MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS DUE IN ARMENIA NEXT WEEK
armradio.am
15.01.2010 17:44
The Minsk Group Co-chairs will arrive in Armenia on January 20 within
the framework of a regional visit, Acting Spokesman of the Ministry
of Foreign affairs of Armenia, Tigran Balayan told "Radiolur."
Russian Co-Chairs Yurri Merzlyakov had told Trend News earlier that
the mediators would visit Armenia and Azerbaijan in January.
ANATOLY SERDYUKOV: COOPERATION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ARMENIA IN MILITARY SPHERE IS OF STRATEGIC NATURE
NoyanTapan
Jan 14, 2010
MOSCOW, JANUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to military and
military-technical cooperation of Armenia and Russia, regional
security, and education of Armenian servicemen at Russian military
educational institutions were discussed at the January 13 working
meeting of Defense Ministers of Armenia and Russia Seyran Ohanian
and Anatoly Serdyukov in Moscow.
According to the Information and PR Department of the RA Ministry
of Defense, when speaking about bilateral relations in the military
sphere, A. Serdyukov said that "the cooperation between Russia and
Armenia in this sphere is of a strategic nature".
ARF TO CONTINUE ACTIVITIES AGAINST ARMENO-TURKISH PROTOCOLS
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.01.2010 15:20 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The verdict of Armenian Constitutional Court over the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols enables and forces Armenia to act further in
accordance with the decision, Vahan Hovhannisyan , ARF (Dashnaktsutyun)
parliamentary group leader told a press conference in Yerevan.
He stressed, that Protocols’ articles on the establishment of
diplomatic relations and opening of Armenia-Turkey border need to be
clarified by the Constitutional Court. "For the development of further
relations between the two countries new agreements should be signed and
pass all relevant procedures in the country," Vahan Hovhannisyan said.
He is not satisfied with the explanation of the Armenian Constitutional
Court, he said, although appreciates that the court accepted all the
arguments presented ARFD . "We have sufficient pre-requisites for
further work in this direction," Hovannisyan said.
Protocols on the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations have
been signed on October 10, 2009 in Zurich by the foreign ministers
of Armenia and Turkey, Edward Nalbandian and Ahmet Davutoglu in the
presence of the foreign ministers of France, the United States, Russia
and Switzerland after a series of diplomatic talks held through Swiss
mediation since 2007. According to the Protocols, diplomatic relations
should be established between the two countries and the mutual border,
closed by Turkey since 1993, should be opened. On January 12, 2010
Armenian Constitutional Court acknowledged the constituency of the
Protocols.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARFD) is one of the oldest
Armenian political parties, founded in 1890 in Tiflis by Christapor
Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian. Between 1918-1920
Dashnaktsutyun was the ruling party in the Republic of Armenia. As
a result of the Soviet invasion Dashnak government suspended its
activities. During the Soviet terror a great number of Dashnak
officers were executed, some emigrated. In 1988, the party returned
to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. At present, ARF Dashnaktsutyun has
offices in many countries wourlwide. In 1994, the party’s activities
in Armenia was banned by the President Levon Ter-Petrossian’s decree,
several members were arrested. In 1998, a decree was repealed by the
newly-elected President Robert Kocharyan. To date, the party belongs
to the opposition. The party’s program remains unchanged: creation
of a united, free and independent Armenia within the boundaries
established by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920.
‘WHETHER AZERBAIJAN LIKES IT OR NOT, KARABAKH IS INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC’: SHARMAZANOV
Tert.am
15:51 ~U 15.01.10
Progress is evident recently in the issue of the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Republican Party of Armenia press
spokesperson, MP Edward Sharmazanov during a press conference today.
As proof of his statement, the parliamentarian pointed to the nine
meetings held between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
recently.
Sharmazanov also turned his attention to the possible signing of an
agreement during the upcoming meeting in Moscow between the presidents
of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
"Such an agreement cannot be signed without [addressing] the issue
of the Karabakh people’s situation," he said.
However, the ruling party spokesperson also noted that he doesn’t
really see the possibility of signing an agreement in the near future.
"Whether Azerbaijan likes it or not, Karabakh is an independent
republic. Karabakh cannot be in a worse situation than it is now,"
concluded Sharmazanov.
TURK DISMISSED IN NETHERLANDS FOR USING TERM DEPORTATION INSTEAD OF GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.01.2010 21:24 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Arman Sag, a Turkish contributor to Dagelijkse
Standaard Dutch portal was dismissed because of using the term
‘deportation’ instead of the Armenian Genocide in his article.
Besides, Sag said "Turks never committed a genocide."
After numerous complaints received by the editorial staff from the
Armenian community of the Netherlands, editor-in-chief urged Sag to
apologize. The journalist for his part said he neither denied nor
confirmed the fact of the Genocide in his article, Hurriyet reported.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.
The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.
Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were
indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse
commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case
of genocide after the Holocaust.
The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire,
denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In
recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as
genocide.
To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.
news.am, Armenia
Jan 8 2010
ANC: Niko Pashinyan’s rights violated from beginning
18:09 / 01/08/2010The parliamentary candidate Nikol Pashinyan’s rights
were violated from the very beginning, as he was to have been released
immediately after he was registered by the district election
commission, ANC Chairman Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated at a rally in
support of a parliamentary candidate in the by-elections in Election
District #10.
The reasons advanced by Chairman of the RA Central Electoral Commission
(CEC) Garegin Azaryan that the CEC’s consent to Pashinyan’s arrest was
not at all necessary ` he was arrested before being registered as a
parliamentary candidate ` can hardly be considered sound. `An
official, including the CEC Chairman, can only perform duties under
law without commenting on them. Under the law a parliamentary
candidate can be under arrest only with the CEC’s consent,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.
The ANC leader called the Armenian authorities `stupid and
short-sighted,’ as they did not even failed to keep up their own image
and proved unable to realize the need for releasing Niko Pashinyan
during the election campaign. `They would with pleasure silence us,
but they want to cause as much pain as possible to their opponents,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.
`Although Nikol and another 14 of our companions are still in prison,
we are in a festive mood. I do not ant our struggle to be nervous. The
longer we struggle the more valuable will be our victory,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.
Besides Nikol Pashinyan, two other candidates are running for
Parliament in Election District #10, Ara Simonyan, a relative of
Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan, and the Marxist David Hakobyan. Nikol
Pashinyan is charged with organizing riots during the post-election
period in 2008. The Prosecution demands an 8-year imprisonment for
him. The verdict is to be returned on January 19.
T.P.
Armenian Writers Association of California to hold New Year meeting on Jan. 19
08.01.2010 14:16 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Celebrating the New Year, there will be a special
literary meeting of the Armenian Writers Association of California,
sponsored by Glendale Public Library on Tuesday, January 19, 2010.
Special guests from Armenia, poets Natella Lalabekian and Artem
Harutyunian will be present and will read their recent works. Members
of AWAOC and lovers of literature are invited, attendance is open and
free.
Poet, translator, laureate of Armenia’s state award, Doctor of
Philology and member of Writers’ Union of Armenia, Artem Harutyunyan
was born in Stepanakert on September 19, 1945. He completed his PhD in
English Literature at Moscow Gorki Institute of International
Literature. He has lectured at the State University of Yerevan,
Moscow, the Sorbonne, Marseille (France), Durham (England), Cleveland,
Harvard and Los Angeles. He also served as NKR representative to
Washington in 1994-95.
Armenian chess players to rival Turkish team in World Team Chess
Championship’s 3rd tour
07.01.2010 16:20 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the 3rd tour of World Team Chess Championship in
Bursa, Armenian team (Levon Aronian, Vladimir Hakobyan, Gabriel
Sarkisyan, Arman Pashikyan, Tigran Petrosyan and Tigran Kotanjyan),
led by Arshak Petrosyan, will rival that of Turkey.
After the 2nd tour, Armenian team occupies the 6th place with 4 points
to its score.
US team, with 6 points to its score, is leading the World Team Chess
Championship.
Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, Egyptian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Israeli
and Greek teams are among championship participants.
GfbV urges German Foreign Minister not to forget victims of expulsion
07.01.2010 17:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) issued an
open letter to Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at present in Turkey
through the German Embassy in Ankara and the German General Consulate
in Istanbul, Tilman Zülch, Chair of the German section of the STP
reported in his statement to PanARMENIAN.Net.
The letter runs as follows:
‘Our country has a responsibility to victims of expulsion – in Turkey
as well, Mr Westerwelle! You are today in Turkey accompanied by many
managers and you will be visiting the Gulf states.
On your visits to Istanbul and Ankara you will also be confronted with
expulsion and crimes of expulsion. With all your thoughts on matters
of commercial interest you should not forget these victims, two
million citizens of Kurdish ethnicity.
During the unhappy Turkish-Kurdish war of 1984-1999 the Turkish army
and allied militia destroyed 3,876 villages and hamlets in Turkish
Kurdistan/East Anatolia. Some 3 million people were driven out. Among
the expelled there were also Christian Assyrian Aramaeans from Tur
Abdin. The suffering caused by expulsion and the crimes of expulsion
is something which we Germans can very well appreciate. Not everyone
is in this position. But in our country millions of people expect that
the new Foreign Minister lays priority not only on matters of commerce
and strategic concern.
So we beg of you to speak up for a program of reconstruction in East
Anatolia, to promise German assistance and to work for the allocation
of funds from the EU.
To this end we also beg of you to speak out clearly to the Turkish
media and to those who are trying to block the most welcome new
Kurdish policy of the Erdogan government, which is aiming at peace.
Please do all you can to encourage measures to lift the ban on the
pro-Kurdish party DTP. Its members of Parliament had made very great
efforts to foster Turkish-Kurdish inter-ethnic social relationships
which are peaceful and respect the equality of rights’
The Society for Threatened Peoples is an international human rights
organization based in Gottingen, Germany. It attempts to create
awareness of and protect minority peoples around the world who are
threatened by oppressive governments. The group states on its website
that it "campaigns against all forms of genocide and ethnocide". It
has advisory status at the United Nations, participatory status with
the Council of Europe and has sections and offices in Germany,
Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile
and Iraqi Kurdistan.
APA, Azerbaijan
Jan 7 2010
ICRC representatives visit family of Tovuz resident captured by Armenians
[ 07 Jan 2010 15:38 ]
Baku ` APA. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) in Azerbaijan visited the family of Eldar Tagiyev,
resident of Alibeyli village of Tovuz region who was captured by
Armenian militants on December 28, 2009, ICRC spokeswoman in
Azerbaijan Gulnaz Guliyeva told APA. She said ICRC would keep
Tagiyev’s issue in the focus of its attention. `We have standard
working principles. We will try to visit him and to see conditions of
his detention, and to help him to contact with his family’.
The State Commission for Captives, Hostages and Missing People issued
statement on Thursday that resident of Alibeyli village of Tovuz
region Tagiyev Eldar Heydar, 47, who was reportedly missing on
December 28, 2009, was taken hostage by the Armenian militants on that
day and he is now in captivity in Armenia.
According to initial reports, Tagiyev was shot dead as a result of
ceasefire violation by Armenians, who shot him while he was fishing in
the Tovuz River running near the line of contact on December 28, 2009
at about 18.00. His body was left at the line of contact, but then was
taken away by Armenians.
According to other reports, Tagiyev was captured by Armenians.