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DEFENSE STRATEGY REVIEW

;p=0&id=694&y=2008&m=12&d=17
15.12 .08

On December 15, 2008 the recurrent sitting of the interdepartmental
commission coordinating the review of the Defense Strategy of the
Republic of Armenia was held at the Ministry of Defense. The sitting
was chaired by Co-Chairs of the Commission, RA Defense Minister
Seyran Ohanyan and Secretary of the National Security Council Arthur
Baghdasaryan.

Participants of the sitting discussed the draft document on assessment
of RA security atmosphere and challenges. All the suggestions of
the members of the Commission and the disputable questions were
agreed upon.

The Commission took the decision to edit the document and present it
for the approval to the President of the Republic of Armenia.

PROTEST

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
17 Dec 2008
Armenia

Around 60 former Turkish ambassadors and diplomats have "counteracted"
the Internet campaign on collecting signatures for apologizing for
the 1915 events.

They announced that the Turkish intellectuals’ initiative on
apologizing to the Armenians "is unfair, wrong and harmful to the
national interests."

"It is treachery in relation to the diplomats and statesmen murdered
as a result of the acts of violence perpetrated by the terrorist
organizations," they said.

TURKISH PM SCORNS ARMENIA APOLOGY

BBC NEWS
urope/7788486.stm
2008/12/17 17:24:34 GMT

Turkey’s prime minister has criticised a Turkish internet petition
which apologises for the "great catastrophe" of 1915 when Armenians
were massacred.

The petition was launched by more than 200 Turkish academics and
newspaper columnists earlier this week.

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "I find it unreasonable to
apologise when there is no reason".

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks
in 1915. Turkey denies that it was "genocide".

Mr Erdogan said the petition risked stirring trouble. He called it
"irrational" and "wrong".

Many international historians say the massacres and deaths of Armenians
during their forced removal from what is now eastern Turkey were
"genocide".

Turkey vehemently denies that, arguing that those who died were just
victims of the turmoil of World War I, in which many innocent Muslim
Turks also died.

The intellectuals behind the petition say they want to challenge the
official denial and provoke discussion in Turkish society about what
happened, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul.

The petition is entitled "I apologise".

A short statement at the top reads: "My conscience cannot accept
the ignorance and denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman
Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and –
on my own behalf – I share the feelings and pain of my Armenian
brothers – and I apologise to them."

The petition was condemned on Tuesday by some 60 Turkish former
ambassadors, who called it an act of betrayal.

The Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was killed last year for openly
saying that the events of 1915 were genocide.

Previously he had been tried for "insulting Turkishness" for his
comments on 1915 – as was Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize-winning author,
who said that a million Armenians were killed "in these lands" and
no-one dared talk about it.

PROGRAM OF MOVING RESIDENTS OF 4TH-DEGREE ACCIDENT-PRONE BUILDINGS TO NEW APARTMENTS COMPLETED

Noyan Tapan

Dec 17, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The residents of two newly-built
10-story apartment buildings on 14th Street in Yerevan’s Kanaker
district had their house-warming party with the participation of
Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan on December 17. They had been moved
to their new apartments from 4-degree accident-prone buildings in
Ajapniak community.

According to information of Yerevan municipality, under the Armenian
government’s decision No 682 of October 25, 2005, the issues of moving
the residents of accident-prone buildings subject to demolition
in Yerevan were regulated, and the order of their demolition was
decided. In pursuance of the government decision of December 20,
2007, Yerevan municipality made a decision to allocate a land plot
adjacent to the above mentioned streets and Tbilisi Hayway to Yerevan
Development Investment Program Implementation Office state non-profit
organization for construction of two buildings. The design estimate
work was done by Yerrepairproject CJSC, the winner of the respective
tender, while construction work was done by Yerevan House-Building
Enterprise CJSC. The total usable area of two buildings is 8,784 suare
meters, there are 100 apartments. The interior design work has been
completed, the internal and outdoor communications have been installed.

The total cost of the buildings’ construction and improvement of the
adjacent area made 1.5 billion drams (about 5 million USD).

As Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakarian said at the house-warming ceremony,
543 families of 4th-degree accident-prone buildings in Ajapniak
community were moved to 9 newly-built apartment buildings in recent
years, by which the respective program was completed. He announced
that it is also envisaged to construct new buildings with a total
of 227 apartments for residents of three 4th-degree accident-prone
dormitories in Yerevan. Half of this state budget-financed program
will be implemented in 2009, while the other half in 2010.

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

Mouradian Lectures on Turkey-Armenia Dialogue

On Thursday, December 11, a lecture on Turkish-Armenian relations,
titled "Soccer Diplomacy and the Road Not Taken," was held at Haigazian
University.

Haigazian’s Student Life Director and Haigazian Armenological Review’s
executive secretary Antranig Dakessian spoke briefly about the current
developments in Turkish-Armenian relations and introduced the speaker,
Khatchig Mouradian, editor of the Boston-based Armenian Weekly and a
graduate of Haigazian University.

Mouradian first provided the context in which the recent Turkey-Armenia
rapprochement happened. During the Russia-Georgia conflict, he noted,
traffic was disrupted on an important highway connecting the two
countries, stopping vital supplies from reaching Armenia. With the
Russia-Georgia standoff unresolved, urgent attention was given in
Yerevan to the Turkey-Armenia border, closed by Turkey when the Karabagh
conflict erupted. Mouradian also talked about the presidential election
in Armenia and how it affected the rapprochement.

The speaker then detailed the political situation in Turkey and the
reasons behind Ankara’s interest in reaching a breakthrough in
Turkey-Armenia relations. After a brief overview of the situation in
Turkey, during which he spoke about the role of the Turkish army and
bureaucracy and the difficult situation the ruling AK party has found
itself in, Mouradian noted that Turkey’s interest in a breakthrough
could be summarized by one word: genocide.

"With a democratic majority in Congress, and with the prospects of an
Obama/Biden victory high, Turkey realized that it is only a matter of
time before the U.S. officially recognizes the Armenian genocide,"
Mouradian said.

Mouradian said, "In Turkey, the hardliners argued that Ankara should
avoid normalizing relations with Yerevan before the latter stop pursuing
international recognition of the Genocide and withdraws forces from
Karabagh. The moderates, on the other hand, argued that the best
strategy for Turkey would be to disrupt the harmony between the Armenian
state, which has made genocide recognition a foreign relations priority,
and the Armenian Diaspora, which has been pursuing genocide recognition
worldwide for decades through activism and lobbying." By starting
negotiations with Armenia and receiving concessions from it on the
genocide recognition front, Mouradian argued, Turkey hoped of creating a
schism between the Diaspora and Armenia and undermine the passage of the
Genocide Resolution in the U.S.

Mouradian then talked about the inherent asymmetries in the
Turkey-Armenia dialogue. He said, "True transformation of
Turkish-Armenian relations cannot take place without involving all
sectors and levels of the affected population. ‘Soccer Diplomacy’ was
not Turkish-Armenian dialogue-as it was portrayed in the media-it was
Turkey-Armenia dialogue and ignored the large and powerful Diaspora that
has been the coronary artery of Armenia since its independence."

He concluded, "A great amount of creativity is necessary to address the
power asymmetries that are so inherent to this conflict-especially since
these asymmetries are the product of the genocide perpetrated by one
side and the denial and hostile attitude that continued to define the
policies of that side towards the other."

ARMENIAN BOXER WINS THE WORLD CUP

armradio.am
15.12.2008 17:44

Armenian boxer Andranik Hakobyan (75 kg) became the winner of the
World Cup by defeating his Venezuelan contender Alfonso Blanco 10:9
in Moscow.

The newly appointed President of the Boxing Federation of Armenia,
Arman Muradyan, and the First Vice-President of the Federation,
Vice-President of the European Boxing Federation Dertenik Gabrielyan
were in Moscow to follow the competition.

FIRST PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA AND MEMBER OF GERMAN BUNDESTAG MEET

ArmInfo
2008-12-15 11:17:00

ArmInfo. First President of Armenia, leader of the oppositional
Armenian National Congress Levon Ter-Petrosyan met member of the
German Bundestag Michael Link and representative of Friedrich Nauman
Foundation Wolfgang John.

As ANC Office told ArmInfo today, the issues of the internal
political situation in Armenia, the problems of "political prisoners",
the prospects of further cooperation of Armenia with the European
structures were discussed during the meeting. The parties also touched
on further cooperation of the German Liberal-Democratic party with
the political parties in the structure of the Armenian national
Congress. ANC representatives Levon Zurabyan, Avetis Avagyan and
Vladimir Karapetyan took part in the meeting.

RA PRESIDENT SENT MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCES TO PRESIDENT OF CYPRUS

DE FACTO
Dec 15, 2008
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, 15.12.05. DE FACTO. RA President Serzh Sargsian sent a
message of condolences to the President of Cyprus in connection with
death of the ex-President of the Republic of Cyprus.

According to the RA President’s Press Office, the message states:
"Dear Mr. President, With great sorrow I learnt about the death of
the ex-President of the Republic of Cyprus, Tasos Papadopulos.

Invaluable is Tasos Papadopulos’ input in the contemporary history of
Cyprus as a wise leader of the friendly Cypriot people and a devoted
son of his Motherland. Great was his contribution to the deepening
and reinforcement of the brotherly Armenian-Cypriot ties.

On behalf of the Armenian people and myself, I extend my deepest
condolences to the family of the late and the friendly people of
Cyprus."

BUSH DUCKED A PAIR OF SHOES IN BAGHDAD

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.12.2008 12:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. President George W. Bush ducked a pair of
shoes hurled at his head – one shoe after the other – in the middle
of a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Both
shoes narrowly missed their target and thumped loudly against the
wall behind the leaders, the AP reports.

"Don’t worry about it," the president said as the room erupted
into chaos.

Iraqi reporters started shouting what Bush later explained were
apologies for the incident.

"So what if the guy threw a shoe at me?" Bush said, comparing the
action to political protests in the United States. "If you want the
facts, it was a size 10," he joked.

The shoe attack came as Bush and al-Maliki were about to shake
hands. The assailant – later identified as television correspondent
Muntadar al-Zeidi – leapt from his chair and hurled his footwear at
the president, who was about 20 feet away.

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog," he yelled in Arabic. "This is
from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

When Bush met with reporters later aboard Air Force One, he had
a joke prepared: "I didn’t know what the guy said but I saw his
‘sole.’" Later, he said: "I’m going to be thinking of shoe jokes for
a long time. I haven’t heard any good ones yet."

CZECHIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER KAREL SCHWARZENBERG: "AZERBAIJAN IS A STRATEGIC PARTNER OF CZECHIA"

Azeri Press Agency
Dec 11 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku. Lachin Sultanova – APA. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov paid an official visit to Czechia at the invitation of
his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg. Foreign Ministry’s press
service told APA that on the first day of the visit the minister met
with chairman of Czech Senate PÅ~Yemysl Sobotka. They underlined
strategic importance of Azerbaijan-Czechia relations and noted
the necessity of deepening the relations. PÅ~Yemysl Sobotka said
Czechia would contribute to Azerbaijan-EU relations during its
chairmanship of the European Union in the first half of 2009 and
welcomed the development of political, economic, energy cooperation
and interparliamentary relations.

Elmar Mammadyarov expressed his satisfaction with the level of
current cooperation and noted the importance of parliamentarians’
visits within the framework of interparliamentary cooperation. The
minister informed PÅ~Yemysl Sobotka of Nagorno Karabakh conflict
and said the conflict could be solved only within the framework of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Afterwards, Elmar Mammadyarov met with Czech Foreign Minister Karl
Schwarzenberg. The meeting highly assessed the position of Czechia
on the solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the framework of
internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Czech Minister named Azerbaijan as a strategic partner of Czechia
and stressed the importance of development of economic cooperation
along with political relations, improvement of contract-legal
framework, establishment of intergovernmental economic commission. The
Minister underlined that Czechia intended to open embassy in our
country and stressed that this step would contribute to further
development of bilateral relations. The meeting covered issues of
international and regional importance and mutual cooperation within
the framework of international organizations. After the meeting,
joint press conference was held.

Elmar Mammadyarov also met Chairman of the House of Deputies of Czechia
Miloslav Vilchek on the same day. The meeting envisaged necessary of
economic, business and energy cooperation between the two countries,
activity of interparliamentary friendship groups and increase of
mutual visits and relations.

–Boundary_(ID_/nZiawBT30RiHxvQ1TsIpA) —