Author: Badalian Vardan

SERZH SARGSYAN MET JAPANESE EMPEROR AKIHITO

ARMENPRESS
7 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: President of the Republic of Armenia
Serzh Sargsyan on June 7 in Tokyo held a meeting with Japanese Emperor
Akihito. During the talk with Japanese Emperor issues relating to
Armenian-Japanese friendship and cooperation have been discussed.

Armenpress was informed about this from President’s press office.

On June 6 Serzh Sargsyan met Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Armenian President and Japanese PM envisaged the possibilities of
bilateral cooperation development and the enlargement of those ties in
the various fields. The sides both stated the since the establishment
of diplomatic relations Armenian-Japanese relations have developed
in the atmosphere of mutual trust and friendship.

The issues referring to the region conflicts were also dicussed by
high ranking officials, recording the common approaches of the states
on the peaceful settlement of the conflicts.

ARMENIAN BOOK EXHIBITION IN BELARUS

armradio.am
07.06.2012 14:51

An Armenian book exhibition was opened at the branch of the
Presidential Library of Belarus from May 28 to June 6 on the occasion
of the Republic Day. The visitors had an opportunity to watch the
books, articles, photos related to the Armenian history kept in the
archive of the Presidential Library and the Library of the Armenian
Embassy.

Armenian Ambassador Armen Khachatryan presented the most remarkable
episodes of Armenian history and culture, the religious treasury of
Matenadaran and referred to the proclamation of Yerevan as World Book
Capital 2012.

The Ambassador attached importance to the battles of Sardarapat,
Bash-Aparan and Gharakilisa and their role in the establishment and
revival of the Armenian statehood.

SHARMAZANOV RESPONDED TO “EPOCH-MAKING” STATEMENT OF TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER

ARMENPRESS
7 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: Vice President of Armenian National
Assembly reacted to the statement of Turkish foreign Minister:
another “epoch-making” statement made Ahmet Davotoglu who had said:
“when Armenia leaves the occupied territories it will be possible
to establish relations with that country”. Armenpress reports that
reacting to Davutoglu’s speech Vise President of Armenian National
Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov said:

“Turkey stubbornly is going on ignoring his international
responsibilities and distorts reality. It proves one more time that
today concepts Turkey and Euro integration can not be synonyms. To
consent of leaders of countries west from Armenia and east from
Artsakh I would like to state one more time that of course there
are occupied territories and from that territories must get out
Turks and Azerbaijanis. Refreshing the memory of Turkish foreign
ministry leader I would like to inform that his country has occupied
the northern part of Cyprus and Azerbaijan has occupied Shahumyan,
Getashen, Martunashen which are territories of Artsakh Republic…

I consider unacceptable Turkey’s practice to speak with ultimatums
and confirm once again that we are determined to achieve our national
goals”.

STEPAN SAFARYAN – “IS THE U.S. INTERESTED IN ARMENIANS OR OUR STRATEGIC POSITION IN THE REGION”
Narek Alexanyan

hetq
14:22, June 7, 2012

Former Heritage Party MP Stepan Safaryan sounded a note of suspicion
when commenting on the recent one day visit of U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton to Armenia.

“This is the second visit of a U.S. Secretary of State to Armenia
since 2010. Before that it none did. We have to ask ourselves whether
the U.S. is interested in us or our geographic position.”

Safaryan added that on this point Armenia presents a strategic
importance in any Iran related matter.

“Azerbaijan has recently been trying to resolve a psychological
problem, i.e. to show its people that the country is able to do
things regionally and that it has power,” Safaryan said at a press
conference today.

The Heritage Party secretary said that Azerbaijan has also trying
to gauge the reaction of the international community to its recent
military adventures.

Safaryan is convinced that the systematic Armenian responses to
Azerbaijani military moves (killing 5 of their soldiers to our 3
killed) might break their resolve but that it’s not a solution.

It’s not enough, he said, to answer military adventurism with military
moves and that what is needed is to craft a definite geo-political
response strategy and to utilize all possible international levers.

Narek Aleksanyan

Safaryan concluded that if the presence of Hillary Clinton in the
region cannot serve to reign in the actions of Baku, then it means
that either Ilham Aliyev doesn’t give a damn about the West or that
the West itself isn’t all that concerned about how the sides to the
conflict will emerge as a result against the backdrop of developments
in the wider Middle East picture.

ARMENIA MUST RESPOND EQUIVALENTLY TO PREVENT AZERBAIJAN’S DREAMS – FORMER FM

news.am
June 06, 2012 | 21:00

YEREVAN. – The recent events on the Armenian – Azerbaijani border
line are rather concerning, especially given the fact that the
representative of one of the mediator countries on the Karabakh
conflict – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the region,
Armenian former FM Vardan Oskanyan wrote on his Facebook page.

According to him, two factors contributed to the preservation of the
cease fire regime from 1994 until now. The first was the perspective
of settling the conflict through peaceful negotiations. The second
was the military balance between the two parties.

“The biggest concern of today is that Azerbaijan loses faith in
the perspective of peaceful settlement of the conflict due to its
none-realistic maximalist demands and as a result of its bellicose
statements and large expenditures on military equipment Azerbaijan
begins to believe in military advantage,” Oskanyan said.

According to him, the danger lies in the combination of these two
factors. As Oskanyan has stated, Armenia must come up with equivalent
military and political response in order for Azerbaijan to stop
dreaming.

BAKU ACCUSES ARMENIA OF KILLING 5 AZERI SOLDIERS

Today’s Zaman
June 5 2012
Turkey

Azerbaijan accused arch rival Armenia on Tuesday of killing five
soldiers near the two countries’ shared border in the second day of
violence that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned could
spiral into a broader regional conflict.

The violence comes the day after a skirmish on the Azeri-Armenian
border which killed three Armenian soldiers and wounded others on
both sides. Clinton, on a trip to the South Caucasus, voiced concern
that violence could lead to a “broader conflict”.

Tuesday’s skirmish occurred around 06:30 a.m. (0130 GMT). Another
clash killed one more Azeri soldier.

“A group of saboteurs from Armenia undertook an attempt to infiltrate
a position of the Azeri armed forces … In the course of battle
four Azeri soldiers died,” the Defence Ministry of the Muslim oil
producing country’s said in a statement.

Clinton, who visited Armenia on Monday, is due to make a half-day
trip to Azerbaijan on Wednesday.

War between ethnic Azeris and Armenians erupted in 1991 over the
mostly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region, which broke away from Muslim
Azerbaijan with the backing of Christian Armenia as the Soviet Union
collapsed two decades ago.

The latest incidents, however, took place more than 400 kms (250
miles) away from Nagorno-Karabakh, where sporadic violence still
flares along a ceasefire line negotiated in 1994.

Some 30,000 people were killed and about 1 million became refugees,
the majority in Azerbaijan.

Recent years have seen skirmishes around the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline
and the two countries’ shared border, raising fears of a return to
full-blown conflict in the South Caucasus, a vital route for oil and
natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe.

Efforts at reaching a permanent settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict have failed, despite mediation led by France, Russia and
the United States.

CLINTON WARNS OF ‘DISASTROUS’ AZERBAIJAN-ARMENIA CLASHES

Kuwait Times
June 6 2012

BAKU: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday warned of
possible “disastrous consequences” after a flare-up of deadly violence
between ex-Soviet enemies Azerbaijan and Armenia. Clinton held talks
with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku as the reported death
toll in gunbattles between the two neighbors this week rose to nine
amid the worst clashes since 2010. After the talks, she said she was
“deeply concerned about the danger of escalating tension, which could
have unpredictable and disastrous consequences.”

“This cycle of violence and retaliation must end,” she said. Baku and
Yerevan are locked in a bitter unresolved conflict over the disputed
region of Nagorny Karabakh, which Armenia-backed separatists seized
from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the 1990s. An Armenian soldier was
killed in a firefight in Karabakh yesterday, separatist officials
in the region said-an incident that followed the deaths of five
Azerbaijani troops and three Armenians in clashes on their mutual
border on Monday and Tuesday.

The United States is a co-chair with Russia and France of the OSCE
Minsk Group, which was set up after the 1994 Karabakh ceasefire to
help bring a resolution to the conflict. But no peace deal has yet been
signed and the conflict remains unresolved, leaving Armenia suffering
economically from closed borders with Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey,
while Baku has grown richer on its Caspian Sea oil deposits. The United
States has sought to balance its relationship with both countries,
pressed on one side by the large American Armenian community and
Washington’s strategic interests in the Caspian basin on the other.

Clinton visited an oil and gas trade exposition being held in Baku,
highlighting the $8 billion that US energy companies have invested
in Azerbaijan since independence following the break-up of the
Soviet Union. She said later she appreciated “the central role that
Azerbaijan plays in efforts to diversify supplies of oil and gas as
well as the routes over which they are transported.” Azerbaijan sits
astride pipelines that carry oil from the Caspian Sea through Georgia
and Turkey to the Mediterranean, offering a southern alternative to
a northern route through Russia.

Clinton said the United States also supports a proposed new pipeline
that would transport natural gas to Europe, which currently depends
heavily on Russia for gas supplies. During her five-hour stay,
she also met with representatives of civil society groups-a show of
concern for rights and democracy in a country that has been accused
of clamping down on dissent and muzzling free speech. She said she
told Aliyev that fostering a vibrant civil society and democracy was
“essential to the long-term success and prosperity of Azerbaijan.”

“The United States remains strongly committed to working with
the government and people to advance respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms,” she said. “We, as we always do, urge the
government to respect their citizens’ rights to express their views
peacefully and to release those who have been detained for doing so,
in print or on the streets, or for defending human rights.”-AFP

AZERBAIJAN, REBELS TRADE BLAME OVER VIOLENCE, 1 DEAD.

EuroNews

June 6 2012

YEREVAN/BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed rebels traded
accusations on Wednesday over cross border violence that killed one
person, just days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned
it could lead to regional conflict.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused each other of triggering clashes
that have now killed a total of nine people on both sides, prompting
the worries over a resumption of fighting in a region criss-crossed
by energy pipelines to Europe.

Mainly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke away from Muslim
Azerbaijan with the help of Christian Armenia as the Soviet Union
collapsed, accused Baku of trying to infiltrate three rebel military
positions, prompting the skirmish in which one soldier died.

“Subdivisions of the Nagorno-Karabakh army entered into a defensive
battle and threw the enemy back to their original position. As a
result of the battle on the Armenian side one sergeant died and two
men were injured,” the statement from the rebel military said.

Oil-producing Azerbaijan, host to oil majors including BP, Chevron
and ExxonMobil, frequently threatens to take the mountain enclave
back by force, and is spending heavily on its armed forces.

Clinton, who visited Armenia on Monday, voiced concern that the
violence between Azerbaijan and Armenia could lead to a “much broader
conflict”.

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said Armenian forces had violated
a ceasefire along their shared border on two occasions since late
Tuesday, but its forces suffered no losses.

War between ethnic Azeris and Armenians erupted in 1991 over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region. A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but sporadic
violence still flares along Azerbaijan’s borders with Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh has run its own affairs with the heavy military and
financial backing of Armenia since the war, when Armenian-backed
forces seized control of the enclave and seven surrounding Azeri
districts forming a land corridor with Armenia.

(Reporting By Hasmik Lazarian and Lada Yevgrashina, Writing by
Thomas Grove)

AND AGAIN ABOUT RETURN OF 1-2 REGIONS
Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 13:45:23 – 07/06/2012

International Crisis Group European programme director Sabine Freizer
said it is a good moment for work with neighbors and super powers to
reach a peace settlement. Liberation of one or two regions and the
return of displaced persons may be the beginning of this process,
Sabine Freizer said.

There is a price which the mediators expect for the promotion of
“new approaches” toward the Karabakh issue. For the promotion of this
approach more than ten Armenian and Azeri soldiers have already been
killed in the past three days.

Obviously, the new approaches presuppose opening of the border without
settlement. However, Baku demands at least 1-2 regions. Two years ago,
minister of foreign affairs of Turkey Ahmed Davutoglu mentioned this
and called on Armenians in a “fatherly” tone to cede Aghdam and Fizuli
regions, after which Turkey would “convince” Azerbaijan to open the
borders, and Turkey would lift the blockade.

Actually, Clinton’s “new approaches” are Davutoglu’s “old approaches”.

The U.S., along with Baku and Turkey, is trying to seize some Karabakh
territories in exchange for the ephemeral promises by Baku “to think
about recognition”.

The present territory of Karabakh is an inseparable military-strategic
unit. The borders have been set in the result of military-political
planning and any change will end the balance of forces. This is clear
to Azerbaijan too since it is trying to persuade the world community
to break the balance.

On June 17, negotiations on the new approaches will kick off in Paris.

Sabine Freizer has already spelled out the preconditions – 1-2
regions in exchange for an agreement not to violate the ceasefire,
or deployment of “peacekeepers” in the region, or partial opening of
the border. Anyway, Baku will hardly agree to final peace in exchange
for “1-2 regions”.

But Fraiser and Clinton should know that these “1-2 regions” are
too high a price for giving time to Azerbaijan to work out one more
blackmail topic. Armenians had better wait to see who will be the
next U.S. president.

KOTAYK DIOCESE – RESTAURANT AT KECHARIS MONASTERY TO BE DISMANTLED
Ani Hovhannisyan

hetq
16:19, June 6, 2012

Yesterday, the Armenian Apostolic Church Diocese of Kotayk issued a
press statement that construction of a restaurant adjacent to the
Kecharis Monastery had been halted and that the eatery was in the
process of being dismantled.

The Diocese said it was spreading the news in the hope that this would
put an end to the complaints received from people who were arguing
that the Church should not allow such a disgrace in the first place.

Readers will remember that Davit Ghazinyan,who owns the company
constructing the restaurant, got the architectural plans approved in
just one day last year.

The work had started without a work permit from the local Tzaghkadzor
municipality.

The architectural blueprint hadn’t been approved by the Ministry of
Culture’s Cultural Monuments Preservation Agency.

It also turned out that Catholicos Garegin II was aware of the
restaurant construction and that the church wasn’t opposed to it.

Hetq got in touch with Tzaghkadzor Mayor Garoun Mirzoyan who verified
that all construction material was being removed from the site.

We tried to pose some questions to Kotayk Primate Archbishop Karamyan
and Etchmiadzin Public Affairs Director Father Vahram Melikyan.

We were told that a clergy meeting was underway and that no one was
available to speak to us.

Father Melikyan promised to get back to us after the meeting ended.