Author: Chakrian Hovsep

OPPOSITION PARTIES DISSATISFIED WITH OBAMA VISIT

Todays Zaman
April 8 2009
Turkey

US President Barack Obama delivered a speech in the Turkish Parliament
and then held brief talks with the opposition party leaders on Monday.

Opposition party leaders were not pleased with the messages that
US President Barack Obama delivered during their tête-a-tête
meetings in the Turkish Parliament on Monday because they fell short
of their expectations. Obama held brief talks with the opposition
party leaders — main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
Chairman Deniz Baykal, opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
Chairman Devlet Bahceli and pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)
Chairman Ahmet Turk — in Parliament on Monday. Party leaders seized
the opportunity to convey different messages to the US president,
but the meetings did not produce the expected results.

DTP leader Turk was probably the most disappointed by Obama’s remarks,
which advised the party that violence or armed struggle would not
solve the Kurdish problem. Turk told Obama about the unsolved murders
in the southeastern parts of Turkey.

He also handed Obama a file that included the views of and proposals
by DTP officials for the solution of the Kurdish issue. Obama, in
response, stressed that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
is a terrorist organization and that violence would not be a means
to solve problems.

Akın Birdal, a DTP deputy, said his party agreed that problems
would not be solved with violence. "We expressed our fear that the
inability to solve the Kurdish problem would bring with it more serious
problems. We have once more made the point that we are for solutions
that use democratic and civilian means," he stated. The DTP currently
faces a closure case in the Constitutional Court on charges of being
"a focal point for terrorism."

The MHP, on the other hand, is concerned that Obama’s visit to Turkey
may further deepen disappointment in Azerbaijan, which was already
uneasy about the invitation of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian to the second Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations
(UNAOC) in Ä°stanbul.

Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev refused to attend the event,
sending low-profile Azerbaijani officials to represent his country
in protest of the Armenian presence at the meeting.

With growing signs of a thaw in the relations between Turkey and
Armenia after a century of hostility, the chances of Ankara opening
the border it closed in 1993 have significantly improved. Turkey’s
closure of the 268-kilometer-long border had been in solidarity
with Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists over
the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region — a festering conflict that
remains unresolved. Azerbaijan, however, is cold to the prospect of
the border being reopened.

MHP Ankara deputy Deniz BölukbaÅ~_ı called Obama’s speech in
Parliament a "disappointment," saying, "Obama’s views of the Armenian
genocide have not changed and his desire for the Halki Seminary to
be reopened and his strong relations with the Kurdish administration
in Iraq are worrisome."

The staunchly secular CHP is uneasy about Obama’s positive sentiments
for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan but is pleased to have seized
the opportunity to engage in talks with the US president.

CHP leader Baykal mentioned his party’s sensitivity to such issues as
secularism, freedom of the press and freedom of the judiciary. Obama,
in response, asked Baykal why he doesn’t travel to the US. "My friends
often fly to the US, but the last time I traveled to the US was in
1987," Baykal said.

CHP Deputy Chairman Onur Oymen said Obama’s messages during his speech
in Parliament were not beyond expectations. "It’s important that he
dwelled on democracy, secularism and close cooperation between Turkey
and the US. … His remarks, however, on the cooperation between the
two countries in Afghanistan brings up the problem that the US has
high hopes for Turkey," Oymen noted.

He also said the CHP was pleased to see that Obama is likely to pursue
a different policy from that of the Bush administration.

Democratic Left Party (DSP) Ä°stanbul deputy Ahmet Tan stressed that
Obama brought a new series of responsibilities to Turkey during his
visit. "Obama imposed new responsibilities on the government and won
back the hearts of opposition parties. In an approach different from
the Bush administration, Obama is trying to implement its policies
in the Middle East with the support of Turkey," he added.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

A1+
06:53 pm | April 09, 2009

Society

Armenian presses made a condemning statement today:

"On the night of April 8, 2009, "A1+" journalist David Jalalyan
underwent beatings by the police while he was on the job. David
Jalalyan received first aid and was transferred to the hospital by
an ambulance. Doctors said that his life is not in danger, but that
he must stay under their supervision for a while.

This is not the first time that law-enforcement officers illegally
keep journalists from doing their job without being sure that they
will not be punished.

We the presses condemn the disproportionate actions taken by the police
towards journalists fulfilling their duty as professionals and demand
the administration of the RA Police to assign an investigation and
bring those responsible to justice" as stated in the statement signed
by the Committee on Defense of Freedom of Speech, the Yerevan Press
Club, mass media outlets such as "Internews" NGO, the Pluralistic
Media Institute-Armenia, and the Journalists’ "Asbarez" Club.

ONLINE SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN AGAINST OPENING OF TURKEY-ARMENIA BORDER LAUNCHED

State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan
April 8, 2009 Wednesday

The online signature gathering campaign against opening of
Turkey-Armenia border has started.

The results of the campaign launched at
will be presented to
the Turkish officials.

TORSARKISSIAN SAYS PRIORITY TO BE GIVEN TO MOST POPULAR CANDIDATE IN HIS SECT

NowLebanon
April 8 2009
Lebanon

Future Movement MP Serge Torsarkissian said in an interview with
al-Balad daily on Wednesday that he was open to all solutions that
furthered the interest and strengthened the unity of the March 14
alliance. "Priority should be given to the person who represents
his sect the most, rather than the candidate exported for electoral
needs. These are general rules," he said.

Torsarkissian said that his candidacy was approved by the Armenian
Catholic Patriarchy, adding that he had priority to run in the
elections for the Armenian Catholic parliamentary seat in the Beirut
I district, "because I am a well-known face in Rmeil, Saifi and
Achrafieh, [and I am also known for] my ideas and experience with
the residents."

The MP also said he had strong relations with Lebanese Forces
supporters. "Perhaps this strong relation made me and those whom
I represent surprised," he said referring to the LF nomination of
Richard Kouyoumjian in his district. Torsarkissian refused to comment
on the communications between LF and the Future Movement over his
parliamentary seat.

PRESS RELEASE
From: Mira Yardemian
Public Relations Director
Haigazian University
Mexique Street, Kantari, Beirut
P.O.Box. 11-1748
Riad El Solh 1107 2090
Tel: 01-353010/1/2
01-349230/1

Micheline Aharonian Marcom on "Imagining the Armenian Genocide" and
"Diaspora Thinking"

Beirut, April 8, 2009- On March 30 and 31, 2009, Micheline Aharonian
Marcom, a Creative Writing professor at Mills College, California,
delivered two public lectures entitled "Imagining the Armenian
Genocide", and "Diaspora Thinking", in the Haigazian University
Auditorium.

Marcom, who was an American J. William Fulbright specialist at Haigazian
University for two weeks, with the kind services and cooperation of the
Embassy of the USA in Beirut, was introduced on the first day to the
audience by Mrs. Mira Yardemian, the Public Relations Director.

Yardemian talked briefly about Marcom’s childhood, as a young girl
growing up in San Francisco, hearing Arabic, French and Armenian;
languages that were both fascinating and frustrating at the same time.

Marcom began her first presentation "Imagining the Armenian Genocide",
by explaining how from her study of languages and literature, she found
a key to her family’ s story, and her own, which gave fruition to a
trilogy of books about the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath in the
twentieth century.

Marcom read 3 passages from her book "Three Apples Fell from Heaven",
the first of the trilogy, which was a New York Times Notable Book and
Runner-Up for the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction. The selections
introduced many characters, women, elderly, and children, portraying
their sufferings and tortures during the Armenian Genocide. All
descriptions were inspired by the stories of Marcom’s grandmother,
herself a survivor of the 1915 genocide.

The second day, Marcom was introduced by Dr. Arda Elkmekji, Dean of the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who appreciated the hard work of the
author in writing her memoirs, as a source of inspiration.

Marcom discussed "Diaspora Thinking", by reading passages from her
second book of the trilogy, the "Daydreaming Boy", which won the PEN/USA
Award for Fiction.

Marcom introduced the main character, Vahe, a young orphan in the "Birds
Nest" Orphanage, in Jbeil, Lebanon. Marcom presents Vahe, and his
constant search for identity, describing his experiences, lifestyle,
emotions and sufferings.

RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSYAN RECEIVED A MISSION FROM THE WORLD BANK’S DEVELOPMENT POLICY LENDING PROGRAM DESIGN DIVISION, HEADED BY SENIOR ECONOMIST FOR ARMENIA ROBERT TALIERZO.

PUBLIC RADIO OF ARMENIA

Tuesd ay, 7 April 2009

Robert Talierzo thanked the Armenian Prime Minister and the Government
for cooperation by noting that the mission has conducted fruitful
discussions with the local ministries and agencies concerned.

Mr. Talierzo informed Tigran Sargsyan on the status of the 3-year
country support lending program development activities currently
underway at the World Bank. He noted that the mission has already
discussed this year’s lending program with corresponding Armenian
agencies. The 2010-2011 programs were said to have been left for
discussion during a next mission scheduled for the last decade of
this month.

The Prime Minister was further briefed on the mission’s recommendations
regarding such action as may need taking in anticipation of
the first lending program which was said to have an anti-crisis
bias. Mr. Talierzo stressed the need for earmarking additional funds
to the social sector first of all. The mission head appreciated the
steps so far taken by the Government, including the set of legislative
initiatives providing for increased small and medium-size enterprise
support, improved business environment etc. Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan concurred with Mr. Talierzo.

The pa rties have agreed in that the package of proposed action will
be finalized once the Government of Armenia, the World Bank and the
IMF come to an agreement on Armenia’s macroeconomic forecasts. Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan accepted the proposal on establishing a task
force to formulate more accurate macroeconomic forecasts and develop
a number of scenarios.

Robert Talierzo said the Bank is prepared to support Armenia and
as soon as the preliminaries for this year’s program are finalized,
the mutually agreed document will be submitted to the World Bank’s
Board of Directors for consideration.

THE TANK YARD
By Roger Kupelian

Friday, April 3, 2009
4/7/2009_1

Our transport was far behind us now, hopelessly dead in a mound of
brown, sticky mud a kilometer from its starting point in Yeghager. Its
belly was still full of stripped tractor parts, which together with
its baking exhaust and coated grease, had battled us during the
short-lived but chaotic ride. There were about ten or eleven of us,
already whittled away by fatigue and starvation. One of our party had
a pinched nerve in his back, and had contorted into a staircase. His
walking stick was barely enough to keep him up. Along with him was a
blonde woman fighter, a young fighter of seventeen, and a few tattered
others. Mataghis was over fifteen kilometers away, at least.

The sun was beating down on the exposed sections of mud and drying
it into cement under our downhill steps. My right knee, which had
been a problem during the whole trip, felt like it wanted to break
sideways. The others were always way ahead of me. The weather had
gone from rain to searing heat instantly.

Those returning from Ardatap, the farthest post, had walked almost
thirty kilometers in two days. Small shrines and graves, either Azeri
or Armenian, came up from time to time at each side of the road. When
we finally broke tree cover, Mataghis was finally visible. My feet
felt as if they had blisters growing in every direction, even up.

The chirping of birds was broken up by distant artillery and the
roar of tanks. It was said that a certain general had made his
base in Mataghis, where there was a hydraulic dam that provided
Karabakh with its electricity. This general was battling the forces
of Mir Bashir, which meant he had to move forward without the cover
of mountains. These same treacherous mountains had helped their
Armenian inhabitants fend off inhabitants, had helped them fight very
effective guerrilla warfare. Now, the Armenians were outgunned and
wide open. And this general was under a lot of pressure. And this
general was driving his men to the ground, and had executed two of
them, without court-martial.

Six years of war can do a lot to make a person go over the edge,
especially when it means six years of losing your friends, of being
under constant bombardment, of not knowing who your wife or sweetheart
is sleeping with back home. Then, there’s the weed. Good, wild Karabakh
Marijuana, and of course, as much vodka and cognac that you can get
your lips to.

The tank yard was loud when we scraped in. To one side was a building
that looked like it used to be some kind of mechanic’s shop. Around
it were a lot of tank repair-men, and they had their shirts off. They
were covered with tank oil and grease. Along the back wall were parked
several different kinds of armored vehicles. The tank repair-men
were revving up the diesel engines, filling the landscape with
exhaust smoke.

We were sitting under the shade of some little trees near the yard,
when a tank that had been parked to the right of us suddenly roared to
life. It’s engine sounded like a bus with asthma. Lurching forward,
it spun around and trundled directly at us. The driver’s head was
poking out of the front, directly in front of the turret. His balding
head and white mustache reminded me of William Saroyan. He had the
mischievous grin of a teenager. We were up in seconds grabbing our
equipment and trying to get out of the tank’s path. It was all very
surreal, an olive green metal monster with a little pink ball on its
front that was a human head, and a William Saroyan type head, at that.

The driver drove toward people and swerved aside at the last moment,
as if it was a big game. He was treating this epic of machinery as an
extension of himself, but the real reason he didn’t run over anyone
was that we all ran away.

On its front was painted a white crescent and star, the Azeri
symbol. On its turret were painted large words in Russian. Someone
translated it for me: "Aliyev’s Grandsons." At one point, this thing
was driven by the enemy, and a rocket from the Armenian side had bought
it, relieving the occupants of any further participation in the war.

The clumsy giant was driven over to the compound where it was soon
coated by a swarm of repairmen, opening engine canopies, clambering
inside, shooting smoke into the air. I now knew why so few insects
had greeted us at Mataghis.

After an hour or so, the tank reversed, with everyone still on board,
but now, a shirtless worker was straddling the main cannon and another
was dangling from it. The driver threw his tank into a series of 360’s
to throw the dangler off, who persevered and finally let go on his own,
jumping back onto the main body before, amid much hooping and laughter,
the collage of flesh and metal leapt away, down the road.

Feeling relatively safe, our group settled down for some imported
tins of fish from China, called Quin Quang or something like that, and
washed it down with room temperature vodka. Needless to say, fatigue
had already gotten the better of me, and I succumbed to a half-sleep.

We were approached by a group of officers who had the faces of people
who made life difficult for other people. These asked us if we had run
into a certain deserter during our travels, and we said no. Even if we
had seen him, we still would have said no. Being volunteers, conscript
issues didn’t interest us. We all knew how tough life was out here. If
the war didn’t kill you, the isolation and boredom made you crazy.

My blistered feet were complaining irreverently so I took them to
a place where the washout from the dam collected. There was even
more water there now that the Karabakhtsis had blocked the river’s
path into Azeri territory. The water was green, full of algae,
and I sat on a rock, amid soldiers in various stages of undress, to
soak my naked bunions in the coolness. All around me, the men were
carrying on like bathing, swimming, joking, and shaving. They were
also laughing. I soaked my socks and wrung them as dry as I could,
them put them back on, envying the fish.

When I made it back to the compound, the tank mechanic who had
straddled the cannon of "Aliyev’s Grandsons" was engaged in a
stone-throwing game with a tall Russian soldier who had a large tattoo
of his sister on his chest. This was one of the few times I actually
saw a Russian in Karabakh. He seemed to be very good friends with the
crazy tank mechanic and a friendly kind of person. Any conversation
was limited between us, probably because I spoke no Russian. We were
both fish out of water, me, a Yankee Armenian in Karabakh, and him,
a tall Russian with a tattoo of Sister on his chest.

We finally found a vehicle that was going our way. It was a covered
truck that was a repair-shop on the inside, and in jangled and rattled
with every bump. Two of our party, the commander and the actor,
missed the ride, but the commander later told us he was treated to
turtle-meat by the very people he borrowed the jeep from. He added
that turtle meat was the best meat in the world. Meanwhile, another
occupant of the truck, an old grandpa soldier who looked like Santa
in camouflage, started to sing. I guess he was happy about going home
and seeing his grandkids. He strummed his automatic rifle as if it
was a guitar, and serenaded the blonde woman fighter, who blushed a
gold-tooth smile. I couldn’t understand the words to the song, but
she was visibly flattered. I remembered that she and I unflatteringly
smacked heads earlier that day in the Armored Transport every time
it shifted gear.

The driver of the covered truck let us off a full two kilometers
before headquarters, and to the chagrin of my embattled knee, we had
to walk uphill for half an hour. There, we ate and rested, then bathed
and found a room to sleep in. As my eyelids grew heavy, I thought I
heard tanks in the distance, and thought of Aliyev’s grandsons.

RAMGAVAR PARTY ANNOUNCES OGASSAPIAN’S CANDIDACY FOR BEIRUT III

ILoubnan, Lebanon
April 7 2009

BEIRUT – The Armenian Ramgavar party announced that Minister of State
Jean Ogassapian will be running for the Armenian Orthodox seat in
Beirut III district.

The party announced in a statement on Thursday that Ogassapian will
be running on the March 14 alliance’s electoral list in the upcoming
parliamentary elections. The statement said that the forthcoming
elections are crucial for defining Lebanon’s future.

US PRESIDENT WHO PLEDGED TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, IS VISITING TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.04.2009 18:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "US Administration hasn’t yet made a final draft of
Obama’s address to American Armenians on Apr. 24," Armenian Genocide
Museum Director Hayk Demoyan told a news conference in Yerevan.

"So it’s hard to foretell if Barack Obama will use the word Genocide
on Apr. 24," said Demoyan.

He stressed that US President’s making an annual address to American
Armenians is a serious step. "There’s a possibility that during Barack
Obama’s Administration, another step will be taken towards Armenian
Genocide recognition."

US President, who pledged that, as president, he will recognize the
Armenian Genocide, is currently visiting Turkey.

HAYK DEMOYAN: ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN ARMENIA, TURKEY MORE PROBABLE
Karen Ghazaryan

"Radiolur"
06.04.2009 15:22

"Many myths have been created around the developments connected with
the Armenian-Turkish relations," Director of the Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan told a press conference today. According
to him, those myths should be shattered, because those discussions
create unnecessary tension.

"A natural process is underway, and there have been impulses from
different sides, but the Armenian side gave the most serious impulse
by sending out an invitation to the Turkish President," Hayk Demoyan
noted.

Hayk Demoyan said there are more preconditions for establishment
of diplomatic relations than opening of the border. "The logic of
establishing diplomatic relations is more compelling: if you refuse to
establish diplomatic relations, you demonstrate your hostile attitude
towards that country," Demoyan stated.