Author: Nahapetian Samvel

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN ATTENDS JANSEM’S WORKS AT THE MATIGNON EXHIBITION HALL
Nelly Danielyan

"Radiolur"
10.03.2010 11:36
Paris

On the first day of the official visit to France, President of the
Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, visited a display of renowned
artist Jansem’s works at the Matignon Gallery."

President Sargsyan congratulated the artist on his 90th birthday, and
awarded him with an Order of Honor for his significant contribution
to the reinforcement of the Armenian-French friendship.

Jansem said during the conversation with President Sargsyan that
although he lives in France, he has always been with Armenia with his
mind and heart, and that is the reason why he can help crying every
time he visits Armenia. The Armenian artist confessed that he feels
pity that his sons and grandsons do not speak Armenian.

Serzh Sargsyan assured that "maintaining the Armenian spirit is the
most important for staying an Armenian." For that purpose Armenia
has created the Ministry of Diaspora, which actively cooperates with
Armenian communities on issues of maintenance of the Armenian language
and culture.

The Armenian artist last visited the motherland ten years ago, but
even far from Armenia he follows the events here.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH PRESIDENT OF FRENCH SENATE

news.am
March 10 2010
Armenia

RA President Serzh Sargsyn held a meeting with President of the French
Senate Gérard Larcher.

The NEWS.am correspondent reported that participating in the meeting
were also RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Minister of Diaspora
Hranush Hakobyan, Chairman of the Armenian-French parliamentary
friendship group Ara Babloyan, RA Ambassador to France Vigen
Chitechyan, Vice-Chief of the RA Presidential Staff Vigen Sargsyan.

The Armenian leader is also to meet with President of the National
Assembly of France Bernard Accoyer. The Armenian delegation members
will take part in the meeting. President Serzh Sargsyan is also
scheduled to hold a meeting with representatives of the Armenian
community in France.

During his visit to France, the Armenian leader gave an interview to
Le Figaro.

ARMENIA’S STATE FOREIGN DEBT LAST YEAR GREW BY 88.1%

ARKA
March 9, 2010

YEREVAN, March 9, /ARKA/. Armenia’s state foreign debt last year
grew by 88.1% (or $1.389.6 billion) from 2008 to $2.966.7 billion or
1.121.1 trillion Drams, the National Statistical Service reported.

Some 83% of the debt or $2.462.3 billion was the government’s debt,
which grew last year by 76.3% or $1.065.7 from a year before. Central
Bank’s debt last year grew by 184.5% or $324.7 million to $500.8
million making 16.9 % of all the debt. Loans received for special
projects constituted 0.1% of all debt or $ 3.6 million.

Some 67.9% of the debt or $2.013.9 billion is owed to international
financial organizations. This debt grew last year by 63.1% from 2008.

Armenia owed $1.213.9 billion to World Bank – 40.9% of all debt to
international financial organizations. Armenia’s debt to World Bank
grew last year by 19.1%.

Armenian government debt to IMF grew last year by 335.4% to $586.7
million (19.8% of all government debt). The debt to the International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) rose last year to $60.4
million from $57.8 million in 2008 and the debt to OPEC Fund grew
from $15 million in 2008 to $25 million in 2009. Armenia’s debt to
the Asian Development Bank grew almost 16 times to $126.5 million.

Armenia also owed $142.7 million to Germany, which grew last year
by 13.9%. The debt to the USA reduced by 6.9% to $34.7 million, the
debt to France dropped from $4.97 million in 2008 to $4.83 million
s of late 2009. The debt to Japan grew from $174.9 million to $270.6
million. Armenia’s debt to Russia was $500 million.

GENOCIDE LABEL THREATENS U.S.-TURKISH TIES

United Press International UPI
March 8 2010

ANKARA, Turkey, March 8 (UPI) — A U.S. Congress panel’s decision to
label the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide
has damaged relations with Turkey, a key ally linking the West and
the Middle East.

The resolution labels the 1915-23 killings of up to 1.5 million
Armenians genocide and calls on U.S. President Barack Obama to use
the word in his yearly statement on the issue. After the House of
Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee passed the nonbinding
resolution last week, opening the door for a vote in full House,
Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington.

Turkish leaders over the weekend slammed the resolution, saying it
would hurt U.S.-Turkish relations if passed. Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it a comedy.

"Let me say quite clearly that this resolution will not harm us," he
said in remarks on Turkish television. "But it will damage bilateral
relations between countries, their interests and their visions for
the future."

The Turkish Embassy said in a statement that the resolution,
if adopted, would "impede the efforts for the normalization of
Turkey-Armenia relations."

Observers say the vote threatens an already stalled peace process
that hit its high last October when Turkey and Armenia after decades
of conflict signed two documents to re-establish ties and reopen the
countries’ mutual border.

Washington has tried everything to contain the damage.

"The Obama administration strongly opposes the resolution that was
passed by only one vote in the House committee and will work very
hard to make sure it does not go to the House floor," U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.

A similar resolution was introduced in 2007 but failed to make it to
the House floor because it was blocked by President George W. Bush.

Turkey is a key ally for the United States. Sporting good ties with
governments in the Middle East, Ankara is able to mediate in the
nuclear conflict with Iran and in the ongoing struggle to revive the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

A NATO member with troops in Afghanistan, Turkey has opened its
military bases to U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is
also an important transit country for oil and gas from Central Asia
and the Caspian Sea.

Armenia says Turks killed up to 1.5 million Armenians when the Ottoman
Empire collapsed during World War I. Many historians say the killings
amount to genocide, a charge Turkey strongly denies.

In Turkey, people are critical of Armenia’s occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in neighboring Azerbaijan. In 1993
Ankara severed ties with Armenia when it fought a war with Azerbaijan,
a close Turkish ally.

The "genocide" label is important to Armenians scattered around the
world. An estimated 5.7 million Armenians live abroad, including
1.4 million in the United States, significantly outnumbering the 3.2
million living in the small landlocked country itself.

THE PAST IS DISTANCING ANKARA FROM EUROPE
by Vittorio Emanuele Parsi

La Stampa
March 6 2010
Italia

It was easy to predict that the Turkish Government would come up with
an extremely tough response to a vote taken by the US Congress’ Foreign
Affairs Committee urging Turkey to acknowledge that the slaughter of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the course of World War I was
full fledged genocide, similar in every way to the Sho’ah that the
Nazi regime was to perpetrate a few decades later. But how come the
authorities in Ankara still adopt such an inflexible stance almost 100
years after those tragic events which, what is more, were perpetrated
by an institutional player (the Ottoman Empire) that is not the same
as today’s Turkish Republic? The answer is that the Armenian people’s
genocide is the most embarrassing thread linking the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire with the birth of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s Republic.

The genocide reflected a plan to "Turanize" ("Turkify" – La Stampa
editor’s note) the empire, replacing people’s previous and now obsolete
loyalty to the sultan with a new and vigorous loyalty to a national
Turkish homeland which had yet to be built, to be "invented," as was
the case with other countries that took shape in the course of the
century. The plan intersected and partly rerouted the last desperate
attempt to reform the empire made by young Turks from the mid-19th
century on.

The reforming movement’s nationalistic slide finally prevailed after
the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, and it was fuelled by the massacres
and enforced expulsions of the Muslim populace in the European
provinces that the empire had owned until that moment – massacres
perpetrated by Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgarians. The Turks responded
to those atrocities, which had not spared the Jews in Thessaloniki
either, with the first expulsions and massacres of Armenians and
Greeks in Anatolia.

Ethnic cleansing rose to new heights in World War I, reaching a peak
with the events of 1915. This cleansing operation was as ethnic and
it was religious, and it was explicitly and lucidly pursued by the
empire’s new leadership class, a large part of which was to then
transfer to the new Republic established by Mustafa Kemal after the
victorious war against Greece and against the other occupying powers.

Even Kemal Ataturk himself, a renowned "nonconfessional," actually felt
that equating the concept of "a real Turk" with "a Sunnite Muslim"
served his cause perfectly. In fact, it is no mere coincidence that
he was hostile to all other religious faiths (including other branches
of Islam), or that he accorded Sunni Islam special treatment with the
Ministry of Religion, in accordance with a vision of the relationship
between "church and state" that bore a far greater resemblance to
King Henry VIII’s English model than it did to the French republican
model with which it is often mistakenly compared.

In defending the Republic’s origins from an embarrassing original sin,
Ankara’s new overlords have shown that, albeit from a far more "pious"
standpoint, they continue to feel that Turkey’s national identity is de
facto inseparable from its Islamic and Sunnite identity. In so doing,
they are taking another step that distances Turkey from the European
haven which they still formally claim to want to reach.

LA TIMES EDITORIAL URGES GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

Asbarez
rges-genocide-recognition/
Mar 8th, 2010

LOS ANGELES-The LA Times issued an editorial on March 8, urging US
recognition of the Armenian genocide. We provide the editorial below:

Making Sense of Genocide

Turkey needs to come to grips with its bloody past so it can move
forward in its relations with Armenia and the U.S.

March 8, 2010

An estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the
final throes of the Ottoman Empire. That blood bath, carried out
by the Turks between 1915 and 1918, was genocide, and should be
called by that name. In approving a nonbinding resolution to make
this the official U.S. position, Chairman Howard L. Berman (D-Valley
Village) and other members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee were
responding to constituent demands that the United States take a moral
stand. Now, Congress and the Obama administration must decide whether
such a symbolic act also serves the strategic interests of the United
States. For the moment, just like presidents George W. Bush and Bill
Clinton before him, Barack Obama appears to be saying no.

It is important for the United States to stand for historical truth on
the Armenian slaughter. Even more important is that Turks themselves
come to terms with their brutal history. From Germany to South Africa
to Argentina, there are many examples of countries that have confronted
their violent pasts honestly.

Instead, Turkey recalled its ambassador for consultations after the
23-22 House committee vote, saying the resolution offends the country’s
honor and warning of negative consequences for U.S.-Turkish relations,
as well as for the ratification of agreements to normalize ties with
the Republic of Armenia. A more productive approach would be for the
Turks and Armenians to adopt the protocols hammered out last year to
establish diplomatic relations and reopen their shared border.

The U.S. vote must not become a pretext for further stalling.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama was unequivocal in his support for
labeling the killings a genocide. As president, however, he has the
unenviable task of weighing that position against the need for Turkey’s
support in Afghanistan, in stabilizing Iraq and for United Nations
sanctions against Iran. Turkey is the only Muslim country in NATO,
and it currently sits on the U.N. Security Council.

We understand that any U.S. administration must nurture the vital
strategic alliance with Turkey. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton, who coaxed Turkey and Armenia into signing the protocols last
year, noted that the agreement established a commission to examine
their bloody history and argued that "it is not for any other country
to determine how two countries resolve matters between them." That’s
true, but we also understand Armenian fears that such a commission
could whitewash history.

The goal is Turkish and Armenian reconciliation, putting to rest the
ghosts of the past. That is in the U.S. interest as well as that of
both peoples. For it to happen, the onus is on Turkey to acknowledge
the Armenian genocide.

TURKEY NEEDS TO COME TO TERMS WITH ITS PAST: LOS ANGELES TIMES

Tert.am
14:50 ~U 09.03.10

Turkey needs to come to grips with its bloody past so it can move
forward in its relations with Armenia and the US, reads a March 8
editorial in the Los Angeles Times.

An estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the final
throes of the Ottoman empire. That blood bath, carried out by the Turks
between 1915 and 1918, was genocide, and should be called by that name.

In approving a nonbinding resolution to make this the official
US position, Chair Howard L. Berman and other members of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee were responding to constituent demands that
the United States take a moral stand.

Now, Congress and the Obama administration must decide whether such a
symbolic act also serves the strategic interests of the United States.

For the moment, just like presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton
before him, Barack Obama appears to be saying no.

It is important for the United States to stand for historical truth on
the Armenian slaughter. Even more important is that Turks themselves
come to terms with their brutal history. From Germany to South Africa
to Argentina, there are many examples of countries that have confronted
their violent pasts honestly.

Instead, Turkey recalled its ambassador for consultations after the
23-22 House committee vote, saying the resolution offends the country’s
honour and warning of negative consequences for US-Turkish relations,
as well as for the ratification of agreements to normalize ties with
the Republic of Armenia. A more productive approach would be for the
Turks and Armenians to adopt the protocols hammered out last year to
establish diplomatic relations and reopen their shared border.

The US vote must not become a pretext for further stalling.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama was unequivocal in his support for
labeling the killings a genocide. As president, however, he has the
unenviable task of weighing that position against the need for Turkey’s
support in Afghanistan, in stabilizing Iraq and for United Nations
sanctions against Iran. Turkey is the only Muslim country in NATO,
and it currently sits on the UN Security Council.

We understand that any US administration must nurture the vital
strategic alliance with Turkey. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton, who coaxed Turkey and Armenia into signing the protocols last
year, noted that the agreement established a commission to examine
their bloody history and argued that "it is not for any other country
to determine how two countries resolve matters between them." That’s
true, but we also understand Armenian fears that such a commission
could whitewash history.

The goal is Turkish and Armenian reconciliation, putting to rest the
ghosts of the past. That is in the US interest as well as that of
both peoples. For it to happen, the onus is on Turkey to acknowledge
the Armenian Genocide.

The Daily Inquirer –
March 6 2010

Aide says Armenia resolution won’t get full US House vote

A congressional aide said that Democratic lawmakers bowed to concerns
expressed by the Obama administration and agreed not to schedule a
full House vote on a resolution that labels as genocide the killing of
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.

The House Democratic leadership aide said yesterday that Congressional
leaders have no plans at this time for a chamber vote on the measure,
which a House committee approved on March 4. The aide spoke on the
condition of anonymity.

On a 23-22 vote, the resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador in Washington
for consultations.

While attending a conference in Costa Rica on March 4, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton had spoken out against a full House vote.
President Barack Obama’s administration `strongly opposes the
resolution,’ she reiterated yesterday.

Before word surfaced of the leadership’s decision yesterday in
Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that a full
House vote would `impede the normalization process between Turkey and
Armenia. The best way for Turkey and Armenia to address their shared
past is through ongoing negotiations.’

rmenia-resolution-us-house-vote/0310418

ANSAmed – Italy
March 4, 2010 Thursday 12:31 PM CET

TURKEY: ARMENIANS; $45 BILLION ULTIMATUM TO WASHINGTON

ANKARA

(ANSAmed) Ankara threatened to cancel defense contracts totaling $45
billion with American companies if today the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the U.S. House of Representatives will pass a critical resolution
for the recognition of Armenian genocide claims. Daily Vatan describes
the Turkish warning as "economic ultimatum" adding that Vatan reports
that the CEOs of five US companies sent a letter to US congressmen to
highlight the hazards of the genocide resolution. They stressed that
the approval of the resolution would jeopardize exports totaling $10
billion.

Vatan says that despite the warnings, the Foreign Affairs Committee
was expected to approve the controversial resolution. Vatan gives
details about the companies campaigning in support of Turkey. Boeing:
THY has ordered 35 passenger planes. In the next 20 years, THY plans
to make deals with Boeing worth $21 billion. Raytheon: The company
holds talks with Turkish officials for the establishment of missile
defense systems to Turkey. The US government has announced that Turkey
could buy equipment worth $7.8 billion. Northrop Grumman: Turkey gives
$11 billion support to the Joint Strike Fighter project. Lockheed
Martin: Turkey has signed $2.9 billion deal for the purchase of 50
F-16 jets. The company also carries out a modernization project in the
Turkish Air Forces worth $635 million. United Technologies: Sikorsky
is one of the most powerful candidates for meeting the needs of the
Turkish army for 109 helicopters. If the company makes a deal with
Ankara, the helicopters will be produced in Turkey.

Vatan says that despite the warnings, the Foreign Affairs Committee
was expected to approve the controversial resolution.

Yesterday, as Vatan reported, Turkish President Abdullah Gul phoned US
President Barack Obama to reiterate Turkish concerns about the
genocide resolution to be discussed today at the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. According to the
daily, Gul asked the US administration to step in and block the
resolution. Gul warned that the approval of the resolution would harm
the normalization process initiated between Turkey and Armenia and
that strategic partnership between Turkey and the US would suffer a
heavy blow.

New York Times
March 5 2010

U.S. Vows Bid to Halt Armenian Genocide Measure Sign in to Recommend

By REUTERS
Published: March 5, 2010
Filed at 6:08 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Friday sought to
limit fallout from a U.S. resolution branding the World War One-era
massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as "genocide," and vowed to
stop it from going further in Congress.

Turkey was infuriated and recalled its ambassador after a House of
Representatives committee on Thursday approved the nonbinding measure
condemning killings that took place nearly 100 years ago, in the last
days of the Ottoman Empire.

A Democratic leadership aide told Reuters there were no plans "at this
point" to schedule a vote of the full House on the measure, and a
State Department official said this was the administration’s
understanding as well.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, facing questions about the issue
while travelling in Latin America, declared Congress should drop the
matter now.

"The Obama administration strongly opposes the resolution that was
passed by only one vote in the House committee and will work very hard
to make sure it does not go to the House floor," she said in Guatemala
City.

The resolution squeaked through the House Foreign Affairs Committee
23-22 on Thursday despite a last-minute appeal against it from the
Obama administration, which feared damage to ties with Turkey. The
NATO ally is crucial to U.S. interests in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and
the Middle East.

The issue puts President Barack Obama between Turkey, a secular Muslim
democracy that looks towards the West, and Armenian-Americans, an
important constituency in some states like California and New Jersey,
ahead of the November congressional elections.

Similar resolutions have been introduced in past sessions of Congress,
but never passed both the House and the Senate. In 2007, the same
House committee passed such a resolution but it never came up on the
floor after then-President George W. Bush weighed in strongly against
it.

DAMAGED TIES

After the committee’s vote on Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan warned of possible damage to ties with the United States.

On Friday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said chances of
Turkey’s parliament ratifying peace protocols with Christian Armenia
were jeopardized by the vote on the 1915 massacres.

One U.S. analyst said the normalization accords were mired even before
the U.S. resolution upset Turkey.

"The protocols were already in trouble and … what happened yesterday
makes much life much more difficult," said Henri Barkey, a visiting
scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former
State Department official.

Muslim Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it
amounted to genocide — a term employed by many Western historians and
some foreign parliaments.

The U.S. envoy in Ankara, James Jeffrey, distanced the Obama
administration from the resolution after being invited for talks by
Turkish officials. "We believe that Congress should not make a
decision on the issue," he said.

There was also anger in Baku, Azerbaijan, a close Muslim and
Turkic-speaking ally of Turkey. Its parliament warned that the U.S.
resolution could "reduce to zero all previous efforts" to resolve a
long-standing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Kenneth Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of
America, said supporters would gather next week to do a "whip count"
of House backers of the genocide resolution.

The resolution has 137 co-sponsors in the House, which is one measure
of support and not close to the majority of 217 needed to pass.
Advocates need to show they have enough votes to pass the measure for
it to be brought to the House floor, Democratic congressional aides
said.

The resolution urges Obama to use the term "genocide" when he delivers
his annual message on the Armenian massacres in April. He avoided
using the term last year although as a presidential candidate he said
the killings were genocide.

Ronald Reagan was the only U.S. president to publicly call the
killings genocide.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn, editing by Matt Spetalnick and
Vicki Allen)

world/international-uk-turkey-usa.html