Author: Badalian Vardan

IRAN: LAWYERS SEEK REVERSAL IN SECOND "U.S. SPY" CASE
Omid Memarian

Inter Press Service

May 26 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, May 26 (IPS) – In a case that human rights activists
say echoes that of recently released journalist Roxana Saberi, the
Iranian government has imprisoned a woman employed by a U.S.-based
non-profit organisation working to improve child and maternal health
in the country, alleging that she acted as a spy for the United States.

Silva Haratounian, an Iranian citizen of Armenian descent, held a
modest position with the International Research & Exchanges Board
(IREX), which focuses on international education, academic research,
professional training and technical assistance.

Her work and life were interrupted on Jun. 26, 2008 when she was
detained by Iranian authorities and charged with participating in
an effort to overthrow the Iranian government through a "velvet
revolution." On Jan. 19, 2009, she was sentenced to three years
in jail.

"Haratounian is completely innocent and has not committed any
crime," Abdolfattah Soltani, a human rights lawyer in Tehran who is
representing Haratounian, told IPS.

"She told me she had lost 11 kilogrammes in one month," he
said. "Though she has not been physically hurt, she has had to endure
a lot of psychological hardship."

On May 11, a three-judge panel announced that the revolutionary court
that convicted Roxana Saberi, an American Iranian journalist who was
held in Tehran’s Evin prison for more than three months, had charged
her under the wrong section of Iran’s criminal code.

Saberi was initially sentenced to eight years in prison after being
convicted of "cooperating with a hostile state", but the appeals court
overturned that verdict on the grounds that Iran and the United States
cannot be described as states that are hostile to each other in the
legal sense of being at war.

Haratounian was sentenced under the same section of Iran’s penal code,
making her family and lawyers hopeful that an appeals court could
overturn the verdict.

"I believe suspects such as Roxana Saberi and Silva Haratounian
and people in other similar cases have not committed any crimes,
rather, these are cases which have been reviewed with a very harsh,
personal, and unique approach of certain judges and some intelligence
operatives based on their interpretation of the laws," said Soltani
in a telephone interview.

Soltani said that many defendants are perfectly willing to be tried
in a public court, "So why don’t they do it? If [prosecutors] have
evidence, why would they cut the suspects off from the outside world
during early interrogation stages, preventing their contact with their
attorneys? Why don’t they let them contact their families? Why are
they isolated and forced to accept whatever the interrogators want
them to accept?"

In December 2007, Haratounian responded to a newspaper advertisement
and was hired as an administrative assistant, working for IREX on a
maternal and child health education exchange programme.

A few days after Saberi’s release earlier this month, Haratounian’s
mother, Nvart Moradkhan, told IPS by telephone, "This is good news
for Silva, right? The two cases are similar, and we should hear some
positive news about Silva soon."

Haratounian’s ailing mother is the only person who can visit her
weekly. "Her health is deteriorating," said Moradkhan. "She has lost
so much weight. Her hair is all gray, she looks very old. She is very
depressed. She has a lot of health problems, [including an] ulcer,
and had asked the attorney to ask for doctors."

"Silva Haratounian is an innocent victim of the Intelligence Ministry’s
obsession with finding American spies," Hadi Ghaemi, coordinator of
the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based
group, told IPS.

"She was simply an administrator for an American NGO doing a project
in Iran and the Iranian government was aware of its activities. She
was unfairly prosecuted based on the same indictment that Roxana
Saberi received an eight-year sentence for originally, and then the
appeals court threw out that indictment."

"Standards of justice need to be consistent in Iran and if Saberi’s
appeals court ruled the U.S. is not an ‘enemy government’ then
Haratounian should be released too because her conviction is based
on the same article of the law," Ghaemi said.

Paige Alexander, vice president of IREX, told IPS that the government
has thus far failed to respond to letter sent by the organisation
appealing for Haratounian’s release.

"We have coordinated with a number of different lawyers on this case
and we have been working tirelessly to bring attention to Silva’s
plight through the formulation of the website,
press outreach and other public and private religious and diplomatic
efforts," Alexander said.

"Having had IREX attend meetings in Iran at the government’s request
before, we believed that this modest programme was a proper vehicle
to start reaching out to Iran in a non-controversial way," she noted.

"IREX never imagined that anyone could construe this programme to
be inconsistent with any interest of the Iranian government and
since the purpose of the programme was to have Iranian and American
participants enhance their knowledge of best practices in this field,
IREX believed this was completely consistent with Iran’s national
interest," she said.

In July 2008, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had declared
that "contacts between Iranians and the American people will be a
useful step for better understanding of the two nations," according
to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

"IREX attempted to model the MCHEEP programme on other programmes
which we believed had been sanctioned by the Iranian government,"
explained Alexander.

Haratounian’s attorneys are now in the last phase of her appeal.

"I am hopeful Silva Haratounian’s three-year jail term will be reversed
in a trial with educated and experienced judges," Soltani said.

ARMENIAN-AZERI FILMS SERIES – "FAREWELL TO ARMS: FROM BELFAST TO BALKANS"

Panorama.am
18:07 26/05/2009

"Farewell to Arms: From Belfast to Balkans" film series presentation by
"Internews" NGO took place today. The films are produced in the frames
of "World of Conflicts" project. Nune Sargsyan the president of the NGO
told that the films have joint Armenian-Azeri production. Six films
are included covering various European conflicts and the mechanisms
to overcome them.

"Between pain and hope" film tells about Bosnia, "At the edge of
trust" is about Northern Ireland, "Undeparted island" tells about
Cyprus conflict, "Islands of success" film is about Alands’ conflict,
etc. N. Sargsyan said that Armenian and Azeri colleagues took part
in the production of the films.

ICG: OPTIMISM ABOUT NORMALIZATION OF TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS FADED

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
26.05.2009 11:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Optimism about the normalization of Turkey-Armenia
bilateral relations, so prevalent on 22 April when the two countries
announced that they had agreed on a comprehensive framework for
reconciliation, has suddenly faded, Sabine Freizer, Caucasus
project director of the International Crisis Group wrote in "The
EU-Turkey-Cyprus Triangle: "Time for Turkey to Be Visionary in
S. Caucasus" article in Greek News Online.

The article goes on: "Normalization would include opening of the
Turkey-Armenia border, establishing diplomatic relations, and setting
up of bilateral commissions to deal with multiple issues, including
the historical dimension of their relations. It first seemed that
these steps could be accomplished by Autumn 2009. Now they may be
delayed for years.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan put a brake on the reconciliation
effort when in Baku on 13 May, he did not mince his words: "the
closure of the [Turkey-Armenia] border is a result of the [Armenian]
occupation in Karabakh […] until the occupation ends, the border
gates will remain closed."

Since 1993, Turkey has maintained a policy of keeping its border
with Armenia closed until Armenian forces withdraw largely due to
its wish to express its respect for historical and ethnic ties with
Azerbaijan. The closed-border policy had no impact on Armenia’s
Nagorno-Karabakh stance, and arguably made Armenia less likely
to withdraw in exchange for peace; Turkey’s threatening posture
did however cost it considerable political capital in the U.S. and
Europe. But in 2008, after several years of secretive talks between
Turkey and Armenia, it seemed as though Ankara had foresightedly
de-linked its relations with Armenia from the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Turkey appeared ready to re-open its border with Armenia as
part of a broader normalization package with its immediate neighbor –
in exchange for Yerevan’s recognition of Turkey’s current borders and
participation in a commission to analyze their historical differences,
including about the great massacre of Ottoman Armenians of 1915.

This visionary policy shift not only had the potential to help resolve
one of the most strained relationships between two European countries
since World War I but also to open new transport and communication
links in the strategic South Caucasus. It was backed by Russia,
and even more strongly by U.S. President Obama during his visit to
Turkey in March.

For Turkey, breaking with its former tried and failed policy,
normalizing with Armenia offers an opportunity to become a strategic
player in the South Caucasus. It has had success in establishing
discussions through a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform,
but it will have difficulty promoting and leading this as long as
it blockades one of the countries that participates. It wants to
cooperate as equal partners with Russia in the South Caucasus, in
political and economic spheres, but it will be limited unless it is
seen as even handed.

Russia, which has signed a collective security arrangement with
Armenia, has understood this over the past several months and
repeated its overtures to Azerbaijan in a host of fields. Turkey is
interested in supporting the ongoing OSCE Minsk Process to resolve
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but it cannot be a neutral broker
while it openly supports one of the conflicting sides. Finally an
open Turkey-Armenia border is likely to have the immediate effect
of ending Armenian perceptions of encirclement by hostile Turkic
peoples, and making them more likely to withdraw from territories
around Nagorno-Karabakh now retained as security guarantees. These
are the messages that Turkey’s leaders should be sending to their
Azerbaijani counterparts, rather than nationalist pledges to remain
"one nation in two states."

Instead, Turkey seems on the verge of giving up these benefits,
halting the momentum towards reconciliation and returning to its
traditional positions. This strengthens arguments that it only
used the promise of normalization in its talks with Armenia to
delay U.S. genocide recognition, especially by President Obama,
on 24 April. But Turkey should not allow its Armenia policy to be
held hostage to the Nagorno-Karabakh stalemate or to Azerbaijani
blackmail. Baku is now threatening to sell natural gas from its
still-to-be-developed Shahdeniz 2 field to Russia, instead of Turkey,
but it is likely to do this regardless of Turkey’s relations with
Armenia, if Russia offers it a better pricing and transit deal.

There is no doubt that progress on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict would enhance Turkey’s ability to normalize relations with
Armenia and stability in the South Caucasus. But Ankara’s best chance
of bringing a new positive momentum to the process is precisely by
normalizing with Armenia. It is quite wrong in believing that with
its traditional policy it can have any impact on the talks mediated
since 1992 by the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its French, Russian and
U.S. co-chairs, and more specifically since 2005 with the aim of
obtaining agreement on a 2-3 page document on basic principles.

Regarding Nagorno-Karabakh, the best that can be expected any time
this year is agreement on these basic principles, and the mediators
sound optimistic about a possible breakthrough. Another meeting of the
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents is expected in Saint Petersburg
around 4-6 June. But there is a long-running stalemate over several
issues, including the modalities of a plan to hold a referendum to
determine Nagorno-Karabakh’s final status and the status and size
of a possible corridor linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia in the
Lachin district. Once an agreement on basic principles is signed,
lengthy and difficult talks await the sides to reach a comprehensive
settlement leading to the start of actual withdrawals.

If Turkey plans to wait until this occurs, it will remain on the
sidelines for many years to come in the South Caucasus, allowing
the U.S., EU and especially Russia to maintain the lead in its own
backyard."

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER: "OSCE MINSK GROUP FAILS TO ACHIEVE IMPROVEMENT IN THE SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT"

APA
May 25 2009
Azerbaijan

Damascus – APA. "OSCE Minsk Group fails to achieve improvement in the
settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict," Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said, APA reports. Ahmet Davutoglu, who is in Damascus
to attend the 36th meeting of OIC Foreign Ministers Council, said
after the meeting he would leave for Baku together with Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

"We will leave for Baku together with Mr. Elmar Mammadyarov. Azerbaijan
is our brotherly country, with which we always have close relations
and share the same fate. It was so in the past and will be so in
future. Let no one doubt it. After the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus I will pay my first official foreign visit to Azerbaijan,"
he said.

Ahmet Davutoglu said he would meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev in Baku: "I will meet with President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku. We will discuss all issues,
including Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Activeness is felt in Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, which remains frozen for 17 years. Armenia’s keeping
Azerbaijan’s territories under occupation is not the situation meeting
the interests of both Turkey and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani and Armenian
Presidents will have meetings soon in various formats. We hope that
this activeness will result with a solution satisfying all parties of
the frozen conflict". Ahmed Davudoglu said he shared the views told
by Azerbaijani officials about the OSCE Minsk Group: "The history
also proves the justness of these views, because no progress has been
achieved in solution of the conflict during the past period. It’s
time to take out this issue from the status of the frozen conflict.

Turkey will continue its endeavors in this direction".

Instead of border opening, Armenia must require security blanket from
Turkey

It would be naive and dangerous to consider that on the other side of
Ararat there live people, who are looking forward to peace and
friendly relations with us.
21.05.2009 GMT+04:00

Normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, that has been much spoken
about lately, simply does not exist. There are only various meetings
organized between diplomats, representatives of community and
others. Presidents of the two countries may once more meet within the
framework of the football match between the Turkish and Armenian teams
in Kayseri. And the entire normalization process will be concluded at
this. The whole intrigue is reduced to the plot of what to do: not to
pay attention to the powers that have made up their minds to reconcile
every state in the region in order to then launch a war for a new
repartition of influence spheres or to agree on the conditions
proposed.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Meanwhile, it is important to bear in mind that evil
peace is better than a good war. But there is also another danger for
Turkey and Armenia: the desire of Kurds to at any cost join hands with
Armenians, which would be a painless job with the boundary
open. According to Ankara’s version, once the Armenian-Turkish, or –
to be more exact – the Armenian-Kurdish boundary is open, there will
begin the commerce of weapons, exchange of militants, and as a result
Armenia will share the fare of Northern Iraq. Turkey has thoroughly
counted this version, but it’s difficult to say how official Yerevan
pictures this, since cases of information leak are more frequent in
Turkey than in Armenia. Under the conditions of total secrecy of
Armenian-Turkish negotiations and occasionally appearing `analytical’
surveys, it becomes difficult to judge how deeply Yerevan realizes the
`advantages’ and the `charms’ of the open border.
If we take as basis the pessimistic version, we can forecast that no
one in the world will stir a finger to help Armenia, like in 1915,
when, however, we drew no lesson. It would be naive and dangerous to
consider that on the other side of Ararat there live people, who are
looking forward to peace and friendly relations with us. Armenia may
simply drive herself into just another trap, similar to the one into
which the Dashnaks drove themselves in 1908, by supporting the Young
Turks who had actually given carte blanche for extermination of our
nation.
There is also a less pessimistic view: Armenia slowly dissolves in
Turkey or Kurdistan, undertaking nothing, but wants to survive. This
way leads if not to an instantaneous destruction, at least to a
complete assimilation in a maximum of a couple of generations. There
are still some Armenians living in the desolate villages of Western
Armenia. They remember their origins, but know no single word in
Armenian, and naturally, practice Islam. Alas, no optimistic view can
be expected in the current situation: we are few in number, we are
deserted, we have not finally formulated our national idea, and
lastly, we do not have a statesman, similar to Ataturk. It sounds
unpleasant, sad, but it is so.
Of no less importance is the economic factor. In all probability,
Armenia will gain outlet to the Black sea ports, such as to
Trabzon. But to what extent will the safety of loads and the security
of their attendants be guaranteed against the background of the splash
of nationalism and the caught-in-war regions of the Turkish and
Kurdish militants? It is difficult to picture a more incorrect and a
more inconvenient way, saturated with high prices for the transit. The
tariffs will definitely be established Turkey, and how she is able to
dictate her will can be easily seen by the example of Nabucco. It is
not even excluded that transportation through Georgia, under the
entire unpredictability of Georgian authorities and Russian pressure,
will cost considerably less than under the `open’ Armenian-Turkish
boundary.
As a matter of principle, instead of normalization of diplomatic
relations and border opening, which, by the way, is of no value in
itself, Armenia must require security blanket from Turkey. And because
it is impractical to require safety from Ankara, Armenia has no choice
but to rely only on herself.

MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS TO VISIT CAUCASUS TO PREPARE ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN SUMMIT

Interfax
May 21 2009
Russia

The co-chairmen of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe’s Minsk Group, brokering the Karabakh conflict, will visit the
region before the end of May, French Co-Chairman Bernard Facier told
Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian in Brussels.

Facier said the goal of the visit is to prepare talks between the
Armenian and Azeri presidents, the Armenian Foreign Ministry informed
Interfax on Thursday.

Facier briefed Nalbandian on the outcome of the meeting in Baku.

The parties also discussed the negotiating process.

Nalbandian was in Brussels on a working visit and attended a meeting
of the North Atlantic Council’s 28+1 meeting.

SESSION OF CIS PRIME MINISTERS KICKS OFF IN ASTANA

ARMENPRESS
May 22, 2009

ASTANA, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS: Session of CIS Prime Ministers kicked
off today in the "Chamber of Independence" of Astana, capital of
Kazakhstan in which the Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
also takes part. In the session only Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are
presented on vice Prime Minister’s level.

Within the frameworks of the one-day session the Prime Ministers have
launched discussions on 18 draft documents. The meeting with restricted
staff was followed with the extended session at the beginning of which
the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov greeted the guests.

The most important issue discussed during the extended session referred
to the CIS socio-economic development strategy by 2020, in which the
objectives and issues of CIS states over the economic integration are
indicated and main cooperation directions in the economic sphere are
pointed out.

The document key objectives are to give a new impetus to the
development of CIS economies, to ensure a sustainable and balanced
economic growth, economic security as well as to increase the
livelihood level of the population.

CIS Prime Ministers will also review the plan of actions of the first
2009-2011 round of this strategy. The document also intends to expand
the cooperation in the production sphere, to promote the inter-state
projects particularly in energy, transport and agro re-procession
sphere.

In parallel to this a great attention is paid to the production of
compatible products and development of information technologies. In
the document refer is also made to the social sphere particularly to
ensuring the employment of population through establishment of new
job places, labor migration.

Special chapters of the draft refer to enhancement of cooperation
in the sphere of trade, stock market, financial sector, environment
protection and other issues.

One of the most important aspects of cooperation of CIS states is
the humanitarian sphere. During the session discussions have also
been held round the program of events of 2009-2010 cooperation of
the CIS states in the humanitarian sphere.

The CIS states also pay a special attention to fighting against crime.

During the session the CIS Prime Ministers will make decision on
making a jubilee joint medal on the 65th anniversary of victory in
the World War II. The social issues of veterans of war and people
equal to them have also been paid attention to.

During press conference Karim Masimov assessed the cooperation of
CIS states as satisfactory noting that the cooperation between the
states does not carry a fictive character.

It has been noted that on all the 18 discussed documents corresponding
decisions have been made. The next session was decided to be held in
November this year in the town of Yalta, Ukraine.

MTS CLOSED DOWN 7 REGIONAL BRANCHES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 13:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Mobile TeleSystems" OJSC has closed 7 regional
branches in St. Petersburg, Maritime and Krasnodar Territories,
as well as Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.

The company operates a regional-market management structure, and
branches close down in all towns where macro-regional headquarters
are based.

MTS is Russia’s largest mobile operator (as of April, 2009, it had
over 97.4 million subsidiaries in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Armenia and Belarus).

He company’s biggest shareholder is AFK system, which possesses 52.8%
of shares, with 46.7% being in free circulation. As of April 2008,
the company’s pure income comprised USD 1.93 billion (US GAAP),
with proceeds making up 10,245 billion.

WEST SHARES RESPONSIBILITY WITH ARMENIAN PRESIDENT FOR EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN OUR COUNTRY, REPRESENTATIVE OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS [ANC] THINKS

ArmInfo
2009-05-21 13:13:00

ArmInfo. The West shares responsibility with Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan for everything happening in our country, representative of
Armenian National Congress [ANC] David Shakhnazaryan said at today’s
press-conference.

He also added there are many cases of violence against journalists,
pressure upon witnesses on the political law suits is taking place
under the support of the president and Europe is aware of it. At
the same time Shakhnazaryan said they will do everything possible
the mass violation of human rights in our country to be given the
relevant assessment in Europe.

Commenting on the speaker of the parliament Hovik Abrahamyan’s
statement about discharging of plotical prisoners, Shaknazaryan
said that such statements are just an attempt "to show off" Europe,
as the authorities have been speaking about it over a year.

PRIME MINISTER OF ARMENIA CONDOLES WITH DEATH OF FAMOUS JOURNALIST AYDIN MORIKYAN

ArmInfo
2009-05-20 11:57:00

ArmInfo. Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan condoled with
death of famous journalist Aydin Morikyan.

Governmental press-service reported the telegram of condolence in
particular says that the premier sends his deep condolences to the
family and friends of the famous journalist. ‘His name was closely
connected with Artsakh Movement, restoration and development of the
Armenian independent statehood.

He was among those intellectuals who were with the people and exerted
genuine efforts to make their expectancies true. Aydin Morikyan
created and headed the editorial of the Hayastani Harapetutyun
daily. He worked at other mass media making great contribution to
establishment of free press in our country’, the telegram says.