Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

CIVIL NATIONAL INITIATIVE SEEKING WAYS TO FRUSTRATE PROTOCOLS RATIFICATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.10.2009 14:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Seeking ways to frustrate ratification of the
Armenian-Turkish protocols, Civil National Initiative has organized
a seminar on the disputable provisions in the documents.

The event brought together representatives from Armenian universities,
ARF Dashnaktsutyun youth wings, Hnchak Social Democratic Party and
Heritage party, who discussed ways to unite opposition forces and
organize protest actions.

The participants decided to continue pickets and disseminate leaflets
to inform the population about the danger the protocols represent
for Armenia.

PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA AND KARABAKH OBSERVE EXERCISES OF MILITARY UNITS AND SUBDIVISIONS OF NKR DEFENSE ARMY

ArmInfo
2009-10-23 12:33:00

ArmInfo. The President of the Republic of Armenia, Commander- in-Chief
Serzh Sargsyan continues his working visit to the defense positions
of our country and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

Accompanied by the President of the NKR Bako Sahakian, RA Minister of
Defense Seyran Ohanian and highest military ranks, President Serzh
Sargsyan visited defense positions of Armenian troops. President
Sargsyan observed changing of the guard, attended military exercises
in two army units and made the observation of the defense area. Later,
the Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanian summed up the results of the
exercises and gave instructions to the commanding staff.

After the military exercises, President Serzh Sargsyan laid a wreath
at the monument of the National Hero of Armenia Monte Melkonian (Avo).

At the conclusion of his visit, President Sargsyan conducted a working
meeting in Stepanakert on social and economic development of Artsakh
with the participation of the Republic’s leadership. Serzh Sargsyan
also answered the questions of a journalist from Artsakh Public TV.

"Visits such as this one, are intended to follow the progress on the
defense positions and in the army units, to follow the implementation
of the current tasks or those that the army was assigned with during
the previous visits. I do not believe it is possible to speak about the
combat readiness of the troops, or about the morals and the existing
psychological atmosphere while strolling on the carpet floors of a
study room. I attach utmost importance to these visits. This visit
differs from the others by the fact that it was made right after
the random check up conducted by the Military Inspection in one of
the army units. The check up revealed that that particular unit was
combat ready; it comprises a number of subunits which know their job
perfectly well. There are units which got excellent marks; there were
also those which got good marks. It testifies to the fact that we
have well-trained soldiers, knowledgeable commanding staff and our
troops are combat ready. I believe, right now our armed forces are
going through the development phase. They established themselves long
ago and we do have combat ready troops, unlike some countries of the
region which have just groups of armed men. These are two different
things. State of our combat units, their equipment, combat spirit
and the existing moral and psychological environment allow to state
unequivocally that at this time our troops are ready to carry out
any task assigned to them. My visits are months apart while changes
in the armed forces take place every day, every month, and it is of
course very pleasing," the president said.

BAKU WILL "FEEL HURT" IF ARMENIA, TURKEY NORMALIZE RELATIONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.10.2009 18:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey and Azerbaijan political forces entered a
confrontation, according to European Integration NGO chairman Karen
Bekaryan.

"With the progress in normalization of relations, we will come across
Baku’s childish touchiness, which will wane with time," he said.

"Tensions will persist for half a year but Azerbaijan will finally
understand senselessness of its behavior."

AMERIA CONDUCTS RESEARCH AMONG HIV-INFECTED PERSONS AND DRUG ADDICTS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.10.2009 19:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Ameria" conducts a study among HIV-infected and
intravenous drug users at the order of inter-church charity fund of
the Armenian Round Table of the World Council of Churches.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of programs
aimed at their social integration, consultancy, etc.

Research findings will help to assess the needs of HIV-infected and
drug users to providing them with individual and targeted assistance.

OPPOSITION LASHES OUT AT PEACE MOVE

Today’s Zaman
Oct 22 2009
Turkey

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) groundbreaking move of turning
over 34 of its members to Turkish authorities at the Habur border
gate on Monday has changed the course of the government’s democratic
initiative to settle the country’s decades-long Kurdish issue,
strengthening hopes that the PKK may lay down its arms.

Yet, although for many the PKK turning over some of its members
signifies a move toward peace, the opposition, which has remained
highly critical of the government’s efforts since the day the
initiative was first announced in July, argues that it was a result
of bargaining between the ruling Justice and Development Party (PKK)
government and the PKK. During their parliamentary group meetings on
Tuesday, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz
Baykal said the surrender of PKK members has revealed that jailed
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan has a major role in the initiative while
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli once again
said the best method to end PKK terrorism was armed struggle. Both
statements have been criticized by many analysts.

"The ruling party seems to have kicked off a win-win scenario. If the
‘game’ ends with a satisfactory result, both Turkey and the party will
win as it will receive political gains and an election victory. The
two main opposition parties, on the other hand, favor the continuation
of the game in a lose-lose situation," says Ä°smet Berkan from the
Radikal daily. Noting that this is the cause of the current tragedy
in Turkey over the Kurdish issue, Berkan says the CHP and the MHP
are frantically defending the status quo at all costs although they
know it cannot be maintained and the game will be lost in the end. "I
cannot understand how can such arguments can be termed ‘patriotism’,"
Berkan says.

Quoting remarks from Bahceli, who said while referring to the
PKK groups that those who were met with applause were not pilgrims
returning from Mecca, Fehmi Koru from the Yeni Å~^afak daily says that
if the country awaited the group like they were pilgrims returning
from Mecca, it is due to the stance of politicians like Bahceli on
the Kurdish issue. "If a government that is brave enough to find a
solution to this [Kurdish] issue and to end terrorism had not appeared,
we would turn into a country whose number of martyrs would be equal
to the number of its pilgrims," he says.

Star’s Ahmet Kekec has a hard time figuring out Baykal, who calls
himself a "social democrat." "He opposes a democratic constitution, he
opposes an Armenian initiative, he opposes the Kurdish initiative …

What are we going to do with you? Tell us something in favor of this
country, bring a proposal and constructive criticism and that’ll be
the day!" he implores Baykal.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: INVOLVEMENT IN KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS IS TURKEY’S ONLY GOAL IN RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2009-10-22 15:42:00

ArmInfo. Turkey pursued a distinct goal when initiating the process of
normalization of relations, Representative of the Armenian National
Congress Commission for External Relations Vladimir Karapetyan told
journalists.

According to him, despite the fact that Armenia was the first to start
this process, Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s visit to Armenia showed
that Turkey has serious goals. "It took me some time to understand
what goal Turkey pursues. And the only goal is to get involved in
the Karabakh peace process",- Karapetyan said. He added that Turkey
has been trying to do this for 16 years. "It failed to do this as
the arguments in Armenia were very strong, we used to say that this
country subjects Armenia to blockade, which is equal to hostility,
consequently, it cannot be a mediator",- Karapetyan said. He added
that earlier the Turkish public was not concerned with the Karabakh
problem, and they practically didn’t refer to it. "Today Turkey is an
equal mediator with official members of the OSCE Minsk Group official
members",- Karapetyan said. He pointed out that after signing of the
Protocols, Turkish official representatives mentioned the Karabakh
problem in the conversation with the US and Russian colleagues.

"Turkey has never been so deeply involved before, and its participation
will cause numerous problems, particularly, will increase the
pressure",- he stressed.

SOUTH CAUCASUS SENSITIVE TO GEOPOLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.10.2009 18:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The South Caucasus region is directly involved
in the sphere of strategic interests of Russia, the U.S., EU, OSCE,
NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization and sensitive
to changes in the relationship between these centers of power, Hayk
Kotanjyan told a Black Sea Security Basin conference the Head of the
Institute for National Strategic Studies of the RA Defense ministry.

In his opinion, the prospects for peace and security in the Caucasus
are Madrid principles of the Karabakh settlement based on "the paradigm
of war."

He stressed that Armenia participating in various organizations
of international security has adopted a balanced approach, its
foreign policy initiatives are aimed at increasing the capacity for
international support for the stability in South Caucasus.

"The encouraging factor of non-renewal of war in Karabakh, which would
undermine the regional security, is the consent of the conflicting
parties with the proposal of the OSCE Minsk Group to adopt three
main provisions of the UN Charter as basic principles of resolution
of the Karabakh conflict: nonuse of force, territorial integrity and
self-determination of nations.

The peaceful process in the South Caucasus is affected by the
continuous dialogue between heads of states of Armenia and Azerbaijan,
and support of presidents of Russia, the United States and France,
as well as advice from the co-chairs of the Minsk Group.

Paradigm of war " rather than" the paradigm of peace is in the basis
of the settlement and resolution of the Karabakh conflict, he said.

This approach keeps the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the
counter-format "the threat of renewed war". To a large extent this
can be explained by the fact that the Azerbaijani side as the basic
compromise submits its willingness not to resume hostilities.

"This approach, based on "the paradigm of war", lacks incentives
for Azerbaijan to counter equivalent compromise aimed at realistic
advancement towards lasting peace. This may explain the repeated abuse
of the Azerbaijani side of the ceiling of offensive arms established by
the CFE Treaty, as well as the open propaganda of intensive preparation
of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan to the resumption of war, not only
for the domestic audience, but also at the international tribune,
" Mr. Kotanjyan said.

However, he stressed that uninterrupted dialogue between Serzh Sargsyan
and Ilham Aliyev is an important tool to resolve the Karabakh conflict,
in regard to establishing the atmosphere of mutual understanding and
trust in the region.

"A productive dialogue between the U.S. and Russia, President Barack
Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, on the basis of "a paradigm of peace "
and the principle of "smart power " opens a unique opportunity for
the South Caucasus countries to contribute to the construction of
balanced regional security, creating conditions for lasting peace
secured through the equivalent mutual compromise, as well as programs
for regional and trans-regional cooperation, " Hayk Kotanjyan stressed.

TURKEY SCRAMBLES TO SOOTH AZERBAIJAN AFTER ARMENIA DEAL

Agence France Presse
Oct 19 2009

Turkey Monday gave strong assurances that its support for close ally
Azerbaijan in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict with Armenia remains
unchanged despite reconciliation efforts between Ankara and Yerevan.

"Azeri soil is as sacred for us as our own and liberating this soil
from occupation is one of our primary national issues," Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

"Even if the skies fall down, Turkey’s position will not change… Our
policy on ending the occupation… will continue until the problem
is resolved," he said.

Azerbaijan, linked to Turkey with close ethnic and economic bonds, has
slammed the two protocols Ankara and Yerevan signed this month to end
decades of hostility, establish formal ties and open their border, wary
that Turkish support for its own dispute with Armenia will now wane.

Ankara sealed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Baku after ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Yerevan,
seized the Nagorny Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts
from Azerbaijan in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

Turkish media at the weekend quoted Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
as saying that Baku was no longer happy with selling natural gas to
Turkey at low prices and would consider routes other than Turkey to
ship gas to Europe.

Reports also said Turkish flags were removed from a Baku cemetery,
where Turkish soldiers who fought for Azerbaijan in the early 20th
century are buried.

Commenting on Aliyev’s remarks on gas, Davutoglu said: "The
negotiations are continuing… I believe we will reach a positive
outcome."

He also said that Azeri authorities had told Ankara that Turkish flags
at the cemetery were taken down temporarily as part of maintainance.

Ankara’s bridge-building with Yerevan faces strong opposition also
at home, with nationalists accusing the government of selling out
Azerbaijan, whose alliance with Turkey is often described as "one
nation, two states."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that progress in resolving
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict will be a determinining factor in the
Turkish parliament’s ratification of the deals with Armenia.

The protocols, which will take effect only after they are ratified
by the legislatures of both countries, are expected to be submitted
to Turkey’s parliament this week, but a vote is unlikely soon.

ONLY 2 MORE DAYS LEFT: INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL IN YEREVAN

Tert
Oct 20 2009
Armenia

Third International Music Festival held at Komitas Chamber Music Hall
in Yerevan will present a chamber music concert on October 22 with the
participation of Armenian and foreign renowned musicians, including
pianist Ashley Wass (Great Britain), violinist Dayshin Kashimoto
(Japan), altist Alexander Chaushyan (Great Britain), as well as
Nikoghayos Vardanyan, Karen Kocharyan, Mary Margaryan and others.

Music by Chaushyan, Shutakovich and Brams will be included in the
concert program.

On October 23, Ashley Wass, Dayshin Kashimoto and Alexander Chaushyan
will perform with the accompaniment of the state philharmonic orchestra
at Aram Khachatryan hall presenting works by Beethoven, Harutyunyan
and Profokyev. This will be the closing concert of the festival.

MILITARY DRILLS ARE OVER

tary-drills
09:07 pm | October 16, 2009

Official

Serzh Sargsyan followed up on the final phase of the "Cooperation 2009"
military drills organized by the Rapid Reaction Collective Forces
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held at the
"Maribulak" range in Kazakhstan.

The military drills held on October 12-16 in Kazakhstan were the first
drills after the creation of the Rapid Reaction Forces. Armenia took
part in the drills with one battalion and officers, making up a total
of 110 soldiers.

The CSTO command headquarters and the command staff of the military
drills praised the Armenian soldiers’ participation and their combative
readiness.

Following up on the final phase of the "Cooperation 2009" military
drills were the presidents of the CSTO-member countries, including the
Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan.

The heads of member states praised the results of the military drills
and underlined once again that the creation of the Rapid Reaction
Collective Forces conveyed new content to the Collective Security
Treaty Organization.

The delegation headed by Serzh Sargsyan returned to Yerevan today in
the evening.