Author: Vardapetian Ophelia

Armenian Foreign Minister participates in session of CIS Ministerial Council

2010-03-27 10:40:00

ArmInfo. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian participated
in the session of the CIS Ministerial Council in Moscow on Friday.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry press-service reported the Council
started a closed meeting with participation of the foreign ministers
and the CIS Executive Secretary. Afterwards, the delegations from the
CIS joined the session. The Ministerial Council discussed a number of
issues related the concept of further development of the CIS,
cooperation in the sphere of security and migration policy,
enhancement of cooperation between the CIS law-enforcement agencies.
The ministers approved the draft address on the occasion of the 65th
Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and submitted it to
the CIS leaders.

Armenian Genocide resolution submitted to the Serbian Parliamen

armradio.am
27.03.2010 13:29

The Serbian opposition SRS party submitted "a draft resolution to
parliament condemning the genocide committed by Ottoman Turkey against
Armenians from 1915 to 1923," SRS official Zoran KrasiÄ? told a press
conference in Belgrade.

‘SRS submitted the draft so that Serbia can join some 20 countries
which have condemned the genocide, believed to be the first genocide
of the 20th century,’ he said.

"Under the pressure of the international community, some parties are
trying to push through the Serbian parliament a resolution on
Srebrenica, which would include the term genocide, although what
happened in Srebrenica cannot be compared to the plight of Armenians
or of over one million people in Rwanda," KrasiÄ? was quoted as saying.

RA Ambassador to NATO briefs on history and consequences on Karabakh conflict

27.03.2010 11:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Ambassador to NATO Samvel Lazarian
addressed the students and teaching staff of Lessius University
College, Antwerp, with a lecture on Armenian and South Caucasus
security. Representatives of European Commission and other
international organizations were also attending.

Ambassador Lazarian briefed on priorities of Armenia’s security
policy, membership in the CSTO, development of partnership with NATO,
relations with Georgia and Iran. He dwelled on the history and
consequences on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, discrimination policy of
Azerbaijan and its aggression against the peaceful population of
Artsakh. Besides, he touched upon the process of normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations, RA MFA press office reported.

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
March 25 2010

Turkish foreign minister says country’s ambassador to return to Sweden

Ankara, 24 March: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said
Wednesday Turkey’s Ambassador in Stockholm, Zergun Koruturk, will
return back to Sweden at the beginning of next week.

Speaking in a programme on CNN Turk TV channel, Davutoglu said that
Ambassador Koruturk, who was recalled after the Swedish Parliament
recently adopted a bill on the incidents of 1915, will go back to
Stockholm very shortly.

"The cases in the United States and Sweden are not the same. The
Swedish government clearly opposed the adoption of a bill on the
incidents of 1915 at the Swedish Parliament. The Swedish government
clearly demonstrated its stand on the bill regarding the incidents of
1915," Davutoglu stressed.

Within this frame, statements from Sweden were satisfactory, Davutoglu
also said.

Davutoglu further said that the recent adoption of a resolution on the
incidents of 1915 at the Foreign Relations Committee of the United
States House of Representatives has caused deep reaction despite well
rooted relations between Turkey and the US adding that there was no
problem in the nature of relations between Turkey and the United
States.

There has been significant progress in the normalization of relations
between Turkey and Armenia. Turkey has made enormous contributions in
this regard. We will question the sincerity of a country if we are not
well understood at a time when we must be actually properly
understood. As a principle, we are against the evaluation of history
in this fashion, Davutoglu underlined.

The Turkish foreign minister saw Turkey as a subject in international
arena. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey was a
subject in international arena, not an object.

"This means that Turkey is carrying out its relations on its own, and
it does not get any instructions from any one," Davutoglu told a
televised interview.

Davutoglu remarks came after allegations that Turkey had started to
normalize its relations with Armenia, launched a democratic initiative
and a process regarding the seminary in Heybeliada, Istanbul after US
President Barack Obama’s visit to Turkey in April 2009.

"This is an unjust accusation against the governments of the Republic
of Turkey," he said.

Davutoglu said Turkey would only make necessary consultations with
other countries.

The Turkish minister defined the normalization process with Armenia as
a part of Turkey’s programme of "zero problem with neighbouring
countries".

"Turkey will be in peace and deep relations with all its neighbours
today and tomorrow," he said.

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols on October 10, 2009 to
normalize relations between the two countries. The protocols envisage
the two countries to establish diplomatic ties and open the border
that has been close since 1993. Turkey and Armenia also agreed to take
steps to operate a sub-commission on impartial scientific examination
of the historical records and archive to define existing problems and
formulate recommendations, in which Armenian, Turkish as well as Swiss
and other international experts would take part. However, on January
12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of Armenia declared a decision of
constitutional conformity on the protocols. Turkey thought the fifth
article of Armenian Constitutional Court’s verdict regarding the
protocols was against the target and basis of the protocols.

On Iraq, Davutoglu said Turkey was having close relations will all
ethnic and political groups in Iraq.

"Iraq policy means northern Iraq policy, and northern Iraq policy
means fighting the terrorist organization," he said.

Davutoglu said Turkey would continue countering terrorism, but saw
Iraq as a whole.

The foreign minister defined the timing of the democratic initiative
during the counter-terrorism process as a right step.

"If our security is taken under guarantee as the area of freedom is
broadened, this is a permanent security," he said.

Commenting on stories that German Chance llor Angela Merkel proposed
privileged partnership to Turkey, Davutoglu said it was not an
official remark and Germany was supporting Turkey’s European Union
(EU) full membership bid.

Davutoglu said Cyprus was one of the chapters that prevented healthy
course of the process.

"Unfortunately, the EU has not assumed an objective attitude towards
Cyprus," he also said.

The EU countries had decided in 2006 not to open 8 chapters in
accession negotiations and suspending the conclusion of the remaining
chapters in process on the grounds that Turkey failed to fulfil its
responsibilities stemming from the "Additional Protocol" to the
Association Agreement which stipulates Turkey to open its ports and
airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes.

COMMENTARY: WELCOME TO TURKEY’S TACTIC OF "CASTING A SHADOW OF DOUBT"
By Tavit Asdvadzadourian

2010/03/24 | 11:43

society

The whole world heard the Turkish Premier Erdogan threatening to
expel illegal Armenians from Turkey during his BBC interview. The
international community witnessed it; they documented it, taped it
and analyzed it.

Yet Mr Erdogan adamantly and categorically denies it, saying he did
not threaten those poor illegal Armenians, mostly women, who were in
Turkey to earn a living doing domestic work. He even went further to
interpret his threatening remarks as a show of good will.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "There are 170,000
Armenians in my country, of which 70,000 are my citizens. We’re
turning a blind eye to the other 100,000. However, tomorrow, if it
becomes necessary, I would say to those 100,000, go back to your
country. Why? Because they’re not my citizens; I’m not obliged to
keep them in my country."

Neither Armenia nor or the world community should be surprised
if Turkish government proposes to form a committee of historians
to review the facts of this BBC interview and to see if he really
threatened to expel the illegal Armenian from Turkey or it was just
typical Armenian allegation .

Welcome to the tactics of casting a shadow of doubt. Turkey has been
exercising this stratagem towards Armenians for the last century by
questioning everything – to create doubt, confusion, and debate. To
eventually change history.

How can Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora and the international community
trust such a person – an elected official and the leader of such a
large country – with the historic investigation of the 1915 Genocide
as stipulated in the Armenian Turkish Protocols.

By constantly applying this tactic of casting a shadow of doubt over
the Armenian genocide, Turkey dreams and hopes to change the history
of Anatolia and the Armenians forever , to rewrite what the whole
civilized world knows , what the historians of the early 20 century
have documented, what ambassadors their governments as the genocide
was actually taking place, and what the international newspapers have
reported during atrocities of 1915 to 1923.

Just the thought of the deliberation of the Armenian Genocide at the
international level, makes Turkey upset, irritated and angry against
countries such as United States, Sweden, Catalonia and soon Bulgaria.

Therefore Mr Erdogan declares war. But the war is not declared against
Armenia or these countries but against the poor illegal immigrants
who earn 100 Euros a week for domestic work in the employ of the high
class Turkish bourgeoisie.

It is a very familiar scenario – in the middle of the night, on the
eve April 24, 1915, the Ottoman police arrested, interrogated and
handcuffed the Armenian intellectuals. These were the writers, the
poets, the lawyers, the editors, the politicians, and the businessman
of the nation. The Ottomans executed them in one single night. That was
the powerful Ottoman Empire against the unarmed Armenian intellectuals.

The Ottoman government apprehended all men between the ages of 15 and
65 and, in the name of the Ottoman Army, put them on trains, took
them away from their home and shot them dead in large groups. That
was the powerful Ottoman Army against the unarmed Armenian citizens
who lived on the land for four thousand years.

Then, as a final blow the Ottoman Government ordered the rest of the
population, the children, the women and the elderly to leave their
homes and march toward Syria. That was the powerful Ottoman Empire
against the weak and helpless.

And now, after 95 years, the powerful Mr. Erdogan is after the few
poor illegal Armenian domestic workers.

MASSACRES IN SHUSHI AND BAKU ARE HISTORICALLY CONSECUTIVE CRIMES

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2010 10:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan
met Tuesday with participants of the international theoretical and
practical conference on the 90th anniversary of pogroms in Shushi
and the 20th anniversary of Armenian massacre in Baku.

"Massacres in Shushi and Baku are historically consecutive. To prevent
repetition of such crimes in the future, it’s essential to scrutinize
closely their historical, political, cultural, ethnographic, economic
and other aspects," Mr. Sahakyan said.

NKR Minister of Education and Science Vladik Khachatryan, Minister
of Culture and Youth Affairs Narine Aghabalyan also attended the
meeting, reported the Central Information Department of the Office
of the NKR President.

DAVID NALBANDIAN: I WANT TO WIN THE TOURNAMENT IN MIAMI

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2010 19:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Argentinean Armenian tennis player David Nalbandian
expects to practice at the Sony Ericsson Open-2010 tournament, which
kicks off on March 23 in Miami. Argentinian tennis player received
a wild card. In the match of the first round he will play against a
Polish Lucas Kubota.

"I promptly went to Stockholm and played for the national team
in the Davis Cup. I thought: "Why not to play the double match,
but then decided to take a chance and went alone to court. It was
a crazy decision, but we won, and I became confident," gotennis.ru
quoted Nalbandian.

"Now I have to hold as many matches as possible. I want to win in
Miami, but in fact I spent too little time on the court. I do not have
time to recover, I need to play. In a month, I will be all right,"
Nalbandian said.

1474 NEW CASES OF TUBERCULOSIS IN 2009 IN ARMENIA

Aysor
March 24 2010
Armenia

Tuberculosis (T.B.) is one of the hardest issues of the healthcare
both in Armenia and in all over the world. Armenia too celebrates
the international day of tuberculosis today.

In the office of the national projects on T.B. Alexander Ghukasyan,
the deputy minister of the Healthcare mentioned that though T.B. is
a curable disease it spreads threatening the health of millions
of people.

"Regardless the growth of the T.B. cases since 1990, we notice
stabilization of the epidemic parameters," A. Ghukasyan mentioned.

According to him 1474 new cases of T.B. have been recorded in 2009.

Narine Mezhlumyan, statistician in National T.B. control program
informed that the World Health Organization for the T.B. treatment
has worked out the strategy DOTS which is effectively used in almost
all the countries of the world.

"As a result of the straggling against T.B. the entire anti
tuberculosis service is supplied with all necessary equipments,
medicines. The treatment of T.B. in Armenia is completely free of
charge," Mezhlumyan said.

In case of not getting treatment on time the infected person infects
10 – 15 people in a year. 50% of those who do not get treatment die in
5 years. That is why the experts advise to pass a medical examination
in case of finding the first symptoms of the disease.

MEETINGS OF THE BELARUSIAN DELEGATION CONTINUE

parliament.am
March 23 2010
Armenia

On March 23 the parliamentary delegation of the Republic of Belarus,
which is on an official visit in Yerevan led by the Vice Speaker of the
Belarus Parliament Valery Ivanov and the Committee Chairman of RA NA
Standing Committee on Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs,
the Co-Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee of Cooperation
between the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the
National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Hrayr Karapetyan visited
Tsitsernakaberd and laid down flowers and a wreath at the monument
perpetuating the memory of the 1915 Armenian Genocide victims and
paid a tribute to the memory of the one and a half million innocent
victims observing one-minute moment of silence.

The high-ranking guests were in the Genocide Museum, got familiarized
with the documents confirming the Armenian Genocide.

The Vice Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Belarus made
a note in the Book of the honorable guests.

On the same day in the National Assembly the meetings of the
Inter-Parliamentary Committee between the National Assembly of the
Republic of Armenia and the National Assembly of the Republic of
Belarus continued.

The parliamentary delegation of the Republic of Belarus led by the
Vice Speaker of the Belarus Parliament met with the RA Minister of
Economy, the Co-Chairman of the Armenian-Belarus Inter-Governmental
Joint Commission Nerses Yeritsyan. The Committee Chairman of RA NA
Standing Committee on Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs,
the Co-Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee of Cooperation
between the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the
National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Hrayr Karapetyan and
the Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Armenia
Stepan Sukhamenko.

In the course of the meeting the sides discussed issues of cooperation
in the spheres of industry, agriculture and economy. The interlocutors
referred to the ways of implementation of predetermined programmes.

They discussed issues concerning the sitting of the Armenian-Belarus
Inter-Governmental Joint Commission to be held in April.

The Vice Speaker of the Belarus Parliament Valery Ivanov noted that
they are ready to support for the implementation of the programmes of
the Armenian-Belarus Inter-Governmental Joint Commission on economic
cooperation by improving the legislative field.

The Chairman of the NA Standing Committee of State and Legal Affairs
Davit Harutyunyan received the delegation led by the Vice Speaker of
the Belarus Parliament Valery Ivanov.

In the course of the meeting the sides discussed the strengthening of
relations between the parliaments of the two countries, cooperation in
international organizations, the works of the PACE and the Euronest,
parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership.

Highly assessing the Armenian-Belarus relations the sides highlighted
the cooperation in the international structures, where Armenia and
Belarus permanently support each other. In the meeting they also
touched upon the organization of the democratic elections of the
local self-government bodies being held in Belarus on March 25,
PACE Resolutions, the works of the Sub-Committee, which was set up
on Belarus in PACE.

ANCA Activists Help Educate GOP Base At Ca State Convention
By Asbarez
Mar 19th, 2010

SANTA CLARA – Armenian National Committee of America local leaders and
volunteers from the greater Santa Clara area helped reach out to the
California Republican Party members at its recent semi-annual Spring
Convention. The ANCA hosted an exhibitor booth at the event where the
volunteers interacted with party delegates, leaders, and candidates to
better inform them about issues of concern to the Armenian American
community.

`With the dynamic climate, it is important to constantly keep in
contact with the political party base,’ noted Ani Yenikomshian, a
long-time ANCA activist and leader from the south bay community. `Each
year, fresh faces attend these conventions and it is our chance to
ensure that they learn about the issues that speak to our community.’

The three-day convention was a hotbed of activity in advance of the
upcoming state primaries. With several open races, candidates and
their supporters were clamoring for attention. This also meant that
these groups were interested in learning more from the community in
attendance.

`Many people came by the booth and had stories to share about Armenian
Americans that they knew in the towns from which they came, throughout
California,’ noted Arpi Siyahian, a southern California transplant now
at Stanford University. `It just goes to show you how important it is
for Armenian Americans to be active in the communities in which they
live and how the relationships they build do make a difference,
especially within the political scene.’

Notables attending the convention included the major GOP gubernatorial
candidates, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner as well as candidates for
the US Senate seat currently occupied by Barbara Boxer as well as US
House and California State Legislature races throughout the state.

`It was great getting to know the delegates who attended the
convention and sharing with them the importance of issues like the
Armenian Genocide, US-Armenia relations, and the growing contribution
the Armenian American community makes to the Golden State,’ said
Siyahian. `Having been involved in the ANCA in the western San
Fernando Valley, it was great to see the same passion from activists
here today and I am excited to be a part of the growing ANCA team in
the Santa Clara Valley.’