Author: Chatinian Lara

NAGORNYY KARABAKH STATE COMMISSION ON WAR PRISONERS, LOST IN ACTION [LIA] AND HOSTAGES DISPROVES INFORMATION OF AZERBAIJANI STATE COMMISSION

ArmInfo
2009-01-15 14:44:00

ArmInfo. Nagornyy Karabakh State Commission on war prisoners, lost
in action [LIA] and hostages has commented on the final report of
the similar Azerbaijani State Commission about its activity in 2008,
which in particular says allegedly 39 Azerbaijanis are in prison at
the territory of Nagornyy Karabakh.

"The NKR State Commission on war prisoners, LIA and hostages considers
this information as a regular disinformation directed to discrediting
of the authorities of Nagornyy Karabakh Republic and an attempt
to mislead the world community. The NKR State Commission declares
with responsibility that there is no war prisoner or hostage at the
territory under the NKR jurisdiction of Nagornyy Karabakh Republic. The
NKR authorities which strictly follow the principles of the Geneva
Convention, repatriated all the captives to the Azerbaijani party
via intermediary of the ICRC after the military stage of the conflict
with Azerbaijan.

At present the relevant agencies in NKR timely inform ICRC and OSCE
offices in NKR of any fact of desertion to Karabakh by Azerbajani
servicemen and civilians, who are later repatriated to Azerbaijan
without any preliminary conditions. These international structures
have an open access to all the places of detention which rules out
existence of Azerbainjani POWs in the territory of the NKR. State
Commission of the country highlights the circumstance that official
Baku has not responded to the repeated proposals of the NKR authorities
to establish direct contact with a similar structure in Azerbaijan
to settle the problem of POWs, hostages and the missing.

In addition, Azerbaijani authorities keep on politicizing this
humanitarian and sensitive problem to gain doubtful propaganda
dividends and the last fact and open misinformation testifies to this,
the statement says.

"MASSACRES IN BAKU AND SUMGAYIT ARE BURIED IN OBLIVION"
By Arevik Badalian

AZG Armenian Daily
14/01/2009

Armenian Genocide

19 years passed after the slaughters in Baku

Asya Poghosian and her family recall January 13 of 1990 as a "black
day". The Armenian massacres in Baku started that day and continued
until January 15. During those three days dozens of Armenians were
killed, thousands of them became homeless and fled to Armenia and
Russia.

Asya Poghosian is a 75-year-old woman. It is already 19 years that
she lives in Yerevan having a refugee status.

Politician Alexander Manasian mentions that the massacres in Baku
and Sumgayit is the continuation of Turkish policy on the Armenian
Genocide.

"Our demands for recognition of the Armenian Genocide are restricted
in recognition of the genocide in 1915. The aim of Turkey was not
its national security but annihilation of the Armenian nation. That
is why the massacres continued even after the World War and embraced
territories beyond the borders of Turkey. In 1918, Turkish regular
troops massacred thousands of Armenians on their way to Baku",
Alexander Manasian said at "Urbat" club.

President of the Assembly of the Azerbaijani Armenians Gregori Ayvazian
is confident that taking into account the fact of the massacres in Baku
it is impossible to see Nagorno Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. "The
Azerbaijani Armenians were forced to leave their cradle. 418 thousand
Armenians of Azerbaijan became refugees; 300 thousand of them live in
Armenia today. The Armenian authorities don’t use this fact, while the
Azerbaijanis don’t miss the opportunity to speak of their refugees",
he said. The Assembly of the Azerbaijani-Armenians applied to the
Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide to define the massacres
of Baku scientifically. "The Museum-Institute didn’t delay the
answer. According to the conclusion of the Museum-Institute, the
massacres of Baku correspond to the international resolution on the
genocide phenomenon", Gregori Ayvazian added.

Asya Poghosian recalls that the Azerbaijanis, who committed the
massacres, clearly knew the houses of the Armenians.

A state of emergency was declared in Baku only in January 19. The same
day the Soviet troops broke into the capital of Azerbaijan. Tatul
Hakobian, the author of the book "Green and black; Artsakh diary",
writes that the Communist authorities of Armenia touched upon
the Armenian massacres of Baku a month late on February 13. The
Supreme Council considered inexplicable "the fact that in spite of
the massacres committed against the Armenian population, the troops
entered Baku unforgivably late, when there were already no Armenians
because of the ferocity of the extremists". The resolution condemned
"the massacres of Armenians in Baku and other provinces of the Soviet
Azerbaijan", qualifying them as "continuation of the genocide of the
Armenian people".

"The massacres of Baku are not assessed and qualified appropriately by
now. Moreover, massacres in Baku and Sumgayit are buried in oblivion",
the politician underlined.

ARMENIAN STATE COMMISSION REP.: STATEMENTS ON ‘UNWILLINGNESS’ OF ARMENIAN SOLDIER TO RETURN TO ARMENIA RESULT OF ‘ACTIVITY’ OF AZERBAIJANI SPECIAL SERVICES

ArmInfo
2009-01-14 13:24:00

ArmInfo. Statements on ‘unwillingness’ of the Armenian soldier Paruyr
Simonyan to return to Armenia are the result of the ‘activity’ of the
Azerbaijani special services, Andranik Mkrtumyan, Colonel, Head of
the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff Operative Department Frontier
Representation Office, told ArmInfo. P. Simonyan was taken hostage
on 25 May 2008. Azerbaijani party reported that the soldier allegedly
refuses returning to Armenia. ‘We have received no single letter from
Paruyr over that period of time, just oral messages. We are sure by
100 percent that his ‘unwillingness’ to return is nothing but the
influence by Azerbaijani special services’, A. Mkrtumyan said. He
mentioned that last year the Azerbaijani party again took similar
measures regarding another Armenian soldier Hambartsoum Asatryan. ‘It
is their practice. Every time they hostage an Armenian soldier they
declare that he refuses to return. These are also attempts to recoup
for Samir Mamedov’, he said. S. Mamedov, an Azerbaijani soldier,
deserted to the Armenian party and refused to return to Azerbaijan.

He was deported to a third country with help of an authoritative
international organization.

As regarding the mess in the Azerbaijani press in connection with
the interview with Azerbaijani soldier Rafig Hasanov, who deserted to
the Armenian party on 8 October 2008, A. Mkrtumyan said that Hasanov
deserted to the Armenian party voluntarily in daytime. ‘The interview
with Hasanov was held at his request. He told what he thought and
felt’, A. Mkrtumyan said.

16,994 BABIES BORN IN YEREVAN MATERNITY HOSPITALS

ARKA
Jan 12, 2009
YEREVAN

Yerevan city saw 8.9% year-on-year rise in birth rate, with 16,994
babies born in the capital city’s maternity hospitals 2008, reported
Armen Soghoyan, head of the Department of Healthcare and Social Issues,
Yerevan Municipality.

Out of total newborns, 12,098 babies are Yerevan residents, he said,
adding the four maternity hospitals in Yerevan (Grigor Lusavorich,
Surb Astvatsamair, Grigor Narekatsi, Kanaker-Zeitun) are under the
authority of Municipality.

This year too, Armenia’s maternity hospitals will keep offering
state-paid services for pregnant women, Soghoyan said, adding the
city’s maternity hospitals granted 7,715 certificates of free medical
consultations and services to pregnant women in 2008, with 6,668
births already recorded.

Free medical services to pregnant women will be in the focus of both
the RA Ministry of Healthcare and Yerevan Municipality, Soghoyan
said.

IN 2009 ARMENIAN STATE BUDGET TO ALLOCATE FUNDS FOR CREATION OF ARMENIAN CULTURE CENTERS IN VENICE AND BERLIN

ArmInfo
2009-01-12 16:43:00

In 2009 the state budget of Armenia will allocate funds for creation
of Armenian Culture Centers in Venice and Berlin, Armenian Culture
Minister Hasmik Poghosyan said at today’s press-conference.

She said that the problems related to the building to host the
Venice Center of Armenian Culture have not finally been tackled so
far. According to Poghosyan, the unfavorable weather conditions,
which caused flooding, damaged the earlier selected building, which
needed an overhaul. As a consequence, Armenia had to restart the
search of premises for the Center.

Poghosyan also added that in 2009 a delegation from Venice will visit
Armenia and issues regarding creation of the Armenian Culture Center
will be raised.

To recall, preliminary agreement on opening of the Armenian Culture
Center in Venice was reached late in 2007. The given Center is expected
to play a role of a Pan-European one as at present there is no similar
oasis of Armenian culture abroad.

Armenian authorities resume electronic auction of Bjni plant property
and brand

2009-01-10 17:03:00

ArmInfo. Armenian authorities have resumed the electronic auction of
Bjni Plant of Mineral Waters CJSC property and brand. The auction is
scheduled for January 23 2009. Armenian Compulsory Execution Service
(CES) Spokesman Ruben Grzelyan told ArmInfo.

He said the assets and the right of property of Bjni Company were put
up for electronic auction at 5:19 December 19. However, it was broken
since proceedings on bankruptcy were launched against Bjni by the claim
of ‘Saturn Tire Fitting’ LLC at the Northern Civil Court of Armenia.
However, on 30 December the Court rejected the claim for recognition of
the plant’s bankruptcy, which allowed the CES to start the pending
auction.

The initial price of the company’s assets is 4 934 billion drams ($16
million). The property of the plant was put up for auction since tax
inspections at the plant resulted in a total of 4.1 billion drams
fines.

Bjni belongs to one of Armenia’s largest companies, the SIL group owned
by the Soukiassian family. The fact of the unprecedented pressure on
the concern is connected with the political activity of Khachatour
Soukiassian, one of the shareholders, parliamentarian, who openly
supported the candidature of the first president of Armenia Levon
Ter-Petrosyan during the previous presidential election. After the
auction was announced, Gagik Tsarukyan, businessman, Leader of
Prosperous Armenia Party called on businessmen not to participate in
the auction.

GEORGIA BLOCKED GAS FLOW TO ARMENIA….TEMPORARILY

Panorama.am
16:05 09/01/2009

Today the company of gas-transport of Georgia official announced
that the flow of natural gas to Armenia has been blocked because of
reconstruction on Ghazakh-Saguramo gas pipeline after it was damaged.

The press service of "ArmRusgasard" reports that an expert group
is sent to Georgia to check the situation and to provide assistance
if needed. According to Georgian colleagues the damage will be soon
solved out.

The representatives of "ArmRusgasard" said that natural gas will be
provided to our citizens from the company’s reserves.

Prison term of Sargis Hatspanian extended for another two months

YEREVAN , DECEMBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The closed-door sitting of the court
of first instance of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash community
(judge: Gayane Karakhanian) on December 30 granted the prosecution’s
petition to extend the arrest as a precautionary measure with the
respect to Sargis Hatspanian, a French Armenian, former azatamartik
(freedom fighter) for another two months.

To recap, S. Hatspanian was arrested after he had said in an interview
with Armenian Time daily in October that an attempt upon Armenian
president Serzh Sargsyan’s life was being prepared. After a talk at the
National Security Service, the former azatamartik was charged under
Article 333 Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code (false crime reporting),
which envisages an imprisonment for up to 5 years.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY DISPROVES INFORMATION ABOUT MEETING OF FOREIGN MINISTERS OF ARMENIA, TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN AT THE BEGINNING OF 2009

ArmInfo
2008-12-26 15:29:00

ArmInfo. Armenian Foreign Ministry has disproved the information
about the trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Armenia, Turkey
and Azerbaijan at the beginning of 2009, the head of press-service
of Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan told ArmInfo correspondent.

To recall, Turkey’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilich said in
Baku that the three ministers will meet in January-February of the
next year.

HRANUSH HAKOBIAN: FAVORABLE CONDITIONS SHOULD BE CREATED FOR DIASPORAN ARMENIANS TO PROMOTE REPATRIATION

Noyan Tapan

Dec 26, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. "We cannot but speak of repatriation
under the circumstance of having such a large Diaspora," RA Minister
of Diaspora Hranush Hakobian stated at the December 26 press
conference. In her words, the most of Diasporan Armenians living in
Armenia at present returned to the homeland in the difficult years,
in 1991-92. According to H. Hakobian, for the purpose of promoting
repatriation today favorable conditions should be created for Diasporan
Armenians in the country.

In response to the observation that many Diasporan Armenian businessmen
come across some obstacles connected with the legislation when
founding their own business in Armenia, the Minister said: "Soon we
will publish a collection of laws that will help Diasporan Armenians
to found business in Armenia." As she affirmed, that collection with
keep the Diasporan Armenians away from their Armenian partners, who
"not resisting the temptation try to deceive those arriving from the
Diaspora by all means."