Author: admin

STARTING FROM JANUARY 30, 2009, THE RA MINISTERS AND THE HEADS OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES WILL BE SUBMITTING PERFORMANCE REPORTS FOR THE YEAR 2008

Thursda y, 29 January 2009

As directed by RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the reports will
cover all the activities carried out in the period under review
together with the shortfalls and the reasons behind non-performance,
if any, inclusive of those measures stipulated in the addendums to
Government Decree N-1440 of November 29, 2007, and Government Decree
N-870 of July 24, 2008.

The reports will be posted on the respective websites of RA ministries
and government agencies.

PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN MET IN ZURICH

armradio.am
29.01.2009 10:48

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliev met at the Radisson Hotel in Zurich.

This was the third meeting of the two Presidents in the process of
negotiations for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict.

The meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan started
with the participation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the
two countries Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov, as well
as the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov, Matthew
Bryza, Bernard Fassier, and the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

Later, President Sargsyan and President Aliev continued the talks in
the face-to-face format. After the private meeting of the Presidents
the talks were continued in the extended format.

The Armenian side assessed the outcome of the meeting in Zurich as
positive and constructive. During the meeting, the two sides presented
their positions on the current stage of the peace talks. The Presidents
of the two states directed their Ministers of Foreign Affairs to
continue the negotiations in cooperation with the Co-Chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group.

Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliev expressed satisfaction with the fact
that the Co-Chairs are working toward the synchronization of the
parties’ positions. During the meeting, the parties agreed also on
the upcoming visit of the Co-Chairs to the region.

After the negotiations, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan left
for Davos where he will participate at the official opening ceremony
of the World Economic Forum.

ISRAEL AND TURKEY: BAD NEW VIBRATIONS

Economist
ld/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=130411 12
Jan 29 2009

The special relationship between the Turkish and Jewish states is
at risk

WIDESPREAD outrage over Israel’s assault on Gaza has sharply soured the
tone of Turkey’s people and government towards the Jewish state. The
prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, castigated it for hammering the
Palestinians. So far he has resisted a clamour in Turkey to loosen or
even sever his country’s close ties with Israel. But some advocates
of the strategic friendship between the two countries fear it may be
at risk.

Behind the scenes, Turkish policymakers, especially military
ones, still cherish their ties with Israel. Speaking this week in
Switzerland, Mr Erdogan seemed keen to draw a line under the row. He
explained that he was incensed by the war in Gaza particularly because
his tireless mediation had brought Israel and Syria close to a deal
over the Golan Heights. He said he had also been trying to fix a
deal with Hamas over a prisoner exchange, including freedom for a
kidnapped Israeli corporal.

Similar rows have occurred before. In 2004 he annoyed Israel by
calling it a terrorist state after it assassinated Hamas’s founder,
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as he left a mosque in Gaza. Mr Erdogan then
invited Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s present leader, to visit Turkey. But
Israeli-Turkish relations were mended after prodding by the United
States. Military co-operation went on. Israel has invariably chosen
to turn a deaf ear to Turkey’s occasionally fierce rhetoric for the
sake of that strategic liaison. In a bid to soothe the anger of Jews
and Israelis, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ali Babacan, urged Hamas to
decide "whether it wants to be an armed group or a political movement".

But this time Mr Erdogan had been a lot angrier. Israel, he railed,
was "committing a crime against humanity…The world must not turn a
blind eye to Israel’s savagery…How can such a country, which totally
ignores and does not implement the UN Security Council’s resolutions
be let through the gates of the UN?"

An education ministry circular particularly annoyed Israel by telling
Turkish schoolchildren to observe a minute’s silence in solidarity with
Palestinian children. In the event, the Israelis persuaded the Turks
to cancel a proposed essay and drawing contest for schoolchildren to
air their feelings of hatred towards Israel. Israeli officials were
apparently poised to respond by proposing a programme in Israeli
schools for discussing the genocide of Armenians by Turks in the
first world war.

In any case, anti-Israeli anger on Turkey’s streets rose during the
assault on Gaza. In rallies across the country demonstrators chanted
"Killer Israel! Nazi Israel! Turkish armies, march on Jerusalem!" Calls
to boycott Israeli goods and scrap military co-operation grew louder.

Not for the first time, anti-Semitism reared its head. In the western
city of Eskisehir, members of a nationalist group brandished placards
that read, "Only dogs can enter: no Armenians or Jews!" An outcry from
Turkey’s 25,000-strong Jewish community, plus pressure from the foreign
ministry, shamed a local prosecutor into launching a probe. Turkey’s
Jewish community issued a rare statement saying that "we Turkish Jews,
an inseparable part of the Turkish Republic, feel deep sorrow for
the comments appearing in recent days in certain media outlets that
belittle and insult our religion and present us as targets."

An ancient alliance Turks deny accusations of anti-Semitism, noting
that the Ottoman Sultans opened their doors over 500 years ago to
Jews fleeing from Christian persecution in Spain. In 1948, Turkey
was among the first countries to recognise Israel. Under a military
co-operation deal in 1996, Israeli pilots have been training in
Turkish skies. In 2007, bilateral trade rose to $2.7 billion. Between
2006 and 2007, the number of Israelis visiting Turkey went up from
362,000 to 511,400–more than 7% of Israel’s population. Turkey has
also earned praise from the Americans for its recent mediation between
Syria and Israel.

But anti-Semitism is often part of a general anti-Christian and
anti-Western feeling. "Jew" and "Armenian" are both often used as
slurs. Last year a Pew Global Attitudes Survey found that anti-Jewish
sentiment in Turkey had risen: 76% said they had negative views
towards Jews, whereas only 7% said they looked kindly on them.

Anti-Semitism was also blatant during a campaign against an Israeli
financier, Sammy Ofer, who had planned to invest with a Turkish
partner in rehabilitating Istanbul’s historic Galata district and its
port near the Golden Horn. The tender was cancelled amid widespread
claims that the deal was crooked and that "Jewish capital" was trying
to take over the country.

Radical Turkish Islamists have long tried to stir up
anti-Semitism. Their long-standing jibe against the secular Kemal
Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founder, was that he was "really a Jew". In
recent years assorted leftists and Kemalists have joined an anti-Jewish
chorus that frequently accompanies hostility to America, which is
often accused of plotting with Israel to set up an independent Kurdish
state in northern Iraq that will eventually take large chunks out of
south-eastern Turkey.

Behind-the-scenes lobbying by Turkish, American and European Union
diplomats may have persuaded Mr Erdogan to tone down his language. He
recently told Turkey’s parliament, "As a leader, I have said that
anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity." But if anti-Israeli
rhetoric in Turkey persists, the Israeli lobby in the United states
could hit back by backing a congressional resolution to call the
mass killings by Turks of some 1m Armenians "genocide". Hitherto,
Israel’s influential lobby in America has repeatedly helped block such
a resolution, though Barack Obama and his vice-president, Joe Biden,
have both referred to genocide in the past and have pledged to back
the bill.

Secret talks between Turkey and Armenia to open diplomatic ties
and reopen their borders are hotly opposed by some in the Armenian
diaspora’s lobby in America. American Jews have long felt queasy
about defending Turkey over the massacre of Armenians. Hitherto,
pragmatism has prevailed and they have sided with the Turks. But if
Mr Erdogan keeps on lambasting Israel, they may change their mind.

PRESS RELEASE
Haigazian University
Public Relations Director
Mira Yardemian
Mexique Street, Kantari, Beirut
P.O.Box. 11-1748
Riad El Solh 1107 2090
Tel: 01-353010/1/2
01-349230/1

Haigazian University Celebrates the Laying of the Foundation of its
Heritage Building

Beirut, January 28, 2009- On January 27, 2009, during a small, yet
festive ceremony, Haigazian University laid the foundations of its newly
acquired Heritage Building, in the presence of the President of the
Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, Rev.
Meguerdich Karageozian, University President, Rev. Dr. Paul Haidostian,
Member of Parliament, Hagop Pakradouni, in addition to Board members,
staff, faculty and project consultants and engineers.

In his word of welcome, President Haidostian talked about the role
Haigazian University conducts in preserving culture, and in this case
preserving the outer façade of the building and refurbishing the inner
parts in a most modern way. In addition he thanked all the supporters of
this building project, the past and future donors, Board members, and
all those who are playing a role in making this possible.

Then, Public Relations Director, Mira Yardemian, invited a select number
of staff, faculty, alumni and board members to fill the safe box with
items of relevant symbolic values to Haigazian University. Items
included a Holy Bible in Armenian, the Haigazian constitution and
bylaws, cedar wood from Lebanon, soil from Armenia, the annual report of
the Armenian Missionary Association of America, the 2008 issue of the
Haigazian Armenological Review, the university yearbook, Focus, the
Alumni newsletter, Inspirit, the university catalogue, a Lebanese bill
of 1000 liras, and a USB including the daily newspapers in electronic
form.

Following this ritual, Rev. Karageozian and Vice Chair of the Board of
Trustees, Rev. Robert Sarkissian, and MP Pakradouni, joined President
Haidostian in safely depositing the box under the soil and to laying the
foundation over its cover.

Rev. Karageozian read a passage from the Bible, Ephesians 2:19-22 ,
followed by a prayer of dedication.

With its 6 floors and around 1260 meters total square surface, the new
Heritage Building will serve a dual academic and administrative purpose.
And as President Haidostian stated, "it will be an additional link
between Mexique and May Ziadeh streets, hoping to symbolize more and
more open channels, transparency, and gentle communication among
people".

Laying the foundation of the Heritage building was a cornerstone in
Haigazian’s history of expansion. The project started a few years ago,
and almost one year is left for its completion. The major part of
fundraising has been already conducted by the AMAA, and Board members in
the USA. Yet, the challenge lies in accomplishing the remaining campaign
to be carried out during this year also in Lebanon.

Indeed, it is worth concluding with few quotes from Rev. Karageozian’s
prayer, saying, "Lord, we are laying the foundation for the construction
of a facility in which future generations will work, meet and study. We
pray that you empower Haigazian University to accomplish your purposes
for the community, and through it, for the whole creation."

ARMENIAN ARMY MARKS 17TH BIRTHDAY

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.01.2009 12:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Army marks its 17th birthday on January
28. Traditionally, wreaths will be laid to Yerablur, the Memorial of
Karabakh war heroes.

A number of events, including students’ march to Yerablur and an
awarding ceremony in the Defense Ministry, will be held.

The State Committee on Defense was formed by the government’s decree
in 1991. On December 5, the RA President appointed Vazgen Sargsyan
the Minister of Defense. On January 28, 1992, a law on formation of
the Armenian National Army was adopted.

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT DOESN’T BELIEVE IN GUAM FUTURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.01.2009 13:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An organization which doesn’t have any mechanism
of problem solution is not viable. The essence and goals of GUAM are
still unclear, the President of Moldova said.

"Our participation in this organization is limited. There are
no projects, no results. Attempts to revive GUAM are fruitless,"
Vladimir Voronin said, RIA Novosti reports.

GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) was founded in 1997 and
transformed into an international organization during the Kyiv Summit
in May 2006.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, TURKISH PM MAY MEET IN DAVOS?

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.01.2009 17:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
Wednesday he might meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan during
the World Economic Forum.

"I don’t see obstacles to a meeting with Sargsyan," Erdogan said en
route to Davos.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) annually brings together top business
leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals
and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world
including health and the environment.

HRANT DINK WAS ONE OF US, SAYS ERGENEKON SUSPECT

Today’s Zaman
Jan 27 2009
Turkey

Workers’ Party (Ä°P) leader Dogu Perincek, a suspect in the ongoing
trial against Ergenekon , a clandestine terrorist organization
charged with plotting to overthrow the government, said yesterday that
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was slain in January 2007,
was a close friend of his and that he couldn’t have possibly been
part of a plot to kill him.

Ergenekon is accused of being behind a number of unsolved murders of
journalists, academics, public-opinion leaders and writers, including
the assassination of secularist investigative journalist Ugur Mumcu,
who was killed in January 1993 by a car bomb.

Perincek, a key suspect in the Ergenekon trial, continued delivering
his defense testimony for the third day in yesterday’s hearing. He
denied all accusations against him, saying that his party had made
great efforts to shed light on the 1996 Susurluk affair, which had
revealed the existence of clandestine and murderous organizations
with links to the state that engaged in social manipulation. He said
his party had greatly contributed to the work of a parliamentary
committee investigating the Susurluk incident at the time. He also
requested that members of that particular committee be heard in the
Ergenekon trial on this point.

He also criticized the prosecution for treating his membership in
the Talat PaÅ~_a Committee — a group that organizes activities to
counter allegations that the mass killings of Anatolian Armenians
in Turkey in the early 20th century constituted genocide — as an
Ergenekon-related activity. "Justice and Development Party [AK Party]
deputies Nevzat YalcıntaÅ~_, Mehmet Dulger and Ä°brahim Ozdogan were
also members of that group. How can that possibly be considered an
Ergenekon activity?" he asked the court.

In his defense he also emphasized that he knew and deeply respected
some of victims of the unsolved assassinations attributed to
Ergenekon. He cited Professor Bahriye Ucok, journalist Ahmet Taner
KıÅ~_lalı and Ugur Mumcu, all assassinated secular and left-wing
or left-leaning intellectuals, as his good friends and people whose
opinions he largely agreed with. However, in a surprising addition
to the list, he told the court, "Hrant Dink was one of us," referring
to the journalist’s assassination by an ultra-nationalist youth. The
broader connections of the suspect in Dink’s killing, the prosecutors
have asserted, point to Ergenekon have been behind the attack. He
said Ulusal Kanal, a television channel known for its proximity
to the Ä°P, frequently broadcasted interviews with Dink about his
anti-imperialist views.

Dink was loathed by neo-nationalist movements, which Perincek’s Ä°P
has been gravitating toward for the past decade.

–Boundary_(ID_oKfp6ijOle2Zp9fhOXeRAw)–

CARTOONS ILLUSTRATE LACK OF PRESS FREEDOM IN TURKEY

Radio Netherlands

ionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/netherlands /090127-Turkey-cartoonists
Jan 26 2009
Netherlands

In Turkey, prosecution for insulting the nation is almost an
occupational hazard for journalists and cartoonists. A number of
provocative Turkish cartoons are on display at an exhibition in
the Netherlands. Afterwards the organisers hope an internet auction
will raise money to cover the legal costs for these controversial
court cases.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a poor sense of
humour. In recent years, he has taken many a cartoonist to court. But
the deluge of court cases has not stopped the illustrators from mocking
the lack of press freedom in the country. In one cartoon, Sefer Selvi
draws the prime minister, dressed in hunting gear, shooting at one
of the newspapers he has taken to court. His dog tears up another copy.

"As soon as cartoonists raise taboos like the division between church
and state, the army, the Armenian genocide and Ataturk, the founder
of the republic of Turkey – the government intervenes,"

says freelance journalist Mehmet Ulger, chairman of Roportaj, a
Dutch organisation promoting press freedom in Turkey. He organised
the exhibition The Power of the Imagination, which opens in the
Press Museum in Amsterdam on 29 January. The murder of publicist and
journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 was reason to breathe new life into
the organisation, set up in 1996 as a bridge between journalists in
the Netherlands and Turkey.

"If you want to write news, then you have to keep inside the line"

Keeping inside the line On his computer, there’s a cartoon by Sefer
Selvi in which Prime Minister Erdogan paints a circle around a
dumbfounded journalist, saying: "If you want to write news, then you
have to keep inside the line". Mr Ulger: "Since 2004 Turkey has had
media legislation guaranteeing freedom of the press, as part of the
deal for Turkey’s accession to the European Union. But press freedom
has only improved on paper. Turkey is one of the few countries to
protect sources by law. But this doesn’t happen in practice. Even
the prime minister takes journalists to court."

Dutch censorship There have been cases in the Netherlands in which
press freedom has come under pressure. In April last year, Dutch Prime
Minister Jan Peter Balkenende demanded rectification when an imaginary
speech by him on Islam was printed in weekly magazine Opinio. In May
2008, a Dutch cartoonist with the pseudonym Gregorius Nekschot spent
the night in a cell for allegedly discriminating against Muslims in
his cartoons. Mr Ulger was surprised by the events.

"I don’t agree with the tenor of the cartoons, but Nekschot has the
right to draw what he likes."

Recalcitrant

More from NRC Handelsblad International Last year, charges were brought
against Turkish journalists and cartoonists 190 times. As a result the
media are cautious about what they publish, otherwise they risk losing
government advertising, the right to accreditation or a press card
and being investigated. Only a few media become recalcitrant. Mr Ulger:

"There is a lot of self-censorship, but now and then risks are
taken. If there is a lot of publicity around a case, the authorities
do not intervene straight away. Sometimes a year goes by before action
is taken."

The Power of the imagination exhibition can be seen from 30 January
until 8 March in the Press Museum in Amsterdam. During the opening
on Thursday 29 January, Dutch cartoonist Jos Collignon debates with
his Turkish colleague Guneri Icoglu, who was once sentenced to eight
months in prison for his cartoons.

RUSSIA’S SANCTIONS AGAINST GEORGIA: FLEXING THE KREMLIN’S GEOSTRATEGIC MUSCLES AGAINST THE USA?

Daily Georgian Times
; newsid=14854
Jan 26 2009
Georgia

While Moscow battered Georgia with a tough economic embargo in 2006,
followed by a military offensive in August 2008, it is now apparent
that its intention is to declare Georgia a "rogue state" – an attempt
to copy the American approach toward Iran. The parallels are very
evident and clear.

Following a proposal from the Federal Government Chaired by Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed on
January 19 a special decree with a very strange title: "On Measures
to Forbid the Supply of Military and Double-Purpose Products to
Georgia." The decree is based on the federal law on "Special Economic
Measures" enacted on December 30 2006, and bans until 1 December 2011
any supply of weapons of Russian, and more importantly, Soviet origin
to Georgia.

The decree contains four main articles which – as perceived by the
Kremlin – are designed to deal with pretty long-standing geopolitical
challenges posed by the USA.

Moscow threatens to restrict or cut military-technical and
military-economic cooperation not only with countries which are
members of Russian-led alliances like the CIS, Collective Security
Agreement Organization and Eurasian Economic Union and the partially
Russian-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (including China),
but also any other country, like the USA and EU member nations if
it supplies weapons to Georgia. This demonstrates that Russia still
views Georgia from its militaristic and hegemonic positions and
seeks to transform Georgia into the Caucasus’ "Lebanon" and have an
opportunity to slam the Georgian Government whenever it likes.

Moreover Article 4 assigns all the special services of Russia, like
the FSB, GRU, Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Federal Service
for Technical and Export Control and Ministry of Internal Affairs¢
to implement all appropriate measures within their competences to
make sure the order is executed. This in fact means that all these
services are given a green light to run asymmetric intelligence
warfare and carry out acts of sabotage to subvert military equipment
and ammunition delivery to Georgia. This clearly indicates that it is
an imminent prerequisite to develop a new type of confrontation in
relations with Georgia in form of waging a secret war. It is very
serious alarm bell for the Georgian authorities and an enormous
challenge to the special services of Georgia.

However the economic embargo on technical imports is to be a part
of a compete blockade imposed on Georgia and really could damage our
national security. Russia’s serious concern over the restoration of
Georgian military capabilities is being used as a prerequisite for
establishing an imbalance in the military sphere at regional level,
something apparently confirmed by the recent reports of the delivery
of $800 million worth of armaments to Armenia from the Russian 102nd
military base in Gumri in 2008.

The decree could be considered as one of the bases for another
full-scale intervention in Georgia and for preparing some ‘solid
justification’ for this. The Russian President’s decree, in its scope,
pursues several other important goals and purposes, transcending the
pure local dimension and its tactical significance. These are:

1) To demonstrate "hard power" against the USA and counterweight US
involvement in Caucasus regional affairs with orientation on Caspian
energy resources. (It is significant that the decree has emerged a week
after the Georgia-USA Strategic Partnership Charter was signed. This
indicates quite a lot about the fierce competition which has emerged
between the USA and Russia lately. It is a geopolitical "football
game" played by both sides in their per se geostrategic backyards:
as the USA plays in Russia’s "vital national interest zone" in the
South Caucasus, Russia does in the USA’s in Latin America).

2) To retaliate against the Bush Administration sanctions imposed
on some Russian military-industrial companies, like the SUKHOI
construction company, accused of delivery military hardware to Iran
(This is why Russia has taken this action just a day before Barrack
Obama’ inauguration).

3) To flex its "military-economic" muscles against CIS member states
like Ukraine and try and reinforce its geopolitical vision of the area.

These are the real reasons why Russia seeks to restrict Georgia’s
ability to improve its defence capabilities.

Dr. Vakhtang Maisaia Military Expert, US Air Force Academy Fellow
(1998) 2009.01.26 12:49

–Boundary_(ID_oWx5QUDH+mylro0XxJfUfA)–