Author: Basmajian Ani

Judicial process on the case of espionage in favour of Azerbaijan
starts in Yerevan

2010-01-22 12:56:00

ArmInfo. Judicial process on the case of espionage in favour of
Azerbaijan starts in Yerevan court of Avan and Nork Marash
communities.

As it was informed earlier, it was proved during the investigation,
carried out by the Investigation Department of Armenia’s National
Security Service, that a citizen of Armenia, former employee of
Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Gevork Hayrapetyan, was enrolled by the
Azerbaijani special services in April, 2009 and, according to the task
received, he gathered and transferred secret information about the
fighting efficiency and defense capacity of Armenia’s Armed Forces, as
well as some information to carry out an anti-Armenian propaganda.
Hayrapetyan received the last task from a citizen of Iran, an
Azerbaijani by nationality, Bekhham Jafar Fadeh Bageri, who arrived in
Armenia on September 1. The photo of an employee o the Azerbaijani
special services, well-known to Hayrapetyan, served a conventional
sign for the meeting held at Hayrapetyan’s home, where they exchanged
tasks and materials. The materials transferred were found out at
Bageri when he underwent control at Karchevan check-point in Meghri.
Arms and ammunition were found out in Hayrapetyan’s house during the
search.

A charge was brought against G. Hayrapetyan based on the proofs
obtained, according to p. 1 Article 299 (state treason via espionage)
and p. 1 Article 235 (illegal storage of arms and ammunition) of
Criminal Code of Armenia. Bageri was accused according to Article 302
(espionage by a citizen of a foreign state) of Armenia’s CC.

It’s Turkey, Not Armenia, That’s Hindering Rapprochement: Amberin Zaman

Tert.am
18:26 – 22.01.10

Ankara doesn’t stand behind its signature on the Armenian-Turkish
Protocols, said Turkey correspondent for The Economist and Taraf
columnist, Amberin Zaman, who also happens to be married to U.S.
Embassy in Armenia’s Deputy Chief of Mission Joseph Pennington.

`Turkey’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the following to his
Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian: `Stand behind your signature
on the Protocol. We expect a display of political will from the
Armenian side. Otherwise, a completely new situation will arise.’
However, it’s Turkey who isn’t standing behind their signature,’ said
Zaman, adding that though there was no clause in the Protocols which
referred to Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey has nevertheless connected that
issue with the process of establishing Armenia-Turkey relations.

The Taraf columnist also noted that such a situation wouldn’t have
come about if the Protocols were implemented immediately. `If instead
of presenting the Protocols in parliament, they were put into effect,
this unpleasant `new state of affairs’ wouldn’t have come about, and
the process wouldn’t have been hindered,’ writes Zaman, adding that
the final point to this issue was that after the United States, Russia
made a statement that the establishment of Armenia-Turkey relations
shouldn’t be tied to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Gagik Melikyan: RA CC decision produced cold shower effect on Turkish
authorities
22.01.2010 15:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA Constitutional Court’s decision produced a cold
shower effect on many circles, including the Turkish authorities,
which have always sought to impose preconditions upon Armenia, said
Gagik Melikyan, MP from the Republican Party of Armenia.

`By its decision, Armenia’s Constitutional Court proved that Protocols
contain no precondition and are aimed at establishing diplomatic ties
and opening border between Armenia and Turkey,’ he told a news
conference organized jointly with ARFD group parliamentarian Artsvik
Minasyan.

`Even if RA CC had found Protocols non-conformable to Armenia’s
Constitution, Turkey would have accused Armenia of protracting the
ratification process,’ Gagik Melikyan said, adding that Ankara signed
Protocols under international community’s pressure and cannot avoid
fulfilling its obligations.

At that, he noted that Armenia will never sign the Kars Treaty or
renounce the international recognition of Armenian Genocide.

`Turkish authorities will not force us into renouncing our
Constitution,’ he stressed.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish
counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of
diplomatic talks held through Swiss mediation.
On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.

The Treaty of Kars was singed on October 13, 1923 between Turkey and
Transcaucasian republics. It consisted of a preamble, 20 articles and
3 appendices.

The treaty was a successor treaty to the earlier Treaty of Moscow of
March 1921 and established contemporary borders between Turkey and the
South Caucasus states. It was signed in Kars on October 13, 1921 and
ratified in Yerevan on September 11, 1922.

Most of the territories ceded to Turkey in the treaty were acquired by
Imperial Russia from the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War
of 1877-1878. The only exception was the Surmalu region which was
annexed by Russia in the Treaty of Turkmenchay after the last
Russo-Persian War with Iran.

The treaty provided for the territory of the former Russian Batum
District of the Kutaisi Governorate to be divided. The northern half,
with the port city of Batumi, was ceded by Turkey to the Soviet Union.
The southern half, with the city of Artvin, would be annexed by
Turkey. It was agreed that the northern half would be granted autonomy
within Soviet Georgia. It eventually evolved into the Adjar Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republic (today Adjara). Additionally, Turkey was
also guaranteed a "free transit through the port of Batum for
commodities and all materials destined for, or originating in, Turkey,
without customs duties and charges, and with the right for Turkey to
utilize the port of Batum without special charges."

The treaty also created a new boundary between Turkey and Soviet
Armenia, defined by the Akhurian and Aras Rivers. Turkey obtained from
Armenia most of the former Kars Oblast of Russian Empire. The treaty
required Turkish troops to withdraw from an area roughly corresponding
to the western half of Armenia’s present-dayShirak Province (including
Alexandropol (Gyumri).

The document specified that the region of Nakhchivan (a territory
comprising the Nakhchivan and Sharur part of Sharur-Daralagez uyezds
of former Erivan Governorate of Russian Empire) was an autonomous
territory under the protection of Azerbaijan. In 1924, Nakhchivan
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed on this territory as
an exclave subordinate to Azerbaijan SSR, and sharing a 15-km boundary
with now Turkish district of Surmalu. [1] It was also agreed that both
Turkey and Russia would become guarantors of Nakhchivan’s status

The Republican Party of Armenia is a national conservative political
party in Armenia. It was the first political party in independent
Armenia to be founded (2 April 1990) and registered (14 May 1991). It
is the largest party of the centre-right in Armenia, and claims to
have 140,000 members. The party controls most government bodies in
Armenia.
At the 2003 parliamentary elections on May 25, the party received
23.5% of the popular vote, winning 31 out of 131 seats. At the last
parliamentary elections on May 12, 2007, the party received 33.91% of
the popular vote, winning 64 out of 131 seats. The former prime
minister, Andranik Markaryan, was the leader of the party. Current
President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, is the chairman of RPA board.

RUSSIAN FM: RUSSIA ACTIVELY SUPPORTS DIALOGUE OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN HEADS

Trend
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijan

Russia actively supports the dialogue of Presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

"Regarding the forthcoming meeting of the presidents, we hope that
it will continue the dialogue that took place between Sargsyan and
Aliyev in 2009," he said. "The dialogue was very intense – it has not
led to some dramatic breakthroughs, but exactly strengthened relations
between the two leaders allowed them to delve deeper into the issues
to be addressed. We will actively support the continuation of this
dialogue, "Lavrov said at the briefing in Moscow.

Jan.25, Sochi will host the meeting of the presidents of Russia,
Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RIA Novosti
reported with reference to Kremlin’s press service.

Last Aliyev-Sargsyan conversation, the results of which both sides
viewed positively, passed November 22, 2009 in Munich. Just last
year, the presidents held six bilateral meetings and two meetings
with participation of the Russian president, one of which – in July
in Moscow.

ARMENIA SAYS HOPES TURKEY WILL RATIFY PROTOCOLS AFTER WARNINGS

WorldBulletin.net
Jan 22 2010
Turkey

The two protocols require parliamentary ratification in both countries
before they enter into force.

Armenia said it hopes Turkey will ratify the protocols after Turkish
PM said Armenia attempted to re-write the text of the signed deal.

Erdogan’s comments came after a decision made by the Armenian
Constitutional Court on the signed protocols.

Asked if the process was in danger of collapsing, Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian said:

"If Turkey is not ready to ratify the protocols, if it continues
to speak in the language of preconditions and to block the process,
then I don’t exclude it."

But he added: "I hope Turkey will ratify the documents."

The two protocols require parliamentary ratification in both countries
before they enter into force.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that "Turkey sent
the protocols directly to the Turkish parliament without making any
other institution an intermediary. We have not conducted an operation
on the sentences. We have sent the protocols as they were signed and
showed sincerity".

At the moment, Armenia has attempted to make an operation on the
protocols. Such an attempt must be corrected. Unless a correction is
made, the process would get damaged. We are not in a position to keep
the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia out of this context,
Erdogan stressed.

Turkey and Armenia had no diplomatic ties or economic relations since
Turkey closed its border with Armenia after this country invaded the
Upper-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in 1992, until recently when the
two countries agreed about a month ago on a protocol to establish
relations after months-long Swiss mediated talks.

The two countries signed two protocols recently to normalize relations
which among other things foresees reciprocal opening of borders
between the two countries and mutual recognition of existing borders.

RA FOREIGN MINISTRY SHOULD FURNISH TURKEY WITH WRITTEN RESPONSE

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2010 17:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Foreign Ministry should make written
response to Turkish Foreign Ministry’s recent statement, RPA
parliamentary group member Gagik Melikyan finds.

"I don’t think a phone conversation is enough," he told a joint news
conference with ARFD MP Artsvik Minasyan.

Artsvik Minasyan noted for his part that the current negotiations over
Armenia-Turkey Protocols pursued a wrong course from the very start,
as the process was not made public.

Turkish Foreign Ministry has made official comments on RA CC decision
over Protocols. It particularly stated that "the decision contains
preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and
spirit of the Protocols"

"The said decision undermines the very reason for negotiating these
Protocols as well as their fundamental objective. This approach
cannot be accepted on our part," runs the release posted on Turkish
MFA website.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.

On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE GETTING JOBS IN 2009 EXCEEDS EXPECTED FIGURES BY 9.2%

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.01.2010 15:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Armenia’s unemployment level reached 7.1% by late
December vs. 6.3% of the beginning of 2009. The number of registered
unemployed is 84 thousand 493 people, " Sona Harutyunyan , head of
the State Employment Service told a press conference on January 21.

According to her, the number of people found new jobs over the past
year exceeded the expected outcomes s by 9.2% reaching USD 9 thousand
394 individuals, 2 thousand 321 out of whom are young people, and
1418 are non-competitive in the labor market.

"6 job fairs in the cities of Dilijan, Vanadzor, Gyumri, Artashat,
Kapan, Hrazdan helped to find new jobs to 220 people," Sona Harutyunyan
said.

According to her, there are 13 thousand 65 vacancies in Yerevan
particularly in the fields of construction, services, while there
are 650 vacancies in the regions of the republic, where demand for
professionals in medicine and education is felt.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH PARLIAMENT APPEALED TO UN, EU AND OSCE

news.am
Jan 20 2010
Armenia

On January 19, the political forces of the NKR National Assembly,
in particular, "Democracy", "Motherland", and "ARFD-Movement-88"
factions, issued a statement related to the January 1990 Armenian
massacres in Baku. NEWS.am posts the full text.

"Twenty years ago, massacre of the Armenian population was organized
and coolly implemented on the state level in the capital city of the
then official Soviet Azerbaijan – Baku. Thousands of innocent people —
women, children and old people — were killed with extreme brutality,
and tens of thousands of people, suffering from heavy physical wounds
and moral shock, were deported and deprived of their homeland.

In fact, the January massacres in Baku became the finale of the
violations and deportations committed towards the native and
state-making Armenian population of the Eastern Transcaucasia in
1905-1906, 1918-1920, and 1988-1990. It was the specific response of
the Azerbaijani authorities to the peaceful, just, and legal right
of the Nagorno Karabakh people to worthy life in their homeland,
which took place with the criminal connivance of the USSR authorities.

We, the representatives of the political forces of the National
Assembly of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, condemning once again the
violations committed towards Armenians in Azerbaijan during the whole
20th century, as a result of which the native Armenian population
was deprived of its inalienable right to state self-organization,
in particular, the massacres, which started on January 13, 1990 in
Baku, assess them as:

– a fact of mass violation of the human rights and freedoms, first
of all, the right to life;

– evident demonstration of the Azerbaijani state policy of xenophobia,
national intolerance, and ethnic cleansing;

– the heaviest crime committed against the humanity on the state
level – Genocide, the responsibility for which, according to the
international law, has no time limitation.

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic will seek the legal assessment of
the violations, deportations and ethnic cleansing implemented in
Azerbaijan and the punishment of the organizers, regardless of their
current political and public position and residence.

As demonstration of this legal and just intention, we call upon the
UN, EU, OSCE, and member-states of the OSCE Minsk Group:

– to hold an impartial investigation of the violations committed
towards the Armenian population in Baku between January 13 and January
20 and give the legal assessment to the actions of the organizers
and executors of the crime;

– not to equate the crimes organized on the state level in peaceful
conditions with the privations, which the region’s peoples suffered
due to the war unleashed by Azerbaijan.

To avoid further undesirable developments, we demand to condemn and
use corresponding penalties towards the criminal state. This is not
only the right of the sufferer, but also the duty of the international
structures, as Genocide is a crime against the humanity."

"A WRONG PRESIDENT FOLLOWED BY A TRUE PRESIDENT"

Aysor
Jan 20 2010
Armenia

"We must come together to pit those falsified publications and
propaganda by Azerbaijan in relation to Baku Massacres that took
place in 1990," said director of the non-government organisation
"Our home is Armenia", Nikolay Babadjanian.

"Now there is s true sitting-president who started raising issues of
Baku Massacres. He raises subjects which were bypassed before.

Armenian presidents were wrong before," he said.

Baku Massacres in January 13-19 1990 left dozens of hundreds killed
people (from 200 to 450 people are believed killed, according to
different reports). Nikolay Babadjanian said more than 290,000
Armenians were deported only from Baku in 1990.

TURKISH PM THREATENS TO COLLAPSE ARMENIAN-TURKISH DIALOGUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2010 17:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia seem to conduct an audit of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols’ text. If the Constitutional Court of
Armenia does not reconsider its decision, the negotiations with Armenia
will reach a dead end, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ,
on a visit to a Saudi Arabia, said, Turkish media reported.

When Turkish Prime Minister made statements in Saudi Arabia, the
foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey Edward Nalbandian and Ahmet
Davutoglu held a telephone conversation. According to the Turkish
Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Burak Ozugergin, RA FM called Turkish
counterpart and expressed his concerns in regard to statements made by
Turkish Foreign Ministry about the decision of Armenian Constitutional
Court on the Protocols.

During the telephone conversation, Turkey’s foreign minister said
that "the decision of the Armenian Constitutional Court contains
unacceptable preconditions".

Commenting on the decision of the Armenian Constitutional Court, the
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the decision contains
preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and
spirit of the Protocols.

"The decision undermines the very reason for negotiating these
Protocols as well as their fundamental objective. This approach
cannot be accepted on our part. Turkey, in line with its accustomed
allegiance to its international commitments, maintains its adherence
to the primary provisions of these Protocols.

We expect the same allegiance from the Armenian Government," the
Ministry said.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.

On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.