Author: Nargizian David

HERMAN VAN ROMPUY: TURKEY WILL NEVER BE PART OF EUROPE

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.11.2009 13:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, a leading
candidate to win the presidency of the European Council, is strongly
opposed to Turkey ever joining the European Union.

"Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe,"
Mr Van Rompuy said during a meeting of the Council of Europe on the
subject of Turkey’s possible entry into the EU, held in the Belgian
parliament on December, 2004.

During the speech, the Belgian leader underscored Europe’s Christian
"fundamental values," which would be undermined by admitting Turkey
into the union.

"An expansion of the EU to include Turkey cannot be considered as
just another expansion as in the past. The universal values which
are in force in Europe, and which are also fundamental values of
Christianity, will lose vigour with the entry of a large Islamic
country such as Turkey," the then opposition politician said in a
speech that until now has remained buried.

Belgian officials confirmed to this website that the speech was made,
but noted that the comments were made when in opposition.

Anticipating that the UK, which does not favor Mr Van Rompuy as a
candidate for the EU top job and which is pro-Turkey, would immediately
jump on the speech as an argument against the Belgian leader, one
official said: "Things that are said in opposition, as David Cameron
will soon find out, are different from what you find yourself saying
when in government."

"Serious politics, however, is to judge someone by what they say and
do when in power," the official said.

Nevertheless, it is understood that British diplomats are not
particularly concerned.

"If we ruled out all the politicians that had said awkward things in
the past, we’d have a very short list indeed," said one.

Mr Van Rompuy is said to have the backing of France and Germany for
the presidency post, set to be decided along with the new EU foreign
policy post at a meeting of EU leaders on Thursday evening.

The question of whether Turkey – an official candidate – should be
a full member of the European Union has long divided member states,
EUobserver reported.

AZERI MP: ANKARA HAS AGAIN STARTED TO PUT STIFF PRESSURE ON YEREVAN

news.az
Nov 17 2009
Azerbaijan

Asim Mollazade I consider the recent stable thaw in the Turkish-Israeli
relations to be a very positive sign, MP Asim Mollazade said commenting
on the resumption of the military and strategic cooperation between
Turkey and Israel.

This cannot be otherwise, as both countries are strategic partners
in the Middle East, Turkey is a NATO member and it fulfills wide
functions of ensuring Israel’s security. The long confrontation of
these countries could have serious negative implications for such a
dangerous region as the Middle East, Mollazade noted.

"Moreover, Turkey did not manage to get much sympathy among Arab
states. In particular, when speaking to representatives of secular
Arab countries, I often heard them saying that stiffening of Turkey’s
position toward Israeli had a negative impact on balance of powers in
the region and complicated the dialogue with official Tel-Aviv. Turkey
gained nothing except for applauds from radical groupings of Lebanon,
Palestine and Syria that have no serious influence in the international
arena", Mollazade said.

I think that the sharp anti-Israeli slant of the Turkish leadership
was connected with elections in Turkey. The rating of the ruling party
was rapidly declining and the initiated anti-Israeli rhetoric helped
the powers get support of pro-Islam Turkish circles during elections.

And now when the task is fulfilled, official Ankara is gradually
turning to its traditional foreign-policy vector including to
restoration of relations with Tel-Aviv, the parliamentarian said.

"I would like to note that the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement has,
undoubtedly, had a positive influence not only on the Middle East
but also on the South Caucasus. Turkey continued its traditional
policy of developing strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, aimed at
implementing the planned economic and energy transportation projects.

Ankara has resumed stiff pressure on Yerevan in the resolution of
the Karabakh conflict. On the whole, I think the hard geopolitical
moments for Azerbaijan are left behind", Mollazade said.

EU ADVISOR TO WORK AT ARMENIAN NA

news.am
Nov 17 2009
Armenia

Speaker of the RA Parliament Hovik Abrahamyan received yesterday
Raul de Luzenberger, Head of the European Commission’s Delegation to
Armenia, Rolf Behnke, the Head of the EU High Level Advisory Group
to Armenia, and Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa, the group member and Advisor
to the Speaker of the RA National Assembly.

The press service of the RA Parliament told NEWS.am that Speaker
Abrahamyan welcomed RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative to
form a EU advisory group. Abrahamyan pointed out the importance of
developing cooperation with the European Union (EU), expressing hope
that the EU Advisor’s activities at the RA Parliament will contribute
to Armenia’s integration with Europe, and his wide experience at
the European Parliament will facilitate the development of the RA
Parliament’s relations with the European Parliament.

The sides also discussed issues of organizing the EU Advisor’s
activities at the RA Parliament, pointing out the fields his activities
can be beneficial in.

ITEMS OF FOOD AND CHEMICALS DISCUSSED IN YEREVAN

Aysor
Nov 17 2009
Armenia

One-day Forum on Quality Control of pesticides and Support of
monitoring of its leavings was held in Yerevan organized by UN Food
and Agricultural Organization (FAO) with assistance of Armenia’s
Ministry of Agriculture, press office of UN Yerevan Office said.

The participants represented by governmental, public, and private
organizations discussed current stage of control services of chemicals
and its leavings and viewed the steps necessary to take in this field
and various ways of FAO’s contribution.

"I think that the program is very important for our country. I
believe that the Forum will become a significant step towards the
implementation of the program," said Deputy Minister of Agriculture
of Armenia, Levon Rukhkyan.

Greece’s Ambassador to Armenia also spoke to Forum. He said that in
the matter of Greece’s contribution to development of the agricultural
sphere is foreground. It’s worth mentioning, that through FAO program,
Greece provides Armenia with $3.600.000. Besides, it supports three
other programs of which budget is $1.400.000.

"It is a complicated task to found technically-equipped laboratories
under local conditions, it demands for territories, expensive
equipment, professional staff and a budget to ensure the functional
stability," said FAO’s senior technology consultant

Three-month long program is fully funded by the Greek Government
and is implemented by UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
with assistance of Armenia’s Ministry of Agriculture.

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email. [email protected]
Internet

PRESS RELEASE
November 17, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

COUNTDOWN TO ERDOGAN: WEEK TWO MOBILIZES U.S. HOUSE ACTION ON THE
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

— Marathon of Activism Continues Leading up to Erdogan’s December 7th
White House Visit

— Video: ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian discusses the second
week of Countdown to Erdogan with Horizon 180’s Paul Chaderjian.
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WASHINGTON, DC – Having completed a full week of grassroots
activities urging U.S. Senate support for Armenian Genocide
affirmation, the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA)
"Countdown to Erdogan" campaign, now in its second week, will be
focusing the need for the U.S. House of Representatives to move
quickly to adopt the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.252.

"Countdown to Erdogan provides Armenian Americans from across the
country a unique chance to take part in a broad range of civic
advocacy activities, meaningfully strengthening the capacity of our
community, as we increase the moral and political pressure for a
truthful and just stand by our government on the Armenian
Genocide," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

A New Action Item Each Day:

Starting on Monday, November 16th, Week 2 of the "Countdown to
Erdogan" campaign began with an online focus on the ANCA YouTube
channel – and continues on Tuesday
and Wednesday with email and call-in days directed at the House of
Representatives. Daily action will continue into Thursday, with a
focus on the Darfur Genocide, and Friday, with activities to
strengthen the Armenian American community’s social networking. The
weekend will feature a field activity on Saturday and community and
family connection opportunities on Sunday. All activities are aimed
at educating and inspiring President Obama, on December 7th, to
tell the visiting Prime Minister of Turkey that American stands for
a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide.

Social Networking: Twitter Challenge Winners to be Announced on
Friday, November 20th.

On Friday, November 13th, the ANCA announced the Twitter Challenge,
urging activists to write a "tweet" in 140 characters or less,
explaining why the U.S. should recognize the Armenian Genocide. The
best entries will be posted on the ANCA website, the ANCA Facebook
page, and, of course, re-Tweeted on the anca_dc account. The
winning entry will be announced next Friday, November 20th at
3:00pm EST.

TURKISH JOURNALIST REPORTEDLY SAYS KARABAKH IS ARMENIAN LAND

news.az
Nov 16 2009
Azerbaijan

Nagehan Alci A Turkish journalist visiting the unrecognized
Nagorno-Karabakh republic is reported to have said that Karabakh is
purely Armenian land.

Nagehan Alci, a journalist for Turkish newspaper Axsam, was speaking
during an interview with with Nagorno-Karabakh Public Television.

She said, "We in Turkey were mistaken. Karabakh is fully Armenian
land and we understand that you are too determined not to give your
land up."

The journalist said she wanted to see Nagorno-Karabakh with her own
eyes and find out the opinions and expectations of Karabakhis. "I
suggested to my chief editor that I visit Karabakh and got a positive
response", Alci said.

"Everything that I’ve seen here dispelled all my doubts about the past
and future of Karabakh. This mostly came after my conversations with
officials and ordinary citizens. We are impressed with Stepanakert
(Khankendi) and intend to come here again," Alci said.

At the same time, she said that Armenians living in Istanbul "play
a special role in the public and cultural life of the megalopolis".

Alci said that since she is not a historian, she cannot say whether
the events of 1915-16 were genocide or a tragedy, but she said "sad
events occurred in 1915".

"I regret these events. We should be friends as we were friends in the
past and made history together. It is necessary to bring friendship
not sorrow to the future", Alci said.

Commenting on the attempt of the authorities of both countries to
improve Armenian-Turkish relations, the journalist said, "We want the
borders to open, but the Karabakh problem is among the main obstacles
in this process. Our government says it will not open borders unless
the Karabakh conflict is settled. We will see."

Asked whether she was concerned about the response of the Azerbaijani
authorities, Alci said, "Azerbaijan will most likely be discontented
with our visit to Karabakh and we know this."

"We will try to be objective when featuring the region and write
true stories. Perhaps, we will be declared personae non gratae in
Azerbaijan, but I do not want to offend anyone in Azerbaijan and
Armenia. This is just my work, I am a journalist and journalists must
be everywhere," Alci said.

Representatives of Turkish newspaper Axsam said today that the
statement by Nagehan Alci may be provocation. If it turns out to be
true, the reporter will be severely punished.

WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 13, 2009 Friday

"WAR IN GEORGIA EXPOSED SOUTH CAUCASUS COUNTRIES’ VULNERABILITY"

by Olga Allenova

AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER SEMNEBY, EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE
SOUTH CAUCASUS; An interview with Peter Semneby, EU Special
Representative for the South Caucasus.

Another round of the Caucasus security talks in Geneva, Switzerland,
will be the first following publication of the report on the war in
South Ossetia drawn by a special EU Commission. Here is an interview
with Peter Semneby, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus,
on what disturbs the European Union in the region, why Moscow and
Tbilisi differ in their interpretations of the report, and what effect
recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia may have on
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution efforts.

Question: It is going to be the eighth round of the consultations but
the process is essentially fruitless. Why would the EU attach all this
importance to this format then?

Peter Semneby: No, I wouldn’t call it fruitless. Seven meetings took
place, each attended by high-ranking representatives of all involved
parties. It is an important accomplishment in itself. As for the
results, the consultations did set up incident prevention mechanisms,
didn’t they? Granted that it was not much in terms of the expected
breakthrough… even small steps lead us to the desired objective. I
do not even like to think about what it would have been without this
forum or without observers in the area. Any incident would have been
capable of sparking new escalation.

Question: Do you think the report drawn by Heidi Tagliavini Commission
will have any effect on the nature of the talks in Geneva?

Peter Semneby: What really counts, I believe, is that this report
enabled us to finally stop looking over our shoulders and start
looking forward. The report shed light on what had happened. It is a
lesson for all of us to keep in mind.

Question: The report in question was supposed to put an end to the
debates over who had begun the war in South Ossetia. The document
states that Georgia began the war. Official Tbilisi in the meantime
makes an emphasis on the part of the report that covers the pre-war
period, one which states that Russia did its part to abet escalation
of tension too. How do you find these differences in interpretations?

Peter Semneby: It’s hardly surprising. After all, these two countries
were at war and not that long ago.

The report analyzes the following periods: before the war, its
beginning, the war as such, and post-war. That all involved parties
disagree over their interpretation is something to be expected. Why
focus attention on August 7 and 8? It all began long before that. The
matter concerns the relations between Georgia and minorities on the
one hand and between Georgia and Russia on the other. Escalation
lasted at least a year before the outbreak of the war. Remember how a
Russian missile fell in Georgia? Tension all over the region literally
soared then.

Question: What consequences of the report shall we expect then?

Peter Semneby: No need to talk about consequences because punishing
anyone is not what the report is about or for. The EU Commission ran
this investigation to enable the international community to know what
had happened and concentrate on negotiation of the consequences of the
conflict. We are talking the lessons we hope the involved parties
learned.

Question: And what lessons are they? What did the European Union
learn? Had it been possible for the European Union to prevent the war?

Peter Semneby: Regrettably, the European Union did underestimate the
risks. It could have done more for prevention of the conflict. Had our
presence in the region been more impressive, it would have played its
part, I think.

Question: EU observers are restricted to Georgia alone, these days.
They are not permitted in Abkhazia or South Ossetia. Does the EU think
that this state of affairs impairs its ability to influence the
situation in general?

Peter Semneby: Yes, presence of our observers over there is
preferable. We hope that they understand now that the European Union
is only playing a thoroughly stabilizing role in the region. Or that
its capacities are not exhausted at all.

Question: Some experts say that another Russian-Georgian war is at
least a possibility…

Peter Semneby: That’s why we have observers in Georgia. That’s why we
attach importance to the talks in Geneva.

Question: The current activization of the dialogue between Armenia and
Turkey… Do you think the border between these two countries will be
opened before a solution to the Karabakh problem is found?

Peter Semneby: This opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia
will bring the region a step closer to normalization of a definitely
abnormal situation when three longest borders in it are closed. I mean
the borders between Armenia and Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and
Russia and Georgia.

The Armenian-Turkish relations have reached the threshold of a much
needed breakthrough. Process of ratification will be difficult of
course, but ratification is in the interests of Armenia and Turkey
alike. I’m even convinced that it is in the interests of Azerbaijan
too, or will be in the long run, because the opening of the borders in
the region will benefit all countries including Azerbaijan. The war in
Georgia exposed vulnerability of all countries of the South Caucasus.
Solution to all these problems will do away with this vulnerability. I
have no doubts that this is how the Armenian leadership sees it. I do
not doubt that Armenia understands that the status quo in the matter
of Nagorno-Karabakh is not in its interests… nor that it will remain
unchanged forever.

What we need throughout the Caucasus is trust. And trust is not to be
reestablished without activeness on the part of the third parties like
the European Union and Russia.

Question: And yet, recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia
set a precedent that complicates the solution to the problem of
Karabakh the European Union has been promoting.

Peter Semneby: Do not make the mistake of exaggerating parallels
between these conflicts. Of course, it’s quite problematic and
unacceptable for us that Russia recognized these territories as
sovereign states. It requires some serious and complicated talks yet,
talks with Russia included. In any event, we have common priorities in
other spheres which means that no disagreement between the European
Union and Russia over Georgia is supposed to interfere with our
conflict resolution efforts elsewhere.

Source: Kommersant, November 10, 2009, p. 8

ARMENIAN BUSINESSMEN ARE BEING PREPARED FOR FREE TRADE WITH EC

ARKA
Nov 13, 2009

YEREVAN, November 13. /ARKA/. Seminar for Armenian businessmen on
the changes of trade regime between Armenia and European Union within
the program "East Partnership" took place on Friday in Yerevan.

The seminar "Proposed trade frames with EU" was organized jointly
with Armenian-European consulting center of economic policy and right
(AEPLAC), Ministry of Economy of Armenia and group of EU consultants.

Businessmen, members of the Union of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs,
Association of Businessmen and Union of Exporters participated in the
seminar. "The subject of the seminar was current and future trade
regime with European Union. Future trade relations between Armenia
and EU is a deep and global free trade regime", said Aleksey Sekaryov,
Head of AEPLAC to the journalists.

He said that this process will take five years and the goal of this
event is to prepare Armenian businessmen for it. "We should know what
is trade regime, get introduced to technical norms and standards of
EU for exporting our products", said Sekaryov.

This preparation is organized beforehand because Armenian businessmen
have rather narrow horizon of planning, they have to learn about
higher level of trade regime and cooperate with EU.

They have to learn about it now for including it into new cycle of
planning. It is necessary to increase quality of control and implement
reforms in the sphere of protection of intellectual ownership,
standardization, sanitary and fito-sanitary control in Armenia.

Mushegh Tumasyan, Deputy Minister of Armenia mentioned that the goal
of the Government of Armenia is to increase export of Armenian products
to EU countries. "Our goal is to promote export to EU countries.

It is rather difficult process which is conditioned by the quality
of the product and certain entrepreneurial skills", said Tumasyan.

"Europe greatly supports Armenia and it is important that civil society
organizations and the society know that there is progress and the
life is improving", said Uffe Holst Yensen, Head of Department of
European Support delegation of EU in Armenia.

EU market is the largest in the world and the program "East
partnership" initiated by EU gives opportunity to participant-countries
to enter European market. "East partnership" is Polish-Sweden
initiative in the frames of neighborhood policy targeted at the
improvement of relations of EU with post-soviet countries. The program
should involve neighbor-countries of EU – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia,
Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.

PEOPLE TO LOSE INTEREST IN TELEVISION BY 2020

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.11.2009 17:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 70% of New-York Times news items are materials of
other news agencies, Ukrainian Professor and communication technology
expert George Pocheptsov told a news conference in Yerevan. People
are no longer interested in papers, he said. "Newspapers are of no
interest for the generation of the 1980s-90s, and by 2020, televisions
will become obsolete too. With no TV, we’ll find ourselves in a kind
of obscure world," Professor stressed.

At that he noted that information agencies will be unable to protect
copyright since Internet appears out of legal domain. "Estonia is
searching for legal grounds for bringing Internet on legal domain
while Ukraine has attempted to register Internet publications,"
Pocheptsov stressed.

Ukrainian professor expressed his negative attitude to Neuro-linguistic
programming (NLP) as its effectiveness has not yet been proven by
concrete examples.

Professor George Pocheptsov is the author of more than 50 books on
the theory of information warfare and theory of communication. He has
been invited to Armenia by Head of Presidential Staff’s PR Department
and Armenian Public Relations Association (APRA).

KOMITAS’ 140TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY TO BE MARKED IN GEORGIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.11.2009 13:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An event dedicated to 140th birthday anniversary of
Komitas will be held in Georgia with the assistance of the Armenian
Embassy and AAC Georgian Diocese on November 11. The program includes
performance of composer’s works and presentation of historical
information about the epoch when Komitas lived and created.