Month: December 2008

GAS COMPANY BOSS PREDICTS ARMENIA’S ROLE IN REGIONAL ENERGY SECTOR

Mediamax
Dec 19 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 18 December: Armenia has all chances to become a
"liberal energy platform for the region," the general director of
Hayrusgazard Company, Karen Karapetyan, said today when speaking at
the international conference entitled "Information wars. Modern-day
challenges of information society" dedicated to the 90th anniversary
of the Armenpress news agency.

In his report "Information wars in energy," Karapetyan said that
today’s regional projects, for political reasons, face limitations
of transit schemes and do not represent an example of multilateral
regional cooperation. He said the initial reason for such state of
affairs is political rivalry, competition of energy "heavyweights"
for access to a deposit, a well, a pipeline. Karapetyan said that
the politicized nature of energy projects in the South Caucasus
"hits the pocket of each resident of the region".

"Little awareness of the region’s population leads to the fact that
the elites implement political projects, which are not economically
substantiated, thus planting a time bomb under the energy sector and
generating further speculative actions in international markets of
energy which is likely to result in new global financial and economic
crises," he said. Karapetyan suggested that information coverage to
secure the support for initiatives of political and business elites
in the sphere of energy.

ROBER HATECHIAN: THE APOLOGY TO ARMENIA STIRRED A HURRICANE IN TURKEY
Anna Nazaryan

"Radiolur"
19.12.2008 18:00

On December 8, after a 3 hours interruption, between 11 a.m. and 2
p.m, the website posting the petition of the Turkish intellectuals
who apologize to Armenians "for the Great Catastrophe of 1915" erased
the 73 pages on which the names of 13,315 signatories brought together
in three days were registered.

Editor-in-chief of the "Marmara" newspaper Rober Hatechian told
"Radiolur" today that the website brought about a hurricane in
Turkey. The statement of a Turkish MP that the creation of the website
was tolerated because President Abdullah Gul’s mother is Armenia
also attracted great interest. "All this burst like a bomb. However,
all the convictions are addressed to that Deputy."

Currently Turks are actively trying to check the truthfulness of the
Deputy’s words. Before that, Gul’s Press Service issued a statement
saying that President’s words on the events of 1915 were incorrectly
quoted. "My words were presented incorrectly. Besides, the issue of
Armenian origin has become a sort of swearword," Gul’s statement reads.

Last evening discussions on the issue were launched on all Turkish
TV channels. Rober Hatechian’s impression is that the facts of those
apologizing to Armenians are more grounded.

Today Turkish Army General20Metin Gurak joined the initiative of "We
expect an apology." He said the initiative of apologizing to Armenians
"is wrong and will create harmful consequences."

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he neither
accepts nor supports the campaign. He added the campaign offers no
other benefit than "stirring up trouble, disturbing our peace and
undoing the steps which have been taken."

According to Rober Hatechian, the hurricane will continue for another
few days, since tonight the CNN Turk will air the second part of
"The Sorrow of the Society; 1915; Turks and Armenians," which will
attempt to answer some questions. In particular, it will turn to the
question of how the Armenian and Turkish peoples, who lived together
on the lands of Anatolu became enemies, how the Turkish took the
decision to exile the Armenians, which became the milestone of the
break of relations.

The film introduces the views of famous intellectuals, historians,
artists and researchers on the matter.

A WORKSHOP TO BE HELD ON THE FRAMEWORK DECISION AGAINST RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA

armradio.am
19.12.2008 18:18

The European Armenian Federation will organise a workshop dedicated
to the provisions and the implementation of the Framework Decision
against Racism and Xenophobia, which was adopted late November by
the Council of the European Union.

The Framework decision provides a legislative framework to which the
penal laws of the 27 EU Member States will have to adopt within a two
year period, in order to penalize condoning, gross trivialization or
denial of genocides and crimes against humanity.

The meeting is to be held on the 21st January from 2pm to 6pm, at
Brussels, in the European Parliament. Detailed information will be
provided soon.

This meeting concerns chiefly policy makers and leaders of NGOs and
of associations dedicated to prevention and repression of denial,
Human Rights defenders and jurists.

This meeting will be held in the presence of Mrs Martine Roure, Member
of the European Parliament and rapporteur on the Framework Decision,
officer of the European Commission and law experts.

The workshop aims to provide activists and politicians from all
EU Member States with the awareness required for a pan-European
implementation of the Framework Decision which will actually allow
penalising, in the 27 concerned countries, the denial of any attested
genocide, including the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

NO WORK ON JANUARY 7

A1+
[08:27 pm] 18 December, 2008

The government has decided to move Wednesday, January 7, 2009, which
is a working day, to Saturday, December 27, 2008 on the occasion of
All Saints Day following Christmas and the Revelation.

The RA Government held today an outgoing session headed by RA Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan in the Armenian Marz of Aragatsotn. The
session was held in the printing house near the St. Mesrop Mashtots
Church located in the Oshakan village. Before starting the session,
the Armenian Premier and members of government visited the church
and deposited flowers near the grave of Mashtots.

The government’s outgoing session began with the report of head of the
Aragatsotn Marz Gabriel Giozalyan on the economic situation in 2008,
the existing issues, investments made and plans for the upcoming year.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HAKOBYAN IS NOT TAKING RISKS

A1+
[08:38 pm] 18 December, 2008

Armenian grosmeister Vladimir Hakobyan continues to take precautions
as he plays in the FIDE "Gran Prix Elista". The key player of the
Armenian team played his 5th 0-0 match in the 5th round.

This time his opponent was Ukrainian Pavel Elyanov. The competitors
took 25 rapid steps and tied the match. In any case, Vladimir’s
opponent was more careful in this match. In the previous rounds,
Hakobyan had not taken risks and had won half a point.

Thus, the Armenian representative now has 2.5 points. The
Mammedyarov-Kasimjanov match has already ended and the competitors have
earned half a point each. The remaining matches are still in progress.

CNN TURK TO SHOW A DOCUMENTARY FILM ABOUT THE ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS

AZG Armenian Daily
19/12/2008

Armenian Genocide: CNN Turk will show a documentary film under heading
"The sorrow of the society; 1915; Turks and Armenians".

According to Istanbul "Marmara" (Armenian newspaper), the film shows a
package of Armenian-Turkish relations from the past up to the present
and tries to find the answers of the following questions: Why did
the Armenian and Turkish people living side-by-side for centuries in
the lands of Anatolia become enemies? Why and how was the decision
on banishment made? A decision that became the corner-stone of the
breaking-off the relations.

The film presents the viewpoints of the well-known intellectuals,
historians, artists and researchers.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MORE THAN 10.000 SIGNATURES UNDER THE INITIATIVE "I APOLOGIZE"

AZG Armenian Daily
19/12/2008

Armenian Genocide: "The viewpoints are expressed freely in Turkey",
Turkish President Abdullah Gul announced touching upon the Turkish
intellectuals’ initiative under heading "I apologize" and the
counteraction of the discharged diplomats.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan severely criticized the
intellectuals’ campaign to apologize to the Armenians. He announced
that Turkey did not commit an offence to apologize, Turkish news
agencies reported.

To recall, Turkish intellectuals Basqn Oran, Ahmed Insel, Jengiz
Aktar and Ali Bayramoghlu initiated a movement under heading "I
apologize". In the framework of the movement, signature collection
is organized in Internet, and according to the received data, the
signatures exceed 10.000.

ARONYAN DEFEATED HIS UKRAINIAN RIVAL

Panorama.am
19:00 18/12/2008

The Super GM Tournament in Nanjing, China continues. In the seventh
round Armenian chess player Levon Aronyan met with Ukrainian Vassily
Ivanchuk. In the 39th step Aronyan defeated his rival. One of the
leaders of the tournament Bu Xiantszin met with Vesselin Topalov
and their game ended in draw. Armenian Sergey Movsisyan who presents
Slovakia was defeated by Peter Svidler.

Still Aronyan needs to gain half point to recover his status of leader
of the tournament.

In FIDE "Grand Prix" Armenian chess player Vladimir Hakobyan again
ended his game in draw. This time Hakobyan’s rival was Azeri Vugar
Gashimov.

E. SHARMAZANOV: "ARMENIA NOT WORTHY OF BEING SUSPENDED OF VOTING RIGHT"

Panorama.am
16:22 18/12/2008

Edward Sharmazanov, a member of Republican Fraction of National
Assembly, said that it was "unfavorable" for Armenia. "I don’t think
that Armenia is one of the members of Council of Europe where human
rights are in extremely bad situation. To compare we can see that
in these recent months some positive changes have been made. And the
Monitoring Committee has also notified it," said E. Sharmazanov.

"Our European colleagues should be aware of the fact that putting
sanctions country is not democratized," he said. E. Sharmazanov hopes
that when in January the co-rapporteurs arrive in Armenia, they will
see that "problems have become less in Armenia".

To Panorama.am question whether the arrested of "March 1" would be
set free, as according to the PACE report "persons could be charged
and deprived of their liberty for political motivation in Armenia",
E. Sharmazanov did not give a definite answer. "Problems are not
solved in one day. After March 1 the atmosphere of trust has been
increased and not reduced," he said.

ARMENIAN VOTING RIGHT WILL BE SUSPENDED IN PACE?

Panorama.am
16:20 18/12/2008

The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) yesterday recommended suspending the voting rights
of Armenia’s delegation to the Assembly, said the Chairman of the
Delegation David Harutyunyan to "Liberty" radio station. Co-rapporteurs
John Prescott and George Colombier made a report on the implementation
process of PACE Resolutions 1609 and 1620.

David Harutyunyan said that the report has had negative colorings
regarding criminal prosecutions, but certain measures taken towards the
mass media, electoral reforms and the creation of fact-finding group
of experts have been positively assessed. "A request was made that
persons could be charged and deprived of their liberty for political
motivation. In principle, the issue needs to be additionally analyzed
and as this was the last session of Monitoring Committee before
the January plenary session, the recommendation was made but the
co-rapporteurs are going to visit Armenia in January to make some
notifications in their decision," said D. Harutyunyan.

Note that as soon as the report has been published the Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandyan took the initiative to interpret it. "I think that
in January some developments will be the evidence of the fact that
Armenia has implemented he majority of Resolutions 1609 and 1620,"
said the Foreign Minister.