Author: Andres-Papazian

Panorama, Armenia
March 26 2011

Armenia moves to summer time

On the night of March 26-27, Armenia will move to summer time. At
2:00 a.m. the hands of the clock must be move an hour forward.

Japanese officials are considering introducing daylight saving time to
help cope with severe power shortages that likely will last for
months. Japan has resisted daylight saving time for nearly 60 years,
dumping the practice after the U.S. occupation ended. While Japanese
politicians have attempted to bring back daylight saving time in
recent years, skeptics have feared it would just keep workers in their
offices longer.

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
March 26 2011

US-Azerbaijan relations and Nagorno-Karabakh occupation by Armenia
discussed at the US Congress seminar organized by Azerbaijani Diaspora

26 March 2011 [14:18] – Today.Az

The US-Azerbaijan relations and Nagorno-Karabakh occupation by
Armenia have been discussed at the US Congress seminar, organized by
Azerbaijani Diaspora.

Three Azerbaijani Parliament members -Dr. Asim Mollazade, Dr. Rasim
Musabekov and Jeyhun Osmanli as well as Diaspora leaders Dr. Adil
Bagirov and Bedir Memmedli spoke about the matters.

Political analysts and officials have also been discussed the main
challenges towards regional peace and stability.

According to Mr. Musabeyov, “the prospects of Nagorno-Karabakh peace
settlement still exist”.

“We want to believe Armenia will take definite steps to resolve the
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh”, Mr. Mollazade added.

“We also do hope that the US will continue its policy of responding to
its national interests, rather than the interests of the Armenian
Diaspora, which is closely linked with the world of crime and
terrorism”, the Azerbaijani MP’s mentioned.

The speakers also raised the issue of recent tragic case on the front
line, when a small register of Orta Gervend village of Agdam a 9 years
old child was killed in the result of the ceasefire violation by
Armenian snipers.

“I do not rule out that this is the purposeful action of the part of
Armenian militarists, who do not accept the peaceful settlement and
liberation of the occupied lands and even use open provocations for
this”, Musabeyov pointed out.

US-Azerbaijan cooperation and allied relations in a changing world
also will be discussed with same lecturers at the Conference on
Azerbaijan at the University of Maryland–College Park, on March,
27th.

/APA/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
March 25 2011

Executive Summary of the “Report of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’
Field Assessment Mission to the Occupied Territories Surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh” published

25 March 2011 [14:00] – Today.Az

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs conducted a Field Assessment Mission
to the seven occupied territories of Azerbaijan surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) from October 7-12, 2010, to assess the overall
situation there, including humanitarian and other aspects.

The Co-Chairs were joined by the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-inOffice and his team, which provided logistical support, and
by two experts from the UNHCR and one member of the 2005 OSCE
Fact-Finding Mission. This was the first mission by the international
community to the territories since 2005, and the first visit by UN
personnel in 18 years.

In traveling more than 1,000 kilometers throughout the territories,
the Co-Chairs saw stark evidence of the disastrous consequences of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the failure to reach a peaceful
settlement.

Towns and villages that existed before the conflict are abandoned and
almost entirely in ruins. While no reliable figures exist, the overall
population is roughly estimated as 14,000 persons, living in small
settlements and in the towns of Lachin and Kelbajar.

The Co-Chairs assess that there has been no significant growth in the
population since 2005. The settlers, for the most part ethnic
Armenians who were relocated to the territories from elsewhere in
Azerbaijan, live in precarious conditions, with poor infrastructure,
little economic activity, and limited access to public services. Many
lack identity documents.

For administrative purposes, the seven territories, the former NK
Oblast, and other areas have been incorporated into eight new
districts. The harsh reality of the situation in the territories has
reinforced the view of the CoChairs that the status quo is
unacceptable, and that only a peaceful, negotiated settlement can
bring the prospect of a better, more certain future to the people who
used to live in the territories and those who live there now.

The Co-Chairs urge the leaders of all the parties to avoid any
activities in the territories and other disputed areas that would
prejudice a final settlement or change the character of these areas.

They also recommend that measures be taken to preserve cemeteries and
places of worship in the territories and to clarify the status of
settlers who lack identity documents. The CoChairs intend to undertake
further missions to other areas affected by the NK conflict, and to
include in such missions experts from relevant international agencies
that would be involved in implementing a peace settlement.

/Trend/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Today, Azerbaijan
March 25 2011

“Russia sees striving of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict parties for dialogue”

25 March 2011 [10:57] – Today.Az

Russia sees striving of the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
for a dialogue. It hopes that there will be no incidents at the
contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in the future,
the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander
Lukashevich said yesterday, “Russia 24” TV channel reported.

The 9-year-old resident of the Orta Garvand village in the Agdam
region was killed on March 8 as a result of a ceasefire violation by
Armenian troops. Badalov was shot in the head while playing in his
yard. He was taken to hospital, but doctors failed to save his life.

“The two parties are interested in continuing the dialogue, preventing
the incidents, refusing from violence and developing a general formula
to resolve the conflict,” he said.

He said that the Russian Federation thinks that the parties are ready
to continue a dialogue.

“We have been recently accelerating our work with Yerevan and Baku”, he said.
He stressed the importance of the presidential meeting in Sochi.

He emphasized that the reached agreements will be the basis for
further accelerating the negotiating dynamics.

After the talks on March 5 the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and
Armenia made a joint statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. The
document said that the leaders discussed the issues of practical
implementation of the tripartite statement adopted by them during the
last meeting in Astrakhan on October 27, 2010. In particular, the
Presidents agreed to complete exchanging of prisoners of war as soon
as possible.

The document stresses the desire to resolve all disputed issues by
peaceful means and to investigate possible incidents along the
ceasefire line, with the participation of the parties under the aegis
of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen with the assistance of the Special
Representative of the OSCE Chairman.

/Trend/

URL:

From: A. Papazian

Mediamax, Armenia
March 24 2011

Commentary
Social networks fail to contribute to social dialogue

Davit Alaverdyan
Mediamax Chief Editor

According to the latest data, abut 125 thousand people in Armenia are
registered in Facebook networks. If we assume that more than 3mln
people really live in our country, and about half of that figure
represents children and elderly people, we get that each tenth of the
active age citizens is a part of that huge network. At that, the
number increases every day. According to the statistics, the number
increases by about 5 thousand new users each month only from Armenia.
The structure of Facebook provides that it, to put it mildly, is not
`Odnoklassniki’, where one communicates with friends, relatives or
classmates. The website is constructed in a way that, whether you want
it or not, you are informed on news, share with your friends, you
follow statuses and comments of people you know and strangers, and
involuntarily you are involved in debate. The above-mentioned social
network possesses a huge resource of influence. Washington already
knows about this for a long time. Egypt and Tunisia learnt about it
recently. And Armenia is realizing it now.

Recently I have been coming across debates in various blogs and
Facebook itself. The topic of the debates is whether social networks
and blogs can really gather a critical mass of complaining people,
which will lead to a fact that the events will develop according to
the Egypt scenario. A part of the debaters obviously overestimates the
capacities of social networks, blogs and internet in general, another
part does not consider them serious. Time will show who is right.
However I would like to address two other issues.

The first one is the extremity of the political views in the net, the
supremacy of hatred, especially when it comes to politics.

The second one is that in the net, just like in the media, there are
no ethical, no dialogue standards, and no ability to hear each other.
This became especially obvious during the recent days from the public
`haggle’ of Raffi Hovhannisyan’s and Levon Ter-Petrosian’s supporters,
which very quickly grew into a conflict.

Another thing causes concern: just like on the threshold of 2008
elections, there is polarization of the society, separation of people
`with us’ and `our enemies’, escalation of negative energy, which will
sooner or later find its way out. I should also note that the social
networks, blogs, many websites now fail to develop a social dialogue.
Even the opposite; they become a platform for reciprocal mockery.

Today, three years after those tragic events, when the country was
really on the edge of a civil war, I am living though a kind of a déjà
vu. It seems that I have lived through this at least once in the past.
So, haven’t the authorities and the opposition learnt their lessons
from what happened then? Should one abundantly feed the dragon of
hatred, which may swallow its feeder later on?

They say the history repeats itself, and the second time as a farce. I
am sure that this type of farce can cost too high for our country.

David Alaverdian is the Chief Editor of Mediamax.

From: A. Papazian

Mediamax, Armenia
March 23 2011

Commentary
Raffi Hovhannisyan is not Israel Hakobkokhyan

by Ara Tadevosyan, Director of Mediamax

Raffi Hovhannisyan-Levon Ter-Petrosian-authorities `triangle’
continues being in the center of our society’s and media’s attention.
The situation not only fails to find its solution, but also gains new
coloring, moving farther from healthy logic.

Of course, Levon Ter-Petrosian has grounds to state that Raffi
Hovhannisyan’s hunger strike is of an `ostentatious’ nature. When we
receive a press release from `Heritage’, which contains a few pages of
names of people, who have expressed their `support’ for Raffi
Hovhannisyan on the Freedom Square, we ask a question: does the hunger
strike aim at really inviting the attention of the authorities towards
the problems of the people, or does it aim at `receiving support’?
Raffi Hovhannisyan is also right, when he opposes ANC leader, saying
that the hunger strike is not of a religious, but of political nature.
It is natural that a political struggle is impossible without steps,
which will attract people’s attention, and a hunger strike, no matter
how disputable a method, is one of those steps.

It is even more difficult to understand what the authorities, and
personally Serzh Sargsian should do. The demands of Raffi
Hovhannisyan’s hunger strike are not distinct (naturally, this is done
intentionally) and in those conditions the possible actions of the
authorities are really limited.

What should the President of the Republic do? Recall how once upon a
time he urged famous boxer Israel Hakobkokhyan to stop the hunger
strike and do the same thing in Raffi Hovhannisyan’s case? Of course,
not. Israel Hakobkokhyan was not a professional political figure, but
an offended famous sportsman, and by approaching him Serzh Sargsian
was acting like a human being and not as a political figure. The same
is not applicable to the case of Raffi Hovhannisyan, who is a party
leader and should clearly realize the political consequences of all
his steps. It is natural that the authorities cannot urge the leader
of `Heritage’ to stop the hunger strike, promising to speed up
reforms. It is at least naivety to expect that.

I believe that there is only one way out: all political forces should
tell the society that they are going to elections and will take up all
the permitted steps to achieve the best result: rallies, processions,
hunger strikes, etc. It should be very clearly stated that `yes, we
are launching a political battle against each other’. Of course, they
should try to make the political struggle as civil as possible.
Nevertheless, the political struggle has its rules, and perhaps God
and Christian virtues should not be mentioned in the context of that
struggle that often. In any case, political figures will be doing what
they consider right, and we can keep Christian virtues pure of
excessive speculations. And this concerns all the vertexes of the
`triangle’.

Ara Tadevosyan is the Director of Mediamax.

From: A. Papazian

Mediamax, Armenia
March 25 2011

Co-chairs stressed unacceptability of statements on use of force
against civil aircraft
Friday 25 March 2011 10:22

Yerevan/Mediamax/. OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs will visit the region of
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the nearest future to continue
discussions on the basic principles of the settlement basing on
positive impulses of Sochi March 5 meeting.

Mediamax reports that the statement, published yesterday by the
mediators, reads that they were in Vienna on March 23-24, where they
briefed the Minsk Group and Secretary General Marc Perrin de
Brichambaut on their recent and upcoming activities as mediators of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Co-chairs noted that they will be making concrete efforts with
their interlocutors for implementation of the commitments, taken in
Sochi, concerning investigation of acts of ceasefire violation with
the participation of all sides.

`Noting the continuing importance of restraint by the sides both on
the ground and in public statements, the Co-Chairs consider
unacceptable any use or threat of force, including against civil
aircraft. In that respect, they strongly condemn the senseless cycle
of killings and retaliations along the front lines. They reiterated
their long-standing position that all sides should prepare their
populations for peace, not war’, the statement reads.

From: A. Papazian

Mediamax, Armenia
March 25 2011

RF Foreign Ministry: Armenia and Azerbaijan are ready to continue dialogue
Friday 25 March 2011 10:38

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Official representative of Russian Foreign Ministry
Alexander Lukashevich expressed hope that `there will be less, and
ideally – no’ incidents on the contact line in Karabakh conflict zone,
and `the sides will deal with development of cooperation and dialogue
in the region’.

Mediamax reports that yesterday, during a briefing in Moscow,
Lukashevich stated that any cases with tragic outcome cause regret.

`Recently we have been stirring up our work with the sides – Yerevan
and Baku. A very important meeting took place in Sochi. There are also
last year’s Astrakhan agreements, there is a document, which, we hope,
will be helping develop the negotiation dynamics. The most important
is that the sides take interest in continuing the dialogue, renouncing
violence, preventing incidents on the contact line and elaborating a
common formula of settlement, the search of which, of course, will not
be simple, just like the conflict itself is not. The most important is
that we note: the sides are ready to continue dialogue’, Russian
Foreign Ministry representative stated.

From: A. Papazian

Mediamax, Armenia
March 25 2011

Armenian President promised the parents of the killed officer to do
everything possible for peaceful solution of Karabakh conflict

Friday 25 March 2011 11:06

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsian promised to do
everything possible for peaceful solution of Karabakh conflict and for
achieving worthy peace.

Mediamax was informed in the press service of the President today that
Serzh Sargsian said this on Thursday during his visit to the family of
Senior Lieutenant Hovhannes Sukiasyan, who died of the enemy’s bullet
on January 20.

The President expressed condolences to the members of the killed
officer, thanked for bringing up such a son and apologized for not
being able to keep him alive.

`As the President of the country I can promise you that I will do
everything I can in order for Karabakh conflict to be solved
peacefully and for that peace to be worthy. That will be the best
tribute to the memory of all our soldiers who died. They managed to
defend our Armenia, paying the price of their lives, and we will be
able to achieve a worthy peace’, the President said.

Together with the father and the grandfather of Hovhannes, Serzh
Sargsian visited the officer’s grave.

From: A. Papazian

Armenia gains 1 point in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier against Russia

March 26, 2011 – 21:12 AMT 17:12 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

At the beginning of the half of Armenia-Russia UEFA EURO 2012
qualifier against Russia, Armenia coach Vardan Minasyan released
forward Edgar Manucharyan into the ground to replace halfback Edgar
Malakyan. In the 57th minute, Arthur Yedigaryan replaced Markos
Pizzelli.

Striker Yura Movsisyan gained a goal opportunity in the 52nd minute
but failed to score, kicking near the post. Goalkeeper Roman Berezovky
showed a perfect performance during the whole match.

In the 78th minute, Russia coach Dick Advocaat replaced Alexander
Kerzhakov by Pavel Pogrebnyak while Andrey Arshavin was replaced by
Daniyar Bilyaledinov.

Edgar Manucharyan got a yellow card.

The match ended with attacks, although despite the efforts on both
sides, there was no goal. Russia tops Group B standings with 10
points. Armenia climbed to 2nd place with 8 points.

From: A. Papazian