Month: June 2009

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
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PRESS RELEASE

June 3, 2009
Contact: Michael A Zachariades
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (202) 393-3434

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE APPROVES GENOCIDE AWARENESS ACT

Sacramento, CA – Earlier today, the California State Senate passed
Senate Bill 234, the "Genocide Awareness Act," reported the Armenian
Assembly of America (Assembly). The Assembly, an early proponent of the
measure introduced by State Senator Mark Wyland (R), activated its
ARAMAC grassroots network in California to encourage support and passage
of the bill.

On April 29, the Senate Education Committee voted unanimously in favor
of SB 234. During the public witness hearing, Armenian Genocide denier
Bruce Fein and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA)
testified against treating the Armenian example and parallel cases in
Cambodia and Darfur as genocide. In response to the opposition’s
testimony, State Senator Joe Simitian (D), a member of the Education
Committee, expressed his disappointment, especially given the
incontestable historical fact of the Armenian Genocide and asked, "Why
is it that genocide happens over and over and over again?…It happens
because we are unwilling to step back and confront man’s inhumanity to
man." The truth of the Armenian Genocide, Simitian stated, "has long
been settled."

State Senator Christine Kehoe (D), Chair of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, moved the bill directly to the Senate floor for a vote,
stating, "The continuing events in Darfur remind me of the words of
philosopher George Santayana who wrote: ‘Those who do not learn from
history are doomed to repeat it.’ Those horrific events only serve to
raise the importance of acknowledging and learning from past events like
the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Making sure that Senate Bill
234 becomes law will help make sure that the Armenian Genocide is not
forgotten for this and future generations."

"The Armenian Assembly applauds Senator Kehoe for promptly bringing this
legislation to the floor for a vote," stated Yeghig Keshishian, the
Assembly’s Western Region Director. "The Assembly would also like to
commend Senator Wyland for introducing this legislation and thereby once
again placing California in the forefront of national politics as it
pertains to human rights education and genocide prevention."

Upon successful passage in the California State Assembly, State Senator
Wyland’s "Genocide Awareness Act" would then be signed into law by
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill requires the California
Curriculum Commission to vote on the inclusion of an oral history
component related to genocides as part of its high school curriculum,
including the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. California pioneered new
education standards by adopting the Model Curriculum for Human Rights
and Genocide, which includes the Armenian Genocide.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding
and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
membership organization.

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NR#2009-051

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARMENIAN-SYRIAN RELATIONS TO APPROXIMATE ARMENIA TO ARAB WORLD

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 21:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia has good relations with countries of Arab
world and Syria is not an exception, Ruben Safrastyan, professor and
director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy
of Sciences told a PanARMENIAN.net reporter. "Influential Armenian
community plays a sound role in Armenian-Syrian relations. The visit
of the president of Syria to Armenia will promote the development
and deepening of bilateral relations, " stressed Ruben Safrastyan.

According to him, taking into account the role Syria plays in the Arab
world, the development of the Armenian-Syrian relations will help to
approximate Armenia to Arab world. "Yerevan and Damascus have all
opportunities to develop cooperation in trade and economy spheres,
and after the visit of Bashar Asad we will see trends of deepening
relation particularly in those spheres. There is a sound potential
in that sphere, which can be fully used", professor said.

In his turn, iranologist Tadevos Charchyan mentioned, that there are no
serious disagreement in Armenian-Iranian relations and the forthcoming
visit of the Syrian president to Armenia will assist strengthening of
friendly relations. "A number of agreements will be signed in economy,
trade, education spheres," Tadevos Charchyan said.

CONFERENCE ON CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA AT UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 22:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The major international conference "The Caucasus
and Central Asia: Theoretical, Cultural, and Political Challenges"
will be held between July, and 4 of 2009 at the UK University of
Birmingham. As the organizational committee of the conference told a
PanARMENIAN.Net, the purpose of the event is to create more balanced
and full perception about Caucasus and Central Asia, the conference
seeks to generate a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of
the Caucasus and Central Asia by providing historic, cultural, social,
and political perspectives on these strategically important regions.

The two-day inter-disciplinary conference is a founding event
of the research Group on the Caucasus and Central Asia, formed
by academics and Ph.D. students from across the University of
Birmingham. It brings together a wide range of panelists, including
policy-makers, CEELBAS-network academics, other distinguished scholars
and Ph.D. students specializing in these areas. Among the main speakers
are: Vicken Cheterian (Geneva), John Colarusso (Ontario), Moshe Gammer
(Tel Aviv), Ashirbek Muminov (Almaty), Domitilla Sagramoso (London),
Thomas de Waal (London).

The conference is organized with financial assistance from the Centre
for East European Language Based Area Studies (CEELBAS); the ASSC Seed
Corn Funding of the College of Social Sciences and the Department of
Political Sciences of the University of Birmingham.

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN RECEIVES SYRIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER WALID MUALLEM

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 22:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenia’s National Assembly speaker Hovik
Abrahamyan receives Syria’s foreign minister Walid Muallem, who was
on a working visit in Armenia. Greeting the high-ranking official
from Syria, NA speaker mentioned, that Armenian people have warm and
friendly feelings to the people of Syria. Hovik Abrahamyan stressed,
that Armenians are grateful to Syria for giving a asylum to Armenian
refugees, who were deprived of their motherland during the Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Turkey.

Officials highly estimated the level of political relations between
the two countries. The stressed the necessity of developing ties
between parliaments of the two countries and intensifying the work
of parliamentarian friendship Armenia-Syria group.

RA DIASPORA MINISTRY EXPECTS ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF FRANCE TO INTENSIFY ACTIVITIES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 22:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Minister of Diaspora Affairs Hranush
Hakobyan met Tuesday in Yerevan with representative of Marseilles
city administration and Armenian-French youth union to discuss
implementation of various programs.

Minister Hakobyan voiced readiness to assist organization of "Araks
and Sasoun" dancing group both in Armenia and abroad. She also said
she expects the Armenian community of France to intensify activities,
reported the press office of the RA Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

BAKU PROPAGANDA CREATES FALSE STEREOTYPES AND DISTORTS ESSENCE OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 22:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Discussions on the recently published book "Nagorno
Karabagh: Facts Against Lie. Information-Ideological Aspects of the
Nagorno Karabagh Conflict" by Arsen Melik-Shakhnazarov took place at
the NKR MFA.

NKR Deputy Foreign Minister Vardan Barseghian, NA Deputies, experts,
and foreign ministry employees participated in the discussions. The
book was introduced by Maxim Hovhannisian journalist and writer,
activist of the Karabagh National-Liberation Movement who emphasized
the importance of Arsen Melik-Shakhnazarov’s work as documentary
narrative of NKR people’s struggle for self-determination in the
context of the information-propagandistic war unleashed by Azerbaijan.

Saying that the Azerbaijani propaganda creates false stereotypes and
distorts the gist of the Karabagh conflict, the author stressed, that
the truth about the conflict should be introduced to the international
community.

Foreign Affaires Ministry expressed its readiness to facilitate
translation of the book into English and other languages and organize
its distribution.

PRESIDENTIAL MEETING IN ST. PETERSBURG TO BE HELD IN ORDINARY FORMAT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.06.2009 23:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani
Presidents in Saint Petersburg will be held in an ordinary format. The
tete-a-tete meeting will be followed by talks with participation
of Foreign Ministers and OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, U.S. mediator
Matthew Bryza said in Baku.

Bryza also said that the Russian President may hold separate meetings
with his Armenian and Russian counterparts, but "it’s up to President
Medvedev whether to do it," Trend Azeri news agency reported.

BAKU’S KARABAKH STATEMENTS INAPPROPRIATE – ARMENIA

Interfax
June 1 2009
Russia

Yerevan claims Azerbaijan again made statements damaging the talks
on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ahead of the
Azeri-Armenian summit due in June.

Obviously, these statements go beyond the limits of diplomatic
etiquette and elementary tact, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister
Shavarsh Kocharian said, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

It looks like Azerbaijan’s statements, made ahead of each meeting
and damaging talks that have not even taken place, is becoming
a tradition. Strangely enough, this also happens after the talks,
when Baku’s commentaries differ almost always not only from Armenia’s
assessment, but also from the opinion of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, he said.

The question arises: What goal is Azerbaijan pursuing – to hold talks,
or to try to foil them, he said.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev earlier said that the settlement of
the Karabakh conflicts was delayed due to Armenia’s non-constructive
position, and that Azerbaijan will not depart from its fair position
of principle.

Aliyev made a point, according to the Azeri mass media, that
neither today, nor in a 100 years’ time will Karabakh be granted
independence. Armenia is already an independent state, and the
Armenian people went through self-determination once. The state of
Azerbaijan and the Azeri people will never allow a second Armenian
state to emerge on the Azeri soil, Aliyev was quoted as saying.

The next meeting between Armenian and Azeri presidents Serzh Sargsyan
and Ilham Aliyev will take place in June at an economic forum in
St. Petersburg.

OSCE MEDIATORS PRESENT BAKU’S POSITION ON KARABAKH TO ARMENIA

Interfax
June 1 2009
Russia

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Minsk Group
co-chairmen Yury Merzlyakov of Russia, Bernard Facier of France and
Mathew Bryza of the United States, currently on a working tour of
the region, met with Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian.

The co-chairmen and the Armenian foreign minister met on Friday
evening, to discuss the talks on the Karabakh settlement proceeding
on the basis of the Madrid proposals, the Armenian Foreign Ministry
said on Saturday.

The co-chairmen had earlier visited Baku. They informed the Armenian
foreign minister in Yerevan on the outcome of their meetings in Baku,
the ministry said.

Earlier reports said that the mediators are in the region to prepare
a regular round of talks between the Armenian and Azeri presidents
due in St.Petersburg in early June.

After Yerevan, the mediators will travel to Moscow, and will then
return to Baku.

AZERBAIJAN HAS NO EXTRA GAS FOR GAZPROM
Elena Mazneva

RusData Dialine – BizEkon News
June 1, 2009 Monday
Russia

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan is ready to start supplying
gas for Gazprom as early as 2010, but not more than 1 billion cubic
meters, company department chief Vagif Aliyev said yesterday. Russia,
of course, had bargained for more, said an Energy Ministry official,
but he gave no figures: Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko is planning
to discuss the issue in Baku today.

Azerbaijan is a potential supplier of gas for the Nabucco gas pipeline,
which is expected in 2013 to link the Caspian region with Europe,
bypassing Russia, and cut the EU’s dependence on Gazprom. Azerbaijan is
the only CIS country exporting gas, but not to Gazprom, thus upsetting
its monopoly on fuel purchases on the post-Soviet space.

Azerbaijan can conclude a 20- to 30-year agreement with Russia, but
the stumbling block is the price, the country’s Minister of Industry
and Energy Natig Aliyev said the other day. Gazprom is prepared to
pay the so- called European price (including a 15% to 20% margin for
itself), but Azerbaijan wants to know what this means, the minister
said. For comparison: in 2008, Gazprom’s average price for Europe
was $409 per 1,000 cu m, while Azerbaijan exported most of its gas
to Turkey at $120.

The Europeans are promising Azerbaijan much more than Russia –
investment and technology, and this means Gazprom might fail to get
extra gas, says Chingiz Ismailov, head of the Center of Regional
Development in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan remembers how in 2007, when the
republic still depended on Gazprom’s imports, the company planned
to cut supplies and raise the price to $235 – twice as high as for
Armenia.

However, Azerbaijan so far has no surplus fuel for Gazprom. The
republic’s annual gas output is about 20 billion cu m. Domestic
consumption, as estimated by Gazprom, is 12 to 14 billion cu m. Another
7 billion cu m must be exported to Turkey.

>From an economic standpoint Gazprom would do better not to buy Azeri
gas at all, says Mikhail Korchemkin, director of East European Gas
Analysis. The corporation is already losing profit from the resale
of gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (about 60 billion
cu m a year). But from a political perspective, Gazprom needs it all,
he added.