Author: Badalian Vardan

Minister promises to ‘clear’ his name from watchdog’s blacklist

13:08 – 17.05.11

The Ministry of Healthcare never fails to provide information to
people, the health minister has said.

Harutyun Kushkyan made the statement at a news conference in
parliament, commenting on recent findings by the Information Freedom
Center which included the ministry’s name in its blacklist.

“We never fail to provide information. There was just a technical
problem, and we issued a strict warning that information be always
disclosed within specified timeframes,” the minister said.

In its recent quarterly report, the Freedom of Information Center
published its blacklist of officials who, it claimed, violated
citizens’ right to obtain information from state bodies. First time
ever, Ministry of Healthcare was found in violation of such right.

“This is the first year I hear my name has been been included in the
list. And I promise to quit the list this year,” the minister said,
commenting on the report.

Tert.am

Police disperse opposition rally in Tbilisi

May 22, 2011 – 14:23 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

Police in Georgia fired rubber bullets at protesters holding an
all-night demonstration against Western-backed President Mikheil
Saakashvili after they attacked a car full of people on May 22. Local
television in the country showed pictures of a group of
anti-government protesters with sticks attacking the car on Sunday
morning, smashing its windows and beating people inside.

“Police were forced to use rubber bullets to defend peaceful
citizens,” AFP quoted interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili as
saying.

A spokeswoman for opposition leader Nino Burjanadze said the clash was
provoked by the people in the car, who tried to seize an activist from
the overnight protest outside the Georgian public television studios.
“People in the car were trying to kidnap one of the rally organisers
and the protesters attempted to defend him,” Burjanadze’s spokeswoman
Khatuna Ivanishvili told AFP.

Several hundred people continued the protest outside the television
studios after the incident, many of them carrying sticks. A second
clash then erupted when angry protesters threw stones at cars which
had approached the demonstration, suspecting the drivers of being
undercover police officers.

Around 6,000 supporters of the National Assembly opposition alliance
rallied in Tbilisi on Saturday, accusing President Saakashvili of
authoritarianism and calling for him to resign.

Hundreds more rallied in the Black Sea resort of Batumi, where
protests were broken up by police after activists tried to force their
way into a local television station, demanding airtime. The National
Assembly alleged that hundreds of its activists have been arrested
over the past three days.

“The authorities are carrying out a terror campaign against opposition
supporters,” Nino Burjanadze, a former parliamentary speaker for the
Saakashvili government, told AFP.

29,800 trees planted in Yerevan

news.am
May 21, 2011 | 22:25

YEREVAN. – Yerevan City Hall organized street and yard cleaning in the
first week of May, informs Armenian News-NEWS.am. Simultaneously
29.800 trees were planted in different districts of Yerevan.

TURQUIE
FMI : le gouvernement turc réservé sur l’idée d’une candidature Dervis

Le gouvernement turc n’est pas enthousiaste à l’idée d’une candidature
au Fonds monétaire international (FMI) de Kemal Dervis, l’économiste
turc dont le nom est cité par les diplomates, selon des déclarations
ministérielles rapportées vendredi par la presse.

“Que ce soit Dervis ou nos autres amis qui sont mentionnés, ils ont
tous les connaissances, le talent et les capacités pour diriger le
FMI”, a déclaré vendredi le ministre turc de l’économie Ali Babacan, à
une télévision.

“Si nous regardons autour de nous en Turquie, on peut trouver au moins
dix noms de personnes facilement capables de diriger le FMI”, a-t-il
ajouté.

Le nom de Kemal Dervis, ancien ministre de l’Economie et ancien
dirigeant du Pnud (Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement),
revient de plus en plus souvent dans la liste des “pressentis”, après
celui de Christine Lagarde, ministre française de l’économie, pour
remplacer Dominique Strauss-Kahn, qui a démissionné, accusé de crime
sexuel.

Le collègue de M. Babacan aux Finances, Mehmet Simsek, s’est lui aussi
montré négatif, devant la presse.

“Avez-vous demandé à M. Dervis s’il a un tel souhait (prendre la tête
du FMI) ?”, a-t-il déclaré jeudi à Batman (sud-est). “Autant que je
sache, il a quitté le Pnud il y a un”, et la Turquie “avait fait
beaucoup d’efforts” pour qu’il prenne la tête de cette institution,
a-t-il ajouté.

Kemal Dervis avait été élu en 2002 député du Parti républicain du
peuple (CHP, centre-gauche), le principal parti d’opposition qui
croise le fer avec le Parti de la justice et du développement (AKP,
issu de la mouvance islamiste) du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, avant les élections législatives du 12 juin.

M. Dervis, 62 ans, a été l’architecte du redressement de la Turquie en
2001, après une grave crise économique et financière.

Il avait su convaincre les institutions multilatérales, dont le FMI,
d’avancer des milliards de dollars à la Turquie et avait assaini le
secteur bancaire.

Kemal Dervis, qui est anglophone, francophone et germanophone, est
actuellement vice-président et directeur du programme Développement et
économie globale de l’institut Brookings, à Washington.

AFP

dimanche 22 mai 2011,
Sté[email protected]

MIAK PARTY TO CONTINUE NAGORNO KARABAKH: TRUTH AND FACTS PROGRAM

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 20, 2011 – 18:27 AMT

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan visited MIAK party with respect to
completion of Nagorno Karabakh: Truth and Facts program.

“It is a laudable initiative and rewarding work. The world community’s
awareness of the Karabakh conflict is one of the most complicate
problems for Armenia,” said Mr. Sargsyan.

According to him, though 20 years have passed since the Karabakh
conflict launch, many public and political activists, as well as
ordinary people are not aware of it. The Armenian leader added that
the project is important, since Azerbaijan does not disdain to use any
means to disseminate misinformation about the conflict. Mr. Sargsyan
hailed the fact that the program is initiated by youth representatives.

Secretary of MIAK party Naira Karapetyan noted for her part that the
program has found a broad response in the world – many letters were
received from 4 million addressees. According to her, they received
letters even from Turkey and Azerbaijan. “Letters expressing gratitude
for the provided information were received from Turkey, while those
from Azerbaijan were only negative,” said Karapetyan.

She added that the program will be continued to send information by
post, as well as place it in social networks.

ARMENIA SLAMS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR DISCRIMINATION OF KARABAKH POPULATION

/ARKA/
MAY 20, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, May 20. / ARKA /. A deputy Armenian foreign ministerÑ~Cr
Arman Kirakosian slammed today the international community for what
he described as ‘discriminatory’ approach to application of the OSCE
basic principles with regard to the population of the part of its
territory, living in conflict zones.

Speaking at an international conference on prospects of peace ad
security in the South Caucasus in Yerevan he said violation of human
rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the main and immediate
causes of conflicts. He said respect for those inalienable rights,
including but not limited to the principle of self-determination of
peoples, should be a priority for conflict resolution.

“Full and fair implementation of the norms and principles of human
rights, such as a free democratic society, should be encouraged
and promoted by the OSCE and should not depend on the status of the
territory. OSCE principles can not be discriminated against for the
population of the OSCE region, which lives in the conflict zones,”
said Kirakosian He said the Armenian side has repeatedly stated
the need for involvement of Nagorno-Karabakh into implementation of
international and regional projects regardless of its status.

Nagorno-Karabakh, populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Armenians,
broke away from Azerbaijan following a three-year war that left some
30,000 dead. A Russia-brokered ceasefire ended the hostilities in
1994, but peace has remained fragile since then. The current Minsk
Group-mediated negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have not
brought a peace agreement yet.

TURKISH OPPOSITION PARTY SLAMS GOVERNMENT’S POLICY TOWARDS ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 20, 2011

Turkey’s main opposition’s foreign policy specialist and former
ambassador Osman Koruturk has criticized the government’s policies
toward Armenia while reiterating his party’s election promises
following his visits to the religious leaders of Turkey’s Armenian,
Greek, Syriac and Jewish minorities this week, Hurriyet Daily News
reported.

“The painful [events of 1915] were reciprocal; we need to talk
tête-a-tête [with the Armenians.] The diaspora claims they were the
only ones to suffer; the pain of the Muslim Turks needs to also be
recognized. We can move forward if we dress our wounds and leave the
past to historians. Even the Germans and Jews have managed to overcome
all this. Why shouldn’t we?” said Koruturk from the Republican People’s
Party, or CHP.

He added that “they wanted good relations with Turkey’s neighbors
and signaled the possibility of reinvigorating the issue of Turkey’s
closed border with Armenia.”

Koruturk also said significant mistakes were committed in regards
to the Interior Ministry’s decision to appoint Aram AteÅ~_yan as the
acting deputy patriarch of the Armenian church. The CHP representative
said “the spirit of the Lausanne Treaty should have been followed in
this regard.”

“The AKP began its Armenia initiative with an inappropriate partner
under inappropriate circumstances. Consider the fact that anyone who
says there was no genocide gets punished in Switzerland, which is
the mediating country,” said Koruturk, who also accused the AKP of
failing in its Kurdish Initiative as well. “The AKP failed to act in
coordination. Azerbaijan was not kept sufficiently informed … The
Karabakh problem requires many years to be resolved, just like the
Cyprus problem. When they received negative reactions from Azerbaijan,
the AKP took a wrong turn and pushed forth the issue of Karabakh,
[as a result of which] the process lost its momentum. If things were
coordinated with Azerbaijan and [Azerbaijan] was kept sufficiently
informed, all this would not have happened,” said Koruturk, referring
to the protocols initialized in 2009 between Turkey and Armenia to
normalize relations.

Koruturk said if Turkey wants to be a powerful player in the region,
then it must develop consistent dialogue with its neighbors. The CHP
representative noted that Armenia conducts a significant portion of
its trade through neighboring Iran and Georgia, and added that Turkey
is still Armenia’s second largest export market despite the closed
borders. “All the benefit from this trade, however, go to Iran and
Georgia,” said Koruturk.

BAKO SAHAKYAN RECEIVED DIRECTOR OF THE “NORK-MARASH” MEDICAL CENTER

Panorama.am
20/05/2011

On 20 May President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan received
director of the “Nork-Marash” medical center Lida Mouradyan and surgeon
Ara Ananyan, central information department Artsakh President reports.

Issues related to widening cooperation with the “Nork-Marash” center
and using its potential and rich experience in developing the health
system in Artsakh were discussed during the meeting.

The guests expressed willingness to organize more frequent visits to
Artsakh and assist in raising professional level of medical cadres.

Minister of health care Sergey Movsesyan partook at the meeting.

ARMENIA TO DO ITS UTMOST TO CREATE NEW SECURITY SYSTEM

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 20, 2011 – 16:54 AMT

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakossian said CSTO is not
only an important component of our country’s security system, but it
also contributes to regional stability and security.

“If a military and political cooperation is not against a third
country, it can be only a peace guarantee,” Kirakossian told
Yerevan-hosted international conference, titled “CSTO and South
Caucasus: Prospects of Peace and Security in the Region.”

According to him, Armenia, jointly with its partner in CSTO, made a
range of initiatives aimed at strengthening OSCE, specifically, Armenia
supports the offer on signing a new Agreement on European Security.

“Strengthening and development of the entire architecture of security,
as well as adoption of new legal liabilities for all the parties
will positively contribute to enhancing the regional stability,”
said Kirakossian.

According to him, the Astana declaration definitely reads that
the international community’s efforts should be aimed at creating
such system of security, which lacks demarcation lines, conflicts,
zones of influence and various levels of security. “Armenia will
continue exerting efforts to implement a similar vision of security,”
concluded Kirakossian.

VIC DARCHINYAN RECU PAR LE PRESIDENT ARMENIEN
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 21 mai 2011

Le president armenien Serge Sarkissian a recu hier a Erevan le champion
du monde des poids legers IBO, Vakhtank (Vic) Darchinyan. S.

Sarkissian a felicite Vic Darchinyan pour sa victoire contre Yohnny
Peres pour le compte des championnats du monde. Vic Darchinyan
concourant sous les couleurs de l’Armenie. Le president armenien a
souhaite au champion de nouvelles victoires. ” l’Armenie suit de
près tous vos combats avec fierte comme d’ailleurs les victoires
de nos autres compatriotes ” dit Serge Sarkissian. De son côte Vic
Darchinyan a note l’importance de sa victoire…le 24 avril, jour de
la celebration du genocide armenien de 1915.