Author: Babajanian Karo

4TH HAY DAT FORUM GETS UNDERWAY IN YEREVAN
Anna Nazaryan

“Radiolur”
30.03.2012 18:25

The 4th Hay Dat forum, featuring representatives of 25 Armenian
National Committees from 18 countries, kicked off in Yerevan today.

The three-day forum aims to work out the action plan for the coming
two years, taking into consideration the strategy of the ARF Hay Dat.

Member of the ARF Bureau, head of the ARF faction of the National
Assembly Vahn Hovhannisyan said the most important issue for the
party is the Armenian Cause, all others are side questions.

According to Hovhannisyan, parliamentary diplomacy has become more
active over the past ten years. He noted that despite short history
of parliamentary diplomacy, Armenian delegations are represented
in Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe, OSCE, NATO,
Euronest, CIS, etc.

The issues Armenian parliamentary diplomacy faces include the economic
situation in Armenia, recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Vahan Hovhannisyan says the three must
not be separated and it’s necessary to find a formula to present the
three issues in a single package.

He advised the representatives of Hay Dat Offices to continue their
activity in the key aspect of foreign policy irrespective of the fact
to what extent the foreign policy of Armenia is dear to the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation. “Hay Dat Offices must work so as if the
foreign policy has been developed by them,” Hovhannisyan added.

Vahan Hovhannisyan further advised to pay greater attention to
resolutions adopted by different structures. “Although they may
seem harmless at first sight, they may pursue long-term objectives,”
he added.

Representative of the Armenian National Committee of Jerusalem Hakob
Sevan noted that the Armenian-Turkish protocols were a great blow to
their efforts of putting the genocide issue on the Knesset agenda.

However, they continue working and hope to succeed.

UNLABELLED EGGS BEING SOLD ARE PAST DEADLINE

hetq
13:15, March 30, 2012

The Food Safety Inspectorate, responding to a report that unlabelled
eggs were being sold in teh market, revealed that the eggs in question
had exceeded the expiration date.

The eggs had been imported to Armenia by the company Ashotsk Ltd.

The Inspectorate is currently following all leads to ensure that all
the expired eggs are pulled from the market.

Armenia tops list of idea submitters to World Bank contest

news.am
April 01, 2012 | 01:09

Armenia tops the chart of countries which have yielded the most
submissions (205) to M2Work microwork contest held by the World Bank.

The aim of the contest is to bring more jobs to people in developing
countries, as they can submit their ideas of mobile applications.

The list is topped by Armenia followed by India, Pakistan, Kenya and
U.S., jury member writes Vili Lehdonvirta wrote on his blog.

Lehdonvirta stressed that the great majority of submitters are from
developing countries.

Armenia weakens itself with its policy

16:03 – 30.03.2012

President of Europe Armenian Cause office Gaspar Karapetyan told the
journalists today after the conference that their strategy is clear
and it has not been changed.

`Now we negotiate over the Armenian Genocide and Artsakh main issues.

The mirage is clear: prevent the attacks in any possible way, clarify
relations with Turkey and solve Javakhqi Armenians’ problems.
Development of Armenia is very important to us as well as the weaker
it gets the harder it becomes for us to battle’, said Karapetyan.

Armenian Defense Ministry denies information disseminated by Azeri media

13:36 31/03/2012 » Society

`Information disseminated by the Azerbaijani media doesn’t correspond
to the reality,’ Defense Ministry public relations department denied
the rumors to Panorama.am which claim that a civilian was wounded in
the region of Tovuz in the aftermath of Armenian gunshot.

`Armenian Armed Forces are committed to maintain ceasefire regime and
take the challenge only when Azerbaijan breaks the terms of ceasefire
regime,’ DM statement reads.

Source: Panorama.am

US continues to support the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation

armradio.am
31.03.2012 11:26

`We continue to look for a movement on the issue of Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement,’ Spokesman for the US Department of State Mark Toner
told a daily briefing.

Toner said it is impossible for him to judge whether Secretary Hillary
Clinton will discuss Armenian-Turkish relations, the Genocide topic or
the church property issues during her upcoming visit to Turkey.

Last time when the Secretary of State was in Armenia, she mentioned
that it’s up to Turkey now to make a step towards reconciliation. `The
ball is on Turkey’s side,’ she said.

Asked whether this is this is the same message the same message that
the Department of State is trying to deliver to Ankara authorities,
Toner said: `We strongly support the efforts of Turkey and Armenia to
normalize their bilateral relationship. The issue is a regular part of
our dialogue with the highest levels of both the Turkish and Armenian
governments.’

Over 300 instances of Azeri ceasefire violation reported March 25-31

March 31, 2012 – 13:09 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Over 300 instances of ceasefire violation by Azeri
armed forces at the contact line between Nagorno Karabakh and
Azerbaijan were registered during March 25-31.

Azerbaijan fired over 1200 shots from various caliber weapons towards
the Armenian positions during the last 7 days, NKR defense army’s
press service reports.

Despite Azerbaijan’s actions, NKR forces refrained from retaliatory
measures, continuing with their military duty on all positions.

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street, Suite 172
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]
Website:

31 March 2012

Raffi Hovannisian Receives Students from Cambridge

Yerevan–Today Heritage Party leader Raffi K. Hovannisian met with
Cambridge University political science students, who are visiting
Armenia for academic research.

During the meeting, Hovannisian addressed regional prospects and
international priorities, and informed the students of the urgent
domestic challenges in Armenia and Artsakh.

Heritage Campaign Headquarters

ARMENIAN NPP REGIONAL SECURITY THREAT – ALIYEV

Interfax
March 27 2012
Russia

The nuclear power plant built in Armenia back in 1976, is obsolete,
does not meet current nuclear security standards and, on top of that,
is located in a highly-seismic zone, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
said at a nuclear security summit in Seoul.

“All this turns the Armenian NPP into a source of danger,” Aliyev
was quoted by Azerbaijan’s official media outlets.

Today, nuclear security is of great importance for the whole world,
including Azerbaijan, which respects the relevant international
resolutions, has always backed and complied with them, the president
said.

Nuclear security was and remains a priority for the Armenian
authorities, Armenian President Serzh Sargsian said for his part.

“Our priority is to ensure safe operation of the Armenian NPP and
to raise the level of its safety. We strictly abide by the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency) requirements,” the president
told the nuclear security summit in Seoul.

It is also important to prevent energy resources from turning into
“a malicious political capital,” which has an adverse effect on
countries without natural energy resources, he said.

“Two of Armenia’s four immediate neighbors have been holding
our country in a blockade for two decades now, by violating the
international law, without leaving, among other problems, any
alternative to ways toward energy independence,” Sargsian said.

“I am not surprised by the blatant misinformation about the Armenian
NPP, voiced by the Azeri president here, since the spread of slander
about Armenia has long become a mode of operation in Azerbaijan,”
Sargsian was quoted as saying by the Armenian presidential office.

TURKS HAVE SPENT MORE THAN 100 MLN USD TO FAIL FRENCH RESOLUTION: THE NEW RESOLUTION WILL NOT COME LATE

18:11 . 29/03

Though the adoption of the Armenian Genocide denial criminalisation
bill in the two houses of the French parliament was the result of
long lasting work of the Armenian community in France, for the two
main leading presidential candidates Nikolas Sarkozy and Francois
Hollande the issue to make the denial of the genocide a crime has
become a means to attract votes.

The present president Nikolas Sarkozy had promised to make the denial
of the Armenian Genocide a crime since 2007, while his party came
up with a corresponding resolution at the National Assembly only
before the presidential elections. But we should note that before
the bill would appear at the Constitutional Council, Sarkozy could
have ratified the document, and it would become a law.

“Sarkozy didn’t want to keep his promise. He told us on April 30,
2011, he wouldn’t go any further. But then he changed his mind as
he saw that Holland is going to take this step,” representative of
ARF-D Western Europe Central Committee Murad Papazyan said.

ARF-D Committee of France thinks the fact that the bill failed at the
Constitutional Council after having succeeded among the politicians,
is the victory of the Turkish lobby. The Turkish government has spent
more than 100 mln USD to fail the resolution. The anti-Armenian
demonstrations organized on those days in France, in which Turks
having gathered from different parts of Europe were participating, were
held under the auspices of the Turkish authorities, the Turkish prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a thing to which, according to Director
of Paris Hay Dat office Hrach Varzhapetian, Turkey had no right.

“It is our internal issue, it is a matter of law. The intervention of
the Turkish state is inadmissible. Today we, as a state, don’t run
an anti-Turkish policy unlike the Turkish government, which runs an
anti-Armenian policy. Armenian politics needs to become more aggressive
and must have a concrete emphasis,” Varzhapetyan said.

The text of the document is being newly developed, in order to avoid
the repetition of the previous scenario. The socialist presidential
candidate Francois Hollande, whose candidacy is supported by part of
the Armenian organizations, has promised to make the denial of the
Armenian Genocide a crime.

Sarkozy has also given promises, much more official promises and to
our president personally. And though it was his fault that the bill
appeared at the Constitutional Council, Sarkozy ordered the government
to submit another bill to the parliament. Only the process will take
place after the elections.

We have already appeared in a similar situation, therefore we have the
experience of waiting. We have only to hope that the previous negative
experience will not be repeated and irrespective of whoever comes to
power at the Elysee palace, he will not prove that the promise given
was only a manifestation of election campaign.