Author: Badalian Vardan

AZERI PRESIDENT, FRENCH SENATORS DISCUSS TIES, BILL

APA
Feb 6 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku, 6 February: On 6 February, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
received the delegation led by the Deputy Chairman of France-Caucasus
friendship group, head of France-Azerbaijan Working group, member of
Centrist and Republican Union in the Senate, Senator Nathalie Goulet.

The delegation includes Sylvie Goy-Chavent, Jean-Marie Bockel, Herve
Maurey, Andre Reichard and Jeanny Lorgeoux.

Head of state thanked Mrs Nathalie Goulet and the other senators for
their fair position during the French Senate’s discussion of draft
law criminalizing the denial of the so-called Armenian “genocide”.

The president said that the relevant law discussed at the Senate was
distorting the history, run contrary to the democracy and freedom
of speech and was based on false and concocted reports. He expressed
the hope that the bill would not be adopted.

Mrs Nathalie Goulet underlined that she and the other senators would
do their best for extending relations with Azerbaijan and said that
they would give detailed information about this to the Azerbaijani
society during their meetings in Baku.

[translated from Azeri]

LE CANARD ENCHAENE S’INTERROGE SUR LES CONFLITS D’INTERETS AU CC
Ara

armenews.com
mercredi 8 fevrier 2012

Dans un article paru ce jour, le Canard Enchaîne s’interroge sur
les conflits d’interets qu’un certain nombre de membres du Conseil
Constitutionnel pourraient avoir dans l’etude sur la constitutionnalite
de la loi penalisant le genocide. Il relève notamment que Michel
Charrasse avait annonce qu’il voterait contre la loi reconnaissant
le genocide en 2000, meme si finalement il ne l’a pas fait, que
Hubert Haenel avait depose un amendement sur cette meme loi et qu’il
est membre de l’institut du Bosphore, lobby turc qui a milite au
Parlement contre la penalisation. Il relève que Jean-Louis Debre,
le president du CC, avait interrompu alors qu’il etait president
de l’Assemblee Nationale la discussion sur une proposition de loi
penalisant le genocide le 18 mai 2006 et qu’il avait fait part a de
son hostilite a l’encontre de ce texte sur La Chaine Parlementaire
et que Jaqueline de Guillenschmidt avait signe l’appel de Blois de
Pierre Nora, contre ce type de legislation dites ” memorielles “. Si
ces quatre sages se ” deportent ” compte tenu des conflits d’interets,
le Canard s’interroge si le CC atteindra un quorum suffisant pour se
prononcer…Le Canard brocarde egalement la lettre de l’ambassadeur
de Turquie en France aux elus.

COMMODITY TURNOVER BETWEEN ARMENIA AND RUSSIA UP 15.8% TOTALING AROUND 1 BILLION DOLLARS IN 2011

arminfo
Tuesday, February 7, 14:00

Commodity turnover between Armenia and Russia was up 15.8% totaling
around 1 billion dollars in 2011 (994.4 mln dollars), Vice Premier
of Russia Victor Zubkov said at a joint briefing with Armenian Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan on Tuesday.

He called it a record-breaking indicator for the last 4 years.

Nevertheless, Zubkov said, the two countries have more potential and
the current level of commodity turnover can be increased. Russia
is ready to support Armenia in the fields of seed growing, cattle
breeding and import of agricultural equipment. “Rosselkhozbank and
Rosagroleasing are expected to open branches in Armenia. The loan
book of Rosselkhozbank totals 1.5 bln rubles. It is the biggest
bank in Russia,” the Vice Premier said. The statutory capital of
Rosagroleasing amounts to 80 billion rubles. A poultry joint venture
may be established in future, in particular, a turkey breeding
company. There are also good opportunities for cooperation in the
education and culture sectors. Zubkov said that Lomonosov Moscow
State University is expected to open a branch in Armenia shortly. A
strategic cooperation project for 2020 is currently developed. The
project will be submitted to the Armenian-Russia Intergovernmental
Commission for consideration. “We have a big desire to actively
cooperate with Armenia,” the Russian vice premier said.

UN CELERE JOUNALISTE A ETE ARRETE CE WEEK-END
Laetitia

armenews.com
mardi 7 fevrier 2012

Un celèbre journaliste qui travaille pour le principal quotidien
d’opposition a ete arrete vendredi. Il est accuse d’avoir blesse
un homme. La police a affirme que Hayk Gevorgian, correspondant,
editorialiste et redacteur au quotidien ” Haykakan Zhamanak ” a ete
mis en garde a vue pour avoir persecute un jeune homme lors d’un
accident et pour avoir pris la fuite avec la voiture de l’entreprise
le mois dernier.

Gevorgian a ete arrete par la police a Yerevan et a ete emmene au poste
de police dans le quartier administratif central de la ville. Il a
ete garde pendant plusieurs heures avant d’etre transfere a la prison
Nubarashen de Yerevan.

L’accident de voiture s’est passe le 13 janvier dernier, le jour où le
” Haykakan Zhamanak ” a publie un article sarcastique par Gevorgian
sur Vladimir Gasparian, le chef de la police armenienne.

Nikol Pashinian, le redacteur en chef de “Haykakan Zhamanak”, semble
accuse Gasparian de vouloir se venger du journaliste et demande sa
liberation immediate.

” Vova Gasparian et d’autres representants de l’elite au pouvoir
souhaitent empecher le travail du quotidien Haykakan Zhamanak “,
a affirme Pashinian pendant la conference de presse.

Le redacteur en chef rejette les accusations de la police,
selon lesquelles Gevorgian aurait refuse de cooperer avec les
investigateurs. Il a dit que Gevorgian a simplement voulu clarifier
son statut avant d’aller au poste de police.

Pashinian a egalement dit que Gevorgian l’avait informe de l’accident
du 13 janvier avant d’etre arrete. Cet homme serait reste au milieu de
la route pour crier. ” Hayk insiste – et je crois a ses propos – qu’il
n’y a pas eu de contact physique “, a affirme le redacteur en chef.

Pashinian a egalement affirme que, contrairement aux accusations de
la police, Gevorgian n’a pas pris la fuite, mais il est sorti de sa
voiture pour comprendre ce qu’il se passait.

Haykakan Zhamanak est le quotidien d’opposition le plus vendu du pays
et soutient le principal parti d’opposition,(HAK). Pashinian, qui est
egalement un membre du HAK, a passe plus de deux ans en prison pour
des accusations controversees, suite aux violences des elections de
2008 a Yerevan.

MME CLINTON S’INFORME DU DERNIER SOMMET ARMENO-AZERI
Gari

armenews.com
mardi 7 fevrier 2012

Le Secretaire d’Etat americaine Hillary Clinton a ete tenue informee
des resultats du dernier sommet reunissant les chefs d’Etat armenien
et azeri en Russie lors d’entretiens separes avec le president
d’Azerbaïdjan Ilham Aliyev et le ministre armenien des affaires
etrangères Edouard Nalbandian les 4 et 5 fevrier. Mme Clinton les a
rencontres en marge de la conference annuelle sur la securite mondiale
qui se tenait a Munich, en Allemagne. Elle n’a fait aucune declaration
publique a l’issue de ces entretiens. Dans un bref communique,
le service de presse de M. Aliyev a indique que le president
azerbaïdjanais et la chef de la diplomatie americaine avaient eu “un
echange d’idees sur le processus de règlement du conflit armeno-azeri
du Haut-Karabagh”, sans donner plus de precision. Quant au ministère
armenien des affaires etrangères, il a ete a peine plus disert,
indiquant que M. Nalbandian et Mme Clinton avaient “discute en detail
des derniers developpements dans le processus de negociations en vue du
règlement du conflit du Karabagh” et, en particulier, de la rencontre
du 23 janvier dernier entre les presidents Ilham Alyev et Serge
Sarkissian sous l’egide de leur homologue russe Dmitry Medvedev, dans
la ville russe de Sotchi. M. Nalbandian auraitr evoque avec elle les
details des discussions qui se sont deroulees durant ce sommet, indique
un communique du ministère armenien. Par ailleurs, un responsable du
Departement d’Etat americain a indique aux journalistes americains
avant la tenue de la conference de Munich sur la securite que la
question du Karabagh est “au c~ur des preoccupations personnelles
de la Secretaire d’Etat.” “La Secretaire souhaite s’entretenir avec
chacune des parties des resultats de ce [sommet] de telle sorte qu’on
puisse progresser vers un accord durable”, avait souligne le diplomate
americain. Dans une declaration commune avec le president Medvedev
publiee a l’issue de la rencontre de Sotchi, MM.Aliyev et Sarkisian
n’avaient pas fait etat de reels progrès vers une harmonisation de
leurs positions sur les principes de base du plan de paix tel qu’il
a ete propose par les copresidents russe, francais et americain du
Groupe de Minsk de l’OSCE. Ils s’etaient contentes d'”exprimer leur
disposition a accelerer l’aboutissement” d’un accord sur les fondements
d’un accord de paix. Le ministre russe des affaires etrangères Sergei
Lavrov avait indique pour sa part qu’il “restait encore a trouver un
accord sur une serie de points” sur lesquels divergent les parties
en conflit. Une manière diplomatique de dire qu’il ne fallait pas
s’attendre a une percee dans les negociations dans les mois a venir.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF ORANGE FOUNDATION VAZASHEN VILLAGE GOT SPORTS EQUIPMENTS AND FURNITURE

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 17:23:10 – 06/02/2012

Vazashen residents have a pleasant and comfortable place where they
can meet, organize concerts, sport or cultural activities as well
as hold important events in their lives. A community center opened
in Vazashen village, Tavush region. Furniture, sport equipments and
library have been acquired with the support of the Orange Foundation
and “Shen” charitable non-governmental organization.

Bruno Duthoit, Chairman of the Orange Armenia Foundation board, said: ”
In the normal social life of each small or large village the community
center has a vital importance. So now Vazashen inhabitants will have
a comfortable place where they can get together to exchange ideas or
for leisure, and where children can go in for sports or dances. We
understand very well the importance this place has for Vazashen,
which is at only several hundreds of meters from the border.”

The construction of the community center of this village with 1080
inhabitants has started 20 years ago but was not finished. The new
building has been constructed in 2011 by the Armenian foundation of
social investments and the community.

The Orange Foundation has allotted 3,390,000 AMD to furnish the
Vazashen community center and acquire the sports equipment.

TURKEY THROUGH THE HEADLINES

Today’s Zaman
Feb 6 2012
Turkey

When I travel abroad and follow events in Turkey through online
newspapers, I am always struck by how quickly I sense that I am losing
a true feel for developments back home. My understanding of Turkey,
I have always felt, rests not just on analysis of current events but
it also has a strange sensory dimension. Without actually breathing
the air of the country and walking through its streets, seeing the
larger picture beyond the headlines and picking up trends and changes
of mood becomes a lot harder.

The same undoubtedly applies to most countries in the world: Media
reports only provide a two-dimensional picture, based on a handful
of developments deemed newsworthy. And we probably underestimate the
information gathering simply by walking in the streets and watching
people go about their daily business.

But viewing developments in Turkey through the prism of headlines and
news articles alone also has its uses. It is after all as outsiders
see it. And perhaps imagining how their actions reflect on their
countryâ~@~Ys perceptions abroad, and not just on how they play to a
domestic audience, is something that Turkish political leaders should
attempt to do more often.

The polemic that has developed between novelist Paul Auster and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ~_an is a case in point. I greatly admire
Auster as a writer and always enjoy his books. I also share his views
that it does not befit a country like Turkey to lay charges against
so many writers — or indeed that so many people are spending lengthy
periods in pre-trial detention, before they can defend themselves in
front of a court.

But I have always believed that the best contribution foreigners can
make to challenging the status quo is to visit the country, interact
with its people and express their views on the ground. In the â~@~X90s,
when the human rights situation was particularly bad in Turkey, I had
long arguments with friends who refused to set foot in the country,
and I tried to convince them that extended contacts and exposure to
different ideas was important to broaden the minds of the visitors
and the local residents alike.

But Auster is entitled to his own opinions and his stance is a valid
one. Had Prime Minister ErdoÄ~_an not stepped into the argument,
the writerâ~@~Ys statements would have been quickly forgotten. But
the prime ministerâ~@~Ys flippant statements and the mocking tone
he adopts all too frequently when he wants to dismiss critics, be
they environmentalists, members of the opposition or well-respected
foreign novelists, has only lent credence to the view that Turkeyâ~@~Ys
charismatic leader brooks no dissent and is exhibiting an increasingly
intolerant streak. It is particularly unfortunate because the
perception of Turkey that is developing as a result distracts from
the countryâ~@~Ys real achievements over the past decade.

Unfortunately, this war of words is not the only shadow hanging over
Turkey at the moment. More developments may yet follow in the Hrant
Dink case, but the impact of the disastrous court verdict will not
easily be shaken off. The news that an Armenian house of worship was
destroyed by the Malatya Municipality will only serve to strengthen the
view that Turkeyâ~@~Ys old statist mentality, which viewed minorities
as threats, has morphed into a new form but remains alive. And while
Prime Minister ErdoÄ~_an spoke forcefully about secularism during
his visits to Arab countries, his recent remarks about wanting to
bring up a religious youth will revive the debate about secularism,
whether it really exists in Turkey and how it is defined.

Turkeyâ~@~Ys progress in the past decade is reflected in the
countryâ~@~Ys growing impact on the international scene and its
rising economic power. But the countryâ~@~Ys politicians have always
tended to be over-sensitive to alternative views and unable to grasp
that, since no one is ever perfect, paying attention to constructive
criticism is an important tool for progress. These days, it is hard
to escape the conclusion that the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
governmentâ~@~Ys overreaction to events is at times undermining its
own achievements.

ARMENIANS TO CONDUCT DEMONSTRATIONS IN NEW YORK AGAINST TURKEY’S POLICY OF DENIAL

ARMENPRESS
FEBRUARY 7, 2012
YEREVAN

NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS: Atrocities committed against the
Armenian people during World War I opened the door to grave breaches
of international law.

Armenian advocacy groups in the United States announced plans
for demonstrations in New York later this year. The theme of the
commemoration is that Turkey is guilty of genocide and “denying the
undeniable is a crime,” Armenpress reports citing UPI.com.

A bill passed by the French Senate last month would impose a sentence
of a year in prison and a fine of more than $58,000 on those found
guilty of denying any officially recognized genocide.

Dennis Papazian, an official with the advocacy group Knights of Vartan,
said in a statement that the World War I atrocities opened the door
for further transgressions.

“The Turkish government to this day continues to deny the reality of
the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian genocide, which
opened the door to all the genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries,
including the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur,” he said.

RUSSIAN NUCLEAR OFFICIAL SAYS IRAN NUKE PLANT SECURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 7, 2012 – 14:18 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A senior official of Russian state nuclear
corporation Rosatom has stated that Iran’s first nuclear power plant
in the Southern port city of Bushehr complies with the latest safety
rules and standards, and is fully resistant to natural incidents,
specially big earthquakes.

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant can resist an earthquake measuring 9
on the Richter scale, plant’s constructor, Fars News Agency quoted
Rosatom Corporation’s Programs Director Sergei Boyarkin as saying.

“The recent earthquake which jolted parts of Iran’s Southwest regions
had not affected the nuclear activities in Bushehr nuclear power
plant,” he added.

An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale jolted the city of
Khormoj in the southern province of Bushehr on Feb 5 morning.

There were no reports of any casualty or damage to property caused
by the quake.

ALL THE PROBLEMS IN THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS AZERBAIJAN’S FAULT: ACTING FOREIGN MINISTER OF NKR

arminfo
Tuesday, February 7, 11:58

“We do not agree with some political experts saying that the
negotiations have faced a deadlock and it is necessary to change the
format of the OSCE Minsk Group etc.

The Minsk Group is fulfilling its mission, while all the problems in
the negotiation process are due to Azerbaijan’s fault. That country
has never tried to search for compromises and has always used
the negotiation process for its anti-Armenian propaganda,” Vasily
Atajanyan, Acting Foreign Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,
said in an interview with Vestnik TV program of the Russian Service
of the NKR Public Television.

According to ArmInfo’s correspondent to Stepanakert, V. Atajanyan
said that in 2011 the foreign political course of the NKR intensified
mostly due to the NKR president’s visits to Europe and USA where he
introduced the essence of the Karabakh conflict and the peace process
to parliamentarians and other officials. The acting minister stressed
the role of the permanent representations and diplomatic missions of
NKR at foreign organization in meeting the present-day challenges.

Asked about the necessity of confidence building measures for the
conflicting parties, Atajanyan said that Azerbaijan has always ignored
these measures, unlike Armenia and Artsakh that have been raising that
issue from the very beginning of the negotiation process. For instance,
he said, Baku categorically rejected the suggestion to remove snipers
from the line of contact of the NKR and Azerbaijan armed forces as
well as request to increase financing of the OSCE CIO PR Office to
inquiry into the incidents on the line of the contact.

As for the so-called “inter-community” dialogue, Vasily Atajanyan
said, it threatens the entire negotiation process. “One can see here
Turkey’s scenario towards the Cyprian problem. And Azerbaijan tries to
turn the negotiations into an inter-community settlement process. We
will never agree with such format,” he said. The status of the NKR
cannot be lower than it actually is, he said, and the resolution
should start with determination of NKR’s status.