Author: Badalian Vardan

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.

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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

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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.

ARTSVIK MINASYAN: POSITIVE TREND OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IS FICTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 5, 2010 – 15:54 AMT 10:54 GMT

Armenian economy recorded some positive trends, but their qualitative
aspects, unfortunately, have not been visible yet, Artsvik Minasyan,
Deputy Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Financial, Credit and
Budgetary Affairs, ARF Dashnaktsutyun member told a news conference
on March 5.

He said, any crisis and recovering process are characterized by GDP,
state of the financial system, unemployment level and life standards.

"If in a crisis all four indicators are experiencing a sharp decline,
obviously, a positive change of a single indicator, in case of Armenia,
GDP, does not mean the crisis has been overcome," Mr.

Minasyan said. In his opinion, a positive trend without qualitative
impact, and particularly without positive change in the living
standard, is turned to be a fiction.

According to RA Deputy Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan, Armenia’s
economy is undergoing post-crisis recovery. "The country experienced
crisis only in 2009, while 2010 and 2011 are periods of economic
recovery. So in 2011 we will reach the level of GDP per capita of
2008," he assured.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance, Armenia’s economy was not
sufficiently stable, and it had no immunity to withstand external
shocks, which resulted in a deep crisis.

"In the future, we must turn to more flexible economy. The government
has already taken steps to encourage the development of various sectors
of the economy, and 3.1 per cent GDP growth for the first two months
of the year is a result of anti-crisis measures of the government,"
Mr. Aramyan concluded.

Washington pleased with the return of Turkish envoy

armradio.am
03.04.2010 13:47

Spokesman of the United States Department of State, Philip Crowley,
said Friday the U.S. was pleased with Turkey’s decision to send back
Ambassador Namik Tan to Washington, D.C.

In a daily press conference, Crowley said that "Turkey and the U.S.
had a strategic relationship".

There are many things we can do together with Turkey and the presence
of the Turkish ambassador in Washington, D.C. will make our
relationship more effective, Crowley said.

Turkey had recalled its Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Namik Tan after
the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States House of
Representatives adopted an Armenian Genocide Resolution on March 4.

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
April 2 2010

Azeri official says "military intervention" possible in disputed
territory issue

Istanbul, 2 April: An Azerbaijani presidential executive said on
Friday [2 April] that Azerbaijan might bring a military intervention
on the table regarding Upper Karabakh dispute if peaceful means
failed.

Ramiz Mehdiyev, head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration,
said that Azerbaijan preferred to solve Upper Karabakh dispute
peacefully.

"However, we may bring other means, and military intervention, onto
table in the future if necessary and if these peaceful means failed,"
Mehdiyev told editors-in-chief of newspapers and TV channels in
Istanbul.

Mehdiyev said Azerbaijan was losing its patience and said Armenia was
Russia’s support in the Balkans and Russia had to be more sincere in
solving this problem.

"The United States was also supporting Armenia," Mehdiyev said.

"If there had been no-one behind Armenia, it would have withdrawn from
Upper Karabakh," Mehdiyev said.

Also, Mehdiyev said signature of protocols between Turkey and Armenia
would not harm Turkish-Azerbaijani relations because the two were
sister countries.

Mehdiyev said Azerbaijan and Turkey would discuss lifting visa
procedures, and come to a conclusion soon.

Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan in 1988.

In 1992 and 1993, Armenia occupied Azerbaijani territories in Upper
Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire in 1994.

The cochairs of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe) Minsk Group – Russia, France and the USA – are currently
holding the peace negotiations.