Author: Harutyunian Christine

IRAQ TO BE MORE DECISIVE IN TURKEY-U.S. RELATIONS UNDER BARACK OBAMA

Hurriyet
Nov 5 2008
Turkey

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama’s Iraq policy is likely to be the
main issue that would shape the future of Turkish-American relations
despite concerns over a problematic period over his stance on the
Armenian genocide claims.

Obama has pledged that he would accept as "genocide", the 1915
incidents in which 300,000 Armenians along with at least as many Turks
died in civil strife that emerged when Russian-backed Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915.

While Armenians extended their support to Obama against his rival,
Republican contender John McCain, Ankara is concerned that a move to
identify the 1915 incidents as "genocide" would create a crisis in
the bilateral relations.

However, such a scenario is increasingly unlikely. Obama would not
be the first president to use the term of "genocide" to describe the
1915 incidents, but not go as far as to officially accept it.

CONTINUATION OF POLICIES

There are several reasons for that:

First of all if we look at the recent remarks or statements of
U.S. government officials, we see that they have been stressing the
principle of continuity in Washington after the presidential elections.

They also underline the need for Turkey’s support to American policies
given the fact that Turkey had secured a seat on the United Nations
Security Council.

Secondly, the ties between Turkey and Armenia are improving after
Turkish President Abdullah Gul paid a visit to Yerevan, a move welcomed
by the international community.

Any decision of the U.S. to accept the Armenian genocide claims would
no doubt harm this warmer atmosphere and the Washington administration
would hesitate to do that no matter who lives in the White House.

Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, Obama pledged to bring American
troops in Iraq home. And the U.S. needs a Turkey with good relations
to prevent any chaos that might spark in Iraq and in the wider region.

IRAQ POLICY OF OBAMA

The main issue therefore shaping the relations between the two allies
would be Iraq, not the Armenian claims as many have speculated.

Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, outlining a
three-step plan for his Iraq policy.

The removal of troops will be responsible and phased and he will
press Iraq’s leaders to take responsibility for their future and
to substantially spend oil revenues on their own reconstruction. He
will launch an aggressive diplomatic effort to reach a comprehensive
compact on the stability of Iraq and the region, according to his
campaign website.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq has the risk of increased
instability unless managed correctly.

Such move could also hamper Turkey’s fight to crackdown on the terror
organization, PKK, which is based in northern Iraq.

As a result, for the new president it would not be easy to change
U.S. policy on a highly sensitive issue like the Armenian claims, but
a change in its Iraq policy would have wider repercussions in Turkey.

ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN SEEK PEACE ACCORD
By Isabel Gorst in Moscow

FT
November 3 2008 22:55

Azerbaijan on Monday welcomed a thaw in relations with Armenia after
the ­presidents of the two countries pledged to find a political
settlement to their 15-year conflict over the breakaway enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave populated by ethnic Armenians,
broke away from Azerbaijan during a violent war that followed the
collapse of the Soviet Union. It has run its own affairs with support
from Armenia, since a fragile ceasefire in 1994, although no state
has recognised its independence.

The three men signed a declaration agreeing to intensify diplomatic
efforts to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh and to develop
confidence building measures in the region.

Khazar Ibrahim, a spokesman for Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry, said,
"This is the first ever document about Nagorno-Karabakh signed by the
two heads of state. If we use the document and take practical steps
we have a chance to move forward."

He said Azerbaijan was prepared to consider allowing Nagorno-Karabakh
some measure of self-determination, adding that "self-determination
does not mean independence".

Azerbaijan has demanded that Armenia withdraw troops from
Nagorno-Karabakh and allow ethnic Azerbaijanis displaced during the
war to return home.

"Comprehensive confidence building will only be possible if both
communities live together," he said.

Western diplomats said the war in August between Russia and Georgia
over Georgia’s separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
appeared to have given impetus to diplomatic efforts to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan has grown prosperous amid an oil boom, and has stepped up
defence spending recently. However, the country has abandoned threats
to retake Nagorno-Karabakh by force since the war in Georgia.

Armenia, dependent on Georgia for access to the west since a blockade
imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey in the early 1990’s, suffered economic
losses during the August war when roads across Georgia to the Black
Sea were closed.

Mr Ibrahim said that Azerbaijan would invest in Nagorno-Karabakh’s
economic revival once the conflict was settled. "It is in everybody’s
interest, including Armenia’s, that the conflict is resolved," he said.

Armenia is willing to consider returning to Azerbaijan some territories
surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh captured during the war, but insists
that the autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh itself is not negotiable.

Karlen Avetissian, Nagorno-Karabakh’s permanent envoy in Yerevan,
the Armenian capital, said representatives of the mountain enclave
wanted to be involved in negotiations about their fate. Like many
in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, he expressed fears about spiralling
Azerbajaini military spending in the absence of a peace deal between
Yerevan and Baku following their conflict.

For its part, Turkey sided with Azerbaijan in the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, but has recently taken steps to mend its fractured
relationship with Armenia, using the impetus of President Abdullah
Gul’s "football diplomacy" in attending September’s match between
the two countries in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.

–Boundary_(ID_gS/XwfJh3h6bMObadDdqQg)–

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Nov 2 2008

Moscow, Baku, Yerevan sign Karabakh settlement declaration

02.11.2008, 17.28

MAIN DORF CASTLE (Moscow region), November 2 (Itar-Tass) — The
presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a declaration on
peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict in Moscow on Sunday.

The declaration presents legally binding international guarantees to
the Karabakh settlement process.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev read out the document in the
presence of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan.

`The presidents aim to improve the situation in the South Caucasus and
confirm the importance of OSCE mediation and the need to support the
peace settlement process with legally binding international
guarantees,’ the declaration runs.

The presidents said they would continue to coordinate ways of
political settlement and ordered their foreign ministers to step up
the negotiations.

October 31, 2008
RAG Provides Notice of Withdrawal

Vancouver, Canada: – Transeuro Energy Corp. ("Transeuro", or the
"Company") announces that it has today received notice from
Rohol-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft ("RAG"), its joint venture
partner in the Ukraine, that RAG is withdrawing from the parties Dutch
joint venture company, Scythian Energy. Scythian Energy indirectly
controls all of the joint venture projects in the Ukraine. Transeuro
is currently considering its options, including a review of whether
RAG’s withdrawal is compliant with the terms of the joint venture
agreement and the conduct of the parties. Transeuro will continue to
pursue its strategy in the Ukraine, however, may commence discussions
with other potential partners to acquire RAG’s interest.

Transeuro Energy Corp. is involved in the acquisition of petroleum and
natural gas rights, the exploration for, and development and
production of crude oil, condensate and natural gas. The Company’s
properties are located in Canada, Armenia, Ukraine and, through
majority ownership in Eaglewood Energy Inc, in Papua New Guinea.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Harold Hemmerich" President and CEO

For further information contact:

Harold Hemmerich
+ (604) 307 7099 Phone
[email protected]

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed, and does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this
news release. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell
or solicitation of an offer to sell any of the securities in the
United States.

The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts
are forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from the targeted
results. The Company relies upon litigation protection for forward
looking statements.

AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DUE IN TURKEY

Hurriyet
Oct 31 2008
Turkey

The president of Azerbaijan will visit Turkey next week upon an
invitation by the Turkish president.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will pay a formal two-day visit
to Turkey on November 5, and be the guest of Turkey’s President
Abdullah Gul.

This will be Aliyev’s first visit to a foreign country after he was
re-elected the president of Azerbaijan.

Aliyev and Gul will have a tete-a-tete meeting on November 5, and
chair a meeting between Turkish and Azerbaijani delegations.

Gul will host a dinner in honor of the visiting president in the
evening of November 5.

Aliyev’s visit to Turkey is important since it will take place
immediately after Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Russian
President Dmitriy Medvedev meet in the Russian capital of Moscow on
November 2.

Also, Gul will fly to Azerbaijan on November 14 to participate in an
energy summit in the capital Baku.

CELLIST NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN: A SEASONED PHENOM

Washington Post
article/2008/10/28/AR2008102803213.html
Oct 29 2008

Narek Hakhnazaryan, a phenomenal Armenian cellist who first appeared
here in 2006 as the winner of the Johansen International Competition,
just turned 20 years old. His recital Monday at the Kennedy Center’s
Terrace Theater, presented by the Young Concert Artists of Washington,
was packed, and the audience giddy. Watching talent of this age on
this level is always a thrill.

Gangly and self-conscious, Hakhnazaryan actually appears even younger,
but his way with the instrument is that of a seasoned professional.

He produces a powerful and colorful sound in all registers, nails
every big shift and flashes all the virtuoso’s tricks (flying staccato,
artificial harmonics, jete, etc.) with insolent ease.

Even if Hakhnazaryan has nothing left to learn technically, there
are aspects of his playing that should improve still further with
experience. He sometimes suspends the motion of his bow when stretching
a musical phrase — intuitively right but instrumentally wrong, since
the sound is drained rather than sustained. Intonation with piano is
a different animal than when playing solo or with other strings.

Musically, he clearly came into his own when playing Armenian and
Russian works, with looser body language, creative ideas and often a
smile of contentment. If he can attain that same level of involvement
and understanding with music from all eras and cultures, he should
have a stellar career.

Pianist Noreen Polera was a graceful and imaginative partner, though
sometimes too reticent in the Schumann and Beethoven works on the
program.

NAGORNY KARABAKH DEFENSE ARMY IS READY TO ANY THREAT

ArmInfo
2008-10-27 11:23:00

ArmInfo. ;The current exercises are special since it is for the first
time that we have focused on attack operations. We intend to prepare
our troops in order not to wait for any attack by Azerbaijan but to
launch offensive actions to neutralize any threat to NKR’, Nagorny
Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Minister Movses Hakobyan said after
tactical exercises of NKR Defense Army Monday.

ArmInfo correspondent to NKR reports that the minister called the
exercises satisfactory. President of Armenia Serzh Sagrsyan attended
the exercises during his two-day working visit to NKR. Armenian
Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan accompanied the president.

Interfax, Russia
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
October 22, 2008 Wednesday 10:07 AM MSK

CIS intelligence chiefs agree in Yerevan to further coordinate anti-
terror efforts

YEREVAN Oct 22

The CIS Council of senior intelligence and security officials met in
Yerevan to discuss how to raise efficiency of anti-terrorist efforts.

The attendees discussed 17 issues, said Alexander Bortnikov, Director
of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

All issues that were discussed focused on anti-terror efforts, he
said. "The agenda included better cooperation and coordination,
raising the efficiency of anti-terror efforts," the FSB director said.

Gorik Akopian, head of the Armenian National Security Service, said
that the most import result of common efforts is a better coordination
of efforts at the international level.

Yerevan hosted the 25th meeting of the CIS Council of senior security
and intelligence officials. At the end of the meeting the attendees
signed a set of documents.

THE DOPE NEXUS
by Hirsh Sawhney

New York Observer
October 23, 2008
NY

Historical fiction on an epic scale, this opium-stuffed novel has
contemporary resonance

The West has a pernicious dependence on China, and Western business
barons are bent on a war that will allegedly liberate a foreign people,
as well as secure less lofty things, like the free flow of commodities
and profit. While this might sound like a critique of present-day
U.S. economic policy and the invasion of Iraq, it’s actually a
description of the mid-19th-century world vividly conjured up by
veteran Indian author Amitav Ghosh in Sea of Poppies. (The first in
his Ibis Trilogy, the book was short-listed for the Booker prize but
lost to Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger.)

A sweeping opus set just before the First Opium War, Sea of Poppies
contains traces of Dickens and Twain and also recalls Lucas–George
Lucas that is–and his Star Wars trilogy. Yes, Mr. Ghosh’s book
resembles less a modern novel than a cinematic epic; and this style,
despite some drawbacks, actually complements a work of profound
historical magnitude.

Maryland-born Zachary Reid, the son of a freed slave and a white
master, has survived a perilous voyage to Calcutta, a cosmopolitan port
teeming with Armenians, prostitutes and lascars, the vagrant pan-Asian
sailors who manned Europe’s merchant navies. A slave ship called the
Ibis has delivered him here, and he must refit the schooner for her
new job, the export of British East India Company opium into China.

Opium, which at the time provided the British with profits that rivaled
the entire revenue of the United States, forms the murky web that
links Zachary to the book’s immense cast of characters, like Deeti,
a poppy farmer coaxed into debt by the English. When Deeti’s opium
addict husband dies, she’s destined to be burned alive on his funeral
pyre. But her low-caste neighbor Kalua rescues her, and the pair flee
down the Ganges. Meanwhile, Neel Rattan Halder contemplates British
philosophy on his opulent houseboat downstream. Neel is the scion of
a landowning Bengali family known for its fixation with oppressive
caste codes and erotic dancers. But he’s unsettled that his family
fortune is dependent on Mr. Burnham, the evangelical owner of the Ibis,
who’s made millions getting the Chinese hooked on dope.

When officials in Canton block the flow of opium into China,
the fortunes of Neel and the entire British empire are thrown into
jeopardy. "To end the trade would be ruinous," so Burnham nudges the
Crown into war with "the Manchu tyrant." But this war, "when it comes,
will not be for opium. It will be for a principle: for freedom–for the
freedom of trade and for the freedom of the Chinese people." Burnham
also makes Zachary an officer on the Ibis, and the ship will once
again deliver human cargo: Neel, now a debt-ruined prisoner who will
be interned in Mauritius, and Indian indentured servants who will toil
on the island’s tropical plantations. Among these bonded laborers are
Deeti and Kalua. Although the Ibis is an obvious symbol of depravity,
it provides a strange (and temporary) form of sanctuary to these two.

Sea of Poppies is defined by such provocative ironies and
nuances. The author has no illusions about the hypocrisy that
underpinned colonialism. His colonial agents have the audacity to
call the slave trade "the greatest exercise in freedom since God led
the children of Israel out of Egypt" and refer to Hindi and Urdu as
"nigger-talk." But native Indians are oppressive in their own right
and end up as cogs in the cruel colonial machinery.

PROJECTS AS AMBITIOUS AS this are rarely flawless. The book’s
countless subplots are mostly well imagined, but they sometimes feel
like occasions for Mr. Ghosh to convey fascinating anthropological
tidbits–the lascar crew’s hybridized speech (which recalls Star
Wars’ Jar Jar Binks) or the origin of the word "canvas" (it comes from
"cannabis"). But this isn’t a conventional novel; it’s an epic and must
be read according to different rules. If the plot drags, Mr. Ghosh’s
19th-century world is worth savoring for its meticulous props and
sets–an Armenian boarding house, Calcutta’s botanical gardens. Neat
coincidences like Deeti’s vengeful relative appearing as a guard on the
Ibis are permissible and even necessary. It’s this uncle, after all,
who eventually captures Deeti, which leads to torture, murder and a
cliffhanger ending that leaves fans of historical fiction hungry for
volume two of this trilogy.

For other readers, what makes Sea of Poppies vital is the chilling
mirror it holds up to our world. "We are no different from the Pharaohs
or the Mongols," says the captain of the Ibis. "[T]he difference is
only that when we kill people, we feel compelled to pretend that it is
for some higher cause. It is this pretence of virtue, I promise you,
that will never be forgiven by history."

Hirsh Sawhney is the editor of Delhi Noir, forthcoming from Akashic
Books. He can be reached at [email protected]

RUSSIA’S PRESIDENT, IN YEREVAN, SEES QUICK ACTION ON KARABAKH
by Tatul Hakobyan

Armenian Reporter
October 25, 2008
Armenia

President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia plants a tree at the Armenian
Genocide Memorial complex in Yerevan on Oct. 22 during his official
visit. Photolure

Yerevan – President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia is looking forward
to a meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow,
he announced during an official visit to Armenia on October 20-21.

"I am hopeful that we are in the stage where progress is being made,"
he said in a joint press conference with President Serge Sargsian. "In
any case, the two sides are prepared to look for solutions. I will not
comment on the details of the negotiations because they are details of
negotiations and that is their value. I hope that in the near future
a meeting of three presidents takes place in the capital of Russia,"
he added.

A large part of the discussions between Mr. Sargsian and Mr. Medvedev
was dedicated to the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

"Armenia is prepared to continue the negotiations on the basis of
the Madrid principles," Mr. Sargsian said, referring to a proposal
presented to Armenia and Azerbaijan by high officials from the United
States, Russia, and France. "These are foundations, which make it
possible to recognize Karabakh’s right to self-determination and some
other issues that are matters of principle for us," Mr. Sargsian added.

Moscow-Baku talks After leaving Armenia, Russia’s president spoke
on October 22 to the president of Azerbaijan. Mr. Medvedev and
President Ilham Aliyev discussed preparations for a meeting of the
three presidents, Interfax reported.

Mr. Medvedev had visited Baku on July 3. During that visit, he
and Mr. Aliyev signed a Declaration on Friendship and Strategic
Partnership. In the declaration, Moscow and Baku emphasized "the
importance of speedily resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the
basis of widely accepted norms and principles of international law,
and first of all, maintaining and guaranteeing those of the sovereignty
of states, their territorial integrity, and the unchangeability of
their borders." The two presidents also pledged to promote military
cooperation (Russia last year sold tanks to Azerbaijan for the first
time since the mid-1990s) and to work against groups undermining the
sovereignty of each of the two countries (with both sides stepping
up attacks on Islamist groups in the border areas).

But when Mr. Aliyev returned Mr. Medvedev’s visit in September –
after the war in Georgia – Mr. Medvedev did not repeat the verbiage
about territorial integrity.

Madrid Principles At a meeting in Madrid in November 2007,
U.S. undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns, Russian foreign minister
Sergei Lavrov, and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner presented
to the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan a document with
their proposals for the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. The
three officials represent the three states that co-chair the OSCE
Minsk Group, which mediates the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

"It is the same document that has been on the table for about two
years," Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s foreign minister at the time
said after the Madrid meeting. "In those matters where there was no
agreement, the co-chairs have added their own proposals to the sides,
for consideration. That is the only detail of that document. For that
reason it is important to be careful in one’s assessment, because
the level was high, and the expectations could also be high."

The substance of the earlier document referred to by Mr. Oskanian,
known as the Prague document, was made public in June 2006.

It was U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state Matthew Bryza, the
U.S. co-chair of the Minsk Group, who disclosed the main principles
of a framework peace accord. Under the principles, he said, Armenian
forces would leave those territories of Azerbaijan in which they are
now stationed; Armenia and Azerbaijan would normalize their economic
and diplomatic ties; peace-keepers would be stationed; there would
be international economic aid for Karabakh; and more. In the end, he
said, there would be a vote on the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Mr. Bryza said the proposed vote would take place "at some point"
in the future, after the liberation of Armenian-occupied lands in
Azerbaijan, the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in
the conflict zone, and the restoration of political and economic ties
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Official Yerevan responded quickly to the June 2006 disclosures,
saying they were partial.

The matter of a referendum and that of handing the Lachin corridor
and Kelbajar to Azerbaijan were the most contentious issues. As the
negotiations continued, the co-chairs offered their own proposals –
the Madrid Principles – for the resolution of the issues on which
Yerevan and Baku could not agree. Since Yerevan had accepted the
earlier document as a basis for negotiations and Baku had rejected
it, the assumption was that the Madrid principles were more favorable
to Azerbaijan.

On October 7, speaking to the Russian daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta,
Mr. Lavrov, the foreign minister, said, "There remain two or three
unresolved issues which need to be agreed upon at the next meetings of
the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan," Mr. Lavrov told the Russian
newspaper. "The first among them is the Lachin corridor," he added.

Working toward a settlement Mr. Bryza lately told the BBC, "The
resolution of the Karabakh conflict must start with the principle of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Other complementary principles
can then be incorporated."

He added, "We must say that yes, from a legal perspective, by law,
Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. But, after all, so that
the negotiations result in an agreement, Armenia too must agree to
it. We know that Armenia has a different position, and we must use
very creative, constructive approaches so that Armenia and Azerbaijan
find a common language."

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, in Yerevan on October
18, in response to a question from the Armenian Reporter’s Armen
Hakobyan, clarified current U.S. policy: "Territorial integrity
is a recognized principle of international law. There are other
principles, such as self-determination. Now we all know what we’re
talking about here. Bringing these principles together, reconciling
these principles is extremely difficult and complicated." He added
that the Minsk Group continues to work "to actually find a settlement."

Mr. Fried gave no indication, however, that a settlement is imminent.