.

MATTHEW BRYZA: "THE ISSUE OF HOLDING A REFERENDUM IN KARABAKH IN THE FUTURE IS A SUBJECT OF THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS"

Today.Az
olitics/49086.html
Nov 19 2008
Azerbaijan

"The issue of holding a referendum in Karabakh in the future, as well
as its mechanisms, organization, terms and participants are a subject
of the negotiation process", said OSCE MG co-chair Matthew Bryza in
his interview to Liberty radio station.

According to the US diplomat, the fact that the Moscow declaration is
undersigned by just one co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group –
Russia, means that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev decided to stress
the influence of his country in the resolution of conflicts in the
South Caucasus.

Speaking of the resolution principles, Bryza noted that the co-chairs
do not single out any of these principles, therefore, the Moscow
declaration does not fix them directly. At the same time, the diplomat
noted that the search of balance between them is underway.

Asked whether he agrees that the Armenian President is under the US
pressure in the Karabakh issue, Matthew Bryza noted that this question
should be put to Armenians.

"As for the Armenian President, the United States recognize the
results of elections and recognize Serzh Sargsyan as a president. He
is leading the country and we must work with him. It is for people
to decide whether the documents, he signed, are appropriate for
them. I can only note that he is quite a principal and reasonable
negotiator. The same with President Aliyev: he will not agree to
any variant, inadmissible for the peoples of Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh. He is a wise person and in this connection I do not have
concerns that he is under pressure", Bryza noted.

Commenting on the opinion of deputy US Secretary of state Daniel Fried
that the signing of an agreement on the Karabakh conflict may occur by
the end of this year, the co-chairman said that "this is possible". At
the same time, he noted that he does not expect similar things. "There
is no need to accelerate the negotiation process, I think", noted he.

ARMENIA: LEADERS OF POLITICAL PARTIES DISCUSSING THE CURRENT STAGE OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

armradio.am
20.11.2008 15:11

At the initiative of the Office to the President of the Republic of
Armenia, discussions on the current stage of settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh issue, featuring the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan,
and leaders of political parties, were launched at the conference
hall of the Sport and Concert Complex after Karen Demirchyan.

At the beginning of the meeting the President promised that such
gatherings would become periodical. He recalled his address to the
people at the National Assembly, in which he had noted that he would
come forth with an initiative of organizing consultations on strategic
issues of vital importance. According to Mr. Sargsyan, this mechanism
of discussions will not only contribute to the raise of the role of
parties in the process of decision-making, but will also serve as an
impetus for the further development of the political field.

"Every of our meetings in this format will be dedicated to one concrete
issue. I do not rule out that in the future we will have consultations
outside the capital. I think the importance of such consultations is,
first of all, in listening to each other, understanding the plurality
of opinions and approaches, jointly thinking over issues of vital
importance for the country, forming joint position on certain issues
if possible," Se rzh Sargsyan said.

The President of Armenia noted also that the participants are free
to freely express their approaches during the closed-door meeting.

Leaders of tens of political parties are participating the meeting.

FOREIGN MINISTERS OF AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA TO MEET IN HELSINKI ON DECEMBER 4-5

AzerTag
Nov 18 2008
Azerbaijan

The next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers over
the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict will be held in Helsinki on
December 4-5 within the framework of OSCE foreign ministers’ meeting,
the OSCE Minsk Group Russian co-chair Yuriy Merzlyakov said.

He said the sides intended to intensify the high-level
negotiations. "It is difficult to say when the Azerbaijani and Armenian
leaders will meet, but this meeting will take place undoubtedly. There
can be some undesirable cases delaying the process. The co-chairs
are trying to prevent such cases".

ARMENIA: SPECIAL VISIT OF COMMISSIONER HAMMARBERG TO ASSESS INQUIRY PROGRESS

armradio.am
19.11.2008 13:13

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg,
will carry out a special visit to Armenia from 20 to 22 November to
assess the situation of persons deprived of their liberty in relation
to the event of 1-2 March and the inquiry into those events.

"I intend to assess the situation of persons deprived of their liberty
and the progress made in discovering the responsibilities of the March
events" he said. "It is essential that a true and factual description
of what actually happened is established. If this can be done it will
also benefit future work to protect human rights in Armenia."

During the visit, he will meet with the President of the Republic,
Serzh Sargsyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, the Head of the National Police and the Prosecutor
General. He will also hold meetings with the Chairman of the ad hoc
inquiry committee of the National Assembly and the members of the
newly-established fact-finding group tasked with the inquiry into the
March events, the Human Rights Defender, as well as representatives of
international organizations and civil society. Commissioner Hammarberg
will also visit places of deprivation of liberty.

NO FINAL SETTLEMENT WILL BE REACHED ON KARABAKH CONFLICT AS NKR DOESN’T PARTICIPATE IN NEGOTIATIONS

"Noravank" Foundation
18 November 2008

All the attempts to settle the Karabakh conflict without
participation of its main party – Nagorno-Karabakh, are not
sufficient. This was announced by the NKR President Bako Sahakyan
in his interview given to "Freedom" radio station while commenting
on Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian declaration on the Karabakh conflict
settlement.

"The fact that the international community, the countries of the
region, mediators try to have influence and bring the issue to its
logical end is of course welcomed. It is the matter of dialogue and the
necessity of this dialogue has been accentuated in our announcements
through all these years.

It goes without saying that any dialogue has positive influence on
the conflict settlement, but we have at the same time mentioned and go
on doing so that the dialogue and all the attempts made by the Minsk
Group and Russia in particular are insufficient without the NKR’s
participation," mentioned the president. To the question what is done
for Karabakh to become a negotiating party, B. Sahalyan announced
that at every meeting, especially with the Minsk Group co-chairmen
"We ask and, why not, claim for them to use their=2 0power and restore
the distorted format, realize the decision of the Budapest summit
according to which the NKR is a full party of negotiations."

B.Sahakyan mentioned that Armenia’s authorities also worked in this
direction. "We welcome the negotiation process in the framework
of the Minsk group, however, the issue will not be settled once
and forever because the NKR doesn’t participate in negotiations,"
mentioned the president. To the question which are the maximum
concessions the NKR is ready to make taking into account the fact
that the Moscow declaration has confirmed that the negotiations are
to be grounded on Madrid principles implying certain concessions,
Sahakyan answered that for the NKR it was important participation in
the negotiation process after which it would be possible to discuss
all the package of suggestions. "We’ve got certain standpoints,
but being deprived of participating in negotiations we can not
produce them…we realize that all the principles are to be first
of all agreed with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic authorities." In
that way Sahakyan reacted on possible disposal of peace-makers in
the Karabkh conflict zone. "As long as we are the conflicting party,
all the answers to such questions are of declarative character."

WHEN GENETICS AND HISTORY COLLIDE

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17 November 2008

Essays on genetic anthropology

Levon Yepiskoposyan – anthropologist and geneticist, PHD, major
science of Molecular Biology Institute of NAS RA.

The history of the origin of man, his colonization of the planet,
the appearance of different ethnic groups and their migrations
are indelibly embedded in our genome. This decay-resistant and
indestructible data contains not only encoded information of the
biological past of Homo sapiens, but also the results of the impact
of various cultural practices and ancient contacts of our ancestors
on the genetic pattern of modern populations.

It is the task of genetic anthropologists to decipher theses
‘re¬cords’.

They have been singularly successful in this mission having already
established the genesis of the founding mother and father of
mankind (‘the genetic Adam and Eve’), estimated the contribution of
Neanderthals to the genetic legacy of mo¬dern humans, reconstructed
the demographic history of various peoples, confirmed the existence of
the Old Testament priests, understood the reasons of unusually high
frequencies of specific patrilineal genealogies in some populations,
and determined the selective advantage of widely spread deleterious
mutations.

–Boundary_(ID_P0riEOByECf h2uzE52cCww)–