Author: Basmajian Ani

MUBARIZ AKHMEDOGLU: "THE MAIN CAUSE OF THE ARMED CLASH IS A TENSE INTERNAL SITUATION IN ARMENIA"

Today
tics/43565.html
March 5 2008
Azerbaijan

I do not believe that Azerbaijan started hostilities making use of
the internal situation in Armenia, as the situation is tense in this
country and the society has split.

The due announcement was made by Mubariz Akhmedoglu, head of the
center of political innovations and technologies, commenting on
the armed clash between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia,
which occurred on March 4.

"It is necessary to take into account that during yesterday’s fight,
President of Azerbaijan was meeting with the residents of Khanlar
region on the other side of the mountain. At the same time, he was
there not alone, but with his wife and his daughter. I do not think
that he would have put their lives under threat", the political
scientist said.

He noted that in the moment of the clash, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister
was in Baku, holding a meeting with a delegation from Czechia, which
was visiting our country.

"I am confident that the armed clash was provoked by Armenia. The
main cause of the armed clash is a tense internal situation in
Armenia. Moreover, there are sufficient problems in the military
command of this country.

Even the Defense Minister of Armenia does not take an active part in
this processes. The main figure now is the head of the Joint Staff of
Armenia Seyran Oganyan, who was deputy commander of the 366th rifle
division, participating in the massacres committed in Khojaly. This
person is a murderer", Akhmedoglu announced.

The political scientist reminded that Oganyan committed massacres
against Armenians in the Chaykend operation before the Khojaly
tragedy. Then peaceful Azerbaijanis in Khojaly fell his victims. In
February of 2008 he committed bloodshed against Armenians in Yerevan
and now it is Azerbaijanis’ turn.

"The armed clash was initiated by Armenian armed forces. I am sure
that our soldiers responded properly to them. I think, they should
be given a duly response so that to forget what arms are forever",
Akhmedoglu said.

ETHNIC CLEANSING OF ART BY TURKS, A SPEECH WRITTEN BY DIAMANDA GALAS

DiamandaGalas.com
Assyria Times
ews/article.php?storyid=3307
March 4 2008
CA

On January 19, 2008, writer/genocide scholar Desmond Fernandes
presented a text written by Diamanda at a memorial event for Hrant
Dink, the Editor-in-Chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper,
Agos, who was assassinated in Istanbul one year ago by a Turkish
nationalist. The tribute was held outside the Houses of Parliament
in London. Diamanda’s speech was subsequently read during a brief
presentation Desmond Fernandes made for a Hrant Dink Memorial lecture
at London’s House of Commons on January 21, 2008.

Diamanda’s Speech:

The longer it takes to address the mandate of applying Turkishness to
all things good–and good to all things Turkish, the longer it will
take to redress the financially-supported cultural disinformation
spread by those institutions and persons in Turkey who, using as a
criminal mandate the necessity to translate all aural arts (songs,
poetry, theatre, and other human ritual practices) into Turkish before
they are allowed to be performed by the general public, effectively
cleanse it of its owners’ names and claim it as Turkish invention,
innovation.

Once the art is performed in Turkish it may then be claimed as Turkish,
and thusly as a Turkish art form. With the censored owners under
control or in prison for performing the work illegally (in their
own languages), it can then be safely deposited under "anonymous"
or a Turkish name into a vault that has been protected and in fact
proclaimed as an ethnically inviolate treasure, with the help of
Turkey’s good friends, America and Israel.

It is no mystery that the Greeks, the Armenians, the Assyrians, and
the Kurds were for centuries expected to provide their own boys and
young men to the Turkish military (in order to ensure protection of
their families and land from the the Ottoman Republic, for example),
but this enlistment also included composers of music, performers,
singers, poets, and so on, who were NOT allowed to perform in any
tongue but Turkish. Later, when their arms were taken away and they
were slaughtered, the works they left behind were claimed as Turkish,
as are Hagia Sofia, Assyrian and Greek sculpture, and Armenian poetry.

In the obvious case of the great blind oudist Udi Hrant, he cannot
be heard on record singing in Armenian, although he was an Armenian,
and one of the most famous Armenians who lived in Turkey. He can only
be heard singing in Turkish.

The melodies of the amanes, amanethes, shared throughout Greece and
Anatolia are now still claimed to be shared by all the cultures
who have lived in Anatolia, since the agora of Smyrna/Izmir was
the meeting place for Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Jews, Arabs, and
Assyrians. They all shared verses and sang this music to "a god
invited by despair." The word "amanes" refers to "mana," or mother,
in Greek. In other words, it is the last cry of the soldier on the
battlefield, and it is the universal cry of the lonely.

Fortunately the word "aman" is permissable in Turkey, but how soon
will it be written in Turkish books of musical education that this
great vocal tradition is initially a Turkish one? What then will the
Greeks who hear our finest amanes singer Dalgas think in 100 years?

In even 50?

As the daughter of a Maniate Spartan and an Anatolian hailing from
Smryna/Izmir, the Black Sea, and Alexandria, I find the ethnic
cleansing of art to be preposterous, but also to be dangerous. If
an Armenian is told to reject what may be his by birthright because
he is later educated by disinformation passed down through Turkish
ethnic music institutes that the music he loves is not Armenian
but in fact Turkish, what does he have left? How many dromoi/makams
(scales) does he have left to sing? This is true for all the cultures
I mention above.

Robbery is not just the robbery of money or human flesh; in involves
the soul murder of cultures which will soon die if it they have no
more songs to sing. Especially in the desert. And survival in the
desert has been proven to be perilous.

MATTHEW BRYZA TO HOLD TALKS IN BAKU

TREND News Agency
March 4 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 March / corr. TrendNews K. Ramazanova/ Matthew
Bryza, deputy assistant to the Secretary of State of the United States
on Europe and Eurasia will pay a visit to Baku within the next couple
of days. Jonathan Henick, the head of the Public Affairs Office of
the US Embassy in Azerbaijan said to TrendNews on 3 March.

During his visit Bryza will hold meetings with officials and will
discuss bilateral relations in the energy sphere, Henick said.

The representative of the Embassy said that Matthew Bryza, who is also
the American co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group on the settlement
of Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict, will not visit Azerbaijan as a
co-chairman of OSCE Minsk Group this time.

According to the Armenian media, Matthew Bryza will also visit
Yerevan to discuss the situation concerning the state of emergency
in the country.

NAMES OF 8 KILLED IN YEREVAN DISORDERS IDENTIFIED

DeFacto Agency
March 3 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 03.03.08. DE FACTO. The personalities of 8 killed as a
result of disorders carried out on March 1 in Yerevan’s centre by
the supporters of ex presidential nominee Levon Ter-Petrossian have
been identified.

Among those killed are Zakar Hovhannisian, Hamlet Tadevossian,
Gor Khloyan, David Petrosian, Tigran Khachatrian, Grigor Gevorkian,
Hovhannes Hovhannisian, and Armen Farmanian. The circumstances of
these people’s death are being ascertained.

According to the RA Ministry of Public Health, 131 people have been
taken to the Yerevan hospitals on March 1. 72 of them are servicemen,
59 civil people. 16 out of 72 injured servicemen and 18 out of 59
civil people got bullet and fragmentation wounds.

In the course of a working meeting with RA President Robert Kocharian
RA Minister of Health Harutyun Kushkian reported the state’s head on
the casualties’ health.

Since March 1 state of emergency has been imposed in Yerevan by RA
President’s decree. The disorders carried out by oppositionists in
Yerevan’s centre, in the vicinity of the Yerevan City Hall, served
as the ground for imposing state of emergency.

8 PEOPLE DIE FROM GUNSHOT WOUNDS DURING DISPERSAL OF RALLY

YEREVAN, MARCH 2, NOYAN TAPAN. 131 people received medical aid in
Yerevan hospitals on March 1, 2008. From 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m, the
number of injured people made only 42, including 14 military and 28
citizens. No deaths were recorded during this period.

According to information on the website of the RA ministry of health,
from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. the number of injured people made 89,
including 58 military and 31 citizens.

16 of 72 injured military and 18 of 59 injured citizen had gunshot
and missile wounds. 8 people died from gunshot wounds.

As of 11 a.m. March 2, 41 injured persons left hospital.

PRESIDENT NOT CONTENT WITH THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Panorama.am
20:44 29/02/2008

President of the republic Robert Kocharyan is not content with the
educational system. This was said by Kocharyan himself during a meeting
with the students of Yerevan State University (YSU). Concurrently
he noted that a tendency of reforms is visible. Kocharyan said the
government has recently discussed allocations from the state budget
for oversee education of local students. The president is sure in
that case an obligatory contract should be signed between the parties
while getting the funds.

The students raised questions on the inflation. Kocharyan said the
inflation is conditioned by the rise in fuel and wheat prices in the
world market.

"We must be able to differentiate between speculative inflation from
the objective. The inflation in the world market cannot not have an
influence on the inflation in Armenia," the leader of the country said.

Source: Panorama.am

IRELAND RECOGNIZED KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.02.2008 16:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On February 29, the Irish government unanimously
voted for recognition of Serbia’s province of Kosovo, Ireland’s
Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said.

"This decision should not be eyed as hostile act against Serbia,"
he said.

Kosovo proclaimed independence from Serbia on February 17.

Serbia recalled ambassadors from states, which recognized independence
of the breakaway province.

Russia rates the unilateral proclamation of independence to violation
of international legal norms, ITAR-TASS reports.

OPPOSITION OYP RETURNS TO AUTHORITIES

Noyan Tapan
Feb 29 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. According to certain information,
the Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) Party will form a coalition
government with the Republican Party of Armenia and Bargavach Hayastan
(Prosperous Armenia) party, and Arthur Baghdasarian, the Chairman of
the Orinats Yerkir Party and the candidate, who received 16.7 percent
of the votes at the presidential elections, will be appointed Secretary
of the Security Council.

It should be mentioned that during the rally of his supporters,
which took place on the Republic square of Yerevan the other day,
Prime Minister Serge Sargsian, who received 52.8 percent of the votes
at the presidential elections, called other presidential candidates
to form a coalition government. Later, Robert Kocharian, the current
President of the Republic of Armenia mentioned in the interview with
the Public TV that the newly-elected President intends to involve
other political forces as well into the authorities, besides the
Republican Party of Armenia and Bargavach Hayastan.

It should also be mentioned that the further cooperation of the ARF
Dashnaktsutiun with the RPA and Bargavach Hayastan is still uncertain
as the suggestion of Dashnaktsutiun on renouncing that cooperation
has not been discussed yet with the other two participants of the
cooperation. It is not excluded that coming out of the government,
Dashnaktsutiun will become a constructive opposition. It should also
be mentioned that the ARF Armenia Supreme Body made a statement on
February 25, in which it stated that it does not dispute the results
of the presidential elections and turns to the political coalition
with a suggestion on stopping the cooperation.

"CALLS FOR COOPERATION EXIST FROM OPPOSITION"

Panorama.am
21:10 27/02/2008

Before starting the question-answer session with the government at the
National Assembly, NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan mentioned that this is
the first session of the government in the parliament after Central
Electoral Commission summed up the results of the elections. In this
regard, Torosyan congratulated Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan on his
victory at the presidential election. Armenian Republican Party,
Prosperous Armenia Party and Dashnaksutiun greeted the prime minister
with applauds. Torosyan handed a bunch of roses and Sargsyan gave it
to Hransh Hakobyan who distributed the roses among female deputies.

Answering to the question of Jarangutiun block deputy Anahit
Bakhshyan on the comment of Serzh Sargsyan during yesterday’s rally
where the prime minister said the authorities are ready to cooperate
with opposition forces for the sake of development and prosperity of
Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan answered: "I said yesterday what cooperation I
propose which may be up to the formation of a coalition government. I
do not believe the stage of parliament is the place to discuss
details. Those who are ready for cooperation are called to the
practical stage where we will be start discussions." He also said
calls for cooperation exist from the opposition.

COMPETE WITH AZERBAIJAN

Panorama.am
13:59 27/02/2008

Today the first round of mini football world competition 2008 started
in Pardubitse, Czech Republic. Armenian mini football national team
also takes part in the mini football world competition.

The competitors of our football players are going to be the teams of
Czech Republic, Finland, and Azerbaijan. The Armenian mini football
national team is headed by Ruben Nazaretyan. The competition will
last till 2 March.