Author: Andres-Papazian

news.az, Azerbaijan
sept 17 2010

Shortage of ‘practical results’, not resolutions, on Karabakh
Fri 17 September 2010 11:20 GMT | 15:20 Local Time

Fikret Sadikhov News.Az interviews Azerbaijani political scientist
Fikret Sadikhov.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs seem to be stepping up negotiations
between Baku and Yerevan as part of their declared action plan. How
would you comment on this activeness?

I would not describe the co-chairs’ visit to the region and their
statements about new proposals as political activeness. It is rather
the appearance of being active. It is quite natural that the co-chairs
represent the leading countries of the world. Russian President
Medvedev and the adviser to the US assistant secretary of state, Tina
Kaidanow, recently visited. The initiatives proposed by the co-chairs
show their their interest in resolution of the conflict since such a
long absence of positive results primarily affects the prestige and
interests of the co-chairs and shows that they are unable to help
resolve this problem. Therefore, some are happy that during the recent
visit to the region the co-chairs crossed the front line via
Azerbaijan; the mediators are accentuating this too and say that they
are going to hold the next meetings with the ministers in the United
States.

The French and US co-chairs said during the visit to Nagorno-Karabakh
that they did not cross the border but the contact line and that this
was a deliberate act. Do you see this as a gesture towards Azerbaijan?

Yes, this is also a gesture. You see, they are trying to calm both
parties. They are continuing their mission to soothe both the
aggressor and the Azerbaijani community by saying that this time they
went to Karabakh via Azerbaijan. However, this is not of the utmost
importance to Baku. Definite results are more important for us than
the place from which the mediators enter the conflict area. This is
also a factor, but it’s not critical, it’s not the main issue in the
resolution of the conflict itself.

A huge number of resolutions and other decisions on the conflict have
been passed, the leaders of the superpowers have made statements in
support of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and about the need
to liberate the seven districts around Nagorno- Karabakh. Meanwhile,
the mediators continue making some unclear statements, as if trying to
justify the lack of results over the long period of their work.

Does this mean there is no point in having international organizations
pass documents in our support?

You know, I think we do not need to collect all these decisions and
resolutions. Enough resolutions have been passed in Azerbaijan’s
favour, from the UN Security Council resolutions to the recent
resolution of the European Parliament about the need to withdraw
Armenian troops from Azerbaijani land. There is no shortage of
documents. There is a shortage of practical results from the decisions
taken. They remain on paper because the states take decisions, while
the superpowers of the Minsk Group still continue meeting Armenia’s
whims and supporting it. They do not even demand a reasonable response
from Armenia to their proposals on the updated Madrid principles.
Armenia’s response is unknown. It started to refer to some St
Petersburg agreements, started to give some crazy reasons for its
silence. The negotiating process is developing like this, but for some
reason the co-chairs are happy with this and pretend to be active in
the conflict settlement.

What should Azerbaijan do, considering the growing tensions on the front line?

Only one thing is clear here: the situation cannot last long. This
chain will certainly be broken if the current attitude remains
unchanged.

Azerbaijan has more than enough legal grounds to liberate its land,
more than enough. And if we still continue this negotiating process,
it means not all chances are lost, there is an opportunity. Naturally,
in this situation Azerbaijan should increase its defence potential
and, at the same time, be tougher at the diplomatic level. We probably
don’t always need to sit at the negotiating table, when the co-chairs
insist on it or agree to meet the Armenian president. We should use
political methods to show our negative attitude to what is going on.
Through increasing our potential we must show the inadmissibility of
what is being proposed to us to make it clear that Azerbaijan will
never reject the idea of liberating its land.

We were given clear hints that they will enable us to liberate seven
districts in exchange for the independence of Nagorno- Karabakh. But
this idea has burst like a soap bubble though it was clad in some
digestible formats. This means that Azerbaijan could explain clearly,
prove and demonstrate its principled position on this issue. And it
was right to do this, which means this issue should be taken further.

You mean, for example, our refusal to take part in the recent NATO
training in Armenia?

Yes, we were right to refuse to take part. Though it annoyed the NATO
leadership, our refusal showed our negative attitude not towards the
NATO manoeuvres but to the negotiating process itself and the
countries that are pacifying the aggressor.

W.W.
News.Az

From: A. Papazian

news.az, Azerbaijan
sept 17 2010

Armenia at risk of losing statehood – expert
Fri 17 September 2010 11:26 GMT | 15:26 Local Time

Rovshan Ibrahimov Azerbaijani political scientist noted that the
concern of the Armenian side on the issue of further development of
the negotiation process
Azerbaijani political scientist Rovshan Ibrahimov has commented on the
statement of Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian on possible
recognition of the independence of the separatist regime of
Nagorno-Karabakh in the event of changes in the negotiation process.

Azerbaijani political scientist Rovshan Ibrahimov noted that the
concern of the Armenian side on the issue of further development of
the negotiation process is due to the fact that Armenia is now most
concerned about the possible start of military action by Azerbaijan to
liberate the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh and Karabakh
itself, since it is absolutely not ready for war .

Sccording to some experts, this explains Yerevan’s reluctance to
recognize the separatist regime, as it is in fact will put an end to
the peace process that will likely cause the outbreak of hostilities
by Azerbaijan.

Commenting on the correspondent’s question about possible recognition
of Karabakh separatists by Yerevan is, Ibrahimov noted that the
unilateral recognition of independence of separatists of
Nagorno-Karabakh will bring nothing good to Armenia.

The analyst noted that Armenia is now actually facing the risk of
losing statehood.

1 news.az

From: A. Papazian

Panorama, Armenia
Sept 17 2010

RA President: Armenia has perfect communication with Iran

Iran is a very significant neighbor of us and we’ve perfect relations
with that country, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan told Ukrainian
`Profile’ magazine talking about Armenia’s ties with Iran.

`We hold our communication with the foreign world through Georgia and
Iran. In 1990th when the situation was tensed in Georgia, we would
have our products by 4-5 times higher if we didn’t have the Iranian
roads,’ President said.

Besides, Iran is a country rich with energy and Armenian side has a
very pleasant communication with Iran in those fields.
`Iran has a balanced approach towards the Karabakh issue. You know
that in the scopes of Islamic conference, Azerbaijan makes attempts to
demonstrate that conflict as a religious one. In this case it’s
perfectly denied since Armenia has good ties with Iran,’ President
said.

President underscored a few other economic and humanitarian fields of
cooperation with Ira.

From: A. Papazian

Xinhua, China
Sept 17 2010

Armenian church in eastern Turkey to be opened to worshippers

English.news.cn 2010-09-17 18:25:59

ANKARA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — A historical Armenian church in an
eastern Turkish province will be opened to religious worshippers for a
single day this weekend, the semi-official Anatolia news agency
reported on Friday.

The Armenian church located on the Akdamar island in Lake Van in
Turkey’s Van province will be opened to worshippers on September 19,
for the first time after 95 years.

Upon a proposal by the Governor’s Office of Van and approval of the
Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, Akdamar Church will host a
religious worship once a year and the first ritual will take place
this Sunday.

Nearly 5,000 guests are expected to attend Sunday’s service, officials
were quoted as saying.

The 1,100-year-old Akdamar Church was opened in 2007 at a ceremony
that hosted officials from Armenia and Turkey after it was restored by
the Turkish government. The restoration cost some 1.7 million U.S.
dollars.

Editor: Mo Hong’e

From: A. Papazian

Aysor, Armenia
Sept 17 2010

Cypriot-Americans join Armenians against Matthew Bryza

In the hottest diplomatic dispute facing Congress as it convenes next
week will be issue of candidacy of U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, The
Washington Times reported.

It said that Cypriot-Americans had joined the Armenian-Americans’
campaign against Matthew J. Bryza (Armenian-Americans, in
particularly, have been campaigning to prevent Bryza from serving as
U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan).

“Matthew Bryza’s troubling diplomatic record and his conflict of
interest issues in regard to his bias toward Turkey’s cycle of
impunity and denial of Turkey’s crime of genocide and Turkey’s illegal
invasion and occupation of Cyprus makes him an unsuitable
representative in any post,” the Cyprus Action Network of America said
in the statement.

The Washington Times said that Cypriot-Americans’ statement and
position were caused due the fact that Matthew Bryza’s wife was born
in Turkey and is a Turkish.

From: A. Papazian

Aysor, Armenia
Sept 17 2010

Armenia complex of 100 countries, says Nalbandian

In his interview with Ukrainian Today edition, Armenia’s Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian said that there is not an issue of
Armenia’s accession to the European Union included on the agenda of
foreign policy.

When asked how serious are talks about Armenia’s accession to the EU,
Minister Nalbandian said: `And is the Europe ready today? It’s
necessary to be realistic. There is not such an issue on the agenda.’

`There are issues of strengthening of relations with the European
Union and all the EU nations. We are actively communicating, and not
only within the framework of the Eastern Partnership Action Plan. Long
before we agreed with Brussels to have experts in various spheres as
they could help reform the legislative platform, the executive sector,
etc.

`We’ve got very active relations with France, Italy, Scandinavian
nations, Greece, Cyprus… Actually, Armenia’s most than a half of
export goes to the EU.

`Lots of Armenians live in the European countries and so we can even
say that Armenia is not only the nation drawn on the map. Armenian
Diaspora is in 100 countries, so Armenia is a complex of those hundred
countries,’ said Foreign Minister Nalbandian.

From: A. Papazian

HULIQ.com, SC
Sept 17 2010

Open Letter to Turkish PM on Denying A Cross Atop Armenian Church

by Hovhannes Nikoghosyan

In two days, on September 19, a historic church service will be held
in Holy Cross Armenian Church, located in Eastern Turkish province of
Van. After being closed for 100 years Turkey renovated it and turned
into a museum, similar to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Two weeks before
the service and 5000 reservations for attendance Turkey said it will
not be possible to put the cross on the top of the dome of the
Armenian Church.

The overwhelming majority of the reservations are canceled as a
response to Turkish denial of religious rights of its Christian
minorities. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office had sent
personal invitations to some Armenian analysts in Armenia and Diaspora
inviting to participate in this historic event. One of the recipients
of those invitations Mr. Hovhannes Nikoghosyan from the Yerevan-based
Public Policy Institute sends this open letter to PM Erdogan
explaining why he will not travel to Turkey and why he declines the
invitation.

H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Prime-Minister
Republic of Turkey
Ankara

Your Excellency,
Accept my most sincere congratulations to You and Your political party
over the successful outcome of the Constitutional Referendum, which in
the course of its implementation, I hope, will bring new democratic
achievements to the Republic of Turkey and more freedoms to its fellow
citizens.

I am in receipt of your invitation to attend the liturgy at the
Armenian church of Surp Khach (Holy Cross) at the Akhtamar Island of
Van province. Indeed, this was meant to be a welcomed effort, resting
on the grounds of recent democratic openings of Your Government.
However, as hundreds of other intellectuals and public opinion leaders
of the Armenian Nation, I regret to share this disclaimer on Your much
appreciated invitation. This is in no way an ignorance of Your
courtesy, but unfortunately a well-grounded rejection of the policy
that Your Government has adopted against its ethnic Armenian minority,
the heirs of Armenian Genocide and the Republic of Armenia.

Honorable Prime-Minister,

It’s a direct impiety towards Armenians to deny installing the cross
on dome of the church and, moreover, holding it away from under the
direct auspices of the Istanbul Patriarchy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church as in the cases of other religious monuments of the Armenians
on those holy lands. A religious ceremony in an uncrossed, unhallowed
church, which Your Government has re-opened solely as a museum in
2007, will not complete its anticipated aim of bridging our different
perspectives over joint past under the Ottoman years.

In order to serve its true mission, instead of trying to mislead the
international public opinion, half-steps and show-offs should be
excluded. The restart of the broken and de facto frozen
Armenian-Turkish rapprochement is the right way of the traffic, which
shall lead to the fulfillment of the obligations negotiated under the
Zurich Protocols.

Armenians – being those from Armenia or elsewhere in the world, or
whatever person as a tourist, should not be deprived of their natural
rights of visiting and praying in the lands that hold the treasures of
world architecture and art. Unfortunately, in the XXI century we still
face obvious breaches to the international humanitarian custom and law
when Armenian children experience the rude and crude attitude of the
Turkish policemen, impeding them to pray and light a candle at the
same church of Surp Khach, exactly where the liturgy is to take place
soon.

This is obviously not the present and the future we deserve. I wish to
hope that sometime soon the sanctified church of Surp Hach will
shelter Christian pilgrims from all around the world.
Please accept the assurances of our highest consideration.

Mr. Nikoghosyan is a research fellow at Yerevan-based Public Policy Institute.

From: A. Papazian

news.az, Azerbaijan
Sept 17 2010

Armenia ‘cannot recognize’ Kosovo as it hasn’t recognized Karabakh
Fri 17 September 2010 12:00 GMT | 16:00 Local Time

Edward Nalbandian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has said that
Armenia is not about to recognize the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh
republic.
He was speaking in an interview with Ukrainian newspaper, Segodnya.

Asked whether Armenia would recognize Georgia’s breakaway territories
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Nalbandian said: “As long as the
negotiating process is continuing and as long as there is hope of a
peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict, we do not think that any
other steps are needed.”

“We have not yet recognized Nagorno-Karabakh and without having
recognized Karabakh, we cannot recognize, for example, Kosovo, which
has the right to be independent but no more so than Karabakh, or other
entities that have been recognized by some countries but not the full
international community,” Nalbandian continued.

“If the negotiating process is not effective and if Azerbaijan’s
constant threats cause a breakdown, then certainly we will have to
take different steps,” he said.

Asked why rapprochement with Turkey had stalled, Nalbandian said this
was because Ankara had started to set conditions on ratification of
the rapprochement accords.

“We agreed on two draft protocols – on establishing diplomatic
relations and on developing bilateral relations. These protocols were
signed in October 2009 in Zurich without any preliminary conditions at
all. They were to be ratified. But Turkey, with a nod towards a third
country, said that it could not ratify, because they would not be
pleased, but told us that they wanted to do it,” Nalbandian said,
making a veiled reference to Azerbaijan’s objections to the accords.

“This went on for several months and it emerged that Turkey was really
moving to the language of conditions concerning the Armenian genocide,
as had been the case before the start of negotiations,” Nalbandian
told Segodnya.

“It linked the second precondition with a Karabakh settlement –
resolve this issue, they said, then we’ll talk. But we could say:
resolve Cyprus, your relations with the Kurds, then we’ll talk to you.
Armenia was forced to stop the ratification process. We are ready to
move forward, Turkey has the ball. The next match will take place when
Turkey has trained properly and can take to the pitch without asking
for a head start,” the minister said.

His remarks echoed comments made by President Serzh Sargsyan in
Ukraine’s Profil magazine today that Armenia was waiting for a new
leadership to emerge in Turkey “ready to show political will”.

Elsewhere in the interview with Segodnya, Edward Nalbandian said that
joining NATO was not on Armenia’s agenda. “It’s no secret that we are
allies of Russia and these words are significant,” the minister said.

He said that Russia had invested $2.75bn in Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
Sept 17 2010

Serzh Sargsyan does not believe in Armenia-Turkey border opening
himself, ARFD member says

September 17, 2010 | 14:51

There are very few people in Armenia, who believe in the opening of
the Armenian-Turkish border, even the Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan himself does not believe in it, the MP from ARFD
Dashnaktsutyun faction, Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on
Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs Hrayr Karapetyan
stated at a parliamentary briefing.

`Certainly a president should seek normalization of relations with his
neighbors. However, the point is at what costs,’ Karapetyan said,
stressing the Armenia-Turkey Protocols should be withdrawn from the
parliamentary agenda, as Turkey goes on setting preconditions to
ratify the documents. According to the MP, Turkey’s Pan-Turkism policy
wrecks Armenia’s all initiatives.

The parliamentarian stressed Turkey and Azerbaijan intensified their
efforts to give a religious coloring to the Karabakh peace process,
which is fraught with grave consequences.

`Official Yerevan should necessarily raise the issue to the
international community,’ Karapetyan said. He again voiced the
Dashnaktsutuyin’s proposal to sign an agreement on the formation of
military-strategic alliance between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to him, it will give a new impetus to the international
recognition of Karabakh. `The recognition of Karabakh by Armenia
should be the last step,’ he emphasized.

In his turn, the Head of the `Heritage’ parliamentary faction Stepan
Safaryan underscored the Armenian people are not against the
Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, but the protocols, which conflict with
Armenia’s interests.

From: A. Papazian

Panorama, Armenia
Sept 17 2010

Armenia can’t recognize Kosovo without recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh
independence: MFA

Armenia can’t recognize Kosovo without recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh
independence, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in his
interview with Ukrainian Segodnya information portal.

`We haven’t recognized the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh yet, and
we can’t recognize Kosovo without recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh
while Kosovo doesn’t have more rights to be independent than
Nagorno-Karabakh or other nations that are recognized more or less by
certain countries but not by the international community,’ E.
Nalbandian said.

Armenia isn’t still pushing on to recognize the independence of
Nagorno Karabakh as it hopes the peace talks on settlement to the
Karabakh conflict will be effective.

The Minister stressed the negotiation process is underway, and there
is a hope that the conflict will be settled peacefully. Armenia
doesn’t consider any other steps.

If the talks don’t bring results, and if the daily threats of
Azerbaijan lead to no-go, then surely, it will be necessary to take
other steps, the Foreign Minister said.

From: A. Papazian