Author: Badalian Vardan

DARCHINYAN MAY DEFEND IN ARMENIA

The Sweet Science
Sept 2 2009

YEREVAN , ARMENIA (September 2, 2009) -The President of the Republic
of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, received Gary Shaw, promoter of World
Super Flyweight Champion Vic Darchinyan, Darchinyan and Gagik
Tsarukyan, President of Armenia’s Olympic Committee, on Tuesday in
the Presidential Palace located in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

Shaw informed President Sargsyan that he plans to organize a
Darchinyan world title fight in Armenia for spring 2010. Darchinyan,
a two-division world champion, is a native of Armenia.

"Armenia has never hosted a professional boxing event much less a world
championship fight, so who better to headline than Armenia’s No. 1
sports personality, Vic Darchinyan," said Shaw. "President Sargsyan
expressed his readiness to assist in the implementation of this
event. He also expressed confidence that it would attract thousands of
Armenian boxing fans and would be an excellent opportunity to present
Armenia to the world since this would be televised internationally. I
look forward to promoting this historic event and I thank Vic and
Elias Nasser for their continued support as friends and partners. It
is because of them that I am afforded this wonderful opportunity."

TURKISH PARLIAMENT TO RATIFY PROTOCOLS IN CASE COUNTRY’S LEADERSHIP MAKES POLITICAL DECISION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.09.2009 21:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Preliminary signature of Protocols will be followed
by internal discussions of documents, revealing variety of opinions in
Armenian and Turkish societies and political circles, YSU lecturer,
Turkish studies expert Ruben Melkonyan told today a news conference
in Yerevan.

According to him, the main pro-opposition forces strongly criticize
normalization process, as that may "infringe Azerbaijan’s interests".

Ratification of documents by both countries’ parliaments will impart
a new impulse to the process, Armenian expert said, adding that
proportion of forces in Turkish parliament shows the likelihood of
ratifying the documents.

However, he did not rule out the contrary process, considering Turkish
analysts’ reports on Premier Erdogan’s yesterday’s statement that
Turkish parliament will not ratify documents unless Karabakh conflict
is resolved.

TURKISH FM SAYS ANKARA IS LONG TO REGULATE TIES WITH ARMENIA

Panorama.am
14:32 02/09/2009

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a meeting with
the President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Mehmet Ali
Talatin. The Turkish FM and the President gave joint press conference,
where Mr. Davutoglu talked about Armenian-Turkish relations and the
processes round it, Turkish "CNN Turk" reports.

Turkish FM said that they are determined to regulate ties with Armenia
as Ankara adopted "zero problems with neighbors" policy.

According to the source, Davutoglu stressed that Turkey will make
efforts to regulate ties both with Armenia and Cyprus to establish
stable peace.

SUMMIT OF HEADS OF DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS IN YEREVAN: NEW MEETINGS UNDER WAY

Panorama.am
13:55 02/09/2009

Summit of the heads of diplomatic missions has been launched in
Yerevan. The members of the summit will have a meeting with the
National Assembly Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan, Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan, Secretary of Security Council Arthur Baghdasaryan and
Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobian, Armenian MFA PR department reports.

According to the source, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan will sum
up the results of the meeting at news conference.

It’s worth reminding that the summit has been launched yesterday. The
heads of the diplomatic mission and officials of Foreign Ministry
held lectures on "Armenia and foreign world" in Institutes of Yerevan.

BAKU INCITES DISCONTENT IN ISTANBUL

Aysor
Sept 2 2009
Armenia

Against the growth of hysteria caused by Armenian-Turkish bilateral
diplomatic ties starting the Azerbaijani authorities are taking real
steps to simulating and activating the opposition mood in Turkey.

According to the leadership of the State Civil Aviation Administration
of Azerbaijan learned by Aysor.am, the heads of several NGOs, the
youth party offices, the deputies of the Parliament of Azerbaijan –
all of them are sent to Istanbul from Baku. These events take place
for the second day in a row and repeat March scenario totally. Those
groups are equipped with pre-prepared lists of ‘sympathetic’ and huge
sums of cash.

The seconded have the task to conduct active operations in Turkey
in case to organize protest rallies and publications aimed against
government. These must be organized in a combinatorial space including
the Internet.

Operation is supervised by Ali Hasanov – wide-known person specially
authorized by the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan. He is also
known as a Curator of refugees, media, international communications,
public relations on Armenian direction.

According to the same source, transferred from Baku Azerbaijani
"informational and psychological landing party" is carried out by
regular flights of "AZAL". However there are additional flights
scheduled on September 3 and 4.

GERMAN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ARMENIA TO BECOME CONSISTENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.09.2009 16:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ James Macbeth Forbes, director of GTZ programs
and Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of Germany in Armenia Melanie
Moltmann visited Armenian National Assembly’s Standing committee
on Financial-Credit and Budgetary issues to provide the staff with
computer equipment.

According to the press office of the RA Parliament, after expressing
the gratitude of the Armenian Parliament, Deputy Speaker of the RA
Parliament Samvel Nikoyan noted GTZ assistance initiatives proved to
be effective and successful. Mr. Nikoyan expressed hope that bilateral
cooperation with the Parliament of Armenia will be consistent.

In turn, chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit
and Budgetary issues Gagik Minasyan stressed that they had accumulated
extensive experience in effectively work with the Germany company.

Melanie Moltmann highlighted the activities of the committee, in
particular, in monitoring the execution of the state budget, while
expressing readiness to assist.

TURKEY, ARMENIA ONE STEP CLOSER TO OPEN BORDER

Hurriyet Daily News
Sept 1 2009
Turkey

Turkey and Armenia declared their intention to restore diplomatic
relations in a joint statement issued Monday night. Now both
governments, targeted by nationalists, have six weeks to convince
the public at home prior to the signing of two official agreements

ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION: President Gul went to Armenia last year
unconditionally, said Davutoglu in an interview on a national news
channel.

Ending nearly a century-old animosity, Turkey and Armenia declared
late Monday that they have agreed to restore diplomatic ties and open
their sealed border.

Operating under Swiss mediation, the two neighboring countries
announced their intension to sign two protocols, one to establish
diplomatic relations and the other to develop bilateral ties, within
six weeks.

The historic move would ensure Armenian President Serge Sarkisian’s
visit to Turkey in October for the Turkey-Armenia World Cup qualifying
match.

"The two protocols provide a framework for the normalization of
bilateral relations within a reasonable timeframe. The political
consultations will be completed within six weeks, following which
the two protocols will be signed and submitted to the respective
parliaments for ratification by each side. Both sides will make
their best efforts for the timely progression of the ratification
in line with their constitutional and legal procedures," read the
joint statement.

The protocols will enter into force only after a ratification
process. According to Turkish constitutional law, the Parliament’s
ratification and presidential approval are required. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that "the protocols will not come
into force without the ratification of the Parliament."

Informing the public about the developments, Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said the move was in line with the government’s
zero-problems-with-neighbors policy. "Our main goal is to surround
Turkey with a safe environment that is a source not of crisis but of
stability," he said in an interview with NTV on Tuesday.

Parallel tracks

Turkey and Armenia agreed to a road map April 22, one day before
the traditional U.S. presidential statement on the mass killings of
Armenians during World War I. However, due to the strong Azerbaijani
reaction, Turkey had to subsequently declare that "the border
could be opened only after the withdrawal of Armenian troops from
Nagorno-Karabakh."

When asked whether Turkey has changed its policy again and will open
the border unconditionally, Davutoglu said that "Turkey was envisaging
parallel tracks and it was impossible to sustain the normalization
process without a comprehensive reconciliation in the region."

The foreign minister did not, however, entirely rule out the
possibility of opening the border before an interim solution had been
reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Turkey tried to alleviate Azerbaijani concerns over the weekend by
sending two of its top diplomats to Baku to inform them about the
process. "Turkey would never do something to the disadvantage of its
Azerbaijani brothers," Davutoglu said.

"Nothing is more important than Turkish-Azerbaijani friendship,"
the foreign minister added. "We guarantee that the protocols issued
yesterday will not harm the national interests of Azerbaijan. It is
a basic principle. On the contrary, it will accelerate putting an
end to the occupation [of Azerbaijani land]."

Noting that President Abdullah Gul had visited Armenia last year
unconditionally, Davutoglu said it was their right to ask the same
thing from the Armenian leader. Sarkisian has urged Turkey to open
the border or show a sign of intent to do so if it wants him to come
to Turkey to watch the match.

Lobbying at home and abroad

The six-week period designed for political consultations will
be a key lobbying window for Turkish diplomats both at home and
abroad. "Acceptance by society is important. Political leaders will
express the details to the public within domestic consultations,"
Davutoglu said.

The foreign minister, who met with the different political parties
to inform them about foreign-policy issues, is planning to brief
opposition leaders on the latest developments as well. "I can start
a second informative consultation process when I return to Turkey,"
he added. "It is not necessary to hold [bilateral] talks at the same
quick pace since we’ve reached an agreement."

Davutoglu’s comments hinted that lobbying efforts would be increased
in the international arena.

"Over the next six weeks, we will conduct work in this direction with
the international community as well," he said. "In order to make the
efforts known, we will hold talks at every level, including with the
Minsk Group, which is related to the Azerbaijani-Armenian track."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will bring the issue to the agenda
of the U.N. General Assembly.

In the forthcoming talks with world leaders, both Erdogan and
Davutoglu intend to stress that both the Azerbaijani-Armenian and
Turkish-Armenian tracks should improve in parallel with each other
since a comprehensive solution is required to address the frozen
conflicts in the Caucasus.

"To establish a sustainable and permanent peace is also
a responsibility of the international community, such as the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [or OSCE] and
the U.N. It necessitates protection of the unity of Azerbaijan," the
Turkish foreign minister said. "We will push both the international
community and Yerevan for a solution in the Minsk talks."

Davutoglu briefed OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairman and French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner about the latest developments and the
Turkish vision in a phone conversation Tuesday.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana hailed the agreement
between Armenia and Turkey as a "crucial step" toward ending their
decades-long dispute. "I welcome yesterday’s agreement between
Turkey and Armenia to start internal political consultations… for
establishing diplomatic relations," Solana said in a statement
issued Tuesday.

DENYING THE ‘OTHER’ HOLOCAUST
By Marilyn Henry

Asbarez
enying-the-other-holocaust/
Aug 31, 2009

Ten years ago, I was in Armenia for Genocide Memorial Day. Armenians
from their "galut" around the world had come to Yerevan to participate
with local citizens in the solemn commemoration. I was with a group
that came from the US, including Henry Morgenthau III. He was there
because the government intended to honor his grandfather, the first
Henry, who as the US ambassador to Constantinople in 1915 had raised
the alarm about the Armenian genocide.

The Morgenthaus and I were Jews among the Armenians. After a week
together, however, it was hard to remember that the Armenians
weren’t Jews. We have much in common: lost families, lost homes,
lost countries, lost languages, lives as minorities, a diaspora,
fears of assimilation, factions in religious practice – and genocide,
as well as foes who would deny that the genocide ever happened.

But this also is where Jews and Armenians part. No civilized society
will tolerate Holocaust denial. Nearly a century later, however,
denial of the Armenian genocide persists, and it pops up in the most
unexpected places.

Most recently it was in the federal appeals court in California. In
a ruling on August 20, two members of a three-judge appellate panel
did not quite deny the Armenian genocide; it was more like "genocide
squelching." At issue was one of a handful of California laws that
collectively extended the statutes of limitations so that Nazi victims,
including slave laborers, as well as victims of the Armenian genocide,
would have additional time to file various claims for redress from
human rights abuses and other losses.

The Armenians were seeking insurance payments from the period in the
waning days of the Ottoman Empire during which they were deported
and massacred by the Turks. This was akin to efforts within the
Jewish community in the last decade to recover insurance payments
for policies written during the Nazi era.

Jewish insurance claims were handled by an international commission
chaired by former US secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger. Armenians
fended for themselves. Claims from the Ottoman/World War I era were
handled by lawyers who dealt with individual insurance companies. The
American insurer New York Life and the French company AXA reached
settlements with the Armenians.

The case in federal court in California pits Armenians against German
insurance companies. (Let’s put aside for this discussion that German
enterprises should be sensitive to any claim related to genocide,
or that it was Hitler who blithely predicted that no one would
remember the fate of the Armenians.) The German insurers resisted
any discussion of claims, including the possibility of humanitarian
settlements with payments to charitable institutions, said Brian
Kabateck, the Los Angeles attorney representing the Armenians.

The German companies argued that US presidential foreign policy
prohibits legislative recognition of an "Armenian genocide." Although
more than 40 American states have policies on the Armenian genocide,
there is no federal policy recognizing it. Each time in recent years
that a congressional resolution appeared likely to affirm that the
genocide had occurred, the Bush and Clinton administrations argued
against it, saying it would hurt American foreign policy by offending
Turkey, a key ally. The Turks have never recognized the genocide;
they refer to an Armenian revolt.

In a very broad statement that went far beyond California’s laws on
claims deadlines, the federal appellate panel concluded that "there
is an express federal policy prohibiting legislative recognition of an
‘Armenian genocide.’"

"By using the phrase ‘Armenian genocide,’ California has defied the
president’s foreign policy preferences," the panel ruled.

It was not swayed by the fact that the federal government has
not expressly prohibited states from using the phrase "Armenian
genocide." And the US government did not participate in this case,
so its position on how states treat the genocide is entirely unclear.

Kabateck, the Los Angeles attorney, vowed to appeal to
the full appellate court, saying the two judges’ ruling was
"genocide-squelching." "The court says the words ‘Armenian genocide’
when said by any state or local government violates the foreign powers
of the US government and is unconstitutional," he said. "Taken to its
logical extreme, if these two judges are correct, no state or local
government in the United States may use those words in any capacity."

The Court ignored the US record, including president Ronald Reagan’s
1981 proclamation explicitly referring to "the genocide of the
Armenians," said Rouben Adalian, director of the Armenian National
Institute in Washington. "This decision has so many egregious mistakes
it makes one wonder what else was going on. It is frightening to
see how even judges could be so misled into dangerous and really
shameful territory."

There is now concern that the ruling will be used as Turkish
propaganda, and to expand the assault on teaching about the genocide
in American public schools.

In June, a federal judge in Boston rejected a lawsuit filed by several
students, teachers and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
that challenged Massachusetts’ state curriculum. The education
guidelines characterize the World War I-era deaths of Armenians as
genocide. Mark Wolf, the chief judge of the US District Court in
Massachusetts, said the sensitive questions on the historic tragedy
should be debated in the legislature, not the courts.

American Jews don’t face these horrific fights over atrocities and
whether to teach them. New York, New Jersey, California, Florida and
Illinois have laws requiring the teaching of the Holocaust. Ten other
states have regulations recommending Holocaust education. Twelve
states also have Holocaust commissions or councils that support
Holocaust education.

But we surely remember our own battles against Holocaust denial. And
as we are aggressive in protecting our history and in protesting
contemporary atrocities such as in Darfur, so should we protest the
denial of other atrocities of the past.

ARMENIAN CHURCHES IN CRIMEA UNDER THREAT

Panorama.am
10:55 31/08/2009

Armenian Apostolic churches of Archangels Michael and Gabriel; and
St. George located in Crimea (Ukraine) are reported to be in extreme
bad conditions, "Yerkramas" reports.

According to the source neither Armenian Community nor municipal
budget have means to finance recovering activities.

It is said that once 39 churches were constructed in Crimea and only
4 of them stand till today. 15 years ago 3 churches – Archangels
Michael and Gabriel, St. George and St. Sargis were handed to Armenian
Apostolic Church.

Vice President Of VimpelCom OJSC: The Experience Of Management Of A Large Fixed Telephone Network In Armenia Has Proved Useful For VimpelCom In Its Work With Big Corporate Clients

ArmInfo
2009-08-27 19:56:00

ArmInfo. The experience of management of a large fixed telephone
network in Armenia has proved useful for VimpelCom in its work with
big corporate clients, Vice President of VimpelCom Dmitry Pleskonos
said during a video-conference today.

"Armenia is a country where we have a large-scale business in both
fixed and mobile telephony. This is a good opportunity to exchange
experience and knowledge. Some of the services we first introduced
in Armenia were later transferred to Russia. I, first of all,
mean client-oriented convergent solutions, like Balance Transfer,
allowing our customers to pay both fixed and mobile Beeline bills. The
development of fixed networks helps us to more effectively work with
big corporate clients. Fixed networks have large staffs. This is
one more novelty for VimpelCom. As regards Armenia, we realize our
responsibility to the local society and state. And this stimulates
us to work better," Pleskonos said.

ArmenTel is 100% subsidiary of VimpelCom in Armenia. The company
enjoys dominance in fixed telephony and leading positions in mobile
telephony. It also provides internet services.