Author: Andres-Papazian

TURKEY TO PROTECT IRAN AND ARMENIA IN NATO?

news.am
Nov 1 2010
Armenia

Turkey does not think that its neighbors, including Iran, pose any
threats. “We do not have a perception of threat in our adjacent areas,
including Iran, Russia, Syria and the other adjacent countries,”
Press TV quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

NATO should exclude any formula that will lead Turkey to confrontation
with neighboring states, Ahmet Davutoglu said. Speaking during
discussion of NATO plan to deploy some elements of its missile defense
system, Davutoglu stressed that Turkey does not want a Cold War in
the region.

Leaders of 28 NATO members, including Turkey, will discuss the plan
on missile defense shield in Portugal on Nov. 19, Press TV reported.

Any member of the bloc can put a veto on the plan as NATO’s decision
is based on consensus.

Turkey’s neighbors are Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq,
Georgia, Syria and Bulgaria.

From: A. Papazian

ABDULLAH GUL WINS CHATHAM HOUSE PRIZE 2010

Panorama
Nov 1 2010
Armenia

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has been voted the winner of the
Chatham House Prize 2010. The other nominees for this year’s prize
were Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister, France and Stjepan MesiÄ~G,
President of Croatia, CnnTurk informed.

Gul is recognized for his efforts in the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan
and Pakistan, as well as for initiating a process of reconciliation
between Turkey and Armenia along with his Armenian counterpart.

Chatham House Prize has been awarded since 2005. Ukraine’s President
Victor Yushchenko was awarded the inaugural Prize in 2005 in
recognition of the political courage and skill he demonstrated in
steering a peaceful process of political change in Ukraine.

From: A. Papazian

SLIGHT AMD DEPRECIATION

news.am
Nov 1 2010
Armenia

A slight AMD depreciation has inaugurated the week at the NASDAQ OMX,
A total of U.S. $600,000 have been sold at an average exchange rate
358.5 AMD/U.S. $1 today, November 1.

On Oct. 29, at the close of exchange, the average exchange rate was
357.75 AMD/U.S. $1. Last week, the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
purchased about U.S. $11.5 million at the exchange – twice as much
as ordinary injections. However, the CBA failed to prevent further
AMD appreciation – down to 360 AMD/U.S. $1.

From: A. Papazian

US VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN IN EYE OF POLITICAL STORM IN YEREVAN OVER GENOCIDE COMMENT
by Joshua Kucera for EurasiaNet

ISA Intel

Nov 1 2010

The president of Armenia has all but accused the vice president of
the United States of lying about a phone conversation the two men had,
reigniting a controversy about the Armenian government’s motivations
in pursuing a rapprochement with Turkey.

The controversy began October 26 when an amateur video was posted
on the video-sharing website YouTube. The video, the origin of which
remains a mystery, shows Vice President Joe Biden talking about the
Armenia-Turkey protocols that the US helped broker, and at one point
commenting that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan told him to “not
force” the question of Armenian genocide recognition while Armenia
and Turkey were talking about resuming diplomatic ties.

“It was the Armenian president that called me and said; ‘look, do
not force this issue now while we are in negotiations.’ We passed,
that’s past now,” Biden says in the video.

Sargsyan’s office forcefully denied Biden’s claim in a statement placed
on his website the next day: “The President of Armenia did not use the
expression ascribed to him in the video – directly or indirectly. On
the contrary, in all public appearances and during official meetings,
the president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, has been emphasizing
the importance of international recognition and condemnation of the
Armenian Genocide and has been urging not to excuse the procrastination
of the recognition by the ongoing negotiations with Turkey.”

The statement also called on the White House to release recordings of
telephone calls between the two men to prove the Armenian president’s
point. Securing international recognition of the mass slaughter of
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 as genocide has long been a top
diplomatic priority for Armenia. Turkey rejects the depiction of the
tragic World War I-era events as genocide.

The US side has been silent on the controversy. A spokeswoman for
the US State Department referred EurasiaNet.org to the White House;
the White House press office did not respond to requests for comment.

The controversy, however, has brought up an uncomfortable issue for
advocates of official recognition of the genocide: the perception that
Armenians in Armenia do not care as much about genocide recognition as
do members of the Armenian diaspora. “That’s a false choice typically
thrown out by those laboring against official recognition of the
Armenian genocide,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the
Armenian National Committee of America. “It’s absolutely not true.”

While Biden has a reputation in Washington for speaking the truth
even when it’s not politically wise, he also can exaggerate to
make a point. Most people in Armenia believe Sargsyan rather than
Biden, said Tevan Poghosyan, a Yerevan-based political analyst. “I
don’t think any Armenian president would think like this,” he said,
referring to Sargsyan’s stance on the Genocide recognition. “It’s
not in Armenia’s interest.”

One Armenian website, PanArmenian.net, headlined its story on the
subject “Why Joe Biden decided to slander Armenian President?”

The most likely explanation for Biden’s comments was that the US vice
president misinterpreted Sargsyan’s statement that a deal with Turkey
was close as a reason to go slow on genocide recognition, said Emil
Sanamyan, the editor of the newspaper Armenian Reporter. In recent
months, the reconciliation process between Armenia and Turkey has
ground to a standstill.

It is not the first time this issue has arisen. When Biden and Sargsyan
spoke last year, rumors that the Armenian government wanted the United
States to oppose the genocide resolution, Sanamyan said.

The nationalist party Armenian Revolutionary Federation left the
government in part as a result of the allegations.

And among Armenian-American groups, some called Sargsyan a “traitor”
because of the belief that he “was basically on Turkey’s side, that
the Obama administration was eager to move on the genocide issue,
but was being held back by Serzh Sargsyan,” Sanamyan said.

But as Turkey held back on the ratification of protocols, many
observers have believed that the White House and State Department
have tried to use the threat of genocide recognition to force Turkey
to move forward.

The video has renewed suspicions of the Armenian government’s actions
in the protocols process, said ANCA’s Hamparian. “It’s not clear what
exactly was said,” he said. “This is a process that has been conducted
by and large behind the backs of nearly all the stakeholders in the
process and that is certainly one of its very deep flaws. And with
every new revelation we learn more and more troubling things.”

Editor’s note: Joshua Kucera is a Washington, DC,-based freelance
writer who specializes in security issues in Central Asia, the Caucasus
and the Middle East.

This article was originally published by EurasiaNet.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA REMOVED FROM TURKISH LIST OF “STRATEGIC THREAT”

Panorama
Nov 1 2010
Armenia

Israel’s Minister of Tourism called for travelers to boycott Turkey
follows reports that Ankara had classified Israel as a “strategic
threat,” Jerusalem Post reported.

Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov on Sunday urged Israeli vacationers
to boycott Turkey to protest that country’s apparent designation of
Israel as a central threat in a policy document.

His statement, the latest in the rhetorical war between the two
countries, came in response to press reports that the Turkish National
Security Council (NSC) had warned that Israeli actions threatened
the region and the country, because of the regional unrest it caused.

At the same time, the Security Council removed Syria, Bulgaria,
Georgia and Armenia, as well as Iran, from the list of countries that
pose a threat to Turkey, according to Turkish media outlets cited
late Saturday by the Israeli media.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH POLITICIAN INTENDED TO RETURN BACK TO ARMENIA

news.az
Nov 1 2010
Azerbaijan

Tuna Beklevic Turkish politician declared about his intention to
return in November back to Armenia. The president of “Powerful
Turkey” party Tuna Beklevic, who was strongly recommended to take his
delegation and leave Armenia, returned to Turkey and invited a news
conference at “Hill Otel” and declared he would not quit his peaceful
purpose and would fight for the opening of the Armenian-Turkish
checkpoint of Alidjan in Igdir, “Hurriyet” paper reported.

The Turkish politician declared about his intention to return in
November back to Armenia accompanied by the heads of youth branches
of “Justice and development”, “People’s Republican”, and “Peace
and democracy.”

“Four parliamentarian parties in Armenia welcomed our peace project,
but some appeared to be obstacles. Both states need to overcome
this problem ensemble,” Beklevic said adding their purpose is to
see Armenian-Turkish border open in 2011. According to him the only
regional issue is closed Armenian-Turkish border.

It’s worth reminding that after Yerevan news conference, Beklevic
and his assistants were invited to Armenian National Security Service
to clarify their statement of passing Armenian-Turkish border on
October 10.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA-ISRAEL: WILL THE NEW AMBASSADOR USHER IN NEW STAGE IN ARMENIAN-ISRAELI RELATIONS?
By Aris Ghazinyan

ArmeniaNow
01.11.10 | 13:56

Analysis

Meirom (left) told Sargsyan Israel wants to raise bilateral relations
with Armenia to an excellent level.

Israel’s new Ambassador to Armenia Shmuel Meirom submitted his
credential to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan last week. The
submission of credentials, as a rule, is seen as a usual protocol
event, but in this case, it was a bit more.

The political accents of the appointment of a new Israeli ambassador
to Armenia fit well into the context of fundamentally new regional
realities, namely, sharp complications in Turkish-Israeli relations.

At present, the situation in the region is such that Israel and
Armenia have a common adversary – Turkey.

In this sense, the relationship between the two states could
theoretically reach a new perspective level. In particular, the
powerful Jewish lobby in the United States could theoretically back
the Armenian resolutions on genocide and thus undermine the Turkish
positions in the international political arena.

The Central Jewish Resource says: “Turkey may forever
lose the support of the powerful Israeli lobby in the United States and
its efforts to block the adoption of an Armenian Genocide resolution.”

In an article in The Washington Times under the headline “American
Jewish community ends support of Turkish interests on [Capitol] Hill”
Eli Lake wrote that it was impossible to expect a different result
of the strong reaction from Ankara to Israeli actions against this
spring’s “Freedom Flotilla”.

He reminds that in 2008, leading Jewish organizations decided no
longer to block the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution in
Congress, which, in the opinion of the journalist, was a response to
the worsening Israeli-Turkish relations.

Meanwhile, still in 2002, Israel’s Ambassador to Armenia Rivka
Cohen stated in Yerevan that “nothing, including the tragedy of the
Armenians, could be compared with the Holocaust.” In that connection,
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry even sent a note of protest to the Israeli
Foreign Ministry and said that Armenia considered any attempt to deny
or diminish the fact of the Armenian Genocide, for whatever motivation
it was made, to be unacceptable.

The statement of Israel’s official representative then elicited a
wide response among Armenians. Harout Sassounian, the publisher of
The California Courier, wrote then that “the denial of the Armenian
Genocide by the Israeli ambassador was done within the position of
his government. One thing is clear: Israel’s leaders are ready to
sacrifice historical truth for the sake of their strategic relations
with Turkey.”

However, the situation today is different. This is due to the sharp
complication of the Turkish-Israeli relations.

October 30, in connection with the new appointment of the Israeli
ambassador to Armenia, the Central Jewish Resource wrote that “for
more than two decades before the eyes of the whole world, Turkey
and Azerbaijan continue to maintain the blockade of the Republic
of Armenia.”

The same web portal reminds that “the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA) distributed a memo for the U.S. Congress, which accuses
Turkey of applying double standards. ANCA stresses that Turkey is the
last country that has the right to sermonize to other countries. The
memo lists all acts of violence and aggression committed by Turkish
leaders both at home and abroad for a hundred years.”

Another Israeli portal IzRus notes: “Perhaps for the first time an
Israeli ambassador to a former Soviet country, who usually combines
diplomatic activities in several states, is proposed to focus on
Armenia.”

Meirom is a career diplomat with more than 30 years of experience. He
is the former head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry department for
CIS countries, and in recent years was Israel’s ambassador to Croatia.

In handing his credentials to the Armenian president the diplomat
said that “cooperation between Armenia and Israel can contribute to
peace and prosperity in the region” and for the first time assured the
Armenian leadership that “Israel wants to raise bilateral relations
to an excellent.

From: A. Papazian

ORANGE ARMENIA LAUNCHES IPAD IN YEREVAN STORES

Telecompaper

Nov 1 2010

Orange Armenia has started offering Apple’s iPad in six of its shops
in Armenia’s capital Yerevan. Orange offers a wide portfolio of iPad
devices, namely the iPad Wi-Fi 16GB for AMD 290,000, iPad Wi-Fi +
3G 16GB for AMD 365,000, iPad Wi-Fi + 3G 32GB for AMD 415,000, and
iPad Wi-Fi + 3G 64GB for AMD 470,000. The iPad can be purchased either
with any of Orange Armenia’s Internet Now tariff plans or without an
internet subscription.

From: A. Papazian

MURDERER OF ARMENIAN STUDENT AT LARGE

news.am
Nov 1 2010
Armenia

The Azeri teenager Mamed, who murdered the Armenian school student
Eduard Markaryan in one of the Moscow schools, has not been arrested,
Eduard’s mother, Anna, told NEWS.am.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated, but no charge has so far
been brought against Mamed. The Investigation is waiting for the
forensic medical examination results.

“According to the previous results, Edik was ill and died of fright
– as if he was attacked by a dog. When everything is paid for, we
get such results. But it was a fight, he was beaten up and died from
blows,” the killed student’s mother said. She demanded that her
son’s body be sent to the city expert center for a new examination,
as the previous examination results proved dubious. “Now we are
waiting for the examination results, which are likely to be ready
on November 20. Further investigation depends on them – whether
the murderer will be charged or the case will be dismissed. I
will struggle to the end. If the results of the city-level expert
examination coincide with the ones of the previous one, I am going
to demand a federal level examination,” the woman said.

Edik Markaryan was killed during a fight with the Azeri ninth-former
Mamed in School #501. Witnesses testified that Mamed, who is a
wrestler, was striking Eduard so as to kill him at once. He ordered
his friends to video record the fight with a mobile. The video is at
at the investigative body’s disposal.

From: A. Papazian

U.S. CRITICIZES AZERBAIJAN AND TURKEY

news.am
Nov 1 2010
Armenia

Stuart Levey, U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial
intelligence, criticized Turkey and Azerbaijan, stressing that Baku
and Ankara are expanding economic ties with Iran.

In an interview with the Voice of America, the U.S. official stated
Iran’s neighbors, Turkey and Azerbaijan, are expanding economic
relations with Iran that contradicts the UN sanctions. He noted that
Turkey and Azerbaijan oppose Iran’s nuclear program but stand for
peaceful solution to the problem. He considers that being neighbors
with Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey do not want to damage relations,
APA reported. They are expanding economic ties and trade with Iran,
but are expressing concern over the Iranian issue, as any other
solution may undermine stability in the region, he said.

In October Stuart Levey paid a visit to the South Caucasus.

From: A. Papazian