MINISTRY OF DEFENSE REFUTES AZERI MISINFORMATION
armradio.am
13.04.2010 17:27
The Armenian Ministry of Defense informs that the information
disseminated by some Azeri media that divisions of the Armenian Armed
Forces violated the ceasefire regime in Tavush marz and opened fire in
the northeastern direction of the contact line from Berkaber village
does not correspond to reality.
The Ministery of Defense says it’s the recurrent false information
disseminated by Azeri media.
BUSINESSMEN DISCONTENT WITH REFORMS EITHER
Tert.am
13.04.10
This year the Armenian government will try to implement the reforms
in tax administration faster than planned, RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan told Tert.am during a work visit to Lori marz (province) today
when asked about statements made by international institutions that
the reforms in tax sector in Armenia are being made at a slow pace.
Tigran Sargsyan also said that the crisis had made the government
delay the implementation of some programs: the dates of about 60%
of thos programs were changed.
RA PM also said that the slow implementation of some of the programs
were due to subjective reasons.
Head of Armenian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Arsen
Ghazaryan, in turn, said in Alaverdy Copper Factory that Armenian
businesmen are not content with the pace of reforms either.
PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA: WE SHALL NOT BEAR TO BE DICTATED CONDITIONS
ArmInfo
2010-04-13 10:53:00
Arminfo. ‘We are ready and we want normal relations with all our
neighbours, but we shall not bear to be dictated conditions’, –
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in the Washington Cathedral
church after visiting the tomb of the 28th president of the USA
Woodrow Wilson.
‘Today morning I met Prime Minister of Turkey. Our stance has always
been very strict: Turkey cannot talk to Armenia and its people the
language of pre-conditions. We shall simply not allow it. We are not
going to make the fact of the genocide a topic for discussion in any
format or to make believe that Turkey may have any positive part in the
Karabakh conflict negotiating process. Any new foreign policy direction
comes under test, since we are passing a new untrod path. I am sure
Armenia will get through the test with honour’, – Serzh Sargsyan said.
PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Assembly of America
CONTACT: Press Department
April 12, 2010
Phone: (202) 393-3434
Web:
E-mail: [email protected]
JOINT STATEMENT WELCOMING THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA ON
THE OCCASION OF HIS OFFICIAL VISIT TO WASHINGTON
Washington, DC – The visit to Washington, DC for the Nuclear Security
Summit affords President Serzh Sargsyan an important opportunity to
meet directly with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton. Armenia-U.S. relations need to be strengthened
across a broad range of issues. Of special importance is America’s
role regarding the Protocols to facilitate the normalization of
relations between Armenia and Turkey without preconditions and the
obligation of the Obama administration to reaffirm the U.S. record
acknowledging the Armenian Genocide if we are to prevent future
genocides and maintain credibility. Rather than employ the Armenian
term for the Armenian Genocide – Metz Yeghern – we urge President
Obama in his April 24 statement to use the English term, and to be
true to his words and promises in developing U.S.-Armenia ties.
We welcome and congratulate President Sargsyan, and we believe that
the Republic of Armenia and its President deserve our support in this
critical work. This is an extension of Armenia’s policy since
independence, and the efforts of the President toward a breakthrough
in Turkish-Armenian normalization represent major steps toward peace
and justice.
The participation of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and his delegation
in the Summit also offer an opportunity for the Turkish government to
live up to its words by ratifying the Protocols immediately and as
signed.
We also encourage the Republic of Turkey to utilize this opportunity
to make a bold step forward and signal its willingness to come to
terms with its past.
We have supported and continue to support reconciliation between
Armenia and Turkey. The Erdogan government’s behavior since the
signing of the Protocols last year, however, indicates that it has
breached and will continue to breach both the letter and the spirit of
those documents. The examples of these breaches include not only the
failure to ratify the protocols in a reasonable period, but also the
condemnable threat of deportation with respect to Armenians living in
Turkey by Prime Minister Erdogan.
We, therefore, anticipate that a frank and sober assessment of the
current status of Armenia-Turkey rapprochement and future prospects
will take place this week. Regardless of the outcome, President
Obama’s reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide can only help to heal
the wounds of denial, and bring Turkey one step closer toward true
reconciliation.
We recognize that the path forward will not be easy, especially this
month of April when Armenians worldwide commemorate the 95th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
We pray that all participants in this process approach the issues with
great wisdom and courage.
Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public
understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
###
NR# 2010-024
RAMKAVAR AZATAKAN OFFERS TO CRIMINALIZE NEGATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
April 12, 2010 – 16:57 AMT 11:57 GMT
Ramkavar Azatakan party of Armenia urged Armenian government to
undertake specific steps to remedy omissions allowed in the issue of
international recognition of Genocide.
As Ramkavar Azatakan party leader Harutyun Arakelyan told a news
conference in Yerevan, RA parliament must criminalize negation of
Armenian Genocide.
"Besides, Armenia has to develop a specific international law- based
program envisaging compensation for 1915-1923 losses to Armenian
people, with similar program covering compensation for 1988-1994
Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan."
"Until the steps above are undertaken, international community will
keep pressuring Armenia," Harutyun Arakelyan said, characterizing
international recognition of Armenian Genocide as a moral victory,
but not yet legal.
Armenian antimonopoly body permits Ameriabank and Cascade Bank concentration
April 9, 2010 – 13:09 AMT 08:09 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –
The State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition of the
Republic of Armenia (SCPEC) permitted Ameriabank’s shareholder, TDA
Holding Limited company to conclude a deal on purchasing the Cascade
Bank, Commission’s Press Service reported.
The decision was made on the basis of interested sides’ claim on
centralizing the two financial structures. SCPEC permitted
concentration the two banks due to the lack of facts prohibiting the
deal.
TURKISH, ARMENIAN LEADERS TO MEET IN BID TO REVIVE PEACE EFFORTS
The Raw Story
n_leaders_to_meet_in_04072010.html
April 7 2010
Turkey and Armenia agreed Wednesday that their leaders would meet
next week in a bid to revive stalled reconciliation efforts between
the two long-estranged neighbours, the Turkish foreign ministry said.
The meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian — to take place on the sidelines
of a nuclear security summit in Washington on April 12-13 — was
agreed in talks a Turkish envoy held in Yerevan earlier in the day,
the ministry said in a statement.
During the talks, the sides "confirmed mutually their commitment to
the (normalisation) process and their understanding that, despite
the difficulties, this window of opportunity should not be missed,"
it said.
Erdogan sent Turkey’s top diplomat to Yerevan to discuss steps to
resolve the impasse on a fragile deal the two countries signed in
October to end decades of hostility, establish diplomatic relations
and open their border.
The deal — comprised of two protocols which need parliamentary
ratification in both countries to take effect — has been snagged by
disagreements over its terms, with both sides accusing each other of
lacking true commitment to reconciliation.
The Turkish envoy — foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun
Sinirlioglu — held talks with Sarkisian and his Foreign Minister
Eduard Nalbandian, conveying a proposal that Erdogan and Sarkisian
meet in Washington, Armenia’s presidency said.
An Armenian official had told AFP earlier that Yerevan was considering
the request.
"Sarkisian said (during the meeting) that Armenia expects Turkey to
take practical steps to guarantee decisive progress in the process
of normalising relations, without preconditions," Sarkisian’s office
said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Paris, Erdogan said he had
sent a letter to the Armenian president through his envoy underlining
Ankara’s commitment to see the accord to fruition.
"We will always show our loyalty to the signatures that we put down
(under the deal). It is out of the question for us to take a step
back unless there is an extraordinary situation," he said.
"I hope (the reconciliation process) will end positively."
Earlier, a Turkish foreign ministry official who requested anonymity
told AFP that Sinirlioglu would "reassert Turkey’s commitment to the
(reconciliation) process, but will also convey our concerns."
Ankara is irked by a January ruling of Armenia’s constitutional court
which cleared the deal but said it could not contradict Yerevan’s
official line that Armenians were victim of genocide under the Ottoman
Empire — a label Turkey fiercely rejects.
Yerevan, for its part, has protested Ankara’s position that the Turkish
parliament is unlikely to ratify the accord without progress in the
Nagorny Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a close
Turkish ally.
The peace process has been marred also by resolutions adopted last
month by a US House of Representatives committee and the Swedish
parliament that both branded the massacres of Armenians as genocide,
infuriating Ankara.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in deportations
and orchestrated killings during World War I.
Turkey counters that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as
many Turks perished in civil strife when Armenians rose up against
their Ottoman rulers and sided with Russian forces invading the
crumbling empire.
BOSNIAN MPS TO ADOPT DECLARAYION FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
BalkanInsight.com
http://www.balkanin sight.com/en/main/news/27124/
April 7 2010
Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday that
the deputies in Bosnia’s central parliament who are members of his
political party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD),
will launch an initiative for the country’s lawmakers to adopt a
declaration condemning Turkish genocide against Armenians. Dodik said
that the Bosnian Serb MPs will also initiate the adoption of a law
against the full face veil.
MOTHERS’ AND BEAUTY DAY
;p= 0&id=1266&y=2010&m=04&d=07
06.04.1 0
On the 6th of April, 2010 in the RA MoD Administrative Complex
a ceremony devoted to the Mothers’ and Beauty Day was held. The
participants in the ceremony were the AF best militants of 2009,
their parents, the mothers of twin or triple brothers serving in
the AF, woman presidents of the NGOs cooperating with the RA MoD,
and woman militants.
Congratulating them on the Mothers’ and Beauty Day the Minister of
Defence Seyran Ohanyan underlined the importance of the role of women
in the country’s social life and in family, as well as in bringing up
a patriotic generation. In his speech Seyran Ohanyan underlined that
our victories were also built due to the heroism and self sacrifice
of our mothers and sisters. At the end of the event by the order of
the RA Minister of Defence five conscripts of the National Army were
awarded with "Vazgen Sargsyan" Departmental Medals for their high
battle readiness and discipline, whereas, the rest of the soldiers
were given short vacations. Moreover, a number of parents of conscripts
were awarded financially.
RA MoD Department of Information and Public Affairs
ARMENIA’S SWIMMER AT SWIMMING CHAMPS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE
Aysor
April 5 2010
Armenia
The Open Swimming Championship for Disabled People will be held on
April 7-12 in Tyumen, Russia, where is reported to participate the
Armenian swimmer.
According to the report by Armenian National Federation for Disabled
people, 15-year-old Margarita Hovakimian will fight for a ticket to
the World Champs 2010, which will take place in August in Holland.