Author: Tamamian Anna

The Moscow Times
Jan 15 2010

Lavrov Backs Armenia

15 January 2010

YEREVAN, Armenia ‘ Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday urged
Armenia and Turkey to move ahead with a historic rapprochement, and
Yerevan said it hoped that Ankara was not blocking ratification of
their deal to end a century of hostility.

The accords need parliamentary ratification, a step that Turkey says
depends on Armenia making concessions in a festering conflict with
Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia rejects the link, and won the backing of Lavrov. `To try and
artificially link those two issues is, in my opinion, not correct,’
Lavrov told reporters in Yerevan.

(Reuters)

Aysor, Armenia
Jan 16 2010

World championship: the medals of the Armenians

On the world chess tournament the four members of the Armenian team in
the Turkish Bursa city received medals for the results shown. Levon
Aronyan received a sliver medal, Vladimir Hakobyan, Gabriel Sargsyan
and Arman Pashikyan bronze medals, informs the Armenian Chess
Federation.

RUSSIA’S INFLUENCE AS MEDIATOR IN SOUTH CAUCASUS IS NOT LIMITLESS: ANALYST

Trend, Azerbaijan
Jan 15 2010

Although Russia has the greatest potential for reaching an agreement
between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, its mediator
possibilities are not unlimited, according to the Europe Program
Director at International Crisis Group Sabine Freizer.

"Russia’s ability to actually push through an agreement is perhaps
the strongest among all international players, but remains limited,
Sabine Freizer told Trend News in a telephone conversation. – It is
only when the two countries and the two societies are ready to accept
these basic principles that there would be an agreemen".

During talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Jan. 13,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed hope that
Russia would play a more active role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict that broke out in 1988 due to Armenia’s territorial claims
against Azerbaijan. Putin, in his turn, expressed his readiness to
provide full support in this regard.

According to Freizer, it is highly encouraging that Turkey wants to
bring stability and peace to the South Caucasus and it is trying
to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. But Turkey first of
all needs to understand that Russia does not have all the keys to
the problem.

"The Moscow declaration of November 2008 was an example of the
limitations of Russian influence, said Freizer. The Russian Leadership
did step in and was successful in getting a signature from the two
presidents, but this did not change anything on the ground or get
the sides closer to a comprehensive agreement."

Russia along with France and the US is the co-chair state of the
OSCE Minsk Group which is holding peace negotiations since the
ceasefire agreement was signed in May, 1994. As the result of the
conflict Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan
since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding
districts. Turkey cannot itself play a direct role in the negotiations
as it is not one of the co-chair countries.

According to Freizer, Turkey is particularly trying to encourage
Russia to work closer with Armenia to get Armenia to make additional
compromises in the talks. Turkey would like to see more high level
engagement from not only Russia, but also from the other players. It
would like to see the United States and European Union more involved
in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"I think it is good if there is more high level involvement from the
OSCE countries including Russia, but again it needs to be accompanied
by a broader debate in Azerbaijan and in Armenia about the basic
principles, because it is only when the two countries and the two
societies are ready to accept these basic principles that there would
be an agreement," she said.

"So, the principles cannot be forced upon Armenia and Azerbaijan
from Russia or from the US, the societies also need to agree to them
themselves," Freizer said.

The proposals of the Minsk Group, officially submitted to the foreign
ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the OSCE Madrid summit in
November 2007, are the base of today’s talks. These proposals, known
as the "basic principles", resulted from several meetings of foreign
ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan since 2004 in Prague, called
"Prague process".

These proposals envisage determining the final status of
Nagorno-Karabakh through nationwide voting at the last stage of the
peace process, after all other measures of trust are taken, including
avoiding use of force, the gradual withdrawal of Armenian forces from
occupied territories, return of internally displaced persons to their
homes and the resumption of trade and communications.

According to Freizer, the progress on the Karabakh issue is extremely
important for Turkey because of the promises it has made to Azerbaijan
not to open its border with Armenia until withdrawal from occupied
territories begins. Yet it also committed to Armenia to open the
border in the two protocols signed last October.

Protocols for restoration of relations were agreed by the foreign
ministers of Turkey and Armenia in October last year in Zurich. On
January 12, Armenia’s Constitutional Court recognized the
Armenian-Turkish and gave them to the Parliament.

"Now because of the linkage that Turkey – but not Armenia – is making
between the protocols and Nagorno-Karabakh, Ankara needs progress on
Nagorno-Karabakh," Freizer said.

If Turkey doesn’t pass the protocols in Parliament in the coming
months, but Armenia does, it will look like Turkey betrayed its
commitments. According to Freizer, this will undermine its whole
foreign policy goal to play a bigger role in securing peace and
stability in the South Caucasus.

FORMER CITIZEN OF BAKU SAYS AZERBAIJAN WAS BORN BY COMMITTING GENOCIDE

Panorama.am
16:19 15/01/2010

Former member of Armenian community in Baku, Armenian National Assembly
deputy Larisa Alaverdyan sorrows remembering violence and brutalities
committed against Armenians living in Baku. Those activities made
her think that the new founded state of Azerbaijan "is a state born
by committing genocide."

"That state was born by committing genocide. They have adopted ethnic
cleansings as their policy," Mrs. Alaverdyan declared at round table
meeting on "Ethnic cleansings in Baku: 1990.

" Round table was initiated by Human Rights Defender of Armenia
Armen Harutyunyan. He said the mission of the round table isn’t to
grow hatred; it’s one mission – to recollect those brutalities and
cleansings that Baku Armenians were obliged to fight and many of them
to become victims of those massacre. Armenian Ombudsman emphasized that
conflicts were solved in a civilized manner in a totalitarian regime
founded like in Azerbaijan. "Only democracy gives civilized settlements
to many problems," Ombudsman said. Hayk Demoyan, the director of
Armenian Genocide Institute said in his speech that xenophobia and
hatred towards Armenians is a policy of Armenia adopted by Azerbaijan.

TURKEY’S PARLIAMENT IS USED TO SUSPENDING RATIFICATION PROCESS, EXPERT SAYS

Panorama.am
17:25 15/01/2010

Turkey possesses political mechanisms which allow it to suspend the
ratification of interstate documents for years, the Deputy Dean of the
Faculty of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University Ruben Melkonyan
told a press conference today.

Panorama.am recalls that Turkish government submitted the
Armenian-Turkish protocols into the parliament (mejlis) as a draft
in October.

"Turkey’s government adopted the protocols and a letter signed by the
PM was addressed to the parliament, stating to put the ratification
into vote. The Foreign Affairs Committee was due to discuss the issue
within a term of 45 days," the expert highlighted.

R. Melkonyan said, the term expired long ago, though, no response
has been received from the committee yet.

"Following the recent parliamentary elections, as the committees were
formed, the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Committee still included
documents dating back as far as 1950-60ies, not been discussed so far,"
R. Melkonyan explained.

The expert recalled Turkish-Syrian protocols which the mejlis ratified
only 3 years later after signing.

"This is a record short term in the history of document ratification
by Turkey’s parliament," he underscored.

R. Melkonyan didn’t exclude that Turkey will apply different legal
mechanisms to ratify the protocols as late as possible.

ARMENIA TO IMPLEMENT LARGE-SCALE WATER CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN 2010

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.01.2010 19:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Government Thursday approved the results
of international contest on "Constructing sewer channels in the towns
of Gavar, Martuni and Vardenis". Winner of the bid launched in the
frameworks of "Lake Sevan Environmental Action Program" was Ludwig
Pfeiffer German Company.

Armenia will implement large-scale water construction projects in
2010. Particularly it is planned to launch a 500 km. channel, which
implies minimum 20% growth, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan told the
Government session.

Ludwig Pfeiffer is an international construction company specialized
in installing pipelines, constructing sewerage systems, sanitizing
channels and microtunneling.

ISRAEL TRIES TO CALM TURKISH ROW
Abraham Rabiinovich, Jerusalem

The Australian
Jan 14 2010
Australia

ISRAEL’S Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon offered an indirect
apology yesterday for having deliberately humiliated a Turkish
diplomat after Ankara threatened to recall its ambassador to Israel
amid escalating tensions between the countries.

Mr Ayalon triggered the fresh row when he summoned the ambassador,
Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, to be rebuked for an anti-Israel television series
in Turkey depicting the Mossad as baby-snatchers and for attacks on
Israel by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Departing from diplomatic protocol, Mr Ayalon invited Israeli
television cameras to record the beginning of the meeting at which
the ambassador was seated on a couch a few centimetres lower than
the chairs on which Mr Ayalon and two colleagues were seated.

Mr Ayalon told the cameramen in Hebrew, which the Turkish envoy
does not speak: "Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair,
that there is only an Israeli flag on the table (and no Turkish flag)
and that we are not smiling."

The conversation that ensued in English between the diplomats after
the cameramen left was polite, both sides reported, and it was only
after learning of Mr Ayalon’s remark to the cameramen that Mr Celikkol
realised an attempt had been made to humiliate him.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador to Ankara,
Gaby Levy, to demand "an explanation and an apology" for Mr Ayalon’s
behaviour. The ministry issued a statement calling for "corrective
steps to be taken with respect to the treatment shown our ambassador"
and an official warned that without an apology, the ambassador would
be withdrawn.

In Israel, criticism of Mr Ayalon’s behaviour was widespread, even
among serving diplomats, several of whom called it, anonymously,
"an embarrassment" and "childish".

Mr Ayalon initially defended his action. "Others will respect us
only when we protect our honour," he said. Yesterday, however, he
issued a statement aimed at terminating the episode. "My protest of
the attacks against Israel in Turkey still stands," he said.

"However, it is not my way to insult foreign ambassadors and in the
future, I will clarify my position by more acceptable diplomatic
means."

There was no immediate indication from Ankara as to whether this was
considered adequate apology.

Mr Ayalon, a professional diplomat who served as Israeli ambassador
to Washington, began displaying hardline views after being chosen by
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman last year to serve as his deputy.

Mr Lieberman has called upon Israeli diplomats to make a forceful
response to perceived diplomatic insults and not to seek favour.

In a statement issued earlier this week, Israel condemned Mr Erdogan’s
"unbridled tongue-lashing" of Israel for its incursion into Gaza last
year. The Turkish Prime Minister has repeatedly accused Israel of
disproportionate use of force against the Palestinians. The Israeli
statement, alluding to Turkey’s actions against its own Kurdish
militants, and perhaps to its massacre of Armenians in World War I,
said "Turkey is the last country that can preach morality to Israel".

The falling-out is of significance to both countries. The close ties
that have existed for decades between them bear far-reaching political
and security resonance.

PRIMARY ATTENTION TO CATTLE BREEDING

NKR Government Information and
Public Relations Department
January 13, 2010

Today, at the conference convoked at NKR Prime Minister Ara
Haroutyunyan heads of regional administrations of the Republic
presented some information about the autumn sowing and fallowing
activities, the results of field pest control. By the estimation of
the Government Head agricultural works are not of appropriate pace
and quality, they are necessary to be intensified and professionally
developed. Agrodepartments of the regions were instructed to closely
cooperate with landowners and tenants, to provide assistance on
procedure to them. It was notified once more that those not following
the necessary agrarian rules in land cultivation will be deprived of
state support.

The problem of raising the efficiency of pest control was specially
touched upon taking into consideration the fact that new pests have
appeared and the reproduction of rodents is expected. The Prime
Minister charged to create new sponsored groups that will carry on
pest control in "hot" areas.

Prime Minister A.Haroutyunyan drew the attention of the participants of
the conference to the demand of expanding maize cultivation. The issue
of rendering maize seeds to farmers for free aimed at stimulation of
the branch development was touched upon. The Government will uphold
the production of fodder crops as well.

A.Haroutyunyan assigned the executives of this sphere with a task to
draft an intensive development programme for cattle breeding and to
admit applications from farmers to get state credit. At the initial
stage credits will be allowed to purchase cattle. The Prime Minister
underlined that during the forthcoming 3 months the cattle livestock
in the Republic is necessary to raise by 40%. "During 2010-2011
the Government will primarily concentrate its attention on cattle
breeding",- the Government Head announced.

At the conference the issues of ground-rent collection, agricultural
credit repayment were discussed as well. Competent bodies presented
corresponding information and got instructions from A.Haroutyunyan
in connection with these issues.

Minister of Agriculture Armo Tsatryan, other officials of the sphere
partook in the conference.

AZERBAIJANI CITIZEN ARRESTED, WHEN TRESPASSING THE ARMENIAN BORDER

armradio.am
11.01.2010 16:09

A recurrent trespassing attempt was reported at the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border on the 28th of December, 2009, the
Department of Information and Public Affairs of the Armenian Ministry
of Defense reports.

Around 9:00 o’clock, Eldar Heydar oghly Tagiev was arrested in Tavush
marz, when attempting to trespass the border.

Eldar Heydar oghly Tagiev, a resident of Alibeyli in the Azerbaijani
Tovuz region, was born in 1963.

International organizations were informed about the incident. A
criminal case has been launched, the details of the incident are
being clarified.

THE EPIDEMIC SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC INCOMPARABLY BETTER
Hasmik Dilanyan

"Radiolur"
11.01.2010 17:28

With the permission of the Ministry of health and the consent of the
Ministry of Education and Science, the academic process restarted in
Armenian schools today.

"The epidemic situation in the republic is incomparably better,"
chief infectiologist of Armenia Ara Asoyan told "Radiolur." He found
it hard to say, however, how many citizens have swine flue today.

The five-day schools will work on Saturdays. Specialists say it will
be possible to make up leeway within a month.

Although the situation is under control, Ara Asoyan once again urged
all parents not to send their children to school or kindergarten if
they have flu.