Author: Felekian Ara

LEVON MELIK-SHAKHNAZARYAN: "WE MUST ADHERE TO THE OFFENSIVE POLICY REGARDING THE GARABAGH PROBLEM FOLLOWING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS"

Today, Azerbaijan
Dec 24 2007

The external policy of Armenia regarding the resolution of the Garabagh
problem must become more aggressive following the presidential
elections, as declared by political scientist and expert Levon
Melik-Shakhnazaryan Monday.

"It is necessary to abolish all previous developments of negotiations
on the Garabagh issue and initiate a new aggressive policy in this
direction", he said.

According to Melik-Shakhnazaryan, the June meeting of the Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev has drawn
a line under the negotiation process on Garabagh for 2007, as today
everyone are waiting for the results of presidential elections in
Armenia, Azerbaijan and two of the three countries, co-chairing in
the OSCE Minsk Group-Russia and US.

The politician scientist noted that Azerbaijan has stiffened its
stance following the meeting, while Armenia’s statements became softer.

"Such situation causes concern, as the militaristic statements of
Azerbaijan mainly rely on oil dollars and sharp expansion of the
military budget of this country, while soft and pacific declarations
of Armenia are probably the results of our complementary external
policy", he noted.

Melik-Shakhnazaryan considers that Armenia has a strong basis to pass
to the offensive.

"We have a 15 year experience of peaceful existence of Nagorno
Garabagh, we have international laws, promoting the recognition of
independence of Nagorno Garabagh, we have a strong army, which is
able to protect Armenian borders and there are such precedents as
Kosovo, Trans-Dniester, Abkhazia and North Ossetia", the political
scientist said.

NEW AMBASSADOR OF SLOVENIA CONVEYS COPIES OF HIS CREDENTIALS TO RA MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Noyan Tapan
Dec 20 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. Primo Seligo (Kiev-based),
the newly-appointed Ambassador of Slovenia, conveyed the copies
of his credentials to Vardan Oskanian, the RA Minister of Foreign
Affairs on December 19. During the conversation, which followed the
ceremony of conveying the copies of the credentials, Vardan Oskanian
mentioned that Armenia attached importance to the development of the
Armenian-Slovenian relations and intends to strengthen and deepen
the bilateral relations still more.

The newly-appointed Ambassador of Slovenia also expressed content in
connection with the active cooperation between Armenia and Slovenia
and made assertions that that he will take every effort to strengthen
the bilateral relations still more and make them more meaningful.

Taking into consideration the fact that Slovenia is assuming the EU
Chairmanship since January 1, 2008, Vardan Oskanian paid a special
attention to the problems concerning the Armenia-European Union
cooperation, including the problems concerning the formation and
further implementation of the directions of a concrete cooperation
with the EU member states, as well as Slovenia within the framework
of the Action Plan.

Reference: Primo Seligo was born in 1966. He graduated from the
Faculty of Economics of the University of Lyublyana. Since 1992 he has
been working in the European Economic Integration Department of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since 1994 in the Economic Integration
Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1995-1999 he worked
in the Embassy of Slovenia in the Russian Federation as the second
secretary, in 2000-2001 in the Embassy of Slovenia in Turkey as the
first secretary. In 2000-2004 he worked in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Slovenia as Head of the Eastern Europe Department, since
2004 he has been the Ambassador of Slovenia to the Ukraine, since
2006 Ambassador of Slovenia to Georgia, pluralistically. He is not
married. He masters the English, Russian, and Italian languages.

TURKEY’S MILITARY MAY STAGE MORE CROSS-BORDER OPERATIONS INTO NORTHERN IRAQ

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.12.2007 18:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s military may stage more cross-border
operations into northern Iraq to hunt down separatist Kurdish rebels,
Turkey’s parliament speaker said Thursday, as the justice minister
again urged the rebels to surrender.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanked the Turkish armed forces,
calling their operations successful, and said Turkey was at an
important stage of its fight against the rebels of the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party, or PKK, who are based in northern Iraq.

Turkey, which has massed thousands of troops along the border,
sent hundreds of them across into the mountains of northern Iraq on
Tuesday. It said it inflicted heavy losses on Turkish Kurd rebels
in a small-scale incursion that lasted about 15 hours – and in air
strikes by as many as 50 fighter jets on suspected rebel hideouts
two days earlier.

"The Turkish armed forces will carry on with these operations whenever
they are needed," parliament speaker Koksal Toptan said Thursday.

Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said, "I hope the members of the
terrorist group understand that they cannot achieve their aim by
fighting the security forces."

"They should come and give themselves up to the merciful hands of the
state. They should rejoin their mothers, their fathers and relatives
and live in peace as a citizen of this country," he said.

The government has said it plans to expand an amnesty law that pardons
rebels who leave the PKK voluntarily and who have not been engaged
in fighting, the IHT reports.

ARMENIAN PM SARKISIAN HAS BEST CHANCE TO WIN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
December 19, 2007

Polls show that Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian has the best
chances to win the presidential elections slated for February 19,
2008, sociologist Agaron Adibekian, the head of the Sociometr public
survey center, said at a press conference in Yerevan on Wednesday.

"An October poll of 1,650 people in all parts of the country, including
Yerevan, who were asked for whom they would vote in the elections,
showed that 27% of the respondents were wiling to give their votes
for Sarkisian, and 40% were confident of his victory," Adibekian said.

The other presidential contenders have significantly lower support,
he said.

"As many as 4.8% of the respondents are willing to vote for Orinats
Yerkir party leader Artur Bagdasarian, 2.7% for first Armenian
President Levon Ter-Petrosian, 1.4% for deputy parliamentary speaker
and member of the Dashnaktsutiun party bureau Vaan Ovannesian, 1.1%
for NDS leader Vazgen Manukian, and 0.3% for ALM media holding head
and People’s Party leader Tigran Karapetian," Adibekian said.

Another 5.4% of those polled also mentioned Raffi Ovannesian, the
leader of the Heritage party, who has been barred from the presidential
race, as the Armenian police visa and passport department refused to
verify that he has been an Armenian citizen for the past ten years.

Asked for whom they would definitely not vote, the largest number of
people – 28.5% – mentioned first Armenian President Ter-Petrosian.

HOW WILL ADDITIONAL BILLION DRAMS FOR SOCIAL PAYMENTS BE COLLECTED?

KarabakhOpen
20-12-2007 12:03:42

Next year the government estimates budget receipts at 20 billion drams,
which is up by 8 billion from this year. In addition, 65 percent of
it is return on tax. In 2008 the government estimates to collect 4,3
billion of social payments, which is up by 1 billion compared to this
year. How does the government intend to collect this sum?

Yesterday the government passed a law according to which the social
tax of 13 percent is raised to 15 percent. The chair of the National
Assembly Committee of social affairs Arpat Avanesyan says this bill
caused heated debate in the commission. "But they explained why we
need that so well that we agreed," Arpat Avanesyan said.

We do not know how the members of government explained the necessity
for raising taxes but it is clear that businesses are going to have
hard times.

To collect an additional billion of the social tax, it is necessary to
create hundreds of jobs, small and medium-sized businesses. Otherwise,
one billion will be collected through stiff tax administration
and fines.

SERGE SARGSYAN IS AN OPTIMIST, ROBERT KOCHARYAN IS WELL-AWARE OPTIMIST

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 18 2007

During his visit to the EU the Armenian prime minister stated in an
interview with Reuters he does not rule out signing a document on the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict before the presidential election.

The Armenian news reporters asked the foreign minister who held a
news conference on December 18 to comment on the optimism of the
prime minister, especially that Robert Kocharyan holds the opposite
opinion, stating that no document will be signed on the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict until after the Armenian presidential election.

"Generally, I am also optimistic regarding the negotiations," Vardan
Oskanyan says. He says everyone wishes to reach agreement on the
main issues. "Since an immense process is awaiting us after that,
this is only a document on the principles. This document on two and
a half pages will turn into a peace agreement on 30 or 50 pages,
and we must start negotiating the details. The sooner we begin, the
better," says Vardan Oskanyan, commenting on the optimism of the prime
minister. In this case, however, it turns out that Robert Kocharyan
is pessimistic. In reply Vardan Oskanyan mentions in a joke that a
pessimist is a well-aware optimist.

"It is possible that the president is viewing from another aspect,
he is more cautious. We who negotiate, and especially me, if we had no
confidence, and hope, it would be difficult to negotiate. Therefore,
it is necessary to take part in negotiations with hope for a
breakthrough. And the document we are negotiating is the right
approach, it is in our interests," Vardan Oskanyan says.

The reporters asked him whether Serge Sargsyan’s pronouncement in an
interview with Reuters that he is involved in drafting the policy of
Armenia on the Karabakh conflict and agrees to the document which was
extended to the sides in Madrid means that official Yerevan agrees
to it. Vardan Oskanyan said there must have been misunderstanding.

According to the minister, the president agrees to the document. "The
prime minister may have used this word, left the meaning, but the prime
minister may hardly have stated that he agrees, because you know that
the president agrees. And I know it is not so. When I talked to the
prime minister after Madrid, the prime minister could not have said
it. I think the prime minister said he is aware of the content of the
document, probably it was so. Because now it is not the time when we
are supposed to express a stance on this," Vardan Oskanyan says, noting
that there is no problem of a yes or no stance at some definite point.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES THE PERSONAL
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SYRIAN REPUBLIC GRAND MUFTI

His Holiness Aram I received the personal representative of the Grand Mufti
of the Syrian Republic Sheikh Ahmed Badr al-Din Hassoun in Antelias on
December 15. The General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches
(MECC), Dr. Georges Saleh, accompanied the delegate.

The Mufti’s delegate handed a written letter to the Catholicos, in which the
Mufti congratulates him for his election as President of MECC. Sheikh
Hassoun also highlights the important role of the Armenian Pontiff in the
Christian-Muslim dialogue. The Syrian Mufti also proposes to move forward
the dialogue both on the Middle Eastern and international levels and seek
new horizons of cooperation.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

Assyrian International News Agency
Dec 15 2007

International Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes
Assyrian, Greek Genocides

In a groundbreaking move, the International Association of Genocide
Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides
inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire
between 1914 and 1923.

The resolution passed with the support of fully 83 percent of IAGS
members who voted. The resolution (text below) declares that "it is
the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars
that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire
between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians,
Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the
government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these
populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and
meaningful steps toward restitution."

In 1997, the IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The
current resolution notes that while activist and scholarly efforts
have resulted in widespread acceptance of the Armenian genocide,
there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively similar
genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire."
Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a
scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on
the Armenian population of the empire — and by much the same
methods, including mass executions, death marches, and starvation.

IAGS member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it
along with fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the
Pontian Greek genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS
conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to
the efforts of "representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities
… to publicize and call on the present Turkish government to
acknowledge the genocides inflicted on their populations," which had
made Asia Minor their home for millennia. The umbrella term
"Assyrians" includes Chaldeans, Nestorians, Syriacs, Aramaens,
Eastern Orthodox Syrians, and Jacobites.

"The overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world’s
leading genocide scholars organization will help to raise
consciousness about the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on
December 15. "It will also act as a powerful counter to those,
especially in present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright
the genocides of the Ottoman Christian minorities."

The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely
recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for
the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for
future genocides." The Assyrian population of Iraq, for example,
remains highly vulnerable to genocidal attack. Since 2003, Iraqi
Assyrians have been exposed to severe persecution and "ethnic
cleansing"; it is believed that up to half the Assyrian population
has fled the country.

Extensive supporting documentation for the Assyrian and Greek
genocides was circulated to IAGS members in the months prior to the
vote, and is available at
porting_documentation.htm.
IAGS President Gregory Stanton may be contacted at
[email protected].

———————————————– ———————————
Full Text Of The Iags Resolution:

WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final
stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of
genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;

WHEREAS the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and
following the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide
against Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively
similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman
Empire;

BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against
Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted
a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian
Greeks.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government
of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to
issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps
toward restitution.

By Adam Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Political Science
University of British Columbia Okanagan
December 15, 2007

Azat Artsakh Tert, Nagorno Karabakh Republic NKR
Dec 15 2007

Let’s prevent the village from devastation

By Laura Grigorian

The village of Sardarashen is situated in a distance of 25 kms
from the town of Stepanakert. There is an interesting story obout
this village’s name. Long ago a young man Sardar by name lived there.
The villages often organized competitions and this young man always
won the other men of his age with his power. That’s why everybody who
wanted to say something about this village, they usually said
Sardar’s village.
The village of Sardarashen has a very important strategic
location and it was very useful during the Artsakh war.
Sardarashen isn’t a large village: only 150 men live here but
there were more than 300 of them in 1988. These people are labourous
but only some of them live well.There are only 20 pupils studying in
the village school and nobody went to the first class this year.
The head of the village Armen Simonian sais: "Generally, the
youth don’t want to live in village".Ther are many difficulties in
the village, there is no gas here and the road connecting the village
with the capital is awful, especially when the weather is bad. And
there is only one old bus which goes to the capital once in aweek.
There’s a serios water problem especially now when "Tkoghny"
spring dried out. The head of this village sais that it’s possible to
solve the water problem but much money is necessary. He sais that
there is a developping programm but it’s senceless. The village’s
future is the youth who avoid the village. The village is
devastating.
In agriculture people hope for the rain on which the growing of
their cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables depend on. People
don’t have great land plots because it’s situated on a mountain. The
cultivated lands are in a distance of 8 kms from the village of
Sardarashen that’s why only a little part of them was cultivated. The
Government assisted the villagers with some kinds of seeds but they
didn’t manage to cultivate the lands because of the lack of the
technologies and the weather conditions.
There is no culture here. The village library bacame just a place
where some men gather to chat and to play different games.

RA Defense Minister meets US Charge d’Affaires

armradio.am
15.12.2007 14:39

December 15 RA Defense Minister Michael Harutyunyan received the
delegation headed by US Charge d’Affaires Joseph Pennington.

At the beginning of the meeting the Minister congratulated Joseph
Pennington on assuming office and expressed hope that the cooperation
between the two countries will further enlarge during the latter’s
tenure in office.

Stressing the importance of cooperation with RA Government and the
Defense Ministry, Joseph Pennington expressed willingness to uphold the
US assistance to the programs implemented in the framework of the
Individual Partnership Action Plan.

Speaking about the Karabakh conflict settlement, Joseph Pennington
stated that the US will continue rendering full support to the Minsk
Group via its Co-Chair, who has made clear the position of the United
States: the military solution to the issue is excluded.

At the end of the meeting the parties turned to the current state of
Armenian-American military cooperation.