Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

NO LESS THAN $1.5MLN TO BE SPENT ON ESTABLISHMENT OF MICROSOFT INNOVATIVE CENTER IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2009-04-14 19:28:00

ArmInfo. No less than $1.5mln will be spent on the establishment of
Microsoft Innovative Center in Armenia, says Director of the Microsoft
Armenia Office Grigor Barsegyan.

Presently, the Office is negotiating with the companies wishing to take
part in the project. The negotiations will take some 1-2 months. The
official opening of the center is scheduled for the end of this year.

"One of our partners under this project is the Government of
Armenia. They are ready to provide necessary territory," says
Barsegyan. The Innovative Center should be situated not far away
from universities.

Presently, the Office is negotiating with the representations of
such big companies as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco, CAPS/USAID and
Armenian universities, particularly, State Engineering University.

Barsegyan says that the key mission of the center is to help local
componies to use knowledge of advanced technologies, to demonstrate
modern products, to organize training courses. The center will also act
as a mini MBA center and will offer an opportunity to learn marketing.

The Microsoft Armenia Office was opened in 2006.

WORLD BANK EXPERT: AS A RESULT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS POVERTY LEVEL IN ARMENIA IN 2010 MAY RETURN TO THAT OF MID 2006

ArmInfo
2009-04-14 22:28:00

ArmInfo. As a result of the global crisis, the poverty level
in Armenia in 2010 may total 27,9% (as against 22,7% in 2008 ),
or 906 thsd people, World Bank expert Lire Ersado said at today’s
press-conference dedicated to the social impact of the global crisis
on Armenia. The extreme poverty level may increase from 3,2% in 2008
to 8,7% (297 thsd people). The possible growth of the poverty level
is conditioned by 21,6% risks connected with increase in transfers,
16,4% – exchange fluctuations, and 61,9% – labor market conditions.

The risks in the sphere of transfers are that most transfers come
from Russia, considerable part of them is sent by remote relatives
or friends whose motivation is lower and may completely disappear
under the crisis conditions, Ersado said.

Under present conditions it is necessary to be more careful in
distributing family benefits so as to ensure that the money goes to
really needy families. The paid public work programs must be enlarged
(especially in communities with low incomes).

Earlier the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said that it was
necessary to optimize the benefit distribution system and not to
give allowances to families whose incomes were higher than the level
stipulated by the law. In Mar 2009 as compared with 2008 the number
of families receiving benefits dropped from 121,000 to 105,000.

According to the WB’s surveys, in 2004 the poverty level in Armenia
was 34.6%, in 2005 – 29.8%, in 2006 – 26.5%, in 2007 – 24.9%, in 2008 –
22.7%, 2009 and 2010 – 27.1% and 27.9%.

PRESIDENT STRESSES EXPANSION OF IRAN-ARMENIA RELATIONS

Fars News Agency
April 14 2009
Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a meeting
with his Armenian counterpart, stressed expansion of Tehran-Yerevan
bilateral ties.

"Iran and Armenia should promote relations in different areas,
including trade, energy and transportation," Ahmadinejad said in a
Monday meeting with his visiting Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan.

"An advanced and sustainable Armenia will be beneficial to the entire
region," Ahmadinejad said.

Armenian President, for his part, called for bolstering of relations
with Iran.

The two sides also agreed to finalize an agreement on the construction
of a railway that will connect the two countries and enhance economic
cooperation.

The Armenian president arrived in Tehran on Monday at the head of
a high ranking delegation and was officially welcomed by President
Ahmadinejad.

Earlier this month, the two neighboring countries agreed to implement
a joint project on the construction of a 470-kilometer railway, the
bulk of it passing through Armenian territory. The project will take
at least five years and cost up to $1.2 billion.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have so far expressed
interest in contributing to the project.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian said last month that the
construction of Iran-Armenia railway holds a strategic importance
for his country.

The railway, which will amount to a restoration of the historic Silk
Road, is specially important to Yerevan as it will connect the northern
lake city of Sevan to the southern city of Meghri, which borders Iran.

NEW RADIO GIVES OUT DIVERSE VOICES

Hurriyet
April 10 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – Young people from different ethnic identities who found
the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT’s,
initiative to broadcast in various languages insufficient have come
together and founded a radio station.

"Nor Radyo" (New Radio) is available online and broadcasts in Armenian,
Kurdish and Homshetsi, an Armenian dialect, for now. Broadcasts
in Syriac and Greek are expected to follow soon. Nor Radyo, at
, started broadcasting on Jan. 17 and is aired
every evening between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. The Jan. 17 launch date was
symbolic as it was the day Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist
and editor-in-chief of daily Agos, was assassinated.

Due to financial constraints, the station’s organizers haven’t been
able to rent a studio for the shows and the broadcasts are done from
homes. Radio show hosts Sayat Tekir, Oyku Ozcinik, Sevan Garabetoglu
and Bercan AktaÅ~_ spoke to Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review
and said they do not accept guests at their homes during broadcast
hours and communicate with each other on MSN messenger during those
times. AktaÅ~_, the youngest of the radio hosts, is a 16-year-old
student of Kurdish origin. AktaÅ~_ does a weekly news review every
Friday from 9 to 11 p.m. AktaÅ~_ said he does not follow the broadcasts
of TRT 6, a recently launched channel that broadcasts in Kurdish.

"I do not believe in the TRT’s sincerity," he said. All of the shows
on Nor Radyo have different formats.

Ozcinik, an anthropologist, produces and hosts a show called
"Topluigne" (Pin). Although she is an ethnic Turk, Ozcinik got
involved in the project to support her friends from different ethnic
backgrounds. "I have discovered the richness I was forcibly torn apart
from as a Turk; that is why I have preferred to be with them here,"
she said.

Ozcinik said mentions of ethnic cultures in Turkey are only based on
cuisine. "When we mention the Armenians, we talk about appetizers;
when we mention Greeks, we talk about stuffed vegetables. The colors
of Turkey are not just appetizers and stuffed vegetables," she said.

Tekir’s show, "AnuÅ~_abur," is rather different from the
others. "AÅ~_ure" in Turkish, is wheat pudding with various dried
nuts and fruits, known in English as Noah’s pudding. "AnuÅ~_abur,
hence the name, features all of the diversities and tastes in it,"
Tekir said and added that he is hosting his show in Turkish because
he is not fluent in Armenian. "It is hard to find someone to host the
show in Armenian because, although we attend schools in the Armenian
community, the amount of education received in the mother tongue is
insufficient," he said. "We cannot express ourselves."

Computer, microphone suffice for broadcast

Garabetoglu hosts his show, "Sevani Yerki Tzank" (Sevan’s Music
List), in Armenian, unlike Tekir. The show features Armenian folk
and classical music. The hosts are happy with broadcasting over
the Web. A microphone and a computer are enough for us, they said,
adding that they, as the youth of Turkey, came together to raise a
free voice and to walk toward the future with steps of peace.

THE UNITED STATES OF APOLOGY
By Christine M. Flowers

Philadelphia Inquirer
410_Christine_M__Flowers__The_United_States_of_Apo logy.html
April 10 2009

PRESIDENT Obama, can you please stop apologizing for me?

The mea culpas – actually "nostra" culpas – are getting a bit stale. I
know that some revel in this national self-abasement, but many of
us are getting tired of being dragged into this vast diplomatic
therapy session.

You’re now officially Apologizer in Chief, making sure the rest of
the world has yet a few more reasons to feel smugly superior to the
country you’ve been elected to lead.

It started from day one, when you signed an order authorizing the
closure of Guantanamo, with the clear implication we’d done something
horribly wrong there.

The truth is, most of our Gitmo guests hate the U.S., and would be
all too happy to do serious damage to this country.

That was nowhere more clear than when a National Geographic crew
filmed the inmates. Did you see that documentary? The guards were
restrained and professional while the scruffy guys in the orange suits,
the ones your administration seems to feel so sorry for, were spitting,
cursing and acting out.

The thought of our beating our breasts for "mistreating" these
upstanding gents rankles. Truth is, we bent over backward to operate
within the law, but when 3,000 of your countrymen are murdered in
cold blood, Emily Post doesn’t always apply. (Just look at the two
guys you like to compare yourself to. Lincoln knew it. And so did FDR.)

And if that wasn’t enough, then you had us apologizing to the whole
Muslim world, most recently on your trip to Turkey, where you said,
"I know that the trust that binds us has been strained, and I know
that strain is shared in many places where the Muslim faith is
practiced. Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is
not at war with Islam."

Uh, really? They mistrust us? Funny, but I don’t recall any Americans
flying planes into buildings in Istanbul, while I do remember when we
actually mobilized our military to protect the interests of Muslims,
including protecting the Bosnians against the Serbs when those morally
superior folks in Europe wouldn’t lift a finger.

Then there’s our foreign aid to predominantly Muslim countries in
Africa. And we were also the big kahuna when the tsunami nearly wiped
a majority Muslim nation off the map. Yet we have to apologize because
"the trust that binds us" has been strained?

Well, perhaps the stress fracture occurred when Americans saw rabid
Palestinians marching in the streets and cheering as they watched
film of the burning Trade Center. (Did they ever apologize for that?)

Why, all of a sudden, this special concern for Muslim
sensibilities? Sure, there’s a big difference between fundamental
Islamists and the more westernized fellows that greeted you in
Ankara last week. They, at least, don’t believe that beating a woman
into unconsciousness is a reasonable response to chatting with a
man-not-your-husband.

But there’s actually a growing, and dangerous, fundamentalist shift
in Turkey’s direction, led by its government, characterized by the
return of head scarves for women, a blurring of the lines between the
religious and the secular, and a prime minister who is only slightly
less anti-Western than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This is also a country that has never admitted (let alone apologizing
for) exterminating a generation of Christian Armenians. So the fact
that you’ve actually lobbied for Turkey’s inclusion in the EU when
even our so-called European allies are opposed to it, is troubling.

And speaking of those "allies," I almost lost my breakfast when I heard
you tell the crowds in Strasbourg, France, that "there have been times
where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."

That so? Just how arrogant were we when we sent our boys to storm the
beaches of Normandy, at the cost of thousands of American lives? How
dismissive were our diplomats when they brilliantly executed the
Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe with Americans’ money? How
derisive were our citizens as they entered the Peace Corps, sent
money to foreign charities, adopted foreign children?

Mr. President, it’s OK if you have a guilt complex.

Just leave me out of it. *

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer. See her on Channel 6’s "Inside Story"
Sunday at 11:30 a.m. E-mail [email protected].

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S MESSAGE TO TURKEY: LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE ABOUT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Michael Mensoian

dent-obama%e2%80%99s-message-to-turkey-let%e2%80%9 9s-agree-to-disagree-about-the-armenian-genocide/
April 9, 2009

President Obama’s statement at a joint news conference on April 6
with President Abdullah Gul that "(M)y views [on the Genocide] are
on the record and I have not changed my views" may be translated to
mean that the United States and Turkey should agree to disagree about
the Armenian Genocide.

During his much-anticipated visit to Turkey by both Turks and
Armenians, President Obama adroitly played to both sides of the
street. For his Armenian constituents he mentioned his having views
on the Genocide that are well known, and for his Turkish audience
he capitulated to the need to assuage the Turkish leadership. What
happened to his conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not only an
historic fact, but that there was a moral imperative requiring his
administration to recognize it?

The Turkish leaders wisely co-opted his moral sensibilities by having
him address the Turkish Grand National Assembly; a rare honor for
a western dignitary. It must be granted, that it would have been
difficult for President Obama to be forthright on such an emotional
issue in that particular venue, but a much stronger enunciation of
his views and a more balanced evaluation of the Turkish-Armenian
normalization process could have been made.

However, a cynic might wonder whether his side trip to Turkey to pay
homage to a government that has utterly failed to honestly address
the issue of the Armenian Genocide-an established historic fact-was
orchestrated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President
Obama himself, to give cover to his expected muted expression of
support for the April 24th message to the Armenian people.

This is not an overly critical analysis of his speech to the Turkish
Grand National Assembly when his comments are evaluated with respect
to the various issues relating to normalization. When he claims that
Turkey is a critical ally and an important part of Europe, it only
encourages the Turkish government’s continued veiled threats that
passage of any genocide resolution by the United States Congress would
do irreparable harm to what Obama sees as a "critical" Turkey-United
States relationship.

In his speech in the Grand National Assembly, Obama said, "(A)t
the end of World War I Turkey could have succumbed to the foreign
powers that were trying to claim its territory….(b)ut Turkey chose
a different future. You freed yourself from foreign control." Did
"foreign control" include Armenian claims to its historic lands? How
does he presume that this so-called success affected the legitimacy
of the independent Armenia that was promised in the Treaty of Sevres
and eliminated by the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne. Wasn’t this the
purpose of the Genocide unleashed by the Ottoman Turkish government:
to clear eastern Turkey-the western provinces of historic Armenia-that
was continued under Ataturk during the years between Sevres and
Lausanne? Its purpose was to prevent legitimate Armenian territorial
claims from being implemented. Are these territorial rights to be
forgotten in the name of normalization? Evidently so.

Perhaps the most telling of the several disturbing comments made by
President Obama occurred when he said "(T)hat there has been a good
deal of commentary about my views, [but] this is really about how
the Turkish and Armenian people deal with the past. And the best way
forward for the Turkish and Armenian people is a process that works
through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive." How
anyone can believe that this comment before the Turkish National
Grand Assembly is a step in the right direction is difficult to
understand. Juxtapose President Gul’s statement as he stood next to
President Obama when he expressed the long-standing determination of
the Turkish government to tie normalization to a Turkish-Armenian
commission to study the totality of events that occurred during
the period from 1915 through 1923. "It is not a political, but an
historic issue. That’s why we should allow historians to discuss the
matter." Does President Obama believe exculpatory evidence exists to
support Turkey’s view that the Armenian Genocide never occurred? If
so, how does this square with his campaign rhetoric (January 2008)
that "(T)he Armenian genocide is not an allegation…but rather a
widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical
evidence…"

Add to this Prime Minister Erdogan’s statement on the previous Friday
in London when he maintained that "(F)or Turkey, it is impossible
to accept a thing [the Armenian Genocide] that does not exist." How
can Turkey’s position, emphatically stated and maintained as official
policy through decades of obfuscation and revisionism, fail to raise
serious doubts in President Obama’s mind as to the Turkish leadership’s
desire or ability to deal objectively with Armenia? If it hasn’t,
it should.

Not having strengthened Turkey’s position vis-a-vis Armenia
sufficiently, President Obama continued: "We have already seen historic
and courageous steps taken by Turkish and Armenian leaders. These
contacts hold out the promise of a new day. An open border would
return the Turkish and Armenian people to a peaceful and prosperous
coexistence that would serve both of your nations. That is why the
United States strongly supports the full normalization of relations
between Turkey and Armenia."

On what basis, one might ask, would normalization be achieved that
would be beneficial to Armenia and its long-term interests? In an
interview with journalists on April 6, the President is quoted as
saying that he is not interested in the United States in any way
tilting these negotiations." Would not recognizing the Armenian
Genocide "tilt these negotiations" toward Armenia? If that is so, how
does this affect Genocide recognition by his administration? Conversely
hasn’t his deference to Turkish interests tilted the negotiations
toward Ankara?

Praising Turkey’s leadership, President Obama went on to say
"…that…[Turkey is] …poised to be the only country in the
region to have normal and peaceful relations with all the South
Caucasus nations." This comment certainly could not have pleased
either Moscow or Tehran. He continued to say that "… to advance
that peace, …[Turkey] can play a constructive role in helping
to resolve the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, which has continued far
too long." How is "constructive role" to be interpreted? For whose
benefit? Azerbaijan’s? How do these comments expressed before the
Turkish National Grand Assembly affect the future of our brothers
and sisters in Artsakh? It effectively strengthens Baku’s demands
by reinforcing the United States position that any settlement must
maintain the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. This all but
eliminates the likelihood of Artsakh ever achieving a free and
independent status. Is this why their lives and homes were sacrificed?

President Obama’s performance in Turkey cannot be viewed as having
any beneficial impact on Armenian interests; just the opposite is
true. Unfortunately, it significantly bolstered the Turkish position
in the ongoing process of "rapprochement." How much better it would
have been if President Obama had been less eager to have Armenia bear
the burden for his obsequious performance before the Turkish Grand
National Assembly.

OBAMA TURNS TO PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN ISTANBUL
Sibel Utku Bila

Agence France Presse
April 7, 2009 Tuesday 8:06 AM GMT

Pledging respect for Islam, US President Barack Obama turned to public
diplomacy Tuesday, meeting religious leaders and students and touring
ancient monuments in Istanbul on the second day of his first visit
to a mainly Muslim nation.

In a major speech at the Turkish parliament, Obama declared Monday the
United States is not and will never be at war with Islam and called
Turkey a "critical ally," earning himself much praise in a country
where his precedessor left the US image in tatters.

"Obama conquers hearts," the popular Vatan newspaper trumpeted on its
front page, while the Islamist-leaning Zaman hailed the president’s
"historic and warm messages."

The liberal Taraf declared the president’s remarks marked the end
of "the bellicose spirit of September 11," while the mass-selling
Milliyet described Turkey as the starting point of a new US policy
of reconciliation with the Muslim world.

Following up on his appeal for dialogue and inter-faith understanding,
Obama met with Muslim, Christian and Jewish spiritual leaders based
in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and the meeting point of Europe
and Asia.

Later he was scheduled to visit two major edifices of Christianity
and Islam — the Hagia Sophia church and the Blue Mosque — erected
opposite each other in the ancient heart of the city.

Obama was to wrap up his two-day visit to Turkey and his debut
tour to Europe later in the day after a round-table discussion with
university students.

Since his election, Obama has already won significant popularity in
Turkey, a NATO member and a key Muslim ally of the United States,
and is keen to improve ties that chilled over the US invasion of
neighbouring Iraq in 2003 and former president George W. Bush’s
policies in the Middle East.

A public opinion poll found in February that 39.2 percent of Turks
had confidence in Obama, making him "the most trusted leader" in
Turkish eyes.

In 2005, only 9.3 percent said they trusted Bush, giving him only
a slight lead over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who had the
confidence of 4.6 percent.

On Monday, Obama met with Turkish leaders in Ankara, hardening
his message in support of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union,
despite the opposition of EU heavyweights France and Germany.

Turkey and the United States, he said, could set an example to the
world by building a "model partnership" based on democratic values,
including respect for religious diversity.

In more pointed messages, Obama called on Turkey to step up EU-demanded
democracy reforms and broaden the freedoms of non-Muslim minorities
and the restive Kurdish community.

He urged normalisation of ties with Armenia, while signalling that
Washington would not interfere in their dispute on whether the mass
killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th
century was genocide.

Obama’s decision to include Turkey to his first trip to Europe is
largely seen as an effort to keep the country firmly anchored in the
West through its NATO membership and EU accession bid.

Turkey has is been a key US ally in a strategic region between Europe,
the Caucasus and the Middle East, bordering troubled countries such
as Georgia, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

But the country’s Islamist-rooted government has recently given rise
to fears that it is drifting away fom the West, forging closer ties
with countries such as Iran and Sudan and welcoming leaders of the
radical Palestinian movement Hamas in Ankara.

HOVIK ABRAHAMIAN: ARMENIA WILL USE ALL POSSIBILITIES GIVEN BY EU EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

NOYAN TAPAN
APRIL 8, 2009
YEREVAN

Marie Anne Isler Beguin, a Member of European Parliament, the
Co-chairwoman of the Armenia-European Union Parliamentary Cooperation
Commission, at the April 8 meeting with RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamian
presented the results of Commission’s 10th meeting held on April 7-8
in Yerevan.

H. Abrahamian said that Armenia will use all possibilities given by
EU Eastern Partnership in the processes of political and economic
modernization.

According to the RA NA Public Relations Department, Avet Adonts,
the Armenian Co-chair of the Armenia-EU Parliamentary Cooperation
Commission, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on European
Integration, also took part in the conversation.

THE APOLOGY TOUR: WILL IT EVER END?

Power Line
262.php
April 6 2009

Earlier today, President Obama addressed the Parliament of Turkey. What
made news were his positive references to Islam:

"Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States
is not at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim
world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of
all faiths reject."

This is, of course, indistinguishable from many similar pronouncements
that were made by President Bush.

What I want to focus on is Obama’s continuing attack on his own
country, unprecedented, to my knowledge, for a President on an overseas
tour. Here are Obama’s comments on his own country’s history:

An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve
the security that comes from justice for all people. Robust minority
rights let societies benefit from the full measure of contributions
from all citizens.

I say this as the President of a country that not too long ago made
it hard for someone who looks like me to vote.

This is untrue. A minority of states did "make it hard" for someone who
"looks like Obama" to vote until "not long ago," but most did not,
and the federal government certainly did not. There has never been
a time when it was hard for people who look like Obama to vote here
in Minnesota, for example.

As we’ve seen before, Obama appears to betray a surprising lack of
knowledge of American history. It seems that instead of actually
having studied his own country’s history, Obama has merely absorbed
the ignorant, left-wing narrative that is peddled by Jeremiah Wright
and others of his ilk. As a result, Obama not only confesses his
country’s sins overseas, he confesses wrongly.

But it is precisely that capacity to change that enriches our
countries. Every challenge that we face is more easily met if we tend
to our own democratic foundation. This work is never over. That is why,
in the United States, we recently ordered the prison at Guantanamo
Bay closed, and prohibited — without exception or equivocation —
any use of torture.

Torture has been illegal for a number of years, and President
Bush insisted just as strongly as Obama that the U.S. does not
torture. There was a legitimate debate about waterboarding, which does
no physical injury, and which I do not believe constitutes torture. But
according to press reports, only two or three top-ranking terrorists
were waterboarded, none after 2003. And waterboarding has been
banned by the U.S. military since 2006. So what was Obama’s purpose
in implying that until he came along, his own government was engaged
in torturing prisoners? His speech was carried live by Al Jazeera
and Al Arabiya, broadcast into countries where "torture" doesn’t
mean getting your face wet. Obama at least impliedly exaggerated the
supposed sins of his predecessors and the "change" brought about by
himself. Why? For what purpose? Isn’t the campaign over?

Another issue that confronts all democracies as they move to the
future is how we deal with the past. The United States is still working
through some of our own darker periods. Facing the Washington monument
that I spoke of is a memorial to Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed
those who were enslaved even after Washington led our Revolution. And
our country still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of
Native Americans.

Human endeavor is by its nature imperfect. History, unresolved,
can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past.

These words were a lead-in to Obama’s comments on "the terrible events
of 1915," i.e., what Obama himself has referred to as the "Armenian
genocide." So what was the point of Obama’s gratuitous reference to
"our past treatment of Native Americans"? Did he mean to suggest that
it was somehow equivalent to the Armenian genocide? If so, once again,
he needs to be better educated about history. If not, why on earth
is he throwing it into this part of his speech as a mea culpa?

Obama’s seemingly compulsive need to apologize to foreign audiences
on behalf of the United States cannot be explained as a rational
approach to diplomacy. As Paul suggested here, the roots of
Obama’s America-bashing seem to lie in a combination of ideology
and psychology.

Thank goodness he’s coming home soon.

OBAMA: WE ARE COMMITTED TO ANNAPOLIS
By Elie Leshem

2926818&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Apr 7, 2009 1:07

US President Barack Obama on Monday reiterated his country’s
commitment to previous understandings, including the process launched
at Annapolis in 2007, in promoting a peace agreement between Israel
and its neighbors.

Obama, who was addressing the Turkish parliament, also voiced
unequivocal support for a two-state solution, days after Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel was not bound by the Annapolis
talks.

Let me be clear," Obama said, "the United States strongly supports
the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in
peace and security. That is a goal shared by Palestinians, Israelis,
and people of good will around the world. That is a goal that the
parties agreed to in the road map and at Annapolis. And that is a
goal that I will actively pursue as president."

He emphasized the need for the two sides to take confidence-building
measures while living up to "the commitments they have made."

Both Israel and the Palestinians, he said "must overcome longstanding
passions and the politics of the moment to make progress toward a
secure and lasting peace."

Turkey, "like the United States, could help Israel and the
Palestinians," the US president said.

Ankara, he added, "has been a friend and partner in Israel’s quest for
security. And like the United States, you seek a future of opportunity
and statehood for the Palestinians.

"Now," Obama continued, "we must not give into pessimism and mistrust.

"We must pursue every opportunity for progress, as you have done by
supporting negotiations between Syria and Israel. We must extend
a hand to those Palestinians who are in need, while helping them
strengthen institutions.

And we must reject the use of terror, and recognize that Israel’s
security concerns are legitimate."

Obama claimed that regional peace would also be advanced by Iran
cooperating with the international community and forgoing "any nuclear
weapons ambitions."

"I have made it clear to the people and leaders of the Islamic republic
that the United States seeks engagement based upon mutual interests
and mutual respect," he said. "We want Iran to play its rightful
role in the community of nations, with the economic and political
integration that brings prosperity and security.

Now, Iran’s leaders must choose whether they will try to build a
weapon or build a better future for their people."

Earlier, the US president said that he stood by his 2008 assertion
that Ottoman Turks carried out widespread killings of Armenians early
in the 20th century, finessing the sensitive issue by stopping short
of repeating the word "genocide."

"Well, my views are on the record and I have not changed views,"
he said, standing alongside Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Obama went on to say that he was looking toward ally Turkey to help
bridge the divide between Muslim nations and the West, and that he
wanted to build on "what is already a strong foundation" with Anakara.

He said relations between the two countries had for too long been
defined on mostly military and national security terms, but that they
must also work together on the global economic crisis.

Obama said he and Gul had been "very clear that terrorism is not
acceptable under any circumstances." He also said Turkey and the
United States could build a "model partnership" between a predominantly
Christian nation and a predominantly Muslim one.