Author: Dabaghian Diana

Interfax, Russia
April 30 2010

Idea to make Turkey member of OSCE Minsk Group unfeasible – Russian diplomat

MOSCOW April 30

The authorities in Moscow doubt that Turkey could now be allowed to
join the OSCE Minsk Group, which has been working to find a political
solution to the conflict over Nagorno- Karabakh.

"At least all sides in the conflict should voice their agreement in
order to be able to start practical talks on this issue. Bearing in
mind the fact that the ratification of the protocol on the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations has been suspended, we can
hardly expect to receive this consent," Russian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said at a press briefing in Moscow on
Friday.

Azerbaijan is demanding that Turkey be included in the OSCE Minsk Group.

However, Russia, as one of the group’s chair countries, has not
received any official proposals on this issue, Nesterenko said.

Commenting on Iran’s offer to become a mediator in the Nagorno-
Karabakh peace process, the Russian diplomat said that "as far as we
know, Iran’s proposal mainly concerns the possibility of holding a
trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Iran on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process."

"Of course, we have no objections to such a meeting," he said.

If such a meeting takes place, it will be necessary to wait for its
concrete results, "only after which we will be able to speak about
Iran’s possible role as a mediator," Nesterenko said.

Massachusetts didn’t recognize so-called `Khojalu genocide’

May 1, 2010 – 11:29 AMT 06:29 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

Azeri media reports on recognition of the so-called `Khojalu genocide’
by Massachusetts are untrue.

`It is a `citation’ issued by an individual office,’ a source in
Boston told PanARMENIAN.Net `It was not approved or signed by the
speaker. It is not something that would be considered by the
legislature. It never goes before the legislature and there is no
approval process. Basically, it is a `certificate’ that is
individually generated by an office.’

THE RA VICE PRIME MINISTER RECEIVED THE FRENCH DELEGATION

Aysor
April 30 2010
Armenia

On April 29 Armen Gevorgyan, the Vice Prime Minister of the Republic
of Armenia received the delegation consisting of the participants
of the classes of the French National Auditors’ association and the
national institute of France Security.

The French delegation consisted of officials, Mayors, police and
security officers, journalists, lawyers, doctors.

A. Gevorgyan has welcomed the guests for the visit to Armenia and
mentioned about the warm and friendly relations that exists between
the two states and people.

By the request of the guests the Vice Prime Minister has informed them
about the administrational structure of Armenia, about the local and
regional self-governing systems.

He has also answered to the questions of the guests referring to the
rights and duties of the local self-governing bodies, etc.

At the end of the meeting the head of the French national association
of auditors’ Christian Fermo passed the medals of the association to
A. Gevorgyan.

IRAN SELLS AGRICULTURAL VEHICLES TO NAGORNO KARABAKH SEPARATISTS

AP
April 29 2010
Azerbaijan

News agency of this country called Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh as
an Armenian province

Baku. Suleyman Farzaliyev – APA. "Agriculture Minister" of Nagorno
Karabakh separatists Armo Saturyan is on a visit to Iran, APA reports
quoting MEHR agency. Saturyan told journalists in his interview in
the main city of Iranian Central province Arak that they needed Iran’s
support very much.

"We need Iran’s support very much, because our country lives at war
and as a result of it agriculture techniques became useless. We must
use agriculture of Iranian Central province for eliminating damages
of the war", he said.

To him, they signed an agreement with Iran on purchase of 20 combine
harvesters. We have already taken over 10 of them: "Soon we will
realize the purchase of combine harvester and agriculture equipment
amounting to 1 million dollars".

Satoryan invited Iranian businessmen to invest in Nagorno Karabakh
and said that there were good and suitable conditions for it.

Note that, Iranian MEHR agency announced Nagorno Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan as an Armenian province.

Taking stance on, Press Secretary of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
Elkhan Polukhov told APA that the ministry set task to Azerbaijani
embassy in Iran to conduct investigation on this issue. Appropriate
measures will be taken depending on results of the investigation.

THE FLOWERS AT TSITSERNAKABERD WILL REVIVE

Aysor
April 26 2010
Armenia

Tomorrow, on 27th of April, the Fund of Preservation of the wild
nature and cultural values will sum up the events dedicated to the
95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with a very symbolic event.

For the first time by the initiation and the efforts of the Fund
the flowers around the unquenchable fire of Tsitsernakaberd will
again revive: By the help of the participants of the event, pupils
of Eco-Club, volunteers, employees of the Fund, other organizations
and individuals, will first of all separate the petals from the stalks.

Later on those stalks will serve as fertilizer for the garden of
Tsitsernakaberd and the petals of the flowers will be recultivated
and will turn into a paper which will later serve as memory book
and papers for thanksgiving letters of the Genocide – Institute,
informed the Wild Nature and Cultural Values Preservation Fund.

STUDY OF ARMENIAN ARCHITECTURE NGO TO CREATE ARMENIA’S HERITAGE WEBSITE

PanARMENIAN.Net –
April 26, 2010 – 15:09 AMT 10:09 GMT

In 2010, "Study of Armenian Architecture NGO will place 240 information
plaques at the territory of 13 historical-architectural monuments
and in two museums within the framework of the organization’s events
aimed at increasing population’s awareness of historical, cultural
and architectural monuments of Armenia.

Information plaques in Braille letters (in five languages) are planned
to be created and placed under Civilization Cradle program. Besides,
Armenia’s Heritage site will be created.

The program of Study of Armenian Architecture NGO is financed by
VivaCell-MTS company, Italy’s Honorary Consul in Gyumri, USAID/CAPS,
Cultural Fund of the US Embassy in Armenia and Norway’s Foreign
Ministry.

ACTING MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT SAYS WILL NOT ATTEND MOSCOW VICTORY DAY CELEBRATIONS – PAPER

RIA Novosti
April 25
MOSCOW

The acting Moldovan President Mihai Ghimpu said he will not come
to Moscow for this year’s Victory Day celebrations as he does not
associate himself with the winning side of World War II, a Russian
respected daily said on Monday.

Russia will mark the 65th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany
on May 9 with its biggest ever post-Soviet demonstration of military
hardware. This year is the first time that troops from other countries
will take part in the parade.

Kommersant daily said Ghumpu had previously accepted an invitation
from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and said he would find time
to participate in the events. But he changed his mind at the end
of last week, despite concerns from other members of the Moldovan
ruling coalition.

"I have no ties with Moscow. Only the victorious are going, what
will the defeated do there?" he said on Moldovan TV, adding that
participation of Moldovan troops in the parade would be enough.

Ghumpu has also said that the 70 Moldovan guards of honor due to
take part in the parade are used to marching on asphalt rather than
pavement, and so might lag behind the other columns or even faint if
they took part in the parade.

Russia has so far dismissed concerns by the Moldova’s Finance Ministry
that the country cannot afford to participate due to a shortage
of funds.

"They were talking about sending a delegation of eight people,
including four war veterans," a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry
earlier told Kommersant. "Russia is preparted to pay for all travel,
accommodation and eating expenses."

A source in the Moldovan government told Kommersant the economic
situation was only an excuse and Ghimpu’s hesitation was due to the
Moldovan government’s policy of improving ties with Romania, which
has not been invited to the celebrations because of its cooperation
with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Moldova and Romania signed on March 29 an agreement on air force
cooperation and discussed the future development of bilateral military
contacts.

A source in Moldova’s ruling alliance said that by "demonstrating his
principles and inflexibility in the face of the all-powerful Kremlin,
Ghimpu has become a hero of the nationalist electorate."

It said Ghimpu would attend an informal Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) Summit in Moscow on May 8 and then return to Chisinau.

During the summit, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Ukraine are expected to address World War II veterans
and workers of the home front.

Some experts say that Ghimpu also has personal motives for not
attending. His family home was confiscated shortly after the war and
his two bothers and father were deported to Siberia.

"I can not forget the misery, deportation and hunger citizens of the
Republic of Moldova went through in the Soviet Union," Ghimpu has said.

Experts said whatever the motives, Ghimpu’s refusal will not do
Moldova any good. Russia can easily block recently recovered exports of
Moldovan wines to Russia or impose tougher sanctions against Moldovan
guest workers.

Other countries to have confirmed their leaders’ participation in the
victory celebrations include Armenia, France, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Germany, Serbia, Ukraine and Vietnam. Some sources said that late
Polish President Lech Kaczynski confirmed his participation shortly
before he died in a plane crash in western Russia on April 10.

Aysor, Armenia
April 24 2010

Address by Armenia’s President Sargsyan to Armenian nation

On the 1915 Genocide Memorial Day, which is being marked on April 24,
the Press Office of the State Administration of Armenia has released
the Address by county’s President Serzh Sargsyan.

`Dear fellow countrymen,

Today is the April 24 Day; this day 95 years ago a monstrous and
brutal crime was committed under the state plan, a crime, which hadn’t
have a precedent not only in the history of the Armenian nation, but
in the world history as well.

By dint of its all state structures, which were acting under the
orders, the state administration of the Ottoman Turkish Empire
implemented a plan of killing of Armenians. The Armenians’
thousand-year march was divided into two pieces – before and after.

1,5 million deaths, a nation, who was expelled from its homeland, the
holocaust of the ancient culture ` these are the consequences of the
state policy, which contained the wild wish to wipe off the last
traces of Armenians.

That plan’s goal was that those, who rid of the death marches of the
Mets Eghern (Genocide), will never recover from the wounds and will
get lost between the five continents, never being again a nation and a
political force.

However, we survived as a nation, and we returned to the world stage
to declare ` we are continuing our perpetual moving and we are
strongly committed to the prevention of such kind of crimes.

We are grateful to all those in different countries, including Turkey,
who accept the importance of the prevention of the crimes against
humanity and join us in this fight. This is a process, which will
increase in the nature of things.

Dear fellow countrymen,

Today along with the entire Armenian nation I bow my head,
commemorating and mourning for the innocent victims of the 1915
Genocide.

Their behest was: live and create in the name of good, beauty, in the
name of our homeland, our national goals and in the name of the
humanity. We will never betray their memory and behest.’

Fiji Times Online
April 25 2010

TV-Witness Special
Sunday, April 25, 2010

Last week Witness Special, which allows viewers to travel share the
experience of a person’s journey, brought you The Secret of Deva – the
Romanian city which is famous for its medieval castle, the legendary
gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and for its poverty.

The intimate and moving film told about two of Deva’s promising stars,
one eight years and another nine, who are enrolled in a sport boarding
school which for decades has been training world class gymnasts. It
was about innocent dreams and harsh realities that would give viewers
a different perspective on what physical exercise really means for
some.

This week though, Witness Special, lets you in on the journey of
director Ani King-Underwood.

She is Armenian by birth but grew up in Lebanon and the UK after her
family were driven from Turkey during the mass slaughter of hundreds
of thousands of Armenians in 1915.

Now she is taking her mother and aunt, respectively 84 and 86 years
old, to visit for the first time the family home they were forced to
flee.

Almost the entire family of their father was massacred and their
mother’s family survived by paying off the military.

The two old ladies have never set foot in Turkey since their parents
fled but are determined to find the old family house, the church where
her parents were married and to find out what they can about their
family’s history.

* An Armenian Homecoming can be seen on MaiTV at the following times:

Tomorrow: 7am, 3.30pm.

Tuesday: 2am, 11.30am.

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TODAY ARMENIA IS COMMEMORATING 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ArmInfo
2010-04-24 11:03:00

ArmInfo. Today Armenia is commemorating the 95th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Flows of people – local residents, guests, students, school-children –
have been moving to the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex since early
morning. The traffic in the area is shut down. Despite rain people
are going to the memorial to pay tribute to the memory of 1,500,000
innocent victims.