Author: Chatinian Lara

AZERBAIJANI MP: COUNTRY WILL NOT ADOPT ANY PROPOSAL QUESTIONING ITS TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

Today
/64275.html
March 17 2010
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani MP Aydin Mirzazade believes the Madrid principles are
proposals aimed to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"This is not a commitment made by the countries. The proposals
are designed for rapprochement of the conflicting sides. However,
Azerbaijan will not accept any proposal that puts into question its
territorial integrity," New Azerbaijan Party Political Council member,
MP Aydin Mirzazade said in an interview to the ruling party’s website.

OSCE submitted the updated Madrid principles to the sides at its
summit held in Athens.

He said the updated Madrid principles mainly reflect Azerbaijan’s
interests. "Thus, in general, our country accepted these principles,"
he added.

He said that Armenia changes its position on this issue very
frequently.

"Because, Armenia is interested in the frozen conflict, but not in
resolving the problem. Solution to the conflict is unprofitable to the
agressor state’s leadership. This team came to the leadership after the
"Karabakh wave". This power has sufficiently addressed its personal
problems. Now those in power in Armenia are not interested in solving
the problems existing in the Armenian society. Today, Armenia is in
socio-economic crisis. There are serious problems with the state. The
country depends on foreign forces and the Armenian Diaspora as a
result of which it is not able to express opinion on a number of
issues. However, Armenia will be obliged to make its choice," he added.

WASHINGTON TRIP UNLIKELY, PM SIGNALS

Hurriyet
March 16 2010
Turkey

In an indication that diplomatic tensions continue between Ankara and
Washington, Turkey’s prime minister has signaled that he is unlikely
to participate in the international energy summit U.S. President
Barack Obama will host in April.

Following a U.S. House committee’s passing of a resolution March 4
recognizing the deaths of Armenians in 1915 as "genocide," observers
have been waiting to see if Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan will attend the Nuclear Security Summit in the United States
on April 12.

"We don’t have a scheduled visit to the U.S.," Erdogan told reporters
late Monday before departing for London. "We have received only an
invitation, which is routine. A colleague of ours may participate,
but we have not yet assigned a specific person."

Erdogan’s hesitation did not come as a surprise to observers in
Ankara, especially after the prime minister cancelled a visit to
Stockholm following the approval of a similar resolution by the
Swedish parliament.

"I think Erdogan will not announce his final decision until the last
moment. Unless President Obama assures Ankara that the U.S. Congress
will not approve the genocide bill, he will not go to Washington,"
a source close to the prime minister told the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review on Tuesday.

In protest of the two resolutions, Ankara recalled its ambassadors
to both Stockholm and Washington, D.C., last week.

During a recent visit to Riyadh, Erdogan said: "I don’t believe the
U.S. would sacrifice a strategic partner such as Turkey for such
trivial political calculations. We have nothing to say if they take
the risk."

At the time, Erdogan appeared wary of returning his ambassador to
Washington.

"We will assess the situation in the broadest meaning; we have to,"
he said. "As long as we don’t see the results [Turkey desires],
we will not be sending our ambassador back to the U.S."

Energy minister waiting for green light from PM

Energy Minister Taner Yıldız also said Tuesday that Turkey has made
no final decision about whether to join the upcoming nuclear summit
in the U.S. capital.

"That’s why we will be following further developments. Later we will
discuss the issue with Mr. Prime Minister," Yıldız told reporters.

The energy minister said he still hoped for "a positive development
in relation to the 1915 events" – meaning that the full U.S. Congress
would not ultimately approve the Armenian "genocide" resolution.

Highlighting a U.S.-Turkish joint plan to drill for oil in the Black
Sea, Yıldız said: "I don’t think any outside effect will damage these
joint projects. We will continue our collaboration, but we also believe
that this wrongdoing [by the U.S. House committee] will be corrected."

ARFD FORMED WORKING GROUP FOR STUDYING GAS PRICE RISE VALIDITY

news.am
March 16 2010
Armenia

Gas price increase resulted in the situation of strain in Armenia,
said ARFD member, RA Parliamentarian Artsvik Minasyan.

According to him, ARFD formed a working group to study the validation
of the gas price increase and its consequences.

"Presently, there are urgent issues that need to be addressed, like why
Armenia buys gas at $180 per 1000m3 and sells it to large consumers
at $243 per 1000m3, whereas at $342 – to conventional consumers. For
instance, Moldova purchases same gas at $263, but sells at $320 per
1000m3," the MP noted.

Minasyan also questioned the credibility of gas meter recorders.

DELEGATION HEADED BY ARTHUR BAGHDASARYAN TO VISIT MOSCOW

armradio.am
16.03.2010 13:07

The delegation headed by the Secretary of the National Security
Council of Armenia Arthur Baghdasaryan will leave for Moscow on Mach
17 at the invitation of the Secretary of the Russian Security Council,
Nikolay Patrushev.

The Secretaries of the Armenian and Russian Security Councils will
discuss the perspectives of bilateral cooperation in the security
sphere. An agreement on cooperation between the Security Councils of
Armenia and Russia is expected to be signed.

Arthur Baghdasaryan will meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey
Ivanov, CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha, Federal Drug Control
Service head Viktor Ivanov and General Director of the Russian Agency
for Conventional Armaments Alexander Nozdrachev.

SWEDISH PM URGES TURKEY TO NOT LET ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL HARM TIES

Hurriyet
March 16 2010
Turkey

Following an increase in tension due to a Swedish parliamentary
resolution on Armenian "genocide" claims, the Scandinavian country’s
prime minister urged Turkey on Tuesday to prevent any deterioration
in relations.

The Swedish Parliament, or Riksdag, approved last week, by a margin
of one vote (131-130), a motion that called on the government to
recognize the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. In
protest, Ankara recalled its ambassador to Stockholm and cancelled
the Turkish prime minister’s planned visit to Sweden.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt phoned his Turkish counterpart
Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to again express his regrets in an
effort to repair the bilateral ties.

"It [the Riksdag’s decision] paves the way for a politicization of
historical events… This could be used by forces in Turkey that are
trying to put a stop to the process of reconciliation with Armenia
and the process of reform in Turkey," Reinfeldt said in a statement
released Tuesday.

Drawing attention to the ongoing accession talks with the European
Union, Reinfeldt said the reform process in Turkey bodes well for
the country’s possible future EU membership. "It is a process that
takes time and must be allowed to do so," he said.

"The people of Sweden have a positive view of Turkey. The many Turks
who live and work here have played an important role in the development
of our society," Reinfeldt added.

The Swedish prime minister urged an ease to tensions, saying: "I hope
that these valuable contacts between people will help us get over what
has now happened. What is important now is that we are able to prevent
any deterioration in the extraordinarily good relations between our
countries, by continuing our open and constructive dialogue."

Reinfeldt concluded his statement by vowing to "act energetically to
advance Turkey’s EU process."

US POLICY ON SOUTH CAUCASUS ‘THREATENS TO SECURITY’

News.az
March 16 2010
Azerbaijan

Russia makes no secret that the US policy in the South Caucasus is
a security threat.

"I view the current US foreign policy in the Caucasus, as a
continuation of policy by neoconservatives in the new circumstances,
said political analyst Rasim Agayev.

According to him, it envisioned the creation in the Greater Middle
East – from Baghdad to Rawalpindi, which would include both Turkey
and South Caucasus and North Caucasus.

"But, unfortunately for Americans, the crisis that emerged in
the world, and the fact the Americans are bogged down in Iraq and
cannot simply come loose from Afghanistan, these circumstances have
changed the US plans. However, this policy is going on. It aims at
the division, and fragmentation of the regional countries. We see
the attempts of the policy towards Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iran.

As for Azerbaijan and Georgia, they are already fragmented, while
Americans pretend that nothing happened, and if everything goes as
it should, all problems will be resolved.

And if the South Caucasus was part of Russia or the sphere of the
Russian influence on the agreement with the United States, there
would have been no problems in the region. Russia does not conceal
the fact that it is the US policy conducted in the South and further
in the North Caucasus that poses a threat to security. This is not to
suggest that Americans should give the Caucasus to Russia, or just
throw it and go. But there is a need for consensus between the two
countries on this and similar regions.

The United States and EU are trying to break up Turkey, using the
Kurdish, Iraqi, Armenian factors, as well as the political crisis
around the confrontation of the army and the Turkish authorities. The
constitutional state of the Turkish army resembles of the CPSU,
being technologically treated similarly as the Communist Party in the
period of perestroika. In fact, the Turkish army has been discredited
in the eyes of the public for the first time in the past quarter of
the century. For the first time since Ataturk the army in Turkey is
based on the broad masses of Muslims.

In such circumstances, the army is unable to operate using the same
methods as before, when it overthrew the unwanted government and
guaranteed a secular way of development. In addition, the strong
influence from the outside, for example, Americans who want to
put Turkey into place, to subordinate it the way it did since 1945
until 90’s. The United States also punish Turkey for the drift in
the direction of Russia. However, after the collapse of the Soviet
Union Turkey have found a great market and a reliable partner in
terms of technologies, oil and gas. Thus, we can speak of the similar
geopolitical area", – said Rasim Agayev.

GTI: 58% OF ARMENIAN BUSINESSMEN INDICATE INCREASE IN STRESS LEVEL COMPARED TO 2009

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2010 18:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ More than half of leaders of privately held business
(PHBs) globally (56%) feel their stress levels have increased over
the last year. The research from the Grant Thornton International
Business Report (IBR) 2010 cover the opinion of over 7,400 business
owners across 36 economies, Grant Thornton Amyot press service told
PanARMENIAN.Net.

Mainland China tops the league for the most stressed leaders with 76%
of business owners saying their stress levels have increased over the
last year. Other economies that featured high in the stress league
table were Mexico (74%), Turkey (72%) and Greece (68%). In Armenia
the percentage of businessmen, who indicate increased stress level
compared to 2009 is equal to 58%.

There appears to be a link between stress levels and GDP. Business
owners in mainland China, Vietnam, Mexico, India and Turkey all feature
high on the stress league table and are working in environments, where
high growth is expected. But it’s not just in countries expecting
high growth that stress levels are high – at the opposite end of
the growth scale Ireland, Spain and Greece all feature high on the
league scale. Alex MacBeath, global leader – markets at Grant Thornton
International comments, "We have businesses at both ends of the GDP
growth scale experiencing high stress for very different reasons. In
mainland China the pressure is on to keep up with the pace of expansion
while in Ireland, for example, the economy is retracting and business
owners are worried about how they will keep their business alive."

Business owners were asked about the major causes of workplace stress.

Not surprisingly, the most common cause during 2009 was the economic
climate with 38% of respondents globally citing this as one of the
major causes of stress. This was followed by pressure on cash flow
(26%) and competitor activities (21%).

Gagik Gyulbudaghyan, Managing Partner of Grant Thornton Armenia,
comments, "In Armenia business owners feel pressures from different
sides: economic climate changes (crisis) of 27%, heavy workload
(19%), competitor activities (17%) and pressure on cash flow (14%)
are the major obstacles Armenian businesses see in their day-to-day
business management. The statistics is really very illustrative,
and fairly presents the worries that our business owners have. It
is worth mentioning that after pressure coming from economic crisis
(which is common for all countries). Armenian business owners think,
that heavy workload is the second major factor adding stress into
their daily management."

The survey also found a correlation between stress levels and the
number of days off taken by an individual in a year. Countries at the
top of the stress league are those, where business owners, on average,
take fewer holidays each year. Armenia, for example, has an increase
of 58% over the last year in stress level and is in the middle of
the holiday league, with business owners on average taking 15 days
of holiday during the year, which is more than the global average of
14 days.

Gagik Gyulbudaghyan notes, "Here we see vivid evidence, which shows
that the stress level is in direct correlation with number of vacation
days taken during the year. It proves that taking the time to step
away from the business and to get into a different atmosphere,
eases the stress in business and allows seeing new opportunities in
decision making."

Grant Thornton Amyot LLC, the Armenian Member of Grant Thornton
International, is a multi-professional group of Public Accountants
and Auditors, Financial Advisers, Business, Industry, Tax and Legal
Consultants.

Grant Thornton Amyot (then Amyot Exco Armenia) was founded in 1991,
and has since been providing audit missions, in-depth professional
consulting services, expert advice to governmental organisations,
top-level enterprises, national and commercial banks in CIS countries:
Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Grant Thornton Amyot has extensive experience of audit and consulting
services for different sized enterprises, commercial and investment
banks in CIS countries, projects financed by The World Bank Group,
UN System, EBRD, EU/EC, USAID, Eurasia Foundation, GTZ, KfW and other
International Finance/Lending Institutions and Organizations.

The experts provide assurances to management, corporate directors,
investors and lenders. This includes assurance on the reliability
and security of financial and non-financial information, business
processes and controls, regulatory compliance and information.

Mediamax, Armenia
March 11 2010

President says France remains friend of Armenia

Yerevan, 11 March: Issues of bilateral relations, regional security,
Karabakh conflict settlement and normalization of Armenian-Turkish
relations were discussed by Armenian and French Presidents Serzh
Sargsyan and Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on March 10.

Mediamax was informed in the presidential press service that Nicolas
Sarkozy noted that France possesses great sympathy towards Armenia and
Armenians, and the Armenian community of France is an "unbreakable
bridge" between the two peoples and countries.

Nicolas Sarkozy reconfirmed France’s intention to develop relations
with Armenia in all directions and stressed that his country has been
and remains Armenia’s friend.

The French President pointed to Serzh Sargsyan’s efforts, directed at
establishment of peace and stability in the region.

Armenian President once again thanked the people and the President of
France for principled and consistent stance in recognition of the
Armenian Genocide.

Agence France Presse
March 12, 2010 Friday 12:15 PM GMT

Turkey protests Sweden’s ‘genocide’ vote

Ankara, March 12 2010

Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador Friday to protest after the
Swedish parliament recognized the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks as genocide, only days after a similar vote by a US
Congressional panel.

"We conveyed our unease to the Swedish side," a diplomat told AFP on
condition of anonymity after Ambassador Christer Asp met with the
ministry’s deputy undersecretary.

Ankara expects Sweden to "take serious steps to compensate" for the
decision which will "not benefit and may even harm" bilateral ties,
the diplomat added.

Asp said in televised remarks after the meeting that Thursday’s
decision was not binding for the government and vowed to maintain the
"strong, friendly" ties with Turkey.

Going against the government’s advice, the Swedish parliament voted
with a narrow margin Thursday to recognize the "genocide of Armenians"
and other Christian ethnic groups during the breakup of the Ottoman
Empire, Turkey’s predecessor.

Ankara quickly denounced the vote, recalled its ambassador from
Stockholm and cancelled next week’s visit by Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan to Sweden for a summit between the two countries.

"Our people and our government reject this decision based upon major
errors and without foundation," said a statement from Erdogan’s
office, charging that the vote was based on "domestic political
calculations" in light of elections in September this year.

In comments late Thursday, President Abdullah Gul said the Swedish
parliament’s decision had "no value in our eyes."

The Swedish vote came a week after the US House Foreign Affairs
Committee narrowly approved a non-binding resolution branding the
massacres of Armenians a genocide, prompting Ankara to recall its
ambassador.

In comments published in newspapers Friday, the Turkish ambassador to
Stockholm, Zergun Koruturk, lamented that the vote had delievered a
major blow to "excellent ties" which she said were advancing towards a
strategic partnership.

"It will not be easy to repair the damage," said Koruturk, who was
expected to return to Turkey Friday.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said after the vote that it was a
"mistake to politicise history" and vowed that the government’s
position remains unchanged.

Sweden is among the few countries which openly support Turkey’s
troubled bid to join the European Union.

The country’s top-selling broadsheet newspaper Dagens Nyheter
described the vote as a "very unfortunate decision".

"It is not up to the Swedish parliament nor to any parliamentary
assembly to vote on something which is historically true or not," said
the paper in an editorial Friday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was expected to meet Bildt
Friday or Saturday on the sidelines of an informal European gathering
in Finland, a diplomatic source said.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed in a
systematic campaign of extermination during World War I as the Ottoman
Empire fell apart.

Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and says the toll is
grossly inflated, arguing that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks were killed in civil strife when Armenians
rose up for independence and sided with invading Russian forces.

But much to Ankara’s ire, parliaments in several countries have
recognized the killings as genocide.

Setting up an independent body of historians to study the events is
one of the measures foreseen under a historic deal Turkey and Armenia
signed in October to establish diplomatic relations and open their
border.

But the process has already stalled, with Ankara accusing Yerevan of
trying to change the terms of the deal and Yerevan charging that
Ankara is not committed to ratifying the accord.

burs-han/lt

Social Media and Women’s Empowerment

17:36 – 13.03.10

At the opening of the Women and Work conference March 8 in Turin,
Italy, Madlen Serban, the director of the European Training
Foundation, or ETF, revealed an ambitious hope for the symposium. She
hoped the event, held 100 years after the first international women’s
conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1910, would yield new answers,
rather than just new questions, about women in the workforce in
EU-partner countries, writes Rose Deniz in Hurriyet Daily News and
Economic Review.

A century later, do we really have new answers?

As one of 22 female bloggers invited to a pre-conference workshop by
international communications specialist Silvia Cambie, I set out to
find out.

The invitation came along with the task of addressing three major
issues of concern to the ETF, and to the EU at large – women’s
transition from school to work, entrepreneurship and social inclusion.
In the weeks leading up to the conference, questions and thoughts were
shared on the Women and Work Ning group (womenandwork.ning.com), a
virtual hub linking bloggers and writers in Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Croatia, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Russia, Tunisia and eight more countries.

The day before the keynote address given by Jung Chang, author of
`Wild Swans’ and the first person from the People’s Republic of China
to be awarded a Ph.D. from a British university, we sat in a large
circle staring out onto a snow-covered terrace and cracked the ice by
doing teambuilding and creativity exercises. Having all met virtually
online, it was time to work together in person.

It turns out we all had something in common besides being mostly
women. (The two male participants had spent a good deal of their
working life trying to solve social problems and gender inequality.)
It wasn’t that we were all bloggers, either, because as it turned out,
only a handful of the participants had begun blogging in the early
2000s, while 10 or more had just started this year or were yet to
start a blog. The commonality was that social media had brought us
together.

Through Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs, Cambie curated a group
of people addressing issues of women’s empowerment internationally.
Lara Aharonian creates a support network for women in Yerevan at the
Women’s Resource Center. Mari Sharashidze in Tbilisi enables women’s
access to resources and information. Vedrana Spajic-Vrkas in Zagreb is
stringent about curriculum and how it addresses gender imbalance as a
professor in the faculty of humanities and social sciences. Elena
Fedyashina plays a major role in furthering women business leaders
with the nonprofit partnership The Committee of 20 in Moscow, while
Fatma Mokhtar speaks to issues of equality and egalitarianism as a
researcher for Nazra Association for Feminist Studies in Cairo.

Work groups hashed out tough questions about helping entrepreneurially
inclined women develop self-esteem, and how to de-gender jobs by
focusing on skills rather than sex. I suggested throwing out
elimination of gender-specific language from job postings in Turkey as
a first step.

Tunisian Lina Ben Mhenni, coordinator of the captivating and highly
controversial campaign `We are all Laila,’ founded by Eman Abd El
Rahman in Egypt, described herself as a blogger fighting for freedom
of expression in her country. Journalist Jasmine Elnadeem of the
Al-Ahram newspaper commented on specific tasks needed to be done to
enable gender equality: train private and governmental media to
involve human rights in their work and start role-modeling at early
age in schools to spread awareness.

Dining the first night in Turin, I turned to my companion and
discovered she was Armenian, as was the woman sitting next to her.
While chatting about the egalitarianism of Facebook and Twitter,
suggesting that the Internet may be one of the few safe places for
women to reveal their true thoughts, we decided to take a picture: two
Armenian women and one American married to a Turk flaunting our
friendship in the face of Turkey’s complaints about the Obama
administration’s lack of resolve to block the Armenian Genocide
resolution last week.

As I discovered in Turin, when it comes to the personal, peace and
equality takes precedent over the political. One hundred years later,
there are new answers, but there is also a very important question yet
to be answered: Will policy makers heed our advice?

Tert.am