Author: Zakarian Garnik

MUBARIZ AHMEDOGHLU: "EUROPE SHOULD REALIZE THAT ARMENIA POSES A THREAT TO REGIONAL SECURITY"

Today.Az
politics/50920.html
March 5 2009
Azerbaijan

European states and international organizations should realize that
today Armenia poses a serious threat to regional security, said
head of the Center of Political Innovations and Technologies Mubariz
Ahmedoghlu at a press conference Thursday.

"Europe should realize that it is impossible today to accuse Russia of
being the only country posing a threat to security in the Caucasus",
noted he.

According to the political scientist, Armenia has recently attempted
to use the "Christianity" card.

"Armenia is a weak state and therefore under the influence of external
powers might launch war against other states, including Georgia and
Russia. Yerecan has already received West’s support", said Ahmedoghlu.

"Armenia attempts to use the resistance in the Christian world for its
own interests. I mean catholicism and Orthodoxical world. Armenia wants
to show that it is the only Christian (Catholic) state in the South
Caucasus, for as is known Georgia has an Orthodox church. Moreover,
Armenians try to prove to Italy that they practiced Cristianity before
Rome, that they outstripped Italians by 13 years in this direction,
starting to practice Christianity in 201 when Italy started in 314",
noted the political scientist.

"Azerbaijan needs a calm region to develop further, while Armenia is
a poor state which needs to create a conflict situation. Armenia asks
everybody for financial support", said Ahmedoghlu.

He said that Yerevan is going to apply the weapon of a total of
$800,000,000 supplied by Russia not against Azerbaijan but against
Georgia.

VAZGEN SARGSIAN’S 50TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY MARKED IN NKR

Noyan Tapan

M arch 5, 2009

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 5, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 5, NKR President Bako
Sahakian accompanied by the high-ranking leadership of the republic
and the higher officer staff of defence army visited Vazgen Sargsian
Motor Rifle Regiment of Central Defence District and took part in the
solemn gathering dedicated to the 50th birth anniversary of National
Hero of Armenia and NKR Vazgen Sargsian.

According to the NKR President’s Press Office, a delegation from
Armenia was present at the event. Vazgen Sargsian’s brother, Aram
Sargsian was also included in the delegation.

THEY WERE AT YERABLUR

A1+
[01:49 pm] 05 March, 2009

Thousands of people, state officials, soldiers and average
citizens paid a visit to Yerablur to mark the 50th anniversary of
prominent political and state official, sparapet (commander) Vazgen
Sargsyan. They all laid wreaths and flowers on his tombstone and
then on the tombstones of Warrior Andranik and victims of the Artsaj
liberation struggle.

At 10 a.m. Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Yerablur. Beofre that, the
three political parties of the governing coalition were already at
Yerablur. RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, Head of the RA
Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan, RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan, Chairman of the RA National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan, RA
Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, Chief of RA Police Alik Sargsyan,
Mayor of yerevan Gagik Beglaryan and others were also there. Among
participants were many of the fellow soldiers of Vazgen Sargsyan,
as well as the students of the military institute named after him.

"We are paying tribute to a man who was the prominent state, political
and military figure of our times and the commander of the army. He
helped us achieve victory and peace along with his fellow soldiers. We
also remember him as a servant with whom we were able to solve our
issues," stated RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan.

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan recalled that he has created a
governmental commission to organize the events dedicated to the 50th
anniversary of Vazgen Sargsyan.

Later the officials of the army laid flowers and wreaths near the bust
of Vazgen Sargsyan and stood for a moment of silence. This evening
a concert in memory of Vazgen Sargsyan will take place at the Karen
Demirchyan sport/concert complex. In addition, a series of events
will take place in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh organized by the RA
Ministries of Defense, Education and Science, Culture, a number of
non-governmental organizations and the Union of Writers of Armenia.

YURI MERZLYAKOV SAYS THE MEETING BETWEEN AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS TO TAKE PLACE WITHIN TWO MONTHS

ARMENPRESS
March 4, 2009

BAKU, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS: OSCE Minsk group Russian co-chairman Yuri
Merzlyakov stated that the next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents may take place within two months.

"Within the frameworks of negotiation process of Karabakh conflict
regulation the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents may take
place in two months during an international conference",- during the
Tuesday press conference in Baku Y. Merzlyakov said.

According to him, the two presidents agree, and only the time and
place of the meeting remained to be clarified.

ARONIAN, DOMINGUEZ MAKE DRAW

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.03.2009 10:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian made a draw with
Cuba’s Leinier Dominguez in the 11th tour of Linares 2009.

The other games of the 11th tour ended with the same result.

Standings after 11th tour: Alexander Grischuk -7 points; Vassily
Ivanchuk – 6 points; Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand –
5.5 points each; Teimour Radjabov, Wang Yue – 5 points each; Leinier
Dominguez – 4,5 points.

12th tour participants: Carlsen – Grischuk, Anand – Ivanchuk, Aronian –
Wang Yue Radjabov – Dominguez.

HAK WILL RUN FOR YEREVAN MAYOR

A1+
[06:42 pm] 02 March, 2009

"The Armenian National Congress (HAK) will run in the election
of Yerevan’s Mayor," says the Spokesman for Armenia’s first
President Arman Musinyan. He says it is still early to name their
candidate. "Presently the HAK is discussing the spectra of issues
connected with the upcoming election."

"Let them hold the posts. We are not interested in the rotations in
this bandit state," Arman Musinyan said in regard to recent rumours
that Kenton’s district head Gagik Beglaryan and Avan’s district head
Taron Margaryan will respectively hold the posts of the mayor and
deputy mayor.

PanARMENIAN.Net

NKR Defense Ministry: 3 Karabakh soldiers in Azeri captivity
28.02.2009 17:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On the night of February 28, three soldiers of the
NKR Defense Army, Hrant Markosyan, Alik Tevosyan and Arthur Sargsyan
have crossed the line of contact of the NKR and Azeri armed forces,
colonel lieutenant Senor Hasratyan, spokesman for NKR Defense
Ministry, told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The incident is being investigated.

RosBusinessConsulting Database
February 26, 2009 Thursday 10:54 AM EST

Russian, Armenian PMs to discuss economic cooperation

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan will discuss several current issues concerning the
economic cooperation of the two countries, including ties in the
financial and energy sectors. The meeting will be held on Friday
during Sargsyan’s visit to Moscow, said a source in the Russian
cabinet staff.

To recap, Russia is Armenia’s main economic partner, with trade
between the two countries rising 9.5 percent to $900m in 2008. By the
same token, the accrued amount of Russia’s capital investment in the
Armenian economy exceeded $1.8bn.

PROFESSOR QUESTIONS ETHNIC CONFLICT: ARMENIAN STUDENTS RESPOND TO GENOCIDE DENIALS
by Matthew Rist

The George Washington University The GW Hatchet
r332/news/2009/02/26/News/Professor.Questions.Ethn ic.Conflict-3650236.shtml
Feb 26 2009

One of history’s most controversial debates came to the Marvin Center
Monday night.

Turkkaya Ataov, a professor at Ankara University in Turkey who is
internationally recognized for his vehement denials that the 1915
massacre of Armenians was a genocide, presented a lecture entitled,
"How to Come to Terms with One’s Past: Searching the Truth Behind
Armenian Claims on Genocide."

A handful of Armenian students listened in silence among a crowd of
100 mostly Turkish or Turkish-Americans as Ataov discounted Armenian
claims of genocide at the hands of the Turks during World War I.

"I’m not saying that nothing has happened, but certain things have
happened and that there are omissions, and omission is a way of
censorship," Ataov said.

The professor appeared to speak directly to the Armenian students in
the audience at times and even pointed at them at one point in the
lecture, telling them to see him afterwards to discuss what he was
talking about.

"The Armenians are very fine people, very intelligent, very
hard-working, very able," Ataov said.

Ataov characterized Turkey and its people as, historically, accepting
of other ethnicities.

"Genocide is the natural outcome and continuation of racism. Only
racists can pursue policies of genocide," Ataov said.

Ataov went on to talk about the disagreements that have arisen between
the two opposing viewpoints on the interpretation of historical facts.

"We must agree on dispassionate, nonpartisan, open-minded
controversy," Ataov said. "I have met very few [Armenians] that fit
this description."

During his lecture, Ataov compared the misinformation about the
Armenian massacres to a game he played as a child, similar to the
game of telephone, asserting that this verbal passing of information
is to blame for some of the misinformation.

"What actually happened in history is very different, or to a great
extent different, than what the younger generations keep hearing from
their elders," Attaov said.

Leah Brayman, president of the Armenian Student Network, said she
was offended by Ataov’s analogy.

"For professor Ataov to relate the genocide to an elementary school
game of telephone is not only completely inaccurate, but it humorizes
mass genocide," she wrote in an e-mail after the event. "As a critic of
‘uneducated people’ professor Ataov’s claims about Armenian history
and genocide were extremely false, completely misstated and he made
a mockery of the Armenian people."

Esra Alemdar, president of the Turkish Student Association, said her
organization brought Ataov to campus in order to educate students
about the allegations of genocide.

"I feel like we, as Turkish-Americans, really do not have a lot of
information about this issue, so that’s one of the reasons why I
wanted to have the professor speak," she said.

Alemdar said she was pleased to have students from the Armenian
Student Association in the audience.

Brayman said that relations between the Turkish Student Association
and the Armenian Student Association have never been a problem.

She added, "Unfortunately our history of conflict is still a national
and international issue that we hope will be resolved very soon, so
that all future relations will be nothing but peaceful and productive."

After his lecture, Ataov had a specific message for GW students of
Armenian and Turkish descent looking to move forward and work together
in the future.

"The duty of scholarship is to study the views of the other side
because the Armenian side is making this mistake; which is described
in psychology as the egoism of victimization, in which one side thinks
only of its own losses and rejects the other," Ataov said. "In reality,
what the other suffered may be even worse."

WORLD BANKS URGES GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA TO REFUSE FROM PROTECTIONISM

ArmInfo
2009-02-25 14:58:00

ArmInfo. World Bank urges the Government of Armenia to refuse from
protectionist policy, Director of WB Yerevan Office Aristomene
Varoudakis said at a press conference in Yerevan Wednesday.

He said the government has recently come out with an initiative of
raising customs duties for finished imported products to support
local producers. He said the competition between imported and local
production in the domestic market of Armenia is not significant. At
the same time the rise of customs tariffs for import will lead to
rise of prices that will first of all affect the unsecured sections
of the population, he said.

Afterwards, the government will have to think of how to help the poor
and make compensations, WB Director said.

Alongside with raising customs tariffs, he said, the government has set
up an Operative Staff reporting to the Prime Minister of Armenia which
studies government credit projects, government guarantees and subsidies
to the private sector. World Bank is rather skeptical about direct
assistance to business. This will not settle the fundamental problems
of the local business, A. Varoudakis said. He believes that enterprises
face problems for lack of demand for their production and government
tries to artificially stiffen business competition. WB Director is sure
that the pressure on the state budget will considerably increase if the
government helps all the enterprises experiencing difficulties, since
they will rise in number due to the crisis. He said the protectionist
policies are waged in many states and even in the states with high
level of incomes. WB leadership believes that protectionist measures
protract the restoration of global economy, he said.

To recall, the Government of Armenia has already provided government
credits and guarantees to a number of local enterprises. The largest
government credit of $10 million was provided to Zangezour copper
and molybdenum plant.