Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

AZERBAIJAN SHOULD NOT HOLD A DEFENSE GAME WITH US, IT SHOULD COUNTERATTACK

news.az
Dec 22 2009
Azerbaijan

Yuri Sigov News.Az interviews Yuri Sigov, political reviewer and
chief of the Business People magazine’s administration in Washington.

What can you say about the US aid to Nagorno Karabakh in 2010 financial
year? I would like to note that the information caused a stern reaction
in Baku as the White House has always stated support to the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan and never recognized Nagorno Karabakh as an
independent formation.

I think the US administration has recently become more pragmatic in
settling a number of international issues and less oriented on some
of the earlier established political canons. As for Nagorno Karabakh,
the United States are interested in the resolution of this conflict,
but they do not do much for it as they have many other issues and as
no one is shooting at each other in the Caucasus (so far), Washington
does not pay a special attention to this region. Obama’s administration
does not intend to change its position on Nagorno Karabakh issue and
recognize it as an independent formation, while aid to Nagorno Karabakh
is considered a natural and normal event in the United States which
demonstrates US intention to play a more active role and contact all
conflict parties.

Will this step affect the Karabakh conflict settlement?

I do not think there is a direct connection between assistance to
Karabakh and the resolution of the conflict. Meanwhile, this step will
hardly improve basic trust in the region both to the US position as
an unengaged mediator and the trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Russia and Turkey could have taken the initiative in this situation
but, probably, this is not necessary or profitable for them right now.

What steps do you think Azerbaijan should take to improve the situation
when the United States sometimes put the interests of the Armenian
lobby above its own interests?

I want to say that it would be an exaggeration to think that the
Armenian lobby in the United States is strong and can do so that
its interests are above the interests of the United States and their
external policy. Certainly, the influence of the Armenian lobby in
Washington (especially, the Congress) is not small but Azerbaijan
also has something to attract US attention and to put pressure on
Washington, especially in such cases as "Nabucco" and "Caspian big
energy". There is also a Russian factor which can be used to remind to
Washington that Baku is important for their Caucasus interests. There
are also variants of a more active involvement (at least, the attempts)
of the international structures in regional affairs including the
Karabakh conflict. Anyway, Azerbaijan should not always play a defense
game, it can hold constructive counteractions.

Do you expect the soonest achievements in the Karabakh resolution
including in the light of the recent peacekeeping activeness of Turkey?

In this issue much will depend on the intention of the Turkish
leadership to use the Karabakh variant for their interests. Turks
will primarily play their own game and if they benefit from the more
active participation in the Karabakh conflict, they might take the
initiative. On the other hand, I do not see any grounds for Turkey to
take the initiative in Karabakh and fulfill the mediating functions in
which the United States, Russia and Europeans have failed. Meanwhile,
Turkey has a good chance to intensify positions in the Caucasus and
get certain levers in its relations with Azerbaijan especially in
the gas issue by means of building normal ties with Armenia. If it
comes to Nabucco, Turks can take the "lever to themselves" in the
resolution of the Karabakh conflict for their foreign policy goals
(including close cooperation with Europe).
From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT BELIEVES IN U.S CONGRESS’S POSITIVE RESPONSE TO APPEAL

Trend
Dec 21 2009
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Parliament believes in the U.S Congress’s positive response
to appeal.

"The official position of Azerbaijan is known. The parliament also
announced its position. We are waiting for a response from the opposite
side. Afterwards, we will be able to define our next steps.

If the U.S President having used the available opportunities
vetoes the rendering of assistance to the Armenian community of
the Nagorno-Karabakh, then this step will be viewed positively,
" Azerbaijani Parliament deputy chairman Bahar Muradova told Trend
News on Monday.

The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate approved a bill on
the general appropriations for the 2010 fiscal year, according to
which assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh will be allocated to the amount
of $8 million. Any restrictions on the implementation of programs in
Karabakh have been removed.

The Azerbaijani Parliament adopted an appeal to Barack Obama Enhanced
Coverage LinkingBarack Obama -Search using: Biographies Plus News
News, Most Recent 60 Days and the Congress as a sign of protest
against the U.S. Congress’s decision Dec. 15.

Muradova said the delegation of the Azerbaijani parliament is likely
to meet with members of the Congress.

"Azerbaijan is a strategic ally of the United States. We are
successfully conducting activities in many areas. Why do not we
cooperate in this direction? We must continue to work on several
spheres and with Congress, the Presidential Administration,
Barack Obama, Enhanced Coverage LinkingBarack Obama, -Search using:
Biographies Plus News News, Most Recent 60 Days and the U.S. Public,"
deputy speaker said.

She said this work should be constant. "Sometimes one can suddenly face
the unimaginable step of even close ally. Therefore, Azerbaijan should
be vigilant and must continue its efforts with a correct perception of
the truth about us in the world. We also expect for a fair position
from the country, focused on justice, peace and security throughout
the world.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenian has not yet implemented the U.N. General Assembly’s
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.
From: Baghdasarian

SARGSYAN’S WORDS ARE NOT ACTIONS

22/heritage
December 22, 2009

According to deputy of "Heritage" faction Anahit Bakhshyan, Serzh
Sargsyan’s words stating that smart minds must be heard and actions
must be implemented are not reality, but simply statements. According
to Bakhshyan, a striking illustration of that was when the president
"seemed to agree with the faction on their legislative initiatives,
while the majority in parliament did the opposite and rejected them."

Recapping the activities of the faction today, head of the "Heritage"
faction Stepan Safaryan mentioned that out of the bills that
they authored, the parliament only adopted the bills on education
and culture, while the bills on changes in the political system,
deprivation of lands, recognition of independence of the NKR and
other bills were not.

In general, in 2009 "Heritage" presented 29 bills of which only few
were adopted. "This shows the political will of the authorities to
listen to opponents," said Stepan Safaryan. He doesn’t consider the
"investment, efforts and suffering" as inadequate to the outcome.

The report presented today to journalists did not include the
activities completed by member of the faction Vardan Khachatryan. The
reason, according to head of the faction, was merely technical because
Safaryan’s assistant had not managed to present the deputy’s activities
in due time.

Deputy of the faction Larisa Alaverdyan informed that she had appealed
to the government with the suggestion to mark the 20th anniversary
of the massacres in Baku at the state level and organize different
events. She announced that those events, which have not been paid
attention to and about which there are no official statistics must
definitely be qualified as genocide.
From: Baghdasarian

PRESS-RELEASE
December 11, 2009

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Grigol Vashadze,

lies to the French parliamentarians about the case of the Javakheti
Armenian political activist Vahagn Chakhalyan

On November 25, 2009 during his visit to France, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Grigol Vashadze, had a meeting with the
members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French Parliament,
and responded to the questions of the parliamentarians.

The French parliamentarian, Chairman of the `Armenia-France
Friendship’ parliamentary group François Rochebloine asked the
Minister of Foreign Affairs to clarify the situation in Javakheti, the
region of Georgia predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians. Drawing
special attention of the Minister to the trial of Vahagn Chakhalyan,
who was arrested in July of 2008, the French parliamentarian noted, in
particular, that the Javakheti political activist was sentenced to 10
years’ imprisonment on dubious, if not trumped-up charges, and the
Court of Appeals after 15 minutes of consultation left the sentence of
the Court of First Instance intact.

Mr. Rochebloine put the Minister on notice that the father and younger
brother of Vahagn Chakhalyan were sentenced to suspended terms of
imprisonment. It was also mentioned that the Georgian justice has
flagrantly violated the right of Chakhalyan to engage a French defense
lawyer to protect his rights in court. The parliamentarian also noted
that the relevant structures of the Council of Europe and personally
the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe,
Mr. Hammarberg had already been notified on this issue.

In response to the deputy’s question, Mr. Vashadze said, particularly,
the following: "The Georgian citizen of the Armenian origin, you
mentioned, was arrested on very serious charges – he transmitted
information to a third country. I cannot mention – which one, and I
leave you to make you guess. Unfortunately, our legislation does not
allow foreign lawyers to participate in the court hearings, but they
can join the defense team as advisers. By the way, Mr. Chakhalyan,
appealing the verdict in the Supreme Court, had two or three lawyers
of different origin. Despite the biased coverage in some media,
especially – in the Armenian Diaspora, he is sentenced due to serious
allegations put forward against him and not because of his Armenian
origin, or because he was defending the rights of the Armenian
population. Had he been an ethnic Georgian, he would suffer the same
fate’.

(The full text of Mr. Rochebloine’s question and the response of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia is available on the official
website of the French Parliament at
-10/c0910019.asp ).

Consequently, by this statement on the Chakhalyans’ case the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Georgia is, in fact, trying to intentionally
mislead the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French
Parliament and, indirectly, the international community.

Thus:

1. The assertion of Mr. Vashadze that Vahagn Chakhalyan is accused of
"transmitting information to a third country" is a complete outright
lie. In fact, the Javakheti political activist has been sentenced
solely for "possession of weapons and ammunition’, allegedly found in
his home and the office by the Georgian special forces, as well as for
"organizing activities that disrupt public order" and "hooliganism
against a government representative’. The last two charges are based
on the distortion of the facts of his political activity in 2005-06
aimed at protection of the rights of the Javakheti Armenian
population.

Moreover, Vahagn Chakhalyan, his father and his juvenile brother at
the time of their arrest were accused solely of `possession of arms
and ammunition’, and the other charges were added against Javakheti
political activist only after the beginning of the trial.

2. Mr. Vashadze "forgets" to mention that prior to July 2009,
participation of foreign lawyers in court proceedings was allowed by
the Georgian laws, and only after the application of Vahagn Chakhalyan
to register his French lawyer the Georgian parliament hastily passed
the law removing this provision form the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Based on the aforementioned facts and having reasonable concern that
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia spreads such flagrant
disinformation with respect to Chakhalyan’s case also on other
relevant occasions, the `Yerkir’ Union calls on the European and
international structures concerned about the problems of Javakheti
Armenians and the fate of Javakheti political leader to continue
raising consistently the questions during all the contacts, taking
place with the Georgian officials.

YERKIR UNION
Contact Armenia: Robert Tatoyan
Mobile: +(374 94) 36 17 93
E-mail: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

Contact Europe: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJANI MP: AZERBAIJAN’S NOTE OF PROTEST NOT TO HAVE SPECIFIC IMPACT ON U.S. CONGRESS DECISION
N. Abdullayeva

Today.az
itics/58325.html
Dec 18 2009
Azerbaijan

"I think the U.S. State Department will not provide a specific response
to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s note of protest," member of
Azerbaijan-U.S. Interparliamentary Friendship Group Nasib Nasibli said.

He was commenting on a note Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry’s sent
to the U.S. State Department to protest U.S. Congress aid worth $8
million to the break-away Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Unfortunately, every year the U.S. decides to allocate financial
aid to separatists. But Azerbaijan does not leave it unattended and
reacts promptly. Milli Majlis has sent an address to the president
and U.S. Congress," he said.

"I believe the note that Azerbaijani ambassador presented to the
U.S. State Department will have no specific impact on the U.S. Congress
decision," the MP said.

"I think the relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan will not
change. This fact will affect public opinion in Azerbaijan, but on
the political level," Nasibli said.
From: Baghdasarian

WB: ARMENIA NEEDS TO RAISE COMPETITIVENESS AND DIVERSIFY ECONOMY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.12.2009 16:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The crisis taught lessons to Armenia and
highlighted its main shortcomings: weak diversification and lack of
competitiveness, therefore, to overcome the effects of the crisis the
country should provide three essential conditions, head of World Bank
Armenian Office Aristomene Varoudakis said.

According to him, in order to increase competitiveness of Armenian
economy the country need to creating more favorable environment
for investors, reduce the role of oligopolies, minimize, or even
eliminate corruption in tax authorities, develop infrastructures,
particularly in transport and IT spheres," he said.

According to Aristomene Varudakis, maintaning the social spending,
particularly in education and health, is also important, since social
programs of the Armenian Government had helped to mitigate the impact
of the crisis on vulnerable stratas and the economy in general.

The official emphasized that reforms in tax administration will
help Armenia to ensure tax collection and, consequently, to service
country’s state debt.

Armenian authorities need determination and strong political will to
reform economy and overcome the global crisis, Aristomeneh Varoudakis
concluded adding thet measures taken by the government so far are
not sufficient.
From: Baghdasarian

DEBT WILL REACH 50 PERCENT

Lragir.am
17/12/09

Armenia’s external debt will arrive to GDP 50 percent in 2011. This
prediction was issued by the head of the Yerevan office of the World
Bank Aristomane Varudakis. Varudakis stated that the tax administration
is to be bettered in Armenia. More taxes are to be collected because
starting from 2012, the greater part of them will be directed to the
paying off the external debt.
From: Baghdasarian

LET US BE ASHAMED OF KARS NATIONALLY

Lragir.am
17/12/09

On these days, the lawyer Hrayr Tovmasyan, dwelling on the Armenian
and Turkish protocols, touched upon the Kars agreement too. He in
particular noted, "From the point of international right, Armenia is
surely the legal successor of the agreement of Kars". In other words,
Turkey cites the Kars agreement and "there is possibility to decline
that agreement". And then he continued, "Unfortunately, when people
said that we did not ratify the Kars agreement, me and my friends
needed just a few days to find the ratification. I am stating with
sorrow what speeches made by the Armenian side there have been and I
would not like them to be released. As an Armenian man I am ashamed
of those speeches".

Naturally, we are not going to dispute the opinion of a specialist on
the international right and we consider impermissible and incorrect
such a behavior by a non-professional. We may add only that even if
we leave apart the certainty of the fact that the present Armenia is
the legal successor of the agreement of Kars from the point of being
adequate to the international right, another fact is more than certain
and indisputable. It is the fact that today’s Armenian people are the
bearers of the consequences of the ratification of that document and
is the inheritor of that shame.

>>From this point we cannot agree with Mr. Tovmasyan’s opinion that
"I am stating with sorrow what speeches made by the Armenian side
there have been and I would not like them to be released. As an
Armenian man I am sorry for those speeches".

>>From the point of preserving the territories we are very close to
the fulfillment of a Kars-2 scenario and the detailed "vision" of the
Kars-1 will be very expedient for everyone: both for the creators of
today’s initiative-yielding-real policy and for those who will bear
(are already bearing) its consequences. We are begging you to release
that ratification. If you are ashamed of those speeches as an Armenian
man, let us be ashamed of them altogether, if there is something to
be ashamed of (which is doubtless), let us be ashamed nationally. From
whom are we hiding anything? From Turks? In order not to be ashamed?

All of them know everything better than we do. We are not the only
authors of that document. We have to know all its details to at least
understand what to do. If there are evident negative parallels between
the "realist" figures of today and of that period (there is again no
doubt) let the answer be given today.

Really, let us today, again as Armenian people, be ashamed nationally
for what we have done once with us. For us not to "embrace" a regular
phase of grief tomorrow.
From: Baghdasarian

YEREVAN’S NAREGATSI ART CENTER TO PRESENT "HEROES OF SASUN" ARMENIAN EPOS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.12.2009 15:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yerevan’s Naregatsi Art Center will present Thursday
"Heroes of Sasun" Armenian epos, which passed along throughout
centuries by word of mouth.

The epos will be performed by ethnographer Arusyak Sahakyan and
narrators Ani Shakhnazaryan and Seyran Avagyan.
From: Baghdasarian

NATIONAL DEBT-GDP RATIO IN ARMENIA COMPRISES 37% IN 2009

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.12.2009 14:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ National debt-GDP ratio in Armenia will increase from
13% to 37% by yearend, head of World Bank Yerevan Office Aristomene
Varoudakis said.

As he told a news conference on Thursday, national debt-GDP ratio is
forecast to reach 50% by the end of 2011.

According to Mr. Varoudakis, Armenia will be able to pay external
debts, as the credits were provided on favorable terms. At the same
time, he noted that tax collection rate, now amounting 17% of GDP,
should be increased in Armenia and export volumes should be ensured
to allow for national debt settlement, starting from 2010.
From: Baghdasarian