Author: Andres-Papazian

news.az, Azerbaijan
May 4 2011

Armenian army stations professional snipers on front line
Wed 04 May 2011 05:51 GMT | 8:51 Local Time

Armenian armed forces began to gather professional snipers on the frontline.
The enemy forces are under orders to open effective fire on the
personnel of Azerbaijani Army, as well as on the local farmers,
shepherds, even the animals.

Defense sources reported that the Armenian occupation army was ordered
to gather most professional snipers on the frontline and to cause
casualties on the opposite side. An Armenian defense official
reportedly arrived in Karabakh to control the fulfillment of this
order.

Azerbaijani defense officials instructed the local authorities to
educate the people to protect themselves from the enemy’s snipers.

Regarding the possible responsive measures against the enemy’s sniper
attacks, defense sources said Azerbaijani Armed Forces don’t need in
special order or instruction to repel any attack of the enemy. `Our
National Army is always worthily fulfilling its duties’, said the
sources.

APA

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
May 4 2011

Turkish President may attend opening ceremony of Armenian church in
Istanbul (photo, video)

May 04, 2011 | 00:04

Turkish President Abdullah Gul may attend the opening ceremony of
Vordvots Vorotman Armenian church in Istanbul. The renovation works at
the church are nearly completed.

The restoration of the church, built by Polish architect of Armenian
descent, Grigor Amira Palyan in the 19th century, started within the
framework of `Istanbul 2010-European Capital of Culture’ project with
the support of the state. The Turkish government covered 70% of
expenses of renovation works, whereas 30% was provided by Fund of the
Armenian Church in Kumkapi.

Architect Gevorg Karagyozyan told Armenia News-NEWS.am correspondent
that for the first time in history Turkey funded reparation of the
Armenian church. `The church has not been operating for 100 years. It
will be restored without any architectural changes,’ he said.

Karagyozyan said U.S. $ 1,5 m was allocated to repair the church.

The rumors have it that Turkish President Abdullah Gul will attend the
opening ceremony of Vordvots Vorotman church. The workers said many
Turkish officials have visited the church to get acquainted with the
renovation works.

From: A. Papazian

VestnikKavkaza.net
May 4 2011

Asim Molladze: `Cultural communication is more efficient that economic
and political talks’

Asim Molladze, Azerbaijani MP, the head of the Democratic Reform
Party, tells VK about current relations between Baku and Washington.

– The US Senate will consider the appointment of Matthew Bryza as the
US Ambassador to Azerbaijan at the end of the year. What are his
chances of keeping his position?

– This issue has been discussed for a long time in the US
administration. As you may remember, Bryza’s appointment faced
resistance from pro-Armenian politicians; however, they failed to
reject this candidate. The candidature was not rejected, but the
Armenian lobby managed to veto it in the Senate. Then the President
executed his right to appoint ambassadors whose candidatures were not
approved by the Senate during the Senate’s vacations. The US
constitution stipulates that such an appointment should be approved by
the Senate in a year or be revoked. I think it’s possible that some
Senators will be opposed to Bryza, but they will definitely be
outvoted.

Bryza is one of the most experienced Caucasus experts in the US, he
has participated in a lot of projects in the region. In particular, he
has taken part in conflict settlement programs. He’s the best choice
to represent US interests in Azerbaijan, so the Armenian lobby works
against the best interests of the US.

– You have just arrived from the US, where you were on n official
visit with other Azerbaijani MPs. What were the objectives of this
visit?

– This trip was connected to the activities of the US `Karabakh
Foundation’. Apart from charity events organized to help settle the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, we discussed several issues of
Azerbaijani-American relations. We managed to meet a lot of
Congressmen and human rights activists such as the head of the Freedom
House organization, and to give several lectures in universities and
research centers.

We also attended several events aimed at promoting Azerbaijani culture
in the US: a concert of Azerbaijani jazz, the Turkish People’s
Cultural Expo… These events were warmly greeted by American people. I
believe that cultural communication can prove more efficient that
economic and political talks.

Azerbaijan is the first state of the Muslim world to become secular. I
hope that Azerbaijan is important for the US not only as an oil and
gas exporter, but also as a model-state for the Turkic and Islamic
world. Azerbaijan always supports the US in its fight against
terrorism and international crime prevention.

– You visit the US and Europe often. Are people there well-informed
about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

– As a matter of fact, the wider public is very ill-informed. And
Armenian diaspora organizations are the main source of information on
the subject for them. Therefore we are facing a task to provide the
European community and experts with accurate information. It’s not a
normal conflict; it’s a violation of all possible international laws:
one member-state of the UN, the OSCE and the European Council occupies
a considerable part of another one, thus breaking the basic laws of
all these organizations. Besides that, this occupation has caused a
major humanitarian catastrophe.

We expect these international organizations to respect their own
regulations. When the UN passed the Libyan resolution, action was
taken within days, yet all resolutions on Karabakh are just
waste-paper.

We have achieved considerable progress in the cause of informing the
European public, which can be seen in present resolutions of PACE and
the European Parliament. In the US we try to operate not only on a
federal level, but also at state level. We try to combat the lies that
well-financed and powerful Armenian diasporas spread.

-What is the status of Azerbaijani-US relations at the moment?

– This is a strategic partnership. At the beginning of its term, the
current administration made several mistakes regarding US relations
with its partners, Azerbaijan among them. It was unclear what
political course would be pursued in the South Caucasus. The two-year
absence of a US ambassador in Baku seriously damaged relations between
our two countries. Nevertheless, the recent visit of the US Secretary
of State to Azerbaijan demonstrates the high level of US interest in
cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Interview by Ramin Nazimov, exclusively to VK

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
May 4 2011

`History and Culture: against falsehood’ conference opens in Yerevan

May 04, 2011 | 11:20

YEREVAN. – A three-day conference `History and Culture: against
falsehood and encroachments’ has opened at Armenian Ministry of
Defense today.

The event is organized on the initiative of Public Council at the
Ministry of Defense of Armenia and with the support of Armenian
Defense Minister.

The event is attended by ministers of defense, representatives of
educational sphere, as well as science and culture, scientists,
rectors, professors and experts.

From: A. Papazian

news.az, Azerbaijan
May 4 2011

Trends in Armenia’s political scene
Wed 04 May 2011 07:20 GMT | 10:20 Local Time

by Gunduz Shabanov, the leading expert at the Strategic Research
Center of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Recent developments in political life of Armenia suggest that the
political forces, supported by various external geopolitical centers,
long before the announcement of the parliamentary elections to be held
in 2012, joined the struggle for seats in the National Assembly with a
view to win presidency in 2013.

Currently, three main fighting forces, which can be divided into the
following categories, act in the political field in Armenia.

¢ The Armenian National Congress (ANC), led by first president Levon
Ter-Petrosyan;

¢ Latent forces which support Robert Kocharyan;

¢ The current authorities led by President Serzh Sargsyan, who is
forced to keep balance between the two afore-said groups and various
external actors.

There are also other two political forces in Armenia: ARF
Dashnaksutyun and the Heritage Party, which every year lose their
effective mechanisms to influence the agenda.

What does Levon Ter-Petrosyan want?

The series of rallies which began on 1 March and continued on 17 March
and 8 April marked the line of tactics and strategies to deal with the
authorities. Though in 1 March rally the Armenian National Congress
put forward demands consisting 15 points to the authorities, in 17
March rally these demands were reduced to three: to release political
prisoners, grant freedom to hold rallies at Freedom Square, as well as
to solve tragic events of 1 March, 2008, and punish the culprits.

At 8 April rally when these demands were announced, Ter-Petrosyan
assured the people that once the authorities fail to meet them, the
rally that started on 28 April will tighten the tactics of the
opposition. However, extra-parliamentary opposition leader Levon
Ter-Petrosyan postponed the date of decision till 31 May, making a
compromise to authorities.

In a bid to explain his move, Ter-Petrosyan said he is concerned about
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and does not want the situation in
Armenia to destabilize and play into the hands of Azerbaijan.

It is noteworthy that many of his supporters asked a reasonable
question why Levon Ter-Petrosyan did not care about the threats to
Karabakh in his former radical statements and actions, and he even
announced that the Karabakh problem can not be an excuse against a
resolute struggle against the authorities.

This change significantly affected the number of ANC supporters. Thus,
though the number of protesters grew in February and reached its peak
during the 17 March rally, the rally participants realized that Levon
Ter-Petrosyan does not want to act decisively in spite of its previous
harsh statements in the 1 March rally.

What is the reason for the conciliatory stance of Levon Ter-Petrosyan?
Given the recent reports in the Armenian media, many do not doubt that
there is some agreement between the government and non-parliamentary
opposition achieved through negotiations.

Steps taken by President Serzh Sargsyan to meet requirements of the
opposition testify to this. As is known, the authorities sanctioned
the rally on Freedom Square on 28 April, although they limited the
number of participants using administrative measures. An order was
issues to renew an investigation into the 1 March events at the same
time not allowing involvement of an international commission, contrary
to ANC demands and authorities began to release political prisoners.

News.am news website reported on 29 April quoting Erkir newspaper that
the talks mediated by U.S. ambassador to Armenia Mari Yovanovich and
the authorities were represented by G. Harutyunyan, chairman of the
Constitutional Court and the opposition by ` Levon Zurabyan, former
spokesman to the president Ter-Petrosyan. The parties agreed upon on
three requirements that the authorities were to meet by late May
().

Even though U.S. embassy in Armenia denied its mediation in the
meeting between the opposition and authorities
(), the signs of U.S. interest in
domestic political processes in Armenia can be noticed if one looks at
Ter-Petrosyan’s second comeback to politics.

Thus, young political consultants trained in various Western
organizations and funds joined Ter-Petrosyan’s team during the 2008
presidential elections.

The same Levon Zurabian, a former analyst for the International Crisis
Group, became the most important and influential of them.

The team of analysts and image-makers of Ter-Petrosyan run the
election campaign using different multimedia platforms such as Youtube

And the decision to abandon the brand Armenian National Movement which
was associated with the “notorious” 1990s among the population was a
well-thought-out move. Ter-Petrosyan entered ??the political arena as
the head of a new project – ANC.

May the power in Armenia change any time soon?

The change of power in Armenia at the present stage and the victory of
relatively pro-Western politician as Ter-Petrosyan, to detriment to
strong pro-Russian forces, would lead to chaos and instability, which
contradicts interests of the West. Serzh Sargsyan fully meets
requirements of forces trying to gain a foothold in Armenia through
the resumption of the Armenian-Turkish talks. This requires
consolidating Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power even through the
irreconcilable opposition, which shares almost the same position with
authorities in foreign affairs, and weaken the geopolitical side
backed rival Robert Kocharyan. That is why Kocharyan’s name is present
in an opposition-government dialogue.

Although representatives of the ruling Republican Party keep saying
that dialogue with the opposition took place, the only matter that
Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Serzh Sargsyan can talk about is preventing
Kocharyan from accessing the power and completely eliminating him from
the political scene.

This is proved by Sargsyan’s decision to renew investigation into the
1 March events through which he wanted to show that he is not Robert
Kocharyan’s successor and intends to play an independent role in
political processes.

Given the relationship between Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan, the
factor of the second president could pave the way for negotiations.
The fact that the legitimacy of the 2008 elections were not discussed
at the meeting shows that issues related to Kocharyan were discussed
instead.

The West has the same attitude to legitimacy of authorities in
Armenia. Though Barack Obama met Serzh Sargsyan as a president of
Armenia at the nuclear summit in the U.S., the annual Human Rights
report compiled by the State Department have noted for already third
year that the 2008 elections were conducted with serious violations
(, http:
//). Both the opposition and West seem to
reconcile with this and focus their main efforts on the main goal –
the upcoming parliamentary elections.

What are the expectations for 2011?

Passing a new draft Election Code, which is currently in the second
reading in the Armenian parliament, shows that people have lost the
opportunity to change powers through elections and the only guarantee
that the falsifications in elections will not be tolerated will be the
publication of election lists after voting.

Member of the Heritage parliamentary faction Armen Martirosyan
believes that `Armenian authorities are trying a new game’ through
formation of the election commission on professional basis. He says
there is not a single independent structure in Armenia, which is why
formation of such an independent commission could be just imitated.
For this reason, the Heritage party and Dashnaktsutun that feel the
risk of future changes, are unanimous in insisting that commission
must be 100% political and made up of party members, where opposition
and authorities will be represented on 50/50 basis.

In turn, ODIHR and the Venice Commission have provided an opinion on
the draft Election Code of Armenia. They also offered to revise the
order of forming election commissions to ensure independence of their
activity and public trust. So, once the draft is passed, of which all
analysts are confident, elections will be fully controlled by the
Presidential Administration of Armenia.

This ball game will help force the Flourishing Armenia party to
abandon the decision to nominate its list to parliamentary elections
and agree to participate in the common list with partners from the
current coalition: the Republican Party and Armenia and Orinats Yerkir
(Country of Legality). The latter might even join the ranks of the
Republican Party of Armenia, thus showing an example to the
Flourishing Party of Armenia which remains the only appendix of the
ruling coalition.

Armenian National Congress may regain its role of the main opposition
power. Though it will seemingly not win the overwhelming number of
votes, its representation in the Parliament will create a picture
making the return of the second president of Armenia Rober Kocharyan
to power unreal. The latter will have no support left on the political
advance stage thanks to which he would be able to return to active
policy. Creation of a new political power may lead Kocharyan to
complete breakup.

They say in Armenia that the 1 March tragedy was not profitable for
Serzh Sargsyan though beneficiary for Robert Kocharyan who thus
obtained a leverage of influence on Sargsyan. Viktor Sogomonyan, the
press secretary of Robert Kocharyan, said in response to next remarks
on 1 March 2008 tragedy that `only a man of sense could say that 1
March was profitable only for Kocharyan’, thus broadening the circle
of those who were interested in 1 March shooting and involuntarily
putting Serzh Sargsyan onto this list.

Sargsyan’s urge to launch investigation into 1 March shooting may
provide an answer to the one of the main questions `who ordered the
shooting?!’ All incidental facts point to then-president Robert
Kocharyan. Though Sargsyan had been fencing him off the judicial
processes, he can now give the go-ahead to holding Kocharyan
accountable.

The second no less important but still a lateral argument will become
the earlier declared decision of Levon Ter-Petrosyan to run for
presidency in 2013 provided that Robert Kocharyan nominates. Given
the fact that during the meeting of 17 March Levon Ter-Petrosyan
renounced radical ways of fighting for pre-term presidential
elections, it is clear that the authorities will last out well to the
next presidential elections and then Serzh Sargsyan will try to
persuade Kocharyan to give up the struggle for the presidential seat,
citing Ter-Petrosyan’s factor as an argument.

Some say Dashnaktsutun and the Flourishing Armenia parties represent
the potential political platform for Kocharyan, but the latest events
and the statements by Flourishing Armenia’s leader Gagik Tsarukyan
point that it is not exactly like this. Support to Robert Kocharyan by
the coalition party of Flourishing Armenia is unlikely, since the
leader of this political party Gagik Tsarukyan positioned himself as
an independent but balancing politician over the past years. As a
leader of the second biggest faction in the Armenian parliament,
Tsarukyan is an extremely attractive partner for the speaker of the
National Assembly and Armenia’s principal entrepreneur Hovik
Abrahamyan with whom Tsarukyan has kinship.

Raffi Hovanissian (leader of the Heritage Party) was the first
`victim’ of cleanup in the political area of Armenia, held by the
Armenian National Congress and Serzh Sargsyan. He realized that the
Republican Party of Armenia and the Armenian National Congress will
never tolerate powers able to obstruct their political goals, in the
parliament. Most evaluated Ter-Petrosyan’s refusal to talk to
hunger-striker Hovannisian, as a sign of his unwillingness to put
Hovanissian onto the lists of the Armenian National Congress.

Additionally, ANC and Levon Ter-Petrosyan attempt to remove or
discredit political forces able to become an alternative to them on
the opposition space. By this, ANC is trying to become the only
alternative to the incumbent powers.

Meanwhile, Dashnaktsutun is keeping its strong positions despite
obvious implications of the political cleanup. Therefore, Armenian
National Congress and Republican Party of Armenia may reach an
agreement to `let’ ARF Dashnaktsutun into the National Assembly to
ensure the presence of a nationalistic power in the parliament.

It can be said for sure that the future balance of powers in Armenia
will depend on relations between Sargsyan and Kocharyan. Progress in
the political space of Armenia, aimed at forming conditions for
structuring a new political reality, is evident. Vulnerability of the
foreign political positions of Armenia also weakens pressure of powers
on opposition and creates pseudo-democratic situation in the country.
Passing the Election Code in it current variant does not promise
democratic elections in Armenia, while political steps of the
authorities are just tactical actions intended to grade the threats
posed by political oppositions and seize entire control over the
political space.

News.Az

From: A. Papazian

APA, Azerbaijan
May 4 2011

Azerbaijan keeps Armenia away from more international project

[ 04 May 2011 12:22 ]

Baku. Ali Ahmedov – APA-ECONOMICS. Realization of Black Sea circular
highway depends on solution of Nagorno Karabakh Conflict, said the
Azerbaijani Minister of Transport Ziya Mammadov at interview to New
Azerbaijan Party’s official site.

According to him, Azerbaijan’s position on this issue is constant and
punctual: `It’s impossible bilateral and multilateral cooperation with
Armenia till the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not regulated and they
liberate Azerbaijani territories’.

He noted that, Baku supports the construction of Black Sea circular
highway and is ready to work within this project: `Our position within
this project will be such as it is in TRACECA and other such
projects’.

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
May 4 2011

Azerbaijani against canonization of John Paul II for his pro-Armenian position

May 04, 2011 | 10:12

Chairman of so-called `Organization of Karabakh Liberation’ Akif Naghi
sent a letter to Roman Pope Benedict XVI expressing concern over
canonizations of John Paul II.

In his letter Nago noted that John Paul II did not adopt just position
on `Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory.’

`In 1992, he wrote a letter to the Armenian groups in Karabakh, told
them that he was sending `the power taken from God’, assessed their
aggressive acts as `fight for religion’ and said that `he will come to
Khojaly and will bow to the battle places of the Armenian brothers
which died there if it is possible’. It is possible that in that
period the Pope was deceived by Armenian propaganda. That’s why we
waited certain confessions from him during his Baku visit.
Unfortunately, John Paul II contented himself only with the expression
`it is impossible not to be proud of this country’s patience and
mutual understanding spirit’. The next year, in 2003 during his visit
to Yerevan, he visited the tombs of Armenians killed in the Karabakh
war,’ the activist writes, APA news agency reported.

From: A. Papazian

news.az, Azerbaijan
May 4 2011

Armenians hack websites of two Azerbaijani ministries
Wed 04 May 2011 07:40 GMT | 10:40 Local Time

A conference entitled ‘Cyber and National Security: NATO Policy and
National Vision’ is under way in Baku.
The conference was jointly organized by the Ministry of Communications
and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Center
for Strategic Studies (SAM) under the President of the Republic of
Azerbaijan and the Embassy of Romania in Azerbaijan (NATO Contact
Point Embassy in Azerbaijan).

Gulshan Pashayeva, acting director of the Center for Strategic Studies
(SAM) under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan said in her
welcoming speech that development of international technologies makes
it necessary to create normative-legal basis in this field.

Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of
Azerbaijan Elmir Velizade spoke about the aspects of the national
security policy in the field of information. He said the conflicts
pass into the virtual space today and IT development creates new types
of crimes.

‘The information security is a part of national security of Azerbaijan
and a national security law, which also contains an article about the
information security, was adopted in the country in 2004′.

Elmir Velizade said Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe Convention
on Cybercrime. He said ISO standards were elaborated and implemented
in the country and Azerbaijan attaches special attention to personnel
training in the field of cybersecurity.

Head of department at the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan
Kerim Kerimov made report on cyber threats and cybercrime control. He
said cybercrime control should have a transnational character and such
problems should be addressed comprehesivley. `Azerbaijan continues to
create legal basis for cybercrime control.

Cybercrimes have acquired a global character, and Azerbaijan is not
kept on sideline of these processes.

Official of the National Security Ministry of Azerbaijan Karim Karimov
said in his remarks for journalists.

`Our ministry and other bodies have shut down a number of websites
promoting religious extremism, ethnic strife, violent seizure of
power, terrorism, as well as sites that recruit people for illegal
armed formations, etc.

Unfortunately, these websites got subsequently registered by servers
of other countries. So, I think that cybercrime is an international
issue and all countries should work together to fight this kind of
crime,’ he said.

Karimov said cybercrime is pressing for Azerbaijan since the country
is at war with Armenia which carries the hostility to a virtual space.

`We have built cooperation with the secret services of neighboring
countries and found a group consisting of Armenians who hacked
websites of two of our ministries,’ Karimov said declining to disclose
the names of the ministries.

`We have also identified bands who allegedly offered cheap telephony
via internet. We have also found that drug industry also uses internet
and the Ministry is also working to identify these groups,’ he noted.

Crimes related to religious extremism, nationalism, drug trafficking
have increased on the net and the Ministry continues to work to combat
these crimes, the official continued.

He also noted that Armenians often use electronic encyclopedia
Wikipedia to spread lies against Azerbaijan.

“Our agency is making efforts to eliminate these cases in cooperation
with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,” he
said.

Romanian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nicolae Ureke informed the
participants about the thesis on cyber security of the new concept
adopted at the NATO Lisbon summit. He said the new concept considers
comprehensive measures within the framework of NATO ad other
international organizations against such threats.

1news.az, APA

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
May 4 2011

Ericsson to create high speed internet network in Armenia

May 03, 2011 | 14:20

YEREVAN. – A fiber optic telecommunication network with a speed of 10
megabits will be created throughout Armenia by Ericsson, advisor to
Armenia’s economy minister Vahe Danielyan told Armenian
News-NEWS.am-Innovations.

`We have made a call for partnership and Ericsson, Cisco and Alcatel
responded. The first was chosen,’ he said.

The company will present its business model to the Public Services
Regulatory Commission and will start working after getting relevant
license.

`Ericsson plans to create a high-speed network in two years and plans
to invest $70 million,’ Danielyan said.

According to him, the company will be present only on wholesale
Internet market and should not go to the retail market. Danielyan
stressed that government will assist the program.

`$7 million out of $24 million World Bank’s `E-Society and Innovation
for Competitiveness’ program will be allocated specifically for this
project,’ he added.

Project’s goal is to make internet access available throughout the
territory of Armenia. New network will provide high-speed internet to
all cities, towns, and villages of Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
May 4 2011

Yerevan to host international festival on comics

May 04, 2011 | 01:04

Armenia’s capital will host an international comics festival on May
6-8. The festival will be held at Yerevan Chamber Theater on the
initiative of Union of comics in Armenia, Spokeswoman for Armenian
Culture Ministry Gayane Durgaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to her, the Chamber Theatre will host an exhibition,
workshops and a children’s exhibition will be held at Khnko Aper
library.

Armenian Ministry of Culture cooperates with (International Centre for
Comics and Images) in Angouleme. `Fireworks of comics’ festival is
held for the fourth time in Armenia within the framework do of
Armenia-France cooperation.

From: A. Papazian