Author: Badalian Vardan

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
May 5 2012

Songs instead of politics

Alexei Vlasov. Exclusively to VK

In late May Baku will host the 2012 international Eurovision song
contest. The level of preparation is so high that guests of
Azerbaijan’s capital should have no doubts – everything will be
perfect: from welcoming guests to the technical aspect of the project.
At the moment the last preparations are being completed and in few
days a number one state of readiness will be declared.

In the year since the victory of the Azerbaijani duet in the musical
contest, many experts were concerned with the question – how will this
event affect the difficult relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan?
On the one hand, it is a chance for a small step toward each other.
Youth culture in its `global wrapping’ is a thing that should bring
neighbouring countries closer. On the other hand, there were views
that the musical contest-2012 might become a reason for mutual
accusations. In Armenia a serious discussion appeared on the
participation in the contest and broadcasting it in the media. There
is no one point of view. The official position is more `homogeneous.’
But rejection of broadcasting it might put Armenia in a very difficult
situation, and Azerbaijan is not the point here, it is about the rules
of the game, which were not created in Baku.

Here the question arises – is it necessary to unite politics and a
musical party artificially? Probably Eurovision 2012 should be
considered as a way to turn away from the past for some time and see
that the new generation of 16-20 year-old people has different values
and priorities. From this point of view, the contest gives a splendid
opportunity for rejecting stereotypes of the past and looking to the
future, where popular culture and modern communications make borders
between countries disappear. Armenian-Turkish dialogue started from
football diplomacy, and sport cannot be blamed for postponing
ratification of the protocols.

The authorities of any country in such cases should consider an
obvious factor – isolation from an event which is a part of global
trends means staying far away from the development process.

The address and answers of the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Edward Nalbandian and Luis Almagro, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Uruguay during the joint press conference

04.05.2012

Good afternoon.

I am pleased to welcome my counterpart, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay Luis Almagro who is in
Armenian on an official visit.

Armenia and Uruguay are thousands of kilometers away, but Uruguay is
very close and friendly country for Armenia and the Armenian people.
Uruguay is the first country which recognized the Armenian Genocide in
1965 and it’s not accidental that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Uruguay started his official visit to Armenia by visiting the Genocide
Memorial. We are very grateful to the people of Uruguay and the
Uruguayan leadership for the opening of their doors and providing
shelters to our compatriots – the survivors of the genocide, and
thousands of Armenians live in Uruguay, for whom Uruguay has become a
second homeland. We have very close and warm relations with Uruguay.
On May 27 of this year we are going to celebrate the 20th anniversary
of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two
countries. Uruguay is one of the first countries, that recognized our
independent Republic, on December 26 of 1991.

Today we had an opportunity to touch upon a wide range of issues of
bilateral relations, the steps to be undertaken towards the
strengthening of legal framework. We have 8 agreements signed between
the two countries, and the drafts of new agreements were exchanged and
we are going to expand this framework. We talked about the steps to be
undertaken towards the development of trade and economic relations
between the two countries, cultural ties and cooperation in the
spheres of health and tourism. We touched upon regional and
international issues over which we have very close positions. We
agreed upon the more intensification of the cooperation in the
international organizations and holding of consultations between the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries.

It is natural that we also touched upon the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue. I presented my colleague the recent
developments in the negotiation process. We have similar approach that
the issue should be resolved through peaceful means, based on the
proposals made by the Co-Chairs. We are grateful to the Uruguayan
Minister of Foreign Affairs for his statements on the settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

I would like once again to welcome my Uruguayan colleague and pass the
floor to him with great pleasure.

Question: My questions are addressed to both Foreign Ministers.
Minister Nalbandian Azerbaijan assumed the presidency of the Security
Council. Some Azeri analysts do not exclude the possibility that the
resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue might be submitted to the
Security Council. To what extent do you consider it possible?

Edward Nalbandian: Answering the first question about the possibility
that Azerbaijan will try to introduce a resolution at the Security
Council, I would like to say that Azerbaijan may try to do, but we
must be realistic in the sense that the permanent members of the UN
Security Council are co-chairing countries, Russia, the United States
and France, which have repeatedly stated that the format of the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmanship. The Presidents of Russia, the United States and
France made statements in L’Aquila, Muskoka and Deauville, and Armenia
expressed its commitment to move forward towards the settlement
through the negotiations based on those proposals.

Azerbaijan is denying. I don’t think that it is realistic; that any
unilateral Azeri initiative would be supported at the Security
Council, especially taking into account that position of the
Co-Chairs.

Question: First my question is addressed to the Armenian Minister of
Foreign Affairs. Minister Nalbandian, in the context of the
normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, recently Turkey’s
Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that it is hard to reach an
agreement with several neighboring countries, sepcifically with
Armenia. Please comment, in reality what kind of problems does
official Yerevan cause in this issue?

And the second question, if it’s possible to address the two Foreign
Ministers. Recently there were several cases of violation of the
cease-fire, in particular related to shooting at civilian population.
What is the reaction of the international community to such kind of
phenomena, and Minister Nalbandian, what does Armenian side do to
voice this issue?

Edward Nalbandian: Regarding Davutoglu’s statement, I am familiar with
that statement. The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs talks that
Turkey has not good relations with their three neighboring countries.
But I do not think it is so sincere: it is at least twice the number
of countries, i. e. six countries, with which Turkey has not good
relations, with two of which she no relations at all. Davutoglu stated
about Turkey’s willingness to have zero problem relations with its
neighbors, but the result was the recent increase of the problems with
those countries. Regarding the difficulties of reaching agreements
with the neighbors about which Mr. Davutoglu mentioned, I would say
that, yes, we know from our experience that it’s very difficult to
reach agreements with Turkey. And despite all the difficulties which
the Turkish side was bringing in the course of the negotiations, we
came to an agreement and signed the protocols, for which Turkey
created difficulties not only during the negotiations, but even after
the signing, and continues to create them, rejects to respect, ratify
and implement those agreements. So the comments made by Mr. Davutoglu
are not appropriate.

Edward Nalbandian: (In addition to Luis Almagro’s answer) Luis
Almagron’s statement is another good example of the international
community’s approach. The overwhelming majority of countries, if not
all, have such an approach. Maybe in addition to Azerbaijan, Turkey do
not share that approach. But even that country talked against the use
of force, thus disagreeing with the Azeri approach.
I will recall the approach of the international community at the
highest level, when Presidents Medvedev, Obama and Sarkozy stated that
the use of force created this situation and a new use of force is
unacceptable and would be strongly condemned by the international
community. The message was addressed to Azerbaijan.
The reaction is voiced not only through the statements. During the
negotiations Azerbaijan is seriously warned about such behavior, that
this behavior is unacceptable and can cause serious consequences, and
first of all for Azerbaijan.

EDUARDO EURNEKIAN TO RECEIVE BUSINESS FOR PEACE AWARD

news.am
May 04, 2012 | 18:24

Oslo’s Business for Peace Foundation has selected Eduardo Eurnekian
as one of the 7 businessmen who are to receive the Business for Peace
Award in 2012.

The award is handed out by an assembly consisting of Nobel Prize
winners. Eduardo Eurnekian will receive the award on May 7 at the
Government Palace of Oslo, Armenia International Airports Company
informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA VISITS PEOPLE WHO SUFFERED FROM THE INCIDENT IN REPUBLICAN SQUARE

ARMENPRESS:
20:56, 4 May, 2012

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan rushed to Nairi Medical Center.

More than 10 people have been moved to the center with light and
medium burns. Those with light burns have already been discharged
from hospital. The majority of those suffered are young people,
the Emergency Situation Ministry told Armenpress. After the first
medical aid the persons with medium burns will be moved to the
Republican Hospital.

***

The incident took place in the Republican Square. As Armenpress’
correspondent reported earlier, somebody smoked next to gas balloons,
which exploded as a result. The square was crowded, as the rally of the
Republican Party of Armenia was to be held. Several people received
body injuries of different level. They were hospitalized by means of
ambulances. Then the normal regime was restored and everything got
ready for the start of the rally.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT REJECTS SUIT OVER U. OF MINNESOTA WEBSITE
Scott Jaschik

May 4, 2012

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday [1] that the University of
Minnesota could not be sued because the website of one of its research
centers had labeled another website “unreliable.”

The statements made by the University of Minnesota website were
protected legally — either by being true or by being opinion — said
the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The
website that prompted the suit is run by the Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies at Minnesota. Scholars there, consistent with
the consensus view of historians of genocide, include the slaughter
of Armenians during World War I as a case of genocide. The suit
challenged the right of the center to label as “unreliable” a website
of the Turkish Coalition of America that cast doubt on whether the
Armenians experienced a genocide.

Not surprisingly, the case has been closely followed by historians of
that period in history. But the case has also been tracked by scholars
concerned about academic freedom generally, some of whom worried that a
dangerous precedent could have been set by a suit against an academic
center for expressing its views on areas of scholarship. The Middle
East Studies Association, for example, has called [2]on the Turkish
Coalition of American to withdraw the suit.

“We fear that legal action of this kind may have a chilling effect
on the ability of scholars and academic institutions to carry out
their work freely and to have their work assessed on its merits,
in conformity with standards and procedures long established in the
world of scholarship,” said a statement from the group.

An irony of the case is that the label of “unreliable” was removed from
the Minnesota website — at about the time the Turkish coalition was
criticizing it but before the suit was filed in 2010. [3] Minnesota
officials said that they didn’t want to send anyone to the websites
that cast doubt on the Armenian genocide, so they removed the list
of “unreliable” websites from a webpage with teaching and research
links. However, the university has defended the right of the research
center to have had the list up in the first place, and most of the
appeals court decision is written as if Minnesota still had such
a link.

Last year, a federal district court ruled that academic freedom
protected the Minnesota website, [4] but the Turkish coalition
appealed, setting up Thursday’s ruling.

The appeals court rejected arguments in the appeal by the Turkish
coalition that the university violated its First Amendment rights and
defamed it by identifying the coalition’s website as unreliable. A
central argument by the coalition was that students at the university
would be denied access to the coalition’s ideas, and thus that the free
exchange of ideas was hindered when a center at a public university
labeled the website unreliable.

On the First Amendment issue, the Turkish coalition cited court rulings
in which, for example, secondary schools were found to be violating
First Amendment rights of students by removing certain books from
the library. The appeals court noted that those cases were based on
blocking access to information — something that the court said the
University of Minnesota never did.

“There is no allegation that the defendants impaired students’ access
to the TCA website on a university-provided Internet system,” the
appeals court’s decision says. “There is no hint in the complaint
that university students were not free to, for example, read the
TCA website, e-mail material from the TCA website to their friends,
regale passers-by on the sidewalk with quotes from the TCA website,
and so forth. In short, TCA’s website was not ‘removed’ from the
university in any sense.”

The Turkish coalition’s appeal argued that the Minnesota website
defamed the coalition by saying it engages in “denial” of the Armenian
genocide, by calling it “unreliable,” by saying that it features a
“strange mix of fact and opinion,” and that it is “an illegitimate
source of information.”

The coalition argued that by labeling its website a “denial” website,
the Minnesota center was maligning it because the term “denial,” in the
context of the study of genocide, “implies denial of well-documented
underlying facts associated with a genocidal event.”

The appeals court ruling, however, says that the issue here is whether
the coalition denies the Armenian genocide. “Because the TCA website
does, in fact, state that it is ‘highly unlikely that a genocide charge
could be sustained against the Ottoman government or its successor’
based on the historical evidence, the center’s statement under this
interpretation is true and, thus, still not actionable,” the appeals
court decision says.

“The remaining three statements can be interpreted reasonably only as
subjective opinions, rather than facts,” the opinion adds, rejecting
the defamation charges there as well.

A lawyer for the Turkish coalition did not respond to a request
for comment.

RELATIVES OF CONVICTS RECEIVED DEFINITE ORDERS DURING CAMPAIGN

03:06 pm | Today | Politics

About 70% of headmasters in Armenia’s 25 cities (600 schools) are
Republican Party (HHK) members.

“Half of them became HHK members in the past ten years. This is heinous
abuse of administrative resources. People had to become affiliated
with the ruling party [HHK] for fear that they might lose their jobs,”
says President of “Asparez” Journalists’ Club Levon Barseghyan.

On the threshold of the May 6 parliamentary elections, five NGOs
dealing with human rights issues have conducted surveys which revealed
disturbing findings.

For example, the relatives of convicts were ordered to ‘collect
signatures’ in order to have their loved ones paroled, says human
right activist Avetik Ishkhanyan.

The only positive thing recorded by the human rights NGOs was the
efficient work of media.

PEOPLE DETAINED AFTER FIGHT IN YEREVAN KARAOKE CLUB

news.am
May 04, 2012 | 16:54

YEREVAN. – Young people fought in a karaoke-club in downtown Yerevan
on Friday. As a result, one man was hospitalized while the others
detained, Armenian News-NEWS.am source informs. Police confirmed having
detained people from the club, adding an investigation is underway,
while the club rejected to comment on the incident.

WAR OF PIPES AND KARABAKH ISSUE: WHAT WILL MORNINGSTAR BRING INTO ENERGY AND GEO POLITICS OF THE REGION
By Naira Hayrumyan

ArmeniaNow
04.05.12 | 11:27

United States President Barack Obama last week named the secretary
of state’s special envoy for Eurasian energy Richard Morningstar as
ambassador to Azerbaijan to succeed Matthew Bryza, whose short lived
tour of duty in Baku ended late last year amid opposition from the
Armenian lobby at the Congress. Morningstar’s nomination also has to
clear the Congress before he can get the post.

Azerbaijan has already expressed its approval of Morningstar’s
nomination, but the Armenian lobby is apparently still looking into
the situation and trying to understand why Obama has nominated such
an influential person to serve as envoy in a small, but oil-rich
South Caucasus country.

Morningstar has had contacts with Azerbaijan before as he visited
Baku on various occasions. Apparently, the United States is intent on
“convincing” Azerbaijan to be friends with the West energy-wise at the
expense of such friendship with Russia or the possible Russo-Iranian
alliance.

Now the Caspian region is seeing a so-called “war of pipes” in which
Russia is trying in every way to prevent the construction of the
Trans-Caspian gas pipeline supposed to join the Nabucco project to
deliver natural gas from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to Europe via
Turkey, bypassing Russia. Moscow is trying to persuade Azerbaijan
to sell its natural gas to the South Stream, an alternative pipeline
that is under construction now to maintain Russia’s dominant position
on Europe’s natural gas market.

In the West, there is already talk that the Nabucco project is likely
to fail, and the United States, apparently, seeks to revive this and
other projects by appointing an experienced negotiator as ambassador
to Azerbaijan.

So far, Azerbaijan has made no secret of its linking its energy
preferences with the Karabakh issue and that it will enter into
an alliance with those forces that will undertake to put pressure
on Armenia.

In a recent interview with Mediaforum the head of the department on
socio-political issues of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan
Ali Hasanov described Morningstar as an experienced diplomat familiar
with the region, at the same time he noted that Baku expected first
of all “objectivity” from ambassadors of other countries.

“Some of the recent actions by the diplomatic missions of a number
of countries in Azerbaijan have been regrettable. Sometimes diplomats
come under the influence of subjective judgments and present to their
country biased and incomplete information about the host country,”
Hasanov said.

The Azeri official apparently referred to some unflattering opinions
of foreign diplomats about the level of democracy in Azerbaijan and
the unwillingness of the international community to have a solution
to the Karabakh issue that would favor Baku.

Head of the Department of External Relations of the Azerbaijani
presidential administration Novruz Mammadov this week said that
Azerbaijan may reconsider its pro-Western stance and form a “new bloc”,
if it gets no broader support from Europe and the U.S., especially
in the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Bloomberg Businessweek
quoted Mammadov as saying that Azerbaijan wants the U.S.

and Europe to put pressure on Armenia “in the issue of the
withdrawal of occupying forces from Azerbaijani districts surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Bryza, apparently, was supposed
to solve this problem for Azerbaijan, but the Armenian lobby in the
United States managed to get his nomination blocked in the Congress.

He worked in Baku for a year by Obama’s appointment bypassing the
Senate’s disapproval, but appears to have failed the U.S. energy
problems as he concentrated on the Karabakh problem and
Armenian-Turkish relations.

At the beginning of this year, Bryza gave an interesting interview
to the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper, in which he warned the current U.S.
administration that the “artificial” assertion that there is no
link between the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
Turkish-Armenian normalization dooms the prospects for resolving
the Karabakh conflict, as, according to the former OSCE Minsk Group
cochairman, it makes reaching a compromise on the Armenian side
impossible. “They [Armenia] are given a huge benefit [opening the
border with Turkey] without making any compromise. So we need to
manage the two processes together at the same time,” said Bryza.

Such frankness of the American diplomat may be evidence that, as an
ambassador who served in Azerbaijan for a year, he was doing everything
for the Karabakh problem to stand in the way of Turkish-Armenian
relations. And he did so in defiance of his administration, which has
repeatedly stated that these two issues should not be linked together.

Morningstar, meanwhile, is likely to try to separate from the Karabakh
conflict not only the Turkish-Armenian relations, but also the energy
projects. Azerbaijan remains a key U.S. ally in terms of regional
energy policy, said Morningstar still prior to his nomination.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA ORDERED TO TIGHTEN MILITARY DUTY IN THE ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI CONTACT LINE

ARMENPRESS
4 May, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenia, Supreme commander in
chief of Armenian armed forces Serzh Sargsyan visited the Ministry of
Defense of Armenia on May 4. Armenpress was informed from President’s
press office that the President listened to reports of the Minister of
Defense, head of the general staff of Armenian armed forces about the
works in the sphere of army building, increasing combat readiness of
armed forces, as well as about army political situation in the region
and beyond it, operational situation in Armenian-Azerbaijani contact
line, development trends and necessary measures taken to preserve
peace on the border.

Serzh Sargsyan ordered to tighten military duty in Armenia-Azerbaijani
contact line, take continuous measures for discipline and combat
readiness rising.

SPECIAL SQUAD SOLDIERS, HELICOPTER IN MASSIS: TENSION GROWS ON THRESHOLD OF ELECTIONS

TERT.AM
04.05.12

The police department of Armenia’s town of Massis received a call
from a hospital on May 3 at about 10.50 pm about a person with a head
injury transported to the hospital.

The police task force that arrived on the scene found out that at
10.00 pm an unknown person hit Karen T. on the head. Investigation
is under way.

Photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan reported about a skirmish between
the representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
and Prosperous Armenia party (PAP) in one of cafes in Massis. Police
officials, including from Chief Department of Criminal Investigation
armed and in masks arrived at the Euro+ cafe. The road police officials
were at the scene too.

Massis residents told Tert.am that the yesterday’s situation in their
town reminded shots from American thrillers – large number of armed
policemen in masks, a helicopter.

Police press service gave no information about the shooting.

The RPA candidate in Massis is former nature protection minister
Murad Muradyan and the PAP is represented there by acting candidate
Tigran Stepanyan.

Speaking to Tert.am Tigran Stepanyan said he was not aware of
details of the incident and was going to his headquarters to learn
the details. Later he did not answer the phone calls.