Author: Talalian Arpi

THE NKR PRESIDENT: "THE INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY OF ARTSAKH ARE NOT SUBJECTS TO SPECULATIONS"

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
2010-03-29 11:21

On March 28, President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh
Republic) Bako Sahakyan met the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs Robert
Bradtke (USA), Yuri Merzlyakov (Russian Federation), Bernard Fassier
(France) and the officials accompanying them.

According to the Central Information Department of the Office of the
NKR President, issues related to the current stage and prospects of
the Azerbaijani-Karabakhi conflict settlement were discussed during
the meeting.

The Head of the State once again underlined that it would be impossible
to reach final and comprehensive settlement of the conflict without
the full participation of the Artsakh Republic.

President Sahakyan noted that unconstructive, militaristic approaches
of Azerbaijan and its denial of mutual confidence-building measures
are the pivotal hindrances on the way of the conflict’s settlement.

The President once again underlined that independence and security
of Artsakh are not subjects to any speculations and any attempt to
bring back the past are fraught with unpredictable consequences.

The NKR President reiterated Artsakh’s adherence to peaceful settlement
of the conflict within the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group. The
co-chairs also underlined that any scenario of military solution of
the conflict is absolutely unacceptable.

Touching upon the Armenian-Turkish relations, the President noted
that this process does not have any relations to the settlement of the
Azerbaijani-Karabakhi conflict and attempts to tie up these processes
cast negative impact on both processes leading them to impasse.

Issues related to the situation along the contact line of the NKR
and Azerbaijani Armed Forces were also discussed at the meeting.

NKR Foreign Minister Georgy Petrosyan and Personal representative
of the OSCE Chairman-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk were present at
the meeting.

All Armenia Fund Begins Reconstruction of Shushi
2010/03/25 | 10:46

Nagorno Karabakh society

With its recently initiated reconstruction of the Garegin Nzhdeh and
Alec Manoogian Streets, Shushi’s two main thoroughfares, the Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund has begun to restore the city’s economic and social
infrastructures. The street-revitalization project is being realized
through contributions made by the Russian-Armenian community during
Telethon 2009.

Following the construction of sewage, water-delivery, and drainage
systems, the streets and sidewalks (about 950 meters) will be paved
and furbish, and light posts will be installed throughout. The project
will be completed with the installation of 1.5-meter-wide lawns
separating the streets from the sidewalks.

`Prior to the launch of this project, the people of Shushi no longer
believed that things would turn to the better in their city,’ said
Grigori Avanesyan, director of the Shushi Administration’s Urban
Development and Architecture Department.

`These streets in particular had long fallen into disrepair,’
Avanesyan continued. `There is a great deal of bustle in this part of
town. Residents frequently use the telephone station and the bank or
visit the cultural center, whereas up till now the streets remained in
a terrible state.’

The Alec Manoogian Street is also home to the fire station and the
much-visited, 1847-built Hovhannes Mkrtich Church, better known as the
Green Church because of the color of its dome.

`This year our main goal is to implement a number of projects aimed at
helping Shushi stand on its feet,’ said Ara Vardanyan, executive
director of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. `I hope that our
revitalization efforts will go a long way in strengthening Shushi
residents’ bond with their city, and not be limited to the Fund
initiatives only.’

Aysor, Armenia
March 26 2010

YSU delegation to travel to Nagorno Karabakh

For the second time a delegation of the Yerevan State University is
traveling to Nagorno Karabakh, a spokesperson for the YSU told
journalists.

The delegation includes nearly 30 persons of the university’s staff
and 50 students. Included in the framework of the trip are Kashatagh
and Karvatchar regions of Nagorno-Karabakh, where the university
delegates will plant trees, and where university’s choir, orchestra
and dance ensemble of the YSU Cultural Center will perform. Besides,
the delegation will make a present of nearly 7,000 textbooks and
teaching manuals as well as imaginative literature.

These activities key objective is to strengthen Armenia-Artsakh
cultural relations and cooperation as well as to contribute to
programs of supporting of Kashatagh and Karvatchar.

LEADERSHIPS OF ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN SHOULD PREPARE THEIR POPULATIONS FOR PEACE

news.az, Azerbaijan
March 25 2010

Hovhannes Nikoghosyan News.Az interviews Hovhannes Nikoghosyan,
Visiting Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS), Washington, DC.

How do you estimate the current situation on security in the South
Caucasus? Which threats do you see here?

First of all, I appreciate your interview request. "Green" and unbiased
future to your news service!

Coming to your question, there are several security threats in South
Caucasus. The more challenging thing is that the insecurity is not only
in the agenda for politicians, for obvious political manipulations,
but also in people’s minds. The best and obvious fact – the recent
TV program aired in Georgia and subsequent reaction of people. This
is to show that the insecurity is a comprehensive challenge for the
region. For those, who do not want to see new wars and bloody clashes,
the basic "hope" is upon those great powers and TNCs involved in
the region. You know, that the common saying is "They will not let
us to slip into war". The August War of 2008 showed how easily wars
are done in our explosive region.

Now, for the good for all, to settle all disputes in the region, this,
of course, will not happen in the near future. Blame it on the often
contradicting interests of regional states, as well as great power
rivalry that no one has ever cancelled after the end of Cold War. But
the happy news is that all those great powers have at least one
consensus developed since summer 2008: Armenian-Turkish border should
be opened. Of course, each of them – United States, Russia, EU – has
different plans for that in aftermath, but still all of them jointly
advocate for border opening. And perhaps, today we should acknowledge
that this is totally capable to soften the solution of other issues
in the agenda in the perspective. At one point in January this year,
regrettably, Azerbaijan and Turkey remained in a "brilliant isolation"
with their developing denialitic approach to this particular issue.

Well, as far as everyone now perfectly understands where and what
are the security risks, it’s better to concentrate upon solutions,
not the problems. A great solution could be to develop Turkish-Russian
initiative of the security platform, to create a forum for empathic
discussion of all available issues that are at stake now. Though
this is not a new idea for South Caucasus – still in late 1990’s
former presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan – Robert Kocharian and
Heydar Aliyev, agreed with Russians to create the security pact,
but that was not realized because of the known reservations made by
Georgian leadership, which did not trust Russians even back then. An
organization, that I am proud to be affiliated with in Armenia,
developed a concept on this, and so it’s quite a realistic thing to
elaborate more. Perhaps, the security platform/pact (or whatever the
name) proposal will be discussed in a wider range in upcoming OSCE
Summit this year (the idea being pushed by Kazakhstan very actively).

More on solutions. I believe the recent initiative coming from
Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan should be developed, too. But
again, regretfully, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected it almost
immediately.

How real is opinion that Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may be resolved
till the end of this year? And what does it depends on?

I would not be that optimistic, even though I am an optimist in
Armenian-Turkish rapprochement issue. We all have been hearing such
prognosis since the ceasefire managed in 1994. The conflict is too
complicated to be settled in one year, as you mentioned the timeframe.

Moreover, the leaderships of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh
should prepare their own populations for peace, if they really
negotiate it now. But they fail to do this obviously.

Considering the military rhetoric from Baku, and it is very important
to realize now, Armenian authorities are being exhausted its internal
resources to a peaceful settlement either. After president Sargsyan
suggested the treaty on non-use of force (while negotiations are
there), and its subsequent refusal, all this staff do not contribute to
peace at all. I mean, all these developments can invoke the hard-liners
in Yerevan and Stepanakert (Khankendi – in Azerbaijani) to jump out
from the process for itself, giving the floor for direct negotiations
to the leadership of Nagorno Karabakh. I know, this sounds utmost
unrealistic and even strange to say this now, since sides officially
announced to be agreed on so-called Madrid principles… But still,
I can remind you about a dozen of principles that has been negotiated
so far, and nothing became real….

Recently the Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan stated that his country
had begun intermediary mission in settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Do you believe in success of this mission?

I do not have that statement at hand, haven’t heard it, so I cannot
comment on this comprehensively. But, please, keep in mind the first
Iranian experience back in 90s. And now the entire environment around
Iran getting tougher, it will be even more difficult to become a
successful mediator. Although, I suppose, we should acknowledge the
balanced stance of Iran in the conflict, which contributes to the
peace so much.

Instead, I have in mind the statement by the Iranian ambassador to
Yerevan, where he mentioned about having direct borders with Nagorno
Karabakh, and thus being worried about the path that the current
negotiations lead. This is also a point to keep in mind.

How could you characterize the situation on normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations?

The common language of all insiders argues that we are in an impasse.

No doubt, the recent remarks by Turkish PM R.T. Erdogan to BBC had
a shocking effect to all those involved in the talks.

Recently I have been thinking that the "zero problems with neighbors"
policy, coined by FM Davudoglu, now turning into "zero-sum policy"
instead. Just pay attention to the developments with Kurdish opening,
Cyprus issue and the protocols….

All in all, I see 3 very different go-ahead strategies looming over
the process. First one is ratification and the follow-up as subscribed
in the protocols – becoming extremely unlikely. The alternative of
this is a small-scale political-military clash in Nagorno Karabakh,
an extremely unwanted either for regional stability or for major
players in region. Perhaps the smell of the war in the air pushed
president Sargsyan to appeal to Azerbaijani leadership for signing a
"an agreement not to use force", which was immediately rejected by
a foreign ministry official Elhan Poluhov in Baku.

While the sides now evidently failing to accomplish what had been
agreed and signed in Win/Win documents, the third way, which sounds
more likely at the moment, is to establish diplomatic relations beyond
the protocols and by April 24, institutionalizing the discussion
between states, and leaving aside the active international mediation.

By the way, this was also the suggestion of FM Davudoglu in a recent
statement made in Sofia, Bulgaria. Thus, Turkey could silence the
criticism of the international community, and Armenian president will
ensure the support of his fellow allies domestically.

In the end, the reasons why Armenia and Turkey publicized the
negotiations and are now engaged in public debates – are still valid.

Turkey wants "zero problems", regional weight and European image. For
Armenia, ironically, Turkey is a best way towards Europe.

Armenia says about normalization of relations with Turkey and at the
same time it doesn’t refuse from the attempts to get recognition of
genocide in 1915. Don’t you see contradiction in this issue?

I suppose this question has been answered by numerous other
interviewees and I cannot invent anything new to satisfy your needs.

Just get through the archives and you will get the answer.

In short, there is no contradiction there, since no one in Armenia,
even the ultra-nationalists, accuses Republic of Turkey for the
genocide, but they see it being happened at the hand Ottoman Turkey
and particularly by the gang of Unionist government (Ittihatcılar,
in Turkish). Under this, the recent statement by PM Erdogan played
on wrong grounds, invoking the opposite effect all over the world,
perhaps even damaging the "denialist" policy of modern Turkey.

Do you expect that president Obama will call the event of 1915 in
Ottoman Turkey as genocide against Armenian people in his speech on
April 24?

Nowadays some analysts tend to forget last Obama’s presidential
statement on April 24, where he did utter the G-word in his message,
and perhaps he did it in a better way, introducing the new label of
"Meds Yeghern" – which is the common definition of 1915 in Armenian.

And note, that nothing extraordinary happened, nothing changed
in American policy. These G-word expectations now have become an
extremely technical thing, which does not worth to comment. Just note,
that even those on March 4 that voted "nay" in US House Committee –
did not deny the genocide happened, they just reasonably pointed at
the specific timing of such a measure to undertake.

Lala B.

News.Az

WAR VETERANS’ DEPOSITS REFUNDED IN ARMENIA

news.am
March 25 2010
Armenia

RA Government made a decision on repaying the deposits of Great
Patriotic War veterans in savings bank.

Government approved the draft on made amendments in RA Law on "2010
State Budget", that aims at refunding deposits in USSR savings
bank till June 10, 1993 to the Great Patriotic War veterans on the
occasion of victory’s 65th anniversary, RA Government information
and PR department informed NEWS.am.

RA Premier Tigran Sargsyan informed that the decision refers to 3.900
veterans and the government expects public support on this matter,
considering the draft law importunate.

ARMENIAN POLITICAL EXPERT: USA AND RUSSIA FORCE EU OUT OF SOUTH CAUCASUS

ArmInfo
2010-03-25 15:08:00

ArmInfo. New geopolitical processes are currently developed in the
South Caucasus, with the USA and Russia as the main actors, political
expert Sergey Shakaryants said at today’s press-conference. According
to him, the indicated powers forced the European Union out of these
processes.

As he said, the Armenian-Turkish process is just one of the auxiliary
mechanisms in this complex game, though the process of international
recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which has lately become
more active, affected the general configuration of forces in the
region quite enough. "The processes today are so global that the
conclusions, according to which the Armenian-Turkish negotiations
reached a stalemate and the Turkish party won in them, are incorrect",
Shakaryants said. The political expert thinks that the main attention
of the biggest players in the current situation is focused on Iran in
view of its nuclear programme. "A unique triangle of USA-Russia-Iran
appeared in the region, and the whole course of development of events
is predetermined just in this format", Shakaryants emphasized.

ARF ORGANIZES A "SOCIALISTIC" CONFERENCE IN YEREVAN

rf
03:25 pm | March 24, 2010

Politics

A two-day international conference entitled "Socialistic Approaches
to Armenian Challenges: Global Prospects-Local Realities" will be
held in Yerevan on March 25-26. The conference is organized by the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)

According to a press release, the conference will cover questions
concerning contemporary socialistic ideas and will refer to
socioeconomic challenges in Armenia, trying to find out their possible
solutions.

The conference will feature representatives of political, scientific
and social circles from Russia, the USA, France, Sweden, Greece,
Argentina, Chile, Iran and Armenia and Diaspora.

SERZH SARGSYAN: DEIR EZ ZOR IS THE AUSCHWITZ OF THE ARMENIANS

Armradio.am
24.03.2010 18:15

Within the framework of the official visit to Syria, President of
the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, visited Deir ez Zor. During
the meeting with representatives of the Armenian community, President
Sargsyan said:

"Your Eminencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today since I could not but be here. It is the greatest
grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief of the first
genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of the civilized
humanity. Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the stigma of that
disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those who have turned
the denial of the evident facts into their policy, turned it into
their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and norm of behavior.

In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the tragedy had
taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate the particulars
of that tragedy in the language of human beings, nor am I going do that
since these particulars are well-known even to those who publicly deny
the veracity of the Genocide. Bereft of home and property, bereft of
children and parents, bereft of health and the last hope, and finally
bereft of the most important – their homeland, these people were doomed
to lose the last thing they had – their life in accordance with the
state orchestrated and meticulously developed plan of extermination.

Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor
with Auschwitz saying that "Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the
Armenians". I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the
facts in a reverse way: "Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews".

Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of
the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the
homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: "Where and when will be
held our Nuremberg?"

I’m here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my
slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural
extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the
quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of
the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most
ancient Indo-European languages – the Armenian – had been irreversibly
eradicated along with its speakers.

In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish
normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to
have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts
towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey,
we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes
and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in
decades of dearth of any sensible contacts.

We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to
the living and development between the neighbors through implementation
of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it
up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with
an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.

We, however, do not accept the style of references to the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition
of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process. Moreover,
it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since
the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental
sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands
what it means and what the difference is. I ask all those who will
have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this dessert,
millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived
of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make
up your minds.

In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century – 35 years old
Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also
been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed,
because they wore European clothes. In those times and places European
clothes were quite expensive. The executioners dressed up into the
European clothes – stolen from the Armenian geniuses encompassing
millennia old civilization, stolen from ordinary Armenians.

I would not interpret symbols signified in these images but I am
unequivocally convinced: while preaching European apparel, manners
or values no one has a right to cast these images in oblivion.

I am here to remind of the well-known words: "It is impossible to kill
a nation that does not want to die". We mean to live and to grow. It
is no more possible to intimidate or blackmail us since we have seen
the most horrible. We shall continue to live and create with double
vigor for us and for our innocent victims. We look forward since we
have a lot to say and to share with each other, a lot to say and to
share with the world: the brightness and glow that Daniel Varuzhan
and Atom Yarjanian had no chance to share.

And here, in Deir ez Zor, we firmly and loudly say over and over
again that we are, shall exist and will flourish.

ARMENIAN MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION OPERATORS TOPPING LIST OF ADVERTISERS

ARKA
March 24, 2010

YEREVAN, March 24. /ARKA/. Armenian mobile telecommunication operators
– ArmenTel (Beeline brand), VivaCell-MTS and Orange Armenia – found
themselves atop February’s list of Armenian advertisers.

The list composed by "Cicle.am" and "Business 24" has been included in
"Internet in Armenia" report.

Before naming the leaders, experts have looked through 400 most
popular Armenian Internet sites.

They have taken into account the number of banners as well as their
sizes and location.

The authors of the report say that the leading advertisers of Armenia
can be divided into two groups – telecommunication companies and banks.

Ameriabank, VTB Bank (Armenia), Armeconombank, Converse Bank and HSBC
Bank Armenia follows the telecommunication companies in this ranking.

The report says that the mentioned companies place their advertisements
mainly on news sites.

Many ads are placed on bank- and telecommunication-oriented sites.

"Internet in Armenia" monthly report contains indicators found in
Armenian Internet.

WE MOVE FROM WORDS TO DEEDS, SAY ARMENIANS OF JAVAKHETI

Aysor
March 22 2010
Armenia

Representatives of Russia’s Community of Armenians of Javakheti
gathered Sunday in front of Georgia’s Embassy in Moscow to protest
against discrimination of Armenians in Georgia. Protesters carried
posters reading ‘Freedom for political prisoner Vahagn Chakhalian’,
‘We say No to discrimination acts by Georgian administration against
Armenians of Javakheti’, and ‘Armenian language is a regional language
of Javakheti.’

Rally’s organizers issued a statement and said that are dissatisfied
with "European and North-Atlantic structures’ closed-eyes position
over their problems."

"Armenians of Javakheti, living in Russia, have decided to move from
words to deeds and organize protests until efforts are made and steps
are taken towards stopping violation of rights and freedom of ethnic
minorities in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti-Tsalkha in particular,
and throughout Georgia in general.

"Community of Armenians of Javakheti calls for oppositional parties
of Georgia, social organisations and bodies whose purpose is the
protection of interests in ethic minorities in Georgia, and the
international community to support and join out protests," said in
the statement.