Author: Hambardsumian Paul

ARMENIA TO CARRY OUT ARMY REFORM TO NEUTRALIZE IMPACT OF OPENING TURKISH BORDER

Public Television of Armenia
Oct 9 2009

The Armenian Defence Ministry has submitted to the government a plan
of action on neutralizing possible negative factors connected with
the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, Mediamax news agency
quoted Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan as saying on 9
October. Speaking at a session on army reform in Yerevan, the minister
commented on the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish ties
saying that "the Armenian president undertook brave steps in this
regard", the agency reported.

The Armenian top brass met on 9 October to discuss defence reforms
carried out in 2009 and to hold consultations on possible emergencies
in 2010, state-owned Armenian Public TV reported on the same
day. National Security Council Secretary Artur Baghdasaryan said at
the meeting that the implementation of reforms in the military sphere
would be also conditioned by Armenia’s international commitments,
TV reported. Defence Minister Ohanyan said that certain changes
had been made to the planned reforms, which would be discussed and
submitted to President Serzh Sargsyan for approval, Armenian Public
TV said. "We will adopt a policy – reforms are already necessary,
because the armed forces reached such a stage of development that
relevant changes should be made so that we are able to implement
further development," Ohanyan said on Public TV.

2 WEEKS OF KAZAKH WARGAMES END WITH A BANG

Euronews
16/10 19:03 CET

Russia and four former Soviet republics have been shooting up the
Kazakh steppe to showcase a new rapid reaction force.

The leaders of Russia, Armenia, Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan
dressed for the occasion, President Dimitri Medvedev in designer
fatigues by Yudashkin, and looked on as 7000 troops and 90 aircraft
went through their paces.

The wargame scenario involved "insurgents" holding hostages in a
chemical plant.

Only Belarus and Uzbekistan of the seven-nation Collective Security
Treaty Organisation, set up by Russia as a NATO counterweight, do
not contribute to the rapid reaction force.

For the last two weeks the wargames have ranged over some 1600 square
kilometres, ending on Friday.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

TURKISH, ARMENIAN LEADERS HOLD TALKS AHEAD OF FOOTBALL MATCH

RIA Vovosti
October 14, 2009
ANKARA

ANKARA, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – The presidents of Armenia and
Turkey held talks on Wednesday before attending a World Cup qualifier
between their national football teams, in a show of support for a
deal to restore ties and reopen the border.

Armenia and Turkey signed historic accords on Saturday on restoring
diplomatic relations and opening borders. The documents have yet to
be ratified by the parliaments amid continued fierce opposition from
nationalist parties in both countries.

Welcoming President Serzh Sargsyan, Turkish leader Abdullah Gul said
his arrival was an important event, Turkey’s NTV channel said. "We
are not writing history, we are making it," Gul said.

Their 40-minute meeting took place at a hotel in Bursa, and was
attended by the foreign ministers.

Armenian nationalist groups have criticized the accords for failure to
take into account the Turkish genocide against Armenians in WWI. Turkey
has demanded that Armenia drop its campaign to have the killings
of thousands of Armenians internationally recognized as genocide,
saying many Turks were also killed in the war.

Nagorny Karabakh, the disputed Armenian-populated region in Azerbaijan,
has also been a stumbling block in efforts to rebuild ties.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for
Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara,
following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh between the two
republics.

Armenia and Turkey agreed to a "roadmap" to normalize their relations
under Swiss mediation this April.

Gul visited Armenia’s capital Yerevan last year for the first leg of
what has been called "soccer diplomacy."

COOPERATION OR COMPETITION?

13/viva-cell-orange
06:02 pm | October 13, 2009

Society

"Orange Armenia" and "Viva Cell" signed a contract on the
interconnection of networks.

According to the contract, it is foreseen to have commercial
and technical contracts on the connection of the two operators’
networks. According to the directors of the companies, the talks
were held in a friendly atmosphere and they added that they hope to
continue the cooperation in a healthy and effective competition.

"Orange Armenia" and "Viva Cell" will start the technical test of
the interconnection.

IN WHAT CASE ARF WILL COOPERATE WITH CONGRESS

os15544.html
16:31:17 – 14/10/2009

The Head of the ARF NA faction Vahan Hovhannisyan dwelling on the
possibility to cooperate with the Armenian National Congress said that
for the HAK the change of government is not a measure but an aim and
they use Karabakh, social problems, Armenian-Turkish developments
for their aim. He also said that their aim is different. In answer
to reporters’ question whether the ARF is ready to cooperate with
the Congress at least in connection with one issue Hovhannisyan said
they will cooperate with any force who agrees with their aim and no
other issue.

"RATIFICATION MIGHT BE DELAYED TILL SPRING"

Panorama.am
14:51 14/10/2009

Razmik Zohrabyan, the Vice President of Republican party says he
hopes the Armenian and Turkish parliaments will ratify the protocols.

He told the reporters that the ratification processes would be most
probably delayed till spring.

"Most probably President Serzh Sargsyan will discuss with Turkey’s
Abdulah Gul about the reasonable timeframe to ratify the protocols,"
Zohrabyan said.

Regarding the concerns whether the Turkish Parliament will ratify
the protocols or not he said if they are not going to why they have
signed them.

TURKISH-ARMENIAN ACCORDS SIGNED AFTER LAST-MINUTE SNAG
Harry Tamrazian

/1848633.html
11.10.2009

Armenia and Turkey signed landmark agreements paving the way for the
normalization of their relations late on Saturday after a last-minute
dispute that threatened to derail their unprecedented rapprochement
welcomed by the international community.

The signing ceremony held in Zurich, Switzerland was delayed by more
than three hours, with Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian
apparently objecting to a statement that was due to be read out by
his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. The content of that statement
was not immediately known.

In the event, neither minister made any statements after sealing the
two Turkish-Armenian protocols in what appeared to be a compromise
arranged by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She and
Nalbandian arrived at the University of Zurich, the ceremony venue,
in the same car.

The Armenian minister looked stern as he put pen to paper and shook
hands with a smiling Davutoglu in the presence of Clinton, the foreign
ministers of Switzerland, Russia and France as well as the European
Union’s foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana. Their
attendance underscored the strong support for the Turkish-Armenian
rapprochement shown by the world’s leading powers.

The signed protocols envisage the establishment of diplomatic relations
and reopening of the border between Armenia and Turkey within two
months of their entry into force. The documents need to be ratified
by the parliaments of the two neighboring states.

Speaking to journalists in Istanbul earlier on Saturday, Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave fresh indications that his
government will not rush to reopen the border before a resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that would satisfy Azerbaijan. "We
are in favor of developing relations with Armenia by protecting our
good intentions and in a way that will not hurt Azerbaijan," he said,
according to "Hurriyet Daily News."

In a televised address to the nation aired hours before the signing
ceremony, President Serzh Sarkisian warned Ankara against "dragging
out" the ratification process. "If Turkey does not ratify the protocols
within a reasonable time frame and fails to fulfill all of their
provisions within the defined period or breaches them in the future,
Armenia will not hesitate to take adequate steps corresponding to
international law," he said without elaborating.

Sarkisian also defended his conciliatory line on Turkey, insisting
that it has not split the Armenian people or driven a wedge between
Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora despite his critics’ claims to
the contrary. He again sought to disprove, line by line, their main
arguments against that policy and, in particular, their claims that
it has dealt a massive blow to efforts at greater international
recognition of the Armenian genocide.

"The genocide wound does not heal," said Sarkisian. "The memory of our
martyrs and the future of our generations require having a stable and
firm statehood, a powerful and prosperous country, a homeland that
embodies the dreams of all Armenians. We consider the establishment
of normal relations with all neighbors, including Turkey, one of the
important steps on that path."

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Genocide Museum of America
October 13, 2009
Contact: Press Office
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (202) 383-9009

PIONEERING GENOCIDE SCHOLAR ROGER SMITH DONATES PERSONAL LIBRARY TO
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM OF AMERICA

Washington, DC – Dr. Roger W. Smith, professor emeritus of government
at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a
co-founder and past president of the International Association of
Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has donated his personal library of books on
the subject of genocide to the Armenian Genocide Museum of America
(AGMA).

In making this gift, Dr. Smith shared the following thoughts: "I had
long been involved with various Armenian scholarly organizations, had
given talks about the Genocide, and especially denial, to many
Armenian community groups, but I had also been deeply committed to
educating a new generation of scholars who could carry on the work
begun by some of us twenty-five years ago. I offered my collection of
books to the Armenian Genocide Museum of America to provide materials
that could help educate scholars and policy makers about the Genocide,
but also as a kind of fulfillment, and continuation, of my association
with a people whose cause I had come to care about deeply."

Trustee of the museum and chairman of its building and operations
committee Van Z. Krikorian welcomed the gift as a valuable addition to
the resources being assembled to create a state-of-the-art museum
facility in the nation’s capital.

"As an educator and as a human rights advocate, Dr. Smith has
selflessly dedicated his time to speak on the Armenian Genocide at
international conferences, in lecture halls and in the classroom,"
Krikorian said. "In 2000 he was invited by the House International
Affairs Committee to testify in Congress about the Armenian Genocide
resolution then under consideration, and all Armenians owe him our
gratitude for that and so much more. Along with Robert Jay Lifton,
Erik Markusen, Vahakn Dadrian, Richard Hovannisian, Helen Fein, Robert
Melson, Israel Charny and many others, Roger Smith has been a true
pioneer in bringing the problem of genocide, and the consequences of
denial, to the attention of policymakers. His choice of the Armenian
Genocide Museum of America as the repository of his library testifies
to his continuing commitment to encourage new generations to study,
analyze, and solve the problem of genocide through prevention and
tolerance. This library complements our specialized holdings on the
Armenian Genocide and equips the museum with hard to find resources.
We are so very grateful to him for his generosity and express our deep
appreciation for his strong support."

In 1995, along with Robert Jay Lifton and the late Erik Markusen,
Roger Smith published a critical exposé of the Turkish Embassy’s and
the Institute of Turkish Studies’ campaign of denying the Armenian
Genocide in the groundbreaking article "Professional Ethics and the
Denial of the Armenian Genocide," which appeared in the journal
Holocaust and Genocide Studies issued by Oxford University Press and
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Dr. Smith, who has written extensively on the problem of denial, is
the editor and co-author of Guilt: Man and Society and editor of
Genocide: Essays Toward Understanding, Early Warning, and Prevention,
a selective compilation of the presentations from the first biennial
meeting of IAGS at the College of William and Mary.

An educator par excellence who recently retired after a lifetime of
teaching, Dr. Smith continues as a leader in the field of human rights
and genocide education. He has served as the director of the Genocide
and Human Rights University Program since 2002. This is an intensive
summer studies program created by the Zoryan Institute based out of
the University of Toronto. Thanks to Dr. Smith, the two-week seminar
has hosted over the years dozens of specialists on the Armenian,
Cambodian, and Rwandan Genocides, the Holocaust, and other crimes
against humanity, and trained hundreds of students to identify the
early warning signs of genocide and the steps that can be taken toward
its prevention.

Dr. Smith has been the chairman of the Zoryan Institute’s Academic
Board of Directors since 2004. He also served on the Armenian
National Institute’s Academic Council, and in 2008 he was awarded by
the president of Armenia with the Movses Khorenatsi medal "for his
considerable contribution to the international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide."

The Armenian Genocide Museum of America is an outgrowth of the
Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian National Institute
(ANI), catalyzed by the initial pledge of Anoush Mathevosian toward
building such a museum in Washington, DC.

###

NR#2009-05

ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS MEET IN KISHINEV

ARMENPRESS
Oct 9, 2009

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 9, ARMENPRESS: High level Armenian-Azerbaijani
negotiations over Nagorno Karabakh conflict regulations took place
October 8 in Kishinev.

Presidential press service told Armenpress that the negotiations
between Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev kicked off in the extended
format with the participation of Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and personal representative of
the OSCE acting chairperson. Afterwards the two presidents continued
negotiations face-to-face. During the three-hour long conversation
the sides displayed constructive approach to continue the negotiations
toward peaceful regulation of the conflict.

At the end of the meeting the co-chairs told the reporters that the
presidents continued the discussion over which they have not reached
consent. The co-chairs said negotiations continue within the framework
of principles of self-determination, exclusion of usage of force and
principles registered in the final Helsinki Act. They also noted that
the Karabakh conflict regulation process has no connection with the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue and they are two different processes.

TRILATERAL MEETING OF PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA, RUSSIA AND AZERBAIJAN HELD IN KISHINEV

Noyan Tapan
Oct 9, 2009

KISHINEV, OCTOBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. A trilateral meeting of the
Presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan was held in Kishinev on
October 9. As the RA presidential press service reported, issues of
the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict were discussed at
the meeting.

On the same day Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan participated in
the sitting of the Council of the Heads of CIS Member States.

The sitting participants discessed about two dozen documents related
to security, the overcoming of consequences of the global financial
and economic crisis, the integration processes in himanitarian sphere,
and the procedures on optimization of the work of CIS bodies.