Author: Andres-Papazian

ARF PRIORITIZES REGIME CHANGE AT 15TH SUPREME ASSEMBLY

Asbarez
Monday, June 7th, 2010

ARF Supreme Council of Armenia Chairman Armen Rustamian

YEREVAN (ARF Press Service)-The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
concluded its 15th Supreme Assembly of Armenia on Sunday with the
election of a new ARF Supreme Council of Armenia to govern the
pan-national political parties operations in Armenia for the next
two years. The Assembly, which convened Friday in Aghveran, issued a
statement emphasizing the need for regime change and highlighting the
party’s priorities in Armenia. The statement specifically stressed
the need for the restoration of national ideals within Armenia’s
foreign policy, the establishment of social justice, protection of
civil rights and the need to form a new government.

At the conclusion, a nine-person council to oversee the party’s
operations in Armenia was elected comprised of the following: Hayrapet
Babayan, Arsen Hambardzumyan, Tatul Harutyunyan, Michael Manukyan,
Ara Nranian, Armen Rustamian, Spartak Seyranian, Simon Simonian and
Hrach Tadevosyan. Rustamian was re-elected to chair the body.

During a press conference Monday, Rustamian emphasized that regime
change was the only way out of the current social and political
quagmire in Armenia. “We want to change the government by means of
elections. That is the way to go. Regime change through uprising is
always dangerous and harmful, especially given that Armenia and the
Armenians now face an unfinished war,” said Rustamian.

He also announced that during the next presidential elections the
ARF will nominate its own candidate. “If Armenians had elected [ARF
candidate] Vahan Hovhannesian president in 2008 we would be living
in a different Armenia now,” explained Rustamian.

“Obviously, the incumbent Armenian authorities are unable to solve
topical problems. The country needs a new regime, which would be
capable of resolving problems,” said Rustamian. In this context, he
said, the ARF is the only force capable of solving existing problems.

“The time comes when changing the ruling regime becomes a matter of
national security.”

Asked why the ARF does not demand President Serzh Sarkisian’s
resignation if the party is dissatisfied with his policies, Rustamian
responded: “You are right. How long can we give the president new
chances? It is enough. We have closed our eyes to too many things
and given him many chances. They should not test the ARF’s patience
and prudence.”

The ARF statement contains a long of list of socioeconomic and
political problems facing Armenia, including a culture of electoral
fraud, government abuse and widespread poverty.

“Today the state is not on the side of its citizens,” said Rustamian.

“Unfortunately, we have two types of states: One caters to the
interests of a minority-a privileged class-while the other has
abandoned its citizens.”

“Social discontent has never reached such a peak and the social
situation has never been so difficult. I hope that the authorities
realize this as well,” added Rustamian, who predicted that if these
conditions persist, a social uprising could take place in the country.

The ARF leader said that without necessary reforms, all future
elections will worsen the country’s already tenuous situation. He
said the inability of the people to form a power base through free
expression has caused the current impasse.

Rustamian also didn’t rule out early elections-both presidential
and parliamentary. “A force-majeure situation can always arise in
a country like ours, and any political force respecting itself must
always be prepared for such scenarios.”

“During elections the authorities themselves corrupt the people
and then they seek great achievements. It is impossible,” explained
Rustamian.

From: A. Papazian

DIGITEC BUSINESS 2010 TO GET UNDERWAY JUNE 9

Panorama.am
18:29 07/06/2010

Economy

“Armenia Marriott” Hotel will host the 3rd annual “DigiTec Business
2010” Forum Exhibition, to bring together local and international
information technologies (IT) and other sphere companies June 9-10.

The Forum held under “Dialogue between Business and Technologies”, aims
at promoting the investment of the information and telecommunication
technologies (ITT) in the sphere of economy and others, as well as
presenting ITT products and services called to modernization of the
economy and solution of current business problems, the union of IT
entrepreneurs reported.

The forum will cover the following spheres:

~U Banking and finance ~U Tourism ~U Commerce and stock management
~U Construction ~U Transport and communication ~U Medicine and
pharmaceutical industry

The forum will bring together delegations from Albania, Moldova,
Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands, Kosovo.

The event includes DigiTec Business exhibition, seminars, round
tables, consultations. This year 35 companies will be participating
in the forum.

The opening of the forum will be conducted by Armenia’s PM Tigran
Sargsyan. USAID Director, Dr Jatinder Chima will attend the opening
ceremony.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA, ITALY TO EXPAND COOPERATION IN THE SPHERES OF IT, TOURISM, LIGHT INDUSTRY

Panorama.am
18:48 07/06/2010

Economy

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received today the Italian
delegation headed by the chairman of the provincial council of Milan
Bruno Dupei. Welcoming the guest the PM highly assessed the current
level of the Armenian-Italian cooperation in economic and cultural
spheres. He highlighted the full usage of the existing potential,
government’s information department reported.

The head of the government pointed out the importance of consolidation
and development of ties between Milan province and Kotayk region.

Tigran Sargsyan welcomed the expansion of the capital of investments
by the Italian companies in Armenia, highlighting particularly the
construction of the financial center in Dilijan. The parties highly
assessed the participation of the Italian specialists in the programs
carried out in Gyumri.

The interlocutors discussed the details of the Armenian-Italian
mutually beneficial economic cooperation. They considered expansion
of cooperation in the spheres of IT, tourism, light industry as
perspective. Armenian PM said Armenia is interested in applying the
Italian experience in the sphere of tourism.

Expressing gratitude for the reception the chairman of the Milan
provincial council highlighted the role of the Armenian community of
Milan in the development of the Armenian-Italian amiable relations.

Speaking about his visit to the Tsitsernakaberd, Bruno Dupei said
that in 2006 the council adopted two documents condemning the Armenian
Genocide.

From: A. Papazian

KARABAKH NEARLY CLEARED OF LANDMINES; HALO TO WIDEN DEMINING OPERATIONS

Asbarez
Monday, June 7th, 2010

HALO Trust conducts mine clearance activities only 800 meters from
a school in Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo by: Boris Heger/ICRC, 3 March 2005.

STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL)-A British humanitarian organization said on
Monday that it has cleared the bulk of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s
war-affected territory of landmines and unexploded ordnance and will
soon start demining the remaining territories liberated from Azeri
rule in the early 1990s.

Representatives of the HALO Trust made the announcement as they
marked the 10th anniversary of its permanent presence in Karabakh at
an official ceremony attended by the Karabakh Republic’s leadership.

Karabakh President Bako Sahakian praised the group’s decade-long
demining efforts in his republic that have been financed by the U.S.

government and non-governmental Western charities. “We regard saved
lives as the biggest result and value of the work done by them,”
he said in a speech at the ceremony held in Khachen, a village in
Karabakh’s eastern Askeran district.

The HALO Trust says that ever since 2000 it has destroyed over 50,000
landmines, cluster munitions and other items of unexploded ordnance
in 125 square kilometers of land. According to its regional director,
Andrew Moore, that means more than 80 percent of Karabakh territory
mined by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces during the 1991-1994 is now
considered safe.

Aknaghbyur, a village in southern Karabakh has been one of the biggest
beneficiaries of HALO’s demining efforts. “Six hundred hectares of
our agricultural land have been cleared,” Artur Babayan, the village
mayor also attending the ceremony, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We
had suffered many casualties until then. Thank God, our people are
now able to safely cultivate the land.”

Karabakh has continued to regularly report civilian casualties even
after 2000. According to government data, 74 local residents have
been killed and 254 others wounded in landmine explosions over the
past decade.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance unearthed by HALO Trust workers.

“The most typical result of a mine explosion is limb amputation,” said
Vartan Tadevosian, director of the Stepanakert-based Rehabilitation
Center for landmine victims. The center’s main objective is to
make the maimed victims “as independent as possible in their life,”
Tadevosian told RFE/RL.

Moore revealed that HALO, which operates in nine countries and has
nearly 8,000 mine-clearers, now plans to expand its operations into
some of the remaining districts of Karabakh that were fully or partly
liberated from Azerbaijan by Karabakh Armenian forces during the war.

He said that work will be financed by a fresh grant from the Julia
Burke Foundation, a California-based charity that has already supported
HALO’s activities in Karabakh since 2007.

“We are extremely grateful for the support of the Julia Burke
Foundation and their funding our clearance in the green areas,”
Moore told RFE/RL.

“I hope very much that Azerbaijan will not try to influence
other potential donors willing to support demining efforts in
Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Caroline Cox, a vice-speaker of the British
House of Lords who has frequently visited Karabakh since the early
1990s. She argued that those efforts have a “humanitarian, rather
than political” character.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly condemned HALO for engaging in landmine
clearance in Karabakh without its permission. Its reaction to the
charity’s continued operations there will likely remain the same.

From: A. Papazian

US TO ‘REASSURE’ BAKU AMID COMPLAINTS OF NEGLECT: GATES

Agence France Presse
June 6, 2010 Sunday 3:17 PM GMT
BAKU

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew into Azerbaijan on Sunday to
“reassure” its leadership after Baku complained that Washington had
neglected relations.

Mindful of Azerbaijan’s crucial role along a supply route for NATO
forces in Afghanistan, Gates said that he was visiting the country
“partly because of concerns in Azerbaijan that we weren’t paying
enough attention to them.”

Gates, speaking to reporters on his plane before landing Sunday, said
he planned to meet President Ilham Aliyev to “reassure him that’s
not the case.”

Azerbaijan provides a vital link in ferrying NATO-led troops and
cargo by land and air to Afghanistan, and US officials are anxious
to defuse any strains in the relationship.

In his meeting with Aliyev scheduled on Sunday evening, Gates said
he would present a letter from US President Barack Obama and convey
a message that Washington viewed Baku as a strategic partner.

“It’s important to touch base and let them know they do play an
important role in this international coalition,” said Gates, referring
to the fight against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

When Michele Flournoy, US undersecretary of defence for policy,
paid a visit to Baku in April, government officials made no secret
of their frustration at what they see as Washingtonââ~B¬â~D¢s lack
of attention, he said.

“They made their views pretty clear to her,” said Gates, who was due
to spend less than 24 hours in Baku before flying on to London.

Gates is the highest-ranking US official to travel to Baku since Obama
took office last year and he said more top-level visits would follow.

His visit was part of a sustained US diplomatic effort to ensure
supply lines stay open amid a US buildup of 30,000 reinforcements
in Afghanistan.

A senior US defence official told reporters Azerbaijan’s government
did not want to be seen merely as a convenient route to Afghanistan
and had asked the administration to play a bigger role in resolving
its dispute with Armenia over the Nagorny-Karabakh region.

Human rights groups have accused the US administration of overlooking
abuses in strategic countries across the region — including Azerbaijan
— in its drive to secure supply lines for the NATO-led war effort
in Afghanistan.

Gates said Washington had to balance its interests and denied that
any country was in a position to dictate to the United States, as
military planners had organised an array of transport networks.

“Because of the multiple avenues that we have developed, I don’t feel
that anybody in particular has us over a barrel,” he said.

“But clearly the ability to overfly Azerbaijan, the ability to use
ground transportation to Azerbaijan, as with Russia, Kyrgyzstan,
is obviously important.”

Tens of thousands of cargo aircraft have flown over Azerbaijan for
the Afghan war, with planes ferrying 100,000 US and allied troops
and personnel through the country’s airspace last year, Pentagon
officials said.

US commanders have sought out bases and transit lanes in Central Asia
to ease the military’s reliance on supply routes through Pakistan,
where Islamist militants often stage attacks on convoys.

The northern network of roads, rail lines and flight routes includes
Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Azerbaijan had complained that it was owed money under its deal with
Washington for the use of the country’s air space, saying commercial
contractors had failed to pay necessary fees.

US officials and private contractors recently settled the dispute,
with Baku receiving two million dollars (1.67 million euros), including
about 900,000 dollars paid by the US government, officials said.

Gates also said the Pentagon was taking a closer look at contracts
in Central Asian states after allegations the former leadership in
Kyrgyzstan had skimmed millions off of fuel sales for US forces at
the Manas air base.

The US military has stopped flying aerial refueling tankers out of
Krygyzstan as a new government there presses to renegotiate a fuel
contract for the Manas base.

Gates said so far the suspension had not “caused any problems at
this point.”

From: A. Papazian

CAN ISRAEL AND THE EU LIVE WITH TURKEY’S NEW OTTOMAN EMPIRE?
By Nathan Hegedus

The Faster Times

June 7 2010

Israel-Turkey Relations Destined To Change In Wake of Gaza Flotilla
Attack

Most empires linger long in the souls of their successor states. The
conquered peoples hate; the conquerors long for lost glory. The
Ottoman Empire was grander and more glorious than most empires,
its cultural echoes still sounding from Budapest to Basra.

And now, in the wake of Israel’s attack on the mostly Turkish Gaza aid
flotilla, the world is once again paying close attention to Turkey,
which for decades rejected the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, but –
through a combination of economic success and Islamic sympathies –
is now trying to once again be the “center power,” the bridge between
the Middle East and Europe. From Sol Ozel in The Huffington Post:

The most clearly elucidated vision of Turkey’s new interest-driven
activism comes from Ahmet Davutoglu, the current foreign minister. In
his view, Turkey’s location at the center of what he calls the
Afro-Eurasian space — where the great empires of history once reigned
— enables it to rise to the status of a center power of the whole
region. By eliminating conflicts with its neighbors zero problems
Turkey will be able to consolidate its regional leadership and play
a key global role in the post-Cold War strategic environment.

Most of the American analysis has focused on Turkey’s turn to Islam,
to the East so to speak. But this is too simplistic, something finally
addressed in a skeptical Washington Post article:

That has prompted worried speculation at home and abroad: Is Turkey
turning away from the West?

Turkey’s Islamic-oriented government says no. And some analysts say
the question is too simplistic. With a growing economy and self-assured
leaders, this NATO member is emerging as a regional power with a more
independent foreign policy, they say.

“They want to be the big kid on the block,” said Henri Barkey, a
Turkey expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in
Washington. “They have essentially a very inflated sense of their
own importance.”

Turkey has dubbed its new foreign policy “zero problems with
neighbors,” attempting to get along with countries like Iran, Armenia
and Syria. And what is more important to an empire, especially one
with softer power, than keeping the old inner provinces calm?

There is something liberating in this Turkish renewal, a proud country
done groveling before European economic masters, not wanting to be
known mostly for sending millions of emigrants to places like Germany.

But mixing the geopolitical with the religious, turning to Islam and
essentially away from the reforms and the tradition that helped Turkey
find its own voice, could be dangerous for everyone, something Askar
Askarov discusses in a long piece in FrontPageMag.com:

But behind the scenes, both the European political elite and the
Turkish leadership shared a similar objective: to keep Turkey away
from Europe and, as the AKP hoped, to integrate Turkey with the rest
of the Islamic community of nations. This way, the Europeans would
be free, despite their public statements, from a secret fear – an EU
with millions of Turks. In its turn, the AKP would get an eastward
looking Turkey with autocratic tendencies and Islamist orientation.

Ironically, while the European Union may have never wanted Turkey,
the reforms it required to even play this shadow game have transformed
Turkey into an economic powerhouse with a healthier civil society no
longer oppressed by the military. And finally, the all too apparent
EU rejection has turned both the Turkish elite and population back to
the idea of the “center power,” one with the potential to be far more
important to world affairs than the chaotic, increasingly splintered
EU itself.

The Ottoman Empire broke in Europe, at the gates of Vienna and in
a steady loss of its Balkan provinces. And, ironically, it was in
Europe where the the old Islamic feelings of empire truly reemerged.

The organization that led the Gaza aid flotilla, the Foundation
for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), was
founded during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s, as Croat and
Serb Christians slaughtered Bosnian Muslims, an island of Islam left
in the European mountains when the Ottoman Empire retreated.

A similar awakening happened during the war in Gaza in 2008. The
Turks have finally forgotten the Arab revolts that helped destroy the
Ottoman Empire, and they do not need the West and NATO like they did
during the Cold War to fend off the Soviet Union.

It remains to be seen whether Turkey has come far enough to be a
stabilizing, democratic influence in the Middle East or the object
of Askarov’s nightmare. So where does all this leave Israel? With
one less friend in the world and a powerful assertive empire in
the making to the north. Compare this far reaching Turkish vision
with the more immediate concerns of Egypt, which supports the Gaza
blockade in a simplistic effort to thwart Hamas and fend off its own
Islamicist parties.

Not a good spot.

From: A. Papazian

NO HOLDS BARRED: OPEN SEASON ON THE JEWISH STATE
By SHMULEY BOTEACH

The Jerusalem Post

June 7 2010

The Jews who were murdered in Germany and Poland cannot speak out. The
rest of us, however, have absolutely no excuse.

Helen Thomas’s stomach-turning comments about the Jews returning to
Germany and Poland, where six million were killed, are striking for
their racism and insensitivity. Whether she said them out of senility
or anti-Semitism is beside the point. Either way she has no business
working for any respectable media organization or sitting as the
senior White House correspondent directly in front of the president
of the United States. When Don Imus made racially charged statements
against a woman’s basketball team, candidate Barack Obama demanded
he be fired. It will be interesting to see how President Obama,
who could not offer a single word of support for Israel since the
flotilla affair, will react.

One can only imagine the uproar against Thomas had she said that all
blacks should go home to Africa, or illegal immigrants to Tijuana. It
seems that Jews are the only group that you can attack with impunity,
because they are the only ones unwise enough to tolerate it. Better
yet, we’re the only group often filled with so much self-loathing
that we actually initiate many of the attacks.

FEW OF us are surprised that it is a coterie of Jewish advisers
to Obama who have joined him in condemnations of Israel over Jews
building in Jerusalem. This week The New York Times published an
article by Michael Chabon arguing that many Jews are “blockheads”
and notions of Jewish intelligence are highly overrated. He may be
correct. But as I read this strange screed from one of America’s most
celebrated Jewish novelists, I wondered if, say, Maya Angelou would
ever pen an article about how many black dumbbells there are. Attacks
on one’s own seems to be an art form perfected specifically by Jews.

Helene Cooper wrote a column in the Times asking whether Israel has
become a strategic liability to the US. She quoted many senior Jewish
political advisers to the Democratic Party who advised that if Israel
continues to embarrass the US, it might be time for the superpower
to distance itself from the little Jewish irritant.

The criticism made for interesting reading, implying as it did that
while Israel is an embarrassment to the US, its relationship with
such great human rights exemplars as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey
ought to be sources of downright pride.

Turkey merits special mention because not only does its media accuse
the American military of harvesting organs from helpless Iraqis,
which they cite as one of the reasons for the American invasion, but
because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees fit to call Israel
barbarous, lecture Jews about not murdering and refers to Hamas as
freedom fighters. Curiously, at the same time he was spewing his
venom toward the Jewish state this past week, the pope was in Cyprus
where he was being publicly begged by Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the
leader of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, to stop the illegal Turkish
occupation of Cyprus, now in its 34th year, and protect Christians
from growing attacks by Turks.

Just prior to the pope’s visit, a Christian bishop had been stabbed
to death outside his home in the port of Iskenderun. The archbishop
said that Turkey had “barbarously invaded” Cyprus and “continues to
carry out its obscure plan, which includes the annexation of the lands
now under military occupation and then conquest of the whole of Cyprus.

They wish to make everything Greek and Christian disappear from
occupied Cyprus.” Of course, Turkey won’t even acknowledge its genocide
of the Armenians, a position that Obama has shamefully supported in
order not to offend Turkey’s belligerent leader.

Of course, Cooper’s article quotes J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami whom
journalists have come to appreciate because of his consistency and
reliability in always saying something disparaging about Israel. In
this case he is quoted as saying “he represents Jews who… are raising
the issue of Israeli government actions as a strategic liability for
the United States.”

I LIVED in England for 11 years and was sickened by the regular
abandonment of Israel by some of the most high-profile Anglo-Jews
whenever Israel’s actions became controversial. For those wondering
why a floodgate of anti-Semitism has opened in Britain over the last
few years, look no further than the fact that Israel’s greatest haters
can often point to Jewish critics as being much more strident than
them. And still it continues, with even high profile Jewish leaders
like Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks remaining mum on Israel even
while it was assailed by countless countries for enforcing a blockade
against a terror organization that has fired 10,000 rockets against it.

Still, I never believed that American Jewry would emulate this
cowardice. But Obama’s public abandonment of Israel is directly
traceable to the small price he pays among American Jews. On my radio
show, many callers contend that Obama is an anti-Semite. I condemn
such character assassination in the strongest possible terms. Obama
has elevated Jews to some of the highest positions, including his
most recent nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan.

Rather, the president’s inability to condemn Hamas and support Israel,
which is a stain on his presidency, results from his considerable
moral confusion and a misguided sense of right and wrong. Under Obama,
America has retreated substantially from president George W. Bush’s
policies of promoting democracy and human rights and has reverted to
Kissingerian realpolitik, ready to make deals with tyrants so long
as it promotes an artificial sense of peace.

But Obama can get away with it because American Jewry has become so
silent and so weak.

Whenever Israel undertakes controversial action, American Jews begin
writing op-eds in The Atlantic and The New Yorker about how the
oncemoral nation has lost its way. Funny how those same writers do
not condemn Obama’s policy of Predator drone strikes against Taliban
leaders that inevitably involve considerable civilian casualties.

Sorry guys. Israel is going to remain controversial, as one might
expect from any country under a constant existential assault from
nearly all its neighbors. When threatened by Hitler, Britain leveled
whole German cities. The US did the same to the Japanese. Israel has
never even pondered such actions, even as thousands of its citizens
have been blown to smithereens.

The Jews who were murdered in Germany and Poland cannot speak out in
support of a Jewish state.

The rest of us, however, have absolutely no excuse.

The writer is founder of This World: The Values Network

His new book, Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life, has just
been published by Basic Books.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA TO AZERBAIJAN: TIME TO PREPARE PUBLIC OPINION
by Armen Hareyan HULIQ.com

HULIQ.com
June 7 2010
SC

The final status of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is the key to
solving the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and reaching
lasting peace. However, the problem seems to be the public opinion
in Azerbaijan.

Today the spokesman of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan
told Russian Interfaks News Agency that there will be a progress in
the negotiation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan if the later
accepts responsibility for things that have to do with the start of
this conflict. “Azerbaijan has to stop presenting its imagination
about the rights as international law and stop fruitlessly distorting
the essence of the negotiation process,” Balayan told Interfaks.

There is a lot of substance in Balayan’s words.

Until recently Azerbaijan was blaming Armenia for not responding to
Madrid Principles. Then yesterday its foreign minister Mammadyarov
admitted that in Sochi earlier this year the mediators proposed to
take a break and a pause was taken. Azerbaijan speaks of accepting
the Madrid Principles but refuses to accept that they lead to de jure
independence of Nagorno Karabakh Republic because the last principle
calls for “legally binding expression of will,” in Nagorno Karabakh.

Considering the overwhelming majority of the population is Armenian,
the expression of will in Karabakh will lead to its independence.

The Public Opinion

Our sources in the Armenian Foreign Ministry tell us on the condition
of anonymity that that during the negotiations the authorities of
Azerbaijan “understand and accept” that the Madrid Principles will lead
to Nagorno Karabakh’s independence (Nagorno Karabakh has never been
part of independent Azerbaijan). They don’t acknowledge this in public
because they say Azerbaijans public opinion is not ready for this.

Yet, the authorities of Azerbaijan have done a single thing to prepare
their public opinion to making honorable peace with Armenia. In
contrast, they keep preparing their public opinion to war. While war
is not a viable option for Azerbaijan today, who knows if it may not
be in 2-3 years. Therefore, they may think it is a good option to
keep the public opinion in a war-ready mindset.

On the other hand the public opinion in Armenia while not unanimous,
is more ready to make peace with Azerbaijan then the Azeri public.

This is because the Armenian authorities don’t talk about war very
much and have used the word only to repel Azerbaijan’s bellicose
statements in the past.

Thus, the peace will only come when we all see Azerbaijan and Armenia
making serious efforts to point their public opinion toward making
peace with their neighbor. This is where the Minsk Group mediators
should start from during their next visit to the region this summer.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH, AZERBAIJANI MINISTERS TALK BY PHONE

news.az
June 7 2010
Azerbaijan

Mammadyarov and Davutoglu Turkey and Azerbaijan will remain friends
forever, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.

After the Azerbaijani foreign minister’s meeting with the OSCE Minsk
Group mediators in Venice, the current situation in the Karabakh
conflict was discussed during a telephone conversation between the
Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Ahmet Davutoglu told
reporters in Istanbul.

Davutoglu also touched upon the signing of the gas agreement between
the two countries.

‘We will discuss these issues at today’s sessions and meetings. We
have reached a principal agreement on natural gas which is profitable
for both countries. This agreement will be signed here. Thus, those
who want a quarrel between Azerbaijan and Turkey will be disappointed.

‘Turkey and Azerbaijan will remain friends forever. This will be
discussed at the high level meeting with Mr Ilham Aliyev and the
agreement will be signed. The Karabakh issue remains actual at all
international forums. We will discuss the recent processes on this
with President Aliyev,’ Ahmet Davutoglu said.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIAN, FRENCH FMS DISCUSS IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAMME, NAGORNO-KARABAKH

ITAR-TASS
June 7 2010
Russia

MOSCOW, June 7 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner had a telephone
conversation on Monday to discuss the Iranian nuclear programme and
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

Lavrov and Kouchner “exchange views on the situation surrounding
the Iranian nuclear problem, including in the context of work on the
draft relevant resolution in the U.N. Security Council, as well as
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement,” the Foreign Ministry said.

On Sunday, Kouchner said the issue of new sanctions against Iran would
be most probably considered after June 14, following an official
reply to the joint suggestion of Iran, Brazil and Turkey regarding
Iranian nuclear programme.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed the agreement on uranium
signed by Iran, Turkey and Brazil, but said he was not sure that it
would resolve all questions about Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Commenting on the agreement on the exchange of low-enriched uranium
signed by Iran, Turkey and Brazil, Medvedev called it “interesting
information”.

“The work that was done by Brazil and Turkey led to the signing of the
relevant declaration. We are studying this declaration most thoroughly
now. I hope to talk with my colleague and friend Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, the president of Brazil, tonight. I hope to receive first-hand
information,” Medvedev said.

“At any rate, we welcome this agreement. This is a political and
diplomatic method of solving the Iranian problem,” Medvedev said.

“First of all, it is good that we have some result. The most complex
problem related to the Iranian nuclear programme has been discussed,”
the Russian president said.

“Second, there is the wish to exchange low-enriched uranium for
highly-enriched uranium in the proportions set forth in the agreement,”
he said.

At the same time, Medvedev noted, “The question is whether this
is a sufficient level of exchange and whether all members of the
international community will be satisfied… I don’t know. Apparently
more consultations will be needed with those who are involved in
this process.”

“A separate question that arises is whether Iran will enrich uranium
itself or not. As far as I understand, judging from the statements
made by Iranian officials, such work will continue in Iran. In this
case, the international community’s doubts main remain.”

He suggested “calling urgent consultations with all interested
parties, including Iran” in order to decide what should be done next
and whether “the proposed decisions would be enough or something new
should be taken”.

“This is why I think that a short pause will not harm. I am confident
that we will soon continue consultations with our partners Brazil
and Turkey and other colleagues that deal with the Iranian nuclear
programme,” Medvedev said.

Iran’s nuclear programme has been a major irritant in global affairs
lately and spurred heated debates in the international community and
the United Nations, forcing Western countries to raise the issue of
sanctions against Tehran.

Western countries insist that Iran develops its nuclear programme
for military purposes, while Tehran claims it pursues purely civilian
purposes.

Medvedev made it clear earlier that if the Iranian issue could not
be resolved, Russia would be prepared to consider sanctions.

But sanctions against Iran should be “well considered and
intelligent”, he said. “Sanctions should not be aimed against the
civilian population and they should be the extreme form, beyond which
dialogue is impossible. This is why the relevant initiatives are being
discussed now. We are ready to continue discussing this issue with our
partners even though it would be desirable to avoid these sanctions,”
Medvedev said.

“Iran is a difficult issue. Practically all of my negotiations with
European colleagues and American colleagues touch on Iran one way
or another. Unfortunately, we have not made progress lately. On the
contrary, the situation is degrading,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the admonitions we have offered to the Iranian
leadership, our calls for working on a peaceful nuclear programme
under international control have so far not produced ay result,”
the president said. “But we are optimists and we still think that we
can succeed,” he added.

“Nevertheless, if we don’t, and I have spoken of that many times,
Russia is ready to consider sanctions together with our partners,”
the president said.

But sanctions against Iran have become more relevant following Tehran’s
decision to enrich uranium, but they won’ t solve the problem, Deputy
Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier.

Moscow believes that “sanctions, if and when the U.N. Security
Council adopts the relevant decision, should aim to strengthen the
non-proliferation regime”, he said.

“Any other attempts to push a possible future resolution towards
provisions that will take it beyond the strengthening of the
non-proliferation regime would naturally be inappropriate to us,”
the diplomat said.

The Russian approach is that “sanctions do not solve the problem”,
he added.

From: A. Papazian