Author: Tumanian Talar

AZERBAIJAN RULES OUT NON-AGGRESSION PACT WITH ARMENIA

990716.html
22.03.2010

Azerbaijan rejected over the weekend an Armenian proposal to sign of
a non-aggression pact before the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, saying that Yerevan should first ensure the liberation of
occupied Azerbaijani territories.

President Serzh Sarkisian made the proposal in an interview with
Euronews television that was aired late on Friday. "That would create
an atmosphere of trust in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh," he said. "And
in those conditions, we would start negotiations over a settlement."

"If the head of Armenia wants to eliminate the threat of use of force
[by Azerbaijan,] then let him eliminate the causes that can lead to
the use of force," a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry,
Elkhan Polukhov, said on Saturday. "Namely, to withdraw Armenian
forces from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories."

According to Azerbaijani media, Polukhov said Baku will therefore
retain its "right to restore territorial integrity" which he said is
guaranteed by international law. Azerbaijani leaders have repeatedly
threatened to solve the Karabakh conflict by military means if the
protracted peace talks with Armenia fail to yield an agreement.

Non-use of force or threat of force as well as territorial integrity
and peoples’ right to self-determination are the three fundamental
principles of a Karabakh settlement favored by international mediators
and upheld by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
at a ministerial conference held in Athens late last year. The foreign
ministers of both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a relevant declaration
that was adopted by the forum.

Sarkisian called for an Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on non-use of
force in response to a question about Baku’s claims that it will never
come to terms with the loss of Karabakh. He stood by the official
Armenian line that Karabakh has never been part of an independent
Azerbaijan and should therefore remain under Armenian control.

Sarkisian did not comment on the mediators’ recently amended basic
principles of Karabakh peace and chances of their acceptance by the
conflicting parties in the course of this year.

ARMENIAN MIGRANTS DRAGGED INTO POLITICS IN TURKEY

Reuters
March 19 2010

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Grey-haired Lia Khachatourian is determined
to keep earning money in Istanbul for her family back in Armenia,
undaunted by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s threat to deport
illegal Armenian migrants. "I’m not scared. I have to work here as the
situation in Armenia is very bad," said the 60-year-old care worker,
dressed in black, as she popped into a call shop from where Armenians
phone home.

Other Armenian migrants in the poor Kumkapi district voiced more
worry at Erdogan’s threatened retaliation following votes passed by
U.S. and Swedish lawmakers branding World War One-era killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Neighbouring Armenia, which last year signed with Turkey a deal to
overcome a century of hostility and reopen their border, on Thursday
compared Erdogan’s warning to the language that preceded the 1915
mass killings.

"A 100 years has passed and the subject has been opened up again
and now it is us who are scared," said a 56-year-old Armenian
housekeeper and mother of two, who declined to give her name for fear
of jeopardising her livelihood.

"The prime minister spoke very harshly. We want nothing to do with
politics. We just came here to work. There is no economy in Armenia,"
she said after speaking to relatives back home.

Like many Armenian migrants in Istanbul, the former teacher came from
the Armenian city of Gyumri, following an earthquake in 1988. She
said relatives were now expressing concern about her situation after
Erdogan’s comments.

Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service there were 100,000 Armenians
living illegally in Turkey alongside a 70,000-strong Turkish-Armenian
community. "If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back
to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to
keep them in my country."

Erdogan went on to blame the Armenian diaspora for causing problems
between Western governments and Turkey, a NATO partner and candidate
for EU membership.

STAYING HOME The number of Armenian immigrants in Turkey is
unknown. But Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians inflate
numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions
escalate between Ankara and Yerevan.

According to research last year by the Yerevan-based Eurasia
Partnership Foundation, some 94 percent of the irregular Armenian
workers in Turkey are women working in housekeeping, nursing and
childcare.

Omer Ercetin, 30, who runs one of many call shops in Kumkapi used by
Armenians to phone home, said an Armenian colleague had refused to
come to work fearing a police raid.

"It has been empty here for the last couple of days but normally it
is full. People are scared and don’t go out," he said.

Two middle-aged Armenian women fled from the shop when told a
journalist wanted to speak about Erdogan’s warning.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said on Thursday
that statements like Erdogan’s could "lead to absolutely negative
consequences."

Last year’s deal between the two countries has yet to be ratified by
their respective parliaments and the governments have accused each
other of trying to rewrite the texts.

The deportation threats will be frowned upon by European governments
that have voiced support for Turkey’s EU bid, and have backed the
peace accords with Armenia.

The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey,
which accepts that many Armenians were killed by Ottoman forces but
vehemently denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to
genocide — a term used by many Western historians and some foreign
parliaments.

But Armenians and Turks in the Kumkapi area said relations between
the two communities were good.

"The Turks are good people and they like us. I have no problems or
fights with anyone here. There is really nothing to worry about,"
said Arsen Barseghyan, 22, who travels between Turkey and Armenia
working in the cargo business.

(Additional reporting by Hasmik Lazarian, writing by Daren Butler)

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383, x118
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
Website:

PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, March 18, 2010

AGBU Antranig Dance Ensemble Debuts "Reflections" in New York

The AGBU Antranig Dance Ensemble commemorated its 40th anniversary in
2009, crowned by a glorious performance at New York’s Lincoln Center for
the Performing Arts on Saturday, November 28. The ensemble’s rich
reputation precedes it whenever and wherever they dance, but it’s always
a breath-taking experience to watch one of its complete two-hour
performances. And the debut of the new production titled "Reflections"
was no different.

The event took on an aura of its own, just by taking place at the
prestigious Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center. Completely remodeled and
rebuilt this year, the sophisticated theater on New York’s Upper West
Side prepared everyone for a night of special surprises. Among its
myriad of Manhattan shows, the Ensemble has already performed seven
times at Alice Tully Hall, in addition to twice at Avery Fisher Hall
(also in Lincoln Center) and eight times at Carnegie Hall.

The program was sub-titled "Performance and Celebration," but it wasn’t
until the show began that everyone realized it would be so much more
than they had come to expect from Antranig. With four decades of
accomplishments, the dance ensemble couldn’t let its past go unnoticed,
and through unique integrations was able to tie its several hundred
performances and over 300 alumni dancers into the evening’s
presentation. In fact, this anniversary event was the Ensemble’s 100th
full-length program.

Archival videos of the group on and off stage, photos from dozens of
road performances, recognition of past founders and artistic directors,
and video congratulations from all corners of the arts world turned an
evening of Armenian dance into a crescendo of 40 years of successes. In
all the special effects and presentations, let it not be forgotten that
the Antranig Dance Ensemble of today, comprised of 40 young men and
women, put on a dance performance to surpass everything that had come
before. The choreography of Gagik Karapetian, former Director and
Choreographer of the State Dance Ensemble of Armenia, was enough to
amaze even the most knowledgeable attendees. The energy and precision of
the Antranig dancers was so intense as to surprise even the 100-plus
former performers who were in the audience. "This was developed as a
professional-level show. There are very few amateur groups in the world
that could have performed this as well," Karapetian said.

The variety of the program, as in so many Antranig productions, offered
something for all tastes. Still true to its roots, the Ensemble
presented traditional ethnographic dances, though completely updated for
today’s audiences. There was new choreography added to many styles of
contemporary Armenian music, never before danced by any group. And there
were all-new stories-in-dance that are so familiar to Antranig
audiences. Artistic Director Joyce Tamesian-Shenloogian credits her
twenty-year partner, Karapetian, with building and developing the
Antranig Dance Ensemble to its current level. "With each generation of
dancers, he raises the bar for Armenian dance even further. His
creations are complex and challenging, but always in the best of taste
and always aimed at entertaining his audience," she said.

The reputation of the Ensemble as one of the foremost Armenian dance
groups in the world has been upheld admirably in this all-new show. In
the coming year, the show will travel to a number of cities nationwide,
to showcase the current level of beauty and energy of Armenian dance. As
company manager Robert Doramajian said, "I’m not ready to know what else
could possibly be planned for future years." Also notable in the
Antranig story is that the Ensemble now boasts several "second
generation" dancers – children of former dancers, who count themselves
as part of the greater AGBU Antranig Dance Ensemble family. One of the
evening’s emcees, Ashod Spendjian, said in the opening remarks, "AGBU
created Antranig in 1969 as a way to ensure that our Armenian culture
would continue to thrive here in this country. It was a way to engage
the youth … and it worked. It flourished … and for the past 40 years
the Antranig Dance Ensemble has given our young adults a place to
experience their culture and a way to deliver it to communities around
the world."

Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU
preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through
educational, cultural and humanitarian program, annually touching the
lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.

For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, please visit

U.S. URGES ALLY TURKEY TO JOIN IRAN SANCTIONS PUSH
Andrew Quinn

Reuters
March 17 2010
UK

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States urged Turkey on Wednesday to
support more sanctions against Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program,
saying Ankara could face consequences if it moves out of step with
the international community.

Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon, the State Department’s top
diplomat for Europe, said U.S.-Turkey relations were strong despite a
row over a resolution by U.S. lawmakers branding the 1915-era killings
of Armenians by Turkish forces as "genocide."

But he said Turkey, a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security
Council that has been leery of the U.S.-led push to further punish
Iran, must show it is "on board" with the move toward new sanctions.

"Many would be disappointed if Turkey is an exception to an
international consensus on dealing with Iran," he told a news briefing
before a speech on U.S. relations with Turkey, a fellow NATO member
and pivotal regional ally to Washington.

"Turkey wants to be an important, responsible actor on the
international scene. And I think joining the majority of the Security
Council in doing this would reinforce that image," Gordon said.

"Not doing so would not contribute to that positive outcome … I
think that’s a consequence."

The United States and other Western powers are seeking support new
U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, which they fear is
a cover for developing atomic weapons.

But China, a permanent, veto-wielding member of the Security Council,
along with non-permanent members Turkey and Brazil, have urged more
time for diplomacy with Iran, which insists its nuclear program is
purely for peaceful purposes.

DAMAGE CONTROL

Amid the Iran push, U.S. officials are trying to control the damage
after a House of Representatives committee vote this month on the
non-binding "genocide" resolution over the 1915 killings, a move
which infuriated Turkey.

The House vote appeared to jeopardize halting progress by Armenia
and Turkey to normalize relations, one key to stability in the south
Caucasus, a region crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines to Europe.

Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Washington and has said he will not
return until Ankara gets assurances about the fate of the resolution,
which the Obama administration opposed.

Gordon repeated the White House’s hope that the resolution would not
move forward in Congress but denied there was any deal with Democratic
lawmakers to kill the bill outright.

"There’s no deal. The Congress is an independent body and they’re
going to do what they decide to do," he said.

But Gordon called on Ankara to return the ambassador anyway, saying the
breadth of the bilateral relationship — which includes cooperation
on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East — was too important
to link to any one issue.

"We would like to see the ambassador here. We think he should be here,
making Turkey’s case," Gordon said.

He said the relationship was a two-way street and noted that Washington
was a strong supporter of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union,
one of Ankara’s chief goals.

"On nearly every issue that is critical to Turkey’s future, the United
States plays an enormously important role as a trusted friend and
ally," Gordon said. The relationship, he added, "requires hard work
and attention — on both sides."

TURKISH PM COUNTERS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WITH THREATS OF EXPULSION

DC Progressive
rkish-pm-counters-armenian-genocide-with-threats-o f-expulsion/
March 17 2010

Turkish Prime minister Erdogan’s proposed course of action regarding
the Armenian genocide is painfully ironic. The logic goes something
like this: "Our nation did not systematically round up and murder
over one million Armenians during World War I. And to prove it,
I will now systematically round up and expel hundreds of thousands
of Armenians living on Turkish soil." Try arguing with that.

In response to recent resolutions passed in the US Congress and
Swedish Parliament characterizing the war-time massacres of Armenians
as genocide, the Turkish government has recalled its ambassadors from
both countries. Then, the Prime Minister suggested in an interview
with the BBC that such international recognition of the genocide
would prompt an expulsion of Armenian immigrants living in Turkey.

"There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only
70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the
remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to
go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t
have to keep them in my country."

The undocumented workers to which the PM refers are mostly women from
Armenia’s impoverished countryside who have migrated to Istanbul where
they work in the service sector. While a number of politicians have
described Erdogan’s comments as empty threats, they are a troubling
reminder that Armenians are still unwelcome in Turkey.

To date, over twenty countries have officially recognized the Armenian
genocide, as well as international organizations including the European
Parliament and MERCOSUR.

CHAVUSHOGLU ABOUT THE GENOCIDE RESOLUTIONS
By Hovik Afyan

Azg
March 16 2010
Armenia

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Mevlut Chavushoglu, while being in Kazakhstan, said he didn’t think
that Sweden followed the tracks of the USA adopting the Armenian
Genocide resolution.

"I don’t think that the Armenian resolution will be adopted in Great
Britain either", Chavushoglu said.

To recall, on April 30, UK Parliament’s House of Commons will again
debate the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day bill. Earlier, the House
of Commons made a statement recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire.

Chavushoglu, actually, with the above-mentioned statement continues
the denialist policy of Turkey, whereas, ex officio, he presents not
Turkey but Europe, and the European Council has long since recognized
the Armenian Genocide.

WIDESPREAD IMPOVERISHMENT IN ARMENIA, HERITAGE PARTY STATES

news.am
March 16 2010
Armenia

Armenian citizens will not have normal living conditions nor will they
be protected until they form their authorities and establish proper
control over them, Armen Martirosyan, Board Chairman, Heritage Party,
stated in Parliament on March 16.

He spoke of the grave social and economic conditions in Armenia.

"This all seems to have to do with the present economic policy. But I
am sure you are all well aware of the fact that the economic policy is
resultant from the government policy. And the authorities, employing
both legislative and executive levers, are creating such unequal
and unjust conditions — big businesses are growing even bigger,
while small-to-medium businesses are nearly dying," Martirosyan
said. "It is no coincidence that both elections are rigged and March
1 is organized for these authorities to remain in power. The result
is the incomes concentrated in the hands of several dozen clans,
widespread impoverishment and large-scale emigration," he said.

SWEDEN’S PRIME MINISTER REGRETS PARLIAMENT’S ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE

Today’s Zaman
March 15 2010
Turkey

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Sweden have jointly condemned a
vote in the Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century
killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet
Davutoglu, participated in a two-day informal meeting of European Union
foreign ministers held over the weekend in the Finnish ski resort of
Saariselkä and hosted by Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb.

Bildt said he was upset by the vote on Thursday and was concerned it
could affect Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

"It’s regrettable because I think the politicization of history
serves no useful purpose," he told reporters. "We are interested in
the business of reconciliation, and decisions like that tend to raise
tensions rather than lower tensions," he said. Sweden’s parliament,
by a vote of 131-130, backed a resolution that branded the killing
of Anatolian Armenians during the Ottoman Empire era as genocide,
a term that Turkey resolutely rejects.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt phoned his Turkish
counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday and said he disagreed
with the resolution, according to a statement on the Turkish prime
minister’s official Web site.

The vote followed a decision by a committee of the US House of
Representatives the week before approving a nonbinding resolution
condemning the 1915 killings. In both cases Turkey responded angrily,
withdrawing its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm.

The vote in the Swedish parliament was particularly galling for
Turkey as Sweden is one of Ankara’s strongest backers on issues such
as Turkey’s desire to join the European Union.

Reinfeldt told Erdogan Sweden would continue to back Turkey’s EU
bid and that the vote was driven by domestic politics and would not
affect bilateral relations, the statement said. Erdogan cancelled a
planned visit to Sweden this month, and the government recalled its
ambassador from Stockholm.

Davutoglu said Turkey would not stand by quietly if other nations took
similar steps to describe the 1915 killings as genocide and said it
was pointless for countries to think they could put pressure on Turkey.

"We will not be silent and we will not just show the usual attitudes.

For each case we will have a different [set of] measures," he said.

"What is the purpose of this? If the purpose is to pressure us,
no one can put pressure on Turkey. If the purpose is to get local
domestic concerns raised, Turkish historical events should not be
misused for these narrow issues."

Davutoglu, the architect of Turkey’s foreign policy of re-engaging with
its neighbors, including Armenia, said it was wrong for parliaments
to think they could define history purely via a vote.

He also said he was concerned about the impact the vote could have
on efforts by Armenia and Turkey to reconcile their history and find
a political common ground at a time when they are making progress
toward normalizing relations.

Davutoglu was the only foreign minister from a non-EU member country at
the two-day meeting dedicated to discussions on the EU’s relationship
with developing powers at the top of the agenda.

The EU’s new foreign policy director, Catherine Ashton, and the
foreign ministers of Estonia, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey
participated in the gathering. Stubb also invited his counterparts
from Britain, Germany and Norway, but they were unable to attend
because of scheduling conflicts. At a time when Turkey is involved in
strategic discussions on the future of the EU, Stefan Fule, the EU
commissioner for enlargement and European neighborhood policy, will
today have talks in Ankara on his first visit since assuming the post.

Davutoglu is expected to convey Ankara’s uneasiness over some European
countries’ approach to the Armenian issue as a tool for scoring in
domestic politics while also sharing his concerns that such moves
will have a negative impact on the ongoing process of normalization
with Armenia.

BOX: ‘Genocide’ bill may cast shadow over Erdogan’s UK visit

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to depart for London
today for an official two-day visit focused on Turkey’s struggling
bid to join the European Union as well as on the Cyprus issue.

Yet a bill introduced to the British House of Commons in January that
would set April 24 as a national commemoration day for an alleged
Armenian genocide is likely to steal time from discussions between
British and Turkish officials, as Turkey is already angry over two
separate votes in a US House committee and the Swedish parliament
recognizing the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I
as genocide.

Like Sweden, Britain is one of Ankara’s strongest backers on issues
such as Turkey’s desire to join the EU. Ankara has recalled its
ambassadors in Stockholm and Washington for consultations.

While in London, Erdogan will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister
Cemil Cicek, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, State Minister and
chief EU negotiator Egemen BagıÅ~_ and Foreign Trade Minister Zafer
Caglayan.

The bill in the House of Commons, which was sponsored by Andrew
Dismore from the Labor party and was read for first time in January,
will be read for a second time on April 30 and be printed later. In
order to become a law, the bill must be approved by the House of
Lords and obtain the queen’s approval.

As April 24, the day commemorated by Armenians as the anniversary of
an alleged 1915 genocide, approaches, a motion on the recognition
of the alleged genocide has been introduced in the Spanish
parliament, Armenian media reported. The sponsors of the document
are representatives of the Republican Left from Catalonia and three
deputies from the Initiative for Catalonia Greens, reports said.

PARLIAMENTS OF ARMENIA AND BELARUS INTEND TO EXPAND BILATERAL COOPERATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.03.2010 19:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On March 15 National Assembly speakers of Armenia
and Belarus Hovik Abrahamyan and Boris Batura held a telephone
conversation. During the meeting the officials discussed issues related
to the cooperation of the parliaments of two countries. They stressed
importance of deepening the relations and cooperation, press office
of the National Assembly of Armenia reported.

The Local, Sweden
March 14 2010

Anti Swedish protests continue in Turkey

Published: 14 Mar 10 13:25 CET

Diplomatic efforts are underway to mend a rift between Sweden and
Turkey, caused by the Swedish parliament’s decision to recognize the
mass killing of Armenians and other ethnic groups in 1915 as genocide.

The Swedish ambassador to Turkey, Christer Asp, said protests were
still underway on Saturday in some cities, following large
demonstrations outside the Swedish consulate in Istanbul on Friday.

He added that his post box was over flowing with hate mail and letters
indicating Swedish business interests have been affected by the
dispute.

"Some of the letters are formulated in such a way that I could not
repeat them in public. They are not threats but they’re not saying
anything nice about Sweden, if you know what I mean," he told the news
agency TT.

Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, has condemned the parliament’s vote.

"These kinds of decisions tend to increase tensions rather than reduce
them," he told news agency Reuters.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has also assured his Turkish
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he did not agree with the
paliament’s decision – which was supported by four parliamentarians
who are members of his governing centre right coalition.

TT/Tom Sullivan